Seduction on the Sand (The Billionaires of Barefoot Bay #2)(29)

He heard her laughing as she left the bathroom.



Chapter Nine

“Becker, is that woman biting you?” Nate slipped his sunglasses down his nose, just to get a better look at Elliott, but not far enough that anyone at the outdoor pavilion restaurant would recognize him.

Elliott brushed the mark on his arm, faded in the few days since Dominic had inflicted it. “Had a run-in with a buck.”

On the other side of the table, Zeke leaned in. “A buck? Like a bronco?”

“A buck is what you call a male goat, Einstein.”

Zeke and Nate shared a look, cracking up.

Elliott looked up at the deep blue sky and blew out an exasperated breath. He knew this lunch wouldn’t be easy. They weren’t going to like what he had to say, they weren’t going to let him off the hook, and he hadn’t really wanted to come to lunch at all. The days on the farm had slipped into a nice routine, next to Frankie from dawn to dusk, sneaking a few kisses whenever he could, laughing a lot, getting to know her. And, hell, he’d finally gotten promoted to the sofa at night.

Surely a move into the bedroom couldn’t be far away. It was inevitable, except...he couldn’t do it until he got out from under the only dark cloud in his otherwise blissful week. And that’s what he’d come to tell these guys, whether they liked it or not.

“What’s so funny?” he demanded, taking a sip of a spicy Bloody Mary.

“It’s just...” Zeke tried to keep a straight face but failed.

“It’s you,” Nate supplied. “Knowing about goats. If you don’t think that’s f*cking hilarious, then you’re dead inside.”

But he wasn’t dead inside. And that was the problem. For the first time in recent memory—and that went back years—Elliott felt completely alive. He wanted a woman in a way he’d never imagined possible. And he couldn’t have her until his ill-conceived plan to screw her out of her land got killed.

“Goats happen to be very cool,” he said. “And there’s good money in goat’s milk and the products.

They’re among the fastest-growing domestic animals in the world.”

Zeke had to bite his lip, nodding, mirth dampening his eyes. “I’m sorry, Becker, but... goats?”

Ire and defensiveness zipped up his spine as he thought of all Frankie had been teaching him about goats this week. “They aren’t just cute little weird animals, you know. People like to visit them. Kids love to pet them, and women buy the goat’s milk products. And goat’s milk—”

Zeke held up two hands in surrender. “Sorry, you’re right.” He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, though. “Really, that’s good. You’re right.”

“Damn right I’m right,” he said, reaching for his drink but choosing cold water instead. His throat was parched with the pressing need to say what he had to say, hear them piss and moan about the change in plans, and get back to Frankie.

Nate seemed less amused by the goats, though it was hard to tell with his shades firmly in place in his never-ending effort to hide in a crowd. He rarely appeared in public without sunglasses, knowing every iPhone in the joint would be taking pictures and videos, and the line for autographs would form at the right. Maybe not in a classy place like Junonia, the outdoor restaurant near the pool at Casa Blanca, but for the most part, fame and the Ivory family fortune haunted Nate.

“You know what I think?” Nate said, leaning down just enough so his hazel eyes peered over the rims of his Ray-Bans. “I think something doesn’t smell right, and it’s not just the goats.”

Nate might have been bad to the bone, spoiled rotten, and competitive to the point of death, but he was also surprisingly intuitive.

“What makes you say that?” Elliott asked, although he knew the answer, and he was grateful for the door his friend had opened for him.

“I think you’re getting a little too cozy with the goat girl, and you’re dreading the moment she finds out you screwed her in more ways than one.”

“Just one,” Elliott admitted. “I’ve only screwed her on paper.” So far.

Nate and Zeke shared a look that said they didn’t buy it. Well, too bad. It was the truth. He hadn’t slept with her, but...he wasn’t going to be able to hold off much longer. She’d made enough overtures and responded to enough kisses to know the feeling was more than mutual. The only thing stopping them now was the look on her face when she found out he’d slipped Ol’ Comb-Over a deal on the side and stolen her property.

A white hot splash of self-loathing rolled through his gut.

But these weren’t men who responded well to letting emotions get in the way of profit. Especially Nate. There had to be another way, an easy solution. Elliott always found the easy way...no matter how hard it was to spot.

He blew out a slow breath and turned to look at the beach and horizon on his right. “When you did the first site reviews, Zeke, did you talk to the owner of the land exactly to the east of the top end of her farm?”

Zeke shook his head. “It’s scrub, utterly useless land.”

“But who owns it?”

“I never bothered to look it up because the land didn’t pass the most fundamental feasibility study.

You’re in the real estate business. You know useless land when you see it. You’re the expert.”