I take a bite of my breakfast burrito and consider her question as I chew. “No one owns me or my future. It’s what I make of it, and I refuse to let anyone dictate to me. I’ve gotten myself to this level, and I’m just stashing cash so I can walk away whenever I want.”
Greer forks up another chunk of French toast as she watches me. “Fair enough. I can respect that. That’s a lot of the reason I wanted to earn my own salary rather than live off interest and dividends from my trust fund and the Karas companies. There’s always strings attached to everything.”
She lowers her fork and spins it between her thumb and finger. “But then again, I guess it doesn’t matter if I live off the money or not. Creighton’s still dictating my behavior when it really impacts the company. Some days I wish I could just change my last name. I mean, I love my brother and I’m crazy proud of what he’s accomplished, but living under a microscope isn’t so much fun.” She stops playing with the fork and lowers it to the plate. “First-world problems, I know.”
I consider her words for only a moment before landing on a solution. “You can be whoever you want to be here, Greer. No one knows who we are or why we’re here, so let’s have fun with it. So just decide—who do you want to be?”
Greer’s dark eyes light up with the possibility. “Well, damn. I’ve never thought about that. I need some time.”
Cav doesn’t realize what he’s done by setting loose my imagination. Has anything ever been quite so seductive as that one question—who do you want to be? As if I can just choose whoever that is and it can happen. But maybe here, on this island where no one knows who we are, I truly can.
Rea comes in and cleans up breakfast as I make my way back to the bedroom. The cool tile is refreshing under my feet as the heat from the sun is already warming the house.
Yes, paradise, I really do love you.
In my borrowed shorts and tank, I investigate my swimsuit options in the walk-in closet. The lure of the infinity pool is strong, and it seems like the perfect place to relax and decide exactly what or who I want to be while I’m here.
In my head, one answer is already bubbling to the surface and mocking me. Do I have the guts to say it aloud?
If this is all pretend and temporary, why not play the part? I’m not going to get to keep Cav Westman, but maybe I can pretend for a little while.
It’s going to take a hell of a lot of liquor to find the lady balls to say what I’m thinking.
Slipping into a neon-pink suit that’s only a little too small in the tits and ass areas, because apparently whoever owns this place has curves that are less generous than mine, I grab some sunscreen out of the bathroom cabinet and wander out toward the pool.
I pause and admire the sight before me when I see Cav has already stripped off his shirt. His board shorts are riding low, exposing the vee cut at his hips. Those lines really do make girls stupid. I had his dick in my mouth just before breakfast, and now I want to sink to my knees and lick those indents and then those abs . . .
The critics who say he’s been photoshopped? Liars. All liars. Because damn, if the ladies of the world could see what I’m seeing right now, I’m pretty sure they’d all want to hunt me down and take my place. Headlines would read GREER KARAS SHANKS RIVAL WOMEN IN CAT FIGHT OVER HOLLYWOOD SEX GOD.
God, wouldn’t Creighton be pissed then?
“You need someone to volunteer to help you with that sunscreen, baby?”
Silencing the giggle bubbling up my throat before it can come out, I nod. “Yes, but I do think it’s time to ditch the whitest white girl on the beach look.”
“You’re not the whitest white girl on the beach.” He tilts his head to the side, studying me. “But you do have a touch of that New York city dweller look to you.”
“I’m a ghost because I stay indoors all the time. As opposed to you, sun-bronzed god over there, living it up in Cali and looking fine.”
One eyebrow rises at my blurted words. “The only place you need to think I’m a god is in the bedroom, baby.”
He looks from one side of the secluded deck to the other. The neighbors’ houses are at least fifty yards away on each side and nearly impossible to see through the thick forest of coconut and palm trees.
“Lose the top. There’s no reason for unnecessary tan lines.”
I don’t have major body-confidence issues, and it’s not like he hasn’t already seen me naked, but something about stripping outside seems so . . . naughty.
Cav’s expression takes on a serious cast I haven’t seen before. “Did you think there was something optional about that? It was an order, Greer. I want to see those pretty tits in the sunlight.”
I blink twice, not sure I heard him correctly. “Wha—what did you say?”