Page 23 of Fighting Fate
“Tad O’Dell? The Irish tech entrepreneur?” Jill closed the closet door and turned to give her a surprised look. “He owns a villa here? I didn’t know.”
“Me either, but apparently he owns a share in the UFC too, which is how Adam knows him.”
“He’s hot as hell.”
“I know,” Rosie sighed, reaching for her lipstick.
“I meant O’Dell… but your big muscly bloke isn’t bad either.” Jill chuckled at her. “Hey, want me to stuff a couple of things in an overnight bag for you?”
“That feels kind of presumptuous.” Rosie thought about it. “Maybe just… toothbrush and some clean underwear in my bag.”
“And condoms?”
The box was still sitting on her bedside table, the foil packet they hadn’t got around to using sitting beside it. Blushing, Rosie nodded, but Jill just took it in her stride, putting them into Rosie’s handbag before going to fetch her toothbrush.
“And now you’d better go, because it’s right on the dot of seven and while you don’t want to be eagerly waiting for him, you don’t want to keep him waiting too long either.”
Rosie wouldn’t have minded if Adam had arrived to find her waiting, but she didn’t argue with Jill, just taking her bag and giving her friend a quick hug and air kiss to the cheek. “Thanks for your help.”
“Have a good time!” Jill called after her as Rosie hurried out.
I’m sure I will. Hurrying up the path, she was aware that she attracted a few looks, friends among the staff obviously wondering where she was off to all dressed up. She ignored them all, walking through reception without even glancing at the front desk and out the front, where a silver golf buggy was waiting.
“Of course it’s a Bentley golf buggy,” she said with a laugh.
“Would a billionaire have anything else in his holiday home?” Adam responded with a dry grin. “Good evening. You look gorgeous.”
“Thank you.” Rosie felt a blush coming to her cheeks again as she hopped into the front seat, sinking into the buttery leather.
“Busy day?” He turned the key and sent the cart whizzing off, the electric engine so quiet it was almost inaudible.
“Buried in paperwork,” Rosie admitted with a grimace. “We’ll be coming out of the low season in a few weeks so it’s time to think about taking on some more staff. We advertised openings last week and my inbox is three hundred resumes deep.”
“Yikes! Rather you than me.” Adam shot her a sympathetic look. “I can see why, though. Who wouldn’t want to work here? It’s basically paradise.”
“It is, and we pay well compared to pretty much everywhere else similar. Which means positions here are sought after. Helps to be backed by a billionaire who’s carrying no debt, means the resort isn’t operating on the razor-thin margins a lot are.”
“I can imagine,” Adam said thoughtfully. “Jace Hunter actually lives here, doesn’t he? How involved is he in running the place?”
“Hardly at all, he’s very hands-off.” Rosie sighed with pleasure as the golf cart hummed up a low rise and they got a spectacular view of the last moments of the sunset, the western sky briefly ablaze with incredible smears of neon purple, hot pink and brilliant orange. Adam pulled the cart over to the side of the path and they just sat in silence and watched the colours flare until they faded to deep, midnight blue and the sky was suddenly awash with stars. “Oh. That was a good one,” Rosie said softly at last, breaking the silence.
***
“Every single sunset since I’ve been here has been spectacular,” Adam said, starting the cart up again. “And yet every night it’s different. Just incredible. I never saw anything like that in LA. And the stars!” He looked up briefly, shook his head. “I’d forgotten.”
Sunfish’s isolated location and low-light pollution buildings did make for spectacular star-gazing conditions. The sky looked like an upturned, dark blue bowl absolutely full of blazing points of light. Rosie leaned to the side of the cart to look up, hanging onto the side bar; Adam glanced over at her, thinking how lovely she looked with her soft curls blowing in the breeze and that fabulous dress clinging to her in all the right places. He’d almost swallowed his tongue as she came sashaying down the steps in it, and suddenly felt very underdressed in his shorts and polo shirt.
He was so busy staring at her he managed to miss the fork in the path which led to the villa, and had to back up a little way. Rosie didn’t say anything, though, for which he was grateful, and it was only a short distance from there before he turned onto the driveway and pushed the dash button to raise the garage door.
He’d left the outside floodlights on before he left to pick up Rosie, glanced across at her to see her reaction. Her lips pursed in a soundless whistle, which was pretty much the same thing Adam had done on first seeing the house. Tad O’Dell had made a billion dollars investing in small tech companies with brilliant ideas and not enough capital to see them take off, pouring in resources and then reaping the profits when the inevitable massive success occurred. He had access to cutting-edge technology the general public would never even see, and he’d had much of it built into his state-of-the-art holiday home.
Rosie confined herself to a single “Snazzy place,” as Adam escorted her through the house to the kitchen, where he pulled a platter of sliced vegetable sticks from the fridge and set them on the marble breakfast bar.
“It’s way over the top,” Adam said, “but beggars can’t be choosers. I needed somewhere to hide out and Tad offered. I’m grateful.”
“Is he likely to turn up himself?” Rosie nodded as he plucked a wine bottle from a fridge built under the counter and offered it to her. “My friend Jill is nursing a massive crush on him; she’d love to meet him.”
“Don’t know, to be honest.” Adam poured wine into a glass for her, put the bottle away and took out a sparkling mineral water for himself. “He’s pretty busy, understandably. And no offence to Jill, but Tad does tend to only date supermodels, so unless she’s taking time out here between Paris Fashion Week and the Victoria’s Secret show…”