"Penn! Where did you disappear to? You missed our rock climbing gig," Phillip Tanner was the first to call out. "Are you wearing khakis?"
"We were horseback riding," I mumbled.
Phillip was shorter than me, but a stocky, solid mass of muscle. He knocked me aside and took Corsica's hand. "You got him on a horse? I'm impressed."
"Happy birthday, Penn, darling." As Phillip pulled Corsica aside, Alicia Watford entangled me in a hug.
The rail-thin heiress gave Corsica a flash of dislike then made a big show of kissing my cheek. I turned from her attention and shook hands with Bill and Tamara. I had grown up with all four of them in San Francisco; the only difference was they still ran in the upper circles of society, while I preferred to hang out on the beach. If Phillip didn't share my passion for outdoor sports, I would never get over his preference for tailored shirts and expensive shoes.
Corsica smiled shyly, and I watched her perspective eyes take in the expensive clothes and jewelry of my friends. I was torn between wanting them to like her as much as I did and wanting to keep up the lie I had told Corsica. It still felt monumentally important that she be attracted and interested in me without knowing anything about my newly made fortunes.
"Sorry, this is Corsica," I stumbled over her last name.
"Corsica Allen. Nice to meet you," she jumped right in.
Alicia swept a critical eye over her. "Tourist?"
"I just finished my bachelor's degree in Santa Cruz," Corsica said. She shifted to stand at her full height, one inch over Alicia.
"Bachelor's degree, huh?" Phillip asked with a twinkle in his eye. "Looks like you might have this bachelor's number, and I hear that's harder than any college course."
"Very funny," I muttered. "What are you four doing wandering around down here?"
"I was scoping out a new descent I thought we might try," Phillip said. "Bill and Tamara were having a picnic, and I think Alicia just came along in the hopes that you'd show up."
"Come join our picnic," Tamara said. She led the way along the beach.
I waved Corsica ahead and grabbed Phillip's thick arm. "She doesn't know," I hissed.
"Doesn't know-"
"Shh! Corsica doesn't know about GoGreen or me," I explained.
Phillip gaped. "How is that possible?"
I filled him in as quickly as I could on my initial plan of using a human shield against my father. My friend could easily see the wisdom in that, seeing as his mother had been campaigning for years to marry him off. I had acted as a distraction for Phillip and entertained his mother on numerous occasions.
Up ahead of us, Corsica made Tamara laugh. Bill turned around and gave me a grinning thumbs up. They liked her. Alicia twisted her diamond earrings and frowned, but everyone else was warming up to Corsica.
"Sorry to hear about your mother, man," Phillip said. "I could have jumped in for you. Your father loves me and my stock portfolio."
"I know, I know. The whole thing's crazy. It's just that Corsica was there, and I didn't want her to leave."
Phillip stopped walking. "Whoa. Say that again, please."
I stepped back, grabbed his arm and hauled him along. "Don't turn into your mother and start seeing little cupid hearts everywhere. It's just, well, look at her."
"Oh, I know, I get it. She is hotter than hot, but she's also exactly the type of girl you swore off. No more perfect girls. Corsica's a total knockout, but I'm much more interested in you right now."
I ignored Phillip's probing stare and strode up to catch Corsica's elbow. "Actually, you'll have to excuse us. We have a dinner date and there's not much time for us to go and change."
"We have plenty of food," Tamara offered.
"No, thanks. Good to see you all. We'll catch up soon." I tucked Corsica's arm in mine and tugged her down the beach as she waved goodbye.
"Are you sure you didn't want to stay?" Corsica kept up with my long strides. "I wouldn't think your friends would rat you out to your father. Except maybe Alicia. Did you two ever have a thing?"
"Alicia? No. Not at all. She's this big-time heiress, tons of money," I stopped myself from nervous babbling. "I just thought it'd be nice to have a quiet glass of wine and enjoy the view from my, I mean, Xavier's house before we go out to dinner."
"Sure thing, birthday boy," she said with a wink.
I watched Corsica walk up the front steps of my home and knew I did not want to go out to dinner. It was all I could do to tear my gaze away from her long legs as her hips swayed.
"I'm going to go freshen up and change," she said. "It was really fun meeting your friends on that beach, but my hair is a mess. Meet back here in ten?"
I nodded. If any other woman had quoted me ten minutes, I would have laughed, but Corsica's easy beauty made it believable. Despite every strange situation I had thrown her in, she still looked perfect.
Except that few seconds after a kiss. Her eyes were hazy then, like the sky on a hot, humid day. And, I loved the look of her tousled hair. I almost called that out, but stopped myself just in time.
Did I have no shame? I was acting like a teenage boy around here and it was ridiculous. Growing up, I had had dozens of women in a wide range of ages throwing themselves at me for just a glimpse of my fortune. Then, I denounced all of that and found women attracted to my “bad boy” image. Now that I had both my image and my own fortune, I figured I should be irresistible.
Instead, Corsica seemed content with our business arrangement. She studied my lifestyle, the one she thought I was appropriating from Xavier, like it was out of a course book. I thought she hoped to reference back to these days as an anecdote to amuse and impress the future guests in her exclusive hotel.
I thought of Corsica in a hotel, stretched over crisp, white sheets, the traffic flow of some foreign city muffling our pleasures even with the windows wide open.
I didn't even glance towards my bedroom. I wasn't changing clothes and we weren't going anywhere. Instead, I spun on my heel and dug through every decorative cabinet until I found a variety of candles and a book of matches. I just had time to put music on and lean down to the light the fire when Corsica bounced back into the living room.
"I'm back to my little black dress, but, then again, I haven't seen you out of those khakis since we got to Monterey," she said.
"I'm fine taking them off if that's what you want." I grinned.
Corsica stopped. "This doesn't look like we're going to dinner."
I shook my head. "Nope. The birthday boy opted for some quiet time at home with his girlfriend."
She glanced over her shoulder. "But we're alone. You can stop pretending."
"I'm stopping pretending right now," I said. "Corsica, I want you. Ever since you bumped into me on the stairs in that dance club-"
"Oh, no, no, no," Corsica laughed. "You bumped into me, and this is far from our deal, Penn."
"Then, let's toss out the deal. It's over. Can we just have an evening, you and I? That's what I really want for my birthday."
Her eyes flared wide as I approached to take her hand. She resisted, but finally joined me in front of the warm fire. The wind had picked up outside and the waves crashed chilling sprays into the air. The droplets misted over the windows like rain.