Match Made In Paradise by Barbara Dunlop (black female authors TXT) 📕

reservation with the urgency, speed and precision of a well-run fire department.

“I take it they know you here?” Silas whispered in her ear.

“My assistant must have booked a fancy suite,” she whispered back.

“The gold elevator at the south end will take you to the penthouse floor,” the manager told Mia, pointing the way. “If you’d like to go directly to the rooftop, take the black elevator straight across. There’s a sign above it.”

“Is my outfit a problem?” Silas asked, gesturing to his pants and T-shirt. Better to get the embarrassment over with down here than get kicked out once they were upstairs.

“No, sir. That’s not a problem at all.”

“I told you not to worry,” Mia said, standing there in dangling diamond earrings, a sparkling silver blouse topped with a cropped, leather accented jacket, slim black dress pants and killer shoes. Really sexy, sexy shoes.

“I didn’t want to run into a problem upstairs.”

“You’re anticipating contingencies again, aren’t you?”

“They’ll probably think I’m your driver.”

“You’re my pilot.” She looked at the manager with a grin. “He’s my pilot.”

Silas gave her a gentle squeeze on the arm.

He didn’t care what the hotel staff thought of him.

The manager handed her a key card. “Very good, ma’am. I’m Armond Hanover. Please call down if you need anything, anything at all.”

“Thank you so much, Armond.”

They took the elevator straight to the outdoor rooftop lounge and were shown to a table with a view of the sunset.

A waitress was by their side a moment later offering cocktails. Mia asked for a martini, Silas went for a whiskey.

The light breeze lifted her blond hair in the waning sunshine, and she reached into her bag for a tie, raking the hair back into a ponytail that left just enough of the strands loose to frame her face.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

The apology took her by surprise. “For what?”

“For the way I left things the day you left. ‘It was great meeting you.’ Not my finest line.”

“I wasn’t looking for a good line.”

“I know.” His tone was full of regret. “You deserved honesty. But what I wanted was to beg you to stay, and I knew I couldn’t do that. What I should have said was this: You were so far beyond the best night of my life. You were the best . . . everything in my life.”

Her heart warmed. “Thanks for saying it now.”

He paused and seemed to drink her in. “You are incredibly beautiful.”

She gave a self-conscious smile. “Well, you are incredibly handsome.”

He chuckled at that, rubbing his chin and feeling the few days’ stubble.

“It’s rakish,” she said.

“Is rakish good?”

“Rakish is sexy.”

“Are you going to sleep with me?” He clamped his jaw, not believing he’d blurted his thought out so bluntly. He braced himself for her reaction. Whatever it was, he deserved it.

She leaned forward. She didn’t look angry. She looked intrigued. “Is that an invitation?”

He leaned as close as he dared. “It’s a standing invitation. Has been since Wildflower Lake.”

“Then, I accept.” She sat back in her chair, grinning as their drinks arrived and Silas absorbed his incredible good fortune at this unexpected turn of events.

They snacked on samosas, beef skewers, guacamole and cherry tarts. Then they headed down to Mia’s suite and made leisurely love in a luxury bed, with the patio doors open and the warm Pacific breeze billowing over diaphanous curtains.

Mia slept in his arms, while Silas laid awake willing the sunrise away.

Then she turned onto her back, and he suddenly realized the sun was full up.

“Morning,” she said, meeting his eyes with a beautiful smile.

He kissed her tenderly. “Morning.”

“You sleep well?”

“Yes.” He had when he’d finally given in to it.

“Me too.” She stretched. “Hungry?”

“Whatever you want.”

“Coffee,” she said, reaching for the phone beside the bed.

“I can make it.” There was a coffee machine in the little kitchen.

“No.” She put her arm across his stomach. “Don’t leave yet.”

“No problem.” He’d stay in her bed just as long as she liked.

After a short conversation with room service, she hung up the phone. She nestled her head back against his shoulder and he held her close, trailing his fingertips over the curve of her hip.

“Tell me why,” she said.

“Because you’re beautiful and I’m very into you.” He could feel her smile.

“Not why you made love to me. Why you’re here.” She twisted her head so she could look up at him in the bright sunshine.

“I’m picking up a thing,” he lied.

After last night, seeing her mansion, seeing her life, he knew he’d been crazy to think he could be a part of it. “For Brodie. It’s an electronic thing, a computer . . . piece.”

She sobered. “Why are you lying to me?”

He struggled to squelch his guilt so that it wouldn’t show on his face. “I’m not.”

She sat up. “Silas? What’s going on?”

He gave up. There was no way he was getting out of this with his pride intact. “Fine.” He sat up beside her. “I had a stupid idea.”

“What?”

“You’re going to make me do this, aren’t you?”

“Tell me the truth? Yes, I am.”

“I thought . . .” He told himself to get it over with. “I thought I’d come here, see you, confirm what I was feeling.”

“Did you?” she asked.

“Yes.” He’d confirmed it beyond a shadow of a doubt. He was in love with Mia.

“So, why lie?”

“I thought I could maybe find a job down here. Not right in LA but, you know, in the area, maybe in the national forest.”

“You were going to find a job in LA?”

“Yes.” It sounded crazier the more he said it out loud.

“And what, move here?”

“Yes.” There was no point in dancing around it any longer. “Move here to be with you.”

She looked angry then, angrier than he’d expected.

His back went up over that. All she had to do was say no—tell him no, and he’d be on his way.

“You’d hate LA,” she exclaimed.

He didn’t have an answer for that, since she was likely right.

“And I’m insulted,” she said in the same angry tone.

Insulted? She was insulted that he was in love with her? Great. He started to move