Provocative Paradise: A Secret Stranger Romance Read online

  Provocative Paradise

  Jillian Riley

  © Copyright 2020 - All rights reserved.

  It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One Jenny: The Beginning of the End

  Chapter Two Liam:Island Time

  Chapter Three Jenny: The Biggest Favor

  Chapter Four Liam: Meltdown

  Chapter Five Jenny: Smooth Sailing

  Chapter Six Liam: Days and Confused

  Chapter Seven Jenny: Mean Girls

  Chapter Eight Liam: The Cure for Insomnia

  Chapter Nine Jenny: Shock and Ahhhh

  Chapter Ten Liam: Into the Light

  Chapter Eleven Jenny: Pirate’s Chest

  Chapter Twelve Liam: On the Rocks

  Chapter Thirteen Jenny: Just Say No

  Chapter Fourteen Liam: Put the Lime in the Coconut

  Chapter Fifteen Jenny: Your Call May Be Recorded For Quality Assurance

  Chapter Sixteen Liam: If You Like Piña Coladas...

  Chapter Seventeen Jenny: Snapped

  Chapter Eighteen Liam: Snow and Hot Water

  Chapter Nineteen Jenny: There’s No Place Like Home

  Chapter Twenty Liam: Big Brother

  Chapter Twenty One Jenny: Heavy Heart

  Chapter Twenty Two Liam: Not My Problem

  Chapter Twenty Three Jenny: Funny Business

  Chapter Twenty Four Liam: Another Piece

  Chapter Twenty Five Jenny: In the Dark

  Chapter Twenty Six Liam: A Bad Dream

  Chapter Twenty Seven Jenny: Wake Up Call

  Chapter Twenty Eight Liam: Not Out of the Woods

  Chapter Twenty Nine Jenny: Play It Cool

  Chapter Thirty Liam: The Diversion

  Chapter Thirty One Jenny: Time

  Chapter Thirty Two Liam: Escape from Paradise

  Chapter Thirty Three Jenny: Life is an Adventure

  Epilogue

  You can follow me on the websites below:

  Facebook

  Goodreads

  Bookbub

  Here are a few of my other works:

  Protective Captain: https://amzn.to/2mPYvd9

  Riding the Rich Box Set:https://amzn.to/30adq0q

  Kissing the Alpha Box Set:https://amzn.to/2Z7Fp0r

  Hard Guardian:https://amzn.to/2XB50AY

  Hard Protector:https://amzn.to/2KDRarz

  Hard Bounty:https://amzn.to/2YfhrzD

  Prologue

  It felt like that really deep sleep you get into when you take a nap in the afternoon—the kind where you are aware and conscious, but you can’t move your body. Except, I wasn’t napping, and I wasn’t all that conscious. I couldn’t move, and my hands seemed to be tied behind my back. My eyelids felt so heavy that when I tried to open them, it took the movement of my entire forehead to only open them to be slits.

  Where am I? My shoulders hurt from the position of my arms behind my back. I was sitting down on some hard ground, and my back was up against some kind of cold wall. My legs were bound together, too, and there was water up to my waist. Cold water. I could hear voices speaking. Spanish.

  The water sounded like dripping water in an echo chamber, and the air smelled like the inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney.

  Oh my god. I’m in the cave. Fragments of memories started to come back. Being grabbed, the wet cloth over my mouth and nose.

  The voices outside the cave started to get louder, and I could tell that the men were arguing. I was no Spanish linguist, but I understood the words “mujer,” “matar,” and “muerto.” “Woman,” “kill,” and “dead.” They were arguing about whether to kill me or not!

  My eyes flew open, as my body went into fight or flight mode. Not that it mattered, because I still couldn’t see anything other than the faintest sliver of light in the distance. A scream threatened to rise up in my throat and it took all of my mental strength to swallow it back down. My best bet was to let them think I was still unconscious.

  You have to get out of here. No one even knows where you are! These men could kill you, and you’ll have just disappeared without a trace.

  But, how?

  Just then, I heard footsteps coming toward me. Squeezing my eyes shut in fear, I thought, This is it. This is the end.

  Chapter One Jenny: The Beginning of the End

  “But it was only the beginning!” I stood at the head of the long glass conference table and looked at the frowning faces. Around me were five Japanese businessmen, all in dark blue suits, pens in hand, poised to take notes. The empty notepads in front of them were my first clue that the presentation hadn’t gone well.

  “We’ve seen enough. Thank you.” Mr. Ito got up from his place at the end of the table, leaving his pen and notepad behind, and his team followed suit. The only sound in the room was the clicking of pen caps and the pushing out of chairs.

  I was frozen in shock, unable to do or say anything.

  As Mr. Ito made his way to the door, my boss Sandra Stewart, tried to save the deal. “Mr. Ito, we apologize for showing you these pitches that were clearly...premature. If you would allow us another 24 hours, we are sure that we can come up with ideas that are more suitable for you.”

  The man shook his head. “You have had enough time, Ms. Stewart. Your agency is clearly not the right one to represent Ito Foods in our American expansion. Perhaps we should go with a more...traditional advertising agency.” One by one, the men filed out of the room, until the only people left were Sandra and me. I could barely look her in the eyes.

  “Did you even read their creative brief?” Sandra turned to me accusingly. “What even was that idea?” She was practically hissing in anger.

  I’d been an advertising account manager for The Colton Group, a digital marketing firm in Seattle, Washington, for a little more than five years now. Frankly, I had expected to be asked to join as a partner by now. But ever since my mom died last year, I’d kind of lost my creative edge.

  “I’m sorry, Sandra. I did read the brief. And I really thought that the anime angle would appeal to them. I don’t know what happened.” I was fighting off tears.

  “What happened was, you just lost us a huge account. You know how much we needed Ito Foods. I don’t even know what I am going to tell Ron.” Sandra gathered her things and headed to the door. “I know that you’ve had a hard time lately, Jenny. But frankly, if you keep putting out this kind of work, I’m not sure how much longer we can wait for you to bounce back.”

  I was just grateful that the tears didn’t start coming until after Sandra left the room. It was bad enough to have lost the Ito deal. But to cry in front of my boss would be the ultimate humiliation.

  I allowed myself a brief cry, and then forced myself to stop. I couldn’t let anyone see my red nose and watery eyes, and so I tried to think of something happy and calming. The only thing that came to mind was that vacation my mom and my sister Julie and I took two years ago. We’d gone on a cruise and had spent two weeks hiking, ziplining, and exploring exotic ports as the ship made its way through the Panama Canal. That was the vacation of a lifetime. I’d give anything for a time machine so I could go back.

  Now that my tears
were dry, it was safe to make it to my office. Maybe there was some way to save the Ito deal. I did have an alternate campaign that I’d considered pitching before I settled on the anime one. My mom always said that it’s not the mistake that takes you down—it’s how you react to it. I’ll send Ito the pitch deck for the other idea and see what happens. It can’t make anything worse, that’s for sure.

  ***

  Two hours later, I got a call from Sandra. “Ron wants to meet with us both at 9:00 tomorrow morning. I hope we’re not both getting fired over this, Jenny.” The phone call ended before I even had a chance to respond.

  Great. This was not good news. When the Managing Partner calls you in after a disastrous client meeting, you know it’s not to talk about your performance bonus.

  I hit “send” on the email to Nobu Ito. I’d written to him and apologized for the meeting this morning and attached a pitch deck with a different campaign. The thing was, I’d known the anime one was a risk, and in retrospect should have nixed the idea right away. Honestly, I doubted that Ito would go for my second pitch, either, but it was worth a shot.

  Pulling my purse out of the drawer, I figured there was no reason for me to stick around the office for the last hour of the day. By this time tomorrow I’d be packing my desk, anyway. Ron was very likely to fire me over this latest fiasco.

  Walking from my office to the elevator, it felt as if everyone were staring at me. Maybe it’s my imagination. Whatever it was, it wasn’t as bad as tomorrow’s “walk of shame” would be, as security escorted me out the door with my box of things. I just need to get home and forget about this day.

  ***

  “Come on. That’s why they call it Happy Hour.” Julie was trying to get me to meet at our favorite pub, “Big Macs” for appetizers and drinks.

  “I’m not in the mood.”

  “You don’t have to be. Happy Hour is designed to make you happy. That, and antidepressants.” Julie laughed as she said it. “You know how tech people say there’s an app for that? These days, whatever ails you, there’s a pill for that.”

  Uh, no. I wasn’t going to start taking antidepressants like Julie. And, the idea of sitting in a loud pub, drinking beer and eating bar food was decidedly unappealing. It had been a rough day, and I just wanted some peace and quiet.

  “Nah. I’ll take a rain check. I just want to go home and pour a cup of tea and go to sleep.”

  “Fine. Your loss. I’ll just have to kick Denise Stockton’s ass at darts without you, then.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow.” After I am jobless, I’ll have all the time in the world to play darts.

  ***

  The idea of going to sleep early was a joke. Instead, I was laying in bed wide awake. Despite having had sleepy tea, a warm bath, and reading a romance novel before bed, this meeting tomorrow had me stressed out. What would I do if I lost my job? I had a little savings built up, but not enough to live on for very long.

  What I really needed was a creative reboot. When Julie and I got back from that last vacation with Mom, my work quality shot through the roof. Clients were loving my ideas, and the bosses were thrilled with the ad campaigns those ideas produced. If only I could get back into that zone again.

  Just for the heck of it, I decided to Google wellness vacations on my phone. At 3:00 am, it was either that or watching stupid cat videos.

  After looking at a bunch that seemed terrible (“I don’t want to sit on a plane for 17 hours to get there...” “I’m not interested in a two week juice fast...” “What are they even doing there? Hugging and bungee jumping? No thank you.”) I saw one that was sponsored by the television talk show host Napur Priyanka. It was a 21-day wellness retreat that included meditation, hiking, cave exploration, yoga... all set in the Bahamas. Clicking through to the pricing, I realized that it was actually really affordable. Plus, they were having a “BOGO 50%” sale, where if you booked one person, the second ticket was half off. It was a sweet deal, and I was tempted to book it. But, the timing just wasn’t right. Who books an expensive vacation at three in the morning on the night before they are going to lose their job?

  So I turned off my phone and plugged it back into the charger, closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep before morning. That trip would be great for someone who wasn’t about to get fired. Maybe I’d talk to Julie about going next year.

  ***

  “Thanks for coming in, Jenny.” Ron sat behind a massive oak desk that was ornately carved with Gargoyle heads for feet. The desk didn’t match any of the other decor in the office, but it was Ron’s pride and joy. He’d gotten in on a trip to Paris and had it shipped back to the US. He superstitiously believed that the desk brought the agency luck. And, up until my recent fiascos, it seemed to be working.

  Sandra wasn’t there yet, and so I sat down and made some awkward small talk about the new coffee machine in the break room. “I really like it. Have you tried the chocolate flavor yet?”

  “Sorry, I’m late,” Sandra said as she breezed into Ron’s office. Sandra was gorgeous...tall and thin and very elegantly dressed. It was the look I had always envied, but could never pull off. At 5’2”, I was too short to be considered “elegant.” Everyone just called me “cute.” Plus, I had been really overweight in high school, and even though my discovery of kickboxing helped me lose the weight, I never felt as pretty as other women. Oh, everyone says I am beautiful, but there is a difference between cute and beautiful.

  Ron cleared his throat to begin. Here we go, I thought. The beginning of the end.

  “How are you doing, Jenny?” Ron started with a genuinely empathetic look on his face. “I know it was pretty tough on you when your mother died so suddenly.”

  Don’t cry, Jenny. Keep it together.

  “I’m... okay. Better than I was at first. But, as you can probably tell, I’m still not back to the top of my game yet. It’s hard to be creative when you’re grieving.”

  Sandra spoke next. “That’s what we were saying, right Ron?” Ron nodded.

  He leaned forward and said, “Listen. You are... were...our best ad man.” He chuckled and added, “So to speak. We don’t want to lose you. But, we can’t lose accounts like the Ito one. We don’t have that kind of buffer.”

  I nodded my head. We were a small firm, and Ito Foods would have been a major account to land.

  Sandra said, “What if you took some time off? Take a couple of weeks and get your head clear.”

  “We’d keep you on salary, of course. But when you returned, we’d have to put you on a 90 day probationary period, after which, if your work doesn’t improve, we’d need to ask you to leave.” Ron’s face was caring, which was surprising and appreciated. I wasn’t thrilled about the probation part of the deal, but I was glad I wasn’t being fired outright.

  I realized that I didn’t have a choice other than to say yes, so I said, “That sounds good. I really appreciate your concern, guys. I really do.”

  And, honestly, I really did need some time off to get my creative mojo back. My weight was creeping back up, I wasn’t sleeping, and it was just a matter of time before all the stress caused a health crisis of some sort. Maybe a two week staycation would be just the thing to refresh me.

  We talked about a few other minor things and then I headed back to my office. On my way, I pulled out my phone to check text messages. What popped up as I unlocked the phone? None other than the Napur Priyanka wellness retreat. Maybe it’s a sign. I pulled the website up on my computer.

  Chapter Two Liam:Island Time

  “No. I’m not taking his call.” I had a headache, and didn’t want to deal with any of George Miller’s bullshit. “Tell him that if he has any more changes he can send them over by e-mail. This doesn’t need another damn call.”

  The truth was, and I would never admit this to anyone, but I was hungover again. The headache was more from the bottle of Chevas I’d finished off last night than annoying clients. But, alcohol was the only way I could get to sleep these days.


  “All right, Liam.” Helen sounded exasperated. “I’ll tell him.” Helen Freeman had been my office manager for ten years now. More like a mother figure than an employee, she’d been there through the best...and worst times imaginable.

  I opened up the proposal that I was supposed to be reviewing in advance of this afternoon’s client meeting. I’d sent it over to them yesterday, but they wanted a meeting to go over it in person. What is with all these people and the calls and meetings? Do they think I just sit around all day waiting to talk on the phone or in meetings? I’m an architect, dammit, not a manager.

  Half the time, I wished I could just chuck it all and run off to some island and live on a beach, shucking coconuts or whatever beach bums do.

  But even having a lot of phone calls wasn’t out of the ordinary for me. Usually, it was easy for me to just accept it as part of the job. Lately, though, it seemed like everything was setting me off.

  Maybe if I get another cup of coffee, I can get rid of this damn headache.

  So I grabbed my favorite cup, the one that said “I spent the night with a model...that I made,” and headed to the break room. Helen wasn’t at her desk, and the junior architects were in their offices behind closed doors. Probably hiding from me.

  Opening the fridge to get some creamer, I noticed that it was expired. “Doesn’t anyone clean out the damn fridge anymore?” I muttered.

  Resigned to drinking it black, I opened the drawer containing the Keurig pods. The only ones left were decaffeinated. “Dammit! What the fuck is going on around here?”

  Screw the coffee. I turned to stomp back into my office and practically ran into Helen. “Watch where you’re going!”

  She raised her eyebrows at me and gave me a look. “Excuse me?”

  “I’m sorry, Helen. I didn’t mean to yell at you. Bad day.”

  “You seem to be having a lot of those lately.” Following me into my office, she closed the door behind us. “Can I talk to you, boss? Openly?”