Chapter Six
Joshua felt like a class-one jerk as he walked away from Jade. She’d been absolutely adorable doing the simulated surfer with a beautiful grin and then so impetuously coming after him and falling on the machine. Holding her close had felt perfectly right, but he couldn’t admit to her that he was Jesse. He prided himself on his honesty and ethical business practices, and here he’d outright lied to her. Yet he couldn’t ignore the fear of her wanting to be around him as Joshua Jewel so she could expose him on her celebrity blog. He’d valued his privacy for too long to let himself get exposed like that, and she’d all but admitted she wanted an interview. As comfortable as he’d gotten with her as Jesse, she would definitely be able to weasel an interview out of him as Joshua.
The reason he’d chased after her was to find out what story she’d tell the owner about the accusations against her, but she’d deflected. Why? Was it easy to tell lies to some guy named Jesse but harder to lie to the owner who might find out the truth?
There had to be a way to get to the bottom of Jade’s motivations and see if she was as innocent and fresh and beautiful and fun as she’d seemed to him, or if she was a master manipulator like he now feared. He’d been through the master manipulator route before. He didn’t want to do it again.
He showered and dealt with work issues, then walked the ship for a while before meeting up with Curtis, Gabe, Peter, Trevor, and Peter and Trevors’ wives Sarah and Nessa for dinner. The group was interesting to talk to, once they relaxed and stopped treating him like Zeus, and dinner went well. Curtis seemed as with-it, kind, and professional as Joshua had always thought he was. If Curtis really thought Jade was the one behind the missing money, Joshua had a really hard time not trusting his CEO. Curtis not only had more years of experience than Joshua, and his dad’s undying trust; he worked directly with Jade. Joshua knew it was highly likely that he himself was being swayed by how drawn he was to Jade.
He kept looking around for Jade but didn’t see her. Was she dining alone? That thought made him sad. Then a worse thought struck him. Was she dining with another man? His stomach churned, and he played with his crème brûlée instead of eating it. It was absolutely lame that he feared that this woman could be swindling him, yet he wanted to be with her far more than he wanted his money recovered.
Joshua excused himself from dinner as soon as he could. He found himself searching all the main areas of the ship—the dining rooms, the specialty restaurants, the bars, the casino, the promenade, and the theater. Sadly, there was a Broadway-style show going on in the theater, so he couldn’t search it very well. As the evening passed, he searched the walking decks down low and up high, but he found nothing.
Finally, he went back to his room, hopeful that maybe she was in hers. Yet he couldn’t just knock on her door and admit that he’d downgraded to a single-room balcony and upgraded her from an inside cabin so he could be next to her.
He took off his tie and unbuttoned the top of his shirt, walking out onto the deck. The deck was a decent size with a couple patio chairs and a table. There were fogged-glass partitions separating his deck from the decks on either side. If you leaned around, you could see the person next to you, but he could stay hidden from Jade if he stayed back and she didn’t crane her neck. He looked longingly toward the partition to the right. If only Jade would walk out and he could talk to her.
The ship had set sail as they finished dinner, and already they were past the town of San Juan and the impressive fort. He used to love touring the fort as a child, but he hadn’t made time to stop there in the past ten years or so when he came to Puerto Rico. He studied the water rushing by far below the ninth-floor patio where he stood and debated what to do about Jade Jardine. He didn’t trust her, couldn’t allow himself to, but he hadn’t been so quickly invested in a woman since Amber. He’d taken things slow with Amber, but she’d worn down his resistance with her fun personality, her beautiful smile, and her sweetness. He barked out a laugh. Sweetness? She’d shown herself to be a she-devil. He obviously was no judge of character where gorgeous women were concerned.
“Everything okay over there?” a soft voice asked from his right.
Joshua startled and his gaze darted to the cloudy glass, where the silhouette of a body was visible. He could see exactly how perfect that body was. He’d tried not to gawk like a teenager when he’d seen Jade in a swimsuit, but it had been tough. She had the smooth, defined lines of a woman who took care of herself, and he’d been impressed and even more drawn to her.
He cleared his throat and pitched his voice a little higher, hoping she wouldn’t recognize him as Joshua or Jesse. Had he fooled her earlier? He doubted it. “Just thinking about my ex.” His eyes widened. Had he really just said that?
“That doesn’t sound very fun,” she said back.
Joshua wished he could stick his head around the partition and gaze at her beautiful face, but he found himself wanting to talk to her without her thinking he was a reclusive billionaire, or an old west outlaw, or anything but him. Maybe she’d reveal something that would help him know exactly who she was and if he could trust her. Would it be wrong to feel her out without her knowing who she was? Probably, but he was at a loss for how else to know if she was a manipulator like Amber, or as genuine as he hoped.
“No, it’s not,” he admitted. “Have you ever been in love?”
If she found the question strange and intrusive coming from what she thought was a stranger, he couldn’t hear that in her voice. She laughed softly and said, “A few times I fancied myself in love, but then I found out they weren’t worthy of me. Didn’t sting too bad when I realized that.”
Joshua smiled. He loved the sass in her tone and her inherent confidence. He wanted to know so much about her. Did she have amazing parents like he did, or had she been hurt as a child? She hadn’t talked much about her parents, only her sister, Teal. “That’s good. I’m sure they weren’t worthy of you.”
“You don’t even know me.” Jade gave another laugh. “Wow. I’ve reached a new low. Talking about love to a stranger I can’t even see.”
“That is a little odd.”
“Maybe you can be my preachy priest. Give me advice about all the things I’m doing wrong.”
That piqued his interest. Did she think she was doing things wrong? Would she really confess to some guy she didn’t even know? Jade definitely had an open-book personality, which was intriguing to him, as he was so closed off. She must really be lonely to be this open with a guy she couldn’t even see. Yet sometimes it was easier to share all with someone you couldn’t see, like a priest.
He grinned. “I could be your priest. You can’t see me, but you can trust me enough to share your deepest, darkest secrets.” He probably shouldn’t have gone there, but he secretly prayed she would. This might be his chance to see exactly who Jade was, and what she was planning to do with that celebrity blog, and if she’d been telling the truth to Jesse about the accusations of embezzlement, and—most importantly—could she be falling for Jesse or Joshua like he was falling for her?
“Ha! So you’re going to be my next-door therapist for the next seven days?”
“Why not?”
“If I share all, will you tell me your secrets too?”
“Sure.” If he were a woman, he would’ve gasped about now. He didn’t share his secrets with anyone but his brother, Isaac. He and Isaac were only a year apart and had been close their entire lives. Wrestling and fighting, but still the best of friends. Isaac had chosen the military path and was special ops for the Air Force. He was on a short assignment for the next month in Iraq, so though they did FaceTime and talked all the time, it wasn’t the same as having his brother here.
“Okay,” she said, and it sounded like she was trying to be brave. “You tell me a secret and I’ll tell you one.”
A dart of fear traced through him. Did she know who he was? Had his voice given it away? Was she recording or cataloguing his secrets to share on her blog? Yet her blog had been live interviews, and it seemed to be on the up and up. Why couldn’t he trust her? For once, why couldn’t he take his mom and Isaac’s advice and just let himself trust? He shook his head. There were too many questions and issues with her, and he knew it.
“I have a hard time trusting anyone but my family, most especially my brother,” he said in such a low voice he wondered if she heard him.