Adam noticed my excitement, watching me with my face pressed up against the window like a puppy on his first car ride. “Excited?”
“Yes! I even bought a new swimsuit.”
“Good.”
I’d also brought all three of the fancy dresses he’d given me and the adorable sundress that Heath had picked out for me at Harrods.
“Wait till you see where we are staying.”
I turned to him, grinning. “It’s going to be hard to top that place in Amsterdam.”
He smiled. “I agree it would be hard, but this place does. Of course, I may be a little biased because I am a part owner, but it’s a pretty amazing luxury resort. I’ll let you form your own opinion about it.”
Luxury resort.
And he wasn’t kidding about that. Emerald Sky, it was called, and it climbed one of the verdant green hills I had seen from the air, designed to look as if it had sprung from the mountain itself.
Each room was more than a room—it was an entire luxury suite in itself with three walls. The side overlooking the bay was completely open. With warm weather all year round, it wasn’t necessary to enclose them though I did notice brackets for retractable walls in case of storms. Stacked on top of each other and climbing the hill, the suites were also completely private. And the most amazing feature of all: each suite had its own indoor infinity pool.
As an owner, Adam was given one of the two Universe rooms, which, I learned, were the best rooms in the hotel. When we were shown in, I walked around with my mouth wide open. The infinity pool, tiled in glass jewel-tones, hung on the edge of the fourth wall and it was bigger than my kitchen. Beside it, there was a table for dining and a seating area. Behind and tucked off into the corner was a king size bed with pale white netting tied to the four dark wood posts. There was a kitchenette to the rear of the suite and every luxury. Even given the gorgeous blue waters and white sand beaches that looked like they were made out of talcum powder, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to leave the suite.
“This—this is—amazing,” I finally said after Adam had watched me with open amusement as I tripped around the large space, inspecting everything.
“Are you tired? Do you want a nap?”
“I want a swim!” I said.
And he smiled. “We have a reception with the manager of the hotel for dinner, but I’m free until then. And then I’m in meetings most of the day tomorrow, so I made some arrangements with our majordomo for you to have a tour of the area, maybe a little snorkeling if that’s something that interests you.”
I looked down at the rainbow tones of the glass tiles underneath shimmering blue water. “I want to try out this pool.”
He shot me an arresting smile. “Now that I can get interested in.”
I found the bathroom—back behind the bed and a few steps up. It, too was open to the outside but still quite private, even from someone who was standing below. I quickly changed into my black and white bikini—it was gorgeous and made me feel sexy and it hadn’t been overly expensive. And thanks to another splurge—leg waxing, ouch—and a manicure and pedicure, I felt resplendent, glamorous, full of energy and excitement and not my usual scruffy self. I had stepped into the princess dream again.
I was already in the pool and of course he’d pulled out the dreaded laptop to check on work—lest the world had fallen in while he was on his flight. I was irritated at first but also relieved that it didn’t take much taunting to entice him into the pool. He changed and got in with me. We swam, talked, flirted.
We talked about the game, of course. He was still clam-mouthed about the clues I wanted, though he wasn’t above throwing more red herrings out with a playful gleam in his eye.
I asked him about his past. “So how did it all start? When did you find out you had a gift with programming?”
He squinted out over the bay, arms hooked over the edge. “We weren’t well off, after my dad died. And we moved around a lot. Somewhere along the line I acquired this secondhand Gameboy.” He smiled. “That thing was my prized possession, but I only had a few games for it. And I got bored with them after a while. So I hacked into it and started writing my own games.”
My brows shot up. “That’s amazing. How old were you?”
He grimaced. “I’m not going to tell you because then you’ll call me an even bigger nerd.”
I shook my head, laughing. “Not possible. Your nerdness is pretty huge as it is.” And then I blushed, realizing my words could be interpreted another way.
He laughed. “Thank you.”