Free The Sweetest Kiss: A Billionaire Love Story by Kate Ward Page B

but I wanted to be right in there. I wanted to get my hands dirty and know what it was like to toil away and feel as though I had accomplished a lot at the end of the day.
    In many ways I had vowed never to date another woman based on her wealth. I had to be attracted to her physically and mentally.
    I looked over at Hayley with her goggles and respirator and smiled. It was hard to look attractive in that gear but damn, she made it look easy. We swam around in a large fish tank with exotic fish, ones that could be tagged and sent back into the ocean and monitored over time. It allowed our team to map and track the fish population. To keep an eye on what was happening in the oceans and if there was any way, help them if we were beginning to see a shortage or drop in a certain species. The goal was never to just capture fish and hold them, but to capture safely, track, and monitor. It was working too. Keeping track of the movement patterns, seasonal variations, harvest, and birth and mortality rates was allowing us to make sure the fish were healthy. In many ways we were watching over them when the ocean was being polluted by greedy corporations.
    Despite my sister’s flaws, that was one thing she too was passionate about. Sure she partied hard, but then most kids did. She just happened to do it more frequently. But when she wasn’t drinking she was here on the island. She was involved in the work being done to create a cleaner, safer, and healthier environment. That was of course if she wasn’t dealing with her own string of bad dates. She was the only one who seemed to understand me out of my family. I rarely spoke with Jace or Connor.
    Darla was one of these women who could have a guy on both arms if she wanted. That was just the way she was. Beautiful and smart, but she tended to hide the smart part. I had told her numerous times to stop acting like a ditz. Guys didn’t find it endearing, they just saw her as an easy lay. To which she responded, maybe I like that. I shook my head and then she would punch me on the arm telling me she was kidding. I was one of her big brothers. Looking out for her was what we were meant to do.
    I had asked her if she would ever settle down numerous times, and her response was always the same: “You have got to be joking. Every guy I meet is a bum. None of them seem to have any drive to better themselves. I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t have any money, but at least show some motivation. Some drive to do something in the world.” And that was her, despite all the money she had, the parties she attended, the string of dates and momentary brain lapses that landed her in the tabloids. She was a good girl at heart. She too was looking for someone who would have a similar passion to hers.
    I smiled thinking about her. Darla lived life the way she wanted to, she had literally made my father’s hair turn white and driven our mother mad between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five but she was okay in my books. But there was one thing that Darla had got right and that was making sure that the person you ended up with was driven, passionate, and strong. Those were characteristics that you couldn’t instill in a person after dating them. They had to be there before.
    After we got out of the water, showered, and changed back into our clothes, both of us were parched. We were ready for a bite to eat and I knew just the place to take her.

9
    HAYLEY
    O kay , I could live like this: breakfast on a yacht, hanging out in an aquarium, being wined and dined at some of the finest restaurants I had ever been in. Then there was the little part about seeing him dive into the ocean from the yacht. Seeing him tear off that shirt and watching his muscles flexing and his tight abs clenching as he dived in. I could easily get used to that.
    Still, I had a job to do. James would be busting my ass. Why did I agree to it? I let my own anger over my failed relationship get the better of me. So what if he gave