Free [Invitation to Eden 24.0] How to Tempt a Tycoon by Daire StDenis

can ask more questions.”
    This sounds reasonable. Or does it? I don’t know. I’m still so fucking confused and numb from my near death experience, I don’t know if it’s shock or what. I just know that my brain is not firing on all synapses but somewhere in my cerebral cortex is my fight or flight instinct and I still don’t like the idea of getting into a car with someone I don’t know, heading for an unknown destination.
    We take a service road that brings us to another part of the airport altogether. There’s a smaller tower here with small hangars adjacent to a canal.
    He pulls up to a newer looking hangar and pulls up to the dock where a small float plane is tethered.
    A woman comes from around the side of the plane. She’s wearing khaki shorts and a black shirt. Mirrored sunglasses hide her eyes.
    She strides toward me, hand out, all no-nonsense. “Tessa. Good to see you again. Not sure if you remember me. I’m Joely. I’ll be your pilot.”
    Okay. First of all, of course I don’t remember her. Why would I remember her and I say as much. “No. I don’t think we’ve met. I don’t know you. And I am certainly not going anywhere with you.”
    Joely smiles secretively which bring me to my second, and more important, point...there is no way in hell I’m getting into a plane with someone who looks barely a day over sixteen years old as pilot. Are you kidding me?
    She raises the sunglasses to the top of her head and says, “Sure you are.”
    She fondly pats the puddle jumper we’re standing beside as if it’s an old family pet not a flimsy-looking piece of machinery. Which is my third and probably most salient point; I am NOT getting into a puddle jumper to fly off to some unknown destination. No way. Not after the flight I just endured. “Look, I have no idea what’s going on. But this...” I motion dismissively to the plane. “Is not happening.”
    She frowns. “Did you just insult Wanda? Damn, girl. That’s just asking for trouble. Wanda’ll take it personally.” She strokes the plane, murmuring, “She didn’t mean it, baby.”
    Turning to me with a twisted grin, she says, “Trust me, Wanda is the most reliable plane you’ll ever have the pleasure of flying in.” Her eyes sparkle with some form of mischief. “I’m surprised you don’t remember her.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Nothing. Look we need to get a move on if we want to get there before the storm hits. So enough chitchat. Climb aboard.”
    “Get where?”
    “Eden. Where else? You got the invitation didn’t you?”
    “Y-yeah.” This doesn’t make sense to me. None of this makes sense to me. How did she know about the invitation? Why does she keep acting like we’ve met and I’ve been to Eden before?
    Oh my God!
    Maybe I really didn’t make it through that last flight. Maybe we crashed and my earthly body is fish food right now and this woman-child is like a female version of Saint Peter and I’m standing at the pearly gates—my version of it anyway.
    I know that sounds far-fetched and yet it’s no more far-fetched than what’s happening right now, if what’s happening is real.
    “Am I dead?”
    Joely laughs as she prods me along to the open doorway. “No. And, if there’s one thing I can guarantee, Eden will make you feel more alive than you’ve ever felt before.” She slides her glasses back into place before boarding. “So let’s go. The island’s waiting.”

Chapter Eight
    “M s. Savage? Tessa?”
    “Hmm?”
    My name is whispered again, a tinny voice inside my head.
    Eyes still closed, I roll a crick out of my neck.
    “We’re here.”
    My fingers find the headset I’m wearing. Headset?
    Oh yeah.
    Plane. Joely the child-pilot. Eden.
    When I open my eyes it’s like I’ve been transported through time and space because as I look out the window, the Miami canal has been replaced by crystal clear azure colored waters. Wow. Talk about a time warp.
    I disembark and find myself on a wooden