Free DesertIslandDelight by Wynter Daniels Page B

about helping her get started.
    She couldn’t wait to get out of the country and as far from
Sheik el-Tayid as possible.
    And Chase.
    God, she’d surely run into him back in New York at the gym.
She’d have to find a new place to work out. But that was the least of it. The
hurt was so intense. She’d been right to avoid relationships.
    Her sister Suzanne, a sex advice columnist, had the right
idea. Even though Suzanne herself was happily married, she’d always held that
relationships hardly ever worked out.
    Diana had foolishly thought she might have found one of
those rare gems in Chase. Until he’d showed his ass by not standing up for
her—for them—when he learned what the sheik had done.
    She stepped off the elevator in the lobby. The place was
massive and decorated to look like a jungle with tropical plants and trees
everywhere. It almost made her miss the island where they’d been castaways for
a day. Almost.
    She started toward the desk but saw someone speaking to the
concierge ahead of her, although he hardly looked like one of the guests. More
like a vagrant.
    His clothes were ripped and dirty and his face was all
bruised and bloody. He only had one shoe on, for heaven’s sake. Poor man.
    She leaned against a column and waited.
    “You have to believe me. I was kidnapped and…oh hell. I need
to get into my room. How am I supposed to give you proof that I am who I say
when they took my wallet?”
    Chase! She gasped. What the hell had happened to him?
    “Can you tell me if Diana Weston returned to the hotel?”
    “I’m sorry, sir,” the concierge said. “I can’t release
information on any of our guests. And unless you can prove you are who you say,
I’m going to have to ask you to leave the hotel.” The man steered him a few
steps toward the door and Diana’s chest tightened when she noticed Chase was
limping badly.
    “Please, you have to believe me. Diana could be in trouble.”
    Diana was about to go help him but a part of her wanted to
hear what he had to say. She slipped behind a tall plant.
    The concierge picked up the phone. “I’ll have to call
security if you don’t leave now, sir.”
    Chase shook his head. “Listen to me. I’m not some bum. The
sheik had his goons beat me up…after I clocked the sheik for what he did to
Diana and me.”
    She silently cheered. Tears stung behind her eyes.
    “I should have done it sooner, but…”
    “Sir, please. You’ll have to leave the hotel.”
    Diana couldn’t wait another second. Heart ready to burst,
she practically sprinted to the desk. “Chase, are you okay?”
    His eyes lit up as he pulled her into his arms. “Diana,
thank God you’re okay. I’m so sorry. I should have—”
    “Sh. Not now. Let’s get you to a hospital.”
    “No, I’ll be fine, now that I know you are.” He held her
face between her hands and tried to smile, but his mouth was cut and bleeding
and his left eye was nearly swollen shut.
     
    “I’ll need some first aid supplies sent to room 2110,” she
told the concierge. She put Chase’s arm over her shoulder then helped him to
the elevator. Minutes later in her room, she cleaned up his cuts and bandaged
him as best she could.
    When she’d finished, she handed him the icepack she’d made
and smiled down at him as he lay on her bed.
    He took her hand and brought it to his lips, then winced as
he kissed her skin. “Sorry. Nothing against you.”
    “I know.”
    “You won the sheik’s account you know.”
    She shook her head. “I never even gave him my pitch.”
    “You didn’t have to. He researched your other campaigns.
They’re damn impressive.”
    She doubted he was telling the truth about the sheik, but
she gave him points for saying so. “You rest now. Let me take care of you for a
change.”

Epilogue
     
    Chase spotted Diana in a dark corner of the restaurant— their restaurant as they’d been calling it for the last month and a half, ever since
they’d returned to New York and started dating