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  “Even if I could give you a story that would impress your boss, you wouldn’t take it because of your ethics?” I pitched the question to her.

  Her eyes darted to me. “Why? Do you know something?”

  I laughed. “See? Curious aren’t you?”

  “Of course I’m curious. Doesn’t mean I was going to use the information.” She took a sip of wine. “But what is it?”

  “I just wondered what you would say.”

  She exhaled loudly. “I’m going to have to talk to Christine tomorrow about this.”

  “Why?”

  “You proved the point I was trying to make. I can’t separate us from work. I can’t cover stories about the resort, or about you. It’s not right.”

  “Wait a minute. Didn’t you tell me she was willing to move you up if you could give her more exclusives?”

  “Yes, but I’ll have to do it another way.”

  The sky was getting darker. The pink hues had turned amber. I could feel the weekend sinking behind the clouds with the sun. I hadn’t felt the Sunday blues since I was in high school.

  I turned so my feet were on the deck. “Tell me what you’re going to say to her.”

  “I haven’t figured it out yet.”

  “You are being way too calm about this. If you’re going to have a meeting with your boss, you need a plan. You need to be able to go in there and negotiate with her.”

  “Negotiate? I have nothing to offer. I have to tell her our personal relationship compromises my ability to report unbiased information. There’s nothing else I can say.”

  I took the wine glass from her hand and placed it next to her. “This is serious. You have to have a strategy.”

  “All right.” Her painted toes landed on the floor facing mine. “What do you advise?”

  “You can’t ever go into a meeting without something to offer, but most importantly you need to know what you want to get out of it. Stand firm. Stay strong.”

  “I want to keep my job.”

  I shook my head. “Think bigger than that. You’re taking information to her. You’re giving her something. What can you get?”

  Her face twisted in a frown. “I don’t have any information. What are you talking about?”

  I had debated how to let this play out, but this would be win-win for both of us.

  “I have a story for the News & Report. That’s going to be the card you play.”

  “You do? What is it?” She was on the edge of the seat. I could see the fire in her eyes.

  “We’ll get to that.”

  “Blake, if you have a story for me, I need it.”

  “I thought you said you couldn’t separate me from work. This story is very specific to one of my latest acquisitions.”

  The darker it got, the more I realized the weekend was almost over. Tomorrow was already a beast of a day. I would be on conference calls from seven until seven.

  “You didn’t mention you had acquired anything new.” Her eyes narrowed. “What is it?”

  “I buy and sell every day. You know that. But you could tell your editor you have a scoop on a South Padre land deal that has a direct impact on the resort. Trade her the story for a chance to focus on the features you really want to write.”

  “A trade? But you aren’t going to tell me what it is?”

  My hand squeezed her knee. “Remember the mother and daughter from the Cove?”

  “Bridget and Jennilee? Of course.” She lowered her eyes. “They remind me of—”

  “Your sister. I know. I thought the same thing when I met her.”

  “You met Bridget? When?”

  “I didn’t have much choice after that article you wrote. You basically crucified me in that story.”

  “They are going to be homeless, Blake. It wasn’t as if I could put a happy spin on it.”

  I took a second to pour another glass of wine for myself. Alyson was still working on hers. The bottle was almost empty.

  “No. You’re right. There’s no way to make people losing their homes a happy ending, but I have good news.”

  She stared at me, the expectation circling her eyes. “What is it?”

  “I am the proud owner of a new campground on the sound side of the island. Bridget and Jennilee will be moving in two weeks.” I grinned.

  “Are you serious?”

  I nodded. The wine was dry and crisp. “It was a good business move. I can relocate ten residents. The mother doesn’t get kicked out on the street. I built in a cushion for the demolition budget, so I’ll use that to make the abandoned lot livable. In a few years when all of this blows over I’ll sell it.”

  “But then what will Bridget do?”

  “Hopefully by then she’s not still living in a camping trailer.”

  “So you did this for the press? To kill the story I wrote?” Her brow was starting to furrow and the lips I loved to kiss so much weren’t smiling.

  “Darlin’, I’m building that resort. Things are going to come up along the way. This was one of those things, and I took care of it. I’m happy the mom and little girl have a place to go. But I didn’t promise her anything other than I would get her moved. I don’t owe her a damn thing.”

  “How can you say that? She grew up on this beach. She used to vacation here with her family. Jennilee’s father has never paid her a cent. That trailer park is all they have. Don’t you get that?”

  “What I get is that you made the right decision.”

  “What are you talking about?” Her eyes glared.

  “There’s no way we can do this.” I grabbed her around the waist, despite the way she struggled in my arms. “And you not cause problems for me. You’d write another story just as damaging if you got the chance.”

  “Me cause problems for you?” Her tone was irritated.

  “You disagree?” I studied her eyes. She was breathing heavy and her skin was still warm from the sun. I couldn’t believe I had spent two days on the beach. We had significantly increased my total number of lazy minutes.

  “Ugh. I hate it when you’re right.” She threw her arms next to her side. “If I wrote the story now you’d probably have to buy the rest of South Padre to recover from it.”

  “I know I would.” I chuckled. “Now that we have that settled, do you know what you’re going to say to your editor tomorrow?”

  She considered my question. It took her awhile to answer. “You want me to trade story choice for this planted piece of public relations?”

  “If you don’t report it, someone else will. I’m giving you something to wield before you head into that meeting.” I leaned back on my elbows. The wind fluttered through her hair.

  “True. It’s bound to be picked up tomorrow.” She chewed on the side of her lip. “And you think my boss will go for it?”

  “It’s worth a try.”

  Her face softened. I smiled as she lowered herself on my chest, resting her head over my heart. I tangled my fingers through her hair.

  “I’ll try it. But I can’t promise anyone will paint you in as positive light as I will,” she teased.

  “I’m hoping one that’s much better.”

  “Hey!” She assaulted my sides with her fingers.

  I looked at my watch over her head. “It looks like we only have three hours of this weekend left. What do you say we take this party inside?”

  “What’s in there?” she teased.

  “Your toys.” I waggled my eyebrows.

  “Oh,” she said with new understanding.

  I led her inside and to the bedroom. I unzipped the bag next to the bed. I held the pink vibrator in the air and smiled wickedly.

  “Have you ever tried this with someone?” I asked.

  She shook her head slowly, as she threw her clothes on the floor. Fuck. This girl was a sex panther.

  “Never?” I tested her again.

  “No,” she whispered as her breasts bobbed free from her bra.

  I turned the vibrator on, watching her eyes li
ght up with the sound. My cock twitched. This was going to be fun.

  She crawled toward the edge of the bed, her hands landing on my belt. She licked her lips.

  “You want me to fuck your mouth?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Please.”

  “I think I can do more than that.”

  She shoved my pants to the floor as I joined her on the bed. I pushed her to her back as I straddled her facing her sweet pussy. My cock met her lips. Her tongue licked the tip, drawing the dew between her teeth. I heard her hiss as I pushed the vibrator to her pussy.

  She bucked wildly as I simultaneously sank my cock in her mouth and the pink toy between her lips, burying it inside her. Fuck. I was hard as steel watching her writhe under me. Feeling her suck and take my dick deep in her throat.

  I pressed the vibrator in and pulled it out, stretching her entrance. She had the most beautiful pussy I’d ever seen. I stopped to get a taste and she moaned with me in her mouth.

  “Feels fucking incredible, doesn’t it?”

  But my cock was buried deep in her mouth and she could only answer with the bob of her head. I didn’t know if I had been this turned on before. Fucking her like this. Watching her body come to life. I pumped against her, going deeper with my dick as I turned the vibrator up another notch.

  Her body opened to me in a new way. She trusted me. I pumped in and out of her, both ends, giving her endless pleasure. Satisfying her. Fucking her until I heard the sweetest sound muffled in her throat. I ran a finger over her clit as she convulsed and shook.

  And that’s when I lost it. Watching her come like this was incredible.

  I buried myself deep as my orgasm hit and my come slid down her throat in one gushing pulse after another.

  “Fuck, baby,” I moaned as she sucked me to the depths of her throat.

  Once my pulse started to slow I pulled out from between her lips and rested the vibrator next to us on the bed. I rolled onto my back.

  She crawled forward, nuzzling on my chest.

  “That was amazing,” she whispered.

  “Fuck, yeah.”

  I was worried I might get used to this, but the instant I heard her moan my name, I knew this was a weekend I wouldn’t forget. I’d rather crack open another bottle of wine and spend the night loving Alyson into oblivion if it would make time stand still.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Alyson

  I straightened the pleats on my skirt. I rehearsed what Blake and I had gone over. This was the right thing to do. I had to remove myself from the situation. I had flashbacks to my ethics class. It heavily focused on slander and defamation, but I hadn’t forgotten the discussion on sources. The last thing I wanted to be as a new reporter was labeled as unethical and biased. I held my breath and counted to eight. Somehow that always seemed to help, but right now all I felt were sweaty palms and a nervous stomach.

  “Covington, come on in.” Christine called across the newsroom. Her door was cracked.

  I closed it behind me and turned to take a seat.

  “Did you have a good weekend?” I asked.

  I knew nothing about Christine’s personal life, other than she was married. She wore a simple gold band on her left hand. There wasn’t a picture in the office. Not even a shot of a dog, or a landscape.

  “It was a weekend.” Her lips were so thin they almost formed a straight line when she wasn’t smiling. “I got your email. Let’s talk.”

  There was too much silence. Too much space in between our words. “Well, thank you for seeing me so quickly this morning. I need to talk to you about something.” I could feel the plan unraveling. Christine stared at me, and my resolve to be a hard-ass negotiator seemed ridiculous.

  “It’s Monday. My schedule is filling up. What do you have for me?” She chewed on the bottom of a pen.

  I didn’t know how Blake did this every day. How he faced people and walked away with exactly what he wanted. He wasn’t just good at it. He was amazing.

  “Last week you mentioned that you thought there was a possibility I could change over to straight features.” I twisted my hands in my lap. I was using weak words. I knew it. “And anyway, I thought we could make that transition start a little sooner.”

  Christine looked puzzled. “Sooner? How so?”

  “Yes. See I need to remove myself from any stories pertaining to Blake Davenport. And it seems like maybe the timing is right to go ahead over to features.”

  “And why do you have to come off the Davenport stories?”

  I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “I just do, but I have a story I thought I could give the reporter you assign to the resort.” My words sounded ridiculous. I couldn’t string together one impressive sentence.

  “You haven’t answered my question. And if you have a story, why isn’t it already written?”

  “Ok. That’s a good question.” We didn’t analyze enough of Christine’s reactions. Blake was used to overcoming negotiation obstacles. I didn’t even know how to barter in a flea market.

  “Look, Covington, we all get assignments we don’t particularly like. That’s the news business. This happens to be a business journal. We serve the southern half of Texas. So, we don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing what we report. We have a readership that depends on us. We have an obligation to those readers.”

  “I’m sleeping with him.” I blurted it out before she could finish.

  I had worked there three months, and in those three months I had seen Christine angry, happy, pleased with a well-written story. This morning I saw what she looked like when she was surprised.

  “With-with?”

  I could barely look at her. “With Blake Davenport.”

  The tiny office erupted with her laughter. “You can’t be serious.”

  I nodded. “I am. We started dating after the interview.” I blurred the timeline a bit.

  “You realize he’s a complete womanizer. He’s nothing short of the business equivalent to George Clooney.”

  “But he got married last year to that amazing attorney.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You understand what I’m saying. He’s Clooney-esque. You’re willing to sacrifice your career for a man like that?”

  I shook my head. “No. Not sacrifice. That’s why I’m here. I don’t want to cause any problems for the Record. I can’t report on him any longer. I’m telling you it would be unethical. I’m here to be open and transparent about it.”

  Christine sighed. “But you were hired as the business beat reporter for South Padre and Port Isabel. I don’t have anywhere else to put you, Alyson.”

  Oh, God. It wasn’t a good sign she used my first name. “But you said I could do features.”

  “You have to prove yourself first and on top of that I would have to move Cecelia somewhere. She’s on features now. There’s nowhere else for her to go.”

  I shook my head. This could not be happening. “But you made it sound like it would be soon. Like there was a position now for me to slide into.”

  Christine folded her hands together and laid them on the desk. “I’m sorry if that was how you interpreted it. I didn’t promise you a different job.”

  “No, you didn’t,” I admitted.

  “I guess this puts us both in a pickle.”

  I wondered if there was some way I could untangle myself from the information I had deposited on her desk. If only I hadn’t thought being ethical was so damn important.

  “I can report on anything else, Christine. Anything. I’ll switch to advertising or sales. Or maybe I could help out with editing. I used to edit at the Daily for the other reporters.”

  Her cheeks filled with air, and then she expelled it into the room. “I’m going to have to think about this.”

  “So, I’m not fired?” I asked timidly.

  “I’m going to have to consider all of the options and consult with HR. I was going to send you to the Fernandez meeting this morning, but I clearly can’t do that. Shit.” Her pen rolled
on the floor.

  “Christine, really I’ll cover whatever the Record needs.”

  “I hear you. But the Record needed you on the resort. I needed you to write another piece like the one on the mom and daughter. I needed someone who could write about the politics of the resort, but that person is no longer you.” Her eyes softened with disappointment. It was worse than any look my mother had given me. “Now head home for the day. If something non-Davenport related comes up, we’ll call you in, but that man is all over the island.”

  I rose to leave, worried I would trip over the tight space before getting out the door.

  “Hey, what was the story you had for me?” she asked.

  “Oh, nothing. It was an idea on the environmentalists. Not a very good idea anyway.”

  I closed the door behind me. It might have been the one thing that stuck from my conversation with Blake. The only thing. He told me not to show all my cards too quickly. I still had one card and only a few hours to figure out how to use it.

  ***

  I stared at my laptop. The screen displayed the words “no search results found”, and I thought I might be sick. There were no reporter positions posted within a sixty-mile radius. I paced around the studio, bouncing from the bed to the bathroom and back again.

  I thought of ten things to do, and five minutes later couldn’t think of a single thing to do. Christine was meeting with HR to determine whether I could keep my job. Blake told me he had conference calls all day and wouldn’t be able to see me until late tonight. I couldn’t call him. I wondered if he would be disappointed in how I handled the entire meeting.

  If I lost my job I didn’t know what I’d do. I had a bit of savings stashed away, but it wasn’t enough to stay in South Padre indefinitely. With summer winding down, most of the seasonal jobs were drying up. I wouldn’t even be able to get a position waiting tables.

  I threw myself back on the bed. I couldn’t leave. I had just found him. I had just discovered how much fun the island could be. I had my first friend here. I groaned.

  I was still holding the story hostage, although I didn’t know why. My time had to be running out. The local paper would have someone scouting the City Hall records, and it was only a matter of time before a reporter discovered Blake had purchased the lot and was processing permits for trailer hookups.