The Tycoon's Seductive Revenge Read Online Free Page B

across the back of her hand. “I’ll make tonight worth your while.” The bartender’s smile brightened. Clearing his throat, Carter stepped away and approached Ellie’s table. “Care for some company?”
    “Not really.”
    “Great. I’ll pull up a chair.”
    As he sat down Ellie rolled her eyes. She angled her seat to face the windows instead of him.
    “What brings you out of your comfort zone?” He took a sip of his scotch. The liquid slid down his throat, leaving a satisfying tingle in its wake.
    “I do have a life beyond the hotel.” She flipped a page in her magazine.
    He glanced around at the empty chairs. “I see.”
    “I came here to be alone.”
    “Me, too.” He swirled the ice in his glass and leaned closer, peering at the ads on the page. “Checking out career opportunities?”
    She slapped the magazine shut. “I have a job.”
    “For now.”
    Her eyes sparked. “What does that mean?”
    Shrugging, he pointed out, “It all depends on who buys the hotel.”
    Her cheeks turned as red as her sweater. She stared mutely at the napkin holder on the table.
    An unpleasant twinge of compassion afflicted him, like that afternoon when Russert had come down hard on her. “Look, you have a lot to offer the industry. No matter what happens you’ve got the experience to make a new start.”
    “That’s what my uncle keeps telling me.” She sipped her wine. “But I can’t leave the island.”
    “I may not agree with your uncle’s approach, but he’s right.” Carter gestured toward the view through the window. “There are bigger opportunities out there. You should be managing a hotel chain. Your talents are wasted on this place.”
    “I can’t leave the island,” she said more forcefully. “There’s a—” She cut herself off.
    He supplied, “A life beyond El Dorado Island?”
    Eyes narrowing to slits, she stated, “It may sound idiotic to you, but I believe there’s a curse. Any time someone I love tries to leave the island, there are deadly consequences.”
    Carter used to wonder himself if the island was cursed, but for different reasons. Ridiculous, he knew. “Sounds like a problem.”
    “Uncle Russert was never attached to the hotel, so he doesn’t understand. He thinks I can pick up and take off on a whim.”
    “Sure.”
    “It’s not that simple. My life has never been simple—despite what people assume. There are expectations my father had, and I have to live up to them. To honor him.”
    That hit a little too close to home. He shifted in his seat. “Honoring the dead is a complicated thing.”
    “I don’t know why Daddy thought Steven Jacquard would make all our problems disappear.”
    Carter folded his arms. Who the hell is Steve?
    “But that’s who Daddy wanted me to marry.”
    She got married? A surge of territorial instinct spiked his veins.
    “Steven owned an advertising agency. He was brilliant at sales, a failure at morals. I knew he was sketchy. He kept putting off our wedding, promising the world. Daddy poured all his money into Steven’s schemes. Four years ago the guy disappeared with my father’s last nickel, and I threw my engagement ring off the boat docks.” She sniffed. “Which was stupid. I could use the money from that diamond right about now.”
    So she wasn’t married . His shoulders relaxed.
    Morbidly curious what else she’d reveal, he sat back and let her vent.
    “We were never as rich as people thought, but that didn’t stop them from wanting money or favors. You never knew who to trust.” She gripped the stem of her glass. “Now my father is gone, I have no close friends, I can’t leave the island, my family heritage is up for auction, and a mountain of debt will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
    She polished off her wine.
    A tide of irritation rose up inside him.
    First, she never expressed her fears and loneliness to him when they were together. Second, he’d experienced a parallel reality growing up even though their lives had