The Sweetest Kiss: A Billionaire Love Story Read Free

course said I would be crazy to not snap it up.
    “One year, Hayley, and you can sell the place. Seriously, you would be mad not to do it,” Hanna said.
    “But you know me. I hate seeing even a tiny spider in my apartment. Those islands get those giant ones. Heck, they are so big, I swear they live on a diet of elephants and random tourists.”
    “They don’t get elephants in the Caribbean.”
    “Of course they don’t but that doesn’t mean a spider would pass up an elephant if one happened to get stuck in its giant net.”
    No amount of excuses persuaded Hanna to side with me on this. And I can’t really say I was wanting a yes or a no. I was trying to process the news of my sister’s passing more than anything else. We had always been close. Talking on the phone a couple of times a week. Occasionally I would Facetime her and share what story I was working on, hoping to get her input. Emily really could have made one hell of a journalist. Not that the Enquirer needed real journalists. They just needed boots on the ground. People who would be willing to do the dirty work for them. The number of lawsuits they had from celebrities and the wealthy was absurd. But that’s what it was all about. Selling newspapers, and getting hits online. They didn’t care about ruining a person’s reputation. They thrived on exposing secrets but more importantly on trash talking. Sixty percent of all the stories were exaggerated, or false.
    Just get me the juicy details. The dirtier the better, my boss would say.
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    I stepped down off the boat onto a beautiful wooden dock that led up to the sandy beach. I pulled out my outfit, trying to get even a drop of air to flow down my top.
    “Ms. Hayley, you might want to change into something a bit more comfortable if you are going to be living here. It gets pretty hot here.”
    “Gets? Are you telling me it gets hotter than this?”
    He nodded, grinning from ear to ear. I fanned my face with a book I had planned on reading but never got around to it. Once we got to the beach I took off my shoes to feel the sand between my toes. It was hot but beautiful. It had been a long time since I had taken a vacation, or gone anywhere nice. Markus had promised to take me to Hawaii but it never happened. The furthest his pocketbook went to was an ice cream sundae from Dairy Queen.
    The soft ocean breeze brushed against my face and fluttered my clothes as I followed Jamaal and two other men up to a small parking area which was filled with scooters and two jeeps.
    “How many cottages are on the island?” I asked
    “Twenty-two if you include your three.”
    “Are the other nineteen owned by the Waylands?”
    “I believe so, but I might be wrong there. As I said it’s been quite a while since I have been over to the south end of the island. There are five cottages over there. Three are yours.”
    “So the other two, who are they owned by?”
    “Mrs. Arnet. She clung to hers for dear life as well.”
    He started loading up the jeep with the luggage.
    “What do you mean?”
    He stopped for a second to wipe the sweat from his forehead before leaning against the jeep.
    “Your sister refused to sell up her place. So did Mrs. Arnet. When the Waylands bought the island they wanted the entire place to be private. Unfortunately for them, or fortunately for your sister, the south end of the island was conditional upon the sale of all the cottages.”
    “Emily’s and Mrs. Arnet’s?”
    “You got it. And they wouldn’t sell. It pissed the Waylands off real good.”
    “I bet it did.”
    I chuckled to myself at the thought of my sister standing up to those money-hungry swine. I pulled out my phone and tried to get service but nothing was coming up. Before leaving my boss had tried to offer me a pay raise to stay. I guess I was one of his best dirt diggers. To be quite honest I had become jaded by it all. I had always envisioned myself as becoming a serious photographer and journalist. Someone who