The Inheritance (Happy Endings Resort Book 1) Read online

  I saw the girl from earlier who told Luke she was Killian’s girlfriend. Stixx walked over to her and whispered something to her. They both looked over at me. All I could hear in my head was ‘news travels fast around here.’ God only knew what Stixx was saying to Killian’s girlfriend and you know what? I really didn’t care. I was out of here. I was going to get a cab back to the resort, and I was going to drive out of that place and never look back. Fuck them. Fuck all of them. And especially fuck you, Aunt Betty.

  Chapter Six

  “ARE YOU SURE that you want me to just drop you off here?” The cab pulled up to the entrance of the resort where a very small guard shack stood. I saw the man standing in the shack looking over at the cab.

  “I guess we’ll see. If they don’t let me back in to get my car, I’ll need a ride to a decently inexpensive motel, then come back tomorrow.” I was hoping my credit card wouldn’t be declined.

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Thanks,” I said as I exited the cab and made my way over to the shack. I guess since I hadn’t been conscious last night when I was brought here I hadn’t been aware of the guard shack. “Excuse me. I need to…”

  “Did you want to go to your house, Ms. London?” The young man in his early twenties stood in his light brown shirt and darker brown pants.

  “Um…”

  “Buddy. My name is Buddy. I’m the night guard,” he offered. He was a nice-looking guy, but he didn’t look like he would be able to stop an out of control child let alone any kind of danger that might be trying to get into the resort.

  “I actually need to get over to Mr. Duke’s cabin and retrieve my car.”

  “Of course. Let me go lock the gate and we can take the golf cart.” He shifted out of the guard shack, locking the door behind him. While he did this, I went back to the cab and paid the driver. As I turned around, Buddy was swinging the golf cart around to pick me up where I stood.

  “Would you like to follow me back to your residence or do you know the way?” he asked as the car bumped down the road.

  “Thank you, but actually I’ll be heading out after I get my car.” I turned my eyes back to the road to avoid his own questioning eyes.

  “Ah, okay. I’ll stay till you get in your car and then you can follow me to the exit.”

  “That’s okay. I might sit by the lake for a few minutes before I head out.”

  “You got it. I’ll be in the shack whenever you’re ready.”

  “Thank you very much, Buddy.”

  “No problem Ms. London.” He waved and was off after I slid off of the crunchy white seat of the cart.

  I stood and watched him pull away from Jason’s cabin. I looked from my car to the cabin then to the lake. Jason had a really great view of the lake. I tossed my purse on the front seat of my car and closed the door. I leaned my head on the doorframe. What the hell am I doing? Where am I going to go? I’ve got nowhere go. I’ve got no one waiting for me. Should I just stay and find out what this place is all about?

  I moved to the front of the car looking out over the lake. I could look at this view forever. I sighed. I scooted back up onto the hood and moved to lean against the windshield when my elbow scrapped across something. I rubbed my elbow and lifted the folded piece of paper from underneath the windshield wiper. There was no light to see what it was, so I slid off of the hood and into the driver’s seat. I unfolded what looked like a brochure. It was a map of the resort.

  I looked on the map as to where I remembered Jason’s cabin being located. As my eyes skimmed the map, they landed on the top right corner where it just said B&B. I looked at the map’s legend and it said ‘private house.’ There were four private houses marked on the map, but no others were identified. The B&B had to be for Betty and Bruce. This is the house I had been left. The house is part of my inheritance.

  Should I? Should I go see it? Should I at least go check it out? I don’t even have the keys to the place. Maybe I’ll just go take a look. What the hell. Who is it going to hurt if I just go and take a look at it?

  I closed the driver’s side door and pulled out of the parking spot in front of Jason’s cabin. It was dark on the road as I drove around the lake. Everything seemed quiet until I got closer to where the map had marked off where the tents and campers were. There were groups of people sitting around small fires visible from the road. I drove to the end of the road and there, sitting alone, was what had to be the most beautiful custom built cabin I had ever seen.

  I don’t know how long I had been sitting in front of the house when all of a sudden, I was jolted awake out of a sound sleep from a noise by my left ear. I pulled my head away from the window and came face to face with Jason. I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sight of him only lit up by the headlights of his car.

  “When Buddy said you hadn’t left and your car wasn’t parked by my cabin, I figured you might come out this way,” he said almost shouting through my closed window.

  “I don’t have anywhere else to go,” I said as I rolled down my window.

  “You can stay at the cabin. I’ll go back to my apartment. You’ll have the place all to yourself,” he said reassuringly.

  “You didn’t tell me everything did you?” I looked him accusingly in the eye.

  “No I didn’t. I didn’t want to scare you off,” he said on a sigh.

  “So you thought, what? That I would never run into Drew? That I would never find out that he investigated me?”

  “Why are you so upset about this? It’s not like he was stalking you. He wasn’t taking pictures of you while you were sleeping. He wasn’t taking pictures of you in compromising situations.” Why did he sound frustrated? He wasn’t the one being spied on.

  “Of course he wasn’t. I wasn’t in any.” I dropped my head to the steering wheel.

  “Come back to the cabin and I promise tomorrow I will show you the entire file that I have from Drew. If you want, you can shred the whole thing. You can even use the shredder in my office and do it yourself so you know it is gone forever.”

  “How am I supposed to even try to be the owner of this campground when everyone around here seems to know me and this place and I know nothing?”

  “No one but Drew, Betty and I have read the file on you. Drew is contractually obligated not to discuss it and trust me, I’ve already reminded him that what he said tonight could breach that contract if you wish to take action.”

  “Ugh. I’m just so overwhelmed by all of this.”

  “I know. It is a lot to take in and before you make your final decision, I want you to have all of the information.”He rubbed his thumb and forefinger against his forehead.

  “Like what this means. . .” I handed him the map and pointed to the middle right, closer to the bottom part of the map where there was a boat dock and a couple of other private homes. There was what looked like the outline of a body.

  “I think this is someone’s sick joke.”

  “No, that is not a joke. That is an outline of a body.”

  “As far as I know, it’s just folklore around here.”

  “Folklore about a body?” I was starting to get nervous.

  “Supposedly back in the 70s or 80s, there was a body found over there by the edge of the woods. Beyond this point on the map there are woods surrounding the resort.”

  “Oh my God! What the hell! Don’t you think this is something I should have been told?” I shouted. Now I have a dead body and a screwy family tree to deal with…ugh.

  “I was going to tell you.”

  “When? When were you going to tell me?” I slammed my hand on the steering wheel. “Before or after I took over as the owner?

  “Before, I swear.”

  “Tomorrow morning, first thing I want you to do is to take me over to where the body was found. Then I want everything you have on me and my family. I want the keys to this house and I want to be left alone so I can go through it all and try to make a decision.”

  “I will give you everything t
hat I have.”

  “I also don’t want anyone else knowing that I’m still here. I just want to go through everything on my own.”

  “I will have all of the files delivered to the cabin in the morning. I will show you the spot where the body was found and I will bring all of the files back here to the house and leave you to them.” He waited for my response. I was still trying to get over a dead body being on the property that I was a signature away from owning.

  “I think I need a drink.” I dropped my head to the steering wheel again.

  “I have some vodka and rum back at the cabin,” he piped up cheerfully.

  “I’ll follow you back.” I started my car without looking up at him.

  ***

  “So why don’t you have a girlfriend?” I asked sipping my third whipped cream vodka and fruit punch.

  We were sitting on the deck by a fire in the fire pit. The night had a slight chill, but comfortable enough that we didn’t need much more than the light blankets he had carried out from a small box in the living room.

  “I had one until about a year ago. She moved to the coast. She’s a photographer and said that she needed to have a better canvas to work with. I honestly think she met someone online.”

  “Seriously?” I giggled.

  “Seriously.” He drained the remainder of what I think was his fourth beer, but my own alcohol intake was making my head feel fuzzy.

  “She just broke up with me, had her stuff packed, and was gone within two days. She said she already had a place and a job waiting for her. My secretary was friends with her online for a while, but once she started posting pictures of herself and some guy, she unfriended my secretary after she had commented on a picture my ex had posted.” He shrugged it off with the pop of opening another beer.

  “I guess it’s good we don’t have to work tomorrow.” I laughed finishing my own drink.

  “I know it’s totally inappropriate, but I would really like to kiss you right now.” He smiled a sweet, almost innocent drunken smile.

  “You’re right it would be totally inappropriate, but I’d still like you to kiss me.” I smiled and placed my glass down next to me. “We have to both agree that if anything happens between us beyond this kiss that there are no strings. We are both adults here. We have both been drinking and we both want this.” I blew out a nervous breath when he put his own drink down and moved closer to me.

  “Would it scare you or freak you out if I was thinking strings might be nice?”

  “Not freak me out, but we just met. You only know me from the files you have from Drew. I really don’t know anything about you.”

  “I’m an open book.” He brushed the hair from my shoulder and kissed me gently on in the crook of my neck. “Are you cold? We can go inside.” He asked when he felt my body shake with a shiver that traveled from my toes all the up to the ends of my hair.

  “No I’m fine, thank you.” I responded breathlessly as he moved his warm lips down the center of my chest to the V of the t-shirt I had changed into when we had gotten back to the cabin.

  “So the shiver was for this?” He breathed into my ear with a whisper causing another shiver to travel over my skin, spreading goose bumps to raise across my skin.

  “Yes,” I whispered as I gripped the sides of his shirt pulling the hem up so I could feel his skin.

  “You are a beautiful woman, Rory.” He leaned back on his knees and pulled his shirt off over his head before pulling me down onto his lap.

  “You’re not too bad yourself.” I ran my fingers over the ridges of his stomach, up to the back of his neck and pulled him back down to me. His lips crashed to mine and I fell so deep into the kiss that I didn’t feel the chill of the night, or the hard wood of the deck under my back.

  I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything else at that moment. All I could think about was the feeling of Jason’s hands and lips traveling over my body. He knew what he was doing. It was like we had been together before. We moved in an easy rhythm and pace. There was no pressure between us, but for me, I still had that same unknowing feeling of being with a new person. It was exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. I had to push those thoughts out of my head and just enjoy the feeling of my body being touched.

  “Your body really is incredible.”He had lifted my shirt up and moved my bra over my breasts, baring them to the night air. The heat of his palm spread over my naked breast made my core swell with desire. His fingertips grazed my erect nipples and with a pinch of his fingers, I felt the wetness beginning between my legs. I needed him to touch me. I needed the pressure that was building to be satisfied.

  “Jason, please.” I heard myself almost begging him.

  “Not yet. I want to explore more of your body.” He unsnapped my jeans and slid his fingers underneath the sides to move my panties down with my pants. I lifted my body so he could slide them down my legs. He kissed his way down my legs, from my thighs to my toes as my jeans and panties brushed their way down my skin. He repeated the kisses on his way back up my legs to my center.

  Without pause or hesitation, Jason dipped his head between my legs and flicked his tongue over my clit. My whole body shook with desire and I needed more. I reveled in the pleasure taking over my entire body. As his tongue moved up and down the sensitive flesh, I quivered. I could feel the building of my release. I clenched my hands into fists, then found his head and ran my hands through his hair, opening and closing my hands as he moved over me.

  “Jason . . . I’m . . .” He only responded by increasing his motions until my release took me over the edge with his name on my lips.

  “You are amazing. So beautiful and, might I say, delicious.” He slipped his finger in his mouth, pulled it out with a pop and a wide smile on his face.

  “I don’t think I’ve felt like that in . . .” Yeah, the ex never really took the time to satisfy my needs or pleasure me so completely, and here Jason, a man I’d just met, did it without hesitation.

  “Come on. Let’s go get cleaned up and if you want we can curl up on the couch and watch a movie. He slid my shirt back into place.

  “What?” I was shocked. He didn’t want to have sex or for me to return the pleasure? “Don’t you want . . .?” I adjusted my pants as he grabbed his shirt from the deck floor.

  “I’ve been wanting to kiss you and taste you since you stepped into my office. Drew’s photos did no justice to how beautiful you are in person.”He leaned down and started putting the fire out. “Don’t get me wrong, I want you. I want you more than you know.” He shook his head. “But I want you to stay after tomorrow.”

  “I thought we . . .”

  “I thought I could, but . . . Christ I sound like such a girl right now,” he laughed in disbelief. I really couldn’t disagree with the kind of emotion he was expressing for someone he had just met.

  “I don’t know how much of a good idea it is to get involved with someone who lives so close. I mean we would live . . .”

  “On opposite sides of the lake. There are a bunch of people who live here that I don’t see a lot of or interact with, or even really know.” He offered me his hand and we made our way back into the cabin.

  “You are a very unusual kind of guy, Mr. Jason Duke.”

  “Thank you.” He smiled and closed the door behind us.

  We spent the rest of the night doing exactly as he had said. We sat on the couch, him in the corner and me leaning back against his chest.

  Chapter Seven

  I MUST HAVE fallen asleep because 8the couch was where I woke up, covered in a light blanket. I looked around, but Jason was not in the living room or kitchen.

  “Jason?” I stood up and pulled the blanket off of the couch and folded it, placing it on the back of the couch. “Jason?”

  “I’m here.” He stepped out of the bedroom where I had spent the night that first night. “I was getting dressed and just got a phone call.” He looked saddened and concerned at the same time. “What happened? You look as
if you’ve seen a ghost?” I moved over to him and helped him sit down at the kitchen table. I got him a glass of water and took the seat opposite him.

  “I was on the phone with the police. They are on their way over.”

  “Police? Why are the police on their way over?” My stomach was knotting.

  “There was . . .they found . . .the maintenance crew was out by the dock over on the east side of the lake.” He rubbed his hands up and down his face, taking deep breaths. “I can’t believe . . . they found . . . it was far back by the edge of the property . . . back away from the . . . the same place . . . the same fucking place.” I just looked at him as he rambled.

  “What the hell are you talking about? What did the maintenance crew find in the same place” I asked, but part of me kind of already knew what he was going to say.” I took a deep breath and got up from the chair I had been occupying. I kept my focus on the picturesque view out the front window. The lake, spread out with the reflection of the sun shining down on the water, was gorgeous. I didn’t want to hear what he was having trouble saying. I didn’t want our night together to be ruined by a nightmare beginning today.

  “Rupert, one of the maintenance crew, was making his rounds and he saw . . .” He now had his elbows on his knees and he placed his head in his open hands.

  “He found . . .” I was interrupted by a knock on the door of the cabin.

  “That would be the police.” Jason grumbled from behind his hands and moved to stand up.

  “I’ll get it.” I moved to the door as another knock sounded.

  I opened the door to find a man and a woman dressed in suits standing on the porch. Two uniformed police officers were standing behind them.

  “We’re looking for a Mr. Jason Duke and a Ms. Rory London.” The man to the left in the beige suit showed me his detective’s badge. “I’m Detective Henry McDonald,” he said as he offered me his card. “And this is my partner, Detective Pam Hall.” The woman dressed in the black suit stepped forward and offered me her card. “May we come in?”