Page 50 of Caught Up In You (Indigo Royal Resort)
“Hope you can catch me!”
Other than a few clouds in the sky that seemed to rarely cross over the sun, the day had been picture-perfect Virgin Islands weather. Warm sun, an intermittent light breeze, crystal clear blue water. The water had felt crisp and refreshing against their warm, naked skin, leaving them both energized. Leona could not have thought of a better way to spend a day off than lazing in the sun on a private deck and swimming off a private dock, all while in the company of a sexy man.
After lunch, Leona pulled her chaise lounge out from underneath the awning and all the way into the sun, lying on her stomach, letting the sun warm her back.
“That is a fantastic view,” she heard Cullen’s voice say, as he walked through the sliding glass door from inside. “Not that I would complain about the view if you rolled over either.”
He strolled over to where she rested, his big, beautiful, bare body on display for her. She drank him in, for probably the hundredth time today, admiring every inch of him. Grabbing his lounger, he picked it up with ease and moved it over to where she had placed hers.
“How did you find us?” she asked. “The Indigo Royal, I mean. How did you pick here to be your getaway?”
“I read an article about it somewhere. I don’t even remember where now, but it sounded like a nice place—popular, but not overly so. I thought it sounded like a place I could go and not be Cullen Cruz for a bit.”
“Yes, because being a famous footballer is so difficult.”
“It can be, just not in ways you expect,” he said. “I’m certainly not concerned with where my next meal is coming from, or if I can pay rent, or any of the other kinds of things that I know my mum worried about when I was a kid, but it does have its challenges.”
“Such as?”
“For one, I can’t remember the last time I was able to just walk down the street without being stopped and asked for a selfie. I took Mum out a couple of months ago for her birthday, and we were interrupted six times during dinner by people who wanted a selfie or autograph. Everybody always seems to want something—time, money, an endorsement. That call you heard this morning with Oliver? Part of it was about an upcoming charity auction that they want me to participate in. Very few people have actually wanted to get to know me. The real me.”
“And who is the real Cullen Cruz?” she asked, intrigued to hear his answer.
“The real Cullen is just a poor kid from London. He’s a bit of a mummy’s boy, and deep down, a bit of a softie. He was afraid to walk down the street where his father was murdered, often walking at least a mile out of his way just to come home from a different direction. He likes dark beer, Irish whiskey, action movies, and of course, football.”
“You were afraid to walk down the street? Cullen, that’s horrible!” she said, rolling over to face him.
“I was. Took me well over a year to get anywhere close to that corner.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. It’s part of who I am. Tell me, who’s the real Leona Filipe?”
She took a moment to ponder the question. He’d shared so much of himself, and she wanted to share in return. She just hoped he still liked her after finding out the real her.
“The real Leona is just an island girl, trying to make it one day at a time. She’s got more of a free spirit than she’d like to admit, but one that she’s learned to harness, mostly through her mother’s strictness. She also has a bit of a smart mouth. She loves sunny days, the smell of bergamot, and her family, who mean everything to her.”
“I love that you’re so close to your family.”
“That wasn’t always the case. I was actually quite resentful of Josef at first,” she admitted.
“How? Why?”
“He screwed everything up, or well, so I thought as a teenager. I was thirteen when my mother told me she was pregnant. I wasn’t exactly an altruistic thinker then. To me, my life was perfect. I had my parents, and Drea was like a sister to me. We had a routine and it worked. When Mom told me that she was going to have a baby, I knew that baby would turn everything on its head, and I wasn’t okay with that.”
“You obviously got over it, though. You and Josef are so close.”
“Yes, I got over myself. It took Drea telling me she was jealous and that she’d give anything for even one of her uncles to have a kid so she’d have a little cousin or something. I realized that having a little sibling, even one that much younger than me, was going to be special. I was right, though—it did turn everything upside down. Like I said the other night, it was harder to make ends meet, and routines and schedules were upended. The house was suddenly a lot smaller. I started working here when I was fifteen. Mama said it was to keep me out of trouble, and I do think that was part of it. I mean, you’ve met her…but I also think it was partly to have some extra money for the family.”
“I am sure my mum would have had the same concerns had I not been playing football by that point.”
“A rebellious teen Cullen—now that, I would have loved to see.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
When the sun started to set, and the air cooled a bit, they climbed into the hot tub. The hot water felt good against her skin, even though it was still warm from the sun. Finding one of the jets, she sat right back against it and let it massage her back.
“Can I ask what happened with your father’s stroke?” Cullen asked, sliding up next to her, finding a jet of his own. “You told me the other night about how scary it was, but you never mentioned how it all happened.”
