Break Point by Danielle LaBue Read Free Book Online

heard him mumble as the car’s engine roared in her ears.

 
    Chapter Four
     
    The ocean air stung her wide eyes as Summer leaned out the car window. Mammoth beachside mansions whizzed by her, too quickly to get a good look in between the privacy fences. Exotic sports cars sat idle in circular driveways while well-dressed, tanned people zipped around on fully loaded golf carts. This was where the elite lived. The rich of the rich.
    How the hell did Jake even know how to get here?
    “Jake,” she said, pulling her head back in the car. “When you said you lived in a ‘gated community,’ this is not what I envisioned.”
    “Well, what did you think I meant? Prison?”
    “That was closer to my impression than this.”
    “Thanks,” he said. “You flatter me.”
    He turned down a private road, then went another mile or two before stopping at a wrought iron gate. Reaching out the window, he pushed some buttons on a key pad and waited for the doors to swing open.
    “It’s a little off the beaten path, but it’s home.”
    He pulled around the three-tiered fountain then let her out at the foot of the steep staircase. “Don’t trip going up,” he warned. “It’s marble so they can get slippery right around dusk.”
    She pushed the car door closed behind her. The sharp scent of the ocean told her they were way out on the barrier islands, and the incredible quiet told her they were secluded. No boat motors humming in the water, or sea planes buzzing over head. This was truly an obnoxious cliché of a tropical paradise.
    Except it wasn’t obnoxious.
    ”You’re kidding right? You don’t seriously live here, do you?”
    “Why do you keep asking me that?”
    “I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect...this.” She spun around in a three-sixty pirouette. “This is a classy beach bungalow on its own barrier island. How does a guy like you wind up in a place like this?”
    “I don’t know,” he fished around his jean’s pocket for the house key. ”I guess I’ve always been a big fan of Gilligan’s Island.”
    “Jake, I’m serious. Look at this place. The hou se, the gardens. It’s amazing.”
    “Glad you like it.” He winked then padded up the stairs in front of her with the bulk of their Chinese food. “Years back, I spent some time in the South of France and I really dug their architecture. Anyway, I saw it and I liked it.”
    She looked up at the stately front door, stained glass inlayed in oak. Gigantic windows on either side gave a clear view right through the back of the house to the ocean. “It’s not huge,” he explained with his hand on the knob. “It’s only two bedrooms but you can’t beat the view.”
    She followed him through the door and stood in the foyer. It was as if she had stepped into a magazine. The entire back of the house was glass, looking out at nothing but ocean. If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn she was standing in the sand.
    “I’ll take this stuff to the kitchen.” He slipped the plastic bag from her hand then pointed ahead of them to the great room. “Make yourself comfortable.”
    “No problem” she mumbled, eyeing the hand carved moldings on the ceiling. “Wow, who painted those landscapes up there?”
    “The same over-the-top guy who put in the marble stairs. Hey, can you use chopsticks? I can’t remember where I keep the silverware.”
    “Chopsticks are fine.”
    Summer had searched for three years for something just like this. Cozy enough for just one or two people, but big enough to house every luxury. The living space was one big room with a kitchen and dining area nestled next to a stone fire place. At the far end of the room was a small kidney shape pool with a low far wall, allowing the water to pour like a waterfall to a smaller basin below. It was completely landscaped with live plants and grass with gas-operated tiki lights strategically placed around it.
    She padded up to the water edge, looking down at the lanai a few feet below. “