Stingray Billionaire: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Alexa Davis Read Free Book Online

                    *
    By the time we arrive in
Kola Kitanabu , both of us are ready to be
done traveling. Maybe I did go a little overboard, but you don’t usually get
two shots at a first date. What can I say? I shot the moon.
    Ellie and I got to talk a
bit on the flight, but after I let slip that there’s a small library in the back, I didn’t see her very much until we
landed. As we’re finally coming through the trees into the village itself, I
can’t help but wonder if it was a good idea to tell her she could keep anything
she wanted.
    Along with a stack half
the height of my upper body and nearly as wide, Ellie’s still reading as we
drive down the old dirt roads toward the boardwalk.
     
    I should have mentioned
we could keep the books on the plane, but she looked so excited when she
enlisted me to help her carry her stack of preliminary choices.
    It could be a nod toward
the two of us finding something over which to bond, but I can’t help getting
the feeling she’s trying to keep me at a distance. That particular suspicion is only strengthened by the fact the book she’s
reading as we come to a stop is The Bell
Jar .
    Don’t get me wrong; I like Sylvia Plath as much as anyone,
but her work doesn’t inspire much in the way of creating a romantic mood.
    Brent opens Ellie’s door, and I can hear a couple of books falling
out of the car and onto the ground. This time, Ellie doesn’t recoil in fear and confusion but instead decides just to keep reading. As I come to think about
it, though, I haven’t noticed her turn the page in quite a while.
    “I’m going to make sure everything’s prepared,” I tell her.
“Just let Brent know when you’re ready.”
    “Sounds good,” Ellie says
into the book.
    I get out of the car and
start walking toward the beach where I had a friend of mine, a local restaurant
owner, set up a couple of chairs.
    On the one hand, I’m glad
she doesn’t recognize me because I don’t want the impression of who I was back
then to be the only thing in her head about me. On the other hand, I haven’t
felt this kind of engrossing uncertainty since my roommate and I dropped out of college to start Stingray.
    That turned out well
enough, I guess.
    “Hey!” Ellie’s voice
comes from behind me. I stop and wait for her. When she catches up, she doesn’t
say much, only, “It’s so beautiful here.”
    We start walking, and I answer, “It is my favorite spot.
You know, that’s rainforest surrounding the village.”
    “I know,” she says.
“While I was in the plane’s library, I might have taken the liberty of looking
it up.”
    “Wait until you meet the
locals,” he says. “The first guy you’re going to meet is named Amin—”
    “Would you mind if we
just walk around for a little while before we start—you know,” she says. “I’d
just like to walk around for a little bit if that’s all right with you.”
    “Of course,” I tell her.
    We get to the boardwalk,
and when she catches her first sight of the beach, I let her get a few steps
ahead so I can send a quick text to Amin to let him know dinner’s going to be delayed a little while. The phone’s back in my pocket before Ellie turns
around, saying, “This is incredible. The beach, the ocean—that is the ocean , right?” she asks.
    “Yeah,” I say, nodding.
    “And then I turn back
around to tell you how beautiful that is and I see the rainforest on this side,” she says. “It is something. Thanks
for—you know, for bringing me.”
    “You’re welcome,” I tell
her. “Did you want to walk around a little more or are you starting to get
hungry?”
    “I don’t think I’m quite
ready to, you know,” she says.
    “That’s the second time
with the ‘you know’ thing,” I say. “Just like last time, all I’m asking for is
dinner.”
    “No,” she says, “I mean,
yeah, I know. I just meant I’m not quite
ready to …” she’s trapped mid-incomprehensible gesture, and she lets