‘There’s a path from the back door that leads straight down to the beach,’ she murmured, but Dylan’s eyes remained fixed on the view, just as she’d known they would.
It was this view that Adem had used to convince her, back when buying a crumbling hotel had just been a pipe dream.
Look at it, he’d said. Who wouldn’t want to be here?
And in that moment she hadn’t been able to imagine anywhere she’d rather be than in the Azure Hotel, making Adem’s dreams a reality.
Dylan looked similarly entranced, his phone forgotten in his hand. Sadie allowed herself a small smile. Perhaps this would be easier than she’d thought.
‘Of course, the view would still be there, even if you knocked this old place down and rebuilt it,’ he said, turning his back on the view, but his tone told her he was joking. Mostly. ‘You could put in a whole glass wall in the lobby, and rooms with a sea view could have folding glass doors and balconies. Really make the most of the asset—and change the name while you’re at it...’
Sadie rolled her eyes. Some woman—or her husband—had really done a number on him in an Azure Hotel, hadn’t she? Funny that Adem or Neal had never told her that story, when they’d shared so many others.
Was that why he couldn’t see it? The romance of this place? This old building was more than just its stones and its view. It was the heart of the place.
‘Time for the rest of our tour, then. But I want you to remember—this is all business.’ Sure, he’d said it himself the night before, but it couldn’t hurt to hammer the point home. ‘I want you to treat me and the Azure like you would any other business proposition. We’re here to impress you, our client. So, what do you want to see first?’
‘I’m the client, huh? My wish is your command. Sounds good.’ Giving her a lopsided smile, Dylan stared around him, obviously thinking. ‘Let’s start with the bedrooms.’
‘The suites? Or the luxury doubles?’ Which would be best? He’d already seen the best suite in the place—he was staying in it. So maybe the doubles...
‘The uninhabitable ones,’ Dylan said, cutting short any hopes of impressing him that morning. Sadie silently cursed her loose tongue over dinner. It had to be the fault of the wine.
‘Right this way,’ she said, her smile fading the moment she turned away to press the ‘Call Lift’ button.
* * *
The bedrooms were worse than she remembered. A lot worse.
‘Lot of work needed here,’ Dylan said, winning the prize for understatement of the year. Sadie sighed as she took in the broken tiles, missing bed, ripped wallpaper and strange black marks on the carpetless floor.
‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘And a lot of money to do it.’ If there were anything guaranteed to send Dylan running...and she’d brought him straight there. Why had she even given him the choice?
But Dylan just shrugged and smiled. ‘But I’ve seen worse. Okay. Now let’s see the ones you’ve done up.’
Sadie wanted to ask what sort of hotels he’d been staying in, to have seen worse, but instead she decided to grab the life belt with both hands and swim for the shore. ‘Luxury doubles coming up,’ she said, with a smile that made her face ache.
At least she knew they had carpets.
* * *
By the time they were done viewing the hotel, Sadie was exhausted from excessive smiling and from scraping around in her brain for the answers to Dylan’s incredibly detailed questions. At least she could never complain that he wasn’t taking this business proposal seriously. For all his tourist clothes, he’d been professional to the hilt, asking questions she’d never even imagined she’d need to know the answers to.
Back in the lobby, she looked over her scribbled list of things to look up for him. It was up to two pages already, and he’d only been there less than a day.
‘I’d better get back to the office and type up my notes from this morning,’ she said. ‘I should have answers for you by this evening...’
‘Oh, I’m not done with my tour yet, Mrs Sullivan.’ He flashed a smile. ‘I want to see the town next.’ He looked her up and down, and Sadie resisted the urge to hide behind her clipboard. ‘Why don’t you go and get changed into something more suitable for sightseeing?’
Something more suitable... What had happened to this being all business? What was he imagining—a Hawaiian shirt and a bumbag? But she had said he was in charge, so she bit her tongue. Hard. ‘Give me ten minutes.’
He nodded, but since he was already frowning at the screen of his phone she wasn’t sure he noticed her leave.
As she dashed up to her room she ran through the morning again in her head. Dylan had seemed somewhat underwhelmed by the hotel as a whole, with far more questions than praise, but Kusadasi was bound to impress. The local economy and the blossoming tourist trade was what made the Azure a safe bet. She just had to make sure he saw that.
Dylan was so like Adem, in so many ways, she thought as she slipped into a light sundress. Adem had always worked on gut instinct, trusting his feelings to lead him to the right decisions. And instinct mattered to Dylan too—so that was what she needed to win over.
Hadn’t he made it clear his business specialised in short-term, in-and-out projects? All she needed to do was hold his attention long enough to get him to invest. Then the Azure would take off, she’d be able to pay him back or buy him out in no time, and it would be back to just her and Finn again.
Grabbing her sunglasses and bag, Sadie took a deep breath and headed down to wow Dylan Jacobs. Whether he liked it or not.
CHAPTER FOUR
IT ALMOST FELT like a date, Dylan thought as they sped down the Turkish roads towards the town centre. The Azure Hotel wasn’t quite close enough to walk in—another point against it—but with Sadie sitting beside him in a pale cotton sundress, her dark hair loose to her shoulders, he found it hard to be objective.
Because this—being alone with her, exploring a new place, relaxing in her company—was everything he’d dreamed about once, in the secret places of his mind he’d never fully admit to. Back in the days when he’d let himself think about a world without his best friend, or one where he’d met Sadie first.
He hadn’t let the fantasies into his mind often—he’d learned early in life there was no point wishing the world to be any different than it was unless you were willing to do something to change it. And he hadn’t been willing, not in the slightest. If even imagining it had felt like betrayal, the idea of acting on those fantasies had been beyond contemplation.
Adem had been the right guy for Sadie—he’d always known that. Known he couldn’t offer her half as much, so he’d never considered trying—not that he’d have risked or betrayed his friendships that way anyway. A woman like Sadie needed love, commitment—she deserved forever. And he didn’t have that in him.
But now, with Sadie in the driver’s seat, sunglasses on and legs bare under that sundress, he could feel those imagined possibilities rising again. And just for a moment he let himself believe that she wanted him here—for more than just his money.
A light turned red and they pulled to a stop, the jerk breaking the moment, and reality sank back in. If this were a date he’d planned, he’d know where he was going. Sadie would be smiling at him, not looking tense and nervous and sad. The familiar guilt wouldn’t be sitting in his chest—smaller than when Adem had been alive, sure, but still ever present.
Plus he’d probably be driving.
The lights changed again, and Sadie manoeuvred expertly past waiting cars and swung into a suddenly vacant parking spot by the marina that Dylan hadn’t even noticed. He had plenty of experience driving abroad himself, but for once he was glad to be driven. It was nice to see Sadie so in control in this place.
‘Come and look at the ocean,’ she said, sliding out of her seat and into the sunshi
ne. ‘It’ll give you a feel for the place.’
They stood by the railings together, staring out at the Aegean, and Dylan felt a comfortable warmth settle into his bones—one he wasn’t sure was entirely due to the sunshine. He was enjoying Sadie’s company just a little too much. He’d always found her presence relaxing, to a point, but before he’d never allowed himself to indulge in that feeling too much. Here and now, though, it felt all too natural.
He shut his eyes against the sparkle of the sun on the water. Business. That was what he was here for, and that was what he needed to concentrate on. He couldn’t afford to forget himself here—he needed to keep on top of his other projects while he was away, as well as work on the Azure proposal with Sadie. Already that morning he’d had enough emails from his assistant back in Sydney to remind him that things never worked quite as smoothly when he was away. He had to stay on top of everything.
Eyes open again, he shut his mind to the view and the warmth of the sun, and turned his attention instead to the practical aspects of the place. A marina, filled with top-end private yachts—and further up, cruise ships. Suddenly he understood exactly why Sadie had parked where she had.
‘So, this is your subtle way of telling me that Kusadasi is a popular cruise-ship destination?’ he said, turning his back on the marina to lean against the railing and study her instead.
She gave him a perfectly innocent smile. ‘Pure coincidence, I assure you. But as it happens, yes, it is! Tourism is the heart blood of this place. The ships stop here regularly, filled with people ready to explore the town—and spend their money on souvenirs.’