All That I Desire By Francis Ray
Lovingly dedicated to all of my loyal readers who patiently waited and never lost hope that Rio’s story would be written.
Acknowledgments
Again, to my incredible readers for their support and well-wishes during the process of writing this book. You rock!!
Prologue
Skylar Dupree, event director for Navarone Resorts and Spas, had never been impulsive. But now as she watched the approach of two couples and one lone man from the second-floor turret window of Navarone Castle, Skylar contemplated taking the biggest gamble of her life.
As the pampered only child of divorced, overprotective parents, Skylar had wanted for little in her life. What she now desired—what she’d longed for, dreamed of, the past two years—might be impossible to attain. And cost her a job she loved.
Unlike her highly successful parents in Boston, she wasn’t cut out to be a lawyer. When a family friend showed her an ad for an assistant to the event director for Navarone Resorts and Spas—headquartered in Tucson, Arizona—she had jumped at the opportunity.
Six weeks after she’d been hired, she met Blade Navarone at the grand opening of his latest resort. With him were his two personal bodyguards. One in particular, Rio Sanchez, caught her attention the instant she saw him.
He was tall, fallen-angel handsome, with razor-sharp cheekbones, long curly black hair that he wore tied at the nape of his neck, and flat black eyes. Much to her surprise, since she had loads of male friends but nothing serious, Rio piqued her curiosity and heated her body.
The other guard, Shane Elliott, might socialize, but Rio never did. He always kept himself apart, always watching. He seemed unapproachable. Hard. She’d observed more than one woman start toward him only to stop a few feet away, then beat a hasty retreat. She well understood why.
Rio was handsome enough to draw attention, but the unblinking flat eyes made any sensible woman feel as if she might be getting in over her head. Skylar felt that way herself.
In the two years she’d known Rio, she’d caught him a couple of times watching her. The problem was, she couldn’t be sure if it went deeper than just doing his job.
Skylar wanted to know the man behind the unreadable facade that never smiled, make him stop looking through her, calling her Ms. Dupree. It was more than her wanting him to notice her or treat her differently than he did all the other people, besides Blade and Shane. She didn’t think Rio had anyone.
Blade and Shane had wives, but who comforted Rio? With his broad shoulders, quick reflexes, and reported skills as a fighter, he acted as if he didn’t need or want anyone.
She might have believed that if she wasn’t looking at Rio with Blade and Shane and their wives. As always Rio walked apart, unsmiling, as the two couples laughed and held hands. She didn’t know there were tears on her cheeks until Ruth Grayson, Blade’s mother-in-law, handed her a tissue. “No man should walk this earth alone,” she said and excused herself.
Skylar might have been embarrassed, but she liked Mrs. Grayson and knew she could keep a confidence. Skylar looked out the window again and came to a decision: Rio wouldn’t walk alone any longer if it she could help it. It would be risky, emotionally and professionally.
If Rio felt she’d crossed the line professionally, she’d be out on her ear. She would be risking everything for a man who had never smiled at her, had never given her any indication that he felt anything more for her than the stones surrounding the castle—except for those two occasions.
Suddenly Rio looked up at her. She felt the familiar leap of her heart, the warmth curling through her, the need to touch, to soothe. She smiled. He didn’t smile back, just continued inside behind the others. He was a tough man. That was all right. She turned from the window.
One day he would smile back.