Against All Odds

Chapter 50

STELLA

I considered the email Zahra sent me with a frown pulling at my eyebrows. My room was dark, evening having settled a short time ago, and it was quiet in my suite- par the gentle snores coming from Killian's room.

The sound distracted me and I couldn't help a smile when I thought about him. I'd left him a short while ago with great reluctance so that I could finish the deadlines looming over my head. It didn't take me long to hash out a spiel about the activities of the day that mainly consisted of breakfast and snorkelling, along with editing a few decent photos, and sending them off to Zahra- who was prompt to respond.

My thoughts drifted to the afternoon I'd spent with the man dozing in the room next door. I'd left the adjoining door slightly ajar, for some reason not wanting him to think I had abandoned him after what we had shared. I don't know if it was relevant... I mean, it shouldn't be.

It couldn't mean anything.

Even if he had given me six astounding orgasms, one for each year we had been apart, and fucked me so good I could hardly walk straight when I finally did leave his bed, I couldn't allow myself to think of it as anything but sex.

Great sex.

Fucking amazing sex.

I shook my head, diverting my thoughts back to the task at hand.

Killian had fallen asleep about an hour ago- well deserved in my humble opinion. The man had been insatiable for me all day, not allowing us a reprieve until he had fucked me for the third time.

But I couldn't sleep, not with my obligations to the contract, so I had to untangle my limbs from Killian's. I had slipped into one of his t-shirts and then a pair of clean panties I found in my bag in my own room. Sitting cross-legged on the sofa, with The Cure playing softly in the background, I had hashed out the email to Zahra and now considered her response- or tried my very best to as my body rebelled and replayed flashbacks from the afternoon that only served to flush my veins with heat.

Looks good, Stella.

We've taken a look at your website and think you should consider some revamping. Get yourself a designer and consider a unified typeface, logo etc- brand yourself. Especially as you begin to post more for us.

Dylan is happy to provide a stipend for this - within reason, of course.

Regards,

Zahra

Brand myself? God, how did I even go about doing that?

I mean, I was tech-savvy... well, kinda. I could find a free website and set up a blog piece every week, but beyond that?

I wasn't even sure who I should speak to about this sort of thing. I could always ask Killian, but his writing never needed to be branded, surely? The man probably had to make himself some business cards. Did that fall under the category Zahra was suggesting?

The answer came to me suddenly as I sat chewing on my bottom lip.

Dom.

The ass owned his own IT company, for God's sake. He'd help me out... and commissioning him to sort me out meant the money went to somebody I trusted and deserved it.

I checked the time on my phone and calculated the difference in hours between the Maldives and South Africa before deeming it reasonable to call him.

It didn't take long for Dom to answer.

"Stella Huxley," he announced with aplomb into the receiver, "don't tell me you're so bored already in tropical paradise that you had to call me for entertainment?"