Library

Search

Home / Romance / Sunlit Paradise: Undercover Desire / Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

All Chapters of Sunlit Paradise: Undercover Desire: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

7 Chapters

No Safe Exit

“Run, S!”A gunshot hit the wall beside my head before Vic finished the order. Plaster scraped my cheek as I ran, lifting my torn skirt with one hand. My pursuers were close, their footsteps pounding through the service corridor.“S, take the next left!” Vic said through my earpiece. His voice stayed controlled, but I heard the strain beneath it. “I’m on my way.”“No! Find Eli.”Seconds before the shooting started, I had seen Eli’s arms pinned by two men as they dragged him through a restricted storage door. I followed when I should have stayed on surveillance. Inside, an open sculpture crate revealed pale-blue packets beneath a false stone base.I took three photographs before a guard spotted me. Now, my phone pressed against my ribs with the evidence still on it, and Eli was somewhere behind me. The next left ended at a metal service exit. I shoved through it and stopped. A man in an event-security jacket stood ten feet away, a pistol low against his thigh.He lunged toward me. I s

Last Updated : 2026-09-05

The Man from Apollo

Captain Ward placed Eli Mercer’s photograph on the briefing-room screen.“Elias Mercer never made it home.”The image showed him smiling for an employee badge. Less than twelve hours earlier, I had watched men drag him through a locked service door. I kept my hands flat on the table. Touching the empty credential holder beneath my shirt would draw Ward’s attention.“His phone stopped transmitting before midnight,” she said. “Start from the moment you abandoned your position.”“I saw Eli being forced into the storage corridor. I followed and found Vesper packets inside a sculpture base.” I slid my phone across the table. “Three photographs. Time and location data intact.”“The photos are already saved in the department’s evidence system,” Ward said. “What happened next?” “One of the guards saw me. The building went into lockdown, and I escaped through the marina.”“How?”Vic sat beside me, silent but alert.“I hid aboard a private yacht until the men moved on.”It was true. It only le

Last Updated : 2026-09-05

The Housekeeper

Celeste entered the housekeeping office before Belle finished explaining the linen log.“Sienna, Mr. Reed wants to see you.”The pen stopped between my fingers and Belle looked up from the desk, then at me.“He doesn’t summon new housekeepers.”“Apparently, he made an exception.”I clipped the pen to the log and stood. My thumb passed over the button camera beneath my uniform seam and the burner phone remained flat against my waist.If Calvin had recognized me on the pier, the concealed equipment could turn an interview into an arrest. Or perhaps he had found the police identification I had lost aboard Apollo. Celeste was already walking so I followed her out.Calvin’s office occupied the executive side of the Central Ridge administration building. Celeste knocked once, opened the door, and stepped aside.Calvin stood behind a wide desk, the bruise at his temple still visible.Another man waited near the windows, holding two folders. He was broad-shouldered, with closely cropped hair

Last Updated : 2026-09-05

Under His Roof

At 12:17 a.m., I stopped pretending I was going to sleep.For the last hour, I had listened to Reed House settle around me. No footsteps passed the service wing. No doors opened on the main floor. Through the narrow window beside my bed, I could see part of the service garden and the path beyond it.For ten minutes, I watched one of the exterior cameras turn toward the cliff, pause, then sweep back toward the house.I tied my robe over my thin nightdress. I had not bothered with a bra; I was supposed to be sleeping, not wandering through my employer’s house after midnight.My feet were still tender from running barefoot the night before, but at least they made less noise. I checked the window again.The camera turned away so I slipped into the service passage and eased the door shut behind me. Calvin had given me rules. More useful than that, he had told me which parts of his house mattered to him.The pantry was closest to my room. Beyond it, the passage opened toward the main floor.

Last Updated : 2026-09-05

After Midnight

“Calvin Reed has never requested a live-in housekeeper.”Belle held my assignment sheet by one corner, as though it might explain why the resort’s CEO had moved a stranger into his home. “He barely notices who cleans his windows.”“Maybe he needed someone nearby to ignore.”Belle snorted. “Mr. Reed ignores people from a distance. Moving one into his house is new.”I slid the sheet beneath the supply list. Calvin had noticed far more than he should have. My job was to learn how much before he decided to act.At Reed House, I carried fresh linens through the dining area and counted two exits, one camera beyond the glass doors, and a motion sensor above the service corridor. Calvin worked at the far end of his study with the door open, close enough to hear every drawer I touched.I dusted the shelves without disturbing their order. Three desk drawers were locked. A framed resort map showed the private roads and service districts, though the southern edge disappeared beneath a stack of si

Last Updated : 2026-09-12

The Body at South Dock

The first thing I saw was Eli’s woven bracelet.Blue and green threads showed beneath a security lamp, his hand lying near the wheel of a cargo trolley. The rest of him remained hidden behind two officers and a stack of damaged packing boards, but I recognized the bracelet.I had seen it on Eli’s wrist every time we met. I moved toward the dock. Vic caught my uninjured arm and pulled me behind a row of cargo pallets.“You cannot be seen here.”“That’s Eli.”“I know.”I tried to look past him. Pain spread through the shoulder the attacker had driven against the tree, but it barely registered.Vic lowered his voice. “Vincent Hale has a reason to answer that security alert. Sienna Blake does not.”The logic did nothing to stop me from wanting to move.“I need to see him.”“You stay behind the pallets. Do not cross the barrier.”Vic stepped into the light before I could argue. The South Service dock had already been sealed off. Security officers stood along the pier while Damien Holt kept

Last Updated : 2026-09-12

The First Lie

“You have the wrong woman.”“No.” Calvin stayed close, his voice controlled but edged with anger. “The woman on Apollo wore a different face, but she used the same perfume. Jasmine and cedar.”I released his wrist and reached for the cloth beside the stove.“She also had the same mark behind her right ear.”My hand stopped.Calvin leaned closer. “Do you still want to tell me we have never met?”“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His gaze held mine. “Then perhaps you need help remembering.”He moved before I could answer. He kissed me with the same hunger he had on Apollo. His hand tightened at my waist and pulled me against him, and before I could stop myself, I kissed him back just as hard. The yacht returned in one rush, his hands on my bare skin, the second kiss after the armed men left and my fingers knotted in his shirt.Calvin pulled back first, but his hand remained at my waist.“I hope that helped,” he said. “Because I remember it clearly.”I released his shirt and swu

Last Updated : 2026-09-15

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP

DMCA.com Protection Status