The Bad Boys of Eden by Sharon Page, Eliza Gayle, Cathryn Fox, Opal Carew, Mari Carr, Adriana Hunter, Avery Aster, Steena Holmes, Roni Loren, Daire St. Denis Page A

which she always turned off during the bus ride home, and checked for messages.  There was one message waiting for her.
    “Marissa, it’s Rip.”
    At the sound of the familiar voice, her blood turned to ice.  The rest of his words droned through a veil of building panic as her heart pounded faster and her body went numb.
    “I know it’s been a while,” the message continued.  “I wanted to talk to you.  Please call me.”
    She stared at the phone with shaking hands.
    Oh, God, he’s found me.
    She checked the time of the message.  An hour ago.
    She pushed herself to her feet and walked to the window, then pulled back the sheer drapes that softened the harshness of the afternoon sun through the window, and peered out.  Her apartment was on the eighth floor and her window had a great view of the small beach where the river widened to a bay, then narrowed again to a lovely waterfall.
    She stepped outside onto the balcony.  Her apartment was at the corner of the building, so she tried to peer around the edge of the building to the left to see if she could see the parking lot, but trees blocked her view.
    Was he down there waiting for her?
    Of course, that didn’t make sense.  She hadn’t seen him on her way in.
    Thank God!
    What if she’d run into him when she’d walked from the bus stop?  What would she have done?  Run away?
    All she knew was that Rip meant danger.
    And now he was looking for her.
    She debated whether to race out the door and go over to her friend’s place.  Lana would let her stay there if she needed to.  She could go throw a few things in a bag, enough to keep her going for a week or so.  Maybe by then Rip would have given up on her.
    She stepped back into the apartment and closed the balcony door behind her, frowning.  But she was overreacting.  Wasn’t she?
    He wasn’t there when she came in.  He probably didn’t even know where she lived.  Though her heart thumped at the fact he’d found her cell number.  She had only given it to her family back home and instructed them not to give it to anyone under any circumstances.  Her friends here had it, but he would have no idea who they were.
    She walked into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge.  Her appetite had crashed with this going on, but she had to cook the chicken she had thawed in the fridge, or throw it out.  She hated to throw out food, so that was enough to put her through the motions of preparing dinner.
    No matter what, she couldn’t let one phone call drive her from her home and throw her life into turmoil.
    She ate the chicken, rice and salad she’d prepared while she watched her favorite sitcom on TV, then she washed the dishes and settled on the couch again.  She grabbed the handful of mail she’d brought up earlier and sorted through it.  A nice parchment invitation with black letters written in a formal script caught her eye.  Fancy.
    She opened the flap and pulled out a parchment card with a ragged edge.  The words “Invitation to Eden” were written in gold letters on the front.  She opened it.
    “You have been invited to an all inclusive week at Eden.”
    Her breath caught.  She had heard of the ultra exclusive, very expensive resort.  It was the kind of place that was well outside her price range, and pretty well anyone else’s she knew, too.  Only the wealthy and elite went to Eden.  Or the lucky few that received an invitation.  No one knew why certain people were invited to the resort.  There were rumors that the owner was eccentric as well as very, very rich and that he would sometimes invite people on a whim.
    It was also rumored that on the island people found their deepest desires brought to life.  That, of course, was probably rumor nurtured by the resort itself.  If patrons believed they would find their happiness on the island that would help convince them that the hefty price tag was worth it.
    Either way, who was she to turn down a week at a luxury resort?
    The phone rang