Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (112 page)

“What happens if you make fun of him?”

Kane took a long, luxurious sip of his
drink and then smacked his lips.
 
“I
think the last guy who made a joke ended up leaving the club in a stretcher.”

“How lovely.
 
What a nice employee to have working for
you.”

Kane shrugged, clearly not interested in
what she thought about his associate.
 
“So,” he said, tilting his glass toward her, “have you heard from Red
lately?”

“Why don’t you just tell me what you
want?” she said, growing impatient.
 
She crossed her legs and set her jaw, tilting her head slightly the way
she did when she was angry or felt threatened.

Kane took note of her posture.
 
“Don’t be so hostile, Nicole.
 
I haven’t been rude to you, now, have
I?”

“You threatened someone I care a great
deal about.”

“It’s interesting that you’re so
protective of a man who continually embarrasses you, Nicole.”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Perhaps not,” Kane sighed.
 
“But for some reason I feel like I want
to help you.”

“That’s strange.
 
You don’t even know me.”

“It is strange.
 
I’ve been puzzled by it myself.
 
But I think if we can come to terms
tonight, I’ll be able to find out just what I’m so taken with you.”

“Maybe you’re just lonely.”

“Perhaps.
 
But there are plenty of women willing to
keep me company, Nicole.
 
That’s not
really an issue.
 
What’s more difficult
is finding someone who I deem to be worth of my time.”

“Maybe you should try being a little less
stuck up,” she said.
  

Kane smiled at her as if she’d just given
him a huge compliment.
 
“See?
 
That’s part of it.
 
I like your spunk.
 
I like that you’re not going to back
down.
 
Sure, at first you might come
off like a little mouse of a girl.
 
But peel a few layers back and there’s Lara Croft waiting to riddle you
with bullets.”

“I’m don’t raid tombs anymore.
 
I’m officially retired, Mr. Wright.”

“Please.
 
Call me Kane.”

“I’m not very interested in playing
games, Kane.”

He nodded slightly.
 
“Understood.
 
But I’m not trying to play a game with
you.
 
I’m trying to get to know you
better.”

“You sure have a strange way of going
about it.”

“Maybe you could give me a chance to
start fresh.
 
I’d like you to come
with me to The Cayman Islands next week.”

Nicole actually laughed.
 
She couldn’t help it—she thought
it was one of the craziest things anyone had ever said to her.
 
“Do women you’ve just met often agree to
accompany you overseas?”

“Sure they do,” he said.
 
“And I think you’ve got better reason
than most to give me a chance.”

“What reason is that?”

He sat back and folded his hands over his
stomach.
 
“I’ve recently found out
some disturbing information about Red Jameson.
 
Information that could be very
problematic for him if it was to be made public.”

“What kind of information?”

He sighed.
 
“Information about his illegal
activities.
 
He could go to jail for
it, possibly, and certainly public opinion would be very harsh if any of it
were to come to light.”

“I don’t believe you.
 
I don’t think Red did anything illegal.”

“Spouses rarely think the worst of their
loved ones.”

“You’re going to threaten to release this
information about Red if I don’t agree to go to the Caymans with you?”
 
She shook her head in disbelief.
 
“You’re even worse than I thought.”

Kane just looked at her.
 
“I know you’ll be angry with me for
awhile, but I feel confident we’ll get past it.
 
And if you still hate me at the end of
the trip, then…” he shrugged.

Nicole stood up.
 
“I’m not going to even dignify this
proposition with a response.”

“Nicole, don’t go,” he said.

She stopped and turned to look at
him.
 
“If you want to hurt Red, I
can’t stop you by having sex with you.
 
I’m sorry but I refuse to do that.”

Kane started to laugh.
 
“Whoever said anything about sex?”

“I think inviting me on a trip to the
Caymans is pretty much telling me you expect me to sleep with you.”

“You don’t know me, Nicole,” he said,
still laughing.
 
“Red must have
truly traumatized you with his behavior if that’s what you think I’m
indicating.”

“Then what are you saying?”

“I’m simply asking you to spend some time
with me—a few days.
 
Let’s get
to know one another.”
 

 
“I’m still in love with Red.”

Kane’s smile died on his lips. Clearly,
he was a man not accustomed to being told no.
 
“He’s weak, Nicole.
 
When things got difficult between the
two of you, he ran away.
 
What sort
of man is that?”

“I can’t change how I feel,” she said.

“I don’t expect you to.”

“Then what do you expect?”
 
She asked, knowing she should just walk
out, but afraid to do so.

Kane stood up and came a single step
closer to her.
 
“Think about my
proposition.
 
A few days in the
Caymans with me.
 
I promise there
will be no demands made of you, other than you spend some time with me eating
wonderful food, laying on the beach, swimming in crystal clear water.
 
Most people pay quite a lot of money for
a vacation like that.”

“And if I agree, you’ll make sure that
this information about Red never becomes a problem.
 
You won’t ever release it to
anybody?”
 

He looked her straight in the eye.
 
“I swear I won’t ever put it out
there.
 
And it could be very bad for
him if anything ever did get out.
 
Homeland Security in particular would be very interested.”

“Would they?” she said.
 
“Why would Homeland Security care about
what Red was doing?”

“He was helping undocumented workers from
Middle Eastern countries gain access to the U.S. through employment with his
company.”

“Why would he do that?” Nicole
asked.
 
“That doesn’t make any sense
to me.”

“You’d have to ask him why he did it,”
Kane told her, turning and walking toward the window that overlooked the dance
floor.
 
“Maybe Red Jameson isn’t the
man you believe him to be.”

Nicole was spinning from everything Kane
had just told her.
 
His threats and
promises buzzed around in her head like a swarm of bees.
 
“I think I should go home now,” she
said.

He nodded.
 
“Let me get Jeffrey to drive you.”

“You’ve got to be joking.”

Suddenly Kane broke into a boyish
grin.
 
“Of course I’m joking,
Nicole.
 
Besides, Jeffrey’s having
some problems with his driver’s license right about now.
 
I’ll have my personal driver take you
home instead.”

 
Kane took his cell phone out and texted
something rapid fire.
 
Then he
looked up at Nicole.
 
“Think about
my offer,” he said.

She chewed a little on her lower lip,
thinking about what two or three days alone with Kane would be like. There was
no way she could ever be attracted to him.
 
In fact, she could hardly stand to be in his physical presence.

On the other hand, if he kept to his word
about this trip, all she would have to do is grit her teeth and bear it.
 
Make conversation, go swimming, eat a
few meals with him.
 
She’d of course
stay in her own room—that was a deal breaker.
 

And when it was over, Red would be safe
again.
 
Except that she had no idea
if Kane Wright would honor the agreement.

“I’m just not sure I can trust you,” she
said.

“What have you got to lose?” Kane asked.

“A lot,” she said, her eyes locking on
his.
 
“Just because I’m not rich
like you, doesn’t mean I have nothing to lose.”

“Here’s my cell number,” he said, handing
her a business card.
 
“Don’t answer
now.
 
Sleep on it tonight.”

Nicole didn’t even look at his
card—she just thrust it into her purse.

Kane walked her out of the room and down
the hallway, into the stairwell.
 
As
they descended, he gently put a hand on the small of her back.
 
Nicole almost told him not to touch her,
but decided it wasn’t worth it.

His gesture made her miss Red all the
more.
 
If Red were here, he’d be
cracking jokes.
 
She’d welcome his
strong firm hand on her back or around her waist.

Kane Wright might be conventionally
handsome, but he was all wrong for her.
 
And the worst part was, he didn’t much care.
 
He was one of those men so used to
getting what he wanted that it never occurred to him whether or not someone
else felt the way he did.
 
It was
enough that he was “taken” with her, now he would find a way to force her to
feel the same about him.

When they reached the street level, she
turned and looked at him.
 
“You
know, there’s consequences to how you treat people, Kane.
 
I think you’re going to find that out
the hard way.”

Before he could reply, she opened the
door and quickly made her way to the limousine waiting curbside.

And then she was taken home.

***

She’d been having a dream about
Red—she knew that much.
 
And
then she was suddenly awake, heart pounding, feeling he was right next to
her.
 
She could remember every
single sensation of his body next to hers in bed, how it was to wake up next to
him in the mornings.
 
The way he
smelled, the way his curly black hair fell onto the pillow, his body sprawling
out across the sheets.

Nicole half expected to see him turning
over onto his back and grinning at her with sleepy eyes.
 
Pulling her across the gap and into his
arms.

She sat up in bed and tried to calm down,
as if she were recovering from a nightmare.
 
Only she realized the nightmare was her
reality.
 
In the dream, she and Red
had been together again, happy again, ready to spend their lives with one
another.
 

It was in her waking life that everything
had gone wrong.

Instantly, memories of the previous night
and Kane’s threats flooded her mind.
 
He was such a poor replacement for Red Jameson; everything about Kane
was a turn-off for Nicole.
 
At least
when Red was being aggressive, you knew it—but with Kane Wright, it was
all hidden.
 
He didn’t even have the
guts to just command her to fuck him. Instead, he’d tried to bribe her, extort
her—as if he had to fool her into being with him.

But would he hurt Red if she refused to
play along?
 
That was the million-dollar
question.

Nicole wondered what Red would advise her
to do.
 
Probably he wouldn’t advise
anything, he’d have been too busy hunting Kane Wright down so that he could
turn his face into a bloody mess.
 

Suddenly, her stomach lurched.
 
Nicole’s mouth flooded with spit and her
throat constricted.
 
Stumbling out
of bed, she ran to the bathroom and as soon as she got to the toilet, heaved
her guts up.

Last night’s mac and cheese (hurriedly
eaten before going out with Danielle) was clearly visible now in the toilet
water.
 
Just looking at it was
enough to cause her to heave again.
 
More came up, and then Nicole was using some toilet paper to wipe her
chin and mouth, tossing it in the toilet.
 
A quick flush and down it all went.