Cameron's Control (9 page)

She really was my perfect little angel.

“I can’t wait to see him,” she said.

I marveled at her ability to pick up on my thoughts.

We drove the rest of the way with my hand refusing to let go of hers, and Mia relaxed and seemed soothed by my touch.

I parked the Bentley in the garage next to the house. We headed around to the front door.

I knocked, despite having a key, wanting Henry to know I respected his privacy. I’d given him this place and wanted him to know he was safe here.

The door flew open and a smiling Henry appeared. “You’re late.”

Mia knelt to greet Dex, who leapt onto her lap and greeted her with licks and brushes of his head, his tail wagging. Henry had always had a thing for Labradors.

A check of my watch confirmed we were in fact late. I’d told Henry we’d be here by 11AM. It was 11:05.

With an arch of a brow, I gave him a look of
seriously?

Dex left Mia’s lap and sprang over to me.

“Hello, boy.” I scratched his chin and ran my fingers over his thick black coat.

Mia flew into Henry’s arms to give him the biggest hug. “There was traffic,” she explained, gazing up at him.

“You’re forgiven.”

We followed him into the living area and I scanned the place, needing to see evidence my older brother was okay. The room was tidy, perhaps a little too tidy, with his shoes lined up in the corner in a hint of compulsive disorder. But Henry had trained as a SEAL at WestPoint, and if there was one thing I knew about military training was order was the foundation of an officer’s life.

I caught the family photos he’d placed on the fridge. A good sign. The blinds were open, removing my fear he might have slipped into a depression, and the ironed shirt and jeans he wore, along with those highly polished shoes, proved he’d been looking forward to our arrival.

Henry folded his arms.

He’d caught me.

“What’s wrong?” asked Mia.

“My brother has a Sherlock fetish,” said Henry.

I waved it off and made my way over to the kitchen. “Coffee?”

“Yes please,” said Mia, heading over to the fridge for the milk.

Within a few minutes, I’d handed over piping hot mugs filled to the brim with Tempest coffee to Mia and Henry, and we carried our drinks into the small garden. We made ourselves comfortable on the patio seating. I was reminded again why I loved this place. This beachside town was a reflection of the best life had to offer.

When I spotted that soft plaid blanket on the back of a lounger, I lifted it and carried it over to Mia, laying it over her legs to keep her warm. The morning chill lingered. She snuggled beneath it.  

Venice was already thriving with eclectic energy. Beyond the pathway that ran along the back of the property was the view of a golden sandy beach, and beyond that ocean. Off to our right a basketball game was underway. A small crowd had gathered to watch. Surfers were taking advantage of the swell.

“How are you finding the noise?” I asked Henry.

“Doesn’t bother me.”

At night, tourists strolled along the boardwalk. I’d been surprised when Henry had told me he wanted to stay here and not at my Beverly Hills home, but he’d lived alone for so long and told me he didn’t like the idea of bumping into my staff.

“Heard you had fun with Shay on his new boat?” I said.

“Yeah, he and Arianna invited me.” He smirked. “She tried to set me up with her girlfriend but she was way too young.”

“You always did go for older women,” I said, smiling.

He tilted his head and grinned at Mia.

Yes, thank you for that, Henry. Since our days at boarding school, he’d known about my penchant for women wearing tartan skirts and FMB’s who liked nothing more than being mastered.

Funnily enough, the first time I’d been intimate with Mia she’d been wearing that very outfit. I’d made her come in front of Richard and we’d both been left bewitched by the girl with no idea of the power she held.

Glancing over at Mia, I wondered if my obsession would ever end. My body stiffened telling me a definitive
no
.  

“I want to introduce Henry to Scarlet,” said Mia.

My brows shot up with the thought of Scarlet and Henry in the same room. Henry wouldn’t submit to any woman, even a sophisticated dominatrix like Scarlet Winters. Though she would be intrigued by the challenge.

“Any chance she might be a switch?” Henry’s lip curled.

“She is,” said Mia, looking over to me for confirmation.

A term Henry learned during his visit to see me at Harvard. I’d shamelessly displayed my collection of books on BDSM.   

With me, all the domina’s at both Enthrall and Chrysalis relented their power, but that was unusual for the scene. That kind of trust and respect had been earned. I ruled over Chrysalis with a firm hand but honored their power. They really were like a second family to me.

“I can talk with Scarlet?” I went along with Mia’s meddling with a smirk. “If you like?”

“Sure,” said Henry.

The scent of ocean and fresh coffee filled the air.  

“We need to talk,” he said.

“About?”

Henry arched a brow. “
It
.”

“Come on, big brother.” My tone was laden with affection. “Let’s surf.”

CHAPTER 10

FOR CHILDREN BORN into an empire, their ‘
it’
is the threat of inheriting the seat of power looming over their heads since childhood.

No matter their own dreams, loves, or wants, their destiny is set. Dad had allowed Henry his brief foray in the military and my ‘dabbling in medicine,’ but there’d been an understanding we’d eventually leave behind our reckless bachelor ways and take up the honor of ruling the billion dollar domain known throughout the world as Cole Tea and Tempest Coffee. Our family franchise ranked at the top of the fortune 500.

The price was my dad’s unwavering dedication to maintain the company’s position at any cost and his lack of attention while we were finding our way in the world. With both Henry and I being sent off to boarding school at age five, Dad had already influenced us in ways both powerful yet vague.

We’d made our way through the wreckage of our lives to flourish, despite it all. Henry had been there for me every time I’d needed him. No matter what.

This wasn’t about us not appreciating our privileged position. It was about us having to lay aside our life’s calling.

Right on cue, Henry’s surfboard crashed into mine.

God, I loved my brother.

It was wonderful seeing him this happy. There was nothing like cold water to shake me back to reality. My feet landed on the seabed and I grabbed the edge of my board to stop it floating away.

“Where were you just now?” he called over.

I gave a look of apology.

Henry slapped my back and leaped onto his board, paddling out.

Mia was still in the beach house curled up on the sofa. I’d put on an old favorite 1940 black and white movie,
The Philadelphia Story
. She was happy enough cuddling with Dex and relaxing. She knew
we needed alone time. She’d waved us off with that glint in her eye. The brothers were spending time together.
 

A large wave headed our way and Henry took advantage of it, leaping onto his board, crouching low and surfing all the way in. He’d picked this up fast and it reminded me how alike we were. We’d both been groomed from an early age in numerous sports, me preferring polo, swimming, and tennis, and Henry showing a talent for football. He’d even been drafted into the navy league.

Another wave rolled toward us and with the nose of my board facing the beach I was ready. I leaped on and paddled, thrilled with being lifted by the water. I rose up with my weight above the center. The pull of the wave signaled to stand as I placed my left foot forward for balance.

A burst of adrenaline. My heartbeat raced and my lungs filled with fresh air. All thoughts were pushed aside as I zoned out—

Into the rush.

This, this was freedom, a sense of connection…

The purest nirvana.

After an hour, the ocean waves settled and Henry and I straddled our boards and sat opposite one another. The land was within easy reach. Rocked by the water, we sat like that for a while. Quiet. Thoughtful. Enjoying being close to each other again.

“He’s not getting any younger,” said Henry.

“He has our full support.”

“Cam,” he said, “Dad’s under tremendous pressure. I talked with him on the phone last night. The business world is changing.”

“I get that. Did you run by him the idea of Willow coming onboard?”

Henry gave that knowing look.

I answered my own question, “He’s concerned she won’t survive the boardroom.”

“I’m ready to don a suit and get my hair cut.”

“Go work for Dad?” Stunned, I looked over at him. “Well that’s good.” The weight of responsibility lifted off me.

“Still, I’m not the man I was before Afghanistan,” he said. “We both know that.”

“Not the man?”

He rolled his eyes.

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay, Doc. Just not with me.”

“Of course.”  

“I’ve been groomed for the corporate world,” he said. “My military experience was a conduit to that.”

But life had other plans—the cruelest.

“After all I’ve been through,” he said. “This will be a cinch.”  

I cringed inwardly as the memory came flooding back of seeing the state Henry was in after his SEAL taskforce extraction. And what those terrorists had done to him. Closing my eyes, I tried to squeeze out those images.

Though for Henry, who’d lived the nightmare, those memories would have seeped into his very marrow. I’d hardly recognized him as the doctors worked on him in that medical tent. Their initial first aid was administered in deathly quiet so as not to stress him further, considering he’d been in solitary confinement for months and the only respite from silence was being dragged out by his captors to be tortured.

That suffocating desert heat.

I’d stood back and waited for the military surgeons to be ready for me. A nod from them signaled it was my turn to be with my brother beneath that windblown camouflaged canopy. Not to comfort him. Not to soothe, but to cajole out of him the intel he’d gathered before his capture. The kind that saved lives.

‘
Whatever it takes
,’ had been General Daniel Newton’s order.

As though the man using every last psychological trick he could muster to recover deeply embedded information wasn’t Henry’s brother.

Mission accomplished.

A man ruined. No, not just any man. My brother.

We’d flown out of there in a SEAL Stealth helicopter and I’d stared out the window and down at the country that had left two brothers forever wrecked.

Henry had given up the intel, but his sanity had gone with it.

Up until yesterday, I’d blamed myself for ruining his life, decimating his psyche. Every day I’d lived with the guilt of betraying his trust.

Yet here, now, we were together as brothers again, and the profoundness of being reunited and his unwavering forgiveness meant everything.

He stared at the beach, calmly watching the meandering tourists. It was hard to tell he’d ever endured all that. He had a serenity, a gratitude, that came with surviving a trauma. Even now he smiled at me in a way that expressed he loved me no less.

Those dark days would always stay with me.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

“Haven’t we had this conversation?”

“You’re not just telling me what I need to hear, Henry?”

“I don’t remember much about it,” he said. “I remember this though. You flew to Afghanistan and put your own life at risk.”

“That was nothing.”

“It was everything. I chose my career. What good was that intel stuck in my head?” He waved his hand through the air. “I’d have done the same to you, Cam. Ever considered that?”

I shrugged and gave him a consolatory glance.

He turned to look at me. “Dad believes your guilt might turn out rather handy.”

“Ever the optimist.”  

“Apparently the boardroom is the equivalent of going to war.” His face was marred with confusion.  

“Are you sure you want this?’

“Yes.”

“I just want you to be happy.”

“At least Dad will be off your case now.”

I reached over and tapped his shoulder. “We both needed this.”

“Mia’s a sweet girl, Cam. I like her. I really do.”

I shook my head. “She went rogue when she visited you.”

“Sounds like someone I know.”

“What did you two talk about?”

“That’ll be our little secret.”