Full Circle (13 page)

Even so, her own self-confidence had taken a
hit after hearing him talk about all the stuff he’d done. What if
she couldn’t measure up? He wanted her to engage in role-play sex
with him. To play out elaborate fantasies requiring extensive
planning. But she wasn’t Nina or any of those other women he’d done
those things with. What if she wasn’t any good? What if she tried
and failed? Would he be disappointed?

The idea of playing out his fantasies
did
sound exciting, though. And maybe that’s partly what
this trip was about. Maybe he really wanted to play the part of her
kidnapper and for her to play his victim for a few days. Give her a
trial run, so to speak. She could definitely see the appeal of
playing such a game. Her insides even warmed at the thought of
being tied up, pretending to be terrified as he touched her, cut
off her clothes, and had his way with her. Wetness even licked her
between the legs at the image of him holding her down as she
pretended to be scared, aghast that she was responding to her
kidnapper with such desire.

But sometimes fantasies played out better in
the mind than in reality, so maybe she should just leave that door
closed, even if Mark wanted to open it.

She lifted her gaze to the moon. She wouldn’t
find the answers tonight. For now, she simply needed to put his
confession out of her mind so her subconscious could dissect
everything he’d told her. She didn’t need to ruin their vacation by
obsessing over things she had little or no control over. That
included Mark’s past and all the things she still didn’t know about
the man she loved.

And she
was
in love with him. That
much was certain.

But would that love continue to grow, or
would his past eventually prove too much to contend with?

Chapter 6

With everything that has happened to you, you can
either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a
gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to
keep you from growing. You get to choose.

-Wayne Dyer

Mark rolled toward Karma only to land against cold
sheets instead of her warm, welcoming body. He brushed his hand
over his face, blinking sleepily at the empty bed.

Sitting up, he combed back his hair and
glanced around the room through the filmy curtains. She wasn’t
there. He pushed back the covers and pulled himself out of bed.

“Karma?” He peered into the bathroom then
went to the kitchen, finding it deserted.

Slightly alarmed, he returned to the bedroom,
put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, and stepped out onto the
deck.

She wasn’t in the hammock. “Karma?”

“Over here.”

Relieved, he turned toward the sound of her
voice and, after crossing the upper deck, spied her sitting on the
side of the pool, her feet in the water.

“What are you doing out here?” He started
down the stone steps. “Are you okay?”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

He faltered. Could she be having second
thoughts? “Is something wrong?” He frowned, stepping up beside her.
“Are you upset about what I shared with you?”

“No . . .
yes . . . no . . .” Her shoulders
slumped as she turned puppy eyes up at him. “God, I don’t
know.”

He sat down beside her and dipped his legs
into the cool water. As he’d drifted off to sleep, he had worried
this could happen. That once the euphoria of the moment passed she
would revisit their conversation like she was warming up day-old
pizza. Pizza never tasted as good as it did fresh from the oven,
and here Karma was, analyzing the soggy crust and congealed cheese,
trying to figure out if she really wanted to eat it.

Time for damage control. He’d gotten through
the apprehensive discussion unscathed. He wasn’t going down now.
“Want to talk about it?”

“I just—it was a lot to take in, Mark.”

“I know. Maybe I shouldn’t have unloaded so
much on you all at once.” He took her hand. The fact that she let
him was a good sign she hadn’t turned her back on him. “That’s why
I wanted to handle the discussion differently.”

“You mean, that’s why you made a plan?” She
grinned as if chastising him. Another good sign.

He lightheartedly bumped her arm with his.
“And here you gave me a hard time for planning.”

She made a dubious noise. “I still think it’s
best to just get it out there.”

“Yeah, but now you’re suffering information
overload. See what going against the plan gets you.”

Smirking, she leaned into his arm then rocked
away again. “I’ll get over it.”

“Maybe I can help. What’s got you stuck?” He
felt like they were at least in this together. Like they were
finding their way along a new, untraveled path and didn’t know
where they would end up, but at least they’d end up there together
instead of alone.

“I’m just trying to process everything,
that’s all.” She swung her legs under the water, creating small
waves on the moonlit surface. “I feel like I should be angry, but
I’m not.”

“Why should you feel angry?”

“Because that would be the socially
appropriate response.”

He regarded her for a moment, absorbing the
soft warmth of her palm against his. “And since when have you ever
been the socially appropriate type?”

Confusion fell over her face.

He pulled her hand into both of his. “Karma,
if you were the median woman—the kind of woman who follows the
status quo and always does what society expects—you and I wouldn’t
be here right now.” He gripped her hand more firmly and looked her
dead in the eyes. “You wouldn’t have gone up to my room the night
we met . . . then run out a few minutes later.” She
grinned and briefly glanced away. “You wouldn’t have gotten
involved with me, because socially acceptable women don’t get
involved with men they work with, especially when that man is her
boss.”

She smirked. “You weren’t my boss.”

He smirked back. “Close enough.” He teetered
toward her until their shoulders kissed. “And you wouldn’t have
broken off your engagement and taken me back, either.” He paused to
admire the way the moonlight reflected off her eyes. “Karma, you
are anything but socially appropriate, which is what makes you so
extraordinary. It’s why you’re constantly surprising me. I’m always
expecting the socially appropriate response every other woman would
give me, but you always give me anything but. You amaze me every
day. You take my breath away every morning and leave me in awe
every night, and I hope I haven’t scared you away, because I can’t
envision my life without you in it.”

“What if I stop surprising you?”

“You won’t.”

“But I could.”

“If that happens, which I doubt, I’ll still
love you as much as I do now.”

Her gaze remained locked to his for a long
moment then drifted toward the beach. For a while, they sat in
silence, legs dangling in the water, stirring gentle waves.

“What else is on your mind, Karma?” He could
tell there was more.

She turned toward him, eyes guarded, lips
loosely knotted as if she didn’t want to voice whatever was
troubling her.

He still held her hand and tightened his
fingers around hers. “I can tell something’s still bothering you.
What’s wrong?”

She sighed. “It’s not that something’s wrong.
It’s just . . .” She frowned, hesitated, sucked in
her breath. Then she shook her head, closed her eyes, and blurted,
“Just how much money do you have, Mark?”

The question came out of nowhere, and before
he could stop himself, he burst into laughter. “What?”

She playfully slapped his leg. “Don’t laugh.
I’m serious.” But she was struggling to fight back a smile. Within
seconds, she giggled and looked away, kicking her legs more
vigorously so water splashed onto their thighs. “Okay, so maybe
that was a little funny.”

“A little? It came out of nowhere.”

But he wasn’t surprised she’d asked. He
had
been burning through the cash the past few days.

“I’m just curious, Mark. You’ve spent a lot
of money on this trip. The limousine, the private jet.” She glanced
toward the villa. “And this place can’t be cheap.”

“I don’t do cheap.”

“Obviously. But there’s a difference between
cheap and frugal. I get the feeling being frugal isn’t an issue for
you.” She dropped her gaze to her hands before meeting his eyes
again. When she spoke, there was a tenderness in her voice. “I
don’t love you for your money, Mark. I’ve never even thought about
it until now. But that’s just it. I haven’t thought about it. And
now I’m getting a glimpse for the first time as to just how
affluent you are, and it makes me wonder what else I don’t know
about you.” She turned to face him, one leg still in the water, the
other bent on the pool’s deck. “I get the impression you’re in this
for the long haul with me, so if that’s the case, I think I need to
know more about you. You don’t talk much about yourself.

“And maybe that’s the reason for my
conflicted feelings right now. This was the first time you’ve
really opened up to me about your past, so while I feel closer to
you than I’ve ever felt, it does make me aware we’ve only really
known each other five months . . . and four of those
were more about me than you. You’ve learned so much more about me
than I’ve learned about you, and now you’re finally letting me in,
and as you do, I start thinking about all the things I don’t know.
Things I should know if we’re going to make this work.” She lowered
her eyes. “And I want to make this work.”

He turned his gaze toward the sea, a little
disoriented. He hadn’t intentionally kept his wealth a secret. It
had just never come up.

He’d prided himself on being able to read
her. To know what she was thinking and what she needed before she
did. Yet, he hadn’t seen this coming. Was he losing his touch?

“Shit, I’m not making any sense,” she said as
if misreading him. “It’s not a big deal. Forget it.” She began to
turn away but he stopped her.

“No, it
is
a big deal.” He scooted
closer to her. “To
you
. It’s a big deal to you, Karma, so
it’s a big deal to me.”

“But I’ve upset you.”

He shook his head. “You haven’t upset me. I
promise.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “I just didn’t see
this coming, that’s all.”

Letting out a heavy exhale, she bowed her
head. “But I don’t want to ruin our vacation.”

He let go of her hand to cradle her face and
lift it so he could look her in the eyes. “Do you really think this
could ruin our vacation? That getting to know me better so we can
grow closer could possibly be a bad thing?”

Her pale eyes glowed in the moonlight, swimming with
innocence and doubt. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Karma, I can assure you, you absolutely
cannot ruin our vacation by wanting to know me better. And if I
were more aware and had been playing closer attention, I would have
known I needed to tell you all of this a long time ago.”

With a subtle nod of surrender, she offered
him a wan smile but didn’t say anything.

“I’ve made no secret that I want us to be
together,” he said, “so of course you should know everything about
me, including the state of my bank account.”

“But I don’t want to come off like a gold
digger.”

“Gold digger?” He cocked his head and
chuckled. “Karma, you could never be a gold digger.”

“But—”

He placed the tip of his index finger against
her lips, quieting her. “You are
not
a gold digger. Now, let
me answer your question about how much money I have.”

With a tiny, chagrined smile tugging at the
corners of her mouth, she quieted, giving him the floor. Or,
rather, the pool deck.

“Okay, so first, bear with me as I explain
the history.” He folded his hands in his lap. “I’ve already told
you that my grandfather was a powerful businessman in Chicago. That
I chose to follow in his footsteps rather than those of my
parents.”

“Yes.” She shifted so she squarely faced
him.

“Well, my grandfather owned a successful
shipping company he built from the ground up and hoped to pass
down, but that didn’t work out.”

“Because you’re mom wasn’t interested,
right?”

“Partly. She wanted to pursue dancing, which
my grandfather gladly funded. But what I didn’t tell you before was
that I had an uncle who’d been groomed since high school to inherit
the company.”

Her eyebrows popped. “I thought he wanted
your mom to take over the company.”

“Only after my uncle was killed in a tragic
car accident.”

“Oh.” She bit her bottom lip. “That’s
horrible.”

“It was horrible. I still remember the
funeral, how everyone cried, completely devastated. Grandpa only
had two children, and when Uncle Franco died, that was it. I was
too young to step in and help, so when my grandfather got sick a
few years later, he decided to sell the business. He’d branched out
into other areas than just shipping, so the company was worth a lot
when he passed away. The money from the sale, as well as the money
he’d invested, in addition to his personal fortune, came to over
fifty million dollars. A lot for the time.”

Karma gasped, her mouth falling open. “Fifty
million? That’s a lot for any time.”

“Yes.” He lowered his voice. “I won’t lie,
Karma. My family is very wealthy.”

Her mouth clapped shut. “I’m sorry. I didn’t
mean—”

“That’s okay. I know it’s a lot of money.
Sometimes I forget just how much it is, because I’ve never really
known anything else.”

“But you don’t act like. . .” She trailed off
as if she couldn’t find the right words to convey her thoughts.

“I don’t act like I have money falling out of
my ass?” He grinned at the way her cheeks darkened in the
moonlight. “I don’t drive foreign sports cars, jet set around the
world, and throw hundred-thousand-dollar Vegas parties every
weekend? Is that what you were about to say?”