Romance: Two Nights with the Billionaire (7 page)

Chapter 16

After telling the driver to take me to the airport, I sit back and shut my eyes.

I feel like I’ve run a marathon.

Every muscle, every fiber of my being feels drained. All I want to do is curl up somewhere dark and quiet. Get away from the world and the people and everything, just for a little while.

The driver steers around the circular driveway and heads down towards the road.

I want to look back.

Just one more look at the man I’m leaving behind, the man who left me behind a long time ago.

Against my better judgment I turn and look.

Joshua’s already got his back to the driveway.

Towel around his waist and his phone to his ear.

I watch him go back inside the mansion and shut the door, moments before the taxi reaches the road and my view of the mansion and the man I love are gone.

It’s really over and he’s already moving on.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” the driver asks and I manage a weak smile.

“I will be.”

I use my phone to book the first flight back to New York then call Nicole.

“What’s happened?” she asks. “Your voice sounds funny.”

“I left Joshua.”

She’s silent for a beat and I hear her breath hiss over the phone. “I’m so sorry.”

“Me too.” I sniff and wipe my nose. “But it’s a good thing – I think. I’ve got the number of this new gaming company and I’ll give them a call tomorrow. I’ve been waiting on hold for long enough. It’s time for me to take control of my life.”

“Good for you, Jen. I’m in California right now but you can stay at my place in New York if you want. I’ll tell Mrs. Gardner to give you the key. Do you want me to come home?”

“No!” I reply, though honestly touched that she offered. “I’m fine. I just need a few days to get myself together.”

“You stay as long as you want. It’ll give me an excuse to come home more often, and I miss my old roomie.”

We say our goodbyes and I settle back in my seat. When I open my eyes again it’s to find the driver looking back at me.

“We’re here.”

As I’m walking through the airport, I can’t help darting my gaze around.

My heart drops when all I see are strange faces.

Stupid.

Did I really think he would chase me?

Try to stop me?

I feel more tears stinging my eyes but I blink them back.

I’ve done enough crying for one day. Joshua has probably already found a replacement for me. My leaving wasn’t even a blip on his radar.

I collect my tickets and a couple of hours later, I’m boarding my flight.

Sitting numbly, I watch as the plane slowly fills up with people taking their seats all around me. I just want to sleep and wake up back in New York, back where I belong.

The two women in front of me are chatting in front of me, and a couple of seats over a man is complaining about the fact that he has to have his chair upright during takeoff.

Suddenly the words start to grab my attention.

It’s kind of like the two women in front are talking at each other or they’re having two separate conversations.

Maybe they’re on their phones?

Or maybe I’m just exhausted.

I shut my eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” one woman says.

“I’m so blind sometimes,” the other woman replies.

“And I know I made a huge mistake.”

I open my eyes, frowning.

Something feels off about how they’re talking.

The first woman says, “I never meant to make you feel...”

Then the second woman replies with, “Like you didn’t matter.”

Suddenly the man who’d been complaining earlier starts talking on his phone. “Losing you is the worst thing I can imagine.”

The flight attendant leans closer to the man as though to ask him to turn his phone off but instead she says, “Before you go, I had to try, one last time.”

The man looks at the attendant as though telling her that he’ll just be another minute, but instead says, “To show you how much you mean to me.”

The intercom beeps and the voice of the pilot says, “You’re my whole world, Jennifer.”

I look up to see the attendant standing over me with an amused expression on her face. She holds out a mobile phone and I take it.

Joshua’s deep, husky voice makes everything in my chest melt.

“Jennifer,” his voice rasps through the tiny speaker. “I love you. I should have told you first, not last, that I was giving up everything for you. I followed you here, because I would follow you anywhere. You’re all I want and there’s nowhere else I need to be.”

I laugh and I can feel the tears coming again. “This is possibly the creepiest romantic gesture ever.”

He laughs too and I hear him sniff and cough. “It worked better in my head.”

I look out the window and gasp when I see him standing out on the runway.

He’s standing alone in jeans and a T-shirt.

Just him.

One man alone begging for me to give him another chance.

“How did you even do this?”

“A lot of money and a lot of begging. Your friend Damon sets up party flash mobs as a side business.”

“I don’t need all this,” I say. “I don’t need expensive presents and huge gestures. I just need you.”

“You have me,” he says and I can feel the truth in his words. “I’m yours, Jennifer. Body and soul. If you want I’ll strip naked right here.”

I laugh and I see his shoulders shaking.

“That also sounded more meaningful in my head.”

As I look at him down there, alone and unprotected, I suddenly see him, the real him.

Not the business man, not the billionaire, the man.

He’s vulnerable and awkward and real.

And he’s mine.

I make my way off the plane to the sounds of cheers and calls of encouragement from the other passengers. I climb down the steps and run across the runway, into Joshua’s outstretched arms.

He spins me around in a wide arch and I can’t stop kissing him.

His mouth, his cheeks, his eyes.

He puts me back on my feet and looks into my eyes.

“I love you.” He grabs my hand and places it against his rapidly beating heart. “I’m yours. Forever.”

“And I’m yours,” I reply, the words cracking as I say them. “Always.”

He pulls me against him.

“Always,” he whispers against my mouth before claiming my lips in a kiss that makes my knees buckle.

Always…

The End

Also by Elizabeth Ward

Romance: One Night with the Billionaire