The Billionaire's Curvy Conquest - Complete (17 page)

Blindfolds, paddles, lube and other sex toys.

“I wasn’t angry, I was caught off guard. What you saw was me hiding the Deed of Trust to your condominium. I wanted it locked away until I was ready to present it to you. Ms. Tait was in my office to deliver the final paperwork and let me know that the real estate transaction had been completed.”

“Oh.” His explanation made sense, and I felt a little silly about jumping to the wrong conclusion.

Yet knowing what was really going on didn’t change a very important thing: I didn’t fully trust Mr. Reed.

He reached across the table and took my hand. “I want to make things right between us, Cassie. What do you want from me?” For the first time ever, he looked and sounded 42 years old.

“How about the truth?” I asked.

“I’ve never lied to you,” he said.

“Oh, really? What about the fact that I’m Baby Blue and you’re Gladys Casey’s billionaire benefactor? Or that you hired Bill Blaine to take that photo of me that ended up on the cover of the Post?”

“Omission of detail is not the same as lying.”

I pulled my hand away. “It is if you’re in an open and honest relationship. But I think we both know that’s not what our
arrangement
entailed.”

“Yes, I take care of Gladys Casey’s expenses and I know that you were the tiny baby I held in my arms at her foster home all those years ago,” Mr. Reed said quietly.  “As you may have guessed, I followed your development over the years. Your adoption by Mr. and Mrs. James. Your essays in
Personal Pain, Personal Pleasure
. Your graduation from college.”

His admission made me even angrier. “Was giving me a job at Reed Technologies part of your grand plan to stalk me into submission?”

He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. That, my sweet, was serendipity.”

I scoffed at him. “You want me to believe that, out of all the companies in the city that I could work for, fate directed me to yours?”

“That
is
what happened. Whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you.”

The server approached our table and he waved her away before continuing in a lower voice. The look in his eyes was smoldering.

“When I first saw you sitting at the reception desk in my building’s lobby, your natural beauty took my breath away. Imagine my surprise when I realized that you were Baby Blue from my past, all grown up and looking good enough to devour. Right or wrong, Cassie, in that moment, I knew that I had to have you...and that I would stop at nothing to make you mine.”

I squirmed uncomfortably in my chair. Between the warmth of the sun and the heat in Mr. Reed’s words, I felt unbearably hot.

I was losing control of the conversation and falling back under his spell. I needed to snap out of it!

“You manipulated me at every turn,” I said. “You knew everything about me and used that information to get what you wanted.”

Me, under your control!

“Guilty as charged,” he said without remorse, which only fueled my frustration.

“Was the picture in the Post a way to humiliate me into becoming your pretend girlfriend?” I asked.

“Not exactly. In retrospect, that was a juvenile move designed to show the world that you belonged to me.”

I didn’t know whether to be flattered or appalled by Mr. Reed’s admission. I decided to throw a zinger back at him.

“Remember when I was sick and said that I had no memory of the time before and after surgery?”

He nodded.

“I lied. I remember
everything
.”

His face didn’t register surprise. “I suspected as much.”

“And you didn’t call me out for it?!”

He shrugged. “I figured you had your reasons for not wanting to tell me. We all have secrets, Miss James.”

I groaned in frustration. “That’s the problem, Mr. Reed, and why it was time to end our arrangement.” My voice was sad and I felt incredibly weary. “There were too many secrets and lies between us.”

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out two envelopes, which he put on the table. One was marked CASSIE JAMES and the other was marked CONFIDENTIAL MEMO.

“Inside these envelopes are two very lavish, yet very different, all-expenses-paid vacations. In the Cassie James envelope you’ll find a Caribbean cruise aboard a luxury yacht for you and your parents. Think of it as a well-deserved parting gift signaling the end of our arrangement.”

“And in the other envelope?” 

“New dates for a trip to the private island getaway that you and I had to postpone when you were ill.”

My eyes darted back and forth between the two envelopes while I waited for Mr. Reed to explain further.

“I would like for us to have a fresh start, Miss James. In the ambulance, when I said that I loved you, I meant it. If you meant it, too, choose the Confidential Memo envelope.”

Had Mr. Reed just said, ‘I love you’ in the most indirect, unromantic way EVER?

I stopped short of rolling my eyes. “And if I only said it because I was a rambling idiot high on morphine?”

He held my gaze before responding. “Then enjoy the trip with your parents and I’ll do my best to let you go.”

My head was reeling!

Although his delivery technique needed work, Mr. Reed had finally given me what I wanted: his love. And now I wasn’t sure if that was enough.

Plus, the detached way he discussed our potential fresh start almost made it seem like he was negotiating one of his business deals.

So much had happened between us; I wasn’t confident that our relationship would be any different going forward.

My heart wanted me to choose the private island getaway with Mr. Reed. That would be the easy choice, of course. But following my heart is what got me into this painful mess in the first place.

My mind urged me to choose the safer option. The one where my parents and I sailed off into the sunset...without my happily ever after. 

Should I take a chance on Mr. Reed and risk losing my heart forever?

My hand hovered over the two envelopes as tears started streaming down my face.

When I finally made my choice, I picked up an envelope and rose to my feet.

“I’m sorry,” I said, before turning my back on the man I loved and slowly walking away.

I
was sunning myself on deck next to my parents, wearing the swimsuit I bought for my private getaway with Mr. Reed. The trip of a lifetime that never happened.

The warm, mid-morning Caribbean sun and cool ocean breeze that caressed my skin felt incredible and lulled me into that relaxed place between wakefulness and sleep. Even in my drowsy state, though, the sensations made me long for another type of caress.

A certain type of caress that I would never feel again.

I had been trying to use the luxury cruise with my parents to heal from my breakup with David Reed...to relax him out of my mind. But so far, all I had done was wallow in what might have been.

What would this week have been like if I had chosen door number two and gone away with him instead? I would never know.

A loud voice boomed over the ships speaker system, abruptly rousing me from my dreamy relaxation.

“May I please have your attention. This is your captain speaking. One of our passengers has fallen ill and we’ll be making an unscheduled stop at the nearest port to allow that passenger to disembark. Safety is our utmost concern. At this time, we ask that all remaining passengers promptly return to their cabins so our crew can sanitize the ship from top to bottom. In-cabin food and beverage service will be available. Please accept my apologies for this inconvenience. I will keep you apprised of further developments and will let you all know when you may exit your cabins once again. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

“Oh dear,” my mom said. “I hope the passenger’s illness isn’t serious.”

“It’s probably one of those damn noroviruses you always hear about in the news,” my dad grumbled. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t all catch it.”

His gruff personality was night and day different from my mom’s. Maybe that’s part of why they worked so well together; they were two sides of the same coin.

“That’s why the captain told us to go to our cabins, dad,” I said. “So we don’t catch whatever the other passenger has.” I wrapped my sarong around my waist to cover my thick thighs and helped my parents gather together our sunscreen and other items.

“Do you want to hang out in our cabin for a while? We could order lunch,” my mom asked.

“I think I’d rather crawl into bed and watch a movie. The sun has made me feel a little sleepy.”

“Promise me you’ll stay in until the captain says it’s okay to leave,” my mom added. “I would feel terrible if you got sick.”

“I promise, if you two do the same.”

To be honest, I wasn’t all that disappointed about being sent to my cabin alone for the rest of the day.

Even though the luxury yacht we were on was tiny compared to the giant cruise ships that held thousands of people, there was still a hundred people or so on board, and I didn’t really feel like socializing.

And even though I loved my parents, and was grateful that they agreed to accompany me on the cruise, their constant chatter was driving me nuts! I forgot what it was like to be around them for so many hours at a time.

I knew they meant well, but peace and quiet sounded like the perfect way to spend the rest of the day.

I ordered an early lunch, took a long shower and crawled into bed with the remote control.

~~~

“M
ay I please have your attention. This is your captain speaking. The entire ship has been properly sanitized and all passengers are now free to leave their cabins and move about as they please.  To thank you for your patience, complimentary cocktails and hors d'oeuvres are being served on the stern side of the main sun deck.”

Minutes after the captain’s all-clear announcement, I heard a knock on my cabin door. I knew it would be my parents even before I looked through the peephole.

“How was your afternoon?” I asked.

“Fine,” my mom responded. “Although your dad was starting to go a little stir crazy.”

“Damn straight, I was. Let’s get to that cocktail party before all the good snacks are gone.”

I giggled at my dad’s scowly look. “Let me slip into a sundress and I’ll be ready to go.”

I pulled a dress out of the closet and went into the bathroom to change. I felt a slight pang of regret; the dress was another item of clothing I had bought for my trip with Mr. Reed.

I pulled my shorts and t-shirt off, slipped the dress over my head and scrunched some sea-spray styling mist into my curls to give them a lift. The sun had given my face a rosy glow, so I didn’t bother with makeup except for a little lip gloss.

I looked in the mirror and shrugged. Not too bad for a five-minute refresher.

“I’m ready. Let’s go find the cocktail party.”

We weren’t the first to arrive, but very few people were actually on deck. There was an older couple sitting at a cocktail table with their backs to the action and a party of three on the other side of the bar, also with their backs turned.

It all seemed a little odd, considering the other deck events had been a hub of social interaction. But after the illness scare, I didn’t blame people for not wanting to socialize or even come out of their cabins at all.

Since the cocktail party was sort of a bust, the activity going on at the front of the yacht caught my eye. I grabbed my mom’s arm and pointed toward the bow of the ship. “Look. They’re setting up for a wedding.”

Several crew members had rolled out a short, white carpet leading to a makeshift altar and were setting up a few chairs on either side of it. Other crew members were setting up small dining tables and a buffet, and using vases filled with tropical flowers as decorations.

From the position of the sun in relation to the altar, it looked like the bride and groom would be saying their vows while watching the sun set. A soft sigh slipped through my lips at the fairytale setting.

My mom smiled. “What a lovely place to get married, don’t you agree, Stan?” She looked over at my dad who simply grunted and kept filling his plate. “I wonder who the lucky bride and groom are.”

“I bet it was that young couple we saw in the pool yesterday,” I said. “They looked like they had started their honeymoon a little early.”

“They looked like they needed to get a room,” my dad mumbled, and my mom and I laughed.

“You could be right, Cassie. Oh dear, are you all right?”

She caught me swiping tears from my cheeks “I’m fine, mom. I guess I’m still a little emotional. Seeing things like this remind me of what might have been.”

She gave me a quick hug. “You’ll find your groom someday, Cassie, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens sooner than you think.”

“This breakup is still pretty raw. I can’t even think about being with someone new, let alone getting married,” I said.

“Just keep an open mind. You never know when Mr. Right will waltz into your life. Why don’t we get something to eat?”

“I think I’d rather get a drink first. Can I get you and dad something?”

“How about champagne?”

“Are you and dad celebrating something?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “Not being cooped up in our cabin anymore.”

“Champagne it is,” I said.

The single bartender had his back to the counter and was moving the glassware around. When the wind carried a wisp of familiar, masculine fragrance past my nose, I experienced a moment of déjà vu and had to grasp the edge of the bar to steady myself.

My brain was further confused by the bartender’s thick, dark hair and perfect build, both of which reminded me of Mr. Reed.

If the bartender had been wearing anything other than slim white pants and a floral Hawaiian shirt, I would have sworn that the man behind the bar was my former boss. But I couldn’t imagine David Reed wearing something that casual and breezy.

I shook off my crazy thoughts, which were probably spurred by the wedding talk from my mom, and tried to get the bartender’s attention. “Excuse me, could I get a drink?”