The Mogul (Necessary Lies Book 2) (2 page)

“
S
o take me to him
.”

I said it the next morning at the Omni over room service breakfast. Nolan had taken me there after making love to me in my dorm room. Once we’d arrived at the hotel, I’d been too exhausted to do anything else. I just needed time for myself. To think.

We’d slept in separate suites.

But now we were eating breakfast in my bed, neither of us knowing exactly what would happen next.

Nolan shook his head. “I can’t just take you to him. Do you know how many eyes are on me right now? Do you think it’s gone unnoticed by the firm that I came to your graduation? That we… spent the night together?” He leaned over me and grabbed a bagel. “They’re watching us. Closely. I can’t take you to Richard right now. I’m sorry, Camilla.”

I sighed. “Well, what do you expect me to do? Forget that you told me? Live my life as if my father doesn’t exist? I mean, I know
he
was able to do that when he was ‘alive’, but
I
actually care about him and his well-being.”

“What did I tell you? It’s complicated. This isn’t about missing your recital or your birthday party. This is his life. And yours.” Nolan looked at me, his eyes narrowed. “You have to let go of your anger toward him. It’s not his fault he was absent, Camilla. He didn’t have a choice.”

“We all have choices,” I retorted. “He just chose something else over his child.”

Nolan stood up, pacing at the foot of the bed. His shirt was off and he was wearing only boxer briefs. I watched his thigh muscles moving under his bronzed skin. Even as angry as I was at him, I wanted him so badly.

I could tell he was frustrated with me. But I didn’t care.

“Camilla, I’m not saying you can never see him,” he finally said. “You just can’t see him now. Honestly, we shouldn’t even be discussing this out loud. No one knows but us. If the wrong people were to find out the truth, we would all be in extreme danger.”

He walked over to me. He stood above me and I craned my neck up to look into his eyes. He placed his hand against where my collar bone met my shoulder, tracing the soft skin on my neck with his thumb.

“Before anything else,” he said. “Your safety matters most. To me. And to your father. I feel like I’ve already let him down by falling for you. I can’t let him down by allowing you to be in any sort of peril or jeopardy. You’re everything to me.”

I ran my hands up his taut stomach, up his muscled pectorals. The bulge in his briefs moved subtly as my palms explored his chest.

“I want to trust you,” I whispered. “More than anything.”

“You have to trust me,” he said, leaning down toward me, his mouth close to my own. “You trust me with your body. You let me have my way with you, you allow me to take you in ways no man has ever been lucky enough to. Why won’t you trust me with this? Why would I let you down now? What would be my motive?”

I shook my head. “I have no idea. It scares me that I don’t have a choice when it comes to you, Nolan.”

He smirked at me. “We all have choices, Camilla. A beautiful woman once told me that.”

He laid me back on the bed, his large, rough hands running up my torso to my breasts, the nipples already rock hard, anticipating his every move.

“Let me have you one more time,” he whispered against my neck, his hands already tracing down to my hip bones, pulling down my pajama pants. “Before we get on the plane.”

“The plane?” I asked, suddenly not thinking about how badly I wanted him to fuck me. “Where are we going?”

“Let me compromise with you,” he said, pulling me into his arms as he lay down next to me. “You go with me on this trip. And our next destination can be to where your father is. But I need you to come with me, Camilla. I can’t keep living without you.”

I shook my head, so confused. “What kind of trip is this? And to where?”

“Vancouver,” Nolan said, simply. “And it’s a business trip of sorts. We’re going to meet someone who can help us. Both of us. He has a lot to do with why your father had to go into hiding. And why it’s important for certain people to continue to believe he’s dead.”

“Okay, you’ve convinced me. Who is this guy we’re going to see?”

“The mogul,” Nolan said. And nothing else. His mouth had already begun its descent to my thighs. I no longer had any strength to resist him.

* * *

“
W
e’ll leave tonight
,” he’d said after our shower. I was still breathless from the things he’d done to me under the steam of four shower heads. My inner thighs quivered. I’d never come so many times in my life.

“So a red eye flight?” I faux whined. “Is that all that was available?”

Nolan smiled. “We’re flying private. Emerson can’t meet us until around mid-morning tomorrow anyway. And I figured you’d need time to pack.”

“Emerson?” I asked as I wrapped a towel around myself. “Is he the mogul?”

“Emerson Titan,” Nolan said. “And yes.”

My eyes widened.

“Is he a client of my father’s?” I asked. Emerson Titan was one of the richest men in the country. Maybe the world. He rubbed elbows with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. He had a reputation as a Santa Claus type if you believed the papers. He was the rarest of jewels; a billionaire with a heart of gold. Or so his amazing PR team led the world to believe.

“A client and a very good friend,” Nolan replied. “And he’s the answer to everything.”

I
watched him sleep
.

It was still hard to believe he was back in my life. It was even harder to believe I’d allowed him back in so easily. But pretending to be hesitant would have been me lying to myself; as if I’d ever had a choice when it came to him.

He was so handsome. Stubble marked his face. Nolan was someone who needed to shave daily. He was a man full of testosterone, someone who could have probably grown a mountain man’s beard in a week.

My mind wandered and I imagined what he might look like with such a beard. Shirtless, chopping wood next to our cabin, deep in the woods somewhere. Maybe in the mountains around Lake Tahoe. He looked damn good. I squeezed my thighs together to stifle what the image in my brain was doing to my body.

He laid in the compact bed of the plane, his muscled forearms crossed over his chest, his face so peaceful.

How he could sleep right now, I would never know.

I looked out the window into the night. It was cloudless as the Gulfstream glided through the sky. It was dark below, the occasional small city’s lights dotting the way. I wondered what state we were over now. I envied the people below us, all sleeping soundly, living lives of simplicity with the people they loved. I let my mind drift from Nolan the mountain man to Nolan the average Joe, wondering what it would be like to live in one of those houses with Nolan, Nolan the mechanic or carpenter or fireman. A “normal” kind of life of barbecues and, someday, PTA meetings. Only the dull ache Nolan’s cock left in my core reminded me that no life with him, no matter how mundane, could ever be “normal.”

Still, it was something I would have done anything to have. Normalcy. Happiness. A life with a distinct lack of surprises.

I thought of my father. Wherever he was, was he happy? Did he miss me?

Would I ever really see him again?

If Nolan said I would, I had to believe him. It was all that was getting me through this.

* * *

“
G
ood morning
, passengers,” the pilot’s voice crackled over the speaker. “Just letting you know we’re about 30 minutes from Vancouver and should be landing shortly.”

The pilot’s voice shook me from a deep and dreamless sleep.

I sat up in my chair, already regretting falling asleep in it. My neck and back were sore, my mind in a fog, adjusting to where I was.

“Camilla.”

His voice stirred me awake.

“We’re almost there?” I said stretching. “I feel like we just left. I’m so tired.”

“I promise, I’ll get you straight to the hotel and you can sleep all day if you want,” Nolan said.

“No, I’m okay,” I said, sitting up. “I’ll be fine. The sooner we meet with Emerson Titan, the sooner I can see my father. I don’t want to waste any time on things like sleep.”

“Camilla, being exhausted isn’t going to make things happen faster,” Nolan replied. “It’s just going to make time move much more slowly. Rest is going to be important.”

I sighed. Sometimes he spoke to me like I was a girl, but when his hands and mouth were on my body I was all woman. His woman. Maybe.

I didn’t know what we were to each other, to be honest.

When we disembarked from the jet we were met by two tall, imposing men in sleek black suits and dark sunglasses.

“What, we need the secret service while we’re here?” I asked. “To protect us?”

Nolan shook his head as we headed to the waiting SUV. “They’re here to protect Emerson. They’re his men. He never leaves home without them. And he never meets anyone unless they’re escorted by these guys.”

I stared at the bodyguards, their expressions revealing nothing. They were fortresses of men; the sorts of men I would want to be by my side if I was ever worried about the wrong kinds of people coming after me.

We slid into the back seat of the black Range Rover, Nolan immediately putting his hand on my thigh, making goosebumps rise on my skin again.

“You’ve never been in a safer vehicle than this one,” he said, as one of Emerson’s men slid into the driver’s seat. The sound of the locks going down made me jump.

“Yeah? What is it, bullet proof?” I joked, grabbing on to his muscled arm as we began to drive off the tarmac. The driver still hadn’t spoken a word to us, despite clearly being able to hear our conversation.

“More than that. It’s IED proof. It has a blast-proof undercarriage. The windshield can take a .308 caliber rifle that shoots armor-piercing rounds,” Nolan explained. “It’s pretty amazing how they do it. A company in South Carolina completely disassembles the vehicle and re-engineers everything they possibly can from the wheels up, with safety and security in mind. The added weight means the engine has to be modified as well, more powerful. It doesn’t come cheap. Oh. And it has plenty of cup holders. Almost too many, really.” He winked at me. “It’s made especially for diplomats and billionaires. The President travels in limousines identical to this, although his have a few offensive capabilities that this one doesn’t. Classified stuff.”

Suddenly, I was nervous. Why the hell did we need to travel in something like this?

Nolan must have sensed my apprehension. “Don’t worry. This is just how Emerson rolls. We’re not in any danger at the moment.”

At the moment
. Great.

* * *

W
e arrived
at the Four Seasons less than twenty minutes after disembarking. And fatigue was hitting me hard. I yawned next to Nolan as we pulled up, my head on his shoulder. He touched my cheek affectionately.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said.

I laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure I’m really beautiful right now. Exhausted and still wearing the same clothes as yesterday.”

“You’re stunning,” he said, leaning over to whisper in my ear. “I can’t stop thinking about how quickly I need to get you alone in our suite.”

I smiled, my heart thumping against my chest. Could he hear it?

“Isn’t Emerson here?” I asked.

Nolan nodded. “He’s somewhere in the vicinity. But we have time before we see him.”

Suddenly, I wasn’t so tired anymore.