“I’m afraid not, Mr. Spencer,” Novakoff said, his voice smooth. “We had an arrangement and you’re no longer able to uphold your end of the deal.”
“Do you want my car?” he asked, fumbling through his pockets. “Take it. It’s a Lambo. It’s worth a quarter of a million, easy. That plus the money I owe you. It’s wiping out my trust fund, but seriously dude, don’t kill me.”
“That covers a portion of your debt, but not all of it.” Novakoff paused for a moment, as if considering. Then his eyes shifted to me. “Ms. Whitbury, a proposal.”
My heart was in my throat, but I kept my expression still. “I’m listening.”
“As recompense for the trouble my men caused on his behalf, we will take care of Mr. Spencer for you.”
I glanced at Jude. His eyebrows twitched. This was my call.
“May I speak frankly?” I asked.
“Of course,” Novakoff said.
“That’s very generous, and he deserves everything that’s coming to him.” I looked back and shot Bobby a cool glare. “But I don’t want to have anyone killed. Even him.”
Novakoff tipped his head to me. “Very well. An alternative. I’ll give him a position cleaning toilets in one of my clubs. Hard work. Very… messy. He can work off his debt. It will take a long time, but for you, I am willing to be generous. After this, we let him go.”
Bobby made a strangled noise in his throat.
It was hard not to laugh at the thought of Bobby cleaning toilets. No inheritance. His trust fund drained. Broke and forced to work for a living? That was a fate worse than death to a guy like Bobby.
“I accept,” I said.
Novakoff gestured toward Bobby. “Take him and put him to work.”
“They aren’t going to kill him anyway, are they?” I whispered to Jude as Bobby tried to negotiate—his voice increasingly whiney—with the two men leading him away.
“No. He’s a man of his word.”
“All right, Ellis, I trust there is no need for more unpleasantness between us?” Novakoff asked.
Jude shook his head. “We’re good.”
“Bol’shoe spasibo,” Novakoff said, angling his head down.
Jude answered with a nod.
Novakoff barked a command in Russian and his men moved aside, giving us a way out.
“Ellis,” Novakoff said with another nod. “Until we meet again.”
“With respect, Novakoff, let’s hope we don’t,” Jude said.
“Indeed.”
Jude tightened his grip on my hand and led us to the exit.
35
Cameron
The early morning air was warm and the water sparkled in the sun. The lemon trees Bert had planted around the property filled the air with the light scent of fresh citrus. I stretched out my legs on the deck chair and adjusted my sunglasses. I still wore my silk nightie—peach with subtle gold accents—and I just might not bother getting dressed today.
After all, I’d survived being kidnapped by the mob. That called for a day in pajamas.
Jude came out onto the balcony with two mugs of coffee. He hadn’t dressed, either. His dark blue boxer briefs displayed his tempting bulge and hugged his thighs. His muscular upper body was on full display. Wide shoulders. Broad chest. Solid abs. Thick, tattooed arms.
“Enjoying the view?” he asked, his mouth turning up in a grin.
“How could I not? Look at you. You’re like a tattooed Greek god.”
Chuckling softly, he put our coffees down and stretched out in the other chair. “You’re really taking the day off, aren’t you?”
“I think it’s warranted.”
“Of course it is. I thought I was going to have to make you stay home. I was prepared to use force if necessary.”
My lips turned up in a smile and I peeked at him over the top of my sunglasses. “Maybe I should resist.”
“Maybe you should come here.”
He scooted over on his chair. I got up, set my sunglasses aside, and tucked myself against him. With my head on his chest, I draped my leg over his. Snuggled in as he wrapped his arm around me.
“That’s better.” He gently picked up my arm to inspect the rope burns on my wrist. My skin was raw and slightly bruised on both my wrists and above my ankles. “How does this feel today?”
“It looks worse than it feels. It’ll heal.”
He planted soft kisses on the inside of my wrist. “I’m sorry I let this happen.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“No, it’s Bobby Spencer’s fault.”
“I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that it was him. Is Novakoff really going to make him clean toilets?”
“That’s exactly what he’s going to do. Novakoff doesn’t fuck around.”
I slid my fingers through his chest hair. “Can you tell me what that was about?”
“Which part?”
“The part where the head of the Russian mafia let us go. Was it just me, or was he afraid of you?”
“Maybe a little afraid. He respects me at least.” He paused for a moment, tracing slow circles on my arm. “Not long after I moved to Miami, I helped a client with a situation that… let’s just say it put me at odds with Novakoff. I did a lot of damage to his organization. But in the process, I also saved his daughter’s life. In the end, we came to an agreement. A peace accord, you might say. He stays out of my business and I stay out of his.”
“So when his men kidnapped me…”
“It violated our agreement.” He took a deep breath. “The last thing I want is to be at odds with the Russians. Or anyone. Believe it or not, I’m a man of peace. But if I have to, I will go to war.”
“Thank you again.” I snuggled closer to him and his arm tightened around me.
He kissed my head. “I would have torn that entire fucking building to the ground if that’s what it took.”
“You know,” I said, picking myself up to look him in the eyes, “now that it’s over, you can finally retire.”
The corner of his mouth hooked. “I was thinking I might give up on that whole retirement idea.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. I actually hate golf.”
“Does that mean you want to keep the job?”
He brushed my hair back from my face. “Cameron, I want this job for the rest of my life.”
I smiled. “I don’t want you to go back to your loft. I don’t want you here because I need a bodyguard. I want you here because I love you. I love you so much and I want you to stay.”
“Wow, save a girl from a few guys with guns and I get a mansion out of the deal? I should have tried this years ago.”
I lightly smacked his chest.
He placed his fingers beneath my chin and titled my face toward his. Pressed a soft kiss on my lips. “I love you too. So much. I don’t ever want to be without you.”
Nestling against him, I traced his leg with my toe. Felt the warmth of his skin against mine. I was safe, protected in his embrace.
My heart was safe with him too.
“Did you see Nicholas downstairs?” I asked. “How’s Inda?”
“Yeah, he complained about me walking around in my underwear until I reminded him about the sex in the kitchen incident. And she’s fine. I think she already went for a run this morning.”
“Of course she did, she’s crazy. Nicholas was pretty badass yesterday, wasn’t he?”
“He was. I’m glad he was there.”
Nicholas and Inda worked for me, but really, they were so much more. They were my friends. Family, even. I was surrounded by a lot more love than I’d realized. I’d just needed to open my eyes and see it.
“You know, they might want more room if they decide to have kids,” I said. “I bet we could build an extension on their cottage. Add a playroom and a couple more bedrooms. Or maybe combine two of them. The other two never get used. What do you think?”
“I think that’s a great idea. You’re not going to move Bert int
o the other one, are you?”
“No, why?”
“He’s a magician with plants, but I think I’d feel like a high school kid sneaking around with his girlfriend all the time. He still tells me to have you back by curfew.”
I laughed.
He kept rubbing my arm, his soft touch soothing. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you want kids?”
I bit my bottom lip. “Yes. Do you?”
“Definitely.”
A giddy sense of joy swept through me. We were really having this conversation. “I actually want more than one. I grew up alone and it wasn’t all bad, but… I want at least two.”
“Good,” he said. “Because we’re going to make fucking adorable little redhead babies. It would be a shame to stop at one.”
I laughed and he squeezed me tight against him.
We spent a leisurely morning on the balcony, lying in each other’s arms. We kissed, and touched, and played. Got each other so hot, we started right there in the open, in front of the dolphins and sea turtles in the bay. Moved to the bedroom where our bodies tangled in the sheets. We were insatiable. And so in love.
Eventually hunger of a different sort won out. We peeled ourselves out of bed, dressed, and went downstairs. I took a quick call from Derek, just to get an update on the PR efforts.
“What’s the latest?” Jude asked after I hung up with Derek.
We sat at the kitchen island, the remnants of our midday grazing strewn across the counter. Leftover chicken and Spanish rice, fresh bread with butter and jam, and a perfectly delectable key lime tart Nicholas must have made this morning.
“Things are looking up. Sydney Phillips posted what she’s calling a clarification that’s essentially a retraction without admitting it’s a retraction. And several of the news outlets picked up the story about my charitable foundation.”
“That’s a better angle than Cameron Whitbury the sociopathic backstabber,” he said.
“I didn’t start the foundation for the media attention, but right now I’ll take the good press. Derek said someone interviewed Everly this morning and she charmed their faces off.”
“Sounds like the worst is behind you.”
I swiped my finger through the last of the key lime tart and licked it off. “As long as that video Aldrich has doesn’t get out. That could do more damage than everything else combined.”
“Don’t worry,” he said with a subtle turn of his lips. “That won’t be a problem much longer.”
36
Cameron
I checked Jude’s text. He’d said to meet him outside Beach Burgers at ten. It was an odd place to meet, but he’d said he had some business to take care of this morning. The burger place wasn’t open for another hour, but there was a tiki-hut style coffee bar that sold breakfast burritos, and a food truck parked nearby with a sign that said bubble waffles. Maybe he thought I’d never had street food before.
Of course I had. I wasn’t that fancy.
The sun blazed overhead, and the air felt still, almost no breeze coming off the water. It was going to be a scorcher. I was meeting my friends for DQB after this, so I’d chosen a black and white minidress with thin spaghetti straps. It was adorable, and short, and very much not a business suit. It felt good to tone down the CEO image once in a while.
I’d paired it with my favorite red suede and crystal Jimmy Choos. Because if there was anywhere a girl could wear a pair of red suede and crystal Jimmy Choos, it was Mordecai’s Bistro on a Sunday for Drag Queen Brunch.
Plus, they’d always be my favorite shoes. I’d even left the tiny tracking device Jude had installed. I liked knowing it was there. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, like even when we were apart, we were still connected.
And it gave me some fun ideas for a little roleplay. Just because he’d been a real spy didn’t mean we couldn’t have a little fun pretending. He’d be the sexy, sophisticated intelligence operative and I’d be the seductive femme fatale, my sultry temptations threatening his mission—
“Um, Cameron?”
I turned at the male voice, startled out of my brief fantasy—a male voice who was definitely not Jude. Aldrich stood near the Beach Burger deck stairs, dressed in a pale pink button-down and linen slacks. His hands were in his pockets and his shoulders slumped a little. He wasn’t quite looking me in the eye.
“Aldrich? What are you doing here?”
“I came to apologize,” he said. His facial hair had started to grow out—he usually shaved—and it wasn’t a good look on him. Too patchy. “For everything.”
I crossed my arms. “Oh?”
He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about the video. I shouldn’t have shared that with anyone.”
“You’re damn right you shouldn’t have shared it. You should have deleted it like you said you did, not secretly kept it, then passed it around for bragging rights. That was a dick move. And it wasn’t even very flattering to your dick.”
A handful of people glanced at us, but I didn’t really care.
“Jesus, Cameron, keep your voice down.”
I took a few steps closer. “I trusted you to keep it between us. And when you told me you’d deleted it, I trusted you again. What you did was a terrible betrayal. It was a shitty thing to do to a person you claimed to have cared about.”
“Yeah, I know. I also came to tell you that the video’s gone. Every copy. I swear to you, it’s true. I checked with everyone and made sure. It’s like it never existed.”
“Other than the fact that half a dozen of your friends probably jacked off to it like it was porn.”
He winced.
“They did? God, Aldrich, that’s disgusting.”
His eyes darted to something behind me, then back. “Yeah, that is kinda fucked up.”
“And what’s with buying shares of Reese Howard? Don’t try to tell me you just thought it was a good investment.”
“I did think it was a good investment.”
“Bullshit.”
“Fine, I thought I’d get some skin in the aerospace game because I knew it would piss you off. You fucking left me, Cameron. No woman has ever left me. I do the leaving.”
“I’m sorry to have ruined your perfect track record. Better luck with the next one.”
He shook his head and looked away.
“Aldrich, I left you because we weren’t good together. I wasn’t happy, and neither were you. I’m not the kind of woman you want. I’m too independent for you. I’m not arm candy. I have a very busy, fulfilling life of my own, and you weren’t interested in that.”
His brow furrowed. “Is that like saying it’s not you, it’s me?”
“No, I’m saying the problem was you.”
He let out an annoyed breath and his eyes darted past me again.
“Jude’s behind me, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Did he put you up to this?”
He hesitated. “He… made a strong suggestion. But I’m serious about the video. It’s gone.”
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. I could imagine how strong of a suggestion that must have been.
“Thank you for the apology. I still think you’re an asshole and my biggest regret is that it took me too long to realize it.” I took a step closer and lowered my voice. “I hope every time you sleep with another woman, you think of me, and wonder if right at that very moment, Jude is fucking me senseless with his enormous cock. And I can assure you, I will never, ever be thinking of you.”
I stepped back, feeling suddenly free, then turned around, dismissing Aldrich from my life forever.
And walked into the arms of the man who’d done more to love me in the short time he’d known me than anyone before him.
He slipped his hands around my waist and kissed me. “Sorry to spring that on you, but I thought you’d appreciate the chance to tie up loose ends.”
I looked up at him. At that square jaw and deep hazel ey
es. I loved him so much. “How much did you have to threaten him before he agreed to come?”
“Only a little.”
I playfully batted his chest.
He gently touched my face. I loved when he did that. “Are you good?”
“Yes. I feel great. Closure.”
“Good. That’s what I was hoping for.”
He offered me his arm and I tucked mine in his. We strolled along the walk, filled with the scent of sugar and deep-fried dough.
“I just wish I didn’t have that little doubt about the video,” I said.
“What doubt?”
“That someone still has a copy and it’ll come back to bite me someday.”
“That won’t happen.”
He said it with so much assurance, I stopped and looked up at him. “How do you know?”
“I made sure.”
“Jude, what did you do?”
I could see him trying not to smile, but there was smug satisfaction in his eyes. “A guy I know took care of it. He wrote a program that detects the exact file type and size, down to the byte, and corrupts it. It’s essentially a highly targeted computer virus.”
“I didn’t know that kind of thing existed.”
“It’s not exactly legal. In most countries, at least. The law is more open to interpretation in some places.”
“But how does this not-exactly-legal program know what devices to attack?”
He looked me in the eye. “I made Aldrich tell me.”
“Do I want to know how you did that?”
“Probably not.”
“Jude.”
He casually gestured back to where Aldrich had been standing. “He’s fine. You saw him.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I held him by the shirt and leaned him over the edge of a ten-story building,” he deadpanned.
I blinked at him. I had no idea if he was serious, or just messing with me. And I decided that maybe it was better if I didn’t know.
“We found them all,” Jude said. There was an edge to his voice. “Everyone he sent it to. Everyone they sent it to. I saw to it personally. And even if we missed one, I promise you don’t need to worry.”
The Mogul and the Muscle: A Bluewater Billionaires Romantic Comedy Page 25