“I was just as surprised about it as you are mom,” Daniel said.
“What do you mean surprised? She did come all the way to Belize to tell you,” Eleanor said.
“So, what are you trying to say, mom? That I held this vital piece of information from you?” Daniel asked. The agitation in his voice was obvious. He was looking at Melanie as he talked. “Because that is downright accusatory and without any leg to stand on,” he added. Eleanor was quiet for a long minute before she spoke.
“All, I’m saying is that information like this should be shared,” she said calmly.
“And she will share it, mom. When she is good and ready,” he said. Erica looked at Daniel and she could tell he was not enjoying this conversation one bit. She looked at him and held his hand.
“You are going to be here for the board meeting, right?” she asked. He looked at Erica and sighed.
“We’ll talk later mom. And call your daughter. She is the one who got married and not to me, if I must state the obvious,” he said before he hung up. Her mother had said that she loved him but he had hung up too fast for him to realize or even hear. “Guys I hate to cut this lunch short but Erica and I have to leave,” he said. He leaned over and kissed Melanie’s cheek softly and then smiled at Sullivan. “See you later brother in law,” he said before he and Erica began walking away.
“So dinner, then? Or drinks?” Melanie called after him.
Daniel looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. They walked in silence back to their suite and all the while, Erica almost knew exactly what was going through his mind. She sat down and looked at him as he poured himself a shot of brandy.
“Drink?” he asked.
“I don’t really know why we are drinking,” she said.
He looked at her and shrugged before he downed the contents of his glass.
“We need to talk,” he said as he sat down next to her. He looked into her eyes and sighed. She forced out a smile.
“We are having the talk, aren’t we?” she asked. He looked at her and nodded. She let out a loud sigh. “I kind of had a feeling,” she said in a soft voice. He looked at her and smiled.
“I have to go back home. There is some kind of emergency board meeting or something,” he said. She nodded. “And you know I wouldn’t go unless I really had to,” he said.
“I know,” she said in a soft voice. He looked at her and she could see her eyes welling up. “So this is over?” she asked. He held her face in his hands and pressed his lips to her forehead.
“This will never be over,” he said in a soft voice. He looked at her and caressed her chin with his thumb. “Unless you want it to be over,” he added.
She raised her gaze to look into his eyes. “I would never want it to be over.”
“Then that’s it. I hate playing this card but now I have to. I am worth a lot of money and if I have to I will fly to Philly every single day just for you,” he said. She smiled and nodded. “There’s that beautiful smile. Now, here’s the plan. You come with me to Seattle and then we stay there for a couple of weeks and then we go down to Philadelphia. How does that sound?” he asked. She looked into his eyes and smiled.
“That sounds perfect,” she said in a whisper. But something else dawned on her. Going to Seattle meant meeting his family. “Wait, isn’t it a bit too soon to meet the folks?”
“My sister just eloped. I am going to score major points for taking my lady home,” he smiled. She looked at him and smiled. He took her hands in his and kissed them.
“I cannot believe that I am about to go meet my boyfriend’s family after just one month,” she said.
“Did you just call me your boyfriend?” he asked.
She smiled and shrugged.
“Well, that’s what you are, right?” He leaned in and kissed her again.
Everything was working out the way it was supposed to. Her blog had taken off and for the first time, she understood what it meant to be a professional blogger. The returns she was getting from her site was not much but she was happy she could do it anywhere.
“So when do we leave?” she asked.
Daniel looked at his phone and shrugged.
“I think we can still milk a few days out of this place before we leave, right?”
“I guess you are right,” she said. He looked at her as her phone rang, interrupting the serenity of the moment. She looked at it and smiled. “Is everyone in the States having an early morning today?” she asked.
Daniel kissed her forehead.
“I’ll let you break the news to her,” he said as he stood up. She picked up the phone with a smile. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest as she said a breathy ‘Hi Em’.
“You sound out of breath. Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” Emily asked. Erica laughed and shook her head as if her sister could see her.
“I’m coming home,” she said.
“What?” Emily asked. Erica smiled and looked at Daniel.
“I’m coming home,” she said again.
The end.
If you enjoyed this ebook, I'd greatly appropriate it if you could leave a review on the Amazon Kindle store. By doing so you'll allow me more time to write these books for you as they'll get more exposure. So thank you. :)
Get Another BWWM eBook Free!
Hi there. As a special thank you for buying this ebook, for a limited time I want to send you another two completely free of charge directly to your email! You can get it by clicking the cover below or going here:
Direct link: www.saucyromancebooks.com/love-contemporary-or-bwwm-romance-books
These books are so exclusive you can't even buy them. When you download them I'll also send you updates when new books like this are available.
Now, if you enjoyed the book you just read, please leave a review of it on Amazon. It'll help get it out there a lot more and mean I can continue writing these books for you. So thank you. :)
More Books By J A Fielding
This is part 2 in the series. If you haven't read part 1 yet, you can see it here:
Passion Abroad (preview below).
Passion Overseas.
Passion Abroad Preview
Here's a preview of Passion Abroad:
Erica Hayes had spent the better part of the weekend sending back the wedding gifts. Writing the apologies was the hardest part and as much as she hated doing it, the truth was that she could not stand having gifts that reminded her of the wedding that was supposed to take place. She took a deep breath when she was done writing the last note and put it in the envelope. She never really did understand why the woman was always left to deal with the mess in the aftermath. She always wondered why it couldn’t be the other way round. Maybe for once men needed to have a taste of what life was like when the shoe was on the other foot. She sat down and sighed before switching on the TV. From the corner of her eye, she could see her phone screen blinking on and off. She had put her phone on silent mode and unhooked her house phone. She needed her space. She needed the silence. And it was better that way because every time her phone would ring it would be some person with heartfelt apologies about her wedding and honestly she’d heard enough of that already.
As she sat there, she thought of Eli and the times they’d had. But even though she was trying to focus on the better days of the relationship, her memories seemed set on the day she busted Eli cheating…
It was on a Thursday afternoon and she was feeling on top of the world as she walked to her white BMW.
“You really showed them, Hayes,” Morris Kirkland, her boss said with a smile.
“Thanks, Mr. Kirkland,” she said with a smile. Morris leaned on the hood of her car and looked at her.
“You keep that up and I will definitely be seeing you in the partnership list soon,” he said. Erica smiled and nodded.
“That is perfect because I have really been wondering when that raise was going to come,” she said. Morris smiled and then laughed.
“At this
rate, sooner than you think,” he said before he walked away leaving Erica standing there with butterflies in her tummy. She could not help but feel proud of herself. She had taken on one of the most difficult cases she had ever heard of and she had killed it. A five million dollar settlement was not something people expected especially since the initial offer had been four hundred thousand dollars. Actually, no one had seen that coming, not even the other lawyers. Everyone thought that she would probably get a million or a million and a half, not more than that. Guess everyone was more than a little shocked when they heard the ruling.
As soon as she got in the car, she cranked up the radio and smiled to herself as she sang along to Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer.
“Oh yeah. There ain’t no school like the old school,” she thought as she sang along. She passed by Antonio’s Grill, one of her favorite restaurants. She had made it a habit to get a celebratory dinner of ravioli and cherry tomatoes from Antonio’s and as usual, she always got two dinners. She had just walked out of Antonio’s when she decided to give Eli a heads up and let him know she was on her way.
“That’s odd,” she thought when Eli didn’t pick up. “Maybe he is in the bathroom or something,” she thought as she started her car. She shrugged and buckled in before she began driving home. She had considered getting a touch up on her hair but she shrugged the thought off. “If it was good enough for the jury, then it is good enough for Eli,” she said to herself as she caught a glimpse of her reflection.
Erica liked to consider herself as a small person with a big personality. She had learned to love and appreciate her height the day she discovered high heels. After spending her years in high school and college being the short girl, she had made a decision to see her glass as half full especially since she was the most promising student in her class. After college, she got into the prestigious Kirkland & Smith, the leading law firm in the country and according to Forbes, the third largest firm in the UK and US combined. Most of her classmates were jealous since she was earning almost triple what they were making in her first year alone. Two months into the new job, Erica had already earned a name for herself. She was like the Bethany Horowitz at Kirkland & Ellis, small but dangerous.
When she finally got home, she looked at her reflection in the mirror before she pulled out the pin that held her loose bun in place, letting her thick luxurious brown hair flow on her shoulders. She grabbed the takeout boxes from Antonio’s Grill and stepped out of the car but when she saw her reflection in the driver seat window, she frowned. She put the boxes on the car roof before she took off the jacket she had on leaving her in a cream colored pencil button down knee-length dress. Braving the cold Vermont weather would definitely be worth it in a few minutes. She twisted her head to the side wondering what to do to look a little sexier, not that she needed any help or anything.
“A button or two should do the trick,” she thought as she undid two buttons –and then a third. A smile played on her lips when she saw how perfect her cleavage looked. It was like looking at two amazingly perfect cushions on her chest. She grabbed her bag and the takeout boxes before she walked into the house.
“Eli! Babe I’m home,” she announced when she walked into the three bedroom house she shared with her fiancé. She looked around the living room and raised an eyebrow. There were two wine glasses and some Chinese takeout boxes. The TV was on but there was no sign of Eli. She shook her head as she put her bag down and kicked off her shoes before she began clearing the table. This was classic Eli. He would always entertain his friends and forget or ignore to clean up. “Too bad you ruined your appetite. I brought us ravioli for dinner and you know what that means. I won!” she said excitedly as she walked the two glasses to the kitchen. She put her hands on the counter and wondered why Eli was not answering. A smile played on her lips when she realized that Eli must have been in the bathroom. He hated talking while on the can. He always said it was bad manners. But Erica could not wait to share her good news. She quickly made her way out of the kitchen and began walking down the hallway. But when she touched the doorknob, her heart skipped a beat. She saw a shoe outside her bedroom door, a shoe that didn’t belong to her. She tried taking deep breaths as she walked towards her bedroom. There was no telling what she would find. Her mind was going crazy with all the different but possible scenarios waiting for her on the other side of the door. When she got there and pushed the door open, she gasped in anticipation but all she saw was an empty bed. An empty unmade bed. She looked around and blinked back tears when she saw a black satin skirt and a flowered blouse on the floor. She could hear the shower running in the bathroom and the clothes on the floor along with the unmade bed told her more than she needed to know. But for some reason, she found herself slowly walking towards the bathroom. She wanted to stop herself but for some crazy reason, she couldn’t.
“Oh my God,” she said in a low voice when she opened the bathroom door and came face to face with a naked Eli who was pinning a naked woman to the bathroom wall. She opened her mouth to speak but she was not sure what she was supposed to say. She gave him a disappointed look before she pulled off the princess cut engagement ring and threw it at him. She spun on her heel and walked out of the bedroom leaving Eli calling out to her but she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear anything he had to say. All she knew was that the wedding was off and she could not stand being in that house a second longer. As the tears finally began rolling down her cheeks, Eli chased after her as she ran out to her car and started the engine. As she drove away, the red Prius parked opposite her house finally registered in her mind. She had seen it before, many times before…which meant that this, Eli’s indiscretions had been going on for a while. As she drove off, she could not help but wonder if he had cheated on her because she was always busy working.
“No, this has nothing to do with you, Erica. He made the choice to cheat because he didn’t deserve you,” she told herself as she drove off but even those encouraging words were not enough to make her feel better about herself. The next thing she knew, Eli’s stuff was gone from the house. He had moved out and moved on with his life without giving her as much as an explanation. And even though Erica knew she deserved an explanation, she didn’t really want anything that reminded her of Eli’s betrayal.
Erica was staring at the ceiling with the sounds of Pierce Morgan in the background when she heard her apartment door open. She rolled her head to the side to see her sister Emily and her longtime friend Cassandra walking in.
“That officially marks the last service provider canceled,” Cassandra said as she sat down next to Erica.
“Thanks guys, I couldn’t have done this without you,” Erica said forcing out a smile.
“By the way, you should really lock up. The world is a dangerous place to be in nowadays,” Emily said in a cheerful voice. Erica looked at her and shook her head.
“I literally live in a building practically owned by the police department,” she said. That may have not been reason enough but for her it was enough. It had always been enough knowing that eighty per cent of her neighbors had firearms; legal firearms.
“Well, we came bearing gifts,” Emily said as she pulled out a bottle of champagne from the brown paper bag she was carrying. “We pinched it from the caterer’s van. I mean, they shouldn’t get to keep everything right?” she asked.
“Yeah, they are keeping the security deposit,” Cassandra said matter-of-factly. Erica looked at the two and shook her head.
“I hate to burst your bubble guys but you do know that bubbly is usually used for celebrating stuff right?” she asked. Emily and Cassandra looked at each other and smiled before Emily popped the bottle.
“Well, we are celebrating,” Emily said. Erica raised an eyebrow. She wanted to ask what her sister meant but she was too tired to let her brain work out the kinks. “Well, you and Eli are officially over and trust me, if ever there was a reason to celebrate, this is it,” Emily added with a smile. Erica shook her head and grabbed the bo
ttle from her sister before taking long gulps from the bottle.
“You do have glasses, right?” Cassandra said as she held her long dark hair up in a bun. Erica put the bottle down and stifled a burp. “Well,” Cassandra pressed. Erica rolled her eyes and walked to the kitchen. She caught a glimpse of the matching his and her mugs. Normally, she would have smiled and probably held Eli’s cup in her hands, maybe even kissed it at some point. She sighed and dumped the two mugs in the trash causing Cassandra and Emily to run into the kitchen. “Are you okay?” Cassandra asked when she and Emily walked in.
“Yeah we heard something break,” Emily said.
Erica turned around and smiled at them. “Never better.”
Emily looked inside the bin and smiled. “I also thought a little spring cleaning could do this place some good,” she said.
Erica smiled and reached for the wine glasses.
“So, what exactly are we drinking to?” Erica asked as she leaned against the counter.
Cassandra handed her a glass and smiled.
“There is the obvious reason, freedom from Eli but then again we could also just celebrate the fact that you never have to be in the same room with his family ever again,” she said. Emily laughed and Erica nodded. Cassandra was right. One of the best things about her and Eli being over was never having to spend a day with Eli’s judgmental family ever again. She raised her glass and took a long sip.
“You know what I don’t get?” Emily started as she looked through Erica’s fridge. “The fact that men get off so easily.” Erica’s eyes lit up when her sister said that.
“Funny. I was just thinking that before you guys came in,” Erica started. “When a high school girl gets pregnant, she has to take a year or two before she goes back to school. But the guy could very well be on to his next target, maybe even getting another teenager pregnant,” she said.
Passion Overseas: A Billionaire BWWM Holiday Romance Page 13