Sailor stared at him for a long moment and then nodded. She helped him carry all of the canvases out into the yard, and they piled them up. She tried not to look at them, but sometimes she would catch a glimpse and be sickened. Claudio saw her face, and she saw he was ashamed.
When they had set the pile alight, they stayed to watch them burn. “I will seek counseling,” Claudio promised her, putting his arm around her shoulders. “And I’m sorry, Sailor, I truly am.”
“Then come and see your godchild,” she urged him. “Come see your best friend. Bodhi is still devastated over your estrangement. Please.”
Claudio looked away from her. “I can’t,” he said, “too much time has passed.”
“Don’t you think, Claudio, that if you and I can reach this place, you and Bodhi can too?” Sailor felt despairing; if Claudio didn’t reconcile with Bodhi, then what had she just gone through this for?
Sailor felt tears threatened and Claudio took her face in his hands. “Beautiful Sailor, I am sorry. For what I thought, for what I did. For assaulting you today. Please forgive me.”
“I do forgive you.” Sailor was weeping now, “I just can’t bear to see you both so miserable without each other.”
“I deserve the misery,” he said, and walked her back to her car. Sailor opened the door but shut it again quickly.
“We’re getting married. Next August, here in Italy. If you won’t come before then, please, come be with us at our wedding. At least,” she was desperate now, “at least promise me you’ll think about.”
Claudio held her gaze. “I will. I will think about it, I swear.”
Sailor gave him one last hug and got into her car. As she drove down the hillside, she could see the fire blazing, a figure standing in front of it, still watching her drive away.
She couldn’t help but feel a sense of disappointment, even though there was still hope there. She wanted so badly to reunite her lover with his best friend.
Her cell phone rang and Sailor remembered she hadn’t called Bodhi back. She pulled the car over to the side of the road and answered it.
“Hi, baby.”
“Jesus H. Christ.” She heard Bodhi’s voice, the terror in it. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Of course not, honey. Calm down, breathe. I’m sorry I didn’t call you back right away.”
He obviously knew where she had gone. She heard his ragged breathing as he steadied himself. “God, Sailor, the images in my head …”
Sailor thought back to Claudio’s paintings but shook the images away. Bodhi need never know about them. “Why are you concerned?” she asked lightly. “It’s only Claudio.”
When he spoke, there was ice in his voice. “Don’t lie to me, Sailor. You’ve never done that before; it’s not like you. I know what Claudio had been thinking these last years. Did he hurt you?”
Sailor bit her lip. Did she lie again? “No, but it was a difficult conversation.” At least that was true. “And I failed. We reached an understanding but he won’t …” Her voice choked up then, and she began to cry. “I’m so sorry, Bodhi. I thought I could make him see, make him want to reconcile with you.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” His voice was soft now. “I love you for trying, but this all has to come from Claudio.”
Sailor wiped her tears with the sleeve of her sweater. “And I didn’t go to Vinci to get you a gift.”
Bodhi laughed. “Hey, pretty girl, look up ahead.”
She looked up to see Vittoria’s SUV driving toward her, her lover behind the wheel. She had never been so glad to see him and when he parked in front of her and got out, she went straight into his arms. “You came to get me.”
“Of course I did.” He kissed her tenderly. “Man, you are the bravest person I know, and you keep proving it over and over.”
She flushed but looked at him with serious eyes. “You knew? About the paintings?”
He nodded. “I did. Did he show you them?”
“Yes. And then we burned them together.”
She saw Bodhi’s shoulders slump. “Thank God.” His arms tightened around her. “Sailor … all I ever wanted to do was protect you and our family. Forgive me for not telling you about Claudio’s … psychosis?”
“If you’ll forgive me for today.”
“Deal. God, when you called, I thought I might drive the car off the road with relief. Let’s just hang here for a while so I can get my blood pressure down.”
Sailor grinned wickedly at him. “Actually, I was just thinking I might try and raise your blood pressure. There are some shady cypress trees over there.”
Bodhi laughed. “Then send it through the roof, baby.”
And, laughing, they were soon making love under the trees. Bodhi thrust into her as she lay beneath him, and she gazed up at him. “You know how much I love you?”
Bodhi grinned and rammed his cock deep into her, making her moan. “As much as this, and this, and this …”
Tuscany, Italy
August
Sailor stood at the doorway to the villa that she and Bodhi had purchased a little over a year ago. She breathed in the sultry, warm air of the Tuscany hills, listening to the quiet murmur of their guests as they waited for her in the makeshift aisle under the pergola. Her daughter Solly was playing with her little basket of rose petals, eager to walk with her mother down the aisle.
She heard a noise behind her and turned, her hand flying up to her mouth when she saw who was behind her. The surprise and joy flooded through her and tears started to drop down her face.
“I thought you weren’t going to come, I thought … oh my God …”
And she ran into Claudio’s arms. He hugged her tightly. “I could not stay away, not today. I’m sorry I did not come before.”
Sailor smiled up at him with tears in her eyes. “Come meet your goddaughter.”
Solly beamed up at Claudio as Sailor introduced her, and raised her arms to him. “Hug.”
Claudio laughed and swung her up into his arms. “Hello there, Solly.” He studied her dark curls, her bright green eyes, and her café-au-lait skin. He smiled at Sailor.
“She is the perfect mix of you and Bodhi.”
Sailor nodded, too emotional to speak. He was here … she’d sent him the invitation, and written on the back:
No pressure, but, God, it would be good to have you there.
She’d thought long and hard and then added an extra note, and now Claudio took it out of his pocket, his expression shy. “And I could not resist your kind offer, so … if you would still like it, I would be honored to walk you down the aisle.”
Sailor burst into tears but smiled, nodding. “Oh yes, please, please …”
Five minutes later, she had gathered herself as the music began to play outside. Claudio nodded to her. “Are you ready, Sailor?”
“I am.”
He held out his arm, and she took it, his hand supporting her as they walked to the door. Solly ran ahead at full speed, but Sailor didn’t care. Everything was perfect now.
Bodhi couldn’t believe his eyes. For a moment, all he had seen was his beautiful fiancée walking towards him, dressed in a simple but beautiful white dress. It took a second to register who was walking with her, supporting her. His eyes met Claudio’s and his friend, his best friend since childhood, acknowledged him with a nod and a tentative smile, before looking back to the woman beside him with nothing but admiration and love in his eyes. As they approached, Bodhi stepped down to take Sailor’s hand from Claudio, and there was an unspoken communication between to the two men.
Sailor murmured a thank you to Claudio, and he stepped back and took his place next to Bodhi’s mom. Vittoria was already crying.
Stunned by Claudio’s appearance, Bodhi nevertheless now had only eyes for one person. His Sailor, his love.
“You look beautiful,” he whispered to her. “I love you.”
“I love you,” she whispered back and grinned. Bodhi reached out and put his hand on her eight-and
-a-half-months pregnant belly. Sailor had given him a Christmas gift after all.
In moments, they were officially married, and the party had begun. Bodhi and Claudio spent time alone talking to each other, encouraged by Sailor, who didn’t mind sharing her husband on this day. Her friends, Bay and Tom Meir, Emily Moore and Dash Hamilton, were there. Evan Teal had come stag and Sailor was determined to fix the shy man up. Friends of Bodhi’s were there, Grady and Flori Mallory, and Maceo and Orianthi Bartoli, as well as other people from the local village.
The wedding part went way long into the night. Guest started to drift away until just a few were left, sitting around the garden, the trees lit up with lanterns, a small brazier warming the already hot night. Sailor sat, wrapped in her new husband’s arms, perched on his lap and smiled up at him.
“Now I can believe we’ve made it, hubby.”
Bodhi chuckled. “Me too, wifey. And later, when all these freeloaders have gone, I’ll show you just how much I love you.”
Sailor chuckled, brushing her lips. “Well, I hate to break it to you, Mr. Creed, but I think your baby son has other ideas.”
Bodhi suddenly felt a dampness on his leg. Sailor looked guilty as she grinned at him. “Oops.”
Bodhi groaned and laughed at once. “Girl, you have the worst timing. Come on. Let’s get you to hospital …”
Bodhi gazed down at his newborn son with wonder in his eyes. Sailor grinned at his expression. “He looks just like you, gorgeous,” she said. “Come sit with me.”
She shifted over in the bed and Bodhi perched next to her, cradling Adamo Timothy Claudio Creed in his arms. “He’s perfect.”
Sailor smiled up at her husband, her heart at peace at last. “Just like his father,” she whispered, and Bodhi tilted her face up so he could kiss her and show her just how much he loved her.
The End.
Mr. Montgomery
A Billionaire Romance
When He Desires
Desire, Danger, Lust.
Sloan Whitlock is a busy woman. Entering her final semester of grad school, she’s completely focused on her work, but when a misunderstanding threatens her life, everything changes.
Lucas Montgomery was one of the wealthiest and most successful men in the city, and he’s not used to hearing the word no. When he catches sight of Sloan at Club 9, he knows he has to have her. She was a vision of innocence, and he’s desperate to have a taste.
She meant nothing to him until someone decided that Lucas would pay dearly for her safety. Now she has to rely on him to protect her, and attraction between them heats up. Common sense tells her to keep him at arm’s length, but her body burns for him.
Can he keep her safe and convince her to change her mind?
Chapter 1
Sloan
The music pumped through the speakers, and I swayed lightly on the balls of my feet. I wasn’t much of a dancer, but it didn’t look like anyone else in the club could dance either. The floor was so packed that bodies rubbed up against each other as they jumped and gyrated. Shoved into a corner, I gripped a bottle of beer in one hand and kept a tight grip on my phone in the other.
Sweaty and more than a little drunk, my roommate Randi danced her way to me and snagged my beer. Taking a long sip, she frowned at me. “Sloan, that phone better be out because you’re collecting phone numbers from hot guys,” she yelled at me.
“I’m just checking it,” I shouted back over the base of the music. “The dress is too damn short, and I’m afraid it’s going to fall out!” Because the dress she forced me to wear didn’t have any pockets, I had my card, car key, and phone strapped in a small pouch against my thigh. It was a little uncomfortable, but I knew that I’d lose a purse if I tried to bring it.
“Girl, that dress looks sexy as hell!” She handed me back my beer and turned to smile at the man standing next to me. Randi was an exotic beauty. In a city of fake tans, her own Latin blessed skin was always dark and smooth. Her streaked dark hair fell to the middle of the back, and she had those perfectly pouty lips. Everywhere we went, she drew the attention of most of the male population.
And, if I were being honest, quite a few females as well.
I, on the other hand, was easily overlooked. No matter how hard I tried, my Irish skin refused to tan. My long auburn hair curled on a good day but usually stayed in a tangled frizzy mess. To tame it, I usually kept it pulled back either in a bun or tied at the nape of my neck. I tried to cut it once, but it was a year-long disaster. I wasn’t the kind of woman to spend any significant amount of time in front of the mirror primping and preening, so my hair was a mess that could not be tamed.
I wasn’t a complete disaster. I do have nice green eyes, but I was already forced to wear reading glasses. As a student, my nose was usually stuck in a book, and the glasses felt like a permanent fixture on my face.
These days, looks were not all that important to me. I was one semester short of graduating with my Master’s in Childhood Education. I was a busy girl.
Tonight was Randi’s birthday, and she literally threatened me with hell and high water if I didn’t go out with her. Disgusted with most of my own clothes, she squeezed my curves into a short and slinky green halter dress. I felt completely exposed.
“You haven’t danced with a single guy since we got here,” she accused me. “We’re supposed to be having fun!”
“You’re supposed to be having fun,” I corrected her. “And from what I can tell, you’re having a ton of fun. Let me get you a drink, and you can find your next victim.”
“You’re impossible,” she growled, but she didn’t stop me as I leaned over the bar and waved down the bartender. One good thing about my outfit was that I didn’t have to wait for my drinks. My tits were practically spilling out of my top, and the bartender couldn’t stop looking at them.
“A tequila shot for my friend. No training wheel,” I ordered. He stared at my cleavage the whole time he poured.
“You should give him your number,” Randi muttered in my ear.
I just shook my head. While I was pretending to enjoy myself, the truth was that I was scrolling through the latest email from Professor Elliot. My advisor had pretty much torn my thesis idea to shreds. Of course, at the end he had written excellent start.
What the hell did that even mean? I couldn’t help but obsess.
Randi downed her tequila shot and scanned the crowd. I knew she was looking for her next dance partner, but suddenly, she reached over and grabbed my arm. “Sloan,” she shouted in my ear. “That guy is staring at you.”
“He’s probably staring at you,” I said absently as I held my empty beer bottle up. The bartender popped the cap off another one and handed it to me.
Her nails dug almost painfully into my skin. “Believe me, I wish he was staring at me. He’s got to be the sexiest guy in here.”
Curious, I turned around to follow her line of sight. Above us, on the second floor balcony, the man leaned over the bannister. Randi wasn’t lying. He looked like sin personified. Dark hair swept low over piercing blue eyes and curled at the nape of his neck. His stubble didn’t do anything to hide his strong square jaw, and it was clear that he was tall and built.
Chills raced down my spine. He did seem to be staring at me. I’d indulged in some loaded fries earlier. Maybe I had parsley stuck in my teeth. Self-consciously, I turned and ran my tongue over them before I tilted back my beer.
“Go talk to him,” Randi urged me.
“Hell, no,” I muttered. It was too quiet for her to hear, but I’m sure she knew exactly what I had said. Randi had been my best friend and roommate for two years. She knew my weaknesses and limitations. I didn’t talk to men. Lately, I’d been hiding behind the fact that I was so busy with school, but she knew that I was still hurt from my last relationship.
My one and only boyfriend, Victor Willis, had spent two years keeping me down before I realized he was cheating on me. That was six months ago, and I hadn’t even tried to hook up wit
h anyone since.
“Suit yourself. I’m going to go dance.” Randi gave me a disgusted look before heading back to the dance floor. Two of her friends had made it to the edge, and she sandwiched herself between them and gave everyone quite a show.
I envied Randi’s confidence. She could use her body like a weapon, but she was also brilliant. As a student of childhood psychology, she was often the driving force behind my teaching theories, but while I had to spend almost every minute working, she could go on a weekend bender and still ace her Monday test.
Once again left to my own device, I returned my attention back to my phone. I typed a quick reminder to myself when someone rammed into me.
Gasping, I stumbled back and dumped my beer all over myself.
“Damn it,” I swore. Looking up, I tried to pinpoint the culprit, but there were too many people near me, and no one was paying any attention.
“At least it’s not my dress,” I grumbled as I leaned over the bar to grab some cocktail napkins. “Can I get some club soda?” I asked loudly.
To the dismay of some of the other patrons waiting, the bartender moved quickly to fulfill my request. Holding my phone between my teeth, I tried to maneuver through the crowd until I burst onto the patio. “I had a little accident,” I explained to the bouncer who stared at me like I’d lost my mind. Deeply breathing in the fresh air, I dipped the napkin in the club soda and tried to dab at my dress. I didn’t know what I expected it to do. It wasn’t just a little spot. The beer had spread from the straps all the way to my midriff and was slowly soaking through my skin.
My cleavage was sticky, and I reeked. Disgusted, I tossed the napkins and left the glass on the table. I kept several changes of clothes in the trunk of my car, and there was a tank-top and jeans in there that would get me through the rest of the night. Snagging my keys from the small pouch, I opened the gate of the patio and slipped out.
No Promises: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 64