The Corrupt Billionaire COMPLETE Box Set

by Hope, Camilla

  “What do you say?” he asked. “Shall we make it a date?”

  I liked the sound of that, but Danny cut me off before I could answer.

  “Whatever you need, man!” Danny said. “Uh… I mean… sir.”

  Peter laughed as he slapped Danny’s back.

  “Peter’s fine,” he said. “Let me know when you’re ready to display your wares.”

  He started to turn on his heel when he peered at me again, and his smile intensified.

  “And you will be there, too,” Peter said firmly.

  It wasn’t a question. Not a request. It sort of felt like a command. I should be tired of them after Adam’s stunt, but I liked the way he smiled when he said it.

  “Sure,” I whispered. “If that’s what you want.”

  “I do,” he said after a second of silence, and Peter gave Danny a light nod as he turned away. I watched the lean lines of his back, of his limbs, disappear back into the party.

  “Caroline?” Sabrina asked. “What’s going on?”

  I slipped into her arms, and as I pressed my hands to my chest, I looked to her with a fast-beating heart.

  “I don’t know what’s going on right now,” I whispered.

  Chapter Four

  We finally made our way to Wally’s after Danny basked in a few more promises to buy and a round of rapturous applause.

  As he took a bow, I felt a swell of pride at the sight of all that he had accomplished, and Sabrina whooped and whistled at my side. But before we were even seated in the back booth of Wally’s with shots and beers ready to go, I started to wonder if Danny was on a wave that would cause him to forget the card in his pocket. Maybe he was riding so high that he was ready to tell Peter to go screw. He might think that if the mystery man couldn’t play like the other patrons and buy a set of eyes, then he wasn’t worth Danny’s next morning. A million times on the ride to the bar, I nearly asked him if he was still going to keep the appointment with Peter. But every time I started to speak, I held back.

  “Big night!” Danny boomed as he hoisted his shot glass in the air and downed the contents in a single gulp. He winced for a second before chasing the tequila down with some beer, and then he tossed his head back in a wild animal cry as Sabrina burst into laughter.

  “Look at you,” she teased. “Total king of the world shit.”

  “You know it!” Danny said. “Did you see it?”

  He curved closer to me and wrapped his arm tight around my shoulders.

  “Sale after sale after sale!” he continued. “I told you that one day it would all be worth it.”

  I tried to smile as I sipped my beer. I had seen him working on caffeine highs and little to no sleep. I’d seen him sketching like a demon and splashing oil paints on the drop cloth as he tried to make the finished product the essence of what laid buried in his soul. In my eyes, it was always perfect. But it took until tonight, until this precise moment, for him to share in my thoughts.

  “And now it is,” I said. “I’m so happy for you Danny. Truly.”

  My lips met his cheek in a soft kiss, and I returned to my beer, stopping short of becoming a total cliché and sobbing in the suds. He’d either call Peter or he wouldn’t. I had no right to press the point, and my mind drifted back to the sight of my savior’s sculpted face when Sabrina kicked me under the table.

  “Ow! What the hell was that for?” I gasped.

  “For wearing your heart on your sleeve,” Sabrina teased. “You are so transparent.”

  “I am not, Bree! I…”

  “For Christ’s sake, Caroline! One bad run in with Adam, and then there’s this new guy. Just like magic. And you haven’t stopped thinking about him from the second he took off,” she said.

  I wanted to kick her back. I hated how she could read me like a dog-eared paperback. But when she was right, Sabrina was spot on. And when Danny grabbed my chin, I lowered my gaze to avoid his eyes.

  “That true?” he asked. “And here I thought you were just so happy for me.”

  “Oh, I am Danny!” I promised as I looked into his face again. “Don’t think that I don’t get how big this is for you. I…”

  My speech came to a crashing halt when he tried and failed to stifle a laugh, and he playfully nudged Sabrina’s ribs.

  “Don’t you love her voice when she’s trying to spin a thousand plates in the air?” he asked Sabrina.

  “Just one of her many charms,” Sabrina grinned.

  I relaxed as soon as I realized that they were just having me on, and I slapped Danny’s hand away with a smile when he tried to touch me again.

  “Jerk!” I hissed. “It’s not like I wasn’t proud of you.”

  “I got that,” Danny said. “But be real, Caroline. This is at the forefront of your thoughts.”

  He whipped out Peter’s card, and I felt my cheeks flush at the sight of it. Longing to know more about my unexpected hero, I tried to snatch the card from Danny’s grasp when he held it just over my head and giggled as I kept trying to reach for it.

  “Danny…”

  “Be cool,” Danny warned. “Or I might not call him.”

  “So… so you are going to…?”

  “Man looks like he has money,” Danny said. “I’m not going to pass that up. And I think…”

  He lowered the card into my hands, and as soon as my fingers surrounded the slim slip, I clutched it close with a smile. Not as soft as Peter’s hand. But it felt like a way in.

  “Look at it, Caroline,” he said. “You know you’re dying to.”

  I turned the card over in my hand, and my fingers traced the raised ebony type. Peter Barton, B.C., Inc. So whoever he was, he had a partner. Or maybe he was working for a company that dripped money and could demand private exhibitions since before A.D. was in vogue. I let those thoughts swirl around my brain, and my eyes moved to the phone number. Here was a way to contact him, and I nearly fished my phone out of my clutch. I could spin it; I could tell him Danny wanted me to set up the appointment. Maybe that’s what he wanted all along. But before I could make the move, Sabrina snatched the card away, gave it a quick glance, and held it under her hand.

  “Bree, what are you doing?” I said, shocked that she had snatched the card away.

  “It wasn’t so cut and dry was it?” she asked.

  “I don’t know what you mean…” I said.

  “Caroline, Adam’s a lot of things that I’d like to kick in the crotch,” she started. “But he wanted to see you tonight because he thought he could get you back. Maybe his funds are drying up or…”

  “Don’t do that, Sabrina,” Danny pleaded. They all knew that Adam got his money from Caroline but they never usually mentioned it.

  “Why not?” she challenged. “It’s the truth. And, sweetie…”

  She reached across the table and took my hands in hers, her touch suddenly warm and she stared hard into my eyes.

  “I just don’t buy that you sent him off all by your lonesome,” she continued. “I should never have left you alone with him.”

  “But you did,” I said. “Because I said I could handle it. And I did.”

  “Did you?” she asked. “Or did you have some help?”

  I swallowed as I glanced down at my lap and my mind shifted towards the moment when Peter saw me, saved me. My head spun from the shot and the beer, and I nodded slowly.

  “I did have help,” I confessed. “Peter was there. I… I don’t know what I would have done if he wasn’t.”

  My voice sounded small as I confessed, and when Sabrina pushed away from me, I took her gesture for one of disgust. But when I managed to lift my head again, I could see that her fury was not for me.

  “So it was a good thing the dude was there, then,” she said. “And maybe Danny should do as he asks.”

  I sighed when I realized that she was still firmly on my side, but before I could get the card back, she whipped out her phone as pushed her nails against the screen.

  “What are you doing?” I
asked.

  “Just want a few facts first,” Sabrina said. “Can’t be too careful.”

  I tapped my toes impatiently as I waited for the results of her search. But she might have a point. Maybe there was no Peter Barton and it was all part of a long con meant to lead Danny and me into some kind of a trap. It seemed crazy, but after everything that had gone down with Adam, could I truly trust any man ever again?

  “Huh,” Sabrina said as her fingers stilled and she focused on her phone.

  “What?” I asked. “What did you find out?”

  “See for yourself.”

  Sabrina handed her phone over, and I stared at the screen.

  There he was, clean-shaven, but there was no mistaking those dark eyes. I felt as if he was right here, right now, as they looked up at me. I barely had the chance to read the text under his image when Danny whistled.

  “Damn!” he started. “With all those restaurants, he ain’t never gonna go hungry. Dude’s loaded!”

  The proof was on the web page. Peter Barton had his finger in the pies of every eatery from Manhattan to LA and so many places in the middle. If his bio was to be believed, NYC was his home base. That explained why he was on the scene tonight.

  But as to why he wanted to see me again…

  “I’m sold,” Danny said. “I’m calling him now.”

  Danny nearly had the number dialed when I tried to wrestle the phone from his grip.

  “Wait!” I cried. “I’m not sure…”

  “Of course you are,” he said. “And I think we both want to see him again.”

  I couldn’t deny that, but I wanted a chance to tell Danny just what to say, how to play it so that…

  “Yo, Mr. Barton!” Danny said with a smile. “The artiste here!”

  I held my breath as I watched Danny listen into the phone. His eyes were unreadable as I heard Peter’s muffled voice pouring through the receiver, and I pressed my ear to the back of the phone, longing to hear just one clear word.

  “You got that?” I heard Peter’s voice say faintly.

  It was all I heard, and when I turned my eyes back to Danny’s, he was smiling.

  “That’s good for me. I’ll text you my address,” Danny said into his phone.

  I heard Peter say fine then, and just like that his voice was gone. Danny tossed the phone back to the table and grabbed hold of my arm.

  “We got our second meet!” he said. “Your boy might want to buy.”

  “And she sure wants to see him again,” Sabrina said with a grin.

  I stared to argue, but as soon as the words danced across my tongue, they spilled back in my throat. And for the moment, I choked them down. It was more than want, I needed to see him again.

  “So when’s the big moment?” Sabrina asked. “When does Caroline get to see her hero again?”

  “Tomorrow at ten,” Danny said. “And he says that we had best be prompt.”

  I could do even better than that.

  Chapter Five

  “Why is he late?”

  I paced Danny’s studio loft up and down and kept glancing at the old clock fixed to the wall. Every tick of the minute hand felt like a cruel laugh, like a stab right into the center of my heart. He said to be on time. And I was early. Nearly two hours if I was keeping check. And I was counting the seconds. So where was he? Why was he making us wait?

  Unless… was it possible that he really was just having us on? He got off on playing the hero, and now he might be smiling in one of his many restaurants, clear across the country, and having a laugh at my expense.

  “He’ll be here, Caroline,” Danny promised. “I could hear it in his voice.”

  “Well I didn’t hear it!” I said. “So how can I be sure?”

  Danny shot up fast and cradled me close to his chest.

  “Because you can always trust me,” he said. “Don’t you know that by now?”

  I nodded without thinking, and I knew that he was right. Despite Sabrina’s cries for vengeance in the wake of Adam’s treachery, it was Danny and his place where I sought comfort. He fed me pizza and chocolate mousse and let me cry in his arms until I fell asleep.

  “I know,” I whispered. “Sorry.”

  “Cut that out,” he said. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

  “I know,” I said. “Adam lied. I didn’t.”

  “You never do.”

  Danny held me close, and I buried my head in his chest as he ran his hands through the braid trailing down my back.

  “But where is this guy?” I muttered into Danny’s chest. “He said he would come. He…”

  “Caroline….” Danny pushed his hands into my shoulders and held me at arm’s length.

  “I’d like the man to buy,” he started. “And I get that he did you a favor. But if he can’t be bothered to look at his watch, then it’s better that you get out before you’re in too deep.”

  Of course he was right, and I sniffled as I nodded. Danny kissed the top of my head and dragged me to the small table in his economy kitchen and sat me down.

  “Coffee?” he asked as he moved to the stove.

  I needed something stronger, but it was too early in the day to ask for a shot of anything.

  “Whatever,” I said, “I guess.”

  The filter began to drip a dark liquid into the carafe, and Danny sat across from me as he took hold of my hand.

  “So maybe we were both had,” Danny said looking at his watch. “It happens.”

  “I guess,” I said. “But I thought… I really thought…”

  “That he was different?” Danny asked.

  “Tell me you didn’t see it, too.”

  Danny shook his head.

  “Maybe for like a second,” he started. “But I suspected that he would let us down.”

  The works of art perfectly displayed about his living space seemed to tell a very different story. Danny could lie, but he wasn’t very good at it. He wanted Peter to show up and buy him out. But he wasn’t one to wallow in the fact that he’d been played for a fool. Danny was one to put the coffee on and just keep going.

  And he had last night’s sales to fall back on. I had nothing.

  “Cream?” he asked. “Sugar?”

  “Black,” I said. “As always.”

  I sipped from the mug and wondered what I would do with the rest of my day. I could call Sabrina, but she would blow up Peter’s slight to unimaginable proportions, and I didn’t have the head or the strength for that scene.

  Daddy would be in from Milan soon. I could start planning the menus. And the reservations. No doubt he would have some trinket or charm to wrap around my neck on a gold chain. He had never liked Adam, and I knew that he was glad when the romance went south. He liked the idea of being the only man that I could ever depend on. And I had to admit that I didn’t go short of anything. In return for hosting a few dinner parties for him and seeing to the running of the house, he kept me well supplied with everything a girl could want.

  I had accounts at all the best stores and plenty of money in my bank account and Daddy paid off my credit cards each month without question.

  With no other alternatives, I was about to slip back into that life when someone rapped at the door.

  “Do you think it’s him?” Danny asked excitedly as he grabbed my waist and whispered into my ear.

  “I… I don’t…”

  But who else could it be?

  “Stay here,” Danny cautioned as he stepped towards the knocking.

  Thinking, hoping, that it had to be Peter, I smoothed my hands down my sides and stood up straight, hoping that I wasn’t shaking as Danny looked though the peephole. He quickly looked over his shoulder and mouthed it’s him.

  I nodded for him to open the door, and Danny let loose the latch before turning the deadbolt.

  Peter Barton stood in the doorframe in black slacks and a tight gray shirt that hugged his muscles in all the right places. A leather jacket was clutched in his left hand, carelessly d
raped over his shoulder as it drifted down his back, and he firmly shook Danny’s hand as he stepped into the loft.

  “A thousand apologies,” he said. “Business matter. Couldn’t be helped.”

  Danny went from being King of the World to a servant in training, and he ushered Peter inside.

  “No worries,” Danny said. “You’re here now, right?”

  Peter’s eyes flickered around the room, and when he saw me standing at the small table, his gaze softened, and he smiled.

  “I’m here,” he said as he looked across at me. “And it was well worth the wait.”

  I nearly shared in his belief. My body moved from behind the table, and his face was almost in my hands when I pressed my arms to my sides and forced my eyes to glare at is.

  “And you just thought I’d wait all day?” I asked. “Like I have nothing better to do?”

  I was suddenly feeling outraged, and even as my body burned to feel his hands on my flesh, I held back and watched him squirm for all of a second before he stood tall and smiled down at me.

  “Like I said,” he started. “I am sorry. And believe me when I say that the last thing I’d ever want is to keep a pretty girl waiting.”

  He was trying to flatter me into submission. And as my hands trembled at my thighs, I knew that it was working. But I couldn’t let him see that. Not just yet.

  “Well I was kept waiting,” I said. “Danny, too.”

  Stepping back to my friend’s side, I took Danny’s arm and stood at his side. Peter pressed his palms to the air and shook his head from side to side.

  “What more can I say?” he said. “But let me make it up to you.”

  Peter’s eyes honed in on Danny’s and he nodded slightly. Then he looked around the room at the undiscovered masterpieces on display.

  “I give you my word that I’ll make a purchase,” Peter said. “Just show me what you have.”

  Danny looked to me for a second. Part of me wanted to rip the door open and hand Peter Barton his walking papers. My money was as good as the stranger’s, well Daddy’s money was, and I could put Danny over the top with one signature. But that wouldn’t make Danny feel good. He would just think I was buying in order to put money into his bank account and that wasn’t really what Danny was about. Sure, he needed money to live but what he craved more than anything was to be recognized as a talent.