The Corrupt Billionaire COMPLETE Box Set

by Hope, Camilla

  Pulling away from him, I turned my head and expected to see Peter swaggering into the cabin with a smile and the confirmation of his promise. But when he was slow to appear, when he didn’t materialize at all, my blood ran cold. Maybe I was still able to draw breath, but what if he had taken the brunt of the impact in an effort to save our lives?

  “Peter! Please! You have to be alright!” I winced as I tried to make my way to the front of the jet.

  Chapter Two

  “Miss! Caroline… wait!” Morgan said as he grabbed my arm.

  He tried to hold me back as I pushed away from him and charged towards the cockpit. My mind was filled with pictures of Peter bloodied and battered. But blood was good. It would mean that he was still alive.

  Unless it stopped flowing. Unless his body was already unmoving.

  “Peter!” I cried.

  The cockpit was still, every dial finally at rest as the smoke from the nose of the plane wafted through the shattered windows. Peter was still there, unmoving, slumped over the console, his fingers curled around the yoke.

  “Peter…” I said with a sob.

  I bit down on my lip as I started to draw close to his side, and my hand trembled as I touched his back. There was no reaction creeping through his shirt, and when I couldn’t feel him breathing, I fell to my knees and forced his face to mine.

  “No,” I started. “Don’t you do this to me! Don’t you dare leave me now!”

  Forgetting injuries and wanting nothing more than to bring life back to his still form, I shook him hard and felt his head fall into my breast.

  “Oh God,” I whimpered. “No, I can’t… I can’t lose…”

  “Caroline?”

  The sound of his voice, weak but present, caused me to push away from him, and I held my breath as his eyelids fluttered, and he finally managed to focus on my face.

  “Told you I could do it, Gypsy,” he whispered. “Glad to see that you’re in one piece.”

  “You… don’t ever do that to me again!” I gasped as I cradled his chin in my hand and peered into his eyes. “Are you alright? Please tell me that you’re…”

  “I’m fine,” he assured me and I saw him glance over my shoulder to where Morgan was watching us from the doorway.

  Peter started to bring me into his embrace when he winced at the feel of a stray piece of glass still mingled with my hair, and he deftly plucked it away and stared at the shard.

  “This could have gone another way,” he reasoned. “At least we’re all okay.”

  Letting the glass fall to his feet, Peter examined my face, and he winced when he caught sight of the new bruise.

  “Consequence of the landing,” he said. “But I hate to see you hurt.”

  Not caring that my whole body was battered, just feeling thankful that I still lived and breathed, I undid his seat belt, dragged him away from the yoke and took him into my arms, holding him close. He winced as I held him.

  “You saved us,” I whispered. “I never would have thought that you could…”

  The moment of doubt that had flashed across my brain suddenly came back to haunt me, and when he met my gaze again, I blushed under the force of his strong stare.

  “So you were worried?” he said, a tease in his tone as he pressed his hand to my back.

  “Don’t be mad,” I muttered. “I’ve never done a plane crash before.”

  “Landing,” he said, correcting me. “Everyone’s walking out.”

  Beyond grateful for that, I clasped him close and couldn’t fight the need to sob into his shoulder, but I felt my body growing stronger, my breath calming as his arms surrounded me. His lips on my hair calmed me further, and when our eyes locked again, I almost wanted to stay in the smoking plane and just hide away from the rest of the world. After all, we were trying to get away.

  But suddenly the plane started to shift to one side, and I gasped as the sudden movement jarred my battered body. I heard Peter groan as he was jolted against the door.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said. “Let’s look…”

  Peter was quick to move to his feet, but he wavered as soon as he was up. I moved fast to steady him where he stood, and Morgan rushed forward to grab his other arm.

  “I’m fine,” Peter said through gritted teeth. “I think that we should all just…”

  “Stop it,” I said. “Now we get to save you.”

  He wilted under my words and made no move to object as we moved him out of the cockpit. Returning to the shattered cabin, Peter sighed sadly.

  “It does look bad,” he muttered. “I don’t know what I would have done if…“

  “Don’t think about it anymore,” I whispered.

  I had already endured the idea of a life without him, and I knew how dark a place it was, how thick the shadows loomed at the thought of being unable to meet his eyes again. But my fears were put to rest as soon as he spoke. And there was no reason that he had to suffer the same fate.

  “Let’s just… let’s get some air and put some distance between us and the plane. I can smell gasoline.”

  Morgan tried to open the door but found that it was stuck fast, seemingly welded in place on account of the crash.

  “It won’t… it won’t budge,” Morgan whined.

  “Let me try,” Peter said.

  He moved away from me, his hands nearly at the cracked edge, when he started to swoon, and I was quick to catch him in my arms and lower his body back to the floor.

  “You rest,” I said. “I got this.”

  I kissed him quickly and started to move away when Peter caught my hand in his and tried to turn me away from the task at hand.

  “I don’t want you to…”

  “What?” I challenged. “Like I might break a nail or something?”

  “I like all of you pretty,” he said, forcing a laugh, although I could see that he was in pain.

  “I got this,” I assured him. “Morgan?”

  The pilot seemed to brighten at the sound of his name crossing my lips, and I asked him to stay close to Peter as I went to work.

  “Got it, Miss,” Morgan said.

  “I’m still calling the shots,” Peter insisted. “I landed this thing…”

  “Sir, I think you should trust her,” Morgan continued. “She’s… she’s like real good under pressure.”

  On the back of that compliment, I went to work on the door. Finding it more than stuck, the idea of languishing here without a real way out suddenly became a terrifying thought. What if the plane burst into flames and we were burnt alive? And even if that didn’t happen, without food or water or eventually air, we would rot in the space of the wreckage if someone… if I didn’t…

  “Come on, you bastard!” I screamed, my voice nearing the top of my lungs.

  With a great pull, I was as stunned as anyone at the feel of the door giving way under my hands, and as a gush of fresh air entered the plane, I turned back to the men with a smile.

  “Knew I could do it!” I said. “Shall we?”

  The three of us moved out into the night together. Looking every which way, I saw the shadows of trees poking forth through high branches. There were no sounds but the hissing, failed engines and the occasional bird cry harmonizing with a cricket. We moved away from the plane and into the shelter of the trees.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “Not Aruba,” Peter said, stating the obvious. “It’s too cold.”

  “And that’s your clue?” I said.

  I was desperate to keep it light as I had no way of knowing if we were near any hope of civilization. Being intact was one thing; it was almost everything. But what came next? How were we supposed to make it to the next moment if there was no real way out?

  “Easy, sir,” Morgan said. “Let’s say we just set you down right here.”

  Peter moaned as Morgan moved his body to the dark grass, and I fell to his side as I took his hand.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” I pleaded. “You don’t
have to lie to me.”

  He started to speak when he appeared to suddenly think better of it, and he rested his head against my shoulder as he sighed.

  “Fair enough,” he said. “I’ve got some pain, sure. But don’t count me out just yet.”

  No way in hell that I was going to do that.

  “Rest,” I said again. “I’m right here.”

  My head was on his chest, and I felt his hands running down my back, and then he reached for my hand and sighed at the feel of his bracelet still covering my wrist.

  “Looks like you kept it safe,” he said with a faint smile.

  Relieved to find his gift in place, I felt my pocket, and smiled at the feel of my mother’s gold still under my hand. I had kept both precious things close before the crash, and I told myself that there could still be a way out. My mouth was on his lips when Morgan suddenly straightened his stance and whipped his head over his shoulders.

  “I… I think… are those lights?”

  Following the path of his stare, I thought I saw something faint and shining poking through the haze of smoke swirling around us. But it was probably just a trick of my mind.

  “I don’t know,” I whispered. “We… we need to plan for a long night. If we’re stuck here for some time…”

  “Like hell we will be!” Morgan screamed. “That could be help. I’m going to check it out.”

  “Wait!” I yelled, stretching forward to grab his ankle as Morgan tried to move away.

  “We… we need to take cover,” I said. “Find a place to hide until we know…”

  “Fuck that,” Morgan said. “We need to see who might be out there.”

  As I watched him hurry away, I wanted to cry at the thought that he would just leave us here, the thought that he could be so cold as to leave me on my own with an injured Peter after all we had just been through.

  “My sweet Gypsy,” Peter whispered.

  Peter’s breath calmed in his chest as he ran his fingers down my face and smiled into my eyes.

  “You didn’t ever give up on me?” he said. “Isn’t that right?”

  How I longed to tell him that I had stayed true throughout every second of the descent. But now, now that we were finally grounded, what was the point in keeping up the lie?

  “Almost,” I confessed. “But I… I…”

  I burst into tears and fell into his chest. Peter’s arms were slow to surround me and that only intensified my sobs.

  “So you were scared,” he said.

  Gazing into his eyes again, I absorbed the hurt in his stare and nodded my head.

  “How could I not be?” I muttered. “I… we were fucking going down.”

  The high of finding that I was still alive, that he still drew breath, was swiftly replaced by the reality of everything that could have been. I had no desire to die. Not when he was so close. Unless… unless he was part of the…

  “It was your plane!” I screamed. “And you… you let some… some novice take our lives in his hands?”

  Peter tilted his head swallowed hard.

  “Man has good credentials,” he said. “And… and there was always me.”

  The fact that we were still breathing was proof of that, but now we were alone, lost in the middle of nowhere, I forgot his injuries as I started to bash my quivering fists into his chest.

  “But we could have died!” I screeched. “What would you… what you have done if…?”

  Peter suddenly came back to life, and I offered little resistance as he pushed my body to the grass and hovered over my gaze.

  “I… no way I could have gone on,” he whispered. “Not after finding you.”

  My mouth relaxed into a straight line, and I saw him smile as he leaned towards my eyes and stroked my hair.

  “So I made a promise to myself. You would live. I would live. Because…”

  As his voice trailed off, I saw his eyes glisten, and I started to touch his face when he grabbed my hand and forced my fingers to my side.

  “Because there’s nothing for me without you,” he choked.

  Peter brought his lips close to mine, but he lingered on the edge of a kiss as he stroked my face, his fingers moving across the edge of both bruises.

  “Last thing I wanted,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” I puzzled.

  “To see you hurt. It was the last thing I wanted.” Peter continued. “Makes me crazy.”

  I started to speak when Peter summoned the strength to lift me into his arms, although I heard him wince at the effort.

  “Peter! Wait. You’re hurt…”

  “I’ve got you, Gypsy.”

  He was up and on his feet as he pulled me closer to his chest and held me tight. I couldn’t help but savor the feel of his arms. Maybe we should just stay here. Away from the rest of the world so that we could simply hold each other. If I had to be stranded, I wanted to be stranded with him.

  “I won’t leave you,” I murmured. “I…”

  “Peter!”

  His body buckled as he sank to the ground, and I clutched his neck as the sounds of footsteps crunching through the undergrowth turned me away from his body. I was ready to scream when my tongue tied in my mouth.

  “It was lights!” Morgan beamed. “These woods are just a few miles from residential. Look! I brought us reinforcements!”

  Chapter Three

  “Here you go,” Morgan said.

  I had already been checked out. By some miracle… no, because of Peter’s skill, no bones were broken, and I now I could even explain the bruise on account of my father away. It was just the price of a plane crash, and the pilot was no worse for wear as he offered me stale coffee confined in the space of a Styrofoam cup.

  “I didn’t ask for this,” I said.

  “Just take it,” he said. “Looks like you need it.”

  Taking the drink from Morgan’s hands, I sipped slowly and tried to look ahead. When his promised reinforcements had arrived, Peter was stripped from my arms, and I tried to join him in the back of the ambulance.

  Are you family?

  I wasn’t quick enough to lie, and when I was slow to speak, Peter was taken away. Forget the crash, I thought that I would die right there and then, and Morgan helped me into a patrol car as we followed the ambulance out of the brush. When we reached the hospital, I felt sure that I would see him again. This was a far cry from the getaway that he had planned, but now I just wanted to rest in his arms and feel his breath against my battered cheek. But nurses in multi-colored scrubs wouldn’t let me see him.

  So I had no choice but to linger on the outskirts with a cup of coffee in my hand.

  “Miss?” Morgan said.

  “Don’t do that,” I hissed. “We’re… we’re familiar now.”

  Morgan nodded, and he rested his hand to my knee.

  “Near death will do that, right?”

  He brought his own cup to a nearby table and swirled his arm around my shoulders.

  “Sorry you can’t get in there,” he said. “Has to be hell.”

  In some ways, it was worse than the crash or, as Peter called it, the landing. At least then I felt sure that he was only a few inches away, and when he came back to life, I saw his eyes and knew that he wanted nothing more than to be with me. The feeling was more than mutual, but I had lost him all the same.

  “Miss?” Morgan started, still ignoring my desire to drop the formalities. “I… maybe there’s a way that I can get you in.”

  His words flooded my soul with hope, and I clutched his hand as I peered into his eyes.

  “You… what are you thinking?” I whispered.

  “Maybe… how about we say that I’m his brother,” he suggested in a low voice looking around to make sure that no-one was listening.

  Okay, so maybe that would get him through the door. But where would that leave me?

  “And you’re my wife,” he added.

  My jaw went slack as I stared at the rumpled man. In some ways, it felt like a betr
ayal, but when Morgan touched my arm I nodded and gave in to the idea.

  “Keep your hands to yourself, husband,” I ordered.

  “Yes, Miss,” he grinned.

  We took the elevator to the floor where Peter had been taken, and Morgan pushed away from me as he started to charm the lady behind the station. As he tried to work his magic, I ventured down the hallway. An old man wheezed for breath in the space of a small room. Not wanting to see any more looming death, not if Peter was so close, my eyes kept looking into every room that crossed my path.

  “Peter?” I whispered.

  And finally, there he was, resting comfortably as his chest heaved up and down. I pressed my hand to my mouth when I saw him, and as I started to step forward, Peter turned his head against his pillow. I stopped in my tracks as soon as I felt the force of his gaze, but when he reached his hand out from under the sheets, I had no choice but to move towards him and surround my fingers in his.

  “What took you so long?” Peter whispered. “I’ve been… I’ve been waiting for you.”

  “Me, too,” I smiled back at him.

  Lowering the rail, I slipped close to his side and rested my head to his heart. The thumping reverberated in my ears, across my skin, and I curled my arms around his back as I finally met his eyes, the faint traces of black and blue swirling around his eye as I touched his skin and sighed into his mouth.

  “How do you feel?” I asked.

  “Should I lie?” he teased. “Or can I just kiss you?”

  A part of me wanted nothing more than to claim his mouth, but before our lips met, I pushed back even as I kept his face in my hands.

  “Tell me that we’re out of danger first,” I said, voicing the fears that had been plaguing me since we hit the ground. “Tell me that it was just an accident.”

  Peter pursed his lips, and I waited for him to speak as he stroked my hair and smiled into my eyes.

  “Will you hate me if I say that I don’t know?” Peter said.

  I felt sure that I could never hate him. And maybe the rest of it didn’t even matter. He was alive. He was holding me.

  I needed to get closer.

  “My sweet hero…”

  Pulling the sheet aside, I crawled closer to him and stroked his cheeks. Peter sighed at the feel of my fingers, and I kissed his nose before staring deeper into his eyes.