The Corrupt Billionaire COMPLETE Box Set

by Hope, Camilla

  Peter whispered into her sleeping ears that he would never make her do a single thing that was not of her will, and he held her close as he fought to calm his coffee high, longing to do nothing but dream with her and come out the other side and see her eyes. Peter closed his eyes for a moment.

  “Peter…?”

  The sound of her voice warmed his soul, and he imagined them taking flight on a plane that would never fall. They would drop down where there were beaches or in the thickest of forests. He would see her smile, and every time she turned away from him, he would bring her back fast, his lips quick to meet hers as he lowered her into grasses and sands, always finding her body strong and willing, her eyes the brightest blue possible as she kept kissing him… stroking him…

  “Peter?”

  Peter was all smiles, still lost in the dream when her face came into focus, hazy before his eyes. What was this, he thought? White pillows where there should be grains and blades? The picture didn’t make sense when he suddenly realized that he was beside the narrow bed in the sparse room.

  Chapter Ten

  “You… you look so tired…” I whispered.

  “I am. I… Jesus Christ!” Peter said.

  Starting up, Peter grabbed my shoulders as my eyes flickered and I tried to focus.

  “Do you… do you know me?” Peter asked.

  “I hope so. Do you know me?” I laughed weakly.

  Peter nodded his head, and kissed me, his lips trailing away from my mouth and settling on my hair. I could sense that he was waiting for me to continue and I brushed my small hand under my eyes.

  “You look so tired,” I said.

  “I’m…”

  “Because you’ve spent all this time looking after me,” I said.

  “You… you knew that I was here?” he asked.

  “I heard your voice,” I said. “I felt your hand. Danny said you should get some rest.”

  “I didn’t need it,” Peter said as he furiously shook his head and placed his hands either side of my face. “I just needed this.”

  He kissed me softly, and I wanted nothing more than for him to deepen the kiss when he pulled back and fondled my hair.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  “For what?” I asked.

  “For what happened to you without me,” Peter said. “Why you stayed away for so long.”

  I considered his words for a moment, and I could feel unwanted memories trying to surface. I pushed them down and turned my head to face him.

  “Let’s not talk about it. But… but please keep talking to me,” Peter pleaded.

  “Peter…”

  He kissed me then, and I coiled my arms around his back and tried to focus.

  “Am I okay?” I asked.

  “More than okay, Gypsy. You’re perfect, beautiful.”

  I pushed away from his intended kiss, and I struggled to recall what had happened and how I had got here. And then a memory surfaced and I felt as if a dark cloud had settled over me.

  “My… my father…” I said as Peter clutched me closer and petted my flushed cheeks.

  “I stopped him, Gypsy. He’ll never hurt you again,” Peter whispered.

  I tensed in his arms, and I was terrified that I might fall back into the blackness again.

  “But you are feeling better?” Peter asked.

  “I… I think so,” I said as I considered his question.

  I shifted up to my elbows, and looked down at the IV in my arm. I needed to get it out.

  “I’ll feel better without all this,” I said.

  I pulled the tube away with a groan, and Peter took hold of my bruised arms as I rubbed at the spot where the needle had been in my arm.

  “That’s better,” I said. “Is that why I’ve been so thirsty?”

  “You… did you feel that, too, Gypsy?”

  “I could do with a drink of something,” I nodded.

  I could see that there was a cup of stale coffee and a bottle of lukewarm water on the table at the end of the bed. Peter opted for the latter and helped it down my throat. I gulped greedily, and when I had drained the bottle, I lay down again and Peter got onto the bed beside me and caressed my hair.

  “Good?” he asked.

  I nodded as I settled into his shoulder. I looked into Peter’s eyes and I could read the fear that was written there. I frowned as I tried to remember how I had come to be here and I wondered why Peter looked so worried. I cuddled closer and looked around the room as my eyes continued to focus.

  “I don’t… did you bring me here?” I asked.

  “Sort of something like that. But you heard my voice, right?” Peter said gently.

  “I did. But it… it sort of didn’t make sense. I mean… I was just sleeping, right?” I puzzled.

  Peter nodded and kissed my cheeks and stroked my hair.

  “All that matters is that you’re awake now,” he assured me.

  I nodded into his shoulder, and I could hear the rustle of a paper gown, although I couldn’t quite understand why I was wearing it.

  “Can we… do we have to stay here?” I asked.

  Peter shook his head and smiled at me. He got off the bed and sat in the chair beside me taking my hand in his.

  “You don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to do, ever again,” he promised.

  “I want to go home,” I said.

  “I… sure,” he replied.

  “So… back to Harrison?” I asked.

  Peter looked at me, and I could see a myriad of thoughts flitting across his face.

  “Caroline… so many things went wrong there,” Peter said gently.

  I wasn’t quite sure what he meant but I knew that the thought of being there made me feel happy.

  “But Nellie’s there,” I said. “And we were happy there.”

  “Sure we were,” Peter agreed.

  “Can we… can we just be like that again?” I asked in a small voice.

  I suddenly felt really tired again and my head fell back to the pillow. I held on to Peter’s hand and sighed.

  “You still okay?” he asked.

  “I… I think that…” I began.

  I touched my fingers to Peter’s face, and his smile made me feel warm inside. He stood and pulled me into his arms and I rested my head to his chest and moaned into his neck as the dark memories pushed to the surface again.

  “Something… something bad happened. Am I right?” I whispered.

  Peter nodded and said, “It did. And I’m so sorry, Gypsy.”

  I tried hard to focus on the memory, and Peter folded me into his arms, kissing my cheeks as he said, “no-one’s going to hurt you ever again.”

  “But… but my father, he…” I struggled with the memory.

  “Especially not him!” Peter said vehemently.

  I tensed at the ferocity of his words, and I was aware of Peter’s fingers working their way down my arms. And then it happened. The memory surfaced from where it had been buried and I felt as though I might drown. No, I thought, it couldn’t be true!

  “Peter, I… he…” I said feeling totally bewildered.

  I remembered that he had said he wasn’t my real father. Not that that made any of this any better but I took a little comfort in the thought that I wasn’t actually related to him and that his evil blood didn’t flow in my veins. It didn’t excuse what he had done but somehow it made it easier to bear.

  “Try not to think about it,” Peter soothed. “I’ll take you back to Harrison.”

  I tried to stifle my sobs as I met his eyes, remembering what had happened to me at my so called father’s hands.

  “I want… I need to hide in that room with you,” I cried. “You rescued me there, Peter. Do it again. Please.”

  “Of course, Gypsy. Anything to make you feel better.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Sight for sore eyes if I ever did see some!” Nellie beamed at us.

  Peter kept me close by his side as he reached for Nell
ie’s hand, but she pulled both of us into the warm embrace of her wide arms. I trembled ever so slightly at the feel of the contact, and when Nellie drew back, I lowered my eyes.

  “Why the long face?” Nellie asked, her voice flowing with concern as she tried to take hold of my chin.

  I flinched, and I wondered if I would ever feel able to bear the touch of another person again without remembering the touch of my father’s hands. I still thought of him as my father even though I knew that it wasn’t true. I had told Peter what he had said to me and he had hired someone to check out my birth certificate. My father had been telling the truth.

  I knew that Peter had doubted the wisdom of taking me away from the hospital to any place else at all. And I had heard Sabrina and Danny making Peter swear on his life that not one more bad thing was ever going to happen to me as we said goodbye. And so far I was holding up well.

  The plane journey had proved a different story, though. In spite of Peter’s reassurance that the pilot had been vetted eight times over, I rarely managed to relinquish my hold on his arm, and when we hit a patch of turbulence, I could only think of the crash and I had whimpered into his shoulder as he stroked my hair. In a soft whisper, Peter had said that we could turn back, but the thought of returning to the place where my father had nearly destroyed me filled me with a more powerful form of dread, and I counted the seconds until our wheels hit the ground. Maybe Harrison would do the trick and bring me some kind of peace.

  But now, I wasn’t sure of anything.

  “Kind of a long story,” Peter told Nellie with a slight shake of his head.

  “Got plenty of time to listen if you…”

  I managed to lift my head with a weak smile.

  “We’ll tell you soon,” I promised. “But… we’ve had a long flight. Do you mind if we just go to our room for now?”

  “Say no more,” Nellie said. “Follow me.”

  Our room was as we had left it, antique furnishings and all. As soon as Peter took note of the fresh flowers in a crystal vase, he thanked Nellie for the finishing touch, and I saw him try to slip her a bill in thanks for her kindness.

  “On the house,” she said. “Am I ordering out for you two, or you going to hit the town?”

  I moved to the window and carefully eased the drapes across the glass. I wanted to hide here in this room and I wanted to be away from prying eyes.

  “I think we’re staying in tonight, Nellie. But I’ll let you know,” I heard Peter say.

  Nellie was almost out the door when she took Peter by the arm and pressed her lips to his ear.

  “You need anything, anything at all, you give me a holler,” she said.

  “Sure will, Nellie. Thanks,” Peter said.

  As soon as she was gone, Peter applied the lock and moved back to my side.

  “What do you need, Gypsy?” he asked. “How can I help you to forget?”

  Sighing as I slowly turned to face him, I rested my fingers on his chest, and tenderly kissed his exposed flesh. As much as I wanted him I just didn’t think I could bring myself to…

  “Can you… can you just hold me?” I asked in a tiny voice.

  Sighing with a nod, Peter took me into his arms and guided me to the bed. I offered no resistance as we lay as one against the bedspread, and he tenderly rubbed my arms as I breathed hard and heavy against his chest.

  “Nellie will look after us,” he promised. “Think there’s any way that she’s letting anyone cross the gate that even looks at her funny?”

  “Probably not,” I said with a mirthless laugh. “And then there’s you.”

  As I met his eyes, I could see the guilt written all over his face. I knew what he was thinking – that if it wasn’t for him, maybe it wouldn’t have happened, and he started to speak when I placed my finger against his lips.

  “We were happy here,” I said. “I mean… apart from Morgan…”

  I shuddered at the mention of his name, and I shook my head to clear the memory.

  “He’s not going to bother us,” Peter promised. “No one is.”

  “I believe you,” I said. “Sorry I’m so jumpy.”

  “If anyone has good reason to be, it’s…”

  My eyes started to brim with tears. I knew that seeing me like this was killing him but I seemed powerless to shake it off. I saw him looking at my bare hand as he kissed my fingers.

  “Okay,” Peter started. “No more crying.”

  “Easier said than done, Peter,” I whispered.

  “With you? Anything is possible,” he smiled at me.

  Peter kissed me again, and then he reached into his pocket. I gasped at the sight of the ring that I had abandoned, thinking that it was for the best, as he held it in front of my eyes.

  “When I gave this to you, I never wanted you to take it off,” he said.

  “Me neither,” I answered. “But after what happened to Sabrina… what my father was going to make you do… I… I had to try and stop him without thinking what it might cost you.”

  I hung my head, thinking how mistaken I had been to try and reason with my father. If I had stayed with Peter we might have been able to work out a different plan, one that wouldn’t have put either of us in danger and I might never have had to endure…

  “Don’t you know by now that I can handle anything as long as you’re with me?” Peter assured me.

  “I shouldn’t have left you,” I said quietly, my lip quivering with emotion.

  “You never did one thing wrong,” Peter started. “I know you thought you were doing what was best for me. But now, I want… I need to see this back where it belongs.”

  As Peter moved to put the ring back on my finger I formed a fist.

  “I… it’s not that I don’t want you,” I said. “But your wife? Don’t know if I fit the bill anymore.”

  “I think you do,” Peter said as he cupped his hand under my chin and softly kissed my cheeks. “There’s no one else I want to marry.”

  “I… same here,” I said. “But don’t… won’t you want to have kids?”

  Peter nodded his head and kept her gaze in his as he replied, “With you? Of course.”

  I struggled to speak, turning away from him with a great groan. Peter moved fast to pull me back to his chest.

  “Gypsy, you are not your father,” Peter assured me. “Hell, you’re not even related to him by blood. The only thing I’ve ever seen from you is love and…”

  “And what?” I asked. “I mean, what if there is something else, it could be bad, could be wrong. I was abused as a child. What if it’s left me too screwed up? What if I can’t be a proper mother because of it?”

  I quaked as Peter rested his lips to my neck, his breath trailing towards my ear as I closed my eyes and inhaled the masculine scent of him.

  “Not a thing in hell is wrong with you,” I said. “Even without me, you’ve already survived so much. And you have so much love to give. That’s what you’re going to bring to our kids. Right here or anywhere else that you want… that we want, to go.”

  I continued to avoid his stare, and I wondered if what he said was true. Could I really put all of this behind me and forget what I had been through at my father’s hands? There had been a time when I had felt loved and cared for, while my mom was alive and maybe I could give that to my kids.

  Peter wrapped his arm around my waist, giving me no choice but to look at the ring again.

  “I was there when you woke up,” he said. “When your nightmares were finally over.”

  “And I… shit, Peter,” I began to cry.

  I curved around to face him. And as I did so I pushed the ring away. I saw the hurt in his eyes and I struggled to explain why I couldn’t accept the ring.

  “I thought they were over, the nightmares,” I said finally. “Last time it worked.”

  “Is that why you wanted to come back here?” Peter asked.

  “Yes,” I confessed. “But now I’m not… I’m not sure…”

  I ran my h
and across my face and brushed away my tears. I could see that Peter was waiting for me to come up with some other way for him to help me, to try to make everything right. But right now I couldn’t think of a single thing he could do.

  “Maybe you… maybe you should just leave me here in this room,” I said. “Let Nellie look after me.”

  Peter’s shoulders drooped and, still clinging to the diamond, he peered down at me.

  “You would send me away?” he asked. “You’re the one… is that why you wanted me to bring you back here?”

  I slowly shook my head. That hadn’t been my intention but I could see from his face that he thought he had been conned, and he turned away from me and hung his head.

  “You really think I would… that I could do that?” he asked. “You think that I could leave you here?”

  “Peter, I…”

  “I can’t be half a person for you,” I said and my whole body was shaking now. “You deserve better than that.”

  “You’re not!” he protested.

  “But I am,” I said as I folded my arms across my chest. “I can’t… I can’t close my eyes without feeling it over and over again.”

  “Caroline, don’t,” Peter said as he reached for me, but I batted his hand away as I rose to my feet.

  “Since I woke up, you… you think… you think I’ve been sleeping. But I’ve not, Peter. And it’s not going to get any better.”

  “You don’t know that,” he began.

  “I do!” I cried, pulling away from him and sinking to the floor as I buried my face in my hands.

  Peter moved to my side and sank to his knees beside me but he didn’t touch me. I saw him pocket the ring as he tried hard not to mirror my tears and I knew that, even if just for the moment, he had accepted what I had said.

  “Why… why aren’t you going?” I finally asked when he didn’t move away and leave the room.

  “Whether you take the ring back or not, you’re still my fiancée,” Peter said.

  “I just told you that I’m not…” My heart sank as I realized that he had no intention of leaving me here.

  “Gypsy, I’ll give you anything. But not that. You… you want me gone? You’ll have to throw me out!”

  I looked at him, my eyes wide and I started to shake my head when Peter seized my hand, savoring the feel of my flesh even as I tried to pull away from him.