by Kira Blakely
I watched him come through the gate with Meghan tripping along behind him. They still needed to go through Customs, so I had to time this well. I tailed them like the wolf on my shoulder.
They finally emerged onto the concourse, bound for the exit. I came up behind them and was about to grab Meghan’s hand when someone seized me from behind.
I tried to turn but burly arms held me back. There was a man with sunglasses on either side of me and their expressions were not welcoming. I tried to calmly shake loose, but they weren’t having it. I couldn’t afford to alert the security—I would lose track of Meghan.
It was too late. I turned back. Collin was pulling her into a taxi and I’d lost them. The arms let go then and I was left standing alone and watching the taxi pull away.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
All that, only to lose them a finger’s breadth away. I was re-strategizing and the only way to go was forward. I claimed a taxi and ordered it to take me to a hotel. The only thing I could do was wait.
I was in my room, my gut churning from the tension. My cell buzzed.
“That was close, bro,” he said, snickering. “Lucky for me I had a few friends backing me up.”
“What do you want?” I wasn’t wasting any more time.
There was a hesitation on the line. “It’s not me, it’s them.”
“Damn you, Collin! That’s what I figured. You couldn’t take the golden offer I made you and just disappear? You had to get Meghan involved? You dirty fucker!”
“Sorry, but it’s a me-or-her situation, bro.”
“How deep are you in?”
“Deep.”
“What do they want?”
“You’re not going to like it, bro.”
“How much?!”
“Utopia.”
“What? Are you fucking kidding me? How the hell did you let it go that far, Collin? You’ve always been selfish and stupid, for the record. Now you’ve brought in an innocent child and lost something that didn’t even belong to you.”
“What’s the answer, bro? They’re in a hurry.”
I had no options but I knew the priority. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could jeopardize Meghan’s health. “Take it. But so help me God, if I ever see you again, you’re dead. Bring her back to the airport and I’ll sign the papers.”
“See you there in three hours.”
The line went dead, and I barely made the bathroom before I puked. I laid on the bed, my stomach churning and tried to rationalize any way out of it. I was out of options. It didn’t have anything to do with Utopia. I didn’t need it and had even considered selling it now that Harper was in my life. I sure as hell didn’t need any money. I just… wanted… out.
Three hours later, I was signing a document that cost me a lifetime’s work and I didn’t blink an eye. Meghan and I were back on my jet and in the air in under a half hour. I called Harper from the jet, but she didn’t answer. My next call was the front desk, who reported they’d seen her leave just before dawn. I was trying not to panic, but I put in a call to one of my contacts at the Miami police department and gave them a description of her car. A few hours later, we landed. They’d found her and were holding her, so we diverted to Cleveland.
Chapter 25
Harper
For the first six hundred miles, I berated myself for having gotten involved with Brayden. The next six hundred miles were sad and lonely feeling. I was on the outskirts of Cleveland when the flashing red lights behind me demanded I pull over. I was exhausted and might have been weaving as I drove.
“May I see your license and registration, please?”
“Was I speeding?”
“Your license and registration, ma’am?”
I handed them over.
“Please exit the car, Miss. Face the car and put your hands on the roof.”
“What? What for? What did I do?”
“This vehicle has been reported as stolen, and you’re being charged with car theft and transporting stolen goods over several state lines.”
The bastard!
I’d never been in a jail cell before, and certainly not on the inside. There were two other women in the holding cell and neither one wanted anything to do with me. I was scared and panicking, hoping I could start up a conversation and figure out what to do next. Aren’t I allowed a phone call or something?
They called my name and an officer unlocked the door, pulling me out by the arm before he slammed it shut. I was escorted through a couple of locked doors and then my cuffs were removed. Someone handed me my purse and a paper to sign. I didn’t care what it said, I just wanted out.
There was a man waiting in the front area. “I’m Brayden’s attorney. Just follow me,” he said bluntly, and I had no choice but to do exactly as he told me. We drove to a small airport, and he motioned for me to precede him up the steps of a small, private jet. Inside, I found Brayden.
“Harper?” he called, coming to take me in his arms.
I fought him off. “Get away from me, you bastard! Who do you think you are?”
“I’m the man who loves you.”
“Yeah, right. I saw how much you loved me when you left me unconscious on a bed and went carousing again.”
He was shaking his head. “No, you’re not understanding. You don’t know what happened, Harper. Look, sit down and buckle in. Let me explain, if I can even remember it all. It’s been a helluva couple of days.”
I sat as requested and he buckled me in, but I wasn’t giving in that easily. “Where is Collin?” I wanted to know where my enemy was.
“I can’t give you a definite location, but he’s somewhere in France.” He went on to tell me all that had transpired from the moment I’d awakened to find Collin straddling me.
“Is Meghan okay?” I asked quickly.
He nodded. “She’s pretty confused and I know she will suffer some trauma from all this. She isn’t sure who is who, but I have plans to fix all that.”
“What kind of plans?”
“I want you to marry me, Harper. You know you love me, and I love you. I want us to take Meghan and move. Somewhere, anywhere, I don’t care. You can build your website business, and I will sit nearby adoring you. Will you marry me, Harper?”
Here was the man who literally had occupied my dreams from high school and he wanted me to marry him. It was everything I’d ever wanted and thought I would never get.
I nodded. “Yes.”
Epilogue
Harper
I became Mrs. Brayden Campbell just two weeks later. Meghan was my maid of honor and Stephanie my only bridesmaid. We were married on Vermillion Key, at sunset, and I wore a crimson gown that blended with the sunset behind us. The hundred or so guests dined on lobster and caviar, magnums of champagne and we made the society pages as the hottest ticket in the wedding schedule. We had a certain operatic tenor sing “Ave Maria” and Mrs. Sims and Captain Bob sat in the front row as the groom’s family.
My least favorite guest, Ripley, pressed a fat envelope into my hand and then turned to Brayden and asked if there was any chance he could buy Utopia.
“It’s not mine to sell, Ripley, but I happen to know the guys who own it. They really aren’t very good in the hospitality business, so I think if you make them a really good offer, they’ll probably take it.”
“Really?” he replied, unable to believe his timing and good luck.
“Sure thing,” Brayden said, patting him on the back. “Tell you what. Check in at the front desk and ask to speak to the new owners. In fact, tell them I sent you.”
Ripley drifted away, his dreams of grandeur already filling his head.
“That was mean, Bray,” I told him, “but his just dessert.”
Brayden laughed and hugged Meghan.
I asked, “Do you think Collin will ever show up again?”
Brayden shook his head. “Not if his life depended on it, and it probably does. Anyway, who cares what he does. This family is moving to California, and we’r
e going to build another house on another ocean. I thought we might let Meghan name this one. What do you say, Megs?”
“Sure, but you have to promise that I get a car like Harper’s as soon as I get my license. That will be my fee for getting you two together.”
We both looked at her.
“Well, you sure did a lousy job of it on your own. Somebody had to pull this thing together,” she said, making a joke of the entire kidnapping adventure. I thought she had a great sense of humor and a healthy perspective of what she’d been through.
“And you, Mrs. Campbell?” Brayden turned to me. “Will you love me forever?”
“Only if I get a new car, too. Mine is still sitting in that police impound lot in Ohio.”
“You shall have whatever you like, my sweetheart. As long as I have you.”
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Beauty and the Billionaire
This isn’t your kid’s fairy tale, and I’m no ordinary beast.
Years of killing in the military have hardened me, scarred me, making it impossible to give a shit about relationships.
Then comes along Belle Fontaine. The innocent virgin daughter of the man whose company I want to buy. She’s twenty-four and drop dead fucking gorgeous.
I always say love at first sight is for pansies, but she has me second guessing that.
My cock stands to salute her the moment she walks into my office.Purchasing her father’s company is more of a mercy buy for me, but she tries to get more than it’s worth.
Wrong move.
Now, I will make it… hard… for her.
The only way I will buy the company is if she agrees to come to my private island for one month.
I’m sure she’s heard the rumors about my secret room. I can sense her fear and desire.
Whips and chains aren’t the only secrets she’ll discover.
This steamy fairy tale contains some light BDSM, and the beast will surely win over the beauty.
Chapter One
Drake
I sauntered into the room expecting another bullshit merger discussion, but instead saw the most gorgeous woman I’d ever laid eyes on. My cock instantly jerked to attention.
Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t wanted for women in my life. But I’d never seen one as enticing as the brunette sitting beside Maurice Fontaine at the head of the table. Her bright blue eyes sparkled with both intelligence and intensity, her pert breasts filled out her blazer nicely, and her soft, cream-colored skin looked like it would feel like satin under my touch.
I was the head of the most successful PR firm in Los Angeles. There was no one from Brad Pitt to Emma Stone who didn’t come to me when they needed to take control of a story. If your career was going down in flames, I was the guy to fix it with the right public relations massaging. With my public relations and multimedia talent came billions by the time I was thirty, especially after the company’s IPO. It was how I’d become known as the Sultan of Spin. And it was how I had every woman in L.A. and some far beyond it ready and waiting for me.
I strode to my seat at the opposing end of the table and sat down. Shaking hands was customary, but that wasn’t the tone I wanted to set. This was a mercy killing. Fontaine Media Relations had once been the premiere public relations firm in Hollywood, but it’d been over two decades since they could make that claim. Maurice was once a legend in the business, someone who’d navigated the sharks swimming in La La Land long before I’d started high school, let alone enlisted. But that was then. The old man hadn’t kept up with the times and had bungled the social media age badly. Now they were bleeding out, and I could buy them out, dismantle what I needed, and move on.
Easy, simple.
Calling this a merger meeting was truly too kind.
“Maurice,” I said, then nodded to my lawyer, who promptly delivered the papers to the older man. It was then that I realized a second woman sat beside the aging, balding former PR wizard. She had the same figure as the girl with the bright blue eyes and shared the same long, brown hair. The resemblance was uncanny. Were they sisters? I just wasn’t sure which of the two women was Belle and which was Carol. I’d read all the dossiers on Maurice’s firm. I always knew who I was doing business with, but the sisters were similar enough that in person, it was a toss-up as to who was who.
Except those eyes. Only the girl on Maurice’s left had those blue eyes that hadn’t left mine since I’d walked in. My dick was straining against the fabric of my slacks, and I was glad for the wooden conference table between us. I needed some way to obscure everything. Something about her caught my attention, something I wanted to explore far more than over a conference table.
What is it about you?
Maurice threw the folder down in front of him. The girl on the right scooped it up and scanned it as well. She pursed her lips back at me, and a dull grimace spread over her face.
“This offer isn’t enough,” she said
I cracked my knuckles and eyed her. Oh, so was that the game? Was this daughter Daddy’s Little Ball Buster? Maurice would take the first volley but the girl with the green eyes would play bad cop? They must have made blue-eyes the good cop.
“Your company is dead. Forty cents on the dollar is generous. No other firm in L.A. will touch you, and if one was crazy enough to try, they’d offer fifteen cents.” I leaned forward, going in for the kill. “You need me far more than I need you. If you sign this deal, you get to keep a few things, and Maurice, you and your daughters can stay on as executives at the combined entity after the merger. This is the best you’re going to get. Sign.”
“My dad built this company with his blood, sweat, and tears for over thirty years,” Blue Eyes said in a voice so quiet that it could have been a whisper.
“And you are?” I asked.
“Belle,” she supplied.
“I can see why,” I countered. “You’re certainly beautiful.”
Her blue eyes shone like sapphires back at me. “Mr. McManus, let’s keep this professional.”
Highly unlikely.
I steepled my hands in front of me. “I am being professional, Belle. This is the best offer your family will get. Your father… your family’s entire company needs this. You just sign, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
“It’s an insult to everything he’s built, and you know it. He has name recognition still, and that’s why you’re buying us to begin with. To only offer forty percent of what it’s worth… we were thinking around eighty,” Belle replied.
I snorted. “And perhaps you’d like ponies and a new Maserati and who knows what all else? Seriously, this is reality, Belle. You might be great at putting out press releases, but you have nothing to negotiate with. Even sitting down with your family at all was a courtesy. Your firm is dead in the water. So sign.”
The other girl shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. Daddy’s pit bull, indeed. “I can think of other things to do with the deal. Certain places to shove it.”
“Carol!” her dad shouted.
I had to chuckle at that. Neither of Maurice’s daughters was over thirty, both so naïve, but one was all about fairness and the other was threatening to shove my deal up my ass. That inability to accept change and reality as it was certainly hadn’t served Maurice well, had it? Pity to see it in the younger generation. Then I watched Belle’s frown, those downcast eyes of hers.
Something pinged in a heart that had felt long dead, something I couldn’t explain.
“Well, I can see we’re at an impasse. However, I’m not completely heartless. There might be something I could do,” I said.
Carol glared at me and arched an eyebrow, but she at least had the sense to stay silent.
Maurice leaned forward. “What would t
hat be?”
I could see the beads of sweat dotting his lined forehead. The old man hardly had a poker face, but he was in dire straits. Then again, that was the time you had to dig deep and show the bastards no mercy. He’d never make it on the front lines, just like he hadn’t made it in business.
“I want to offer a month of extended negotiations. We have a long way to go to meet at what we need. I’d like to have Belle come with me to my estate in the Bahamas—I already had a vacation set up there—and we can go through all the details there.”
Her head shot up, and I loved her flushed cheeks, the way her eyes darted out like a panicked rabbit in a trap. Smart girl, you know how dangerous I am already, don’t you?
“What?” Belle asked.
I shrugged. “I walk now, and you get nothing, or Belle comes to negotiate with me in the Bahamas. That’s hardly a chore.” I stood then and nodded to my lawyer to recollect the contracts Maurice had perused. “You have forty-eight hours to call me back about this. If I hear nothing by Friday, then I’ll assume you’re passing on everything.”
Maurice stood and shook his head, his cheeks turning an ugly purple shade. Old man needed to watch his blood pressure, that much was obvious. “You can’t just… I know the things you do, Drake. I’m not sending any daughter of mine to your private island.”
I held up my hands to feign my innocence, but I couldn’t keep from smirking. He was right about one thing. There were favors I wanted from Belle, bonuses that would sweeten the negotiations, none of which would make her father happy. After all, there was a reason I didn’t invite Maurice for the extended talks.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Maurice.”
Carol narrowed her eyes. “How dumb do you think we are? No way. Belle stays here.”
Belle’s eyes widened, and it struck me that she had been so innocent that, until now, she hadn’t considered the chance we’d get up to anything other than business. How cute. Straightening her jacket and skirt, she blew past me, even as her composure seemed to crumble. That sent my instincts running wild. It was a chase now, a pursuit. It had been so very long since I’d met a woman who didn’t just fall into my arms and eventually, my bed. Belle Fontaine was someone different than all those other women I’d had, and I craved something real for the first time in years.