The One (The Only One Book 1)

by Belle Ami

  Adelia studied Miles’s face, considering what her parents’ reaction to her new husband and life would have been. She hoped in her heart that they would have come to love Miles. “I’m not sure how they would have felt about the yacht, but I’m sure they would have loved their son-in-law!”

  “I can’t wait to show you the rest of the ship and our stateroom!” He nibbled her ear, his breath warm as he whispered, “The things I’m going to do to you in that stateroom…”

  His words made her heart skip a beat, causing warmth to spread throughout her body. “What are you waiting for?” she whispered playfully.

  “Naughty girl. I think we’ll wait until after we Jet Ski and take a swim. The crew might find it strange if we disappear so soon. They’ve been preparing for our arrival, and we need to let them do their thing. There will be plenty of time for extracurricular activities; I promise you. Let’s not waste this sunshine. We’ll be dropping anchor soon, and then the fun begins!”

  The yacht dropped anchor in the Bay of Sorrento, not far from soaring limestone cliffs that twisted in and out of the jagged Amalfi coastline. Miles took Adelia on a tour of Green Way, ending in the owner’s suite, where Adelia ran around, peeking into every nook and cranny, oohing and aahing. He lay on the bed, resting, while she explored the rooms of the suite. “Miles, everything is so exquisite. I love the Art Deco theme, the warmth of the woods mixed with the modernist lines. It’s gorgeous! And this suite—it’s enormous. I can’t imagine a more glorious honeymoon.”

  The bathroom of white Carrara marble was trimmed in black onyx, as was the walk-in shower with its etched-glass door. Lalique sconces cast soft, pink light on the walls. All of their clothing had been organized in his and hers walk-in closets. The wood-framed, glass-faced doors made it easy to decide what to wear, and Adelia wasted little time changing into a coral, one-piece bathing suit with a matching cover-up and an oversized straw hat.

  Seeing Miles sprawled on the bed, she leaned against the wall and vamped like a movie siren, throwing her head back in a sultry pose. Imitating Mae West, she elongated the words: “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” Bursting into laughter, she proceeded to throw herself onto the king-size bed, playfully flopping on top of Miles. “I feel like a kid in a candy store.”

  “Well, Mrs. Bremen, you look like a piece of candy, good enough to eat!” He kissed her, and she could feel him hardening, but before she could respond, he rolled her over, pinning her to the bed. “You little tease. C’mon, we’re going Jet Skiing, and then we’ll take a swim.” Standing, he pulled her from the bed.

  Adelia had never been on a Jet Ski before, but given her athletic prowess and ability to control a thousand-pound animal, she wasn’t too worried. Kent, the water-sports steward, explained everything succinctly and secured the engine-stop lanyard around her wrist.

  “That’s it, Mrs. Bremen. Easy as pie.”

  “Thank you, Kent. I’m sure Miles won’t lead me into any danger.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure, darling!” Miles shot back.

  With that, Miles gunned the engine and took off flying across the water, splashing Adelia with his wake. Adelia, in momentary shock from the cold, salty water, wiped her sunglasses and, turning the throttle, spun in a circle and took off after him. With her confidence growing every minute, she began to give the Sea-Doo more fuel, and she closed the gap between them as her speed increased. It occurred to her that this feeling of flying over the water was very similar to the feeling of flying over a jump on a horse. She felt the familiar thrill of adrenaline coursing through her veins.

  Keeping her eyes on Miles, she could see he was an expert at this sport. He stood perfectly balanced, his legs straddling the Jet Ski as he crossed the wake of a fishing boat that was making its way out to sea. She watched his natural athleticism as he bent his knees and soared out of the water, flying several feet in the air before returning to the water with a bounce, his legs and knees absorbing the shock. He turned in a tight circle, one with the Jet Ski, and headed straight toward her. Was he playing chicken with her? He wouldn’t dare. Imitating him, she swung into a tight turn, gunned the engine, and raced away as fast as she could. She could hear her own laughter carried on the wind as he pursued her. She was completely wet with salty spray, and she could feel the sun’s rays toasting her shoulders and warming her. She licked her lips, tasting the salt, and grinned, cutting the engine. Miles flew past her and circled back, a worried look on his face.

  “Honey, are you all right? What happened? You stopped so suddenly.”

  She lay back on the Sea-Doo, resting her head against the rear padding of the seat. She looked as if she was taking a nap in this most unlikely of places. A mischievous smile graced her lips. “Uncle! You win! You are clearly an expert at this. Just wait until I get you on a horse. You are going to beg for mercy.”

  “You’d better sit up before you fall off and I have to rescue you. The horses are only for you and Karolin. I am the official horse observer. I don’t sit on things that have a mind of their own. As far as begging for mercy, I have a feeling that you’ll be the one begging soon enough.” He eyed her lasciviously. “Come on. We’ll cruise along the shoreline, and I’ll show you some hidden caves.”

  Adelia sat up, her eyes aglow. “Caves? Can we go that close to the cliffs? Is it deep enough for the Jet Skis? You’re not trying to get rid of me already, are you, Miles?”

  Cocking his head and grinning, he baited, “Don’t you trust me, Princess?”

  “Not entirely,” she teased.

  The Lattari Mountains were jagged, limestone pinnacles plunging into the Tyrrhenian Sea. The granite-faced cliffs wound in and out of the coastline, revealing blue-green grottos, small coves with stone arches, and an occasional strand of pebbled shoreline. The snaky shoreline was dotted with caves that were unreachable except by water. Miles disappeared into a large opening in the cliff face, and Adelia hesitatingly followed.

  The cave itself was dark, but the water was an incandescent turquoise; it shimmered, sending reflections dancing off the walls.

  “Magical, isn’t it? On Capri, I’ll take you for a swim in the Blue Grotto.” Miles’s voice echoed off the cavernous walls.

  Adelia shivered. “It must have taken thousands of years of water erosion to hollow out a cave like this. Nothing has changed here since ancient times, when Roman fishermen must have discovered it. It’s phenomenal, as are you, husband dear. I’d better start reading a little about this magical place.”

  “We have books on board. You can read all you’d like, Mrs. Bremen, about the breathtaking Sorrento and Amalfi coasts. Let’s get back to the boat and take a swim before siesta.”

  She ignored the suggestive tone of his voice and the sly look in his eyes. “Yes, I could use a nap.” She raised her arms and stretched, yawning.

  “I’ll race you back!” They exited the cave, the water quickly deepening from aqua to cobalt blue as the seafloor dropped away beneath them. Miles and Adelia simultaneously opened their throttles and tore across the water, racing each other, their laughter dissolving in the wind and spray.

  From this vantage point, Adelia could see what a majestic vessel Green Way was as she lay at berth, rising out of the water, sleek and shining.

  Kent and Wade relieved them of the Jet Skis. Miles dove into the water and swam out to a double inflated raft moored about thirty feet from the yacht. He pulled himself up and lay back smiling, his arms cradling his head as he watched Adelia swim to him. He hoisted her up, pulling her into his arms and kissing her.

  “Hmmm, your lips taste cold and salty. I’d like to take you, Mrs. Bremen, right here.”

  “I’m sure you would, Mr. Bremen. However, I don’t think the crew would appreciate it.”

  “Oh, they would appreciate it, but to insure their silence, I might just have to force each of them to walk the plank.”

&
nbsp; She sighed, feeling for the first time the effects of jet lag. Contentedly, she rested in the crook of his arm. “I could fall asleep right here, right now.”

  “Go ahead, baby; take a catnap. I’ll keep the fish away.”

  Adelia and Miles woke with a start. Kent was pulling the raft toward the boat. “Sorry, sir. The captain would like to head off to our anchorage in front of the Faraglioni at Capri. This way, Chef Julio can prepare your meal at anchorage. You might like to be on deck at seven for cocktails. The sunset will be breathtaking.”

  “How long have we been asleep, Kent?”

  “A little over an hour, sir.”

  Miles and Adelia climbed the ladder out of the water to the swim platform. “Please tell Gail we’ll be up for cocktails at seven. We’ll see you later, Kent. Thank you!”

  Adelia and Miles showered, soaping each other’s body and kissing beneath the steamy spray. Miles insisted on drying Adelia with an oversized, thick, terry towel.

  “We got a lot of sun today—look!” He turned her around to the mirror. She was suntan pink where her skin had been exposed and white where her swimsuit had covered her. He squirted cream into his hands and began to rub it all over her body. He turned her back around to face him and bent as she leaned against the counter for balance. Massaging each foot, he ran his hands up each of her long legs, finishing with a stroke between her legs. She swooned with pleasure.

  “We have to protect your beautiful, fair skin from getting burnt by the sun,” he murmured, kissing her between her legs and sending a shiver up her spine. His tongue darted against her clitoris. “God, you taste like sugar.”

  “Oh… Miles, you’ve been teasing me all day.” She sighed, feeling her knees weaken.

  “I’m not teasing you now, am I?” He grabbed a towel and laid it on the counter. Then he kissed her passionately, letting her taste herself. Spinning her around, he bent her gently over the counter and caressed her derriere. Spreading her cheeks, he entered her from behind. She groaned, feeling his cock lengthen and harden with each penetration inside her. His hands held tight to her waist, pinning her against the counter. He watched her expression in the mirror dissolve into rapture.

  Miles was aroused by her helplessness and his power over her as he fucked her; he groaned with each stroke as he pounded her into submission. He felt her go rigid and heard her cry out his name in orgasm as he continued to assail her, relishing his dominance over her. Finally he stiffened, called out her name, and exploded like a bomb. He collapsed on her as his body spasmed in satisfaction. He lay against her, panting, until his breath returned. When he finally pulled out of her, she was limp like a rag doll. He picked her up and carried her to the bed.

  “Siesta time,” he whispered, wrapping himself around her, his face pressed into her hair, his body curving to hers. “Marrying you was the best decision I’ve ever made.”

  Drowsily, Adelia murmured, “I feel I’m living in a dream. I love you, Miles.”

  Detective Weiss sat at his desk in the investigative division of the Santa Barbara Police Department scanning through reams of information that he had pulled up on a company of which Lars had been a board member. Solarian was a start-up that manufactured a new, sophisticated solar cell that not only stored energy from the sun, but also converted and enhanced that energy through a reflective prism stored in the cell. The company had received $500 million in loan guarantees from the US Department of Energy by asserting its status as a renewable energy project under the Energy Policy Act of 2005; however, what interested Detective Weiss was Green Way Capital Partners’ $50 million ownership investment. Green Way and nine other venture-capital funds had invested approximately $198 million in seed capital to fund the company and build a state-of-the-art robotic factory. David had found a link between Miles Bremen and Lars Lindstrom that might explain the phone calls that had taken place prior to the crash. Whether there had been any nefarious activity was, for the moment, an entirely improvable proposition but one he intended to investigate. The first question was why would Miles Bremen not tell Adelia that he’d had a close business relationship with Lars? Detective Weiss made some notes and was hardly aware of the two other detectives who had just returned from lunch.

  “Hey, David, isn’t this the girl whose parents were killed in that car accident that you were investigating several months ago?” The detective tossed the Santa Barbara Independent newspaper on Detective Weiss’s desk.

  David grabbed the paper. “You mean Adelia Lindstrom?”

  “Yeah, except she’s not Lindstrom anymore. What I want to know is how come I get the eighty-four-year-old spinster fraud investigation and you get the mourning, dark-haired heiress beauty? Take a look at the society page.”

  David flipped through the newspaper. “Maybe they hand out the beautiful-girl investigations to the good-looking detectives, and the really important, unglamorous investigations to meatheads like you,” David quipped good-naturedly as he reached the society page and stared at the wedding-announcement photo of Mr. and Mrs. Miles Bremen, the former Adelia Ann Lindstrom. He could feel his pulse quicken at the mere sight of her. She was ravishing.

  Detective Adams laughed and patted David on the back. “Yeah, well, if you’re so good-looking, how come she married that millionaire and is off in Europe somewhere on her honeymoon?”

  David shrugged, smiling. “You got me. I guess there’s no accounting for taste.”

  The smirking detectives sat down at their desks. David continued to stare at the photo of Adelia, wondering when he might hear from her.

  The yacht had moved from its anchorage at Marina Piccolo, where it had been protected by the three towering Faraglioni monolith rocks that jutted out of the sea, to the Port Marina Grande at the northern end of the island. Here the island rose from the sea in a landscape of panoramic hills, dotted with colorful villas, and climbed precipitously in sheer cliffs of limestone to the summit of Mount Solaro, the highest point on the island. After lunch, Adelia had returned to Green Way alone in a rainbow-colored cabriolet that was open to the gentle breeze that blew from the Gulf of Naples. Feeling a tad nauseous, she hadn’t wanted to ruin the others’ fun and had encouraged Miles, Todd, and Karolin to continue with their plans to go shopping in town.

  Adelia lay in her stateroom, resting and feeling queasy. It was so unlike her to feel out of sorts, yet for several days now, she had been feeling sudden waves of nausea. The two couples had shared a delightful lunch at La Fontelina’s Beach Club, dining on fruits of the sea and ending with a series of toasts and a bottle of Limoncello, the sweet lemon liqueur for which Campania was famous. Adelia had hoped that the digestif would settle her nausea, but it had brought no relief.

  As she lay resting, it occurred to her that this moment of privacy might be an opportune moment to call David in California. Her chances of being alone would be rare, given the close proximity of Miles, Karolin, and Todd. She looked at her watch, noting that with the time change it would be morning in Santa Barbara. She dialed, knowing she wouldn’t get another opportunity like this.

  “Hi, Adelia. How are you?” Detective Weiss answered, recognizing the cell phone number.

  “Actually, I’m not feeling great—a bit of an upset stomach. How about you, David? How are you?”

  “I’m fine. Are you alone? Can you talk?”

  “Yes, why? Have you found something?”

  “OK, I’ll make this brief, and I want to preface it by saying I’m not insinuating that there is any more to this than a miscommunication on Miles’s part. The fact is, Miles and your father were in contact before the crash. They definitely had spoken on the phone, if not actually in person. Miles sits on the board of Solarian, a solar-cell company, and his company is invested to the tune of fifty million dollars. Your father sat on the board as an advisor; his name on the stationery clearly gave the company credibility. I have complete financial documentation coming in on S
olarian, and I have hired a forensic accountant to run the numbers.

  “I hate to deliver this unsettling news to you on your honeymoon; most likely this can all be explained. Perhaps Miles didn’t want you to think that there was anything fishy about his pursuit of a business associate’s daughter. Maybe he never intended to fall in love, but he did. Hell, there could be a host of reasons, all of them innocent.”

  Adelia took a troubled breath, trying to ease the discomfort that assailed her. “I don’t know why he didn’t tell me, but I’m sure there’s a rational explanation. Don’t worry about me; I can handle this. Should I question Miles about any of this?”

  “Absolutely not! It’s important that we keep the upper hand by keeping this all under cover. No matter what we find, we hold the advantage by not showing our hand. Do you understand me? Besides, if there is a problem, I don’t want you in any danger. Promise me, Adelia, that you will follow the plan and do as I say.”

  “I suppose you’re right, and I will do it your way; don’t worry. Miles loves me; he could never hurt me. Is there anything else or anyone else that seems suspicious? I can’t believe that Miles is our only suspect.”

  “Not at the moment, but I’m sure other possible suspects will come to light as I continue the investigation. You were right about the fact that your father stood to make a lot of enemies with his announcement at the conference. I just need time to continue following the leads.” David paused. “Look, I know you’re in love with Miles. That’s why you married him. You certainly couldn’t have suspected that he would turn out to be a person of interest in your parents’ deaths. Now that he is, I don’t expect you to fall out of love with him. That’s not how the heart works. Remember, Adelia, other people of suspicion are bound to turn up.”