Rekindled: A Billionaire Second Chance Romance

by Ashlee Price

  She wanted to see that hard body of his again and as she got closer to the edge, Henri looked at her questioningly. “Is it a good place to swim? The water feels great.”

  He nodded that it was, but he was more interested in her as she stood up. “Do you want to come for a swim with me?”

  Henri just shook his head. There was no way that he would say no to such an offer. He was ready to jump in as he was, but then stopped to take his shirt off. Mary couldn’t get enough of him and though she tried to hide her attraction, the way he made her feel was hard to hide. He grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to the edge with him. “If I am going in, you have to go in.”

  It was her idea, but Mary was more a gradual swimmer, getting in slowly to get used to the fast moving water. But Henri was having none of that and he pulled her in with him. Her clothes immediately started to weigh her down. Henri had his arms around her waist and after a short shriek and giggle, Mary had cooled off immediately. Her legs wrapped around his, as her arms encircled his neck.

  Naturally his lips went to hers in that moment and she was left sighing against his lips. It was what she had wanted to do since she first saw him with his chest bare and his blue eyes glittering at her. His lips were soft and slight demanding. Every inch of her was wrapped around him as she clung to him. Mary hadn’t expected it to feel so good, for his body to feel so good against hers, but it did.

  Her back felt the rough rock behind her as he leaned in for more contact. Mary whimpered when he pulled away, dragging him back in for another kiss. She wanted more, but knew she had to stop before she wouldn’t be able to and pulled away. Henri looked as disappointed as she felt and the hardness pressed against her told her that it was the case. He needed her just as bad as she needed him and not even the cold water could cool his ardor.

  Moving away from his hard, tempting body, Mary tried to gain her composure, but like everything with him, it was hard. They swam for a few minutes, but there was too much tension and soon they were on their way back. She hadn’t thought things through and was soaked. He offered her his shirt to put over her own and Mary agreed, some of the reason for the simple fact that she didn’t want him to put it back on. The only thing that saved Mary from freezing on the way back was the hot sun beating down on them. But as they got closer to the ranch, the sun was starting to go down. They had been out for some time and the last half a mile, Mary was frozen by the time she got to the ranch.

  Mary grabbed her bag on the way in and had Henri show her where she would be staying so she could get dressed. She didn’t see the look she got from Elna, but Henri did. She gave him a dirty look and when he left Mary to it, she asked him where they had been. “What are you doing without a shirt and her freezing?”

  “We just went for a swim and should have brought the horses. Are the rest of the guys back?”

  She shook her head and looked at her second to youngest son. “I really like her.”

  He smiled back at her and told her that he felt the same away about Mary. It was hard not to feel something for her. She was bubbly and seemed to have come to him when he needed her most, thinking that he would never find love. Henri didn’t know what was going to happen between them, but he hoped that it would work out the way he wanted it to in his head.

  Dinner was a little awkward for Mary, but considering all of the people at the table, she did pretty well about getting to know them all. By the end of the night, everyone liked Mary as much as Henri did. He gave her a short kiss goodnight before she went to bed. They both wanted more, but the house was full and it didn’t seem the time. Mary was still trying to keep her emotions together and even as she wanted more, she closed the door behind herself and leaned back against the door. Henri was a hard man to get to know, but she was glad that she had. Mary was feeling their meeting at the airport was rather fate driven.

  The wedding the next day was even more beautiful and Mary had caught herself crying. The couple she didn’t even know, but she felt like she already knew Gemma. It was the love for each other that kept her a little weepy-eyed and she wasn’t the only one. Almost every woman in the place had wet eyes and it made Mary feel better. Henri wasn’t getting teary-eyed, but he did pull her in to hold her against his chest. Mary didn’t fight the warm embrace and felt content in his arms.

  But reality had to set in and she had to go back to Houston for her work assignments. Mary promised to call him that evening when she was done with her errands. Henri couldn’t wait and neither one of them had brought up him going back to Venezuela.

  Chapter 9

  “Henri, have you talked to mom today?” Scott had a worried look on his face that Henri didn’t like the looks of. He waited for more, but Scott didn’t say anything else except that he thought he should go talk to Elna.

  “What’s it about?”

  “The business and Mary.” Scott already knew, but he wasn’t going to be the one that shattered his brother’s smile that he hadn’t seen before. He had liked Mary as well, the whole family did, but it seemed like she had been here for a reason that didn’t include seeing Henri. Scott wished that what he had just heard wasn’t true.

  “Come on, just tell me.”

  “I can’t. Mom is in the office. I think you should go talk to her.”

  Henri agreed to, but he didn’t like the whole cloak and dagger routine. When he got into the office on the bottom floor, Elna looked up at her son and smiled slowly. “Henri. I was looking for you earlier. We need to talk.”

  “Yeah, that is what Scott said. What is going on?”

  She tossed a paper down on her desk as he sat down. “This is what is going on.”

  On the front page was a picture of the ranch during the wedding, as well as a smaller picture of Mary and him walking back from the late night swim that night at the pond. As he sat down in the seat, he read all of the lies and conjunctions that had been printed. There was a picture inside that he recognized of him that Mary had taken. It was then that it sank in that she had sold the picture to the newspaper.

  “Did you know about this? Did you know that she worked for the Herald?”

  He shook his head that he did. “She is a freelance photographer mom. I knew that she did some work for the newspaper.”

  “Did you know that she was going to do that story?”

  Henri couldn’t speak. Again he just shook his head. Elna’s face changed as his did. It sunk in that her son had been duped and it was only when she saw the pain in his eyes that she realized how much her son had cared about Mary.

  “How long did you know her? You never did tell me where the two of you met.”

  “We met on the plane coming back home. It’s crazy that it was only a week ago. And then this…” Henri was a little heartbroken and it felt devastating, even as he realized that it had only been a few days since they had met. Even as he held the paper in his hand and read the words, it didn’t feel real to him. None of it did and Henri took that as his first clue that it hadn’t been real at all. Some of their conversation was in the lines of the magazine and it had all been screwed around and turned into something bad. The headline was that he was back in the country for a wife. His mother’s deathbed request was in there and then the ‘forced marriage’ of his sister to her current husband.

  He leaned back further in the seat. “Has Gemma seen this?”

  She shook her head and sat down then. “No and I don’t want her to, though I know she will figure it out. You can’t keep anything from her.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking to have said some of those things. You know that it wasn’t said like that.”

  Elna smiled and waved him off. “Oh I know. It wouldn’t be the first time that we have been dragged through the mud. She really seemed like a sweet girl.” She was trying to soften the blow, but she knew that he cared about her. Henri was hardly ever home and he certainly had never brought a girl with him. “You know, it could all be a mistake. You should talk to her.”

&
nbsp; Henri didn’t want to hear that. That was the last thing that he wanted to do and his head was answering before he could get a word out. “I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

  “I know you are hurt, but sometimes things are not as they seem.” Elna wanted more than anything to be right and she hoped that she was.

  ***

  Henri didn’t call her and when he saw her number coming up on his phone, he just turned it off all together. It was his luck. Henri never had any luck with women and it seemed like the luck was going to continue as it had before. After several days of ignoring her calls, she stopped making them and Henri was even more upset than before. It felt like nothing he did was going to make it any better and he thought of what his mother had said. He should talk to her, get her side of the story, but his ego held him up.

  Instead he planned his trip back to Venezuela. It was his plan all along and Henri started to feel better with a direction in mind. There was something settling with the idea that he had a plan, even if he wanted to do something else instead.

  When his phone rang and it was her number that showed up, there was a temptation to answer. He sat there going back and forth about it for so long that the phone stopped ringing. After a few moments of looking at it, wanting it to call her, Henri instead stuck the phone back in his pocket and went into the ranch house. He had to tell his family that he was going back and it was not a conversation that he really wanted to have. Goodbyes in the Callahans were always hard and he dreaded it more than leaving Mar behind.

  “Hey, glad to see you back. I was wondering where you went off to. I was hoping you would help me with some last minute touches on the far fence line on the west side of the property.”

  Henri nodded that he would. It sounded better than having to deal with the goodbyes and the questions. Gemma had found out about the magazine and she had shrugged it off, claiming that she knew it wasn’t Mary that had done it. He felt a little perturbed that she was surer about it than he was. Henri was the one that had talked to her for hours, fallen in love with her and he had not an ounce of the assurance that Gemma had. She had only talked to her a few minutes. It made Henri wondered if everything he thought was true was wrong.

  Chapter 10

  “I’m sorry about everything with Mary. She seemed like a really nice girl.”

  “I don’t really want to talk about it.” Henri knew he was trying to help, but it wasn’t helping. All of his family had said how much they had liked her. It was a way to show that they had been duped as well, but it didn’t make him feel any better. He would have much rather her been who she said she was, instead of just being one of many that saw her for something else.

  “I understand, Henri. I just want you to know that I am here for you if you need anything.”

  Henri thanked him, but his mind was back on the one person that he didn’t want to think about. His phone kept ringing in his pocket. “Are you going to answer that?”

  He shook his head that he wasn’t. It was probably just Mary calling again and he didn’t want to hear it. Henri didn’t want her to feel better by apologizing because all he could feel was betrayal about it. When his brother’s phone starting ringing, Henri watched him answer as he should have.

  “Hello?”

  “Yeah he is here.”

  “Okay. I will send him down.”

  Scott off the phone and looked at his brother. “Mary is down at the ranch with mom. You need to go down there.”

  Henri sighed and started out towards the house on his horse. It didn’t take but a few minutes and he was sure that Mary had made a bigger mistake coming there. Elna would not take kindly to what had happened and he was sure that there would be a tense scene when he walked in. He wasn’t expecting to see the two women laughing and talking at the table like two old friends. Not knowing what to say, he just stood there for a minute until they realized that he was standing there.

  “Well about time you answered your phone.”

  “Sorry about that.” He was answering his mother’s sharp tone, but his eyes were on the woman sitting next to her. Mary was still as beautiful as he remembered. There was a moment that he thought that maybe he wouldn’t feel the same way about her after the betrayal, but he knew then that it just wasn’t the case.

  “Why don’t the two of you go talk for a while? Henri, take her to the pond. I bet she would like it there and it was always your favorite spot.” Elna had a look of conspiracy in her eyes that she didn’t even try to cover up.

  He nodded his head, never refusing her before, but he didn’t know what to say. There was something so strange in the whole situation. “Um, okay.”

  Mary seemed about as unsure as he was. She could see the way he had responded and if it wasn’t for Elna, the two of them would not have left. When they got outside, he stopped her. “I can’t believe you came to my house.”

  “You wouldn’t answer your phone.”

  “Because of what you did.”

  “I didn’t do anything and if you would have answered your phone and talked to me, then I could have told you. Someone I worked for in the newspaper took me out, we had a couple of drinks and I talked about you. I couldn’t help it, I had been drinking a bit and I was happy. Then she used it all in the article and she got a picture of you on accident. It wasn’t this big betrayal. I would never do that to you and your family. Belinda saw an opportunity and took it.”

  Henri didn’t want to believe it, but he was still heading towards the horse. He didn’t ask her if she had rode before, putting her up on the saddle and getting in behind her. With a motion to the horse, it took off towards the place where they had been alone before. As he held her stiffly, soon both of their bodies had to get with the natural movement to stay on. He was pressed up against her and she was starting to feel too good to ignore.

  ***

  By the time he got to the pond he was hard and she could feel his need behind her. Mary didn’t want to explain herself anymore, too worried about what he was obviously thinking about as well. There was no denying how good he felt next to her.

  He helped her down and as she slid down his hard body, her breath caught in her throat. It was hard not to breathe a little faster and he seemed to like her response. “I’ve been very mad at you, Mary. But I should have known that you wouldn’t do that to me.”

  “If you are still angry, there are ways that we can get rid of some of that energy to help you feel better.”

  Her words caught him off guard and Mary could see the bright eyes darkening above her as he held her gaze. Mary’s arms moved to go around him and pull him down for a kiss. Groaning against her, he couldn’t hold back any longer and quickly encircled her waist. Quickly she was overwhelmed and being urged back towards the rocks that surrounded the small pond. The trees blotted out the sun and it was cooler, but it also gave them some privacy as the horse grazed.

  Henri was on top of her and staring down into her eyes. His hips had moved between her legs and he was pressing hard against her core that was so sensitive to the touch. “Is this what you had in mind?”

  She shook her head because she couldn’t speak. It was what she had thought about since the last time he had kissed her, but there was no changing her mind that time. His hands tugged on her shorts and then his own. They were both still mainly clothed, but just enough was bare to pleasure them both. Mary felt hot, heavy weight on her quim suddenly and it made her body jerk back. “Now.”

  Henri pressed in suddenly. With no touch or taste, she was ready for him as she had been for some time. He groaned with the wet heat suffocating his member and the slight whimper as he filled her full. Mary’s eyes closed to the pleasure as he moved slowly at first, picking up the pace as her cries got louder, his name more desperate on her lips.

  “Yes, Henri, yes!”

  She repeated the mantra over and over again as she exploded underneath him. He felt her tensing and then the swirl of fluid as her body released. Henri had waited too long for her an
d there was no going back once he had his hands on her. Slamming in harder, he hissed her name, pushing deeper as he leaned into kiss her. Every drop of his hot seed burning her womb, making her own pleasure peak once more before she was panting underneath him, finally away of the cool stone on her backside.

  “Are you still mad at me?”

  He shook his head as he looked down at her. How could he be mad?

  “Good, because I don’t like when you are mad at me. Though I do like the makeup.” Henri throbbed inside of her, jerking with her words.

  “I might still be a little angry.”

  Mary giggled as he moved back over her. “What am I going to do with you, Henri?”

  “Never let me go.”

  As their lips met and she pulled him down to her, she knew that she wasn’t ever going to let him go. Mary didn’t believe in fate, but there was no other explanation how she could just bump into her soul mate. Mary was never going to give him up. It had taken her that long to find him and she wasn’t going to waste another minute without him.

  ~THE END~

  Cowboy’s Creation

  Introduction

  I couldn’t believe my sister-in-law was having her baby and my brother Marcus wasn’t there to see it happen. When I called him, he told me that he was running late getting off the offshore oil rig he worked on. When he finally got home, he wasn’t alone. Marcus had brought his best friend, Billy, with him.

  The first time I saw Billy, I knew there was something more to the man than what met the eye. He was tall and handsome, muscular from all of his physical labor, and I wanted him. I didn’t care that Marcus might object or that the man was a natural player who’d already checked out every inch of my body. I wanted him.