Life Shocks Romances Collection 4

by Jade Kerrion

  Rio unlocked the biometric safe hidden behind the bathroom mirror and took out a square, flat box.

  He felt her warmth beside him, and looked down at her.

  Her eyes were wide and curious as he opened the jewelry case. He chuckled to himself. What was it with women and jewels? They were sparkling stones—quite pretty, stupidly expensive, and otherwise useless. A ring nestled in the upper half of the case, with two earrings on either side. He replaced the pendant in its vacated space.

  “They’re beautiful,” she breathed.

  “Yes,” he said. “They’ve been in the family for generations. The Najam ‘Azraq came from a stone found in Arabia four hundred or more years ago. Some of the smaller pieces of the stone were incorporated into the earrings. The ring came from Myanmar, a place more commonly known for its rubies, which makes it all the more unique.”

  “Does it have a name?”

  “Hkyith Kyinn Mayttar.”

  Her eyebrows drew together. “Can I buy a vowel?”

  He burst out laughing. “In Burmese, it means love.”

  Their eyes met. The word hung between them, like a whisper a breath short of being audible, a promise a moment short of coming true.

  “Cixi…” His voice was rough but his hand gentle as he caressed her cheek. She turned into the motion as she always had, like a half-wild creature coming to rest in an unexpectedly safe place.

  For a moment, their surroundings melted away, and it was just them—two people who had unexpectedly found safety, and then love, together.

  “Family,” she murmured so quietly that for a moment, he wasn’t certain she had spoken at all. “They belong together. Forever.”

  His heart raced and then tripped when he suddenly realized she was talking about the diamond set, not about them. A muscle in his cheek twitched. “Yes, they were always meant to be a set.”

  “I’m sure she will love them.”

  If she was going to be so cruelly magnanimous, he could play the same game. He fixed an indifferent expression on his face. “She will. She already has the dress picked out. I don’t know what theme colors she wanted for the wedding, but she’s always been partial to blue.”

  Cixi’s smile froze on her face, but her eyes betrayed a shattering heart.

  Rio swallowed a curse. “I don’t blame you for returning to your family, or choosing them when it seemed obvious they could give you more than I did. Maybe I didn’t tell you often enough that I loved you, or showed it in ways outside of the bedroom—”

  “Hush.” She pressed her hands to his lips. “You were wonderful, Rio, more than wonderful. Don’t ever think you weren’t perfect for me.”

  “Just not perfect enough to be worth sticking around for.” The bitterness in his voice stunned him. “I understand why you choose your family over someone whom you thought was probably going to be a beach bum his entire life. I even think I understand why you took the diamond. What I don’t get it why you didn’t say goodbye.”

  She swallowed hard several times. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips. “I don’t know why. I just knew I couldn’t. I think I realized that if I gave you a chance to talk me out of it, you would.”

  “And I didn’t deserve that chance?” He yanked his hand out of her grasp. “You gave me your virginity. You moved to Key West to be with me. You lived with me for six months. But you wouldn’t give me ten minutes of a face-to-face explanation? You dumped me without saying goodbye, without leaving a trace of where you might have gone. Did you know that I went back to New York to look for you? I went to every place you’d ever told me you’d visited. I called everyone I knew. For three months, I searched for you. There’s a missing person’s report—still open—in Key West. Every couple of weeks, the sergeant calls me to say he hasn’t any new leads.”

  She blinked, her hand against her throat. She looked like an injured dove, bewildered and broken-winged. “I…didn’t know.”

  “I didn’t know if you’d been kidnapped or if you’d left freely. I assumed the latter, since you’d taken all your clothes with you, but I didn’t know for certain. I called the hospitals, the morgues, walked the beaches, just in case.”

  “In case I’d tried to commit suicide by packing my luggage and dragging the bags into the ocean with me? Rio, did you really think—?”

  “I couldn’t think!” he snarled as he yanked his fingers through his hair. “I loved you. Beyond reason. And then you were gone.” His voice trailed into a whisper. “My friends tried to get me back to New York, but I needed to stay on the island, just in case...”

  “Just in case I came back.” She completed his unfinished sentence. “I’m so sorry, Rio. I never knew how much…how badly it would affect you. I thought I could leave, and you would be okay. I never realized—” She swallowed hard. “I didn’t realize how much I meant to you.”

  “Yeah, well. Lesson learned, right? Moving on.” He gritted his teeth. “Are you happy?”

  “What?”

  “Are you happy?” he repeated. “With your family? Your career?”

  “Yes,” she murmured, but even to his ears, her reply sounded rushed and forced.

  He tipped her chin up. “Really? Is this what you wanted? The dainty nose. The perfect chin?”

  She jerked her head out of his hand. “How dare you criticize me? If I want to look like this, it is my business, not yours.”

  “Why did you have to change to suit your family?”

  “We all change. We adapt to new situations. How is plastic surgery any different from a new diet plan or a new workout regime?”

  Rio’s eyes narrowed. Cixi had always been logical and rational—coolly and annoying so. It was what he loved about her. It was also what drove him nuts; she rarely had a logical weakness he could unravel in his favor.

  Her tone remained frosty. “And while we’re on the topic of failed relationships, why didn’t you tell me who you were?”

  He stiffened. “What do you mean?”

  “For six months, you let me believe that you were just Rio Loren, professional beach bum, content to wait tables and do odd jobs for a living. Not a word, not a whimper, about who you really were.”

  “This is who I really am.” He thumped his chest. “Me. Rio. I prefer Key West to Manhattan, a beach cottage to a penthouse, and I like meeting people. Waiting on tables and odd jobs let me do that in between my writing. What does the number of zeroes in my account or my parents’ account have to do with anything?” He scowled at her. “Why should they mean anything?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Rio. Of course they mean something. You wanted to be loved for you instead of your bank account; I get that.”

  He sucked in a deep breath at having his deepest fear so casually dragged out into the light.

  “But I deserved the truth,” Cixi continued. “I deserved the courtesy of knowing who you were—perhaps not within two minutes of meeting you, but certainly not two minutes after you chose to propose. Some people might have taken that omission to mean a lack of trust and an absence of love.”

  Rio stared at her, aghast. “You knew who I was? You knew I was rich?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “But you kept things from me, and I knew it. All those nights you took phone calls outside the cottage.”

  “I did it so I wouldn’t disturb your sleep.”

  “Always covering up your computer screen whenever I came into the room.”

  “I don’t like sharing my work-in-progress.”

  “You’re not just a professional beach bum, are you, Rio? A cheery jack-of-all-trades hanging out with the local population and with tourists?” She stalked up to him. “Don’t you think I understand Spanish or Portuguese? You’re working hand-in-hand with the drug dealers in South America who traffic their goods through the Keys and into the U.S.”

  “No!” Rio spun away from her. He paced the room, tension knotting into his shoulders. “You know my brother died of a drug overdose. How could you possibly think that I would actu
ally deal in drugs?”

  “Why not? It would certainly explain the guilt you felt—the guilt you’re still feeling over his death.”

  “No. I—” Rio’s mind tumbled over the tangle of truth and lies, so perfectly interwoven. If she pulled hard enough on the right thread, it would unravel completely. No, he couldn’t tell her the truth; it was safer for her to believe the lie.

  She continued, raw pain in her voice. “That’s all I was to you. Cover.”

  “What?” He twisted to face her. She looked so alone, so vulnerable. “No, no, that’s not true. I loved you.”

  “How could I know? Your entire life, as far I could tell, was a lie. Everything was a tool to you—a means to create a harmless, easygoing image of someone everyone could trust. Including me. I trusted you until the day I figured out that I was part of the façade. The equally harmless, friendly girlfriend who grew and sold flowers during the day and strolled on the beach in evenings. Tell me, you were looking out for ships, weren’t you, during all those long strolls?”

  “I…” His jaw clenched against the knot in his chest. She deserved whatever truth she had managed to guess. “Yes, I was.”

  “It’s weird for a guy to be out there alone all the time, but if he’s with his girlfriend, well, obviously, he was doing it for her, so he had to be all right.” She flung her hand up. “I didn’t even like the beach all that much. The sand got everywhere. I was always sweeping out that damned cottage. How was I not supposed to think that I was just part of the great big lie you were building up about yourself? What made you think you deserved the courtesy of an explanation when I finally got tired of being used?”

  The knot in his chest became a chill, radiating outward. “And that’s why you left without a word. You didn’t think you meant anything to me.”

  “What else was I supposed to conclude?” Her voice cracked. “That’s why I had to leave without allowing you a chance to convince me to stay. I was so in love, I would have stayed if you’d asked, even knowing that I was only a part of your façade, a part of the scenery. I deserved better, but if you had asked, I would have stayed beside you, settling for less, hating myself, loving you.”

  Her shoulders slumped; emotional exhaustion stamped over her face. In the flawlessly perfect profile he saw before him, he finally caught a glimpse of the woman he had loved—the woman who had followed him thousands of miles and then eventually left him without an explanation because she hadn’t thought he needed an explanation.

  She hadn’t believed that he loved her.

  Rio walked up to Cixi. “You said you were in love with me.”

  She sighed, not looking up at him. “Did I?”

  He nodded. “I heard you say it. You can’t wriggle out of that now. Let’s put the cards on the table. What we had, two years ago, was love. It was real. It was true. We’ve both confessed as much.”

  “Yes, but so what?”

  “You don’t have thousands of boyfriends, do you?”

  The corner of her mouth tugged upward into a smile. “No.”

  “Well, I don’t have a blushing bride-to-be waiting for me. Where does that leave us?”

  “I don’t know.” She stared up at him. They stood so close together that he could smell her subtle jasmine fragrance. Her eyes were wide, and she trembled like a flower swaying in the breath of the wind.

  “It leaves us with a fresh start, if you want it,” he whispered. “Knowing that we love each other—”

  “But there’s so much else I don’t know about you.”

  “You will eventually, just not right now. I need time to set a few things right, and then you’ll know everything. It’s not as bad as you think, I swear it. That’s all I’m asking for—some time and a second chance at the love and the life we both let slip out of our grasp.” He tipped her chin up once more and lowered his head. His lips lingered over hers, and for a moment, they shared the same breath. “Please. Stay.”

  Rio twisted awake in the night. He sat upright in the bed, his heart racing, until he saw the shadow curled in the bed beside him. A smile inched over his face. She had stayed, and she was still here. They had loved each other with the tenderness of lovers returning into each other’s arms. She hadn’t vanished with the diamonds.

  Speaking of which. He slid out of bed and walked over to the still open case of blue diamonds. He touched the diamond pendant nestled against white velvet. For eighteen months, that diamond had hung around her neck—the only thing she had taken from him, not including his heart.

  It would be hers again.

  He wanted to make it hers again.

  But until the time was right, he would hold on to them.

  Rio shut the case and returned it to the safe. Tomorrow, he would head into the agency. It was time to set things right, as he promised. He owed it to her and to himself, and to the life they could build together.

  Chapter 6

  Cixi rolled onto her back, stretching languidly like a cat waking in a puddle of golden sunlight. The 2,000-count Egyptian combed cotton sheets were almost like silk against her skin, cool and smooth without being slippery.

  Perfect for lovemaking.

  Beside her, Rio chuckled softly. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Almost eight. You used to be up with the dawn.”

  She cast a glance at the drawn shades. “How was I supposed to know?” She hummed a contented sound as she turned into the warmth of his body. “I noticed you weren’t up and about at dawn either.”

  “I rarely leave the bed when there’s a lovely woman in it.”

  “If you had really wanted to wake me, there are some ways that are more memorable than others.”

  “Like this?” He caressed his hand along her side, over her naked thigh, and lingered a hairsbreadth from the core of the heat between her legs. The gleam in his eyes was teasing, once again warm and affectionate instead of the cold stares he had fixed her with for most of the evening.

  She arched her back, trying to reach him, but he pulled his hand farther away—close enough for her to feel the heat of his body warmth, but not the friction of contact. She glared at him. “This isn’t memorable.”

  “Oh, it will be, kitten, if you just relax and go with the flow.” Slowly, he eased one finger between her wet folds. “I can’t get enough of you.”

  She bit her lower lip to suppress the moan of delight. The feeling, she decided, was entirely mutual. The slowly rising tide of ecstasy caused her to sink into the bed as he slid another finger into her. With his thumb, he caressed her tiny nub, sending delicious jolts through her. The jittery sensations collided against the sensual caress of his fingers in her body. She vibrated, her body and mind at odds over whether to grab the jolts of pleasure and ride them to completion or ensure the slow, maddening assault of the build-up.

  “Not so fast.” Rio caught her wrists in his other hand and pinned them above her head. “You’ll come on my time and at my pleasure.”

  Cixi pouted at him. “It’s not fair.”

  “But you don’t want it to be fair, do you?” His whisper shuddered along her spine. “You’ve always wanted me in control.” He continued his stimulation of her already overwrought body. “I never understood why when every day, you’re charging out, doing your own thing, changing lives—yours and everyone around you. Tell me, why this strange contradiction?”

  If he was expecting a coherent answer out of her, he was going to be deeply disappointed. All she could feel was pleasure, surging like an inexorable tidal wave. She gasped, heaving gulps of air into her burning lungs, as she pumped her hips against his fingers—needing more…just that little bit more.

  Her only warning was the sudden warmth of his breath against his cheek before his mouth closed over her. His tongue invaded her mouth, caressing her, possessing her, as did his fingers in her vagina. He pulled his fingers out, but before she had a chance to object, he entered her so hard and so fast that she gasped into the kiss
. The sudden and overwhelming sensation of being utterly filled slammed her over the edge of ecstasy and she tumbled blindly as her body arched and clenched around him.

  He uttered a strangled cry, his shoulders and back muscles bunching, as the tightness of her body and the violence of her orgasm squeezed his from him.

  For a moment, the world seemed utterly still, utterly empty. Slowly, sensation trickled back. The sliver of light peeking out beneath the drawn curtains. The rumpled sheets against her back. The comforting weight of the man over her. She drew her hand over his back and the subtle curve of his spine. He hadn’t even broken a sweat.

  She chuckled, the rumble of laughter in her chest compressed by his weight. “You didn’t have to work too hard for that one, did you?”

  “Excuse me?” He raised himself up on one elbow. His hair was in his eyes and he wore the expression of a satiated, arrogant male. “Pushing you right to the edge and keeping you there until you were ready to claw my eyes out count as work.” He snuggled beside her, their bodies folding together into a familiar cuddle. “What are you doing today?”

  And just like that, she knew they were back where they had started. It was like their life in Key West, beginning each day with a round of hot sex, followed by a long, easy cuddle, and the much-too-familiar discussion of that day’s plans.

  Except that they were no longer in Key West. Her chest tightened. They were no longer anonymous, no longer safe.

  “Any plans for today?” he asked again.

  She drew a deep breath and focused her thoughts on the conversation. “I don’t have any photo shoots or business appointments today, but I promised a friend to meet her for coffee. I thought I’d do a bit of shopping before that.”

  “Will you be free for lunch or dinner?”

  “Dinner, certainly.” She stroked his back. “Do you have something in mind?”

  “I’d like you to meet my parents.”

  She stiffened. “Your parents?”