I snickered. “Sorry I can be such a miserable fuck at times. I’m so grateful to you. Nothing can ever make up for how amazing you’ve been to me.”
“Well, probably not, but we can start with the blow job and I’ll make a list for you to be getting on with.”
I knew he wanted nothing in return. Everything James had done had been for love, he hadn’t really expected anything in return and his selflessness took my breath away.
“Mr. Wild, you blow me away,” I told him, slipping my arms around his neck and pulling his head down for a kiss.
“Baby, I’m glad you think so and you can blow me in return ... anytime.”
“Stuck on that blow job comment, huh?” I asked, shoving him gently away and turning to grab a wrap to put around my arms that lay over the chair. “Give me five and I’ll be ready,” I called out over my shoulder as I hurried into the bedroom.
“Ready?
“Yeah, for the helicopter trip, what else did you think I meant?”
I heard him snicker. “Fuck, sometimes I can’t tell whether that look in your eyes is love or lust … but this time … I thought I saw a bit of both, baby.”
“I heard that,” I called out, teasing him as I entered the sitting room again. Rubbing the back of his neck he pretended to be embarrassed. I stepped toe to toe with him and grabbed him by his bulge. “But just so as you know, Mr. Wild, there has never been one time when I’ve looked into your eyes and I haven’t felt desired.
“Pack lingerie, plenty of lingerie … it gets cold in Vermont at night,” he called out, chuckling as I stepped into our bedroom.
Chapter Seventeen
“I think the girl did good, what do you think?” James asked, as we drove into the parking lot by the airport helipads. Erin stood, her backside resting on the hood of a very fancy car. The striking tall blond man with her looked like he’d fallen straight from a catwalk and into her lap.
“Nice car,” I remarked, but I was scrutinizing her new guy with narrowed eyes behind my sunglasses.
“Nice car?” James chuckled. “That baby is a Rolls Royce Dawn, that sweet little convertible retails around a third of a million.”
“Not bad,” I repeated, not particularly impressed, but my boyfriend clearly was. I don’t think he’d even noticed Erin or her beau beside it.
“The only thing bad about it is the color. Burnt orange isn’t my thing at all,” James admitted, his nose wrinkled in distaste, “but if it was in an ice metallic blue or a sleek metallic black I’d let her guy take me for a ride in it.”
I chuckled. “Are we going to meet the guy that had the confidence and the money to buy it, or are we going to sit here and deliberate about his car instead?” I asked sarcastically.
“Spoken like a true mother, vetting her daughter’s new guy,” he mumbled and slid out from behind the wheel. By the time he came around to my side of the car I’d already gotten out and closed the door. Taking his hand, we strolled over to Erin, who looked completely relaxed in the company of the guy flashing his cash.
“Hey, Mom, this is Ryder.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” James blurted and chuckled.
“Hey, man, I get that all the time, blame the parents,” Ryder replied good-naturedly.
“Does Ryder have a last name?” I asked, trying to ignore James’ rude comment.
“Ryder Goodwin, ma’am,” he offered, reaching out a hand for me to take.
“You don’t happen to have a father named Perry by any chance, do you?” James asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” Ryder replied, with a sheepish grin.
“Fuck me,” James blurted again, “I know your dad, we used to go to high school together.”
“You did?” Both Erin and I asked, stunned. Ryder looked shocked and folded his arms.
“Yeah, Perry and I go way back. I was at your parents’ wedding,” he added. “When you said your name was Ryder, Perry was the first person I thought of.” James chuckled. “Your dad always wanted to be a rock star and used to say he was going to have a son and call him Ryder,” he added, laughing again. “Didn’t he end up owning one of the leading trucking companies here in the US? If I’m not wrong, he has a courier service too. As a matter-of-fact, I’m pretty sure our firm has a contract with him. By the way, that dude was way off with his career forecast,” James mused, sounding very upbeat.
Ryder chuckled. “Good grief, my father … a rock star? I had no idea about that, but he still mortifies us at parties by performing those lame songs he wrote is the 80s.”
“Ha! Yeah, I remember those, none of the words fit the melodies at all,” James reminisced, laughing heartily, before he glanced toward the car again. “This is so cool, and it explains the flashy car. He was always flamboyant, I loved him,” he admitted. “How old are you, Ryder?”
The handsome young man snickered. “Luckily, old enough to be dating this gorgeous beauty and young enough to rock a shit-colored car like this,” he replied dramatically, smoothing a hand across the hood with a huge smug grin on his face. I loved that he was ballsy and confident in front of us. He was definitely a charmer.
“He can stay for now,” James told Erin. “I think we quite like him. What do you think, baby?” he asked, turning his attention to me. At first, I wondered if I should have been passing judgment at all, but I decided to be true to myself and went with my gut.
“I’m warming to him,” I joked, as I slid my free arm around James’ waist and pulled him into my chest. He spoke very well; was educated, confident, and I noted he looked attentive toward Erin. “If he gets air sick, I may change my mind. As he’s easy on the eye and appears to worship my daughter with flattery … I’d say he’s off to a good start.”
I cringed as soon as the words were out because I had sounded more like Erin’s friend than her mother.
James winked at Erin, who had the good grace to blush a little, and I immediately felt worried I’d embarrassed her in front her new man. “All right, let’s get out of the Big Apple for a while,” he said.
“That building with the copper-tinted windows belongs to my father,” Ryder said to Erin through the mic and headphone comms we shared. They sat up front with the pilot and I liked the way he held Erin protectively with his arm around her shoulder.
“Which one’s your father’s, James?” I joked like Ryder had started a pissing contest.
“There are a few here in Manhattan,” he replied nonchalantly, and it was clear he had only been stating a fact. “Do you see that tall, sleek, black one with the mirrored windows and three tiers at the top?”
“Really?” I asked, shocked. My heart raced when I looked toward a huge skyscraper that wasn’t the usual multi-story building near our home where he worked.
“Yeah, and those two, the white, twin stubby-looking ones you can just see at the edge of the horizon. Those are ours too.”
“Your dad owns three whole buildings? Four, if the one you work out of is his as well?”
“No … we have a couple more on the Upper East side … that’s about it on the commercial side.”
“That’s about it on the commercial side?” I snorted, and stared out of the window as I tried to get my head around how ridiculously wealthy his family really was. I knew they had a property rental portfolio as well, but I’d never given it much thought.
From the time Billie had been marrying Sawyer, I’d been aware James’ family came from old money. I also knew of the company through their financial business side of the firm. The family home demonstrated all of that too, and the incredible penthouse his parents owned in New York.
Knowing James came from a family of billionaires had been one thing, seeing bricks and mortar wealth had suddenly made it all real. It was clear neither James nor Sawyer had ever wanted for anything, yet both worked every day despite their wealth.
Suddenly, I had a renewed respect for their parents, who had brought all their children up to be caring and humble an
d most of all to contribute to the world, despite the opulence that must have been all around them.
“Don’t worry, I’ll only inherit a part of it, there are tons of other people calling dibs on the family inheritance,” James joked, like he’d intuitively known how intimidating his family wealth had suddenly felt.
“Actually, knowing what you are a part of terrifies me. I really hadn’t thought much about it before.” I nodded toward the back of Erin’s head, as if to point out my head had been up my ass since we had been a couple. “Don’t you worry your father, you, or another member of the family will be kidnapped?” The thought of losing James instantly filled my head with fears.
James snickered and squeezed my hand, but when he looked at me his eyes sparkled with amusement. “No. That kind of thing mostly only happens in the movies, thank goodness. Obviously, my parents have bodyguards and security when they go out in public, and the buildings and other properties are secured by very, very highly trained people. However, these days it’s mostly high tech and very discreet, especially at home. My father quite rightly refuses to live his life in fear.”
“I’ve never noticed any security on the few times I’ve been at your parents’ place or at the office where you work … apart from the usual front lobby security.”
“All of our properties have smart security, the buildings are mostly maintained and guarded by technology and small drones, and the surveillance takes place in control rooms off-site. But trust me, if there was an issue there are special measures in place. We have trackers and secure places to go, and there are also a few panic rooms at my parents’ properties. Most of what we have is insurance-related measures, but my father is sensible enough to understand nothing is ever one-hundred-percent. We may have money, which gives us power in industry, but my father is also very well respected.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Still… we’ve never spoken about any of this and there’s a shit ton of crazy people in this world—”
“True, but my father’s ethos has always erred on the side of people who are inherently good. We could live our lives steeped in paranoia and live in a wealthy state of anxiety, or we can choose not to flaunt what we have and try to live relatively normal lives.”
“But I’ve seen how power works, James, those at the top are ruthless. No one should underestimate how far someone will go—”
“This is true, but my dad has somehow remained somewhat neutral in the world of politics, we only buy broken companies when there is no other option to salvage them with finance, and for every business enemy in my father’s network he has a hundred loyal friends. My dad has so many pay-it-forward projects that his competitors know it’s better to be positively associated with him than not.”
“Still,” I insisted again.
“Tricia, we do what we’re paid to do, which is keep good quality homes over peoples’ heads, manage their wealth to the best of our ability, or ensure if something goes wrong we can help people rebuild their lives. My family has done it for over a century without mishap,” he shot back. “Anyway, enough about that heavy stuff, where do you want to eat dinner?”
“You mean you didn’t arrange that already?” I asked, allowing him to change the subject when I remembered Erin and Ryder and the pilot had probably heard every word.
“No, I know the changing minds of women too well …” He cringed, snickered, and then shrugged at his remark. “I’m old … and good-looking, you’d expect me to know what women are like, right?” I heard Ryder snicker which confirmed my previous thought.
“Erin, Mexican, Italian, Chinese?” I asked.
“My dad used to call me burrito because I always stole bites of his when I was a kid. I love spicy food. Can I call Mexican if no one else minds?”
My heart stopped for a beat when she disclosed another small revelation about her past life, because burritos were one of my favorite dishes as well.
“Mexican it is,” James piped up, pulled out his cell, and began texting someone. I guessed he was making our reservation.
An hour and fifty minutes, flying over some spectacular views of rural countryside, gave James and me time to get better acquainted with Ryder. By the time we landed, we’d found out he’d been signed to a very elite modelling agency for most of the previous four years.
Unlike my first thought about the catwalk, Ryder was a product model. His shoots centered around modelling alongside large luxury lifestyle items such as fast expensive cars, exclusive high-end yachts, elite club memberships, private jets, and luxury holidays.
When I told him it had all sounded very exciting, I had liked the way he’d humbly shrugged my comment off by telling us the majority of his time on a shoot was spent waiting for the photographer or filming crew to capture the perfect light.
We landed on a private helipad situated below a regal-looking, large brick property. I’d assumed it was a luxury lodge or a retreat of some kind. Off to the left of it stood a six-car garage, with what looked like an apartment above it. Parked in front of it there were a couple of soft-top Jeeps, some huge bulky motorcycles, a few Jet Skis, and a small boat lined up, side by side.
“Where are we? What’s this place called?”
“Lake Willoughby. This place was my grandparents holiday hideaway and where I spent some of my best summers as a child.” I glanced toward Erin, who stood in awe staring at the fabulous house.
“I thought this was a hotel,” Erin told him. “This is really your family’s place?” Her eyes were childlike and as big as saucers, and I wondered how many times she had looked in the same excited way growing up.
“Okay, this has my dad beat hands down,” Ryder said in mock defeat and snickered. “Can’t compete with old money like this,” he remarked. “Makes my shit-colored car look gaudy,” Ryder commented good-naturedly.
“It is gaudy,” James replied, chuckling. “But I’d still let you take me for a spin… in the dark of course,” he added and grinned. “Come on, it’s after 5:00 o’clock somewhere, we could all do with a drink.”
Chapter Eighteen
“I’m going to tell Erin about the letters and photographs,” I told James, as I unpacked the weekend case and draped my outfits across the large sofa in the bedroom we’d been shown to.
The closet looked intimidating with all the hanging space, sliding cabinets and drawers, so I’d decided not to use it. “I’ve been considering telling her ever since I found out about them. She has a right to know her mom sent those to my … her grandma … maybe even to me, and my mom had kept them from me.”
Immediately James crossed the room and held me by my shoulders. Looking down at me, he rubbed my upper arms, soothing me. His gorgeous blue eyes filled with concern. “Don’t you think that may upset her … to know her grandma always knew about her and took no active interest.”
I sighed heavily. “I know, but I’m tired of deceit, secrets, and lies in this family. If it were me, I’d want to know.”
“But you weren’t the one who was adopted, Tricia.” I stared, shocked by his put down, and felt as if he had slapped me. Seeing he’d hurt me, James pulled me into his chest. “I’m just trying to see this from both sides, baby. The last thing I want is something to ruin the beautiful relationship I see growing between you both.” I nodded that I understood, but his reasoning hadn’t changed my mind.
“I hear you, James. I’ll be as tactful as I can, but I think it’s time the whole truth was put on the table.”
“Then I’m here to support you in whatever you decide.”
“Man, you must be desperate for that blow job,” I teased, instantly trying to change the strange mood between us.
“I guess,” he replied, with a helplessly pathetic-looking shrug and a wry smirk on his face.
I chuckled. “You’re wasted at your father’s firm, you should have been an actor with all those facial expressions you make.” James chuckled and pulled me in for kiss. Passion quickly burned within us, and I’m not sure whether it was due
to the emotion of having Erin with me or all the other things that had gone on, but I felt desperate for his protection.
Within minutes we’d both stripped naked and I was losing myself in the sensations of passion, want, and desire when there was a knock on the bedroom door. James had been fucking me from behind when we both stopped still in an instant.
“What?” he barked, a little breathless, and I snickered at the sudden switch from passion to annoyed from the sudden interruption.
“James, your father is on the phone,” a barely audible deep male voice told him. “Thanks, Derek, tell him I’ll call him back in ten.”
“He’s left you two voicemails and is insistent I find you,” the muffled low voice insisted.
“Give me a minute and I’ll call him back on my cell,” he ground out, irritated for the interruption.
“Who is he?”
“The security manager,” James informed me.
Pulling out of me, he leaned forward and kissed my ass, huffed, and kicked off the sheet. He stood up on the bed and stepped down on to the floor, cussing as he rummaged through the pockets of his pants for his cell.
“I’ll be back in a few, don’t go away,” he told me, as he padded into the bathroom to make the call.
While he was talking in the distance, I lay soaking in all the new things I had found out about James in that one single day, and with all I had learned I struggled to understand why he thought I was so special. He had the world at his feet and was a beautiful man. He had charm, wit, loyalty, compassion, and a great body. So why me?
Any woman would be thrilled to have him on their arm, I was thrilled, but I had a lifetime of baggage, damaged goods. Had I been stronger at resisting the chemistry we shared, I wondered how different his life could have been if he hadn’t chosen me.
In my eyes, James was the perfect man. A good man who should only have had a lifetime of happiness. That thought made me wonder how much influence his experience with Charlotte had contributed to how protective he was of me.
Resist Me (Unchained Attraction Book 4) Page 13