Cruel Billionaire

by Luma Rose

  I’ve gotten close to her in order to protect myself and the rest of the Classholes, but now all I want to do is protect her. Even if it means marrying her to protect her from my father. That was step one. I have to attack this plan step by step instead of knowing everything ahead of time. So, first step is getting her to agree to marry me. I’ll figure out the rest later.

  “Have you decided?” I ask, walking into the theater room with water and popcorn.

  I set the bowl on the small table between the reclining chairs and pull the water bottles out of the pockets of my athletic pants.

  Isla continues to search through my movies. “I’m trying to find something we would both enjoy, but I keep being drawn back to You’ve Got Mail.”

  I groan. “You’re not going to make me sit through some romance movie, are you?”

  “Okay, okay. How about Guardians of the Galaxy? I haven’t seen that one yet, and I can deal with watching Chris Pratt on screen for a couple of hours.” She grins.

  And so I suffer through watching her eyes light up at the screen every time Chris Pratt comes on. I end up watching her more than the actual movie. Who wants to watch a movie about a stupid fucking space adventurer anyway?

  Isla’s yawning by the movie’s end, so as soon as the credits roll, I click the movie off and stand.

  “Let’s get you to bed. I don’t want Ford bitching at me that his press secretary is falling asleep on the job.”

  She gives me a lazy smile and holds her hand out for me to help her out of the chair. I yank her up out of the chair pressing my shoulder into her belly to lift her over my shoulder.

  “Oh my God, Garrin!”

  I chuckle and smack her ass as I carry her to my bedroom. “Now why’d you go put your underwear back on?” I ask.

  “Put me down!”

  She wiggles on my shoulder, but not enough to make me think she really wants me to put her down. I reach my bed and plunk her down on the mattress. Her hair sprays out around her flushed face. My T-shirt rode up, so her white lace panties are visible.

  I strip down to my boxers and join her in bed, motioning for her to come over to my side and join me under the covers. Once she’s settled with her head on my chest, I bring my arm around and gently stroke her arm.

  “I had a really good time tonight,” she says.

  “Same.”

  Her index finger comes to my chest and traces a pattern over my skin. “Until tonight, I’d never enjoyed sex, not really. With you I’m able to get out of my own head and be in the moment. I wasn’t thinking about whether or not someone could be taping us, or what people would think if they knew I was doing this, or a million other things that have always gotten in the way of me being intimate with a man.” She props her chin up on my stomach. “Thank you. I know this was probably just sex to you, but for me it was more than that. It was a breakthrough. It showed me that I can be the woman I want to be. After the sex tape scandal, I didn’t think that would ever happen.”

  She presses her lips to my chest, and I cradle the back of her head with my hand.

  Fuck. The guilt’s like poison slowly eating away at my insides. There was a time when I told myself she deserved what happened to her. Now, the knowledge of what I did is like an unbearable weight pressing down, about to crush me.

  It’s now or never. If I continue to keep this secret, it will only be disastrous.

  There’s so much I can’t tell her, so much I’ll never be able to tell her. I decide that if I can’t be honest with her about everything else, I can at least be honest with her about this.

  I hope she’s the same understanding and forgiving person that she was in high school.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” I say.

  She pushes up off my chest onto her elbow to look down at me.

  “It’s about what happened to you senior year.”

  “Okay…” A crease forms between her eyes.

  I swallow hard and push up so that I’m leaning against the headboard.

  “The Classholes and I used to have this game. It was stupid and immature, but so were we. Basically, the way it worked was one guy would dare you to do something and assign it a certain number of points, and then if you did it, those points added to your tally. Whoever had the most points at the end of senior year won.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  I sigh. “Because Carter dared Asher to have sex with you.”

  She jerks back like I slapped her. “He… he only asked me out to win a bet?”

  I grab ahold of her hands and squeeze them with the hope she’ll hear me out “I didn’t know until recently, I swear. And I still don’t understand why he’d do that since he was the only one I’d confessed my feelings about you to. If he was still alive, heads would roll.”

  Her eyes glisten, and though what I really want is to leave it at that, I know I have to at least give her the rest of the truth, give her a why to the reason her life changed, even if it’s not a good enough why.

  “So, it was just a joke, making fun of me.”

  “No, no, I don’t think that’s it at all. It was more about the fact that you didn’t date or sleep around with anyone, so it made you a challenge. Not that that’s any better.”

  She pulls her hands from mine. “I don’t understand why you guys would do stuff like that to someone.”

  “There’s more.” I drop my chin to my chest, unable to hold her gaze.

  “What more?” she whispers.

  “Carter also dared Ryker to tape it for points.” I chance a glance up at her.

  The hurt on her face feels like a physical punch to my gut by The Rock. And I haven’t even gotten to the worst part yet.

  “And then I heard about it and stole Ryker’s phone.” A painful lump grows in my throat as the devastation morphs her features. “I was the one who leaked the tape.”

  “You’re the one who put the tape out there?”

  I nod, forcing myself not to look away from her. Own your shit, Stone.

  “That tape changed the course of my life. I’ve spent years trying to get over it!” Her devastation mutates into anger and I’m glad. I’d rather see her angry than hurt. “I can’t believe this.”

  “Isla, I’m sorry. I—”

  “You’re sorry!” She backs up off the mattress and stands. “Do you have any idea what that tape did to my life?”

  She storms off to the bathroom and slams the door behind her. I rise from the bed and walk over, leaning against the door.

  My forehead hits the door. “I wasn’t thinking when I did it. I was angry. I was young and stupid. I’m sorry.”

  I hear the rustling of fabric for a minute and the door is whipped open. I almost fall into the bathroom but catch myself. Isla storms past me without sparing me a glance. She’s dressed in the ivory dress she wore earlier. I follow as she heads out the bedroom door.

  “It’s bad enough that you and your friends play some sick game like that, but then you share the video with everyone? We were supposed to be friends!”

  “I felt betrayed! You had sex with Asher. It was supposed to be me! You were supposed to have sex with me!” I yell and spin her around by the arm.

  “Poor little rich boy couldn’t take it when someone else got what he wanted? Cry me a river, Garrin.” She spins back around and reaches the entrance to the foyer, where she yanks her brown boots off the floor and her purse off the table. She doesn’t even put her boots on before she’s racing to the elevator and punching the buttons.

  “Wait. Stay so we can talk about this.” I reach for her again, but she takes a step back.

  “There’s nothing to talk about, Garrin. You are partly responsible for the worst thing that’s happened so far in my life. And you didn’t tell me. Hell, you let me sleep with you tonight before you even told me!”

  The elevator dings and the doors open up. She steps inside and stabs at the button inside.

  “Just to make this really clear for you. Whateve
r this was is over.”

  The doors close between us, giving a finality to her words.

  “Fuck!” I punch the wall beside the elevator and run my stinging hand through my hair.

  I head back into my place and pour myself a glass of scotch.

  There’s a part of me that knows I had no choice but to be honest. The feelings that were developing, it would have been much worse if I’d waited. But the other half wishes I hadn’t tried something new, like honesty.

  29

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Isla

  The past few days have felt like the longest of my life. I might as well be at a theme park for the roller coaster of emotions I keep rotating through. One minute I’m hurt, the next I’m angry and the next disbelieving.

  I can’t believe Garrin leaked the tape. And yet part of me can. I’d seen him be cruel and vindictive to other students before at school, I’d just never been one of them. Nor did I ever imagine I would be.

  “Earth to Isla.”

  I look up from my computer screen, the one I haven’t actually focused on in I don’t know how long.

  “Sorry, what?”

  Ford’s leaning against the door to my office, arms and legs crossed.

  “I had come in here to ask if you’d already put that press release out. I was thinking of making one change, but now I see that you’re just as bad as he is.”

  “Who?” I push my chair back and stand.

  “Garrin. What happened between you two? He’s been in a fouler mood than usual.”

  I smooth my skirt down my legs to avoid looking at him. “Nothing happened.”

  “You can’t bullshit a bullshitter, and I grew up in politics, so I’m one of the best bullshitters around.”

  I frown. “We had an argument, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Ford enters my office, shuts the door and takes a seat in the chair on the other side of my desk, so I sit back down in mine.

  “Listen, I know Garrin can be a dick sometimes and say some unforgiveable things, but if it’s any consolation, I really think the guy likes you.”

  Four days ago, I would’ve been swooning at hearing that. Today I don’t know how to feel.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Of course.” He leans back in his chair and rests his ankle on his knee.

  “Do you think it’s possible for people to change? I mean really change?”

  He thinks about it for a moment, rubbing at his short-trimmed beard. “I like to think so. I don’t know if everyone is capable of it, but for people willing to take responsibility for their actions, it’s possible.”

  I nod. I’ve always thought people were capable of change, which makes me question whether I should hold what Garrin did against him. It was a decade ago. We were different people then. It doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to be angry or feel betrayed, but can I forgive him and move forward?

  “If you’re asking me about Garrin specifically, I’ll say this… he can be a bastard, no question. But the guy doesn’t say something he doesn’t mean. I’ve lived with a politician my whole life, so I know a lot about saying one thing and meaning another. But Garrin is a straight shooter. So if he did or said something to upset you and he apologized, I’d believe him.”

  Ford isn’t saying anything that my gut isn’t already telling me. It would be so easy to go backwards and get caught up in all my feelings about what happened in the past. But what would that accomplish? I’ve already made such gains with moving forward since I moved back here. I like who I am here. I don’t want to be the woman I was back in Washington, always reliving the past.

  “Thanks, Ford.”

  “Happy to be your sounding board. Anytime. Now, about that press release?”

  I cringe. “Already sent out.”

  He waves me off and stands. “All right. Not a big deal, just figured I’d ask.”

  “Sorry. If I’d known—”

  He puts his hand up. “Not your fault. I have someplace I need to be, so I won’t be back for a little more than an hour.”

  My forehead wrinkles and I glance over to my calendar. “I don’t have anything on the agenda. Did you need my assistance?”

  “No.” He smooths his tie down his chest. “This is something I have to do by myself.”

  There’s something laced in his voice that I don’t understand, but I won’t pry. “Okay, I guess I’ll see you when you get back. Hank Klein wanted to have a quick meeting with some of the staff before we head out to the charity dinner tonight.”

  He nods. “I’ll check in when I return. See you.”

  He leaves my office, leaving me wondering what the change in his demeanor is all about, but then I decide that it’s none of my business and get back to work.

  Later that week, Ford is giving a speech at a local shelter for women and their children. After the speech, he helps prepare and serve dinner, and now he, Hank and I are all joined by the residents at the cafeteria-style tables to eat our dinner.

  I’m anxious to get home and spend some time with my dad. I told him I’d read him the rest of the paper this evening, since I ran out of time this morning before I left for the campaign office.

  I’m talking to one mother about how she ended up at the shelter when my phone vibrates from where I set it down on the table beside my plate.

  “Excuse me.” I raise a finger to pardon myself.

  The radiation is taking a toll on my father, and I’m never without my phone now. I don’t want to chance something happening and missing a call or text.

  When I flip the phone over to look at the screen, I see a message from Garrin there.

  Garrin: You look exquisite in red.

  I glance down at the long-sleeved red crepe Valentino dress I’m wearing and then my head shoots up, looking around the room.

  “Are you okay?” the woman I’m speaking with asks, but I don’t answer her. When I glance over to the doorway, I see Garrin standing there wearing a charcoal three-piece suit with matching shirt and tie. He’s standing in the center of the doorway, gaze fixed on me with his arms crossed over his chest, forehead wrinkled in that way it is when he’s at his most intense.

  “Excuse me,” I say absentmindedly.

  “Where are you going?” Ford asks when I walk away, but he must notice Garrin too, because then I hear him say, “Gotcha.”

  His eyes are on me the entire time I make my way through the tables and over to him. It hurts more than I thought it would, seeing him again. The pain of his betrayal stings like the first lash from a whip, but part of me is relieved to set eyes on him again. He might have been the one to cause me to retreat into myself all those years ago, but he was also the one to bring me back to life.

  I walk past him, tugging on his elbow for him to follow. Once we reach an alcove in the hallway, I whip around to face him. “What are you doing here?” I whisper-shout, not knowing if there’s anyone else around.

  “I figured that would be obvious. It isn’t to see Ford’s ugly face.”

  Not impressed, I cross my arms and cock a hip.

  “I’m here to see you. We need to talk.” He steps toward me and I step back.

  God, he smells good like always. It’s all I can do not to lean in and inhale his scent.

  “I’m working. You can’t just show up here like this.”

  “You didn’t leave me much choice. You won’t return my texts or my calls.”

  I step up to him and have to crank my head back to get a good look at him, even in my heels. “I thought I made it pretty clear the last time I saw you not to bother contacting me again.”

  He eats up the last few inches of space between us so that our chests just brush against one another’s. “And I thought I made it clear that this wasn’t finished between us. We’re not done.”

  His dark carnal energy wraps around me, and we each hold our ground, breathing heavier than normal, our gazes locked.

  God, what I wouldn’t do to go back an
d erase his confession so that I can pretend he wasn’t the one who hurt me, because all I want to do right now is fall into his arms and let him help me escape again.

  “I’m not letting his go, Isla,” he says in a harsh whisper, his breath fanning over my face.

  “It’s not your choice.” But my voice doesn’t hold the same conviction it did minutes ago.

  “We need to talk. If you want to walk away afterward, that’s your decision and I’ll respect it. But not until we have a real conversation about it.”

  I study his face. The way his dark eyes stare down at me with more conviction than I’ve ever seen in someone, the way he’s holding his breath waiting for my answer and the small amount of tenderness in his expression.

  “Fine,” I grumble.

  I owe it to myself to understand the entire situation and then make a determination as to how I want to proceed.

  “How much longer do you have to be here?” he asks.

  “I don’t know. Another hour, maybe.”

  “I’ll wait for you outside, then.”

  I shake my head. “I have to get home to my father. We can talk another night.”

  A dark chuckle vibrates from his chest. “Tonight. I’m not taking any chances that you’ll change your mind.”

  I blow out a breath. “Fine. Come by my place in a few hours. My dad doesn’t have much stamina these days. He’ll have fallen asleep by then.” I glance away from the pity filling his eyes and step back.

  “Fine. I’ll see you then.” He brushes past me and strides down the hall.

  I can’t help but watch after him, trying to decipher if I’m happy or sad that he’s walking away from me.

  30

  Chapter Thirty

  Garrin

  I arrive at the Flores house exactly three hours later like the fucking eager beaver that I am. There’s not a chance in hell I’m giving her a chance to back out on our talk, and it has nothing to do with what my father wants and everything to do with needing her forgiveness.