The Billionaire Possession Series: The Complete Boxed Set

by Amelia Wilde

  None of it will fit in my apartment, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. As far as I know, storage units haven’t disappeared from the face of the planet.

  Mom raises her sunglasses. As long as I’m in the pool, I might as well take advantage of it. I let my legs rise from the surface until I’m floating on my back, my ears underneath the surface. Her voice, muffled by the water, is what makes me stand up again.

  “What?”

  “Why are you shopping? Did you get a new place?”

  “No.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “It was so empty in here.” I laugh to try and make it seem less ridiculous, what I’ve done, but even I can tell that it’s not working.

  “Hey, Ruby...” My mom says this in the same tone that she used when I was a teenager. That’s what she’d say whenever she wanted to broach an uncomfortable topic with me. I’m hardly a teenager now, but it sends a little shiver of dread down my spine, like I’m about to be in trouble for saying there wouldn’t be any boys at my friend Leah’s party, when really three of them stayed until two in the morning. I take the opportunity to swim over to the staircase and climb out while Mom settles into one of the patio chairs. “I thought you were only staying for a few days.”

  “It’s only been a few days.”

  “Weren’t you here on Friday?”

  I grab the towel I left crumpled on the patio table and dry off, hoping she’ll leave before I owe her an answer. “Yes.”

  “It’s Wednesday.”

  “Did I need to be out by a certain time?”

  “No, I—” Mom narrows her eyes. “I’m worried something is going on with you.”

  “Why would you think that?” I cock my head to the side. “Is that why you came?”

  “No, I’m meeting the realtor here in an hour. The interior designer at the firm has some ideas for staging the house.”

  “Oh. Like what?”

  “Nice try. I can see you, Ruby. You don’t look—” She frowns a little. “You don’t look happy, and I thought the idea was for you to relax.”

  “I’ve been relaxing.”

  “But not sleeping?”

  “I’ve been sleeping.”

  “You have bags under your eyes.”

  “I’ve been thinking, too.”

  “What’s on your mind?”

  There’s a lie on the tip of my tongue, but the truth comes out instead. “I wasn’t...honest about Levi Blake.”

  Mom shakes her head. “About the auction?”

  “No, about...” I take a deep breath. I have to get the words out, and fast, because it sounds stupid even in my head. “We were dating.”

  “You were dating?” Mom’s eyes light up. “Was it going well?”

  I roll my eyes. “Obviously not, since I’m here, and I look like shit.”

  She clicks her tongue at me. “I didn’t say that. What happened?”

  “We had a disagreement.”

  “Over...”

  “Over the way he handled the...the sale.”

  “I thought it was going to be an auction.”

  “Yes. He found someone to buy it all before there was an auction. And I—” My throat goes tight again, and I clear it. “It all happened too fast.”

  Mom looks at me, her eyes understanding. “I know this has been hard for you.”

  “It’s not a big—”

  “It is a big deal, Ruby, and it’s okay to admit it.” She looks down at her hands. “This place, those things—those were going to be yours one day. But I don’t think that’s exactly what you’re upset about.”

  “What am I upset about?”

  She stands up and takes my hand in hers. “It was scary as hell, what happened to Henry. And what happened with Dad’s business...it was awful. And I know how much you wanted to keep things together, any way that you could. This house was always where we kept it together. That’s why we didn’t divide our time between many properties. We wanted you kids to have an anchor. And honey, you did your best to save it for us.” Mom gives me a sad smile. “It’s heartbreaking, that we had to give it up to save ourselves.” She puts a hand on my cheek. “You did a beautiful job, though. And I know how hard that was for you.”

  For the first time since Friday, I break down.

  My mom wraps her arms around me. When the sobs have finally subsided, she whispers in my ear. “Go take a shower. You can come to my meeting with me.” She squeezes me one more time. “And if you want to, Ruby—it’s okay to forgive him.”

  42

  Levi

  The sound of my cell phone ringing is what wakes me up, but the midday sunlight streaming through my window is what blinds me.

  “Jesus.” I cover my eyes with one arm and reach for the phone with the other, blindly searching on my bedside table.

  It’s not there.

  In fact, the ringing is coming from the other side of the bed entirely. I force my eyes open a crack and turn over, a thundering pain in my head.

  Last night was a mistake.

  The phone stops ringing, and I fall back onto the pillow in the blessed silence.

  Then it starts ringing again.

  I snatch it up.

  “What.”

  “Good morning, Mr. Blake. Actually—” There’s a pause, a quiet shifting. “Good afternoon.”

  “What can I do for you, Clarissa?” My voice is gravelly and harsh.

  “You don’t sound very well.”

  “That should explain why I’m not downstairs.” There are many advantages to having one’s penthouse in the same building as one’s office space. One disadvantage is that there are hardly any viable excuses for not showing up to work. My only saving grace right now is that I own the entire place—business, building, penthouse. All of it.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt.” She manages to keep her voice in check. I could make up some lie about suddenly having come down with the flu, but Clarissa saw me enough yesterday to know that’s not true. “How did you want me to handle Storage Room Two?”

  “Storage Room Two?”

  “Yes.” There’s another shuffling sound, like she’s moving papers. “You sent me a text message last night at about one. There are instructions here to...empty Storage Room Two and arrange for immediate buyers.”

  My heart crashes against my rib cage, and I force myself up from the pillows. It’s as much of a mistake as going out last night was. My head spins, and I let myself fall backward again, squeezing my eyes closed against the nausea.

  “Are you still there?”

  “Yes,” I croak, and then I clear my throat. “Don’t do that.”

  “Don’t empty that storage room?”

  “No. Under no circumstances should you do that. Ignore that message.”

  “Will do.” I move to hang up the phone, but Clarissa’s voice coming through the speaker makes me put it back to my ear. “What?”

  “Will you be in today?”

  “No.” I hate to be abrupt, but I’m in desperate times. I end the call before she can ask any more questions and turn onto my side.

  The sensation of vertigo fades after a long few minutes clutching the pillow, and then I try to get up. Tentatively. Carefully. Like I’m damaged goods.

  Which I may be, after going to such stupid excess.

  Jasper is a good man. He made sure I got into bed last night, saving Phillip the embarrassment. There was no saving me.

  Once I’m certain I can stand, I decide immediately on a shower. I can still smell the alcohol on my own skin, and even if I don’t leave the penthouse today, I can’t live like this.

  The hot water is restorative, and when I get out, my stomach has settled enough to consider breakfast. What I see when I pick up my phone to text my chef, though, has me off-balance all over again.

  It’s Ruby’s name. It’s Ruby’s name on my screen. She sent me a message.

  I don’t hesitate. I’m not going to waste a single moment being nervous about opening a text message on my own phone.
<
br />   I’m sorry.

  That’s it. That’s all it says.

  I stare down at the phone, trying to decide what the hell it means. On the surface, it should be simple. But in true Ruby fashion, this is a thing with layers of meaning.

  If I text her back, the first thing it’s going to mean is that I’m still attached to her. It’s going to mean that the guiding principle I’ve lived by all my adult life is different now, and it’s different because of one woman. No matter how this conversation turns out.

  “I can live with that,” I say out loud. My voice is still terrifying. I’m glad she didn’t call.

  I decide to play it cool.

  For what?

  It takes two to do the nonchalant, vague-text tango.

  I don’t wait long for her to reply.

  For the way things went between us last week. I’ve regretted it ever since.

  My heart is instantly pounding, so hard I sit down on the ottoman at the foot of my bed. Ruby doesn’t know. She doesn’t know what I had planned for her, and she’s sending me this text. I don’t know whether to be exhilarated or wary.

  Are you saying that you need me after all?

  What possesses me to write that—and then to send it—I’ll never know. But it doesn’t seem to have the world crumbling around me in a fall of ashes, because Ruby writes back. Again.

  I don’t know if I’d go that far...

  I laugh, and it feels so good to laugh, a soft heat moving through my chest, that it’s all I can do to answer her.

  We could talk, if you wanted, I text.

  I’m not in the city.

  I’ll come to you.

  Are you sure about that?

  There’s hardly any traffic right now. It’s less romantic than it sounds.

  That’s a gutsier text, because I really don’t know what kind of ground I’m treading on. Ruby sounds flirtatious, that’s true. But I saw her eyes when she realized what I’d done. It wouldn’t be completely shocking if she wanted to get together to give me a piece of her mind.

  No. That’s not it. Ruby wouldn’t need to lure me in like this. She would tell me to my face. I’m the one who went behind her back, even though I had a pretty good idea of how she felt.

  I won’t stop you, comes her reply.

  Where are you?

  I’m where it all began.

  I’ll be there in an hour.

  An hour, because I’ll need five minutes to get dressed while Phillip brings the car around, and then I need to make one stop. There’s something I need to finish, and it can’t wait another day.

  But every other day depends on it.

  “No pressure.” I say the words out loud, like that might make them true.

  43

  Ruby

  The house is silent again, but every room seems charged with energy. Mom has plans to stay the night, but when I came out in a sundress I haven’t worn since last summer, she looked me up and down.

  “Expecting company?”

  I’d nodded. There were no words to explain the shame and excitement roiling in my gut. I hadn’t wanted to text Levi—I’d hesitated over every word—but her words rang in my ears in the shower, over and over until I couldn’t ignore them.

  Forgiving him is an option.

  If he’ll let me do it, that is.

  The text message seems like a good indication, though. Even if there’s no way to get back on track, like we were before—the thought makes my heart ache—at least there won’t be such a raw, unresolved wound in the center of my chest.

  I don’t know where to stand.

  I sit in one of the chairs I bought, but sitting seems ridiculous, like I’m some kind of dowager queen waiting to be tended to, so I stand up and go back to the foyer. The sunlight is gentler than it was when I was by the pool.

  Should I turn on music? Play something on my phone to cover the quiet? My heart beats in my ears in the tense silence.

  Then there’s the sound of tires on the driveway outside the front door, and the jitters take over. I don’t want to be in here, waiting like some strange ghost haunting the house, while he comes in. My sandals make soft slaps on the tiles. Five steps and I’m at the door, pulling it open and stepping out into the sun. Levi is climbing out of his car—not the town car, something sleek and powerful.

  He drove himself.

  The lines of him, hard and muscular and somehow graceful, take my breath away. He’s wearing dark charcoal slacks, summer weight and obviously custom-made for him, and a white dress shirt. No jacket. His sleeves are rolled up to his elbows. One look at his hands, and it’s like they’re on me already. Jesus. Why did I ever think I could move on from him? Why did I ever think—

  “Ruby.” He comes up the stairs toward me, no hesitation in his stride, his gray eyes bright and focused, his hands in his pockets.

  Six inches away, and I can’t remember why I was angry at him. I can’t remember what he did to make me feel such a sickening disappointment. I want to be in his arms. That’s all I want.

  Well...maybe not all.

  The words I want to say stick in my throat, so I end up with the unbelievably lame: “Thanks for coming.”

  He grins, and something melts in my chest, a hard freeze breaking in the first spring thaw. “When a lady needs my services…”

  “I don’t need any more services. I think we’re—” I take a deep breath. “I think we’ve put all that to bed.”

  At the word bed his eyes narrow, his gaze burning into mine. “I have to apologize, Ruby.”

  I shake my head. “You don’t—that’s not necessary. You were doing what I hired you to do. I should have been prepared for all those things to be gone the moment we struck a deal.”

  “And I should have been less of a prick about it.”

  I can’t help laughing. “Anyone else would have done the same.”

  Levi crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m not anyone else. And the way I feel about you—it’s not like anyone else, either.”

  Feel. Not felt. My heart leaps. “I overreacted.”

  “No. You absolutely did not.” Levi steps closer, his voice low and urgent. “You didn’t. I’ve been blind and reckless with the way people feel about pieces they’ve kept, the homes they’ve built, and I should have realized that you’d take it hard. I should have talked to you about every single piece before I had it moved.”

  I cover my face with my hands. “Oh, God, I’m glad you didn’t do that.”

  Levi gives me a look. “You are?”

  I take my hands down. “My mom said something to me today.”

  He looks behind me, at the closed door. “Is she here? I’d love to meet her.”

  I laugh out loud. “You want me to introduce you to my mother? Now?”

  “You’re right.” He chuckles. “I’m getting ahead of myself.”

  “Anyway, what she said—”

  “Sorry, sorry. Go on.”

  “She thought that it wasn’t the things I’ve been upset about, and she was right. It’s not the things.” That’s not entirely true. “Not all of them. There are a few things that I—” I roll my eyes. “That doesn’t matter. She thought it was really about trying to keep my family’s security together. And she’s right. It was. But—”

  Levi takes the last step between us, raising one hand to my cheek. His skin against mine is pure heat, pure comfort, and I lean into it without a second thought.

  “Things are going to be fine,” I whisper, putting my own hand over his. “The only thing left to do, once I realized that, is—”

  “Come with me.”

  He cuts me off, dropping his hand to my waist and tugging me forward, away from the door of the house.

  “What?”

  “Come with me. Right now. I have something to show you.”

  I laugh, and my heart is light and free, pounding with a giddy happiness. “Where is it?”

  He takes me by the hand, propelling us both across the driveway, and yanks open
the passenger door of the car. “That would ruin the surprise, don’t you think?”

  I slide into the car. It’s an Audi, and even the seats feel like they’d be worth a fortune on their own. But I don’t care. All I care about is Levi shutting the door, jogging around the front of the car, and getting in beside me, a wide grin on his face. He reaches for my hand, then hesitates.

  I grab his hand out of the air and thread my fingers through his. “Let’s go. I don’t think I can take the suspense.”

  44

  Levi

  The car thrums underneath me like an animal made machine, all of its muscles working in a flawless rhythm.

  I don’t give a shit about cars. I have one at each of my properties, and my business manager switches them out, upgrading with each model year. I was following my father’s advice when I hired him, and I’ve never bothered to have him stop.

  I don’t give a shit about cars, except in circumstances like these, when riding in the back of a town car couldn’t possibly do justice to the urgency humming in my veins. No. I wanted to be in control, so Phillip brought the car from my private garage.

  I thought it was thrilling on the way to Conyers Farm. It’s nothing compared to having Ruby in the front seat next to me.

  There’s more I have to say to her, and by the way she’s sitting, her legs tensed in high heels, there’s more she has to say to me, too. But I couldn’t stand there on that porch. Words won’t do justice to what I’ve done. I’m hoping the sight of it will win her over, convince her that I do understand. I never would have done something like this for anyone else.

  The heat in the air between us is so thick that it’s all I can do to keep breathing.

  I spent every minute from the time I got her text until the time I pulled up to her parents’ estate cajoling and harassing and sweetening the deal. I’m fairly sure that this project alone has put money in the pockets of at least a hundred people. I’d have paid a thousand to have it done on time.