Delusive (25 page)

I twirled the diamond studs in my ears, having a hard time believing a word he said. My heart wanted to, but a voice in my head, reminding me of the bigger picture, tried to shut down my gullible belief.
 

“Ley”—he lifted my chin over his fingers—“I’m sorry you saw that part of me last night.”
 

“Sorry I saw, but not sorry for the act?”

“No, I’m not, and I’m not going to apologize for my actions.”

“What was the deal with Mikaela and Rory?” I wanted to ask about Skylar, but the timing wasn’t right, nor had I asked the right person. If I wanted to know, Skylar would be the one to tell me…soon.

“I’ve known them both a long time. Mikaela is Jaco’s girlfriend. At one point, we shared. She served a purpose at the time, but she has been and will always be very insignificant to me. Rory was just a woman I saw from time to time. Believe me, it’s completely over with the both of them. I don’t juggle women, Ley. You will never have to share me with anyone.”

Remembering what Skylar had said about Elias’s past when it concerned women, it was easy to find a fault in his words. If what she told me was the truth, he just lied to me while looking me in the eye and made it believable. “Last night, the way you were with Robin—”

“It was business and”—he scanned our general area—“I have a rule to never talk about or conduct business in the bedroom.” He rose to his feet and helped me up to stand. “I have a surprise for you.”

“Which would be?”

“Get decent. I’m taking you out.”

“Where?”

As he quirked a brow, he slipped his hands down my naked back and cupped my ass. “You want a clue?”

“I do.”

“First class seats. Race. Beach. That’s all you’ll get.”

“Should I pack?”

“Why? You’ll only be wearing clothes for one day.”

A FIVE-HOUR flight later, we arrived in Miami to attend a race at Homestead. Immediately upon our arrival, Elias took me to the pit to meet his father.
 

Mr. Cari was friendly and charming as he spoke to me. “
É um prazer conhecê-la finalmente, Hanley. Consigo ver porque razão o meu filho é tão ligado a si. Já não está focado no que costumava estar. Não posso dizer que o culpo. Você é simplesmente lindíssima.
” Remembering himself, he smiled brightly and offered me an apology. Taking my hand, he kissed the back of it and looked me over with a warm smile. “I said you were beautiful, as you very much are.”

“Thank you,” I said, giving him a small grin.

“Ah, there it is.” He pointed to my face. “That smile of yours is something you should wear all the time.”

“People might think I’m crazy if I do that.”

He laughed low and hardy, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “I think they’ll be too distracted to think something like that. My son and I share the same taste in women, so of course, I will compliment him later on choosing you.”

The man disarmed me completely, negating my need to feel cautious and apprehensive. It was easier to hate the man having never met him. But, in the short while we communicated, I moved firmly toward ambivalence rather than pure loathing. It did not, however, change my mind about the revised version of the original plan my father and I had concocted.

There was no mistaking it, Elias’s parents ensured he would win the genetic lottery. Mr. Cari’s presence possessed me, just as Elias’s presence did.
 

“Follow me. I want to introduce you to a driver friend of mine.” Taking my hand, Natanael led me down the pit with his hand on my lower back, making sure I didn’t wobble too much in my heels.

“How are you liking Ipomoea?” he asked, heightening his voice over the loud roar of an engine.

“It’s quiet and nice.”

“And has one of the lowest crime rates in the state,” he added, shaking a finger at me. “That’s a crucial aspect in property values. It’s a town that’s been in my family for generations. My great-great-great grandfather incorporated it.” Waving the man in the multi-colored jumpsuit over, he proceeded to introduce me to the driver he sponsored.
 

“The race is going to start. We should get up to the skybox,” Elias said from behind me, returning to my side from wherever he’d disappeared to. He had yet to exchange a word with his father since we met up with him shortly before entering the stadium. When they first saw each other, they exchanged perfunctory nods with one another. It was the coldest and most distant greeting I had ever witnessed between a father and a son.
 

While Natanael’s coldness dissipated as he spoke with me, the frigid demeanor Elias adopted at the sight of his father never went away.
 

When Elias returned to my side, the stern expression on his face spread to Natanael, wiping a grin—I once thought was permanent—from his face.
 

Natanael separated me from Elias by whispering something to his son that convinced him to speak to an associate in the stands. They disappeared up the stairs together, heading toward the skybox.

“May I?” Mr. Cari extended his arm to me.

Nodding, I linked my forearm underneath his. Despite his charm, my discomfort was palpable. Having him touch me didn’t help my need to hold up a cool and calm demeanor.

He walked at a sedated pace as he surveyed the crowd in the stadium with a prideful smile. “Elias is taken with you. He won’t admit it to me, but I know my son like I know my own flesh.” He paused at the top of the stairs and steadied my trembling hand. “I understand he’s been a little sloppy around you and you might be a little curious about some of the things you may have seen and heard.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, sir,” I assured him, my voice soft and unassuming.

“Of course, because there is nothing to worry about, is there?”

With my eyes down, I shook my head.

He turned, parting from me to stand dead in front of my position. “I’m not a man who likes to worry, Miss Harper. Things that tend to make me worry become problems I have to solve immediately. You make him happy for the moment, but that can change.” He braced my shudders by holding my shoulders firmly. “Despite what he thinks, I want nothing more than for him to succeed in everything he puts an effort toward. My issue is you. You’re new in town, and as with anyone who enters my town, I conduct a little research on them and make sure they are not in my kingdom to dethrone me. I didn’t like what I saw, Hanley. It’s too clean. Too new. It’s as if you bought a new life to hide from a real one. That old life might be of interest to me.”

“I-I promise,” I stuttered. “I’m not here to start trouble.”

“Good.” He leaned in my ear and whispered, “Because I’ll kill whomever sent you here and make you watch, if you are.” With a smile, he walked away, leaving me stunned and shaken.

We made our way to the skybox where his mother briefly greeted me before returning to speak business with a few serious-looking men.

While Elias networked beside his father, I sat alone and watched the cars perform laps around the track.
 

“Whose daughter are you?” A woman with big brunette hair and even bigger breasts pushed up to the sky asked me.

“No ones,” I replied. “I’m here with Elias.”

“Oh yeah? Natanael was such a big star. It’s a shame what happened to make him retire.” She leaned forward and whispered, “There were rumors. The man has a lot of secrets. I’m not surprised he’s in Miami. It’s convenient.” She smiled at my stunned and confused face. “Money is money, I suppose. Might want to trap the son before he gets snagged by another woman who is hungrier for him than you are. Set yourself up for life.”

She suddenly had my undivided attention. “What do you mean?”

“You know…get pregnant.”

I blinked at her, unsure of how to respond.

“Mark my words. If he’s anything like his daddy, that’s the way to go, hun. I gave Natanael my virginity, got pregnant, and look at me now.” She gestured over her body grandly while wearing a proud smile. “My bills are paid and all my other needs are met. I may not have all of him.” She glanced back at Elias’s mother. “But I have more of him than Kirsten does. How do you think Miss Beauty Queen got him? It wasn’t love, I’ll tell you that. She had a son and that trapped him for life. Too bad for the woman before Kirsten.”
 

Shrugging her shoulders, she touched her lip and scrunched up her nose. “I can’t remember if he married that first girl or not. When news came out that the son she had might not have been Natanael’s?” She brought her palm across her throat in a straight line, pantomiming someone’s throat being cut.
 

I slanted toward her and lowered my voice, “Do you mean Roth or Keith? Because I thought Elias only had one older brother.”

“He only has one that he hangs with, I think.” She touched the corner of her mouth with her index finger and curled her lip. “Natanael has so many kids, I can’t keep up. Natanael has so many children or women claiming they fathered his children, he can’t, either. The older boy’s mother is no longer with us because that older boy isn’t Cari blood. I bet the only reason he has the money he does is because of Elias.”

“If you’re talking about Roth, that can’t be true. Elias doesn’t know who Roth is,” I informed her, “and Roth’s mother is still alive.”

“Maybe it isn’t Roth. Maybe it’s Keith?” She shoved me in a playful manner. “Girl, I don’t know. You’re confusing me.” Her smile began to temper as she looked at Elias. “Poor boy, he’s so starved for a family he tries to find every half-brother and half-sister he can find to bond with. He’s going to be searching for a really long time. His father doesn’t believe in condoms or monotony.”

Her gossip confused me more than it seemed to confuse her. How could it have been that Elias had no knowledge of who Roth was—according to what I knew after spending time with Roth—if Elias tried to seek out all of Natanael’s children? It made me question who was legitimately Natanael’s son—Keith or Roth? “You mean…monogamy?” I asked, referring to her last comment.

Garnering the attention of Mrs. Cari, she laughed. “I bet if I had twin sons instead of a daughter, I would have a rock ten times the size of hers. I would need a splint to hold my hand up it would be so heavy. Oh well. Guess I’ll settle for this.” She flashed a ring on her finger that nearly blinded me.

“Lula,” Mrs. Cari’s voice startled me. She came beside me and stared Lula down. “You’ll never learn, will you? You don’t belong here. Not only that, you are violating the conditions of your gag order. Do you want to be countersued for the money you greedily took? Or would you rather I put you in the hospital again?”

“I have a right to be here.” Lula poked her chest and placed her hands on her hips. “And you can’t touch me! That’s a part of my deal, too, ya’ psycho bitch.”

“Hanley,” Kirsten addressed me while keeping Lula locked under her dagger-eyed stare, “why don’t you go find my son?”

Nodding my compliance, I left the two women to hash it out and sat with Elias at one of the dining tables. The conversation at the table immediately stopped. The men sitting with him dispersed to do other things in the skybox. Elias grabbed me and pulled me to sit on his lap. Sitting sideways, I draped my arm behind his neck and gave him a gentle kiss.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Lula leave the skybox in a huff.

Elias pulled my chin to look at him. “Did you hear me? I asked if you were all right.”

“I’m fine.” I gave him a faint smile and glanced back at his mother.

She looked wearily back at me with a frown. Shaking her head, as if trying to wake from a daydream, she disappeared from the skybox.

I ROLLED OVER, stomach down, in the bed that seemed to cradle me in the right places. I looked toward the window—beyond the smoky imprints of body parts, thanks to the hard and hungry way Elias fucked me against the glass earlier—of our suite overlooking the gorgeous water at night. The shimmering multicolored lights reflecting from over the water and from the various boats and yachts docked at the marina served as the only source of light inside the dark hotel suite.

Elias’s fingertips brushed up my naked spine, making me shiver. He pushed my hair from over my shoulder and kissed it. “I thought I fucked”—his kisses began to trail down my spine—“licked”—he placed one tongue-laced kiss on the small of my back—“and sucked you dry.” His hands slipped down the fissure of my ass until he found my sex and began to rock up and down. “But you’re wet again.”

I moaned, closing my eyes and sinking into the expert way Elias mastered control over my body.
 

Events were forgotten. Missions were abandoned. I’d begun to feel desperate to keep up a feeling I thought I’d never be able to experience.
 

“I wish I could stay here forever,” I said softly, taking a break to whimper at the sensation he pulled out of my body with his touch. “This bed is…incredible.”

Immediately removing his hand, he repositioned himself, sliding his nude body completely over mine and sucked on the shell of my ear. “Do I have this right? The bed did all the work to put that smile on your face?”

Feeling his deep voice reverberate down my neck, a pleasurable rush went straight to the base of my skull. “Most of it,” I joked, closing my eyes.