JAGGED EDGE: A BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE (ALPHA MALE) (6 page)

At least Sammi smiled now. Even if it was a small smile.

“Will you let me drive you back?”

“Okay,” she relented. “But I need time to think this through. Will you give me that?”

“Take as much time as you need. I’ll be waiting for you when you’re finished.”

Taking her hand, they left the restaurant. It seemed that his money, his lifestyle got in the way of their relationship. Which right now was all he cared about.

Chapter Seven

Jag

Days later, he’d only had minimal contact with Sammi. She’d distanced herself—he thought, out of fear—but she would probably say she didn’t trust his intentions. Try as he might, it was hard for Jag to think of that fun time in the wine cellar as a mistake. Deep down, he knew if she got rid of her insecurity, she would understand how real this was.

And that he wasn’t going anywhere.

Jag would wait her out. So far in his texts, he’d been a very good boy. He knew how important it was that she had time, so he gave it to her.

There were other commitments he could’ve attended to for business, flying back to the west coast or even New York, but he stayed and worked from his hotel.

The only direct work he did was driving to the Dispatch home offices. If Jag showed up back in the Jagged Edge offices after a month of doing absolutely nothing, they might start to question him even more, so it was important that he convince them to sell.

***

Jag didn’t call before he showed up at the small space that used to house a local mechanics, now converted into offices for Dispatch. As soon as he stepped in, he sighed at the desk overflowing with disorganized business papers that they used in their cramped waiting room.

“Sam?” the office manager yelled into the open door to announce Jag’s visit.

Sam strolled right out wearing a mustard yellow jacket with their plain brown “D” logo on it. Given the reins to the company about ten years ago, he looked to be in his mid-fifties now.

“Not interested,” he grunted at Jag before turning around to leave.

“I’m going to hang around until we can at least have a meeting. Until you hear what I have to say.”

Sam shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. “I doubt you’d say anything I want to hear. I’ve heard it all before.”

“I’m sure you have. You’ve got a strong, classic brand. Everyone wants a piece of that.”

“And they’re not getting a bite of it. Like I said, not interested. Let’s not waste each other’s time.”

Sam strolled away, but from the back room, Jag spotted someone that had the same flat head and bulbous nose as Sam, someone who must’ve been related. His notes would tell him who it was, but he knew that the company was divided between family members—brothers, sisters, and cousins. Sam held the highest percentage, but if this relative convinced the rest of the family to sell, Sam would be outvoted.

The man in the back sneered, muttered something about Sam being an idiot, and then slammed the door.

Jag had a new target. He knew a weakness when he saw it.

Back in his car, Jag looked up who he was. It was a little difficult since the Caldwells all looked so damned similar. Then he found him: Brett Caldwell, Sam’s cousin. He dialed up the Dispatch offices from his car, disguised his voice for the receptionist, and asked to speak to Brett.

“Yep, this is Brett.”

“Hello, Brett, this is Perry Jagridge. I was just in your office, and I noticed your reaction to your cousin blowing the meeting off.”

“Oh, yeah. He’s like that. Doesn’t even want to hear any offers.”

“But you…you want to hear offers, don’t you?”

A pause. His voice came in low. “I’d be willing to at least hear what you’ve got to say.”

Jackpot. He got an in. “Great, meet me—where’s a good local bar or restaurant where we could talk?”

They met up ten minutes later. Brett proved fairly easy to convince. When Jag told him the money offer, lowballing him at first, he almost fell out of his seat. Once he gave away his reaction to the lowball, Jag told him how to go about doing it. He would buy out a few of his other cousins, get a sizeable percentage, then they could convince the others with big buyouts. With Brett’s help, they would avoid the staunchest members of the family, until they had a high enough percentage to take over the company.

The staunchest holdouts seemed to be the ones closest to the original creators. But Jag still left the bar overjoyed at his accomplishment. He would be able to stay longer in Virginia.

He should’ve known his good mood wouldn’t last long. It seemed to be one step forward, two steps back. As soon as he pulled into the parking lot to the hotel, a van pulled up beside him. Its window rolled down slowly.

Jag expected he might have to dive to the ground or leap for his gun if this were some idiot trying to kidnap him. But he instantly recognized the woman—Sammy Jo’s mother, Mrs. Kingston.

She wasn’t smiling though. It dawned on Jag shortly after that she would be grilling him for answers. While she always seemed like the nicest mom on the block, she never took a liking to Jag. There were good reasons for that, like how he wanted to get in her daughter’s pants.

But he’d always treated her with respect, so he’d push back if needed.

“Perry, we need to have a talk.”

He let out a long sigh, as Mrs. Kingston got out and cornered him.

“Nice to see you, Mrs. Kingston.”

“You know why I want to talk to you.”

“It’s been a long time coming.”

“And so have you? Where have you been? If you were this interested in Sammi, why wouldn’t you keep in touch?”

“I was young. I needed to start my career.” The truth. “I made a mistake.”

“That’s a pretty big mistake. And now you want to date her, Mr. Billionaire?”

“Mr. Billionaire, that’s a good name. I should use that more often.”

“I’m not laughing.”

Being a smart ass wouldn’t help him here. It also didn’t help that all of the blogs wrote nonsense about him and his love life.

“I love her,” he stated, with conviction. It didn’t require any exaggeration on his part. It felt right in every cell of his being.

“Love her?” Mrs. Kingston visibly staggered from the words. “Are you sure you’re not losing your mind, Perry? This isn’t some game. Because those words have very big consequences.”

“I understand. I know what I’m doing.”

She leaned against her van as she pondered this new revelation.

“Don’t tell her you love her,” she said. “Not yet. You’ve got to prove it to her first.”

Damn, here he was thinking he was doing a pretty good job of that. He’d treated her nicely, been a gentleman, and when the heat needed to be turned up, gave her a wickedly hot orgasm. Where did he go wrong?

“She’s had a bad run with men. I know she cares about you. Ever since your teens, I knew it, but I didn’t want to see her heart get broken. Because if you broke her heart, I knew she might never get back up again. With the other men, she would be able to stand back up. With you, I’m not so sure.”

“I won’t break your daughter’s heart, I promise.”

“Words mean nothing, Perry. You’ve got to prove it.” As Mrs. Kingston stalked forward, he drew back.

“And if you do hurt her, you can rest assured I’ll hurt you. I’ll string your balls up and dangle them from the rearview mirror of my van.”

“Noted,” Jag grumbled.

Mrs. Kingston crooked her eyebrow before returning to her vehicle. Jag watched her pull away as he mumbled. “Always a pleasure, and not scary at all talking to you, Mrs. Kingston.”

Headed back to his hotel room, he didn’t mind her suggestions at all. It had actually helped him.

Jag needed a game plan. He needed to take Sammi away from here to prove to her how much he cared for her. Her parents wouldn’t doubt him, and most importantly, Sammi wouldn’t, soon enough.

***

Sammi

Waves splashed against the sides of their boat as Sammi forced herself to keep rowing. Her arms burned but her adrenaline deadened the pain. They needed to get through these shallow rapids in the river or else they’d be tossed over. They fought, Jag doing most of the work, but Sammi helping too, to get through the maze of choppy water.

But they weren’t through. They soared down a gorge—not very tall, about a few feet, but with the force of the water crashing into them, it felt much bigger. She whooped as they splashed down into a less choppy current.

It was easier to remain balanced now, Jag guiding them from the front. Her job would be to follow his guidance, a good job for her when she’d not been white water rafting before.

“Hang on, we’re not through yet. You okay?”

“Doing fine,” she shouted. Did he even hear her over the roaring waters?

They continued downstream of the River Roanoke, although she wasn’t sure where they were going exactly.

When the waters got rough, she thought she’d gotten in over her head. But they worked together to keep a steady path that led them further downstream. And once it was all over, Sammi admitted she loved the rush.

Her pulse beat, her heart galloped in her chest, and she gasped for breath once they paddled for shore. Her arms started to ache, and so did her neck from spinning around so much and looking at everything.

Jag tried to help her out of the white water raft. She hopped out, one leg stuck inside, and then tumbled into his arms.

They dropped onto the soft grass. Laughing, Sammi should’ve crawled off him, but being in his arms felt so good.

“Don’t mind me. Just catching my breath here.”

“You liked it,” he teased.

“I liked it, but I don’t know if I’d have the stomach to do it again.”

“You did fine,” he grinned as he wiped wet hair away from her eyes. The gold flecks in his green eyes were shimmering, reflecting the open skies above.

“We made it. And it was fun.”

He seemed pleased with how well she’d hung in there. They made a great team, she thought. “I’ll be honest, this was rougher than I imagined.”

They were strapped into life jackets of course. Even with them, it had been dangerous.

Sammi smiled. “I need to live a little dangerously. You might be the man who can help me with that.”

“And you might be the girl who can finally teach me math.”

She laughed again before she slapped him on the shoulder. As she tried to get up, her legs wobbled. Reaching out to grab onto anything, she toppled again but Jag caught her before she hit the ground.

“Easy there.”

“Let’s sit. Sitting is good. You had the right idea.”

They took a breather. It was beautiful here in this valley, surrounded by nature with the lush mountains rising up above them. Sammi rarely had time to visit nature anymore. The only times she did seemed to be on a documentary or in her neighborhood walking Oliver.

Jag hauled their backpacks out of the raft as she rested. But she didn’t like staying down on the ground. He helped her up and she started to strap her arms through the heavy backpack.

He nodded to the tallest mountain in the distance.

“We’re going there?” she asked incredulously.

To get to the beginning of the trail they would need to walk at least two miles through the dense woods. They’d landed at a spot off the beaten path, so they’d be cutting through wilderness until they got to an official trail.

At least, that’s what Sammi assumed. Jag told her very little about this trip.

“We’re going to rock climb up the side. You game?”

He laughed and flashed his usual hot blooded smile at her.

“I’m glad you’re kidding. I’m not on your level. If you want to climb it, I’d gladly take your picture from down below.”

“Oh, we’re not going to rock climb it, but we are going to hike it. Don’t you want to see the view from all the way up there? That’ll be our victory prize.”

“We’re going to get there today?”

“No, I wouldn’t do that to you. We’ll camp and then take it on tomorrow. Ready to head out?”

“Ready.”

After the rush of the river, she felt energized. Close to Jag, she throbbed down below and when she started to walk, she shifted her thighs uncomfortably, trying to rub that itch without being too obvious.

Ugh, she hadn’t agreed to go with Jag to fuck for the entire weekend. Her entire argument was that Jag needed to show her that he would stick around for the boring parts of the relationship. She knew he craved excitement and loved to compete…and while she might like him competing to give her as many orgasms as possible, she needed to know he was serious.

If she were to break down and fuck him right now, she would be a blatant hypocrite. But she wanted so badly to toss herself back into his arms, to lie out a mat and ask him to take her right under the sky.

Wait for the stars, Sammi. At least wait until tonight. Let him wait at least until then.

But waiting would be difficult.

As they trudged through the knee high grass, winding their way upwards between the tall trees, she remembered how lonely she’d been that week when she’d asked for time. If this
was
another one of her relationship failures—Jag only seducing her because it was fun for the time being—she would be devastated.

In the back of her mind, she’d always clung onto hope that Jag would return some day.

Now here he was.

And now the question was, would he leave again?

She stayed close to him. With his long legs, his stride would leave her in the dust but he slowed down for her sake.

Those long walks they used to take certainly helped as they left the woodlands to follow a rocky dirt path up an incline. She didn’t slow. Instead she found her second wind until she strode in step with Jag.

When he noticed her finally slowing, her breath ragged and the rocky path leveling off to another field, he pulled her aside.

“Why are we stopping?”

“Now who’s the competitive one?”

“Hey, I’m only wondering. And I don’t want to slow you down.”

Also, walking helps keep you off my mind. If I’m walking, I’m not thinking of jumping you, trying to get laid.

Sammi chewed on her fingernail as she waited. Jag dropped his backpack in the clearing that overlooked the river. They had enough space to set up camp here.

“We’ll stay here for the night.”

Jag went to work. He hammered down the stakes and strung up the tent. Sammi helped with what little she could. Seeing his toned, ripped body go to work and prepare it all like a master was something she would never forget. If her body didn’t crave him before, it certainly did now.

Within ten minutes, the tent stood proudly. She slipped inside, and then wagged her finger for him to come in, impressed by the size and comfort of it.