Kissing the Tycoon (2 page)

“Son of a—I can’t believe they—How did you know?”

“Hunter warned me just after we started dating. From one Southie guy to another, I guess. They hunt in packs, he said, much like raptors. So we coined it the raptor patrol.”

“Huh.”

“Barret, I hate to take her away, but she really does have work to do.”

Riley excused herself and moved through the crowd. Barret watched her curvaceous hips shimmy away under the emerald green ball gown. It physically hurt to have her leave him again. The knowledge of how much he had lost weighed heavy on his soul.

Not until Callie spoke did he realize she hadn’t followed, “Hurt her again, and I will sic every single Sherman cousin from here to California on your ass, do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Good, now make her smile again.”

Perplexed, he watched Callie walk away before looking again towards the gorgeous woman now on stage. She stood next to the podium, flanked by other Shermans.

Team spokesman Tony stepped up to the mic, as Barret made his way back to his table. “Thank you for coming out tonight…”

“As many of you are aware, helping battered women has become a personal cause for our family…”

Riley listened as Tony spoke to the crowd, eloquent as ever, but her mind kept racing back to Barret. She couldn’t make out where he was through the blinding lights focused on them, but she could feel him out there watching, waiting. Fate was a true bitch. Why have him show back up in her life tonight? Last night she’d broken her six-month engagement with restaurateur Chad Blackstone. In truth, she should have never said yes to his proposal in the first place, but after the disaster with Barret, it felt so good to be asked.

“My cousin, Riley Sherman—Riley.” Tony grabbed her hand and pulled her close. He must have seen something in her eyes because he covered the mic. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and pulled out her note cards. Unlike Tony, she wasn’t a “wing it and succeed” speaker. She took a sip of the water before her. “I’m fine.”

“I’ll get him out of here if you want. Just say the word.”

“You and your raptor patrol can ease back.”

“Raptor—oh I like that.”

“You would.” Pushing him out of the way, she smiled at the crowd she couldn’t see. “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I would quickly like to bring your attention to a new item being brought to the silent auction table. Private rock climbing lessons have been graciously added by the very handsome, and might I add extremely single, Trenton Sherman. Also, the other items…” The rest of her speech went buy quickly enough as she read the words on her cards. Finally she brought J.C. Sherman-Brooks to the podium, and her throat nearly closed up on tears as she squeezed her cousin’s hand. “I’d like to introduce you to J.C. Many of you know she is reason we are here tonight. Her strength and courage to come forward about her abusive first marriage shows that abuse knows no boundaries.”

After hugging J.C., she exited the stage. She needed a breath of fresh air. The room seemed stuffy and now she hoped she could relax just a bit. Maneuvering through the crowd, she only stopped to speak with Hunter, whom she knew was having a hard time watching his wife talk about the events of her first marriage. She gave him a hug and headed out the balcony doors.

The chilled air felt good on her overheated skin. Gripping the marble railing with both hands, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and took in the night air. Boston’s skyline twinkled before her, but the sounds of the city faded into the distance as she enjoyed the peace of the moment. She was thankful Spencer insisted she take Monday off, Tuesday too if she felt she needed it. It might be Friday, but she already knew it would take more than just a weekend to recover.

“Great speech.” Barret’s baritone voice cut through the night’s sounds.

Turning, she found him holding a flute of champagne in her direction. “Thank you.”

“I had no idea J.C. was abused.”

“No one did when she was going through it. But she is finding that speaking out about it makes her stronger and less of a victim, though it kills Hunter every time she does.”

“I imagine it does.”

Bringing the flute to her lips, she watched him through the bubbles, unease settling into her stomach. He’d aged more than the two years they were apart, and this wasn’t just weariness from his flight. “No one would think less of you if you left.”

“You want me to leave?”

Did she? Her head, oh her head wanted him gone, but her soul, the very rest of her being itched to touch, see, hell, taste him again. “You seem exhausted.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

“I don’t know.”

He took two steps forward “I know that I don’t want to leave you, don’t want to watch you walk away again.”

Anger flared deep within her. “You didn’t watch me walk away the first time. You were locked in your office as usual, too busy to care.”

“I cared. I always cared.”

“You didn’t even come after me.” God, she hated the whine in her voice, hated that she still gave a damn.

“Is that what you wanted? Was that what I was supposed to do?” His voice held a hint of anger edged with disbelief and a side of hurt.

“Yes.”

“I didn’t know.”

“How the hell could you not have known? You were supposed to fight for me!”

“I was locked in my office, clearing my calendar so we could go to Vegas that weekend and get married. I thought you understood that. When I came out, you were gone. You left your keys on the pillow and cleared out of the room, apartment, and my life. With a ‘thanks but no thanks’ note.”

“I didn’t want a quickie wedding in Vegas, you moron. I wanted you to get down on your damned knees and propose. I wanted to marry you in a family wedding. I wanted the fairytale. But what did I get? Nothing. I had to ask if you ever were going to ask. To which you said, ‘What, you want to get married? Okay I think I can clear my calendar for this weekend.’” She turned in anger and defeat. “Exactly what every woman dreams of.”

“I fucked up. I knew it then when you walked out, but I thought, still do, that you were always too good for me. You deserved better. And when I heard you had started dating Chad and were soon engaged, I knew I had been right.”

“Right?”

“Not to propose.”

“You arrogant bastard.”

“I have never been arrogant.”

Throwing her hands in the air was the best she could do, because otherwise, she was going to ring his idiotic neck “Yes, you were always so sure I would be there waiting…”

“I was always sure you would leave.”

“I mean, did it ever occur to you I didn’t care if you were rich?”

“That is easy for someone who always had money to say.”

“The only one who was ever caught up in money was you, and you still are.”

“I do not remember a single day when my parents were together that they did not fight about money, about how they would get us coats, shoes, food, or heat the house in the winter.”

“There must be good memories too?”

“Not one comes to mind. Christmas was whatever tree someone else threw out and Chandler and I could drag home. Decorating it with what we could make or find around the house. Presents came from the church’s angel trees. Then those were always the necessities—coats, underwear, socks. Once or twice we got a coloring book or a toy car. Birthdays never involved a cake, and for our eighteenth, it was a card that said, ‘get a job, get out, or pay rent’ from my old man.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me any of this before?”

“I told you I don’t like to harp on the past.”

The anger seeped away. No one could miss the pain so carefully hidden all these years now laid bare in those deep chocolate eyes. “But you live in the past every day. It’s been twenty years since you were that eighteen-year-old boy. Yet you still respond as if you are.”

“When you have gone hungry, you never forget that pain.”

The deep-seated pain in his voice tore her apart. She had known bits and pieces and believed the worse, but to hear it come from his proud lips was more than she could bear. That he had gone hungry even for a day tore at her. Placing the palm of her hand against the stubbled cheek, she saw not the proud tycoon, but a man who had fought for everything he’d ever had. “Oh, Barret.”

“Don’t pity me.”

“I don’t. I just hurt with you. I want to understand you.” She looked into his eyes, pleading. “It’s all I have ever wanted.”

“A woman broke it off with my father once. He went after her. She slapped him with a restraining order.”

“What?”

“I don’t know all the details, but I remember the embarrassment my father felt. More information than you wanted, I am sure. I must be more exhausted than I thought.”

“More info than I wanted? Are you crazy?”

“I just wanted you to know why I didn’t follow you that night.”

“I don’t know why you couldn’t have told me any of this before. It would have saved us a lot of heartache.”

“You wouldn’t have walked out?”

She thought about it for a second. “No, I still would’ve left because I couldn’t stay any longer. The pain by that time had become too much to bear. The damage was already done. But at least I would have understood it better, known it wasn’t some flaw in me.” A brief flash of pain crossed his face, gone before she could really register it was there. “It doesn’t matter. We’ve both moved on.”

“Have you? Have you moved on?”

“Of course.” Lies, all lies.

“Your lips say one thing, but your eyes, another.” He took the empty flute from her hand and placed it on the windowsill behind him before closing the distance between them.

“That wasn’t a challenge.”

“Wasn’t it?”

“No…”

“Are you sure?” His lips were a hair’s breadth from hers.

“No.” Her voice cracked. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to kiss you, and we’re going to see just how moved on you are.”

“What about you?”

“Oh, I know I haven’t moved on. Never said I had.” With that, his lips came down on hers. There was no resistance on her end. Not that she could think, having him this close, invading her senses—all of them. Butterflies churned in her stomach. She felt like a schoolgirl stealing a first kiss with the neighborhood bad boy.

His heat pulled at her, making her yearn to get closer. Two years of telling herself she was over him evaporated in seconds.

This is what had been missing with Chad, this heat and passion. For six months, she’d fooled herself thinking she didn’t need passion, that what she wanted was stability. Nothing had ever been stable with Barret. The emotions had always been volatile. Being with Chad was like walking on the side of calm lake. Barret was like walking the shore in a hurricane.

Pulling back, he sucked in a breath and looked over her face as if he had never seen it before. “How could I ever get over this? It’s not just what you do to me physically.”

“Oh, I know exactly what I do to you physically.” She pressed her hip against his erection.

“Unless you want me to make love to you against the window for all your family to see—behave.”

With a smile, she licked her lips. “Now that does sound like a challenge.”

Placing a hand behind her neck, he pulled her to just within kissing distance. “It’s not quite the way I thought I would die, but I can’t imagine a better way to go.” Pressing her against the window, he kissed her deeply.

“I have a room,” she whispered when they finally came up for air.

“What?”

“I have a room, here in the hotel. We could go up there.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Not tonight.”

“Excuse me?”

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

Having a hard time following his track, she shook her head to clear the passion haze fogging it. “Nothing.”

“Come out with me.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re turning me down for a night of sex and asking me out on a date for tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have to court me. I am a sure thing. Like now.”

“I’m not. I mean yes, I’m turned on, and God, I want to be inside you. But I’m so exhausted I’d be no good to you. And I don’t want to screw anything up this time. If there is any chance, I’m going to do everything I can to make it work.”

“Oh.”

“And while you spend tonight working and reworking that in your head, switching my role from hero to villain, just remember one thing. In fact, the most important thing—I have never stopped loving you.”

“Oh.”

“He kissed her briefly then stepped back. “Ten a.m. in the lobby. I’ll pick you up.” He took five steps away before rushing back at her for one more deep-seated kiss. “Tomorrow.”

And then he was gone, leaving her breathless and completely confused as to what had happened. She watched him through the window as he worked his way to his brother, then out of the ballroom.

“I do believe the idiot still loves you.”

Riley jumped, suppressing a scream, scanning the balcony. Only when she looked up did she see her cousin sitting on the ledge. “Trenton, what the hell are you doing up there?”

“I was feeling claustrophobic inside.”

“So you decided to scale the wall and sit on the ledge. That isn’t normal, you know.”