The Billionaire's Curvy Conquest - Complete (18 page)

When the bartender slowly turned toward me, my tan face paled and I nearly collapsed.

“Y
ou look like you just saw a ghost,” the man behind the bar said with a lazy smile.

The voice was unmistakable.

Somehow, I managed to speak. “I guess I have, in a way. I see the face of a man who isn’t exactly dead in the literal sense, but who’s dead to me.”

He put his hand over his heart and pretended to be hurt. “You wound me, Miss James.”

“What are you doing here, Mr. Reed?” I hissed. “You promised to let me go!”

He leaned forward on the bar, resting casually on his forearms like nothing was amiss. “Correction. I promised to
try
and let you go.”  He actually had the nerve to
wink
at me! “As it turns out, that didn’t work.”

“Have you been on the ship the whole time?”

“No. Even I’m not that clever at hiding. I boarded the vessel during the unscheduled stop.”

My mind kicked into overdrive, putting two and two together.

He was stalking me again!

“There wasn’t a sick passenger at all, was there? You wanted to see me and threw enough money at the owner of the yacht to make it happen.”

“You are partly correct,” Mr. Reed said. He unlatched the counter, flipped the side up and stepped out from behind the bar. “You’re right, no passengers were actually ill and I did want to see you. But I didn’t need to pay the yacht’s owner to make an unscheduled port stop.”

“Oh yeah? Why not?”

He smiled deviously. “I
am
the yacht’s owner.”

“Ohhh! I should have known. You’ve been stalking me since I was a few days old. What made me think you would ever stop?”

I was so angry that I felt like my head might explode. I turned to walk away and saw that I was boxed in and couldn’t get away.

In addition to my parents, Alice was there with her husband, who I recognized from the anniversary picture on her desk. I could tell now that they were the older couple I saw on the deck when we arrived.

Henry was also part of the barricade, along with a woman that I assumed was his wife and a man with a camera around his neck.

“Bill Blaine, I presume?” I said curtly.

“At your service, Miss James,” he said with a grin.

I turned toward my mom. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on before I jump overboard?”

“Just hear him out, Cassie,” she said. “Please.”

I put my hands on my hips and swiveled back toward Mr. Reed. “Say whatever it is that you need to say so I can call the Coastguard and get the hell off this boat.”

“Go on, David,” Alice encouraged. 

“Man up and get it over with so we can get this show on the road,” my dad said.

I glared at him over my shoulder and saw my mom jab him in the ribs with her elbow.

I turned my attention back to Mr. Reed. “I’m waiting,” I said, tapping my foot on the deck for emphasis.

Mr. Reed’s cavalier attitude was gone now and he now looked serious. And a bit uncomfortable. “Yes. Well. As you know, Miss James, I am a man of action rather than one who throws around words of endearment.”

“Oh, for crying out loud.” I heard my mom’s voice behind me. “If that’s the best you’ve got, no wonder my daughter walked out on you. This isn’t a board meeting. Don’t tell her what’s on your
mind
; tell her what’s in your
heart
.”

I couldn’t stifle a giggle and covered my mouth with my hand to hide my grin. My mom had bigger balls than Mr. Reed and was a master at breaking up tense moments. 

Mr. Reed relaxed a little bit and stepped closer to me. When he took my hands, I didn’t pull them away.

“I really did try and let you go, Cassie. But I realized that, without you, my life has no meaning.”

“Go on,” I said.

“Even before you knew I existed, you made me a better man. As a teenage boy with a chip on my shoulder, my life was spiraling out of control. Until you arrived at Gladys Casey’s foster home all those years ago.”

Despite blinking my eyes like a hummingbird’s wings, tears slipped down my cheeks at Mr. Reed’s speech.

“Our arrangement was just a game to you,” I said. “A game that you were willing to win at any cost. The things you knew about me gave you an unfair advantage. But once I figured out your strategy, I realized that there wouldn’t be any winners, and the only way to end the game was to walk away.”

“I should have been more honest with you,” he said, squeezing my hands for emphasis. “And while our relationship may have started out as a game, it soon became much more than that. Don’t you see, Cassie? Being together really is our destiny, our fate.”

I tried to pull my hands away, but he held on tight. “You use your money and power to manipulate people... to manipulate
me.
” I countered, my voice wavering with emotion.

Mr. Reed nodded in agreement. “I can see that now. I can also see that, what works in the business world, doesn’t work well when it comes to relationships. It may take some time, but with you by my side, I can learn to be more forthcoming with my feelings.”

Despite my resistance, he was winning me over. But I wasn’t quite ready to give in. “How can I ever trust you again? How will I ever be sure what your intentions are?”

That’s when David Reed dropped down on one knee – and I nearly fainted.

OMG. Was he going to
propose
?!

“I never understood what unconditional love meant until I held you in my arms 27 years ago. For one, fleeting moment, I felt a love that was so pure, it changed my life,” he said.

His hands were sweaty just like mine, which told me he was just as nervous. “I had all but forgotten the feeling until we met again,” he said. “My love for you is pure and unconditional, Cassie. If you ever doubt my intentions again, know that you should never doubt that.”

I gasped when he dropped my right hand, reached into his pants pocket and retrieved a ring of platinum crowned with the biggest, most sparkly pear-shaped diamond I had ever seen.

I saw him glance over at my mom, who nodded and smiled. “Cassie James,” he said, “you are my one true love. Will you be my best friend forever and honor me by becoming my wife?”

In that moment, with tears streaming down my face, I no longer cared about the many reasons we had for being apart. All I cared about was the one reason we should be together: David Reed and I loved each other.

“Yes,” I whispered softly. “YES!” I cried out, barely noticing that Bill Blaine had moved in close and was capturing the entire proposal with his camera.

Mr. Reed’s expression went from relieved to ecstatic as he slipped the ring on my finger and rose to his full height. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” I said. “Are
you
sure?”

He pulled me into his arms and kissed me long and hard. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life, Miss James. Considering I’m a very confident man, I’d say that makes you a very lucky woman.”

I laughed with joy that was as pure as our love, and threw my arms around his neck, squealing in delight as the sunlight bounced off the brilliant bling on my ring finger.

The next few minutes were a blur of hugs, tears and congratulations as our friends and family shared our special moment.

“Cassie and I need to get below deck,” my mom soon said, tugging on my arm to pull me away from my fiancée and the well-wishers. “She doesn’t have much time to get ready for a sunset wedding.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You know the wedding that the crew was preparing for? It’s yours and David’s,” she said.

I looked over at my husband-to-be. “Seriously?”

“If it’s too soon for you, we can wait,” he said. “But the captain is an ordained minister and the current location of the yacht makes it legal for him to officiate our wedding. We can be husband and wife by sunset, Cassie.”

It was all happening so fast, but the look in his eyes erased any doubt from my mind. “I don’t want to wait,” I said. “Let’s get married!”

A
s the captain addressed our guests in a loud, clear voice, I watched the orange-red sun slowly disappear on the horizon. The effect was nothing short of magical.

“David and Cassie have vowed, in our presence, to be best friends, lovers and the glue that sustains them through good times and bad. And they have formalized their commitment to each other with the symbolic giving and receiving of rings. Therefore, it is with great pleasure, that I now pronounce them husband and wife.”

The captain turned his attention briefly back to Mr. Reed. “You may kiss your bride.”

He pulled me into his arms and covered my lips with his, sealing our union with a kiss so passionate that I fully expected my dad to call out,
“Get a room!”

When we finally came up for air, the captain motioned for us to turn and face our guests. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Mr. And Mrs. David Reed.”

~~~

A
fter the ceremony, we dined on a simple, but extravagant, feast of lobster bisque, flown in from Maine; Beluga Caviar, which I skipped; and Kobe beef sliders.

In lieu of a traditional wedding cake, we fed each other fat, ripe strawberries dipped in dark chocolate and decorated with a thin, white chocolate swirl.

Of course the many champagne toasts were made while sipping Dom Perignon.

Overall, it couldn’t have been a more perfect wedding if I had planned it myself.

And evidently, all our guests were in cahoots with my new husband.

Alice had purchased a simple white gown for me to wear and had it transferred to my cabin as soon as my parents and I had appeared on-deck for the cocktail party; Henry and his wife had made sure the imported wedding buffet made it onto the ship; and my mom helped Mr. Reed formulate his proposal speech and write our wedding vows.

Even Bill Blaine was in on Mr. Reed’s scheme. The photographer had captured the entire evening on video, and had taken more snapshots than I could count.

I suppose that the entire wedding was Mr. Reed’s biggest manipulation of me yet, although I realized now that his intentions really were pure.

“I can’t believe you did all of this for me. For us,” I said to him as we danced on deck to John Legend’s
All of Me
.

“If needed, I would have moved heaven and earth to make you mine, Mrs. Reed,” he said, kissing me softly.

“What if I had said no to your proposal?” I teased. I think he and I both knew that wouldn’t have happened.

“Then the captain and crew would have been dining on caviar and lobster bisque for the rest of the cruise.”

I giggled at his joke and then jumped at the sound of a horn blaring in the near distance. I looked toward the sound and saw a much smaller yacht moving toward us. “Is that someone you know?” I asked.

“It’s our honeymoon suite,” Mr. Reed said as he twirled me around the tiny, makeshift dance floor.

“Really?”

“I’m not about to make love to my wife on our wedding night with her parents just down the hallway.” He nibbled my earlobe before whispering into it. “You can be a bit loud, my sweet.”

My laugh was throaty; the mere mention of our wedding night had made me wet with desire. “I’m ready to get going whenever you are,” I replied.

He stopped dancing and took my hand. “Ladies and gentleman, our ride has just arrived. Please continue to dance and dine the night away. My bride and I will rejoin you all tomorrow afternoon.”

After hugging my parents and waving goodbye, we boarded the smaller ship. Mr. Reed talked with the captain for a few minutes, before the captain climbed aboard the larger yacht.

“Are we completely, totally alone?” I asked.

“Completely and totally,” Mr. Reed replied.

That gave me a moment of panic. “Who will be at the controls while we, uh, you know?”

“Calm down, Cassie. We’re only moving a short distance away from the main ship before dropping anchor for the night. Nothing terrible will happen, but if it makes you feel better, we’ll be in the captain’s sightline at all times.”

“That does make me feel better,” I said.

Mr. Reed kissed the tip of my nose. “Good. Why don’t you make your way down to our cabin and get more comfortable.”

“How will I know which cabin is ours?” I asked.

“You’ll know. I’ll join you shortly.”

He was right. The yacht’s honeymoon suite was decorated with more tropical flowers and had a bottle of Dom Perignon chilling on the bedside table.

Although he had told me to get more comfortable, I realized that I hadn’t packed a bag and had nothing to change into. I wasn’t even wearing a slip or chemise underneath my wedding dress.

I looked through the drawers, hoping that Mr. Reed had hidden or stashed something sexy for me to wear, but found nothing.

Since he had meticulously attended to every detail leading up to our wedding, I had to assume that coming up empty handed was part of his plan.

Thankfully, the cabin light was soft and warm because I was about to bare my all to my new husband, even if it was slightly out of my comfort zone. Besides, it’s not like he hadn’t seen me naked before.

I took off my dress and hung it in the small closet, and my bra quickly followed. After a brief hesitation, I kicked off my sandals and slid my damp panties down my thighs and tossed them in the corner.

For better or worse, I was ready. Although I couldn’t exactly say I was more comfortable than before.

I poured myself a glass of champagne and sat down on the edge of the bed. I sipped the delicious bubbly while waiting for my groom to join me.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long.

“You look breathtaking, my sweet,” he said when he entered the cabin. He pulled me to my feet and kissed me deeply, while cupping my ass with both hands and kneading my bare flesh.

I felt him harden through the thin fabric of his pants and moaned softly against his lips. “Maybe you should blindfold me now. I’m not sure how much longer I can wait.”

His lips curved up against mine. “God how I’ve missed having you like this; so ready and willing to submit to my demands.” His voice was deep and husky. “There will be no blindfolding tonight, my sweet. We have all the time in the world to explore the more mysterious pleasures of the flesh. On this very special night, when we consummate our love as man and wife, I want nothing between us except our passion.”