The Resilient One: A Billionaire Bride Pact Romance (17 page)

“It all hit me when… well, a little bit ago. You didn’t spend any time alone with me before you got to know me. You seemed almost scared of me and it didn’t make sense.” He captured her hand and stroked his thumb along the back of it. “Can you tell me about it?”

Alyssa’s breath caught as she met his gaze. “My father used to let his friends play around me with. They never went too far, but… Oh, man.” It was so hard to explain this. “They would tease me and make me sit on their laps. They just made me feel gross and made me think that all men were takers.” She shook her head, not sure how much she wanted to spell out to him as his grip on her hand tightened. “Then I found a boyfriend in college that I thought was great. We went away for spring break and he came through the adjoining door and tried to make me… well, you know.” The grip got tighter. “Ouch.” Alyssa tugged her fingers back.

“Sorry.” Beck released her hand and jammed his fingers through his already mussed dark hair. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

“You don’t want to hear it all.”

Beck’s eyes were full of compassion. “I can handle whatever you want to tell me.”

Alyssa licked her lips and admitted, “I dated a politician after college. He fulfilled the stereotypes, telling everybody, including me, whatever we wanted to hear. He cheated on me.” She found as she got going it was hard to stop. “I have nightmares every few weeks about a man who tried to rape me.” She hung her head. “My father was going to sell me to him.”

Beck gave a strangled groan and backed into the door. “Oh, Alyssa.”

She shook her head. “I’m a mess, Beck. Maybe you don’t want to deal with my insecurities.”

“Alyssa,” he breathed her name. “I can deal with a lot if I can be with you.”

Alyssa focused on his blue eyes. There was so much truth in them. Would he really be there for her, even when she got scared and wanted to run? “You can?” her voice pitched up too high and she cleared her throat.

“Yes.” He raised his hands like he wanted to touch her, but wasn’t sure if she would welcome it. “So, where do we go from here?””

She wanted to yank his head down and kiss the daylights out of him, but she had to ask. “Um, can you tell me about you and Belle?

“Please don’t worry about Belle,” he said. “I’d much rather be with you.”

“You would?”

“I’ll prove it to you. I would never do this to Belle.” He crossed the small distance between them and wrapped his arms around her back. “Is this okay?”

Alyssa nodded. “I love when you touch me.”

He grinned then lowered his head and gently caressed her lips with his. Alyssa couldn’t hold in a sigh from the sweetness of his touch.

“Beck,” she whispered. She shook her head to clear it and pulled free of his arms. Shame filled her. She was a distrusting brat, but she wanted him to know. “We followed you last night and spied on you and Belle. Granny forced me.”

Beck chuckled. “Only Granny.”

“You aren’t mad?” Her dad would’ve been furious if her mom would’ve done something like that. Then he would’ve calmed down and talked her back into loving him.

“No, because that gives me the proof I need.”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you see me do anything with Belle?”

Alyssa paused and thought. “Well, you smiled at her.”

Beck grinned. “Was it anything like the smile I’m giving you right now?” Again he was in her space and she was having a hard time breathing.

“I guess not. It was more… practiced.”

“Exactly.”

“And she was cuddled against you.”

“What?” His eyebrows almost met his hairline.

“When you ordered.”

“Oh, no. That’s not fair. She pressed against me, but I moved as soon as I could.”

Hmm. She could believe that. “And you checked her out when she dropped something.”

“Whoa.” He held up his hands. “I absolutely did not check her out. I was checking my phone and hoping you were texting me.” He grinned. “Oh, and I was looking at the pictures I snapped of us when we were snorkeling with Captain Aaron.”

“What? I looked horrible in those.”

“You always look beautiful.”

“You didn’t check her out?”

“I promise I didn’t. Did it look like I was?”

“Actually, I didn’t look at you. I was too busy noticing everything she was displaying.”

Beck grimaced. “She has a horrible habit of showing off too much.”

“Every man likes that.”

“That’s not fair. Come on, Lyssa.”

She warmed clear through at his tender use of the nickname Stockton had given her.

“I’m not some scumbag who just wants to check out a woman in tight, revealing clothing. If you want to see my face when I check a woman out I’ll show you.” He held out her arms and rested his hands on her hips. He turned her to one side and then the other. His eyebrows lifted, he grinned, and his eyes roamed over her. “Now that is a shape worth checking out.”

Alyssa didn’t want to, but laughter bubbled out of her. She knew she couldn’t compare with a team of plastic surgeons shaping the perfect body, but she loved the admiration in Beck’s eyes. “You’re trying to convince me you don’t want to be with her?”

He wrapped his arms around her. “I made it through dinner, but it wasn’t fun. I realized when I got back to the bed and breakfast that I hadn’t smiled or laughed for real all night. I should’ve gone to your room and begged you to go for ice cream. I wanted to smile with you, Lyssa. I assumed when you didn’t answer my texts you were already in bed.”

“So you didn’t give her real smiles?” Alyssa shook her head at how silly this was. She was jealous of Beck giving out his smiles?

“I don’t give real smiles to anyone but you.” Beck slowly lowered his head to hers, stopping a breath away from her mouth. “Except for my nieces and nephews.”

“Okay, I’ll make allowances for them.” She wanted him to cross those centimeters separating them.

Beck smiled against her mouth and whispered, “And I’m not doing this with anyone but you.” He kissed her with just the right amount of pressure, wrapping his strong arms around her back and pulling her in full contact with his body. Alyssa moaned in delight and matched the passion in his kiss with her own fire. She’d never been so consumed by someone’s touch. Beck continued to work his magic on her mouth and her body molded itself to his.

Much, much later, Beck and Alyssa found Granny and took her to dinner at the Mixed Plate. Beck actually spit some water across the table, laughing at Granny asking the sweet Chinese lady if her chicken was real or was actually dog meat. The language barrier didn’t stop the woman from being severely offended, but Granny had remained convinced it was actually dog. “Chicken isn’t stringy like this,” she muttered.

Granny begged off walking on the beach after dinner, saying she needed to rest. The mischievous twinkle in her eye wasn’t missed by either of them when they dropped her off at the bed and breakfast.

They walked along Ka’anapali and watched for whale spouts as the sun set.

“Tell me about the rest of your family,” Beck asked.

Alyssa shrugged, squishing sand between her toes with each step. She didn’t even feel unsteady with her foot, not with Beck’s arm around her waist. “Not much to tell. Just my mom. No siblings that I know of.”

“That you know of?”

She took a long breath before admitting, “My dad’s a piece of work. He never married my mom, but insisted I take his name. The only good thing he gave me, besides financial support, is Granny Ellie.”

“She’s great.” Beck grinned at her and Alyssa wondered if the sand shifted or if her blood sugar might be low. She swayed and his arm tightened around her waist. “You feeling okay?”

“Better now.” She smiled stupidly at him.

Beck pulled her closer and they continued their stroll. “Where are your parents now?”

“Mom’s current house is in Pelican Shores.”

“Oh.” The lifted eyebrows said he knew exactly how much it cost to live in the exclusive southern California neighborhood. “And your dad?” His voice was cold like he already didn’t like her dad. She thought he must be a good judge of character.

“Who knows? He floats through houses and women and he travels a lot.” She swallowed. “My mom is a very beautiful lady, relocated from the Philippines when she was a teenager. She was so poor as to be starving at times. Dad found her and offered her security and…” It was so embarrassing to admit this to him. “Granny claims my mom is co-dependent. It’s messed up. Granny taught me to be strong and never rely on a man for anything.” She smiled. “I used to think Granny Ellie was a hypocrite marrying all the wealthy men she did, but then I realized that she really loved each of her husbands and she had her own career too, ‘Top realtor in Franklin County’.” She grinned, thinking of all the times Granny had bragged about that and how few realtors there actually were in Franklin County, Idaho.

“Pretty cool lady.”

“Thanks. I’d be lost without her.” She studied the waves and tried to shift the focus of the conversation. “What about you, any siblings?”

“Two sisters. They’re both older and happily married.”

“Nieces or nephews?”

“Anna has three boys. They’re wild little monkeys and just crack me up. Shelby adopted two girls from China. They’re really cute and give the best hugs, but they’re kind of prissy. It’s funny to watch them react to Anna’s boys.”

She smiled wistfully. “I want a whole houseful of boys to wrestle with.”

“Really? No girls for you?”

“Not sure I could relate to playing Barbie’s and princesses, but I’m sure a girl would be a lot of fun too.” She looked up at him and blushed. “What?”

“Nothing. I just like what I learn about you.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes then Alyssa dared to ask, “Do your brothers-in-law help you run your business?”

“Anna’s husband, Peter, is a real estate attorney. He’s great to offer pro bono work for Jordan’s Buds. Shelby’s husband, Ross, is a plastic surgeon, so he travels with me quite often to provide medical care to the orphanages. He’s done over a hundred cleft palette repairs. Both of my sisters married well. Dad insisted upon that.”

“Are they happy?”

“Ecstatically.”

“That’s what’s important.” She looked askance at him. “Did your dad have someone in mind for you to marry well too?”

His eyes darkened. “Yeah, but he died too soon to force me into it.”

“How did they die?” She couldn’t believe she’d just asked that, especially since she knew from the article Maryn had done years ago. When he found out she knew so much about him and had taken paparazzi pictures, he was going to think she was a liar. She didn’t know how to bring that subject up, but she needed to do it soon. Beck was supposed to be leaving the island in just a couple of days. She also wondered who his dad had been planning on him marrying. Belle? That was a horrible thought. “You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want.”

“It’s okay. I’m doing a lot better with it. Dad loved showing off his money almost more than I like hiding the fact that I have money. Fast motorcycles were his thing. They were on a Dodge Tomahawk racing along Highway One, close to Big Sur.”

She sucked in a breath.

“You know that spot?”

“Yeah. It’s so pretty, but scary to drive.”

“They were driving way too fast. Went off an edge and…”

The beautiful sunset was lost on Beck as he studied their feet.

“Have you forgiven him?”

“Hard to blame him when I understand.” He sighed and clenched his fist.

Alyssa tilted his chin up. “You… understand?”

His eyes filled with sadness.

“Can you tell me about it?”

Beck tugged her toward a privacy wall for one of the resorts. They sank down into the sand and rested their backs against the wall.

“My scars aren’t all from hockey and I don’t just have two sisters.” He took a long breath and released it. “I had a little brother, Jordan.” He half-smiled. “Loved that kid. He idolized me and we had the best time together. When I was a senior in high school he was eight. We both loved dad’s motorcycles and I’d take him on rides all the time. One day we were on Laguna Canyon Road. I was going too fast and I hit some gravel. We took out a guardrail, went down hard...” Tears squeezed out of his eyelids and he didn’t finish.

Alyssa wrapped both her arms around his strong shoulders and held him close. He buried his head in her chest and it about ripped Alyssa’s heart out when he stifled a sob. Alyssa knew as he clung to her that she would do anything for this man. Tomorrow she’d find the right time to tell him about the pictures and Maryn. This definitely wasn’t that moment, but right now she could tell him she’d made a decision. She’d go with him and they’d start a new life together. She’d capture the children’s suffering and their happiness and together they would change lives because she’d be with Beck.

“Beck,” she whispered.

He lifted his head and cleared his throat. “Wow. Sorry.” He managed a smile then leaned in and kissed her. Alyssa forgot everything she wanted to say as she savored his touch and the passion in his kiss. He broke away and trailed his hands through her hair.

“I’ll go with you,” she said.

He arched an eyebrow.

“I’ll be your photographer. Let’s travel the world and save some cute kiddos.”

Beck laughed and shook his head. “Let’s do it. But first…” He tilted her chin up and proceeded to take advantage of her mouth for several wonderful minutes. When he stopped they were both breathing hard. “Can that be part of the arrangement?” Beck asked.

“I wouldn’t go without it.” Alyssa grinned and kissed him again.