Thrill me, p.8
Thrill Me, page 8
part #3 of Billionaire's Secrets Series
I didn’t know much of the details of Owen’s work, but I knew that he was a busy man. Besides, I didn’t want to be so petty or easily affected by my date turning up a few minutes late. That morning, he had seemed so excited to see me again, and I couldn’t forget that look of desire in his eyes as I left his yacht. It all brought a smile to my face as I sat and waited.
The few minutes turned into fifteen, and when the waitress showed up again, I ordered a martini and sat back in my chair. Like an eager child, I gazed at the door every time someone entered the restaurant, my eyes lighting up and my heart beating maniacally in my chest. But it was never him. It had been half an hour, and Owen had still not turned up.
I ordered another martini, gulping this one down so that I could numb that rising anxiety and embarrassment I was now beginning to feel.
“Would you like something to eat while you wait for Mr. Rivera, madam?” The hostess had appeared again at the forty-five minute mark, and my cheeks flushed. Even though she was being perfectly polite, I couldn’t help wondering if she knew Owen, or knew of his reputation—if this was where he brought all his dates. If all the waitstaff at the restaurant had put bets on whether he was going to make an appearance tonight or not.
“Just another martini, please,” I said to her, in a husky, pained voice, trying to avoid her eyes.
The waitress returned with a third drink, and I flushed that down my throat as well. It was starting to take effect; the alcohol was working well in numbing my embarrassment.
There was no way he’d forgotten. He had just stood me up. That was the only explanation for him not showing up. He’d changed his mind.
Owen had made it very clear to me the other night that he had never been in a serious relationship, and now he’d changed his mind about wanting to give it a shot with me. He’d had enough time to think and realized that everything he said to me was a mistake, and this was his subtle cowardly way of communicating it to me.
I gulped the rest of the martini down, and when I looked at my wristwatch again, it had been an hour.
I stood up from my chair, walked up to the bar, slapped down too many dollar bills, and walked out of the restaurant. I didn’t dare look back or catch anyone’s eye. I’d gotten all dressed up for nothing. I’d bought an expensive dress, expensive shoes, dolled myself up, and now I was waiting on the side of the road to hail a cab.
It was shameful, I was embarrassed and hurt, and I realized that I should have just gone with my gut—that it was too good to be true. That someone like Owen would never have picked someone like me. Or rather, that someone like Owen would never be prepared for anything serious, anything stable. He couldn’t even make it to the second date!
A cab finally stopped, and I jumped in and paid the driver too much when I got off outside the B&B.
At the door, I fumbled with the keys and let myself in, hoping against hope that Ruby would have gone to bed already. But it was too early for that, and I could hear the television in the living room.
I could have simply walked upstairs to my bedroom quietly, but I didn’t. Instead, I walked to the door of the living room, and Ruby looked up from her knitting and caught my eye. She looked surprised and confused, and then a look of realization entered her gaze.
She could maybe see the heartbrokenness on my face. I wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore. It was all my fault. I should have followed the signs and stayed away from Owen. I should have listened to Heidi’s advice and refused to see him again. Instead, I had been foolish and allowed myself to be swept away by his charm and those glittering blue eyes.
“Come sit down with me, dear. I watch this game show every night, you’ll enjoy it,” Ruby said in a soft, kindly voice. My stilettos tapped against the floor as I walked over to the rocking chair, pulling it closer to Ruby’s armchair so that I could sit down next to her.
“Here, have a cookie, my dear.” She picked up the plate of cookies and offered it to me, and I took one. It was too sweet, but I chewed and gulped. I was grateful to Ruby for not mentioning Owen, for not asking me what had happened with him.
She seemed to have understood that something went wrong, that Owen had wronged me in some way, and that was all she needed to know.
I stared at the TV screen, my mind numb against the world. I was still fully dressed up, still in my makeup and high heels, and I just didn’t have the heart to go and change. I wanted it to be a reminder of the stupid risk I had taken by agreeing to see Owen, for being foolish enough to think that perhaps something beautiful could come out of this.
Strangely enough, it was peaceful to just sit there, watching a game show with Ruby and eating cookies.
Chapter Twelve
Owen
I was sleeping in the yacht again, and when I woke up, I knew instantly that something was wrong. Seeing Father again had thrown me completely off-kilter. I just wasn’t myself anymore. I had thought about little else since meeting him, other than how I could get rid of him. He was still in Brunswick, staying at the Regent Hotel, and he had made it very clear to me that he wasn’t going to leave till I was on a plane back with him.
I’d been a shell of my previous self at work, barely being able to hold a conversation with Rhett or Hunter or any of our employees. I hadn’t told them yet, I didn’t want to tell my friends that my father was in town, threatening to drag me back to what I had run away from years ago.
They knew a little of my history. I’d met Rhett and then Hunter, bartending in New York, and we had hit it off instantly. Over the years, I’d dropped subtle hints to them that my family was moneyed. They also knew that I wanted to have nothing to do with my family, but that was it. They didn’t know who my father was, how powerful he was, or what he was like. They definitely didn’t know the details of our relationship either.
I still had no idea what Father was capable of doing. Was he planning on publicly embarrassing me? Was he going to show up at work? Was he going to arrange a meeting with my friends and threaten them? I didn’t know what Father’s plans were, but as far as I could tell, he had a plan. He was going to find a way of forcing me to return to Maryland with him.
And in the middle of all this, I had completely forgotten about Etta.
I jumped out of bed and changed quickly into the clothes I’d been wearing the previous day, and I rushed out of my yacht. I could have kicked myself for forgetting about our date the previous night—there was no excuse.
I drove like a maniac to her B&B and knocked feverishly on the door. It was ten in the morning, so she had to be up, but it was Ruby who eventually opened the door.
This morning, Ruby’s demeanor was very different from the previous evening that I’d met her. She had her wrinkly cheeks sucked in, and her lips were pursed tightly, as though to say that she heavily disapproved of my presence at her home.
“Good morning, Ruby. Is Etta awake?” I asked, trying to force myself to smile and appear agreeable to her. I was sure that I looked like a mess. I hadn’t showered or shaved or put on clean clothes, and now I saw Ruby look me up and down, assessing what she saw in front of her.
“Yes, she is,” Ruby replied, blocking my path into the house.
“Good. Would you mind calling her down? Or I could go up and see her—I don’t mind,” I said, smiling unnecessarily widely. Ruby arched her eyebrows and then narrowed her eyes threateningly at me.
“Yes, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind. But, Etta is out working and even if she was here, I wouldn’t have allowed you to go upstairs and disturb her,” she said, and I could hear the sizzle in her voice. Etta had told her something, that much was evident to me.
“Look, Ruby, I just wanted to apologize to her for last night. I forgot—I know that isn’t an excuse, but it just completely slipped my mind, and it shouldn’t have. But there has been a lot of things going on, and I’ve been distracted,” I tried to explain, and Ruby’s eyes grew larger.
“You stood that beautiful girl up?” she asked, and I stared at her in confusion.
“You didn’t know? What did she tell you, then?” I said, and Ruby pushed the door, narrowing the gap between the door and frame, making it impossible for me to enter the house now.
“She told me nothing. She just returned from the date, in an hour, looking like a woman who had been let down by a man. I had misjudged you. I thought you were going to be good for her, but it turns out that you have no idea how lucky you are that she decided to give you the time of day,” Ruby hissed, and with that, she slammed the door on my face.
I blinked as the door came crashing just an inch from my face.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled to nobody, and then I turned around and walked down the steps.
There was so much going on. I knew I could try harder with Etta. I could have gone looking for her. If I really wanted to win her back, I could have called Heidi and asked her where Etta was, and I would have found her and apologized till she decided to give in. But I had my father to deal with too.
I also realized that it was probably for the best if I stayed away from her. Now, with my father in town, it was just better if Etta didn’t get involved. She didn’t need to see me weak, and she didn’t need to know about my family history or what my father was like.
I walked back to my car and sat in it for a few minutes, thinking about how different I might have been feeling if I was with Etta. It would have been impossible for me to feel this shitty if she was sitting there beside me. But then I would have to explain to her what my father was doing in town, and the reasons why I might have to ultimately leave Brunswick.
I hadn’t even given my best friends that explanation yet.
***
I met up with my friends over a late brunch at our usual spot in town. There were less than ten days to go until the wedding, and all of us sat around our usual table, talking loudly and laughing. There had been a mess-up with the tuxedos, and Hunter and Heidi were discussing options of flying down a designer especially to have our tuxedos made hurriedly.
Cormac, Rhett’s brother, who had joined the company some months ago, was sitting beside me. He was a young guy, a recent Harvard graduate, and like his brother was passionate and hard-working and had become good friends with the rest of the group.
“We’ve been seeing very little of you lately, man,” Cormac said, swirling his glass of wine. I’d been in a daze all day, since I visited the B&B, and even though I had managed to convince myself that I didn’t want to go find Etta, she was all I’d been thinking about.
“Yeah, just been busy,” I croaked, stuffing myself with food so that Cormac didn’t notice the madness in my eyes.
“Busy with what? You’re hardly in the office these days!” Rhett interjected across the table, and Heidi, on my other side, elbowed me in the chest.
“Just things—I’ve been working on the Mezzoni contract,” I explained, focusing on the plate of food in front of me, which I had barely touched.
“The Mezzoni contract’s been taken care of. Cormac is flying over to Italy to see them after the wedding,” Rhett said, and I caught him staring curiously at me with his brows furrowed.
“Both of you have been acting very strangely these days,” Heidi said, staring at me and Hunter. I had a feeling that Hunter was going through something as well. He’d made a huge scene at the tailoring shop the other day, and Rhett had a theory that he was in love with some girl who was friends with one of the tailors. Apparently Hunter had acted out because he was jealous. Either way, Hunter wasn’t the kind of guy who was going to talk about it openly, so we left him alone.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, avoiding Heidi’s eyes, and she looked even more curiously at me.
She had made it very clear to me that day that she wanted me to stay away from the wedding planner. I was sure that Etta had told her nothing about what was going on between us, because Heidi would have said something to me or Rhett by now.
“So, do you guys have dates for the wedding?” she asked, looking away from me, and Cormac burst out laughing. I mimicked his laughter, trying to act casual.
“We don’t take dates to the wedding, Heidi. We find them there. Isn’t that what weddings are for?” I forced myself to say, trying very hard to convince her that I was fine, that there was nothing going on with Etta. She widened her eyes at me and then turned to Rhett quizzically.
“Is that how you thought before we met?” she asked her husband-to-be, who lovingly leaned in toward her and kissed her cheek.
“Does it matter anymore?” Rhett said, and Heidi returned his kiss.
“Just stay away from the bridesmaids, boys,” she added, throwing threatening looks to Cormac and me, and then she glared at me some more.
“And the wedding planner!” she said, and I looked away from her, feeling the back of my neck growing hot. There was no way that I was going to admit to her, especially in front of everyone here, that I might have ruined everything with her wedding planner. I was sure though that Etta was professional enough to not let her disappointment and anger with me affect her work with Heidi.
“The wedding planner! Why didn’t I think of that yet? Didn’t you fly someone special down from New York or something?” Cormac said, and Heidi rolled her eyes and turned to Rhett for support.
“Listen to your sister-in-law, Cormac, and stay away from the wedding planner,” he said to his brother.
The others fell into conversation again, and Cormac sidled up to me.
“Why is Heidi so concerned with the wedding planner? Is she hot? I heard you’ve met her,” he asked, and I tried to avoid his eyes and shrugged.
“She’s fine I guess. I didn’t really notice,” I said, and Cormac threw his head back and laughed.
“You expect me to believe that you didn’t notice a woman? That you haven’t rated her in your head already? Shit, she must be quite something if you don’t want to talk about her. Don’t worry, man, I won’t swoop in if you want her all to yourself,” Cormac said, and I threw a look around the table to make sure that the others weren’t listening.
Rhett, Heidi, and Hunter seemed to be in deep conversation, so I turned to Cormac and looked him straight in the eye.
“Just listen to your sister-in-law, man, and stay away from the wedding planner,” I growled, surprising myself. I hadn’t expected to feel this jealous or this possessive of Etta—especially since, in my head, I had already given her up. So technically, she was fair game.
Cormac had arched his brows, shocked too by the seriousness of my voice.
“Sure, man, whatever you say. I’ll stay away from the wedding planner,” he mumbled, slightly offended by my aggression. He turned back to the group and started talking to them again, while I silently ate my food.
I wasn’t interested anymore in what they were saying. I was confused by my fear of Father’s intentions and that nagging feeling in my soul that Etta was the woman I should have been with. I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders, and like I wanted to just run away from everything. I wished that I’d never met Etta so that I couldn’t have messed up everything either.
Chapter Thirteen
Etta
It wasn’t easy to just forget about Owen and carry on like normal. Especially since I knew that he was close by, around town somewhere, and that I was definitely going to see him at the wedding. I’d been insisting to Heidi that I wanted to keep my distance on the actual wedding day, to remain in the background—especially since I predicted that I was going to be very busy making sure that everything was running smoothly.
But Heidi was adamant that she wanted me to be a part of the wedding party. We’d become friends in the past few days, and our relationship had moved beyond the stage of being just a professional one. She’d even invited me over for dinner to her house, and I’d found it easy and natural to become friends with her and Rhett.
I regretted now that I hadn’t told her the truth about what had happened between Owen and me, and now it was too late to say it.
But moving on and trying to forget him was exactly what I had to do. It had been nearly a week since I last saw him, and I hadn’t heard from him or seen him since. It was like he had just vanished into thin air. Like that night on his yacht had been a figment of my imagination.
I had started to believe that it was. That it was too good to be anything more than just a dream.
This morning, just a few days from the wedding now, I was working with the staff I had hired to plan out the seating and the exact locations for the decor and the cake stand. I’d been checking the weather forecast constantly, since it was going to be an open-air wedding, and now my only hope was that it didn’t rain or it didn’t turn out to be an exceptionally windy day.
I was walking around the venue, involving myself in conversation with the staff, and my back was turned when I sensed someone walking up behind me.
“Etta.” I could have recognized Owen’s voice anywhere. It was smooth and deep, and it went straight to my heart, lingering in my soul somewhere. Since it had been a week, I thought I was safe now. I had assumed that he was never going to speak to me willingly again, and that was what I needed. I was aware of how weak I was around him.
The girl I was talking to looked up over my shoulder, and I noticed the way her cheeks turned pink when she rested her eyes on Owen. That was the effect he had on every woman. I took in a deep breath, gulped, and slowly turned to him.
“Owen,” I said, trying to be as casual about this encounter as possible.
“Can we talk privately, please?” he asked, and his gaze flitted over me, taking in the shape of my skirt and the way it hugged the curves of my hips.
“I’m busy right now. I’m working,” I said, holding my ground. The girl behind me seemed to be transfixed as well; it was like everyone was attracted to Owen like a magnet.
“This won’t take long. Excuse us, please?” he spoke to the girl directly now, who hesitantly took her leave and walked away, throwing looks at Owen as she did.
