The Power Billionaire: The Complete Series (BBW Erotic Romance Trilogy) (11 page)

Chapter 4

James broke free from his boss and walked back toward me. I had no choice but to stop. He looked between Grayson and me but didn’t say a word yet. I knew what he wanted.

“Grayson, can you give us a minute?”

“Sure.”

He glared at the federal agent for a second longer than necessary and then continued walking down the hall. He disappeared around the corner.

“What do you want, James?”

“Come stay with me, Merrin.”

“Excuse me?”

“All right, so rich boy is cleaner than a new diaper after all, but I still don’t trust him. He manipulates people, it’s in his nature.”

“And you think you telling me this will make me fall into your arms blindly?”

He surprised me by taking my hands in his and coming a little closer. It was so unexpected that I didn’t back away.

“Ain’t never a bad time to do a good thing. I’m hoping you can trust my word over his and see the truth, Merrin. I’ve… These times we spent together, it made me realize how something’s missing from my life. I need someone.”

“And you think that someone is me?”

“I have no doubt about this. You’re smart, you’re funny. You’re… You’re exactly my type.”

“Please, I’m nobody’s type.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You may not think much of yourself but I do. When I first saw you walking into the diner my heart nearly gave out. You’re all curves and sass and right then I knew I wanted to get to know you as more than a person of interest.”

“James…”

“And then you showed up at the hotel. On the one hand, I couldn’t believe my luck. You were so blatantly flirting with me. It became obvious you wanted something from me. On the other hand, I didn’t care, still don’t. If playing along was gonna get me closer to you I was willing to do it.”

“I didn’t want to do it but…”

“But Holmes made you do it, I know.”

“It’s not like that.”

“It’s not? He didn’t force his girlfriend to sleep with another man just so he could have a piece of information? Is that the kind of man you want to be with?”

“He didn’t force me.”

“Let me guess, he suggested that if you love him you’ll do this for him?”

“It wasn’t like that,” I said instinctively despite the fact that his words rang true.

“Right, I’m sure he was much more gentlemanly about it. Tell me, did he fly into a rage when he learned you’d slept with me?”

“Of course not.”

“Thank you for proving my point. He was expecting it to happen. You know why? Do you know why he wanted you to sleep with me? It wasn’t so much for the information. No, he wanted to establish his dominance over you. He wanted to own you completely. Think about it, he knew that if you did that for him you’d do anything.
Anything
, Merrin! He turned you into his subservient whore.”

My mouth hung open and I avoided his eyes. What if he was telling the truth? Was I being manipulated like he said? I started breathing faster and I felt my cheeks flush. And then something occurred to me. James was a cop, he was used to making accusations, used to twisting facts to get his way.

I stopped listening to his words and instead listened to what I knew. I listened to my feelings, to my heart. While James had the gist of the situation in a very clinical way, he didn’t know about the nuances. He didn’t know about the context or the people involved.

He didn’t know about
me
.

I yanked my hands out of his and looked at him again. “You think you have it all figured out, don’t you?”

“It’s a pretty easy situation to figure out, Merrin.”

“No, it’s not. You may think you know about what we did, about our relationship, but you’re missing the most important piece of the puzzle.”

“Which is?”

“Feelings, kindness, history.”

“Okay, fine. You have a point.” He came close again and dropped his voice. “This doesn’t change the fact that I know about
my
feelings. I can’t stop thinking about you. I want to be with you.”

“James…”

“Don’t cut me off, I know you have feelings for me, too. Maybe I can’t convince you to hate the other guy but maybe I can convince you to love me. The things we did together, ain’t just anybody gonna put up with it like you did. We’re… We’re compatible, Merrin. You can’t deny this.”

He had a point. When he took me I felt like a different woman. I melted under his touch. He was so dominant, so dangerous, it never failed to inflame me. There was some of this with Grayson but with James it was much more… raw. Compatibility sure wasn’t a problem between us.

“I want you to think about this,” he continued. “Search your feelings, you know I’m right. We go together like Cupid and arrows.”

Before I could react, he leaned down toward me. I was afraid he would crush his lips against mine and that would make me lose it completely. But instead, he brought his lips to my ear.

“I don’t think I can live without you, gorgeous.”

He kissed me on the cheek, gave me one last look, and walked away. I remained there motionless, merely staring at the floor. Why did life have to be so difficult?

“Are you all right?”

I glanced up and found Grayson walking back toward me. There was worry in his eyes.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

It was a big fat lie and I prayed he wouldn’t notice that my eyes were watering.

“You know, they say the way the corridors are set up it makes it harder to eavesdrop. I think they have to reevaluate. I heard a good chunk of your conversation with Special Agent Evartt.”

“All of it?”

He nodded. “What mattered anyway. Did you take his words seriously?”

“He was pretty sincere.”

“And what do you think about all this?”

“What am I supposed to think, Grayson? A man just basically threw himself at my feet. That’s not something that happens to a girl like me, like ever.”

“I see.”

“What?” I asked at his enigmatic comment.

“You didn’t turn him away outright. That’s… telling.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the federal agent clearly has stated his case. I won’t say anything against that. I just hope that my sincerity isn’t something you can dismiss readily.”

That’s when I remembered something that had been said during the meeting.

“Grayson, what did he mean when he talked about you being involved with a dead coed?”

He looked away and sighed. He took a step back and I followed him. Before long, we were walking toward the exit.

“That was a long time ago.”

“Tell me anyhow.”

“It was my sophomore year at Harvard and we were coming back from a party. There were five of us and we were all drunk out of our skulls. I was in the back, in and out of consciousness. Eventually I woke up in the hospital and I learned that we’d been in an accident. My roommate’s girlfriend had died. It wasn’t my car, I wasn’t driving. Evartt just wanted to rattle your cage.”

“It worked.”

“Not too much, I hope. I’m sure you know the future would be a lot brighter with me.”

“We’re talking about the future now?”

“Of course. Merrin, I love you.”

I stopped in my tracks and he didn’t have a choice but to do the same thing. I glared at him in a way I never thought I would.

“How can you say such a thing?”

“It’s the truth, I can’t deny my feelings.”

A part of me was ecstatic. Rich, handsome, powerful, and in love with me? Anyone would have killed to be in my position. I thought back of my first real boyfriend in high school and how I’d stayed up at nights praying that he would say he loved me. Ultimately, he’d dumped me before I could hear these words.

However, something else was nagging at me.

“Great timing, Grayson.”

“What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

“Are you springing this on me because you want to upstage James?”

He snorted. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? It’s so convenient. You declare your love five minutes after James says he wants me to be with him?”

“It’s a coincidence, don’t read any more into it than that.”

“I think I should. I think you have an ulterior motive. It’s as if you’re saying this just because you want to win. You’re so used to getting your way that you won’t let me entertain being with someone else.”

“Are you?”

“Am I what?”

“Are you entertaining being with him? Seriously?”

“To tell you the truth, I am now.”

He tried to put his hand on my shoulder but I shook it off. I turned around and walked around quickly.

Chapter 5

I barely said two words to Grayson as we drove back into the city and to the hotel. I knew he was staring at me, hoping I would allow our conversation to resume but I looked out the window and did my best to gather my thoughts. More precisely, I did my best to blank out my mind.

Epic failure.

Once in the hotel suite, I gathered my things and threw them in my overnight bag. Perhaps I was being a tad dramatic but I desperately needed to be alone. I desperately needed to think.

“I’ll make my own way down to Florida,” I said as I headed for the door.

“Merrin–”

I didn’t hear the rest over the sound of the door slamming behind me. What had I just done? Had I just turned my back on the one man who had ever made me feel special? No, he was the second man.

Geez, I don’t know anymore
…

I went down and caught a taxi. When the driver asked me where I was going I was completely at a loss. I was such a great planner! Not knowing where I was going exactly, I told him to bring me to the airport.

“Reagan or Dulles?”

“The one that flies to Florida.”

“Reagan then.”

This was a brash decision. I didn’t know if there were flights available or if I even had enough money to buy a ticket. I pulled out my phone, remembering that this wasn’t 1950 and I could book a flight with a couple of keystrokes.

And then I had a better idea.

I dialed a number, for once not caring about long-distance fees.

“Hello? Is this the go-go stripper calling?”

“No, it’s me, Grandma.”

“Merrin?” she asked as if she had more than one granddaughter.

“What was that about strippers?”

“Today is the birthday of Glenda Mickunas, up on the seventh floor? She’s turning 87, good complexion for her age. She’s lucky she’s a redhead, you can’t tell the liver spots from her freckles. The girls of the Senior Center are chipping in to get one of them go-go strippers. I thought it was him calling to get directions. I need to talk to him before the show, we wanna ask him if he’s comfortable doing things with pudding pops.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head, picturing my 79-year-old grandmother waving a dollar bill around. I sincerely hoped she wasn’t thinking about licking pudding off anybody.

“That’s great, Grandma. I’m sure you’ll have an excellent time.”

“Do you…” she began, dropping her voice. “Do you know if you can catch one of them venereal diseases by stuffing money down a G-string?”

“No, I think you’re safe.”

“Good, good. The girls were wondering about that. I’ll need to stop at the cash machine before the party then.”

“Hmm, have fun,” I said weakly.

“Merrin, you all right?”

“Not really, to be honest.”

“What’s wrong? You’re not in the family way, are you?”

“No! It’s nothing like that. It’s just… It’s…”

“Boy trouble, uh?”

I glanced at the cab driver to make sure he wasn’t eavesdropping and discovered he had ear buds firmly inserted.

“Got any advice?”

“Depends what the problem is. Is it that you’re not getting satisfied? I hear that happens, you know. Them young rich guys look really virile but couldn’t drill a hole in a watermelon if their lives depended on it. Saw that on
Donahue
back in the 80s. Very risqué material back then.”

“That’s not the problem, believe me. There are two men now. They’re sort of competing for me.”

“And that’s a problem?”

“I know, right? But I’m not living it a commune. I have to pick one. Or neither. It’s… complicated, Grandma.”

“Who says you have to pick? You like them both? Try them on!”

“I have,” I answered sheepishly.

“Oh. Together, at the same time? Had a friend back in the Korean War, Annette Rostkowski, she found herself being courted by two beaus. She liked them both equally. One night she had too much sherry to drink and had both men joined her in her rooming house. Long story short, things got hot and heavy and she found out suitor number one was actually interested in suitor number two. My point is, if she hadn’t brought them to her room together she never would’ve found out he was a swish!”

“We say gay now, Grandma.”

“Fine, he was a gay. All I’m saying is maybe you have to test them out thoroughly to find out which one you wanna be with.”

Although I wasn’t about to admit it to her, I had tested Grayson and James pretty thoroughly already. Neither was gay so that point was moot.

“I can’t pick and it’s driving me insane. I like them both, for different reasons, but I still feel I owe it to them to pick one.”

“Merrin, I only see one solution to your problem.”

“What?” I asked, fully expecting another nonsensical anecdote.

“Close your eyes and pretend you can’t see either of them ever again. Think about which one you would miss the most.”

That strangely made a lot of sense. For her wackiness, my grandmother could be very deep sometimes.

“Thank you, Grandma.”

“That’s what I’m here for. Now, what flavor do you think the go-go stripper would prefer to lick off Glenda Mickunas’s droopy boobs? Chocolate or butterscotch?”

I laughed and a minute later I was hanging up. If anything, I could always count on Grandma Edna to cheer me up.

I returned to staring out the window. I saw parents walking around with their giggling children. I saw teenage couples holding hands, visibly wondering if it was too soon for that first kiss. I saw toddlers running after puppy dogs and then beating retreat when the pet decided to give chase.