Bait: Alpha Billionaire Romance Boxed Set

by Colleen Charles

  “It is very nice here,” she said, taking as sip of her water. “I’ve always loved coming to the beach on vacation.”

  I grabbed a piece of roll and took a small bite. To occupy my mouth before I shouted out how much I wanted her to stay. I needed to hear more reasons why Ashton loved it here. If she could see herself living here, then half of my battle was already won. She just needed to forgive me and learn to trust me again. No problem, right?

  “How is your grandmother?” Ashton asked.

  “Nanna is doing pretty good. You know that my grandfather passed away right before I graduated college?”

  Ashton reached across the table and touched my hand. “I heard about that. I’m so sorry. I know you were close.”

  I stared at the spot where our skin was intimately connected. The place electrically charged.

  “Thanks,” I said. “It’s been hard on my grandmother. That’s why I moved back here permanently. Nanna was diagnosed with dementia shortly after Papa passed away. My mother wanted to put her into full time care, but I couldn’t do that to her. I convinced my parents to let me move in and take care of her.”

  Ashton’s eyes started to well up with tears. She wiped the corner of her eyes with the cloth napkin.

  “While I’m at work or out of town on business,” I continued, “I have a full-time nurse that takes care of her. It’s heart wrenching when I’m with her and she doesn’t remember who I am. She is always confusing me with my dad or Papa. I guess it’s good she doesn’t think I’m a stranger. She still knows I’m family, just not her favorite grandson.”

  Ashton put her hand on top of mine again. “It’s so sweet to see how much you care for your Nanna. She’s lucky to have you.”

  The waiter came back with our dinner orders and set them down in front of us. I was a bit disappointed the food had arrived to distract us from each other, but damn, did that food smell delicious. My stomach rumbled.

  Ashton dug right into her scallops, swirling the pasta with her fork. “This is really good,” she said, stopping to savor each bite. “Too bad Mr. Albertson missed it.”

  I had a feeling Mr. Albertson was just fine with the fact that I was alone here with Ashton, enjoying his restaurant of choice. Taking a bite of my own dinner, I agreed. “They only serve the freshest seafood.” I held up a bite of grouper. “This big guy was swimming along earlier today, happy as can be, until a fisherman came by and hooked him.”

  Ashton giggled, holding up another scallop on her fork. “Just like this little guy?”

  “They were probably best buds,” I teased her.

  I glanced up and caught her eyes with mine. It felt so right. So natural to be here like this enjoying a meal and conversation. Like we’d never been apart from each other. Ashton was nothing like the usual pretentious women I’d dated since living in Destin. Most of the women here were trust fund babies or divorced divas looking for another sugar daddy. All they wanted to do was sit on the beach and collect an allowance. No determination. No drive. Ashton was hard-working and fun-loving, used to having her own thing going on. And that was hotter than hell. I watched her lick her lips before taking another bite of the creamy pasta.

  I wanted to kiss her so badly. Lean across the table and capture those luscious lips, brush them against mine.

  “How’s work?” I asked, trying to snap out of my persistent daydream. It niggled at me constantly like a gnat swirling my head.

  “Well, let’s see,” Ashton started, “I work way too many hours and spend more time on the road than in the office, but I’m sure you do the same. I’m up for a promotion, especially if this deal goes through. I never thought I would make this kind of money at my age. Most of our childhood friends are waiting tables or bartending,” she said, face glowing with pride.

  “You deserve it all,” I said. “You’re fantastic at your job and I can tell you love what you do. It’s written all over your face.”

  She blushed. “Thank you. That means a lot, Quinn.”

  I poured the last bit of wine in her glass. “Should I order another bottle?” I wondered if Ashton was getting a little drunk. We’d each had three glasses of wine and she’d never been much of a drinker. At least then. He realized as much as he wanted to know everything about this new version of Ashton, it would take time. And I was at war with the clock.

  “I think I should quit while I’m ahead,” Ashton answered. Her cheeks were flushed as she loosened up even further. But I didn’t want her getting too inebriated. I wanted her to remember tonight.

  “Probably a good idea,” I said.

  She pushed her plate away. “That was the best dinner I’ve had in a long time.”

  “Same here,” I agreed.

  The busboy came by to take our plates away. We declined dessert when the waiter offered. We finished off the wine and Ashton finally dropped the bomb. Even though I’d been expecting it, part of me had hoped she’d forgotten.

  “I want to know why.” She met my gaze and held it until I answered.

  “Why?” I stalled. I knew what she wanted to know. I just wasn’t ready to answer. It was the one thing standing between us, the night that had ruined everything. “You want to know what happened that night?”

  “Yes.” Her eyes never left mine.

  If I was going to earn her forgiveness I knew I needed to finally tell her what happened. Even at the cost of tearing her family apart.

  “I will tell you everything,” I said and looked around. Couples were dining within a few feet of us and what I had to say was private. “But not here.”

  She nodded. “Okay, where?”

  “Let’s go back to my house. Nanna will be asleep and I need to relieve the day nurse. It’s a beautiful night to chill on the patio.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me and fidgeted, but in the end she agreed. We rode back to my beach cottage in silence. I only lived a few blocks away, so at least the ride was short. After checking on my grandmother, I made a pot of fresh coffee for us.

  “I love your place,” Ashton said.

  An old Florida beach cottage that was built in the 1970’s had been home to my grandparents for years. My grandfather had it renovated a couple years before he died. My grandmother lived in the main cottage and I resided in the guest cottage, which sat at the rear of the property by the swimming pool.

  It was nothing special, but it met my needs for the time being. The beach was a five-minute walk, but close enough for us to hear the waves collapse against the shore and feel the salty breeze. We sat on the edge of the pool, our feet hanging in the cool water. I handed Ashton a cup of coffee.

  “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” she said, dipping her toes in and out of the water. She took a careful sip from her mug. “I always sensed there was more to your leaving than you just being a typical male asshole satisfied with getting laid.”

  “I made a mistake.”

  She huffed. “Which part? Sleeping with me or leaving me without as much as a goodbye?”

  “First off, I don’t consider sleeping with you a mistake.” I tried to put my arm around her, but she scooted away from me, almost upending her coffee into the blue waters of the swimming pool. “I’ve told you how much I cared for you. Ever since we were kids. However, I broke the Bro Code when I had sex with my best friend’s sister.”

  Ashton gave a sarcastic laugh and rolled her eyes. “Who gives a shit about the bro code? Really? We’re talking about a real connection. People’s feelings and futures. You can’t tell me that this is what it’s been about all this time. My brother didn’t even know what we did.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut in humiliation. After baby monitor gate, I’d been afraid to have sex without sweeping the bedroom for bugs. “Yes, he did. That’s what started all this. Your brother heard us on the baby monitor.”

  Ashton’s pale skin turned rosy everywhere it was exposed and her hand flew up to cover her shocked expression. “Oh my god! What? Are you serious? I’ve never been more mortif
ied.”

  “After it was over, when I left to get us a drink … Griffin came after me, screaming that he’d heard us on the baby monitor. I tried to brush it off and pretend it was sex with someone else but he’d heard your voice, Ashton. We had an argument that almost turned into a fistfight. He threw me out of the house by the collar. I didn’t want things to escalate, so I figured I would just drive around until Griffin cooled off. I ran into Caroline on my way out and she asked me for a ride home. Apparently, they hadn’t been getting along and she wanted to leave. My plan was to come back later and tell you what happened. But …”

  “You decided to run away from your feelings?” Ashton asked. “Never come back and face the music?”

  My voice caught, tears burned the back of my eyes but no way was I going to cry in front of her. “No, I would never run away. I’m not the type of person to run from my problems.”

  “Then what happened?”

  I hissed out a breath and steeled myself for what I was about to admit. Shame washed over me in waves. “I was arrested.”

  “What?” she asked and stilled. “I don’t understand. Arrested for what?”

  “While I was driving toward Caroline’s place, the police pulled me over. I was pretty damn sober by then, so I thought it was just a routine traffic stop.” I blew out a breath. “Then they found a few ounces of marijuana in my car on top of my blowing over the legal limit. A felony number of ounces of weed.”

  This was harder than I’d ever thought it would be. The censure and fear in her eyes as they swept over me in judgment. I’d done a good job to not relive that night until now. Putting all that mess behind me and moving on felt like the right thing to do at the time. Now I know that wasn’t the best decision. I probably would have benefited from some therapy to work it through.

  My arrest had ruined my relationship with Griffon and any possible relationship with Ashton. If I’d known the hurt it was going to cause her, I would’ve made a different choice and owned up to what happened. Nothing was worth losing her respect. However, I still struggled with telling her the reason why Griffin and I never spoke again. I didn’t want her to fault her brother for the things that had happened.

  “I knew that you and Griffin toked up sometimes at parties, but why take the chance of having that much in your car? Transporting it?” Ashton asked. “Sorry, but that seems really stupid. And unlike the smart man I know.”

  “It wasn’t mine,” I said, softly, looking out on the sun dropping like a giant orange ball below the horizon.

  Chapter 7

  Ashton

  Quinn Andrews had just hit me with a ton of bricks. As surely as if he’d razed a building, piled the debris in a gunnysack, and smacked me upside the head with it. He’d been arrested for felony possession of marijuana as well as OWI? That was just unbelievable. He’d never gotten anything less than an A minus, was captain of the football team, and had never even gotten a parking ticket.

  “If it wasn’t your weed, then who left it in your car? Caroline?” I fired the questions at him in an attempt to pry out the truth. I knew he still withheld an important piece of information. The last piece to the puzzle.

  “I don’t know. Someone at the party?” he shrugged. “I really have no idea. I know it sounds lame, but the weed wasn’t mine. The cops found it during a search of my car and I was arrested because I didn’t have any proof to the contrary.”

  “Why not just tell them it wasn’t yours?”

  “Denying that it wasn’t mine was an exercise in futility. It was found in my vehicle in a plastic bag with my fingerprints on it. There weren’t any other identifying characteristics to implicate anyone else.” He said with a shrug. “They didn’t believe anything that I said. So I went to jail. My parents bailed me out and as punishment, I was sent to Florida to live with my grandparents for the summer.”

  “You still could’ve said goodbye,” I said, getting to the heart of the matter.

  “I know, and I’m so sorry,” He said again, searching her face for any softening of her hard expression. “I was stupid. I should’ve come over and told you how much our night together meant to me. How much you meant. You don’t know how many times I’ve replayed that scenario in my head with a much different outcome. As a man, I’m not proud of how that teenage boy handled his first adult situation.”

  I took his hand, threading my fingers with his. It was a start. He’d explained what happened, and apologized for his action. Quinn deserved a second chance. I pictured him scared and alone in a county jail cell. I wanted to mend our broken relationship and see where it would take us. When I went back home for the wedding I would deal with my brother then. Griffin should’ve never have interfered with me and Quinn. How dare he? It was none of his damn business who I liked or who I slept with.

  Quinn gently squeezed my fingers with his. “Does this mean I’m forgiven?”

  “I guess it does…” I mumbled.

  “You guess?” he teased.

  The last remnants of worry in his voice made me smile. The guy really was committed to mending the tears in our friendship.

  “Yes, I forgive you,” I said and ran my fingers up the side of his face to thread into that thick head of silky, dark hair. For long moments, I simply held space and relished being close to him again. Drinking in his essence.

  Forgiving Quinn felt as natural as breathing. Since we were kids on the playground, he had always been my kryptonite. Why had I waited so long to confront him? God. I could have been over this and moving on with my life ten years ago had I just had more courage. It was my fault just as much as it was his for procrastinating this long.

  Forgiveness was inevitable and I felt silly for never accepting that. All it took was those ice blue eyes staring at me and I was done. Quinn still held my heart in the palm of his hand. When first love is that strong, it’s never forgotten. Never broken.

  I was getting hot and flustered. Pump the brakes, I chided myself. I had to ask myself the relevant questions before committing to something, even in my own mind. Something Henri had taught me about business decisions, but it applied to all facets of life. Could we sustain a meaningful relationship? This would be a long distance thing, usually doomed to failure just considering logistics. I lived in Atlanta and he lived here in Destin. It was only a five or six hour drive, but that was a haul with the long hours we both put in. I had planned on leaving here tomorrow after the deal was done. Henri wanted me back by his side.

  “There is something I want to know,” Quinn said, ripping me from my frantic thoughts.

  I leaned back, pulling my feet out of the pool. “What color underwear am I wearing?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh when Quinn froze and his jaw hit the floor. I surprised him by putting my hand on his back and pushing him in the pool. At the last moment, he grabbed me as he plunged in. We both ended up in the water, sputtering and flailing.

  My breath hitched at the touch of the cool water. Quinn grabbed my waist, and pulled me to his body. He cleared his throat and said, “That’s not what I was going to ask.”

  “Well, they’re black and lacy,” I said on a husky breath. “Just like my dress. Just in case you were wondering.”

  “I’ll just have to take your word for that.” Quinn propped one hand on the side of the pool and kept his other hand firmly around my waist. “What I wanted to know was if I could ever make things up to you?”

  Right now I would do anything he asked. I loved the way I felt in his arms. Safe. Cherished. Even loved. “Why don’t we get out of this cold pool and you show me your place? I trust it’s okay if I drip water all over your floors?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” Quinn hopped out of the pool and then leaned over, grabbing my hands. He helped me out of the water and then lifted me into his arms. I was happy to put ten years of pain behind us. We were both young and stupid back then.

  “Do you still care about your little bro code?” I whispered in his ear as he carried me inside.
/>   Quinn gave a sarcastic laugh. “Not so much. Especially not when it’s your bro that we’re referring to. I’m not sure he deserves it.”

  “Agreed.”

  We were grown up. My brother was starting his own family. Whether he cared about me sleeping with Quinn again or not, I didn’t care. As far as I was concerned, Griffin had some explaining to do. He never should’ve attacked Quinn for what had happened.

  Once inside, Quinn sat me down on the couch. “These days, I prefer a more honest, true friendship.”

  “Me too.” I shivered from the blast of cool air the AC put out.

  “I’m going to shrug out of these wet shorts and into some lounge pants,” he said as he trotted into the bedroom. He re-emerged with grey pajama pants and a fluffy white towel.

  Quinn wrapped the towel around me.

  I wanted Quinn to take me right now on the floor of this cottage. I wanted to feel him against my chilled yet fevered skin. Drink him in. Every last inch of him. But then, what would happen after? Would we get our second chance at love or simply crash and burn? I didn’t know if I could withstand the devastation twice. The first time, I’d been ignorant to the pain, but now? Now, I understood every last pang and twinge. Like knives peppering my body with a million tiny cuts that tortured but never ended.

  Quinn sat down next me, leaned forward and captured my trembling lips. His own pressed softly against mine, and I relished how sweet he tasted.

  I shifted on the couch to get more comfortable. I kissed him back harder, loving the way his stubble, scraped against my cheek. The dueling sensations of rough against soft. Our tongues mated as he deepened the kiss, sweeping every crevice of my mouth, even the ones I didn’t know I had. I melted. Leave it to Quinn Andrews to make me feel like that swooning teenage cheerleader again watching her man score the winning touchdown.

  Was I sure this was a good idea? Hell no. I wasn’t sure if I still cared. But my body did. And now, we were both consenting adults and it was no one’s business what we did with or to each other.