Just like Grey (Series ONE Complete Set): Billionaire Romance

by Jessie Cooke

He moved closer to her and brushed his thumb beneath her cheek, then caught himself and pulled his hand away and clasped it behind his back, almost as if he were trying to keep himself from touching her.

  “Don’t let this ruin a friendship you’ve had with Nicky for years. She’s going to need you, Bella. It’s tough being a mom, and she’s going to need you more than she’s ever needed you. Don’t shut the door on that friendship, no matter what has happened or will happen with you and me.”

  Bella turned her eyes down to the ground. “It’s not like it was all me. She’s too busy for me. Now that she’s having the baby of a multi-million-dollar man, she’s living in a whole other world. And that world is quite different than mine. Our paths are just going in different directions.”

  “Don’t let it. I know you, Bella. You’ll regret it.”

  And he was right; she knew he was right. She’d been missing Nicky, but at the same time she didn’t feel like she could face her knowing she owed her the truth someday.

  “We have to tell her the truth,” Bella said.

  “I know,” Reece agreed. “But for now, we have a resort to build, and then we’ll deal with all of it back in the states. Agreed?”

  “Agreed.” Bella looked into Reece’s eyes. It was too dark to see their color, but she could imagine their rich chocolate brown as clearly as if she could see it, and she felt a tug low within her.

  “Good night, Reece,” she said as she turned, afraid that she might not be able to keep from reaching out to him.

  “Good night, Bella.”

  And as she walked the pathway to the villa, she realized that what she thought was impossible had actually come to fruition: it had indeed been a good night . . . with Reece Hamilton.

  33

  The next morning, Bella, Christo, and Simon arrived at the door of Reece’s suite promptly at eight, just as the breakfast was being delivered.

  “Perfect timing,” Reece said with a smile as he opened up the door to both food and folks. “Come on in, everyone.”

  Bella couldn’t help noticing how relaxed he appeared here. His regular tailored suit was replaced with linen pants and a golf shirt today, and the sunlight from within his suite seemed to lighten his eyes as she caught herself trying desperately not to gaze into them.

  She broke away and busied herself with pouring a cup of coffee from the silver service that had just been set on the table in front of her. The chatter stuck to design talk and the upcoming grand opening of the resort as well as Bryce Grayson’s acquisition of this little island.

  “He’d vacationed in Labadee when he was on a cruise a few years ago. They took an excursion around the island, did some scuba diving, he connected with one of the tour guides, and started asking questions. Learned of a guy who, during efforts to sail around the world, was trapped in a small cove of the coast of Haiti. Had ended up weathering the storm and falling in love with the place after anchoring there for months. He did the research, found the government willing to sell him the parcel of land, had a villa built and supplies brought in. The story inspired Bryce. He, too, had fallen in love with the islands, the people, and wanted to do something to help. Labadee was a stop for a cruise ship, but they were hoping to become more of a tourist destination. He found Syel la, bought it, and began excavation and building, all in conjunction with the Haitian government and the small board of travel and tourism that Haiti had recently developed. When the resort is finished, Bryce wants to eventually move here, bring his yacht and call this home, more or less. I think he’s toying with the idea of sailing the world, too, but . . . well, who really knows? He’s a man with a free spirit and lots of money. It’s hard to pin him down for very long.”

  “Sounds like someone else we know,” Christo said charmingly.

  Reece snorted. “If I had the kind of money that Bryce does, then I’d be tempted to sail the world, too. Tempted, but I doubt I’d do it. I’m much more of a good ol’ boy who loves home and the people associated with it.”

  “That’ll be even more intense soon with a kid in the picture. Do you know what you’re having?” Simon asked casually.

  They all seemed to slide a glance over to Bella, testing the waters, gauging her reaction, but she wasn’t going to make them tiptoe around this joyous occasion on her account, so she turned to Reece and smiled brightly and as sincerely as she could.

  “Yeah, did you find out whether it’s a boy or a girl?” she chimed in.

  “Nope. We went back and forth wanting to know and not wanting to know and finally, the doctor wrote it down on a piece of paper, sealed it in an envelope, and gave it to us. I locked it in a safe so we wouldn’t be tempted to open it, but it’s still there and sealed tight. Kinda looking forward to the surprise.”

  “That’s neat,” Bella replied. She could feel Simon and Christo holding their breath next to her, but she didn’t want to be the source of any strain or oddness—at least no more than she had to be. “I don’t know which I would want: to know or be surprised. I do like the idea of being surprised, a harken back to a time before we could predict everything with medicine and technology.”

  Christo exhaled loudly next to her, and she caught his eye and smiled. He nodded encouragingly, and she appreciated her friends’ predicament: they were in the middle; they wanted to protect her and treat her broken heart with kid gloves, but they didn’t want to completely ignore their friendship with Reece either. Besides, how insensitive would it be for them not to bring up the fact that his first child would be here in a matter of weeks? She might be heart-broken, but she still had a heart.

  They finished up their breakfast and began their tour of the resort. Reece piled them all on a golf cart, and they scooted all over the small island, disembarking to walk through villas and pagodas, gathering spots and pools, critiquing and measuring, assessing all the work and finalizing the details. All the while, Reece remained in his professional role, asking questions and verifying information, his mind working all of these details into the bigger picture, all a part of making dreams into reality. She respected his attention to detail, his questions that showed her he was thinking about how every little piece of the puzzle would fit together.

  After about three hours, their tour finally ended. Bella felt exhausted, ready for a siesta for sure, but she still had a lot of work to oversee.

  “I’m really impressed,” Reece finally said. “I’m not surprised at any of it, but it’s even more impressive in person than it was on paper. I think I can speak for Mr. Grayson when I tell you that it’s all perfect. You’ve surpassed our expectations and thought of everything and more.”

  Bella and Christo beamed at each other. They had loved their design, and they had known it was awesome, but it was much more comforting to get affirmation from the client; especially when the client was a million-dollar mogul.

  “I’m so excited about the opening,” Christo said. “I just can’t wait to see this place crawling with life!” He clapped his hands.

  Reece smiled, Christo’s enthusiasm contagious. “I agree. But I do have a little something planned for today, if you all are up to a bit of adventure over in Labadee.”

  Christo jumped up and down clapping. “Yes, please!”

  “I’ve got us scheduled to do some parasailing this afternoon. What do you think, Bella?”

  She was already shaking her head. “No way. No sir. This girl likes ground too much. Flying in an airplane? Sure, I can do that, but flying with a parachute? No thank you.”

  “Oh, Bella, come on! Think of how freeing it will be,” Christo tried.

  “Exactly. I’m afraid it will be a little too free, and there I’ll be plunging to my death all because I wanted to feel free. No. I will be passing on the parasailing.”

  “What if we did it together?” Reece proposed.

  “What do you mean?”

  “In tandem. They can send up two people at the same time. I’ll be right beside you the whole time. Can even hold your hand. Would you do it then?” />
  “Why would I want you to hold my hand when I’m gonna need it to hang on for my life?” Bella asked.

  “Bella, please. Let’s do this,” Christo begged. “Who knows if you’ll ever have the opportunity again?”

  “I’m not stopping you or Simon from going. There’s nothing that says if I don’t do it then you don’t. I’ll go along for the ride. Don’t you have to ride in a boat and get way out in the ocean?”

  “Yep,” Reece confirmed.

  “That I can do,” she responded. “I just don’t want to do the rest of it.”

  Christo faked an exaggerated pout. “It’ll be way more fun if you do it too,” he said.

  “No it won’t.” She turned to Reece. “When do we leave?”

  34

  The waves were rougher than Bella expected as they bounced around in the boat out in the ocean. She fought to keep her stomach under control and wished she were feeling more like Christo was as she watched him laugh and squeal next to Simon. Though she had to admit, she felt less apprehensive when she looked at Reece for some reason.

  The boat slowed and Chuy, their driver signaled to his partner, Jean Charles, who stood, maintained balance, and began pulling out ropes and chutes from what had seemed like a trunk with a seat cushion on top of it.

  “Alright, guys,” Jean Charles said enthusiastically. “Who is first?”

  “We are,” Christo said pointing at himself and Simon collectively. “We want to go together.” He leaned forward and swept his nose across Simon’s. Bella couldn’t help but to smile. They were so incredibly cute with their love.

  The two guys stood up gingerly as they both steadied themselves, their arms out to their sides. They made their way to the platform on the back of the boat and began stepping into harness straps as Jean Charles began clipping and strapping and belting them into a contraption of bungees and cords.

  “This is so exciting,” Christo squealed. “I can’t believe we’re doing this!”

  “Me neither,” Simon said a bit less enthused than Christo.

  A fleeting thought swept through Bella’s brain, and for a second she thought she might like to parasail, but she pushed it away with a scolding voice of rationality reminding her that both feet belonged on the ground.

  Jean Charles explained the process to them and what to expect, and Bella found herself listening as if it were her own life on the line, scared to forget a single detail. After a pause for questions, Jean Charles gave Simon and Christo a thumbs up with a questioning look. The couple reflected the thumbs up with a nod, and so Jean Charles turned to Chuy, showed him the thumbs up, and yelled, “Ann ale (let’s go)!”

  Bella watched as the boat slowly began to pull away and Simon and Christo let their feet drag across the boat’s platform as they sat into their harnesses and began their ascent up into the air behind the boat. The boat accelerated, and Bella cupped her hands around her eyes as she squinted into the sunny blue sky watching as Christo and Simon got smaller and smaller, the large parachute spanning them like a protective umbrella flapping in the wind.

  “Woo-hooooo!” she heard Christo yell from above them, and she couldn’t help but look at Reece and laugh with him.

  Further and further away they flew as Bella and Reece rode in the boat zig-zagging through the waves. Her stomach rose and fell with the bow of the boat, and she began to think that the parachute looked like a better idea than the boat.

  “Sure you don’t want to do that?” Reece asked, reading her mind.

  She bit her bottom lip and looked from him to the parasailers and then back at him, shrugged her shoulders, and scrunched her mouth over to one side.

  “It sure does seem pretty awesome,” she said in reply.

  Reece cocked an eyebrow up at her. “We can do it together, just like they did—side by side.”

  She looked up at the couple and waved at the tiny specks under the parachute. She thought they waved back but couldn’t be sure. Then she looked back at Reece. A voice within said excitedly, He’s already freed you in so many ways. Wouldn’t it be great to fly like a bird with him?

  Another, sterner voice answered back. Sure, go ahead. You’ve already given him your heart; why not just hand over your physical life as well?

  Reece moved over to sit beside Bella, his arm resting on the boat behind her. “I won’t pressure you, Bella, but I also don’t want you to miss out on an opportunity. I don’t want you walking away today kicking yourself because you really wanted to but didn’t let yourself try something new.”

  She didn’t want to, but she looked into his ochre eyes. She hated that she felt so safe with him even after he’d shredded her heart to smithereens. Slowly she began to nod, and Reece nodded along with her.

  “Does this mean you’re going for it?” he asked.

  “Only if we do a tandem,” she replied.

  “Yes! Great!” Reece threw his arm around her in an excited hug. “You’re gonna love it. I promise. The boat ride is worse than anything. Once you get up in the air, you’re never gonna want to come back down to this.”

  And he was right. Once she finally convinced herself that the harness and straps were secure and the wind and parachute would be holding her up, she even allowed herself to throw her arms out and embrace the sky laughing euphorically at the ant-like creatures below them.

  “This is amazing!” she shouted over to Reece.

  “Told you!” he grinned.

  “You can see the different levels of the ocean from up here! The sea is a patchwork quilt of greens and blues. Beautiful!” she said as she pointed over the expanse of the water.

  “Makes you never want to walk again, doesn’t it?” Reece asked.

  And when Jean Charles started reeling them back in and Bella felt herself being pulled down slowly, she felt a bit like Icarus, his wings melting in the sun as reality and the world as he had known it before came zooming up at him.

  The rush of adrenaline had shot her serotonin levels up, and Bella felt a kinship with the three guys, almost as if they’d conquered the world together.

  “We did it! That was awesome!” she cheered.

  “I’m so proud of you,” Christo said. “You didn’t let your fears hold you back! Way to go!”

  “I’m proud of myself,” Bella admitted.

  Now, if she could just do the same with the other aspects of her life and take control of the fears, she’d be one happy woman for sure.

  35

  Time flew by, and Bella attributed it partially to her letting go of the anger she felt towards Reece. She decided to focus more on getting along and getting everything ready for the grand opening. She’d managed to have all the details ready and everything finished a week ahead of schedule, and that ended up saving Bryce Grayson a little money, which she knew everyone liked to do. It was easier to flow through the day without her ire up, blocking her from enjoying herself and her work. And it wasn’t that often that she spent that much time with Reece anyway. They’d walked the property another time checking the progress as he took pictures to send back to Mr. Grayson, and they’d had a luncheon or two, but rarely were their paths crossing in this the final push to solidify all details and plans.

  The large lagoon swimming area had opened up, and Bella, Simon, and Christo decided to test it out in spite of the swim-up bars not being available to them. They took a day off, packed up their own cooler of beer, and headed with towels out to the center of the resort.

  “This is so cool!” Christo gushed taking in the man-made volcano water-slides, the palm trees, the lazy roundabout circling one cluster of palms on the south end. “There’s something for everyone here. Could you imagine if you were the matriarch of a passel of kids, trying to please all of them? This is the perfect place to do it!”

  “And you get to sun yourself, plug your iPod into your chair to listen to your favorite tunes, and wait for waiters to bring you mai-tais all day.”

  “Or swim up and get one yourself while you chat up some other pa
rents finally getting some relaxation.”

  “It’s great!” Simon agreed, “And to think you both had a hand in all this!” He flipped open a can of beer, handed it to Christo, then repeated the process for Bella before taking one himself and raising it in a toast. “To the design team!”

  “Hear, hear!”

  “Looks like someone had the same idea I did,” Reece’s voice inserted itself into their toast, and they turned welcoming grins onto him.

  “Join us,” Christo said motioning him toward them and digging a beer out of the cooler.

  “Thanks,” Reece said. “I think you were smarter than I was about the beer, though,” and he cracked open the can.

  They spread their towels out on four chairs; Simon and Christo turned their two facing the ones that Reece and Bella took. She was consciously aware of herself in her hot pink bikini as she stretched out on her beach towel, lounging on the chair next to Reece. The heat coming from his body rivaled the heat of the sun, and she knew she’d be one hot sweaty mess between the two beings. She plugged her iPod into the chair’s adapter and country music tunes emanated softly from the speakers at her head. It made her feel a bit homesick for Texas.

  “Hard to believe this place will be crawling with people in about a week’s time,” she said to the group. She watched as the four of them envisioned the throngs gathered at this very spot; they each surveyed the area, moving their heads around, their eyes darting back and forth as the imagined children ran from one end of the lagoon to the other; the bronzed bodies lying next to each other in a sea of coconut-scented lotions and oils, the sounds of laughter weaving in and out between the scraps of music from various speakers.

  “It’s going to be so good to see this place come to life,” Reece mentioned. “Did I tell you, we’re booked for the rest of the year already?”

  “How did that happen?” Simon asked in awe.

  “We have a kick ass PR and advertising team, that’s how,” Reece responded.