The Billionaires--A Lover's Triangle Novel

by Calista Fox

  Years ago, he’d been more spontaneous. Had acted on impulse when it came to Jewel on more than one occasion. That first time they’d been together by the river, for instance. Sure, he’d begun lusting after her prior to that day—he’d told Rogen as much. But Vin hadn’t really allowed himself to travel a path of wicked intent with her. For all the obvious reasons.

  When they’d been wrestling, though, she’d turned breathless and her hard nipples had pressed against her tank top, tempting him beyond all belief. And there’d been a distinct look of longing in her sapphire eyes. Impossible to dismiss. Impossible to turn away from.

  Jewel had told him she and Rogen hadn’t been together in eight months, and Vin had somehow considered that an appropriate amount of time to give him the green light. He’d barreled right through it, unable to stop.

  Just like the other night.

  Rogen, who was now texting on his iPhone, suddenly tossed off his seat belt and stood, telling Jewel, “I have to take advantage of your ops center.” He stepped around her and disappeared into the galley.

  Vin eyed Jewel over the rim of his crystal tumbler as she unbuckled as well and slipped into the seat next to him.

  She said, “I need to tell you that I didn’t know Rogen had e-mailed you to say I was at Trinity that weekend before our prom.”

  “Jewel.” He sighed. “I told him when we were at your house that it was ten years ago. No sense in dredging it all up now.”

  “Yes, there is,” she insisted, her dark eyes clouding. “I slapped you at the gala because it was the first response I had to seeing you. Anger wrapped around that one week out of our lives.”

  “I hurt you,” he simply said.

  “I hurt you.”

  They stared at each other for several moments.

  Then Jewel added, “I didn’t cheat on you. Not … physically.” She shook her head. “Not entirely. I didn’t go to New York to be with Rogen, to start something up with him again. I went to explain about us.”

  Vin’s brow furrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me that up front?”

  “I honestly don’t know. Other than to say that I figured you would have insisted on coming along and I didn’t want to spring the news on Rogen in that way. It felt cruel for us to show up on his doorstep and announce that we were together, that you were going to college with me, not him. He’d suffered enough.” She grimaced. “So had you. I’m not discounting anything. It’s just that … I wanted to tell Rogen myself that I was falling in love with you.”

  Her eyes suddenly watered. Vin’s gut pulled even tighter.

  “You were in love with me?” he asked.

  Jewel nodded. “Yeah. And I thought … we might have a chance. At a future. Me and you.”

  His gaze continued to hold hers. Vin had awaited that admission long ago. Years later, it did things to him. Made angst roar through him that he’d been so hasty in passing judgement. That he hadn’t confronted her—or Rogen for that matter—about the secret tryst. He’d just assumed they were sneaking around. Because they’d done it before, behind their parents’ backs. With Vin’s help.

  So, yes. He’d had just cause for latching on to his reason for leaving her. But he’d clearly been too hotheaded about it.

  Not the first time, sadly.

  “Fuck,” he muttered. Then something else occurred to him. He said, “You didn’t entirely cheat on me. What does that mean?”

  And why the hell would he torture himself further by asking for details?

  Because I need to know. Once and for all.

  Jewel crossed her legs, gave a gentle tug on the hem of her skirt. Fidgeting.

  She drew in a slow breath, then said, “I didn’t exactly get around to telling him the reason for my visit. I just couldn’t do it. Turns out, I wasn’t ready to tell him about us. I wasn’t ready to sever the ties with him. But I considered myself yours, Vin. Yes, Rogen kissed me. And yes, I let him. And yes, I spent the night in his bed in his dorm room. But nothing happened. I lied and said I was on my period. We didn’t have sex.”

  “Wasn’t that nice of you. Quite the sacrifice.” He unhooked his belt and stood. Stepped into the aisle and paced while sucking down his scotch. The sting of the alcohol didn’t override the sting of her betrayal, though. Even if that betrayal wasn’t as horrific as he’d initially thought when he’d received Rogen’s e-mail and Vin had been convinced they were seeing each other—sleeping with each other—and lying to him, it still grated.

  Because she hadn’t been able to tell Rogen about them.

  Jewel got to her feet and faced Vin. Tears crested the rims of her eyes as she said, “I know what I did was wrong. I know I’m the reason we broke up. Now I know it, that is. Back then … I had no clue as to why you ditched school that last week. Why you stood me up for prom. Why you didn’t attend graduation. All I knew was that you’d totally wrecked me.”

  “That wasn’t how I saw it.”

  “You could have talked to me about Rogen’s e-mail,” she asserted. “You could have given me a chance to explain. You still would have been pissed—and you would have had the right. But maybe you wouldn’t have been angry enough to leave. Maybe you would have understood. Maybe you would have stayed. Like you’d always promised you would.” More drops tumbled down her cheeks.

  “Low blow, Jewel,” he ground out, his insides twisting over her tears. “I did make promises to you. Ones I broke. But consider that knowing you went back to Rogen wrecked me.”

  With a slight nod, she said, “I understand that now.”

  His eyes squeezed shut.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  All that agonizing for both of them over nothing.

  Well. Almost nothing.

  Her voice cracked a little as she told him, “I was so excited to see you on prom night. More than that—I couldn’t wait to see you. I was ready an hour before you were supposed to pick me up.”

  His lids snapped open. “You were never on time when I picked you up, let alone early.”

  She grinned, despite the tears. “I told you. I couldn’t wait to see you.”

  He drained his glass. Deposited it in an armrest holder.

  Jewel said, “It wasn’t just a dance for me, Vin. We were graduating. We’d made plans. It was a rite of passage we were supposed to share. The ending of one of our lives and the beginning of another. It wasn’t a prom for me. It was like … our wedding.” She sobbed on a hollow laugh. “My dress was white.”

  “Jewel.”

  Christ, could she grip his heart any tighter? And if he caved to her, as he almost always did, would she rip it from his chest again?

  Vin didn’t know. There never seemed to be answers to all the tumultuous questions. So he did the only thing he could think of doing. He closed the gap between them in two wide strides and pulled her into his arms. Held her firmly. Let her cry. Let her apologize. Let her tell him how much she’d cared about him, how much she’d missed him.

  Because deep in his soul, those were all the things he wanted to say.

  * * *

  Rogen returned to the cabin just as Vin embraced Jewel. He grunted.

  On the one hand, he really did have a hard time seeing her in another man’s arms. Yet Rogen would prefer it was his best friend over anyone else.

  And he had a feeling Vin and Jewel had finally hashed out the whole end-of-senior-year trauma. That was a good thing, he’d allow. Too much time had passed for them to not have reconciled.

  It was similar to the Angelini–Catalano family feud. Fifteen years was a long span to hold a grudge over misconstrued or even misguided intentions. Even Rogen and Vin hadn’t held anything against each other when it’d come to Jewel. Not after that summer Vin had gone off on his own, then joined Rogen at college, acting as though nothing had ever happened. Just saying that he’d come to the conclusion that Yale was the place for him, not SFSU. End of story.

  Rogen returned to his seat since he’d ironed out a few wrinkles with the Italy operations. Melinda h
ad poured a scotch for him and he’d sipped while Vin consoled Jewel.

  It was a past pain between Vin and Jewel that deserved a private moment to work through. Rogen could respect that.

  Eventually, the plane started its descent and the two detangled from each other. Rogen was almost at the bottom of his drink. Jewel headed off to the bathroom. Vin straightened his tie and sank into his chair.

  Of Rogen’s silence, the fact that he hadn’t intervened, Vin said, “That might have been more accommodating than I could have been.”

  “Don’t be too sure,” Rogen mused. He shook the cubes in his glass. “Our feelings for Jewel are rooted deep.”

  “Without doubt.” Vin was quiet for a few contemplative seconds, then ventured, “Sometimes, in the end, I wonder if we’ve ever had her best interests at heart.”

  Rogen couldn’t dispute that.

  Vin sat back. “Still feeling guilty about going to Trinity and Yale?”

  Rogen challenged, “Still feeling guilty about going MIA on prom night?”

  “Yes,” Vin confessed without hesitation.

  “Yes for me, too.” Rogen polished off the whisky. Melinda collected his glass. Asked if they needed anything else. Neither did—at least, not anything she could provide.

  Jewel returned and buckled up. She looked a little unnerved but gave both men a smile.

  Rogen said, “Why don’t you tell us about this first transaction?” He bit back the sweetheart he’d almost added. What was the point in antagonizing Vin when ground rules regarding this new threesome scenario had not yet been established?

  Jewel retrieved her slim laptop bag from under her seat and extracted a file folder. She handed it to Vin. Then she told them both, “Legalese. I had CE’s Chief General Counsel draw up the agreements. Usually one of his representatives accompanies me on these trips, in a separate plane with Security heads and all the other pertinent players, such as appraisers and experts who can authenticate items on first glance, before they do a more in-depth analysis. I canceled Legal’s presence for this trip.”

  Vin scanned the documents and nodded. “This all appears to be in order.”

  “There’s some damage to the yacht I’m buying,” she said. “The photos are in the back of the file. I need to verify there’s nothing beyond what’s visually documented and sign off on the pictorial evidence. Then my buyer will allow his people to engage in the transportation of the ship. I always insist on separate teams on both sides of the transaction, and an objective third party. That way everyone’s on the same page and we all get what we’re paying or bartering for.”

  “Very thorough of you,” Rogen commended.

  He’d always been impressed with her resourcefulness. Even if she hadn’t had the kind of grades that would get her into an Ivy League school, Jewel had been clever in many other ways. She’d been one of the first in the community to start up crowdfunding for those in need, even before it’d become a popular concept online. Jewel had raised money for the animal shelter, the homeless, and even Bayli’s mother, since she didn’t have medical insurance.

  Granted, it hadn’t been enough to keep the Styles family from crumbling financially, but that was because Mrs. Styles continued to need surgeries and treatments, couldn’t work, and required extensive home health care while Bayli was in school. And Mr. Styles was long gone.

  Jewel said, “We’re meeting with the owner of the yacht in San José, outside of Cabo.” She wrung her hands in her lap. “Every single move is imperative to getting us closer to acquiring the land, Rogen. But it all starts with this first deal.”

  He reached over and clasped her hands. Stilled them. “My father wouldn’t already have a plan in place to possess the scotch and keep the land if he thought you’d fail. So don’t give in to any self-doubts, Jewel. Let’s do this.”

  She gave him a grateful smile. Then slid her glance to Vin. “I know you feel this is a conflict of interest, but—”

  He held up a hand. “It’s okay right now. I didn’t draw up any of these agreements, and the signatures required are between you, your sellers and buyers, and the team leads. I don’t have to do more than answer any legal questions that crop up, and I’m more than willing to provide that bit of counsel, pro bono.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t call it completely pro bono,” she lightly teased, apparently overcoming some of her insecurity over the tricky transaction. “You do get a free vacation.”

  Vin chuckled. “I will admit, the destinations are enticing.”

  They chatted about the agenda as the plane landed on a narrow private airstrip. Jewel’s team had arrived ahead of them and was waiting with two black SUVs to travel to San José del Cabo.

  She pointed out the highlights to Rogen and Vin along the way, including the location of George and Amal Clooney’s home, next door to Cindy Crawford and her husband. Rocker Sammy Hagar’s retreat. The One&Only Palmilla resort, a favorite of celebrities and the ultra-affluent.

  The SUVs turned into a long drive that led to a gorgeous house on the beach. Rogen watched as Jewel went into business mode, squaring her shoulders and hitching her chin, the way she’d done when she’d faced his father at the gala.

  They all exited the vehicles and were met by a conglomeration of a dozen or so men. Jewel shook hands with an elderly gentleman with shockingly white hair against his tanned, leathery skin.

  She said, “Señor Mendoza, a pleasure to meet you in person.”

  “And you.”

  They then proceeded to hold a discussion strictly in Spanish. Rogen caught the gist of the conversation and suspected Vin did as well, since they both spoke fluent Italian and had also taken some Spanish in school.

  Jewel laid out the process of the procurement and Mendoza nodded emphatically. Then the two factions followed the older man to an enormous outbuilding that housed the yacht.

  He explained to Jewel, this time in English, “The yacht was out of the water at the time Hurricane Odile hit in September 2014. She suffered much damage, as I’ve already shown you with the photos I e-mailed. Many of my businesses were ravaged—like so many other proprietors’. My resorts were my first consideration. I had to rebuild and that required the vast majority of my resources. So much so that I could not allocate money to repair the yacht. And since I’d had it out of water after I’d purchased it sometime before the hurricane, I didn’t yet have insurance on it that would have covered some of the damages.”

  He held his hands up in the air, looking a bit devastated, a bit remorseful, a bit hopeful—the latter related to Jewel potentially alleviating him of the financial burden.

  She smiled and said, “I’m sure we can mutually benefit each other.”

  Vin stepped in with the file folder she’d given him, and Jewel’s team inspected the hull and initialed photos to attest that what was depicted in the screenshots was true in reality. Then they climbed the ladder and boarded the ship, completing the process.

  Once satisfied with the inspection, Jewel and her people conferred. Then she and Mendoza signed the legal documents. Jewel contacted her Accounting department via speakerphone and the pre-arranged electronic transfer of funds was completed. The security and transportation specialists on both sides went into a heavy dissertation on the strategy for moving the yacht from San José to Las Vegas.

  Her business concluded—and evidently feeling quite pleased with herself—Jewel linked arms with Rogen and Vin and said, “Let’s celebrate.”

  FOURTEEN

  Jewel could almost breathe.

  The first dot had been connected. So … yay! She’d phoned Bayli and Scarlet on the way into Cabo San Lucas and let them know she’d succeeded with stage one.

  Then she, Rogen, and Vin arrived at the private condo on the marina in the heart of Cabo, overlooking the harbor, Lover’s Beach, and the stunning rock formation of Land’s End. They caught a spectacular sunset over the gulf and the ocean beyond. Then dressed for a casual dinner. Vin still wore dress pants but changed into a polo shirt.
All in black. Which made him even more devilishly handsome.

  Rogen opted for board shorts, a muscle shirt, and flip-flops. So sexy.

  Jewel put on a deep-teal-colored sequined string bikini. She tied a skimpy mesh sarong around her waist that matched in color. Stepped into decorative thongs. She took the men to one of her favorite beach restaurants. An open-aired palapa-topped establishment with excellent views of El Arco and the craggy walls of the far side of the harbor.

  Tiki torches illuminated the beach and the crashing waves. Semi-buried railroad ties with sand filling the cracks between and partially covering the wood served as the dance floor in the restaurant. A live band entertained the crowd.

  Jewel ordered a bottle of the internationally famous Cabo Wabo silver tequila and a combo of lobster tails and zesty carne asada “street” tacos.

  The server delivered warm, crispy tortilla chips and fresh pico de gallo as an appetizer. He brought over the tequila for her to approve. Set out three shot glasses and a bowl of limes sliced lengthwise. She sampled the smooth tequila and then gestured for the server to pour for them all.

  They toasted and slammed the first shot. Two shots later, when the lobster and tacos arrived, Jewel had a nice buzz going.

  “I’m thinking this evening should not be featured in our ‘About Us’ portion of the Web site for our inn and winery,” she announced.

  Rogen chuckled. “Agreed. We should definitely leave the tequila and feast out of the PR materials.”

  “And…” she said before pausing to lick the crook between her index finger and thumb, sprinkle a little salt on it, down another shot, and then suck on a lime. When warmth spread through every inch of her, she continued. “The dancing.”

  Rogen’s brow crooked. “There will be no dancing.”

  “Oh, but there will be.” She tossed a look in Vin’s direction. He scowled at her. It made her laugh. “Sometimes you’re too surly when I know you want to lighten up.”

  “Clearly, you’re reading me all wrong,” he said mockingly.