But he wasn't going to budge from my path. He remained poised like an old, grizzled commander. I looked into his piercing, steady glare, so sure of himself. He disgusted me.
“Don't look at me like that,” he said. “I only did it for you.”
He really didn't understand me at all, did he?
“That was the only woman who ever made me happy. That was the girl I could happily live the rest of my life with.”
He scoffed. “I doubt that.”
My jaw clenched. I started to shake with anger. “You're not listening to me. You need to leave.”
“Don't say anything you might regret.”
“The only thing I regret is listening to you as long as I have. If Brice hadn't listened to you, he might still be alive.”
My words seemed to smack him across the face.
Words I'd been dreaming about saying for a long time finally left my lips. “I quit.”
He smiled at first. When he saw I was serious, he was about to drop. “You can't quit. You're talking like an idiot right now.”
“I can quit,” I said, standing up to him. He backed down. “Now take all of your workers, all of your eligible wives, and lastly, you, and get the hell off my property, Dad.”
My head was pounding, my senses dulled during my walk up to my office. I was numb.
I knew my orders would be followed. My father would do it out of pride. The company would be transferred to one of my cousins.
Dropping onto my leather chair, I leaned back and blew out a long drag of air. I rubbed my forehead, then messed my hair and stood up straight. My skull throbbed, and black spots peppered my vision like I might pass out from anger.
What about Brice? Had I let him down...or would he be cheering me on?
My desk had some papers from the LWM company on it. I pushed them onto the floor. After shutting the blinds, and flicking on the light, I pulled out the plans I'd been working on for so long but never thought I would get to implement.
I placed the ideas for my company flat on my desk.
“Thank you, Tia,” I said, knowing that I would never have been brave enough to do this without her.
I would break away. I would start my own company. The company that I always dreamed of.
Three Months Later
Tia
Sometimes, memories would take me by surprise – his hot, muscled body driving into me, the look of carnal lust clear on his face as he appreciated every curve of my body.
I would think about him a lot in the shower. Masturbation had picked up. For a time. I had even bought a vibrator to curb my starvation of Lucas. It worked a few times, then I grew dissatisfied in comparison to the way his loving tongue roamed over me, the way his hands pinned me down to force me to take all of him.
There was no comparison.
It was a beautiful dream that had passed in what seemed like one quick, hot night. He tried his best to contact me. I refused to answer and I didn't send anything back to him. It was for the best.
When my mother saw how I crumbled to the floor, crying myself sick that night over what his father said and how I'd been treated, she didn't blame me. “You're going to cry yourself to death,” she told me, then she avoided bringing up the billionaire again. She thought I had been through enough.
I was like a zombie, going to my jobs, then coming home. All of my passion had been sucked from me. I made payments. They were getting smaller, but not small enough. My debts would last years to come.
Eventually, I started to look ahead. I called an old friend from Santa Barbara and we agreed to meet up for drinks on the weekend. We wouldn't be clubbing it up or anything crazy. Dating didn't seem right after what happened months ago. Give it a few years, I wistfully told myself.
Alicia was a good friend of mine I hadn't seen since she moved away. We shared common interests and clicked instantly, even though we came from two different backgrounds. Alicia worked in Europe rehabilitating wildlife and was in only for a week. She'd been in before, but I'd been in too much of a slump to meet her.
This time, I promised her I wouldn't be such a bad friend.
We met up at an Irish pub called O'Leary’s. She was already there by the time I arrived, late as usual. But it was difficult to get around with my jobs, and she understood. It was good to see her. We quickly got to talking. It was like the time between our last meeting hadn’t occurred. Alicia still looked slender, skinny with some rocking curves and small breasts that she would always joke about.
Small breasts or not, Alicia always drew men's eyes with her gorgeous, shimmering blond hair and her long legs. One man’s looks she always dreamed of catching...when she was on a trip to Africa, she went with a safari guide who stole her heart.
He was a much older man. She showed me a picture of him. He was older and attractive, like a sexy professor, the gray in his hair made him look distinguished. His skin was tan from being on long safari rides and his hazel eyes stared proudly ahead as he leaned against his jeep.
“I'm so happy for you, Alicia. You’ve done so well for yourself. Not everyone has.”
What a Debbie Downer....it wasn't my intention to draw attention to my current status. But we were both thinking it.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to be a downer. I didn’t mean to bring myself up. Honestly, I think it’s great.” I took a sip of my Guinness.
“I didn't want to bring this up, but you practically brought it up for me. If you don't want to talk about it, it's fine—” Alicia started, chewing her lip.
“Say what you want to say. When have I ever cared?”
She chuckled nervously, drew in a careful breath, then continued, but not before placing her palm on top of my hand.
“How are you doing? It seems like—were you in a relationship recently?”
My eyes bugged out. “How did you know? Did you pick up some voodoo tricks abroad or something?”
“No, Tia, I can tell. It looks like someone's broken your heart.”
“How can you tell?”
“The usual fire in your eyes is out. And you've been looking at the couple in the corner like you want to rip their heads off.”
“Oh, damn, really?” I covered my face and turned away from them. I'd been staring too hard. They were an affectionate couple, college aged, who were sharing some dip and kissing in between. The way they smiled and laughed with one another, I hated them. It was unreasonable, but after my billionaire fallout, any happiness must be destroyed.
“Yeah, when I broke up with Rob—” Rob was a guy she dated for two years in college. She'd always liked him. Not enough to stay in California for him. “I hated seeing other couples in love. It reminded me of what I was missing.”
Alicia pressed me for answers. Who was he? What happened?
“It's too complicated. I appreciate it, but I don't want to talk about it. I want to forget it even happened.”
“That bad? Are you sure?”
“It was complicated,” I said again. “That's why it didn't work out. Far too complicated. Can't I just find a guy who isn't boring but isn't troubled? Isn’t there a nice in between?”
Something swelled in my chest. Heartache. I avoided it.
“What about those guys over there?” Alicia asked as she nudged a shoulder down the bar.
A couple of preppy white guys hung out at the other end of the bar. They would occasionally glance our way. I wasn't interested. They were clean and handsome, but that was all.
“I'm not interested in a man right now. They’re nothing but trouble.”
“I understand. I thought I was through too. That's when real love happens, when you're not looking for it. It finds you.”
Which was exactly what happened with Lucas.
I turned the conversation over to Alicia's job. She often talked about it for hours, and while I was kind of jealous, I loved to live vicariously through her. We ended up leaving the pub after three hours. At the end of the night, she invited me to visit her sometime. I doubted wi
th my schedule it would ever happen.
She needed to be up early in the morning. That didn’t mean I would quit adventuring. Even though it'd been an hour ago, having Lucas come up in conversation had ruined my mood. I took a cab to the zoo. They would sometimes have events in the evening, and sure enough, this was one of those nights where they had local wineries handing out drinks. Since it was a cool, crisp autumn night, it helped lighten my mood.
They were hard at work on Kojo’s new enclosure. Something would always remind me of Lucas...he'd made his mark on me, that was for sure. After strolling around with a glass of wine, I headed for the exit much happier than I entered.
It was surreal watching people enjoy the new enclosure when I knew it had all been constructed for me.
There was a bus stop not far, in a much better area than the one I took for work, so I let my guard down. A full moon shone overhead. With the calming breeze, and the crisp scent of fall, I was experiencing a high like I hadn't in weeks.
Because I'd been so unaware of my surroundings instead of looking around—I was staring at the glowing moon—I was taken by surprise. A van screeched to a halt next to me. The back doors kicked open and men jumped out.
I started to scream as they snatched me. I fought and swung, but they had me.
Staggering back, I tried to push them off, but I lost my footing. I wasn't strong enough to shove off three men. All were wearing black ski masks and dark clothing.
Who would want to kidnap me? Were they aware of my debts? I was in the negative.
“I've got nothing,” I growled, trying to fight them off as they pulled me toward the open van.
“Get in.”
Oh, hell no. I was not getting into the back of that creepy van. When you went in the back of a creepy van, it was over.
“Hell no.” I kicked and hit one in the chin. He howled, but the others kept dragging me. The black pit of the van's insides welcomed me, growing bigger no matter how much I fought.
“Get the fuck off her,” someone shouted. I hoped it was more than a concerned citizen. I hoped he knew how to fight.
It was four more men out in the street who looked like security guards. They pounced and threw fists. One caught me by my waist and pulled me close to him and away from the brawl, as shadows scattered in the night.
The van's driver hit the gas and it screeched around the corner and disappeared.
“Thank you, thank you,” I said.
The four rescuers stood before me. Two of them hooked my arms and started to pull me away.
That's when I spun around and saw another van waiting for me.
What in the hell? What were the chances that two different people would want to kidnap me? If I wasn't currently scared for my life, I would've been honored.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Don't worry. Please, just get in the back. It'll all be explained.”
I fought again, my energy sapped, they pushed me inside. My ass hit the floor, two jumped inside with me, and then the van's engine rumbled. I lurched forward for the door but it slammed closed.
My fists pounded against it as we raced away.
“Where are you taking me?” I screamed at them.
I screamed so many times that the men next to me eventually broke their silence.
“To Lucas Moore.”
No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t avoid that name.
Chapter 14
Lucas
Tia was mine again, even if the circumstances weren’t what I’d hoped for.
Rage over the whole incident a few months ago had been bottled up. I thought it had left me, but when I learned that Tia had almost been kidnapped, I went fucking mad.
It was still good to have her back.
I lifted my office phone. I threw open the blinds. The stark moon cast its glow on the beach below, an enchanting scene, but it didn't help curb my mood. I quickly dialed my father's private number, a number only used for emergencies.
He picked it up in a huff.
“What's the problem?”
I hadn't talked to him ever since that day I told him to leave my property. We talked through business emails now.
“If you had anything to do with this, family or not, I'll kill you.”
I picked up the phone without thinking, only with blind rage. I was surprised that I hadn't said anything worse.
“What's going on?”
He sounded sincere. I let myself fall back in my leather seat as I overlooked the ocean, dark as black ink spreading as far as the eye could see.
“Tell me…” I growled. “Did you have something to do with what happened to Tia?”
“Should've known it'd be about that girl.” My father didn't pause for long, noticing the growling coming over the other end. “Leave me out of it. I’m not involved.”
“Sorry to have woken you up. Go back to bed now,” I told him. He grumbled, but I was too livid to keep talking. He always put me in a sour mood anyway.
“Is she okay?” he asked before I hung up the phone.
“She will be. She's with me now. Goodbye, Dad.”
I hung up the phone. Tia would arrive in twenty minutes. They said she was unharmed, thank God. I headed downstairs to wait. Sitting on a barstool in my kitchen, I stared out the windows into the driveway. Tia couldn't arrive soon enough.
Who had done this to her? Who would try to hurt her?
She might not like being back with me, but I would force her to stay with me until I was sure she was safe. Having her back was a tempting opportunity, one which I couldn’t deal with, and with my patience wearing thin, I took off for my workout room.
I stripped down to only my pants, but they restricted too much. I took them off as well. In my boxers, I pummeled the punching dummy with blow after blow. I kept pounding away at it, hoping that it would help distract me.
After ten minutes of hard work, sweating profusely, I hurried to the kitchen again and checked the road.
Another suspect entered my mind. Endorphins from working out had most likely knocked the idea loose. Could it have been one of the girls? Spurned by my dismissal, trying to get revenge?
There was only one other person I could think of.
Jayne.
She would have the money and the contacts to make something like this happen. If it was Jayne, Tia was in some serious danger. I was suddenly glad for my overprotectiveness. Keeping the security detail on her had seemed a little mad for a while, especially since she wouldn't return my texts for two months. I had begun to think it was a way for me to keep her in my life...
But it had saved her tonight.
My father had seemed genuinely concerned. That was another surprise. This night was turning into something far more complicated than I could've imagined. I was supposed to sign off on company logos. A simple and fun task.
Now I wanted to go beat up my play dummy again, because someone had tried to kidnap the girl I was crazy over.
I looked down at my beating chest. My muscles were tense, like I was ready to charge into battle. I'd only be running right into Tia...scaring the hell out of her. After all of this time between us, and what happened since our last meeting, I imagined she would be standoffish.
Maybe some clothes were in order.
I headed back upstairs to my bedroom. Looking in my closet, I picked the first thing I spotted— a black knitted long sleeved shirt. Then I put on gray boot cut jeans. I slipped on a thick leather belt, and then headed downstairs to await Tia's arrival. She couldn’t arrive soon enough.
Tia
“Please, let me go?”
“No, how many times do we have to repeat that?’”
“Until you let me go.”
“You’re not making this easy,” the man in the back of the dark van said to me. “We need to return you to Lucas Moore, so that he can ensure that you’re safe.”
Knees against my chest, I huddled against the side of the van as it careened through the city. We were movin
g fast and I wasn't even sure why. Were we still in danger? Those men had scared away the other attackers. Unless there were more.
I had no idea. I had no idea what was going on. I knew just one thing...that I would be seeing Lucas again, which I wasn't prepared for.
Distance between us hadn't made it easier. The whole ride, I complained, hoping that they would give in and let me go. Twenty minutes later in the stuffy van, we arrived at Lucas’s mansion. The cool autumn air rushed to greet me as I stepped out.
I thought about running, but they surrounded me.
“Watch her,” the driver said. He had a pair of black aviators tied around his neck. He looked like he was a pro wrestler. The others glared at me, their stares telling me that at any sign of movement, they would make it difficult for me.
“Fine, I'm not going anywhere,” I said. I harrumphed, flung my hands against my thighs, and sat on the back of the van.
Soon enough, Lucas would join us. Probably looking so hot I would lose my mind. That was how it always went.
A few months ago, I would've been panting at the idea of seeing Lucas. Now I thought about making a break for the fence.
“Tia...”
He called for me from far away as he came sprinting out of his house. I leapt from the van and then stood at the side of it, like at any moment I might try to dive back inside.
My worst fears came true. Lucas looked incredible. And that caring, protective look he had as he rushed to greet me, to make sure I was okay, melted my cold heart. He wore a long sleeved shirt that clung to his ripped figure. I liked this Lucas. Even when he tried to be down to Earth, he was out of this world.
“I'm fine,” I said. I peered downward, hoping it would slow his advance.
Not a chance.
Lucas caught my hips. I darted onto my heels. I leaned back so much I almost tilted over, and he noticed my alarm and let go.
I stared into those loving eyes I'd tried so hard to forget.
“Are you sure you're okay?”
“Yes, I'm fine. I mean...I'm a little confused.” I looked to the corners of my vision where the soldiers guarded. I whispered, “These guys, the ones who look like super soldiers, who are they?”
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