Her Bad Boy Billionaire Lover (Billionai - By Bretton, Barbara Page 0,6
avoid me for the next week?"
"Five days," she corrected him. "I was willing to give it a try."
"The ship's not that big. Sooner or later we'd have to come together."
The double entendre in his words was not lost on either of them. She gathered her shawl more tightly about her shoulders and lifted her chin. Get hold of yourself! Don't let him know he still has that effect on you. She wasn't a girl any longer, naive and innocent and believing in forever-after. She was a woman who'd known heartache and loss. She was the mother of a small child, his child, and she'd kill before she let him break her daughter's heart the way her father had broken hers.
#
She was different somehow, Jake noted as he approached her, and it wasn't just the passage of time that had brought about the changes. At twenty-five she scarcely had to worry about lines and wrinkles. Her face was as smooth as he'd remembered; her luxuriant mane of auburn hair was as shiny and full as always.
But still there was something, some indefinable element that had changed. She seemed experienced, as if the world had touched her. Changed her in ways he didn't know, would never know. He found it hard to believe she'd spent the last six years in a convent. She was a sensual, vital woman. Thinking she had turned away from the physical side of life was unfair, unreasonable and exactly what he wanted to believe. She's not your wife any more, Lockwood. You have no hold on her. If she'd taken one lover or one hundred, it was no business of his.
"This has been wonderful," she said, her words clipped. "We must do it again." She heard the tremor in her voice and silently cursed the wild emotions tearing at her heart. There was something infinitely seductive about familiarity.
He blocked her escape. "This is a small ship. We can't avoid each other."
"We can try." He was so close to her that she felt the heat of his body. He still smelled of sunshine and spice. She hadn't expected that something so insignificant would be her undoing. She wanted to bury her face against his neck and--
She tried to push past him but he grabbed her wrist, his strong fingers easily encircling it.
"Why did you run away?"
"I needed some fresh air."
"You wanted to get away from me, didn't you? Admit it, Meggie."
"Don't call me Meggie," she snapped, regaining her composure. "Nobody calls me that."
"I always called you that."
"You don't have that right anymore." She met his eyes. "What are you doing here? Did you track me down?" Ridiculous though it sounded, she couldn't come up with a better explanation.
His eyes narrowed slightly. "What would you say if I told you I owned this ship?"
She started to laugh. "The truth never did stand in your way, did it, Jake."
"Too hard to believe I could make something of myself?"
Color flooded her cheeks and she blessed the darkness. "I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
"I saw you playing the piano, Jake. That's nothing to be ashamed of." Said in the precisely patronizing tones of a girl who couldn't believe she'd ever know such a person, much less have married him.
"About where you'd expect me to end up, isn't it, playing piano in a bar." There was an edge to his voice, a tone of defiance.
"This is a beautiful ship," she said, tilting her chin. "You could have done much worse."
"Yeah," he said after a moment. "I could have."
The meaning of his words was clear and instantly she found her old rich-girl persona returning full force. She should thank him for it. "I'm so pleased you've found gainful employment," she said with a toss of her head. "If I remember correctly, that used to be a problem."
Not even the darkness could hide the look of anger in his eyes. "Want to see my resume, Meggie? You might find a few surprises."
"I've had enough surprises for one day, thank you." She felt giddy and disoriented, as if someone had taken her life and tilted it on its side. "Shouldn't you be getting back to your piano gig?"
"I'm finished for the night."
"Don't let me keep you then." She turned away from him, her heart pounding wildly inside her chest. She hadn't felt this exhilarated, this alive in years. The feeling was as dangerous as it was exciting and she wanted nothing more than to run as far away from him as she could get.