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“Give me a second to get dressed,” Chloe said.
She raced into his bedroom and put her clothes on in record time. Before leaving, she removed the platinum wedding band. Carefully, she set it on top of his note. She didn’t want him to think she had taken it home so she could pawn it. He already thought she was a gold digger. No reason to add fuel to that fire. If possible, she wanted him to have one last sweet memory of her.
Chapter Ten
From the second Nik opened his eyes that morning, guilt rode him hard. He went to war with himself. For years, he had believed Chloe cheated on him and tried to take his family for half a million dollars. He had refused to listen to her even as she openly cried in front of him. She’d begged him to give her a few minutes to explain. He refused. In fact, he practically ran her out of town and issued a warning to never return.
Had he misjudged her?
Was he wrong about Chloe?
Nik had honed his instincts over the years. He trusted his gut, and so far it hadn’t let him down. Or had it? If he could be wrong about Chloe, he could be wrong about anything.
Regret and shame at tricking her into signing over her business and marrying him made him mentally change direction. He had dropped the plan to avenge himself. Instead, he was sending her home, basically unscathed. As soon as he could, he would give her an annulment and return her business.
The note had been difficult to write. Setting her free hurt him more than he could have suspected, but she deserved someone who would be honest with her. The mere idea of her with another man sickened him. He wasn’t sure he could let her go.
He stood behind his top tech in the computer lab and stared at the wall of monitors. His gaze went from one to the next until he finally saw her. Chloe. She and her sister crossed the lobby to the main doors. The urge to stop her from leaving tightened every muscle in his body. He should go after her.
But how could he when he hadn’t trusted her?
She deserved better.
The memory of last night returned with a bittersweet vengeance. Her skin, so soft and pliant, had responded to his every touch. Her lips had parted in willing invitation to his seeking tongue, and joining their bodies had been like coming home after years of forced banishment.
He watched her leave his hotel with mixed feelings. Part of him wanted to let her go, but the other part pushed him to chase after her, even if it meant stopping her in the parking lot in front of curious onlookers. If he wasn’t quick enough, he could call his pilot. He could tell them to hold the plane until he got there. It wasn’t too late. Yet.
“Do you want me to go after her?” his friend and colleague asked as he came to stand beside him.
Nik glanced at John before returning his gaze to the monitor. If he gave the word, one simple word, John would stop Chloe from leaving.
Then what? He couldn’t undo the past. Chloe probably hated him for not trusting her six years ago, and he couldn’t do anything other than give her a lame apology. She would need more than that to believe he was sincere.
He slowly shook his head. “Let her go. I need to let her go. For now.”
Chapter Eleven
“How did you meet him?” Kristina asked. “Seriously, how does a girl like you catch the eye of a Greek billionaire?”
They were in the back of Nik’s plane, while Kristina’s friends were sitting in the main area with the door between their two groups. It gave Chloe the privacy she needed so that she could open up to her sister without telling the world her business.
Although that wasn’t why she’d gone to the back of the plane. She was bone tired after making love with Nik all night long. Her goal had been a quick nap, but her sister wanted to talk.
Lying on top of the covers, Chloe sighed and rested an arm over her eyes to block the overhead light.
“He was my boss,” Chloe said in a barely audible voice. “I worked at his casino.”
Kristina gasped. “Why am I just hearing about this now? I had no idea. What did you do there?”
“Cocktail waitress. It paid good, especially when I waited on big tippers, and to answer your first question, you were in Europe. Remember? Mom had just died, and you went to find yourself. I didn’t have any family left in Brookhaven, so I moved to Vegas. I wanted to find a new life.”
“Wow. It’s like I don’t know you at all. I can’t believe we never talked about this.” Kristina scooted across the bed with her legs tucked beneath her to sit next to Chloe. “Did you guys have a meet-cute?”
Chloe sat up long enough to put a pillow between her and the wall. Obviously, she wasn’t going to get a wink of sleep until Kristina’s curiosity was satisfied. “I’m not sure how cute it was. A bigshot with the arms of an octopus kept groping me one night. He wouldn’t keep his hands off my rear, and I wasn’t allowed to punch him in the face. Didn’t want to get fired. Just when I was losing my last ounce of patience, Nik came out of nowhere. He grabbed the guy by the front of his shirt and practically lifted him off the ground.”
“Did Nik punch him in the face?”
“No. But he did say I was under his protection and if the guy touched me one more time, it would be the last thing he ever did.”
