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When I ignored him, he ignored me back. He dove under again. When he resurfaced, he looked like a new man, like the water was some sort of baptism that had cleansed him, making him new again.
I muttered to myself as I took off my tee and my shorts. Thank goodness my husband was a billionaire and had bought me a slew of lingerie, all of it matching. Today I wore a lavender bra and a lacy matching thong—Bryce loved me in a thong.
I dove under, making sure he could take a good look at my ass. Because that’s all he was going to be doing—looking. I’d made a promise to Gene Windsor and, more importantly, to myself: I was done with Bryce for good. I had Noah to think about. Not only that, I loved Bryce enough to stay true to my word. I owed him that much.
But he’d kidnapped me, and he’d threatened to duct-tape my mouth. I loved him enough to protect him, but I was still pissed.
I dove under again, ass high in the air.Take a long look.
That was as close as he was getting.
FOUR
business
BRYCE
If Chloe thoughtthat she was going to show me her ass and I was just going to let it go, she was dead wrong.
My wife had been wrong about alotof things lately.
Leaving me was the wrong choice. The night she’d packed her bags, after acting so crazy at the wedding, was probably the worst night of my life. I’d sat in my bed, alone, feeling like the biggest fucking idiot that ever lived.
I’d sworn to myself, once things in my previous relationship had fallen apart, that I would never let it happen to me again. That I would never get hurt. So I’d hired a bride, thinking it would keep me safe. And look how that had turned out. I’d fallen in love with Chloe, and she’d left me—her parting words a slap in my face.You said I made you vulnerable, exposed. You said having me in your life made you lose control.
It was true. I had said those things, and she’d made me pay the ultimate price for it—losing her.
I hadn’t slept since she’d left. Things were so crazy with the company that I just dove into work, trying to manage my father’s mess and keep the board on an even keel. The pressure was insane, but I didn’t even feel anything. I was like a zombie—without Chloe, it was like I didn’t have a heart. I was just a fucking shell of a person going through the motions.
I knew she was in Ellsworth the whole time—she hadn’t turned off the location services feature on her phone. I’d had my men outside that rat trap of a motel, watching her day and night. I didn’t tell my lawyer that, of course. Just like I didn’t tell him I was planning on grabbing her ass, stuffing her onto my private jet, and dragging her to my property on Exuma.
Attorney-client privilege was great and all, but some things were better left unsaid. Like the fact that I was kidnapping my wife.
Now said wife’s ass was right next to me, in a thong no less, and she wouldn’t come near me. I couldn’t figure her out. When we’d first met, she’d been so nervous. I, of course, had been a dick. But once I’d let my guard down and opened up to her, I saw the truth about Chloe. She was a good person. She actually had a kind heart. She’d been through hell with her mother dying and with her deadbeat father and his sleaze of a wife, but she hadn’t given up on life. She’d married a stranger for money just so she could protect her brother.
I’d fallen hard for her. I thought she loved me, too.
There weren’t many people in my world like Chloe. I’d never met anyone—except for my own mother—who loved that much, who would put themselves in a difficult situation to take care of someone else. I’d never met a person as selfless as Chloe. My relationship experience had consisted of the Felicia-Joneses of the world: people who were self-obsessed, lacked self-awareness, and didn’t acknowledge or seem to care how their actions impacted others. “Something wasn’t right.” That was Felicia’s explanation for cheating on me and calling off our wedding.
Thanks, Felicia!I’d dodged a bullet with that one.
My ex was an ass, butIwas the real asshole: she was who she was, but I’d been the one to date her. And then I let what happened between us make me so paranoid, I had trouble opening up when something real came along.Ugh.
I certainly hadn’t planned on falling for my hired bride. But the truth was, once Chloe and I connected, I knew it was meant to be. It was easy with her. She was my best friend, the one person I could be myself with.
And then she’d gone crazy at the wedding, wearing that revealing red dress, getting drunk, and going after Felicia. Chloe hadn’t been herself that night. Why had she done that and then left? I knew there was more to the story, but she wasn’t talking.
Fine. I would get it out of her one way or the other. The most important thing was that she was back and that she wasmine. She might think she had a choice about that, but I was going to show her otherwise.
We were meant to be together. She didn’t crash into my life by mistake. I didn’t hire a stranger and fall in love with her by accident.
Like I said, it was meant to be.
This was the most crucial moment of my career. I was the acting CEO of Windsor Enterprises, the only job I’d ever wanted since I was a kid. I had big plans for the company, for the direction I wanted to take it in now that my father had finally been forced into stepping down. But I couldn’t do anything until things in my marriage were settled.
What I’d said to Chloe had been true: she made me vulnerable, and I didn’t do vulnerable. But we’d crossed a line. There was no going back.
She dove underwater again, her smooth, perfectly round ass in the air. She was crazy if she thought she was going to make it through the weekend without me taking her.
