Page 33 of In the Heir (Westerly Billionaire 1)
Alisha hopped up and down as the enormity of her prize sunk in. She turned and hugged Brett spontaneously. “I won five thousand dollars. Thousand.”
He returned the hug and her smile. “Now you can have the bracelet. That’s fantastic.”
Alisha tensed. I can. I won enough to get exactly what I wanted. Coincidences like that didn’t happen. Did they? But what was the alternative? To believe that Brett had somehow arranged for her to win?
When the salesperson clasped the blue diamond bracelet on her wrist, Alisha wanted to believe good things could simply happen. They didn’t have to be part of a master plan. Brett wasn’t trying to manipulate her.
He won money. I won jewelry. Why couldn’t that happen? It was the most beautiful piece of jewelry she’d ever owned, and it would always remind her of this time with Brett. It would be like having a little piece of him with her always.
And the universe wanted her to have it. Why else would she win the amount needed to get it?
Is this my consolation for holding on to my principles? I didn’t take the easy way—this is a sign that I made the right choice.
“I can’t believe I won it. Everything about this cruise has been amazing so far. I don’t wear much jewelry, but you were right, Brett, I’ll wear it every day. It’s perfect.”
He kissed her forehead and hugged her closer. “I’m glad it worked out for you.”
There was a part of her that wanted to ask him if he was in any way responsible for her winning it, but she didn’t want to discover he was. Don’t overthink this. He had nothing to do with it. And I don’t have anything to regret. I can wear it and still look Rachelle in the eye. “Me, too.” She rocked her wrist back and forth, admiring the sparkle of the deep-blue stones. “I don’t know how the rest of the cruise will go, but it will be hard to top today.”
The salesperson interrupted just long enough to say that the paperwork for the bracelet would be available on the last night of the cruise and that it would be brought to Mr. Westerly’s suite.
“You mean, Miss Coventry’s,” Brett corrected firmly.
“Oh yes. Of course. All of the paperwork will be in her name.” The woman looked momentarily flustered, then congratulated Alisha again. She rushed off and returned with a box and bag for the bracelet.
Alisha took it and met Brett’s eye, noting the lack of guilt. The staff on board tended to go out of their way to please him as if they’d been given specific instructions to do so. “Do you know the owner of the ship?”
He smiled. “The CEO of the ship line.”
Am I wrong?
Stop. The best way to ruin anything is to dissect it.
Mom always said, “If you dig long enough, you’ll always hit dirt.”
Oh God, now I’m using her advice to justify my actions? I really am in trouble.
Brett neither confirmed nor denied that his association with the cruise line had been the reason for her winning. “I hear they’re showing a movie at the pool tonight. If we hurry, we can catch the start of it.”
“I’d love that. Let’s do it.”
When they arrived on the deck just above the pool area, they were met by a man with a blanket. The usual reclining chairs had been replaced by round canopy daybeds. One of them had been reserved for them. None of the blogs about cruises that Alisha had read ever mentioned anything like this. “Did you arrange for them to change out the seating?” she asked.
His blue eyes held hers, but he didn’t answer her question.
She watched the opening credits begin to roll on the screen below. “You knew this was my favorite movie. I remember telling you it was.”
His expression remained carefully impossible to read. “You may have mentioned it.”
“And I told you I’d always wanted to go to a drive-in.”
A corner of his mouth curled in a sexy hint of a smile. “If you hate the idea of lying in my arms under the stars, we could go watch it below with that herd of children.”
“Oh, you’re good.”
His smile widened. “That’s what I’ve been told.”
She rolled her eyes and laughed. “Are you sure there is enough room for me, you, and your ego on that daybed?”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Only one way to find out.”
Brett hoped Alisha wasn’t going to quiz him on the plot points of the movie, because with her curled up to his side, he sure as hell wasn’t able to concentrate on anything. His senses were in lustful overdrive. He remembered once reading an article online about how postponing one’s pleasure intensified it. He’d dismissed the article as a load of New Age crap, but he had to admit he was physically attuned to Alisha in a way he’d never experienced before. It wasn’t just about wanting to have her calling out his name while he thrust his cock deeper and deeper into her. It had become about the pleasure of her breath caressing his neck when she turned to speak to him. He was aware of every place their bodies made contact, every beat of her heart against his chest, every time she adjusted and her hardened nipples brushed against his arm.
His body begged to roll over and take what it was painfully craving to plunder. Her mouth. Those amazing breasts of hers. It would take only a shift of his weight for him to be able to slide a hand under her skirt and sink a finger into her pussy. He didn’t, though. When they came together, and there was no doubt in his mind that they would, there would be no reason for either of them to regret it. He’d make sure of that.
Alisha’s hand was absently caressing his chest as she watched the movie. She turned her head so she could see his face. “Thank you for tonight. No one has ever gone out of their way to make me feel special the way you do.”
He couldn’t stop himself; he leaned in and kissed her lips gently, but forced himself to pull back before he lost control. If she knew the real him, not the vacation him, she wouldn’t look at him with so much trust in her eyes. “I’m not a nice man.”
Her hand stopped and splayed across his chest. “Really?” There was a beauty to her that affected him on so many levels. He wanted to have her, but he also wanted to protect her from any hurt that might come from being with someone like him. She deserved a man who believed in forever.
“I have impossibly high standards for everyone around me, as well as for myself.”
“Okay.”
“People fear me in the business world, and I’ve given them reason to. I’ve always won, no matter the collateral damage.”
“And?”
“And I’m a fucking miserable bastard. Just like my father. Just like his father before him. I like you, but I wonder if I’m not a bull trying to carry a crystal vase. Is there any version of us where you don’t end up hating me when it ends?”
She laid her head back on his shoulder without answering and hugged him. He blinked back an emotional response to the simplicity of her support.
When she spoke, her tone nearly broke his he
art. “I have spent half of my life worrying that I’d become my mother and the other half hating that I didn’t save her from my father. I know a bastard when I see one, and I don’t see one in you.”
His kissed the top of her head. “My family would debate that point.”
She hugged him again. “Not if you showed them the side you’ve shown me. I’ve never met a more caring man. Since the first time I met you, even when your words were cutting to Spencer, I knew you wanted the best for him. You’ve stepped forward time and time again to take care of me, to keep me safe. Bring that approach to your brothers and sisters, and they’ll adore you.” She raised her head and met his eyes. “Unless you already have and they don’t know it.”
He tensed.
She continued, “Just before college I qualified for financial aid, but Rachelle was denied. We wanted to go to the same school, so we scrambled to find a place we could both afford. At the last minute a scholarship came through that made it possible for her to go to Boston College with me. I remember thinking that when she or her family needed something, miracles abounded. Doors slammed shut for them just like the rest of us, but then they would open and everything would work out. I used to joke that their guardian angels worked overtime. Was that you? Did you watch out for them? Pay for their schooling?”
Brett didn’t answer. He didn’t want to lie, but he had never wanted to be applauded for taking care of his family. He remembered finding paperwork proving that his father had paid for the nurses who’d cared for Mark during the last months of his life. His father had never told a soul, nor had he. He cleared his throat. “My father was wrong about many things, but he got a few right. He always said that the best good deed is one that no one knows about.”
“That’s beautiful.” She chewed her bottom lip. “It also explains why he let everyone think it was him and not your mother who cheated. So, he funded Rachelle’s education?”
