Page 31 of In the Heir (Westerly Billionaire 1)
She visibly relaxed, and her smile returned. “Really?”
He leaned in and pointed at a pair of two-carat diamond earrings. “You’d never wear those.”
“You’re right.”
He hovered his hand over a large emerald pendant trimmed in diamonds. “Too flashy.”
She nodded and leaned closer to inspect it. “It’s beautiful, but you’re right; that’s not my style.”
He walked to another case. “Now, these remind me of you. Blue diamonds. Rare. Colorful. You’d never wear the square stones because you’re too practical and they’d catch on everything. You’d want beauty you could wear while you teach. Something simple. Understated, but built to endure. Like that one.” He pointed to a bracelet with round blue diamonds spaced out between links of white gold. He nodded at a salesperson who came right over. “She’d like to try that one on.”
“Of course.”
“It’s not necessary.” Alisha protested as the woman opened the case and took out the bracelet. “I don’t even wear—” She stopped, held her wrist out to the salesperson, and allowed her to put the bracelet on. “Wow, that’s beautiful. I guess you do know my taste.” She looked up. “How much is it?”
“Four thousand today. Eight tomorrow,” the salesperson said.
“We’ll take it,” Brett said.
Alisha’s eyes flew to his. “No. It’s too expensive.”
He shrugged. “Hardly.”
She removed it, placed it on the case, and walked away. Never in his life had he chased a woman, but she was a confusing laundry list of firsts for him. He caught up to her in the hallway outside the store. “Alisha.”
She stopped and clasped her hands in front of her. “Don’t ruin the day by doing this. I said I don’t want it, and I meant it.”
Then why do you look about to cry? “Look at me, Alisha.”
She raised her eyes to his.
“Talk to me.” He didn’t understand how offering to buy her something could have upset her.
“Don’t push me. I already feel terrible that we’re together.” She rubbed a hand up one of her arms. “Could we go back to having a fun day? Maybe go to the casino or for a swim?”
He planted his feet and waited. “The bracelet was merely meant to be a souvenir of this trip.”
She looked uncomfortable with his persistence, but the answer mattered to him. Finally she said, “Brett, I know it’s not much money to you, but please, please don’t buy me any more gifts.” She looked away as if to compose herself, then added, “It only makes it worse,” in a whisper.
“Worse? Because of Rachelle? It wouldn’t affect her.”
She went white. “It would affect me. This is about how I feel. None of this was supposed to happen. It’s bad enough that I’m having so much fun with you when I told Rachelle I’d stay away from you. When I accept things from you, it says I’m not strong enough to do the right thing. I don’t want another reason to feel that way.”
Loyal to a fault. She gives the feelings of others more importance than her own. A person like that deserves to have good things happen to them. If I want to spoil her, I damn well will.
The hallway of the ship wasn’t the place to talk out her feelings on the matter, so Brett asked, “Penny slots, then?”
“Yes,” she said in a relieved tone. “Want to see who can make twenty dollars last longer?”
He nodded and was rewarded with a smile. He wondered if she realized how much her happiness was beginning to matter to him.
It was something he’d fought at first, but now saw as part of his newfound journey. There were many things he’d had to concede were beyond his ability to control. He couldn’t change the past. He couldn’t prevent the people he loved from disappointing one another. But he could put a smile on Alisha’s face.
Somehow, that made everything else bearable.
Chapter Eighteen
A short time later, Alisha laughed out loud at the frustrated expression on Brett’s face when she won forty dollars on the penny slot machine. She’d led him to two identical machines that were side by side and unoccupied. After convincing him to only bet twenty dollars, she’d challenged him to match her spin for spin until one of them lost. He’d enjoyed it until his balance had gone below five dollars and hers was nearing sixty.
“Did you see that woman trip? I hope she’s okay,” he said as he pointed toward the other side of the casino.
Alisha scanned the room for a woman either on the floor or righting herself after a fall but didn’t see either. “Where?”
“Next to the man in the orange shirt.”
“I don’t see a man in an orange shirt.”
“They must have left.”
She turned back and looked from his suspiciously happy expression to the credit balance on his machine. He now had sixty-three dollars and change. “You cheated!” She gave his shoulder a shove.
He continued to look pleased with himself. “I merely took advantage of a loophole in your rules. You stated that we both start with the same amount, but you never stated we couldn’t add as we please.”
“It was implied.”
“Which may work in kindergarten, but would never hold up in the business world.”
Alisha’s chin rose. “You did not just go there.”
His chin rose as well.
She folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t care if you’re five or fifty, cheating is cheating. If you want
to play with me, go back down to your original balance or the game is over.”
“You’re taking this far too seriously.” There he was, dismissing how she felt again. Her temper rose.
“And I expect an apology for the kindergarten dig.”
Some of his smugness left. “I can see how that might have sounded—”
“Might have?” Oh no, he was not getting off that easily.
“Let’s cash out and go for a walk.”
“Seriously? You’re so afraid of losing that if you can’t cheat, you’ll quit?” She told herself to drop it, but she couldn’t. Rachelle had said that Spencer had always been in competition with Brett. Did it go both ways? She didn’t like to think she might be a pawn in a game she had inadvertently wandered into.
A storm raged in his eyes that belied how he was attempting to rationalize his reaction. “It’s just a game.”
“Is it? Or are you a sore loser? How do you handle losing in real life?”
“I don’t. I make sure I win.”
“No matter what?” Nothing he was saying was making her feel better.
“You’re naive if you think anyone in power follows the rules. We make them.”
“Wow.” The coldness in his tone was new to her experience with him. Here is the dragon Spencer said destroys all in his way. How can this be the same man who seems so considerate the rest of the time? “This is a side of you that’s hard to like.”
His eyes darkened, and he looked away. “I added money as a joke. I thought it would make you laugh. It didn’t. Let’s go.” He punched the button to return his winnings to his card.
She didn’t move. He’s not in charge of my emotions. I am. I may not like what he’s saying, but how I respond is my choice. If he is looking for someone to cower and apologize whenever he is less than pleased, he picked the wrong woman to spend time with. “I didn’t take you for someone who runs away.”
He froze. “I don’t.”
“Then don’t dismiss what I said or how you made me feel. Don’t talk down to me. I’ve seen you do it with Spencer, and it’s why he doesn’t go to you with his problems. You are not better than me, but you talk like you think you are. Which man are you? The kind, gentle man who took care of me when I was sick—or the condescending asshole I thought you were the first time we met?”
