The Billionaire's Masquerade (The Friendship Series) (8 page)

She loved learning to sail but hadn’t brought the right clothes to be out on the ocean. The weather might be warm on land, but with the air blowing over the northern, colder ocean water, it was significantly colder than she was used to. Jack wrapped her up in one of his windbreakers but it was much better when he simply wrapped his arms around her, keeping her warm that way.

When Sunday afternoon rolled around, she felt her depression coming back but fought it, not wanting to ruin their last few hours together by being sad about leaving.

Despite her efforts to hide it, he could sense that she was feeling somber. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he pulled her into his arms that afternoon. They were sitting on a small stretch of rocky beach having a picnic. Jack was leaning against a big, flat rock while Rachel was leaning against Jack’s equally hard chest, sitting between his legs and feeling more at home than she had in a long time.

“I have to leave for Washington, D.C. soon,” she finally explained, trying to hide her sadness at the idea.

He heard it anyway and turned her head so that he could see her face. “You could stay here.”

Rachel laughed at the absurdity of that suggestion. “I can’t quit my job.”

He sighed and hugged her gently. “You hate your job, Rachel.”

She stiffened, not liking where this conversation was going. “Who says I hate my job? It’s a good job.” She stood up and started packing away their picnic. He grabbed her from behind and toppled her over, pinning her to the ground. “Rachel, it might be a good job, but you don’t like it. And when you realize that, then you’ll be a much happier person.”

She tried to shove him off of her, but he was too big and too strong and none of her efforts got him to budget. She was angry that he would dare to assert something that he knew nothing about. They’d never discussed her job other than in reference to meeting Emerson Watson. How could he know anything about her job satisfaction?! “You’re wrong. I’m fine with my job. It’s just stressful and I’m at the bottom of the totem pole. So people boss me around all the time. Once I figure out how to get a promotion, or even better, find that stupid Emerson Watson,” she grumbled, looking off to the left so she wouldn’t have to look at him, or more specifically, so he wouldn’t be able to see the truth in her eyes, “then things will change.”

Jack was so frustrated that she would continue to genuinely believe that trash that he wouldn’t relent. “You think one man can change your life that much?” he demanded.

She didn’t like the way he was asking that question. Or more specifically, she didn’t like the implication that she was putting her happiness in another human being’s hands. Deep down, she knew that she should find her own happiness but she’d gotten this far, putting herself through school, learning the business, pushing herself harder and longer than anyone else in her office. But Emerson Watson was the key to her getting to the top. She just had to find him! “I don’t think a man can change my life. That’s up to me. Which is why I’ve got to find him and convince him to let me be his intern. I’m not going to be in my position forever.”

He relented and let her up, picking up the blanket so he could shake out the sand and fold it up. “I think you’re making a mistake,” he told her with the façade of being calm. But underneath, he was furious and not sure how to get her to recognize how miserable she truly was in that job.

She stuffed the picnic basket with the leftover food, irritated and feeling more depressed than before. “I hear you loud and clear.”

An hour later, he wouldn’t let her get onto the plane until she kissed him. She was still angry with him for trying to tell her that she didn’t like her job, so she didn’t want to even touch him, but in the end, she also couldn’t leave him without a goodbye kiss. “Thank you for another wonderful weekend,” she said, laying her head on his broad, muscular chest, aching inside at the idea that this was probably the last time she would see him.

He wrapped his arms around her as well, laying his head on top of hers. “Thanks for coming up again.”

She stood there, hoping that he would tell her to come up the following weekend. But when he stood there silently, she had to accept that he probably had things to do and needed some time alone on the weekend. “Okay, well, I’d better hurry to catch my flight,” she said, wishing he would say something, anything besides goodbye.

“Be safe, Rachel,” he finally said, his hand coming up to touch her cheek. “And think about what I said.”

That definitely wasn’t what she was hoping to hear. So she stomped through the security gate, irritated beyond belief at how arrogant and wrong he was. What did he know about investing? He was just a handyman! Okay, so he was an extremely good handyman, she thought, thinking of all the work he’d accomplished on the cottage just in the past five days. He’d finished painting both the inside and outside so now it was a bright, sunny yellow color with soft, blue shutters and trim. The windows had been fixed so they opened up to allow the night air to come through. He’d finished the plumbing so they could even have coffee there instead of having to hurry out in the morning to a coffee shop. And what was more, he’d found other soft touches to add to the interior such as a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers in the middle of the small table.

She ignored the texts from Nikki and Brianna, too miserable to even reply. As the plane flew south, she refused to allow the tears to fall. She would not even acknowledge that the affair was over. It hadn’t even begun. She’d had a weekend fling that had turned into two weekends. She’d get over him!

As the week wore on, she was so depressed and irritated that she snapped at several of her co-workers. She thought she’d found several good companies to research, but the more she looked into them, she discovered they weren’t such a good choice after all.

And what was worse, she hadn’t heard from Jack all week! Not a call, not a text and definitely no special delivery of a plane ticket. She contemplated buying her own ticket and heading up there. She was still trying to find Emerson Watson, after all. So she could go up there, try to track down the man just like she had that first weekend. But in the end, she didn’t do any of it. Nor did she call Jack or text him in any way. She was feeling strange, as if he didn’t want to have anything to do with her. She was trying to respect that, but it still hurt. A lot.

So when her door buzzed Friday evening, she was standing in her kitchen, holding a quart sized container of cherry vanilla ice cream and a spoon, trying to drown her sorrows with the creamy confection. She’d even found a six pack of Alagash White beer at a specialty store, but tonight was a merlot night.

The only two people that would show up at her apartment door unannounced were Nikki and Brianna. As she carried the ice cream over to the doorway, she tried to feel better, knowing that her friends would know how to cheer her up.

“I’m sorry I haven’t…” she stopped mid-sentence when her eyes took in the enormous, magnificent form of Jack standing in her doorway. His eyes went from her head down her body and stopped on the ice cream in her hands.

“Miss me?” he asked with a growing smile.

He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he simply stepped into her apartment and took her into his arms. “You smell incredible,” he told her, taking the ice cream and spoon out of her hands and setting it on the counter.

By the time she remembered to put it back in the freezer several hours later, it was a melted mess. But she dumped it into the garbage with a smile on her face.

They spent the weekend touring around the Washington, D.C. area and Rachel couldn’t believe how happy she was to just be in his company. When she stopped to think about it, that reality worried her but she couldn’t stop this bubble of happiness just being around him.

She took him to her favorite place, the zoo, and introduced him to the various animals. She loved the seals and walruses the most, loved the rock “theatre” they’d built so the guests could sit down and watch the antics of the fascinating animals. But she showed him all the wonderful animals. They ate popcorn and laughed at the monkeys and gorillas, and enjoyed ice cream while observing the lions and tigers. Then they went back to her apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in bed, making love until Sunday morning arrived.

“I have to leave early today,” he told her as his hand smoothed up and down her arm.

She didn’t like the sound of that. “Why can’t you stay through this afternoon?” she asked, leaning back so she could see his face.

“I have to meet some people.”

“New jobs?” she asked, excited for him. She knew from experience that the construction business was slow at times; a construction worker always had to be on the lookout for another job.

“In a way,” he said. He thought about admitting who he was, but he’d been enjoying her company too much. And she accepted him as just Jack. Talked to him, laughed with him and made love to him as Jack. Not as someone who could further her career.

“Come back with me. I saw the look on your face when you answered the door Friday night and you hated the idea of going back to work last Monday. Admit it, Rachel,” he coaxed gently. “You’re not happy.”

She pulled out of his arms, biting her lip to keep herself from agreeing with him. He was right. The idea of going back to the office tomorrow morning actually made her stomach feel a little sick. But she’d come this far. She could make it all the way. She just had to work harder, be smarter. “I can’t,” she told him firmly.

He watched her step into the shower, feeling frustrated that she was being so obstinate. Following right behind her, he stepped into the water with her, taking the shampoo out of her hands to wash her hair for her. “Could you at least explain why you’re wasting your life doing something you hate?”

“Can’t we just leave it alone?” she begged, fighting back the tears? His hands felt so good and she loved being in his company. Probably too much, she thought. This relationship couldn’t go anywhere. Why was she prolonging her time with him when she should be focusing on her goals?

She rinsed her hair quickly, stepping out of the shower. She needed space to discuss this. Being close to Jack only made her mind turn to mush. Stepping out of the shower, she dried off while he finished showering, looking at herself in the mirror. So what if she looked miserable? It wasn’t because she hated her job. It was because….well, it was because….

She slipped her arms into her robe, spinning around to glare at him. “What do you know about what I need in life?”

He grabbed one of her fluffy towels, drying off as well, before following her out of the bathroom. Pulling on his jeans that had been laying over the chair of her dressing table, he wouldn’t relent on his argument. “I know that you’re miserable. And if you keep this up, you’re going to die a slow, cheerless death. I know that you’d be much better off with me!”

She was shaking with the effort to keep herself from screaming at him. “You don’t know what I need!” she said furiously.

“So explain it to me!” he shot right back at her, not letting her get away with these vague innuendoes about her life any longer.

“You want me to simply quit my job and come up to Maine, be a carpenter’s wife?” She snorted with derision. “I won’t do that! I won’t put my family through that!”

“You mean you don’t trust me to have enough money to take care of us, is that it?” he asked, stunned by her perception of him.

She realized how insulting she sounded, but she couldn’t help it. She’d lived through that life once before and she couldn’t do it again. “I know you’re very popular around Cape Elizabeth, and people probably beg you to work for them. But I’m sorry, Jack. I simply can’t live paycheck to paycheck. I won’t. I did it growing up so I know how wretched that kind of a life can be. There were too many weeks when there wasn’t a paycheck.” She turned her back on him, too embarrassed by her past to let him see how much it all bothered her. “There were nights when we didn’t have dinner because there wasn’t any money to buy food. Then there were the nights when we might have had dinner if we’d been able to get into town to reach one of the church centers that gave out free meals, but there wasn’t any money to put gas into the car to drive there or the car was broken down without any funds to buy parts to fix it.” She shook her head, her shoulders drooping as she remembered the hardship she’d gone through as a child. “I can’t do that. I think I’m….” she started to say that she was in love with him, but stopped herself just in time. “I care for you very deeply,” she finally said. “But I can’t just drop everything I have here and move to Maine with you. I want a family. I want children.”

“So do I,” he countered, finally understanding what she was shooting for. And why. “So you were poor as a kid. That doesn’t mean that you have to continue to do a job that you don’t like.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I am good at this job. It will provide food for my children.”

He wasn’t going to let her get away with that. “I can provide food for our kids.”

Her heart practically leapt out of her chest at his words. He wanted to marry her? She felt the wrenching pain at the loss she was about to deal with. “I’m sorry, Jack. I just can’t do it. I can’t give up the security of money to live in the wilds of Maine with you. No matter how I feel for you.”

He glared at her. Again, he thought about telling her who he was but he didn’t want her on those terms. “You don’t trust me.”

She took a deep breath. “I won’t rely on a man to provide for me or my children,” she asserted firmly. “My mother gave up her life, gave up her work so she could stay home and take care of us. Then things got bad and my father lost his job. He tried to make it on contract work, but that was sporadic and, like I said, there wasn’t always enough for even the bare necessities. Some months were fine, but others were…” she shook her head, not finishing the sentence. “Well, suffice it to say that I won’t put that burden on my children. They will always have food to eat. They will always have a house to come home to. Quitting my job with no prospects up in Maine means that I’m giving up that security. And I won’t do it.”