The Billionaire's Secret: Billionaire Obsession (Tycoon Billionaires Book 5) (15 page)

Clara laughed. “My brother’s a bad influence on you.”

“I know. It’s wonderful, isn’t it!”

Jake leaned forward and kissed Clara on the cheek. “I guess we’d better get out of here.”

“Okay. Thanks for dropping by.”

“You wanna come with us?”

She glanced at Daniel, who was still struggling and trying to shout, but he was muffled by Astrid’s hosiery – and bound by his own handcuffs. “No. I’ll wait a little longer for my own adventure.” She hugged Astrid. “Try to keep Jake out of trouble for me, please.”

Astrid laughed. “Too late.”

Clara hugged her twin. “All right, if you can’t stay out of trouble, then at least try to stay safe.”

“We’ll try. Hey, sis… can I borrow your car?”

Jake left his Ferrari at the campus and borrowed Clara’s much more discrete Nissan four-by-four, then he drove Astrid to a motel on the outskirts of town, hoping Daniel wouldn’t find them before they found Emma.

The motel was shabby – consisting of one-room cabins, linked together in a long row, and sparsely decorated with a double bed, a writing desk, and a cramped bathroom – which was surprisingly clean and modern. The front door led directly to the sprawling dimly-lit parking lot – and the spiders weren’t included in the price.

Jake left Astrid to call her parents and stepped out to call his friend at the telecoms company – who he always paid handsomely for tapping phones and tracing numbers. He’d known him since his NYPD days, but this guy was totally corrupt, and happy to work with Jake as a private investigator – and now technically a fugitive, according to Daniel.

He stood in the chilly twilight and smoked a cigarette, while giving his contact all the details. Then he went back into the dingy room, to find Astrid lying on the bed with her shoes off. Last night they’d hardly slept, and all this excitement was probably tiring her out. He was so proud of how well she was holding it together, when only the other day she could barely walk through Times Square without freaking out.

He clicked the door shut, locking it – just in case.

She opened her eyes sleepily. “Hi.”

“Hey, beautiful. My friend said he should be able to get an address for where those calls are coming from. It’ll take him an hour-or-so. But as soon as he gets back in touch, I’ll go there and check things out.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet.”

“I just appreciate all you’re doing for me and my family.”

“I’d do anything for you, Astrid.”

He sat on the bed and kissed her, feeling his affection for her grow beyond what he was comfortable with.

She caressed his cheek. “You must be relieved to know you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Huh?”

“You know, with the drug dealer you thought you killed. It was terrible that Daniel framed you like that – I always knew there was something shady about him. But it means your conscience is off the hook. You can stop punishing yourself.”

Jake sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“And you didn’t kill his brother either. You’ve got nothing to feel guilty or bad about, Jake. It’s just an illusion that’s been holding you back all this time.”

“An illusion.”

“Yeah. None of it really existed. But you believed it did, so you were living your life
as if
it was true. I guess it’s the same for me too, you know? With my panic attacks. I’ve been letting my fears hold me back – telling myself I’m not capable of doing things. But what if
that’s
an illusion too? An incorrect belief. It’s incredibly liberating when I think about it like that. That the things holding us back usually only exist in our minds.”

He laid down next to her and she snuggled into his arms. “I’m glad you’ve realized that about yourself, Astrid. You’re definitely braver and stronger than you realized.”

She propped herself up on her elbow. “There’s something else though, isn’t there? Something else holding you back?”

Jake felt as if he was walking a wobbly tightrope over a fiery cavern. He didn’t want to talk about this. “You’re too perceptive for my liking.”

“You can tell me… It can’t be worse than thinking you killed someone.”

“It’s worse. Much worse.”

“Worse than killing someone?”

“It is to me.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “You know how for you, it’s the shame of your panic attacks that holds you back, right? You feel stupid… out of control. Like people will think you’re insane if you tell them?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, when you said that, I understood it’s true for me too.”

“What is?”

He shook his head. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“It’s okay, Jake. You can trust me. Whatever it is, I’m on your side. I promise… Did you hurt a woman? Physically, I mean.”

“No! I’d never do that.”

“Did a woman hurt you?”

He smirked. “No…”

“No, of course not. Because you never let women into your heart
to
hurt you.”

He gazed at her. That
was
true until he’d met her. But somehow he knew he could trust her. “Someone did,” he said quietly.

“Someone hurt you?”

He nodded imperceptibly. “Yeah.”

“An adult?” she asked. “When you were a kid?”

“Hmm… There was an uncle who got… too friendly…” An icy chill slunk through Jake’s veins at this confession. He’d never told anyone before, and suddenly it sounded so stupid – why would anyone let
that
ruin their entire life? But at the time it’d tortured his soul. And it still did now. It made him feel weak, and
that
was why he’d needed to be tougher than tough ever since. Or to at least seem that way. So no one could hurt him ever again.

Astrid gazed tenderly into his eyes. “Well that definitely wasn’t your fault, Jake. Certainly nothing you should be ashamed of.”

“I know that rationally – as an adult. But at the time…”

Her voice was full of compassion. “How long did it go on for?”

“A while. He babysat when my parents went out – they thought he was so kind to offer... What a great guy, you know… But he wasn’t a great guy. He was an evil sadistic bastard. I hated him,
and
myself for letting it happen. I wanted nothing but revenge… And then one day, I got it.”

“Oh yeah? What did you do?”

“I decided no more. Something inside me just clicked…”

“What did you do?” Her eyes widened with worry. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”

He chuckled gently. “No, course not… One night when he was there and my parents were out – it was a winter’s night – he started doing what he did… I waited until he took off his clothes and then I pretended I could hear a sound out front. I said it was probably the cops and that he should hide in the backyard. He panicked and ran out there, grabbing only his underpants. I locked him outside, freezing his balls off until my parents got back. He never babysat again. I think they knew. But they never mentioned it to me. They seemed more ashamed than
I
was… At the time I thought they were ashamed of
me
.”

She caressed his face. “I’m so sorry, Jake. I’m so sorry you’ve been through such a trauma.”

Jake smiled thinly. “I’ll never forget his panicked whispers that night, as I stood there watching him from the house. He was knocking on the cold window, saying, ‘Jake, Jake, let me in…’ He threatened to kill me a few times while he was out there – which obviously didn’t make me too keen to let him inside.”

She kissed him. “It sounds like you got your revenge. But…”

“But it leaves you cold, you know. And he never got in trouble for what he did. There was no justice. I guess that’s why I became a cop – to try to get some justice. But it didn’t work…”

Astrid’s gaze connected deep within his soul. “You might not believe me, but I do know how you feel. Simon was so awful to me… nothing sexual, rarely violent – but the mental bullying was unbearable.”

Jake’s muscles tensed. “When I get my hands on him…”

“No. I want us to think about the future now. The present.” She kissed him. “But I do wish sometimes I could wind back the time to before I met him. Perhaps you feel like that too? To the age of innocence, when we were pure and full of hope. Before all the criticism; before we were told we were wrong.”

“Maybe we can. When I’m with you I feel like that. Shiny and new.”

“Me too.” She brushed her fingers over his face. “How do you feel now you’ve told me about your uncle?”

“All right. Weird. Lighter I guess.”

“I’m proud of you – I know that wasn’t easy.”

He kissed her, pulling her close and soaking up her love. “I feel like… I feel like I need to wash away the past.”

“You want to take a bath?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Or a shower.”

She stood up. “Okay, let’s shower together. We can both wash away the past.”

He gazed deep into her beautiful eyes. “Thank you, Astrid. I think you might’ve just saved my life.”

“Nah… But there is one thing you can do for me.”

“What?”

“Stop smoking.”

He laughed. “It’s a deal. I’ll smoke my final cigarette after the next time I’ve made love to you.”

“Sounds good to me.”

He checked his watch. “So, I should quit smoking in around an hour from now. I’ll go warm up the bathroom, hot-stuff.”

He kissed her passionately, feeling reborn and energized, then he removed his shirt, and swaggered off to the bathroom, where he turned on the shower. He planned to steam up the room – making it nice and tropical for Astrid. With the shower running in the background, he gazed at himself in the mirror.

He sighed. Why was it relatively easy for him to find trouble and fight bad guys, but it terrified him to tell anyone what his uncle had done to him? And yet, she’d made it so easy. It was as if a tightly fastened rusted coil had unraveled into ribbons inside him, all because of her kindness. She’d shone her light of love over him, and it’d warmed him through to his bones.

He sighed. There was something else he wanted to do that was even
more
terrifying. Another confession. This time not from his past, but about what was happening right now in his heart. He gazed into his own eyes and saw the sparks of love in there for her. She’d liberated him… and he couldn’t thank her enough. Surely it shouldn’t be
this
hard to tell someone as wonderful as Astrid that you loved her?

His reflection steamed over and he pulled himself back to the present. He took off his pants, then yanked open the bathroom door and stuck his head out to find Astrid gazing into the mirror at the writing desk. She was naked, other than Jake’s discarded shirt, which she’d thrown over her top-half and fastened with one button, making her look incredible. But her expression was serious. Was she also having a heart-to-heart with herself?

“Hey, dreamer,” he said. “Shower’s ready.”

She smiled, then stood up to join him. “Thanks.”

He pulled her close and kissed her hard. She inspected his body. “You’re like my very own underwear model.”

He chuckled and kissed her again – proud of how much she loved his body. He ran his finger halfway down her shirt and fingered the button that was barely holding it on. “This suits you.”

She rubbed her hand over the material. “I like it. It smells of you.”

“But I’d rather see you out of it… come on.”

He led her to the bathroom, which was now full of warm steam. “How about that shower, dirty girl?”

She grinned. “Sounds perfect. I hope you’ll rub soapy suds into my body and scrub me clean.”

He closed the door firmly behind them. “That night we met… I had a fantasy about you in the shower… when
you
first met
me
. I’d already fallen for you by then.”

She chuckled. “Stalker.” She shot him a mischievous glance. “What happened in your fantasy?”

He opened his mouth to reply, but she interrupted. “Wait, let me guess… I was wearing this shirt, and I stood in the shower and got all wet…”

She stepped into the tub and turned to soak her chest under the warm shower, making the shirt cling transparently to her gorgeous breasts. The spectacular sight electrified Jake and he was overwhelmed with an urgent desire to bend her over the tub and fuck her hard – delivering them both to sexual ecstasy.

He removed his underwear, unfurling his straining erection, then he squirted some shower gel into his palm, before climbing into the tub to join her.

She stole some of the gel from his hands, and lathered it up, then she smeared the suds over his pecs and abs, clearing enjoying touching his taut toned body. She gazed at him seductively and his lust rocketed.

He undid the button of her soaked shirt and stripped it down over her shoulders, revealing her rock-hard nipples and plump breasts.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” he said.

He pulled her against himself, rubbing their bare chests together.

The effect she had on Jake was magical. The steam from the shower filled the room, adding to the sensual atmosphere, and they kissed passionately under the warm water. Jake ran his tongue over her neck, nibbling her shoulders, then he kissed her lips again, gasping with pleasure.

Astrid peeled off her shirt and let it drop outside the tub. “It’s my turn to get soapy, don’t you think?”

She turned to grab the shower gel behind her, and Jake couldn’t resist caressing her fantastic butt. He pressed his hands against her hips, and kissed her ear. She groaned with desire.

He relished the feel of her curvy body. “In my fantasy I wanted to bend you over and take you roughly from behind.”