The Return of the Tycoon (7 page)

Nick smiled down at her. “Neither do I,” he assured her, tucking her hand in his and leading the way. Leaning down, he planted a kiss on her head. “You look beautiful, by the way,” he murmured. “That dress looks fantastic on you.” Despite herself, Julie basked under his
approval as they entered the restaurant.

“All right,” Julie calmed herself, “we’re here now and—” Julie broke off when they were approached by a tall, well-dressed brunette.

“Hello, Nicholas,” the brunette addressed him. The way she purred the words gave Julie a sinking feeling. At the sight of the other woman, Nick straightened.

“You should have called me the moment you got into town,” the brunette continued. Julie felt the first tendrils of rage begin to bubble inside her. From the look of her, Julie felt sure she stood face to face with another of Nick’s women. First, Tina and, now, this bitch. As long as she continued to see Nick
, she would have to get used to sharing him with a half dozen women in every city across the globe
.

The last thing Julie wanted was to be another mark on Nick’s bedpost. Amy had been right. Julie never should have come here. People just didn’t change. Turning on her heel, Julie decided she didn’t want to stick around for introductions.

Chapter 9

“What was that all about?” Angel
a, his tax lawyer, asked as she
watched Julie flee the scene.

“Julie, wait, it’s not what you think…” he tried going after her.

“I’m done, Nick,” was all he heard as she took off even faster.

Through the window, he spied her hailing a cab and then disappearing out of sight. Nicholas sighed.

“You’re the last person I would have guessed to have trouble with women,” Angela drew hi
s attention back to her. “What happened
?”

“You,” Nicholas did nothing to camouflage his disappointment.

“Me?” Angela raised an eyebrow before laughing aloud. Shaking her head, she added, “I’m guessing she doesn’t know that I’d be more likely to hit on her than on you.”

Nicholas s
ighed; despite what he did
, Julie would forever suspect him of sleeping around. He had no way to undo the past, and Julie seemed unwilling to forgive and forget, despite how much time had passed
and how much he’d tried to change
. He sighed, eyeing the bar. Nicholas wanted only one thing now.

“May I buy you a drink, Angela?” he asked, not wanting to drink alone. Angela glanced at her watch before answering.

“I have about twenty minutes to spare. Will that be enough?”

He nodded, and they made their way to the bar. She liked her bourbon the same way he did—neat. When their drinks arrived, she wasted no time on small talk.

“She’s not your usual type,” Angela began, sipping her drink casually. She crossed one leg over the other as she leaned one arm on the bar. “I thought you liked only the uptight waifs.”

Nicholas could only glare at her. He thou
ght about ignoring the question but
needed someone to talk to.

“Julie is...,” he paused, trying to find the right word. “Special,” he finished at last. A look of knowing crossed Angela’s face. She nodded, setting down her drink.

“Ah, yes,” she drawled. “The one who got away?”

Nicholas shrugged. “You could say that.”

“How long ago?”

“Ten years.”

Angela’s brown eyes pierced him as she spoke her next words. “How did it happen?”

Nicholas didn’t miss a beat. “I cheated on her,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion.

“Why?” Angela asked.

Swirling his drink in his glass, Nick tipped his head back and swallowed it in one gulp, then raised his hand to the bartender, indicating that he needed another. “It’s complicated.”

“I don’t buy it.”

“Well, Julie was someone close to me who loved me for who I was. She cared for me when I was
a
nobody, when your typical woman wouldn’t care about me, when I couldn
’t whisk someone away to anywhere
in a heartbeat as I can now. But once I saw some success, I…”

“Then you decided you couldn’t be content with your old girlfriend anymore?”

“Doesn’t sound so good when you say it. But I’ve never been a popular kid, and the women, the glamour, I just wanted it. I made a mistake, but it’s not because I didn’t care for her.”

“So, it happened suddenly?”

“I’m not sure. I felt as if Julie had been pulling away from me since we graduated and I started to work for the hedge fund company I eventually bought out to make Renaissance.”

He stopped talking when the second drink arrived. He drained it, too, and signaled for a third
. “I was a fool and a bastard. But all I want to do now is make it right and make her
happy.” He ran a hand through his hair before locking eyes with Angela.

She waited patiently for him to continue. “That was a major screw-up,” she finally said.

“I know, I know, but see, I’m trying to make it up to her, but anything I do, it’s not enough. Neither of us grew up with much, and I want to give her everything we missed. But I mean, I bought her a house; I brought her here; I paid off her student loans. But she just doesn’t seem to care.” He stopped, not wanting to go further.

“Tina didn’t mind when you bought her things, I take it,” Angela finished his thoughts for him.

“No,” he said, his voice sounding sad. “That’s all it took to make her happy.”

“Julie wants more from you,” Angela ventured. Nicholas’s gaze shot up, meeting Angela’s gaze. 

“She wants you, Nicholas,” Angela shrugged. Angela’s phone rang in her briefcase, and she hurried to retrieve it. “Some women value people over shiny new shoes, Nicholas,” she said, glancing at the screen on her phone before hopping off the barstool. “At least the good ones do.”

Reaching for her jacket, she slipped her hands in the sleeves and shrugged it over her shoulders. “Thank you for the drink, but I must be going. We’re having dinner with Rachael’s parents tonight.” She patted him on the shoulder before heading out. “Nice things are great, but you don’t fix betrayal of trust by gifts and a trip to San Francisco. Takes more than that. Think about what I said, Nicholas,” she called over her shoulder before exiting through the front doors.

Nicholas stared at the bottom of his third glass, the effects of the alcohol just beginning to make his head spin.

“Another, sir?” the bartender asked, clearing away his last glass.

Nicholas nodded, not ready to head back to the house yet. Julie would be there, she’d be angry, and he just didn’t want to fight tonight. He’d been looking forward to this
romantic getaway all week and
wanted nothing more than to bring Julie here and show her the house. Come to think of it, she
hadn’t even mentioned it
. He frowned.

His fourth bo
urbon arrived
, Nicholas threw it back without preamble. The alcohol burned its way down his throat into the pit of his belly, but he didn’t care. Julie would never forgive him. He’d have to live with that, and every effort he made, from that trip to the house, made that clear.

The trip here, paying off her loan. And the house. Nick couldn’t believe she didn’t say a word about it. She didn’t even remember. Why couldn’t she understand that he
wanted
to do things for her because it made him happy to take care of her? Why did she always have to prove that she didn’t need him?

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Reaching for it, he managed to grip the edge of the bar, his phone slipping from his fingers and clattering to the floor in the process. Nicholas slid from the stool and squatted to retrieve the phone; the screen lit at the touch of his fingers.

Hey, Sexy,
it read. Nicholas didn’t need to glance at the sender to know it was from Tina.
I’ve been lonely without u.

Nick cringed.

Do u miss me 2?

Nick shook his head. Just like back
then
. Sighing, he glanced back at his phone. How could he have been so stupid to fall for this years ago?

***

Julie was awake when Nick stumbled in. Not bothering to turn on a light, she heard him trip in the dark. He was drunk, and she knew. Even from her spot in the bed, she could smell the alcohol on him. She watched his shadowy form in the darkness as he stripped off his clothes, first emptying his pockets on the nightstand. He collapsed beside her, asleep moments later.

In a few minutes
she stroked his dampened forehead
, sighing
. She still had feelings for him, despite what he’d done in the past. But so much had happened between them. Could she eve
r forgive him? She glanced down at him sleeping.

A buzz sounded on the nightstand. Glancing over at his phone, Julie wondered who was
texting Nick so late at night. She reached to turn the phone off when an explicit text message from Tina stopped her dead in her tracks.

So, this was what Nick had been up to the whole evening. Sexting with Tina! Storming to the wall, Julie flipped on the switch, flooding the room in a bright light. It hurt her eyes, but she refused to blink.

Nick groaned, pulling the cover over his head. Julie hurried to the closet. Opening it, she found her knapsack and stuffed her meager belongings inside. She left the red dress on the hanger, not wanting to take it and the memories that came with it.

“
Jules
,” Nick groaned, rubbing his eyes. “Turn out the light and come back to bed. I need to get up early for work tomorrow.”

“No!” she snapped, “I want to go back to New York.”

“You can’t right now,” he said resignedly.

“Fine. Then, I’ll sleep in the other room.”

***

A knock sounded at Julie’s door. Even though it was nearly one in th
e afternoon on a Saturday, she
hadn’t bothered to shower or dress. Still in her pajamas, she lay sprawled across the couch cushions. Her eyes shot to the door
. Without leaving the couch, Julie
called out to whoever stood outside her apartment.

“It’s me,” came Nick’s voice.

“Don’t you have work to do?” she called out.

“Yes,” he answe
red, “but you’re more important,
”
he said.

“You shouldn’t have left last night,” he continued. “You saw I never answered her, I can’t control people sending me annoying messages, you know?”
From her place on the couch, Julie snorted. Nick really was pulling out all the stops this time.

“I have something for you,” Nick called out again. “I’ll leave it at the door so you can look.”

“No,” Julie snapped. She expected him to argue with her, but she heard some shuffling. A moment later, she heard Nick’s heavy footsteps as he retreated down the stairs. Gingerly, she stood, letting her bathrobe fall to the floor.

The envelope felt as though it contained a thin book. Not another piece of jewelry or fancy clothes? Curious, she tore it open. She stared at the sight of its familiar cover.

“Oh, Nick,” she murmured, turning the first page—
Freshman year,1998:
New Student Orientation.
Running her fingers over the glossy pictures of Nick and her, she couldn’t help marveling at how young they looked. Where had the time gone? They’d both been nervous freshmen, filling out endless paperwork and reading up on campus rules.

It had been raining that day, and Nick had asked to share her umbrella. The whole thing had been a fiasco with Nick standing nearly a foot taller than she was. He’d had to squat the whole way. By the end of the campus tour, they were holding hands like the crazy teenagers they were. Love had been so simple back then.

She also found his personal journal, the one he used to keep back in college, the one he’d never let her read. She read and read through the entries that started back when they were together all the way to the breakup and the present day. The entries became less frequent but not less emotional as Nick wondered out loud about his personal life and the direction it was taking. A lot of it concerned her and relationships and she had to wipe the moisture from her eyes every time he mentioned how every new date made him feel more and more empty and how he wished he had that one thing he lost once he received fame, wealth and success
—
a real relationship
.

Grinning to herself, Julie curled into a ball, h
ugging the scrapbook
to her chest.
Nick must have had trouble sharing those private thoughts and she never thought he was that introspective about things.