Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (159 page)

The
party
was buzzing, and the partygoers were all well-dressed, attractive people.
 
She felt very much out of place and was
starting to regret coming with Red Jameson, who clearly didn’t even want to
bring her in the first place.

Trying
to
be inconspicuous, she went and grabbed a plate and got some food. There were
stuffed mushrooms, pigs in blankets and delicious tiny lamb chops.
 
She stood off to the side and ate while
Red talked to various people he knew.
 
When he looked over at Kallie, she just waved and smiled, letting him
know he didn’t have to babysit her.

This
mingling (or lack thereof, on her part)
went on for some time.

Finally,
Red
circled back around to where Kallie was standing.
 
“You having any fun?”

“Yeah,
this is great,” she lied.

He
smiled,
seeming to know she wasn’t having a good time.
 
“We can leave pretty soon,” he said.

A
woman
came suddenly bounding up to Red, shrieking with happiness.
 
“You’re here!”
 
She threw her arms around him, and Red,
looking uncomfortable, hugged her back.

“Where’s
Nicole?”
she asked, seeing Kallie standing nearby, and becoming confused.

“Nicole
was
feeling tired and she decided to stay home,” Red told her.

“Oh, I really wanted to see her.”

He
turned and gestured to Kallie, who smiled
uncomfortably.
 
“This is a friend of

Nicole’s.
Her name is Kallie,” he said.

“Hi,
I’m
Danielle,” the woman said, and offered her hand.
 
Kallie shook her hand and smiled again,
wider.

Just
then,
a tall, well-built older man in a dashing suit came up and slapped Red on the
back.
 
“You made it, eh?”

“And
this,
is Danielle’s even lovelier husband, Kane Wright,” Red explained.
 
He turned to Kane.
 
“You really need to get that gate fixed,
buddy.
 
The guy swings it open and
closed, open and closed all night.
 
You never heard of electricity?”

Kane
smiled
at him.
 
“If it was up to you, the
Sistine Chapel would be glow in the dark.”

“Now
that would be fun.”

“When
you
have as much money as I have, you start to appreciate the simple things more.”

“Like
giant backyard Olympic sized swimming
pools?” Red asked.

“Exactly.
Come,
I want to have a drink and chat with you about some business matters.”

Red
rolled
his eyes, but acquiesced.
 
He looked
back at Kallie.
 
“You all right on
your own for a while?”

She
nodded
and kept the fake smile going.
 
“Yes, I’m fine.
 
It’s lovely
here.”

“I’ll take care of her,” Danielle said.
 
She came closer to Kallie.
 
“So you’re

friends
with Nicole?”

Kallie
shrugged.
 
“I suppose you could say that.
 
We only just met the other day, but
she’s been really sweet and generous to me.”

Danielle
nodded.
 
“Of course.
 
That’s my Nicole.”
 
She walked towards the pool. “You like
to swim?”

“Yeah,
but not usually in a cocktail dress.”

“I’ve
got
bathing suits in my room that will fit you.
 
Let me grab you one.”

“No, I’m fine.
 
Thanks.”

“Come
on,
you’ll have so much more fun if you get in the pool!
 
I’ll go with you, Kallie.
 
Please?”

Kallie
didn’t
want to be rude, but she wasn’t really feeling in the mood for swimming.
 
As they approached the pool, though,
something changed.

There
was
a group of about eight or ten people swimming and splashing.
 
A large plastic ball was being batted
around, from one person to the next, accompanied by shouting and laughing.

It
did
look kind of fun.
 
And there was a
man in the pool that looked familiar somehow, but Kallie couldn’t quite place
him.
 
The one thing she did know was
he was gorgeous.
 
In the blue light
coming from the nearby floodlights, he looked almost radiant and other
worldly.
 
He had dark hair, and his
body was like something out of an action movie—he might have been CGI if
she didn’t know better.
 
His biceps
bulged, his shoulders were muscular and his chest rippling.
 
He had a flatter stomach than anyone
should have in real life.

Needless
to
say, the women swimming near him were giving him plenty of attention, giggling
and laughing.
 
When he picked one of
the women up and tossed her a few feet, Kallie got a thrill at the thought of
him doing that to her.

Suddenly,
she
very much wanted to get in that pool.
 
“Okay,” she said.
 
“I’ll go
swimming with you.”

“Yes!”
Danielle said, grabbing her hand and
dragging her back toward the house.

***

When
they
re-emerged about fifteen or twenty minutes later, Danielle and Kallie were both
clad in bikinis.
 
Kallie wished for
a t-shirt or something to cover herself with, at least temporarily, but all she
had was a towel that Danielle had provided for her.
 
She slung it over her shoulder and tried
to use it like a shield as she walked past the other guests, most of who were
fully clothed.

They
walked
to the pool and Kane and Red came over, both drinking bottles of beer.
 
Red saw Kallie’s outfit and his eyebrows
raised but he didn’t comment.

“Hot
mama,” Kane said.

Danielle
did
a twirl.
 
“Watch me dive in,” she
said, and then promptly did an expert dive and knifed through the water like a
fish.

“You
getting in, too?” Kane asked Kallie.

“I
can’t compete with that,” she said.
 
“Wish me luck!”
 
And then she jumped in, doing the trusty
old pencil dive, her feet penetrating the cool water first and then she was
fully submerged.

It
was like going into a different world, a cool
and dark world where the sounds were all muted and she was in slow
motion—then she was popping out of the water and bobbing on the surface.

Red
and
Kane were talking and sipping their drinks, and a moment later they faded into
the rest of the crowd together.

Danielle
kicked
over to where Kallie was treading water.
 
“It’s perfect, isn’t it?” Danielle asked her.

“Yeah,
the temperature is just right.”

“So,
how
exactly did you and Nicole meet again?” she asked, blinking and wiping excess
water from her nose and mouth.

Kallie
stuttered.
 
Five minutes of chatting at the beach
didn’t really explain why she was now staying at Nicole’s house and
accompanying her husband to a party.
 
But then again, this woman didn’t know she was staying with them.
 
Kallie started to give the short version
of how they’d met, when there was some commotion from nearby.

In
the
shallow end of the pool, two girls were sitting astride their boyfriends’
shoulders and wrestling—chicken fighting, Kallie thought it was
called—until one of the girls was able to topple the other into the pool.

The
victors
began celebrating as if they’d just won an Olympic gold medal. “Nobody can take
us down,” the guy said, as the girl atop his shoulders flexed her

biceps
and yelled something unintelligible.

For
some
reason, Kallie felt really annoyed by their childish display. Another couple
decided to take them on and promptly lost as well.
 
Now the celebration
was really over the top.

Danielle
hauled
herself out of the water.
 
“Too much
yelling and splashing for my tastes.
 
Want to grab a drink or something?”

Kallie
was
going to say yes, but then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the hot guy
from earlier was looking at her.
 
At
least, she thought he was.

Kallie
looked
back at Danielle, her heart beating fast.
 
“I don’t know,” she said. “I might just hang in the pool for a few more
minutes.
 
It’s so refreshing.”

Danielle
shrugged.
 
“I’ll swing back in a few minutes.”

Kallie
smiled
and nodded, thankful that someone was at least trying to be friendly to
her.
 
Danielle seemed like a nice
person and fairly unassuming—even though she happened to be richer than
Lady Gaga.

“Come
on,
who wants some of this?” the obnoxious girl shouted, as her even more obnoxious
boyfriend bounced her on his shoulders and demanded more competition.

“Come
on—is everyone that scared of us?”

As
she
looked away from their shenanigans (which were drawing the attention of most
bystanders by this time), she happened to once again make eye contact with the
dark haired guy with the familiar face.

He
smiled
and swam over to her in a few quick strokes of his strong arms, and she felt a
flutter in her stomach and goose bumps rising across every inch of her skin as
he came towards her.
 
“So what do
you say?” he asked her, once he’d arrived a couple of

feet
away.
 
“Want to knock those two fools off their pedestal or what?”

“I don’t know,” she said, suddenly nervous.

“Come
on,”
he said.
 
“It’ll be fun.”
 
And then he was grabbing her hand and
pulling her with him.

He
raised his other hand out of the
water.
 
“Okay, we’ll have a go!” he
shouted.

The
obnoxious
couple started smack talking immediately, while a small crowd gathered to watch
the new round of competition.

Kallie’s
new
partner turned to her, still holding her hand under water.
 
His touch was exciting and his
confidence was overwhelming.

“Ready
to hop on board?” he asked, smiling, his
dark eyes steady on her.

She
wondered
if he knew how that question sounded and decided that he probably did, which
made her quiver even more.
 
Kallie
tried to think of the last time she’d had this
kind of reaction to a man, and decided she couldn’t remember one.
 
Something about him was just pushing her
buttons in ways that both thrilled and frightened her.

Knowing
they’d soon be touching skin to bare skin
was almost too much to bear. But she thought that since they had a chicken
fight to win, she should put her game face on and forget about how hot he was.

He
ducked
down low enough in the water that she was able to thread her legs over his
muscular shoulders.

His
skin
was smooth and slick and he immediately wrapped his strong hands around her
shins in a way that she could only describe as “firm and resolute.”
 
She knew that he wasn’t going to let her
go—no matter what.
 
Her pelvis
was pressed against the back of his neck, and as he rose up out of the water,
she felt sturdy, completely confident in her partner.

The
two
obnoxious jerks were waiting for them, poised for battle.
 
Up close she liked them even less.
 
The girl was short and stubby with dark
hair and an upturned nose that matched her attitude perfectly.
 
“Easy pickings,” the stubby girl crowed.

Her
boyfriend
was tall and lanky, but clearly strong and in good shape.
 
He had a series of tattoos across his
chest and both ears and his lip were pierced.
 
“Sorry, but we got to take you out,
honey,” he said to Kallie.
 
“No hard
feelings.”
 
He waded towards them,
slowly, his stubby partner grinning as she sat on his shoulders.

“Let
them
tire themselves out,” the stranger called up to Kallie.
 
“And then we go for the kill.”

“Got
it,” she replied.

And
then
the other couple was upon them, and the stubby girl was grabbing Kallie’s arms
and pushing her, pulling her.
 
Kallie felt like she might be thrown off at any moment, and she was
honestly surprised by the other girl’s strength.
 
No wonder they’d beaten the other teams
so easily—this girl was like a linebacker!

But
Kallie’s
partner adjusted his hands up above her knees, helping her to stay astride his
shoulders and not be yanked off by the more aggressive girl’s frantic pushing
and pulling.

Soon
people
from around the pool were cheering them on, as the match continued.
Kallie yanked her arms free of the other
girl’s grasp.
 
Now they were
circling one another like it was some Roman coliseum fight to the death.
 
“Taryn, this chick is nothing,” the
tattooed guy said.
 
“She’s weak
sauce, honey.
 
Take her down.”

“Okay!”
Taryn
yelled back, seemingly annoyed.
 
They rushed in for another attempt.
 
Taryn grabbed Kallie’s arms yet again, pulling and pushing to no
avail.
 
Kallie saw that the girl was
starting to breathe a little heavier now, too.