Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (71 page)

So she switched
gears and asked him about work.
 

“Do you still
enjoy it?”

He thought for
a while, maneuvering easily between two cars and then giving the Bentley some
extra gas so they shot ahead and into a new lane.
 
His driving was so fast and daring, yet
she never felt in any danger from what he did.
 

“I do enjoy
it,” he said.
 
“But things are
different now that we’re so established.
 
I really loved it when the odds were stacked against me.
 
When everyone said I would fail, that I
couldn’t land the big account.
 
That
I was growing too fast.”

“And now?”

He
shrugged.
 
“Now everyone expects us
to win.”

“I wish I knew
what that felt like.”

He glanced at
her.
 
“Someday you will,
Nicole.
 
And you’ll realize it’s not
all it’s cracked up to be.
 
Coming
up is the fun part.”

Eventually he
exited the highway.
 

She noticed a
few signs for Teterboro Airport and began wondering if it was a
coincidence.
 
But as they continued,
the signs grew closer together and he continued to follow them, and soon it was
clear they were actually going there.

“Where on earth
are we going?” she cried, when she saw the glowing landing strip lights, and a
plane flew overhead.

“I haven’t
quite decided.”

“We need a
plane to get there?”

“Do you not
like flying?”

“Only when I
need to get somewhere far away.
 
And
last I checked, we’re going on a date.”

“Right.”
 
He smiled at her.
 
“Glad we’re in agreement.”

They parked and
he led her into the airport, where he was treated like a king.
 
No standing in lines, no waiting.
 
The two of them were escorted
immediately onto the tarmac, where a private jet was waiting.

The pilot
personally greeted Red and Nicole as they climbed the steps to board it.
 

“Evening Mister
Jameson,” the pilot said, his voice betraying a distinctive Southern
twang.
 
“Evening, ma’am.”

“Good evening,
Will,” Red said, shaking his hand.
 
“How are the kids?”

“Great,
sir.
 
Oldest just had his eighteenth
birthday.”

“Does he like
basketball?”

“That he does.”

“What’s his
favorite team?”

“He’s actually
a Kentucky fan.”

“I’m going to
have Lacy send him four tickets to the NCAA tournament as a gift.”

The pilot shook
his head.
 
“No way.
 
I can’t accept that.”
 
But he was smiling.

“You will,” Red
laughed as they climbed aboard.

The interior of
the jet was less like any plane she’d ever been on, and more like some kind of
futuristic living room.
 

There were
plush chairs, a long couch, a flat screen television, a full bar.
 
The only thing that proved she was still
on a plane was the entrance to the cockpit and the little circular windows that
only planes had.
 
Everything was
very classy, cream colored, none of the gaudy red and black stuff.

“Now will you
tell me where we’re going?” she asked him when they’d sat in two of the seats
and buckled themselves in for takeoff.

The plane began
taxying down the runway.

He held her
hand and looked in her eyes.
 
“Florida.”

“Florida?”

“I didn’t want
to take you too far from home, but just far enough away to be romantic.
 
We’ll be there in under three hours if
the wind stays in this direction.”

“What are you,
a pilot too?
 
You know the wind
direction?”

“Will told
me.”
 
He grins.
 
“Let’s have a drink to celebrate our
escape from New York.”
 
He buzzed
for the stewardess, a beautiful woman who batted her eyes and flirted
shamelessly with Red right in front of Nicole.

But Red clearly
had no interest in her.
 
She brought
them two glasses of champagne as the plane soared into the night skies.
 
Nicole looked out the windows and
watched the tiny bright lights of the city grow smaller and smaller beneath
them.
 

She felt really
happy for the first time in a long time.
 

“Here’s to a
beautiful night,” Red said, raising his glass, “and the woman who captured my
heart.”

They drank the
champagne and held hands.

Eventually the
plane stabilized and they could move about the cabin.
 
So they sat on the couch and watched TV
together, feeling like a real couple.
 
She lay with her feet across his lap, and Red massaged her feet softly,
gently.
 
His hands were warm and
knowledgeable.
 
By the end, she was
so relaxed that she dozed off.

She woke as the
plane bumped a soft landing on the runway in Florida.

“I slept that
whole time?” she cried, sitting up.

Red
laughed.
 
“They wanted us to move
back to our seats for the landing, but I refused to wake my sleeping beauty.”

The plane
slowed down and came to a stop near the airport.
 
She rubbed her eyes.
 
“This might be the strangest night of my
life.”

“Perfect,” he
said.

***

It was just
after ten-thirty when they arrived, via taxi, at Siesta Key, a small tourist
island that Nicole had only heard of, but never been to.
 
The main drag was cute, filled with
little outdoor restaurants, bars, some of them with musicians playing for the
many customers.

Plenty of
people walked up and down the strip, and everyone seemed to be happy, as if
playing bit parts in the romantic movie that was Nicole’s life.
 

Red took her to
a surprisingly normal grill called Club Baja.
 
They sat outside, where the air was warm
and fragrant, and humid.
 
She could
smell the beach, the ocean air.
 

It was like a
dream.

“This place has
the best fish tacos I’ve ever had,” he said.
 
And proceeded to order fish tacos and
beer for both of them, not bothering to inquire what she might like.

Nicole didn’t
fight him on this, because by now she expected that he would take charge of
just about everything.
 

And besides, he
was right about the fish tacos.
 
They were incredible.
 
“This
might be the best meal I’ve ever had,” she admitted.

He nodded,
chewing a huge mouthful of food and following it with a gulp of beer.

When the meal
was over, they walked hand and hand down the strip with the other tourists,
just a regular couple out for a stroll.
 
The only thing that made them stand out was their clothing.
 
Red had taken off his suit coat and tie
and rolled up his sleeves, but he was the only guy wearing fancy pants and a
button-down.

Finally they
arrived at the beach.
 
Red bent down
and began unlacing his shoes.

“What are you
doing?” she asked.

“We’re going to
take a walk on this beach,” he said.
 
“Come on.”

So she took off
her heels and he took off his shoes and socks.
 
He was now carrying so many different
pieces of clothing that he eventually dropped it all in a pile by one of the
vacant lifeguard chairs.

She placed her
high heels in the pile and they continued their walk, this time right down by
the water.
 
The sand was cool on her
feet and between her toes.
 
When the
water made it to their feet, she shivered a little.

“How can you
suddenly seem so normal?” she asked.
 
“Is this an act or what?”

Red took her
hand and stopped her.
 
He looked in
her eyes.
 
His face was bathed in
shadows.
 
“I’m doing this because I
want to make you happy,” he said.
 
And then he kissed her.

I love you, she
thought.
 
She was frightened to
think it, but also glad.

He took her and
laid her down just far enough away from the water that the waves didn’t reach
them as they kissed on the beach.
 
She was getting sand all over her, and she didn’t care at all.

Soon, he’d
removed her blouse.
 
And then her
jeans came off.

She was
naked.
 
They were far enough down
the beach, and it was dark enough that she wasn’t too afraid of being
seen.
 
And besides, it was exciting.

Red stroked her
face, told her he wanted her.
 
Told
her she was everything to him.
 

“I missed you
when we were apart.
 
I don’t want to
be apart anymore.”

“I love you,”
she told him.

Then he was
caressing her breasts, her nipples.
 
The air felt cool against her bare skin.

He kissed down
her stomach to the part of her that wanted him most.
 
Between her legs.
 
She moaned and cried out as he kissed
her there, too.

“Make love to
me,” she told him.

When he entered
her this time, it was different.
 
She knew what to expect from his size, which was still amazing to
her.
 
But she felt so connected to
him now, so trusting of his intentions.
 

He was gentle.
 
She knew that he was being gentle for
her.

She came more
times than she could count.
 
At one
point she bit into his shoulder to keep from screaming.
 
Scratched his back as he thrust into
her, pushing so deep that her eyes rolled back in her head and her hips bucked
against him.
 
She clutched his tight
buttocks with her hands as he thrust again.

“I’m coming,”
he whispered in her ear.

And she felt
that too.
 

***

Nicole didn’t
get back to her apartment until just before five the next morning.
 
She’d slept most of the plane ride back,
but it wasn’t truly restful sleep.
 
Her eyes burned, her calves and knees ached, and she wanted nothing more
than to crawl into bed for the next seven hours.
 

The thought of
her own warm bed, her soft blanket and pillow, was nearly too much to
bear.
 
But the last thing she wanted
was a repeat of the other time she’d gone in late to work after a night out
with Red.

So she jumped
in the shower instead, changed into her work clothes, put on makeup, and brewed
herself a cup of extra strong coffee before she left.

She arrived at
work by seven and had yet another cup of coffee.
 
She wasn’t really awake, but she was
wired enough to fake it now.

Work was
brutal.
 
Remi was giving her more
and more to do on the cowboy account, which was great, but demanding.
 

She finished up
by seven that evening and left for home.
 
Throughout the day, she’d gotten four or five texts from Red.
 
They were sweet little reminders that he
was thinking of her.
 
She smiled
each time she got one.

All she could
think about on the train ride home was how badly she wanted to go to
sleep.
 

The bed was
calling to her, like a lighthouse calling out to a ship on a foggy night.
 

She trudged up
the steps to her apartment, got out her keys, and that’s when she heard
voices—voices inside her apartment.
 

Those
voices—she knew them.
 

“Oh my god,”
she whispered.
 
It was her parents,
all the way up from Syracuse.

For an instant,
she considered running away—literally.
 
Just taking off and going somewhere for
the night, avoiding them entirely.
 
What were they doing here, completely unannounced?
 
Whatever it was, she was to done in from
the last twenty-four hours to deal with them.