The Power Billionaire: The Complete Series (BBW Erotic Romance Trilogy) (10 page)

After long minutes of this, he buried himself fully and stopped moving. His hands returned to caressing me, no longer desperate. I leaned forward again on the mantle to catch my breath and he stepped back, promptly making me feel empty, hollow. I picked up my panties and put them back in place before I made a mess and by the time I turned around James was zipping up his pants.

He looked at me and I avoided his gaze. I was actually remorseful. I had let my hormones overtake my body and now I was paying the price. I turned back toward the fire even though it was already too warm. I stared at the flames for the longest time, mad at myself and wondering how I could justify what I had done. Pleasure had a steep price.

“Here,” he said. “Sorry, no pink daiquiri today.”

I looked down. He was offering me a glass of whiskey. I took it and stepped away from the fireplace as I drank.

“So I guess now we can talk.”

He grinned and took a sip after saying this. He sat on the wing chair, at the other end of the coffee table.

“Close the book on your investigation. Grayson isn’t giving money to terrorists.”

“Of course you would say that.”

“He’s a good man!”

“Sure, such a good man that he would send you to my hotel in Florida to seduce information out of me. He’s a real stand-up guy.”

“It’s not like that, James.”

“Merrin, please. Don’t insult me.”

All right
, he sort of had a point. Grayson had asked me to pry the information out of the federal agent, even if I had to sleep with him. It was odd to be asked this by my boyfriend, obviously, but on the other hand I felt as if I owed him. There’s a point when you feel good about doing a favor for someone and it’s like you’re doing yourself a favor.

“Granted, we don’t have a conventional relationship, Grayson and I. But he told me the truth. I believe him.”

“You know what truth is to billionaires? It’s whatever they want it to be!”

“He’s
pretending
to be funding terrorism. He’s doing a courtesy for the CIA, it’s a sting operation. What does he get for his trouble? You on his back!”

“Of course you’re gonna defend him,” he said, rolling his eyes. “He’s got you wrapped around his little finger like a teenage groupie tripping on Ecstasy. Open your eyes, Merrin!”

“How about you open yours?”

I slammed my glass down on the coffee table.

“Merrin…”

“You’re judgmental and frankly I think you’re not being impartial.” It at once became clear my head. “That’s it, isn’t it? You’re gonna pursue this because you want to take me away from Grayson. You just want a trophy!”

He stood up and pointed out the door. “Get the hell out of my house.”

His eyes were smoldering with rage. I didn’t waste a second grabbing my coat and leaving the apartment.

Chapter 3

It was still raining as I jogged down the sidewalk and crossed the street. I picked up speed as I approached the black stretch limo. Before I could get there, the rear door was opened from inside. I saw Grayson looking at me. He let go of the door and moved aside to let me in. I launched myself in, closing the door behind me.

“Are you cold?” he asked. “Do you want the heat turned on?”

“No, I’m fine.”

I was more than fine. My cheeks were still burning, not only from the fire but from what James and I had done. The cold air had done nothing to cool me down. The billionaire stretched forward and knocked on the dark partition. Five seconds later, we were driving away.

“And? How did it go?”

“Not good.”

“There are different degrees of not good, Merrin. How did he react when you explained to him I really wasn’t funding terrorism?”

“I don’t think it’s too strong to say complete and utter disbelief.”

“That bad, uh?”

“Yeah.”

I slid on the leather and went to the minibar. My thoughts were jumbled and I needed to calm down. I desperately needed a drink. I picked the first bottle and poured myself an inch. I had drunk half of it before even knowing it was scotch.

“Hey, take it easy with that. It’s all right if the ploy didn’t succeed. The man is an experienced federal agent, it always was a long shot. I’m proud of you for trying.”

After giving me one of his warm, comforting smiles, he came closer to me and kissed my cheek. He lingered and went down to kiss my neck when he abruptly stopped.

“Merrin? What’s that sm...”

“I’d rather not talk about it, okay?”

I went back to my drink and sipped it to appear as if I was in the middle of something very important. I glanced at him and immediately noticed he was hurt. It was like I had hit him with a shovel.

“You slept with him, didn’t you?”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Did you do that to convince him? Did you do this for me?”

I finally turned to face him. I had never seen him like this. He seemed to have shrunk in size. The naturally tall, handsome, distinguished billionaire now looked like some insecure college freshman.

“It just happened, okay? It wasn’t planned or anything. One minute I was telling him that we had to talk and the next thing I knew he was on me. For what it’s worth, I told him to stop, that I didn’t want to.”

His head snapped up. “You told him no and he didn’t listen?”

His eyes hardened and I saw his right hand ball into a fist. He was back to his dominant self and it was somewhat scary.

“It’s not like that, Grayson. I didn’t want to but then…”

“But then you did.”

“It just happened,” I repeated lamely. “I’m sorry.”

He forced a smile. “You don’t have to apologize. I don’t own you. After what I made you to do with him in Florida, I have no business judging you.”

When he had suggested I seduced James before, it had been extremely naughty. I had done so to gather information but he had admitted afterwards that it had turned him on. Lovemaking later on had been nothing short of fantastic. But tonight was of my own initiative, not his. I think that’s what irked him the most. Not being in control was extremely difficult for him.

“It didn’t mean anything,” I said softly. “It was… It was only sexual.”

“Are you sure about that, Merrin? Are you really sure about that?”

He looked at me like a high school teacher making me want to understand the error of my ways. For the first time I heard my own words. Was I really sure it had only been physical with James?

Did I have feelings for him?

*   *   *

The next day, my heels resounded loudly on the tiles as I struggled to keep up with Grayson’s long strides. The young man leading us didn’t look over his shoulder to see if we were far behind which only put additional strain on me. He looked like an intern and was probably secretly happy to have a modicum of authority for once. We turned to the right and before long the corridor veered to the left.

“Is this a maze or something?” I asked.

Grayson smiled at me. “It is, actually. They designed CIA headquarters so that the hallways are never in a straight line. It keeps the audio signals from escaping in case someone stands across the street with a microphone.”

“They can do that?”

“Actually, they can’t, not with this configuration. They call it The Wave.”

After it seemed like we had just trekked through a national park in terms of distance, the intern led us into a conference room. Two people were already inside and they stood up. One was a balding middle-aged man in a cheap suit and the other was a woman in her late 20s. She was blonde and tall and belonged in a magazine.

“Grayson,” she greeted, shaking his hand. “How are you?”

“How do you do, Rebecca? This is my friend Merrin.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Merrin. I’m Rebecca Tewksbury, targeting analyst. This my superior, Robert Bozzelli.”

We shook hands all around and then sat at the long table. Coffee was offered and declined and we settled into dreary chitchat. It was a windowless room so I had no choice but to focus on the two members of the Central Intelligence Agency. Bozzelli seemed bored, clearly wishing he was somewhere else, but it was the opposite for the woman.

She was all smiles and I had a sense she was flirting with Grayson. She sat several inches in retreat from the table, no doubt so the billionaire could see her flawless legs which she crossed and uncrossed every few minutes like she was auditioning for a
Basic Instinct
sequel. There was no avoiding the power of her short skirt. After five minutes I was ready to risk prison for justifiable homicide.

“Here they are,” she said as the door opened.

We all stood up. The first person in was the same intern who had brought us here. Behind him was a woman in her early 50s. She was about my height and almost as plump as me. Behind her was Special Agent James Evartt. He scanned the room quickly and then kept his eyes on me. There was no hiding his surprise – his disgust? – about me being here. The intern left.

“I’m Assistant Special Agent in Charge Wiepert,” the woman said before introducing James to everyone.

I dutifully shook hands with James and I had a feeling he held on a few seconds longer than customary. At the same time, his demeanor was definitely not rainbows and butterflies. He was holding me responsible for getting him dragged here.

“All right, I think we can begin,” Rebecca said with a million-dollar smile.

We all sat around the table and I couldn’t miss the staring contest that was going on between Grayson and James.

“As I understand it, Homeland Security has launched an investigation against Mr. Grayson Holmes. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” Wiepert replied. “Special Agent Evartt is acting lead on the case.”

“Right. The reason you were convened here is to ask you, in the most respectful terms, to drop this investigation.”

“You know you have no authority over Homeland Security, right? You can bitch and moan and throw a hissy fit but nothing you say can legally make us stop investigating anyone.”

“Did your daddy arrange this meeting?” James asked Grayson. “Must be a doozy to be the son of a U.S. Senator. He can pull all sorts of strings for you. Does Merrin know about the time you drunk drove a coed to death?”

“What?” I mumbled, turning to Grayson.

“I bet daddy came real handy that night, uh?”

“Agent Wiepert, please keep your man in line.”

It was the first time Bozzelli had spoken and his voice carried authority. People subtly cleared their throats.

“The reason you’re investigating Mr. Holmes is because you suspect him of funding terrorists, is that correct?”

“Yes,” Wiepert answered. “We were notified of suspicious money transfers from a bank in Arizona to several offshore accounts belonging to corporations registered in Panama. We backtraced the transactions to entities belonging to Mr. Grayson Holmes.”

“We’re all aware of this,” Rebecca said. “I have all the bank account numbers if you want to verify. We asked Mr. Holmes to route that money.”

At that, James threw his head back. It was like he had just been on the receiving end of an uppercut. To be proven wrong in public was devastating to him. This is what kept me from mouthing
I told you so
.

Rebecca slid a folder across the table to the two members of a Homeland Security.

“The material before you is Eyes Only, top secret SCI level,” the senior CIA man barked. “None of this leaves this room.”

“Of course.”

Rebecca took over. “As part of Operation Majestic Thunder, reference number 71967-AN35, we are trying to draw out insurgent elements based in Indonesia. They have links with terrorist cells in Yemen and Qatar. The mission’s operational goal is to establish a fake terror network. Once it’s set up, we’ll have the terrorists fighting each other thinking they are actually us, the Western powers.”

James and his superior followed along by looking at the paperwork in the file.

“That’s…” Wiepert began, shaking her head. “That’s devious.”

“We’re paid to be devious. Our objective is to fight a proxy war against terrorists. We’ll have them doing the dirty work for us. No American lives will be lost, not anymore. We needed clean money with no ties to the U.S. government and so it was suggested by Senator Holmes, who is on the Select Committee on Intelligence, to speak with his son, a true patriot.”

“If funneling $10 million can help protect my country, well, it’s the least I can do.”

“If you look at page 7, you’ll see authorizations from DOD and the Director of Central Intelligence for these transactions.”

“So we need you to drop this investigation, please,” Bozzelli said. “We’ll arrange it so a drug smuggler gets linked to one of the offshore accounts so you can have something to show for your time and efforts. Also, it won’t appear as if you’re just abandoning an ongoing investigation. Can we count on you to help us out?”

After a moment, Wiepert nodded. “Of course. Interagency cooperation is mandatory these days.”

James turned to her as if he’d been stung. “But…”

“You have our
full
cooperation,” she added. “From
all
our agents.”

“Great!” Rebecca said, standing up to signify the meeting was over.

We all climbed to our feet and said goodbye. We filed out of the room, Grayson and I closing the ranks. I couldn’t believe I had heard all that. I had been a lowly secretary for a decade and now I was hearing about secret government operations? It was surreal.

On the one hand, I was relieved that Grayson had been telling the truth about not being really involved in terrorism. I trusted him implicitly but doubt was a dangerous thing. Now my mind was at ease. On the other hand however, this seemed dangerous. What if the terrorists learned the truth? What if they came after him?

I watched James walking ahead of us. He was clearly mad. He had been bamboozled, as Grandma Edna would say. His pride was hurt and I was afraid he would do something rash.

Right then came my worst nightmare.