The Mogul and the Muscle: A Bluewater Billionaires Romantic Comedy(84)

Plus, they’d always be my favorite shoes. I’d even left the tiny tracking device Jude had installed. I liked knowing it was there. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, like even when we were apart, we were still connected.

And it gave me some fun ideas for a little roleplay. Just because he’d been a real spy didn’t mean we couldn’t have a little fun pretending. He’d be the sexy, sophisticated intelligence operative and I’d be the seductive femme fatale, my sultry temptations threatening his mission— “Um, Cameron?”

I turned at the male voice, startled out of my brief fantasy—a male voice who was definitely not Jude. Aldrich stood near the Beach Burger deck stairs, dressed in a pale pink button-down and linen slacks. His hands were in his pockets and his shoulders slumped a little. He wasn’t quite looking me in the eye.

“Aldrich? What are you doing here?”

“I came to apologize,” he said. His facial hair had started to grow out—he usually shaved—and it wasn’t a good look on him. Too patchy. “For everything.”

I crossed my arms. “Oh?”

He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about the video. I shouldn’t have shared that with anyone.”

“You’re damn right you shouldn’t have shared it. You should have deleted it like you said you did, not secretly kept it, then passed it around for bragging rights. That was a dick move. And it wasn’t even very flattering to your dick.”

A handful of people glanced at us, but I didn’t really care.

“Jesus, Cameron, keep your voice down.”

I took a few steps closer. “I trusted you to keep it between us. And when you told me you’d deleted it, I trusted you again. What you did was a terrible betrayal. It was a shitty thing to do to a person you claimed to have cared about.”

“Yeah, I know. I also came to tell you that the video’s gone. Every copy. I swear to you, it’s true. I checked with everyone and made sure. It’s like it never existed.”

“Other than the fact that half a dozen of your friends probably jacked off to it like it was porn.”

He winced.

“They did? God, Aldrich, that’s disgusting.”

His eyes darted to something behind me, then back. “Yeah, that is kinda fucked up.”

“And what’s with buying shares of Reese Howard? Don’t try to tell me you just thought it was a good investment.”

“I did think it was a good investment.”

“Bullshit.”

“Fine, I thought I’d get some skin in the aerospace game because I knew it would piss you off. You fucking left me, Cameron. No woman has ever left me. I do the leaving.”

“I’m sorry to have ruined your perfect track record. Better luck with the next one.”

He shook his head and looked away.

“Aldrich, I left you because we weren’t good together. I wasn’t happy, and neither were you. I’m not the kind of woman you want. I’m too independent for you. I’m not arm candy. I have a very busy, fulfilling life of my own, and you weren’t interested in that.”

His brow furrowed. “Is that like saying it’s not you, it’s me?”

“No, I’m saying the problem was you.”

He let out an annoyed breath and his eyes darted past me again.

“Jude’s behind me, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Did he put you up to this?”

He hesitated. “He… made a strong suggestion. But I’m serious about the video. It’s gone.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. I could imagine how strong of a suggestion that must have been.

“Thank you for the apology. I still think you’re an asshole and my biggest regret is that it took me too long to realize it.” I took a step closer and lowered my voice. “I hope every time you sleep with another woman, you think of me, and wonder if right at that very moment, Jude is fucking me senseless with his enormous cock. And I can assure you, I will never, ever be thinking of you.”

I stepped back, feeling suddenly free, then turned around, dismissing Aldrich from my life forever.

And walked into the arms of the man who’d done more to love me in the short time he’d known me than anyone before him.

He slipped his hands around my waist and kissed me. “Sorry to spring that on you, but I thought you’d appreciate the chance to tie up loose ends.”

I looked up at him. At that square jaw and deep hazel eyes. I loved him so much. “How much did you have to threaten him before he agreed to come?”

“Only a little.”

I playfully batted his chest.

He gently touched my face. I loved when he did that. “Are you good?”

“Yes. I feel great. Closure.”

“Good. That’s what I was hoping for.”

He offered me his arm and I tucked mine in his. We strolled along the walk, filled with the scent of sugar and deep-fried dough.

“I just wish I didn’t have that little doubt about the video,” I said.

“What doubt?”

“That someone still has a copy and it’ll come back to bite me someday.”

“That won’t happen.”

He said it with so much assurance, I stopped and looked up at him. “How do you know?”