Ensnared (The Accidental Billionaires #1)(25)

Hell, I wish.

“Are you kidding me?” she said as the helicopter flew away. “Is this monster yours?”

I smirked. “You don’t like it?”

My intention was to let Jade get used to the things and experiences that money could buy, but having her look at me like I had two heads was rather unsettling.

“It looks like a cruise ship,” she said in an awed tone.

“Not quite,” I answered as I took her backpack and led her downstairs. “There are people who have bigger yachts, but it suits my needs well.”

She didn’t speak as we started to get under way, and seated herself by the swimming pool on the back deck.

“This is crazy,” she said as she shook her head.

I flopped into the chaise next to hers as I answered, “It’s San Diego. Everybody likes to get out on a boat.”

One of my employees came to take our drink orders and then faded away.

Jade laughed as she continued to marvel over every single one of the yacht’s over-the-top features, and I let myself relax.

There was something appealing about experiencing my world through her eyes. My motive was not to impress her, but to let her realize she now lived in the same universe that I did, and that it wasn’t really all that bad.

For some reason, I felt compelled to lead her into the world of the super-rich gently. The adjustment could be good or bad, and Jade was so unspoiled that I didn’t want to see her change for the worse.

I just wanted her to realize the possibilities instead of experiencing the fear that she would never really know what people wanted from her anymore.

I could introduce her to the people who were genuine.

And steer her away from the people who could do her harm.

Eventually, I wanted to see her enjoy her money, and feel comfortable spending it. Fuck knew that she’d earned that right through poverty and deprivation.

I had to give Evan Sinclair a hell of a lot of credit for including siblings he didn’t know into the Sinclair legacy. The man obviously had a sense of fairness that I admired. Maybe he was protecting himself from a major lawsuit if the siblings had been discovered in the future, but from the way the billionaire had handled everything, he quite obviously gave a damn about what happened to the siblings that weren’t born into wealth. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t still be so closely involved with all of them. And he definitely wouldn’t have given the half-siblings a fair share. He would have paid them off for a lot less and been done with it.

I really wanted to see Jade do some kind of a fun buy to just get whatever she wanted for herself, something other than a beachfront house. The house was an investment, a roof over her head, and not really an indulgence.

To be truthful, I hadn’t planned on buying the house next to hers. If I really thought about it, I felt a little bit like a stalker. But I was pretty desperate to somehow talk Jade into my bed, and I wanted that bed close by when she finally caved in.

It had been an impulse buy, but I didn’t regret it.

I watched as she leaned back in her lounge chair, seemingly savoring the moment. My dick was rock-hard as I watched her face. No matter how much she protested, it was obvious that she enjoyed being on the water. Seeing her more relaxed reminded me of how much I wanted to see her after she’d had the most satisfying orgasm of her life.

“This is not a boat,” she finally concluded as she closed her eyes. “I’ve been on a boat with my brother Aiden. He was a commercial fisherman before we all got rich. Boats are useful. This is like a floating five-star hotel. How many people does it take to run this cruise ship?”

I smiled. She was back to her usual sarcasm. “It has a full crew.”

“Do you know how incredible all this seems to me?” she asked.

“Do you know how normal this is for me?” I countered. “This was actually my father’s yacht. I inherited it after he died a few years ago, so I’ve been traveling on this boat for years.”

“I’m sorry about your dad,” she said immediately as she opened her eyes. “Is your mom still alive?”

I nodded. “She hates being on the water. She gets seasick, so she wanted me to take the yacht.”

“Do you have siblings?”

I slowly shook my head. “It’s just me and my mom now.”

“Did you actually want this yacht?” she questioned curiously.

I shrugged. “I don’t use it all that much. I have a smaller boat that I take out by myself sometimes. I prefer to be alone when I can. It’s nice when I can forget who I am and just soak up the peacefulness of being on the water. But it was my dad’s, and it’s hard to give up something he loved.”

I was spared any further comment as my employee arrived with our drinks.

After she left, Jade said, “I’m sure it’s no hardship to have a yacht like this available when you want company.”

I took a slug of the beer I’d ordered before I answered, “I generally don’t want company. I spend most of my days and evenings surrounded by people.”

“Do you ever wonder why they want to be around you?” she asked.

“I know why they want to be around me,” I answered. “That’s why I like my privacy when I have some rare free time. I know who my few real friends are, and I spend time with them when I can. But they’re out of state, so we don’t get to see each other all that much.”