The Undercover Billionaire Page 16

  She didn’t want that to be a secret.

  His gaze narrowed, as if he was suspicious of what she’d said. But then the taxi pulled in to the side of the street and the driver was informing them that they’d reached their destination.

  Wolf gave her an intense look, then he turned away to deal with the driver.

  A minute later they were standing on the sidewalk with the Hudson River glittering in the late-afternoon sunshine, and a marina right in front of her, with lots of yachts and barges and houseboats all pulled up to the docks.

  Wolf took his phone out and discarded it in a nearby trash can. Then he grabbed her hand and she had no choice but to follow him as he led her along the sidewalk to a gate in the tall fence that separated the sidewalk from the docks. Digging into his pocket, he brought out a key that he used to unlock the gate, swinging it open and gesturing for her to go through.

  She frowned as she stepped through the gate. “Are we going sailing?”

  He shook his head, pulling the gate shut behind him. “No. We’re going into hiding.” Then he took her hand once again and moved to the steps that led down to the docks.

  The docks were floating, making her feel unsteady in her dark blue pumps, her footsteps echoing on the wood as he guided her down a dock that projected out into the river.

  She stared at the different boats, one a huge barge that looked big enough to be a house in its own right, and then a long, sleek-looking one probably worth millions, some rich man’s toy.

  Wolf stopped beside an older yacht with a couple of masts that lay low in the water. There was a small gangplank that led from the dock to the yacht, and he gestured at her to cross first.

  Deciding to keep her questions to herself for now, Olivia put her hands on the rails of the gangplank and walked gingerly across to the side of the yacht and climbed onto the deck. Then Wolf came after her.

  He gave her one of his wicked grins as he took out another key and moved over a small set of stairs that led to a door that presumably opened onto a cockpit or berths, or whatever it was that you called rooms on a boat.

  Opening the door, he gestured again and she found herself moving unsteadily down some steps and into a tiny corridor that led to what she was expecting to be some cramped below-deck quarters but turned out to be a surprisingly roomy space.

  In one corner was a tiny galley, with a gas hob and a fridge, a sink, and a small pantry, while in the main area was a round, curving bench strewn with cushions, built around a similarly curved drop-leaf table.

  The other end of the tiny corridor led to what probably was the bedroom/bathroom area.

  Wood gleamed as the sun poured through small portholes in the side of the hull, the air heavy with the scent of wood polish, salt water, and engine oil.

  “Welcome to the Shady Lady.” Wolf’s deep voice came from behind her. “Go sit down. I’ll make you some tea.”

  Olivia made her way, wobbling slightly because of the movement of the boat, to the curved bench and sat down. “The Shady Lady?”

  “Yeah, that’s what she’s called. The yacht I mean. I didn’t name her. She came like that.” Wolf moved into the galley and she watched, amazed, because she hadn’t thought there would be room for a guy as big as him. But, apart from having to incline his head a little, he didn’t seem fussed by the small space, pulling out a kettle and filling it with water without any problems, his movements economical and fluid. Obviously he knew this boat and he knew it well.

  “This yours?” A stupid question. Then again, he hadn’t told her he’d gotten himself a boat, so maybe it wasn’t.

  “She is.” He flicked the gas on the hob on and put the kettle on it. “I got her a few years ago. I thought having a bolt-hole that no one would guess at would be useful. Plus, I can move it if anyone finds out I’m here.”

  “I never would have picked you for a … boat person.”

  He grabbed a couple of mugs out of a tiny cupboard then put them on the minuscule counter, giving her another of those lazy smiles. “Hey, I’m a sailor. Of course I’m a boat person.”

  A sailor. Right.

  He slid aside the door of the small pantry and took out a packet of tea. “Did you know that I’d never seen the ocean until I got to Coronado for my training?” He extracted a couple of teabags, then dumped them in the cups. “I thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Until we were forced to sit in the fucking thing for hours on end, freezing our nuts off.”

  “Sounds like a great introduction to the sea.” She took another look around the cabin. “You can sail her then?”

  “Yeah. But I don’t take her out very often. Got too much other shit to do normally.” He put his hands on the counter and leaned on them, his gaze sharpening as he looked at her.

  Her breathing quickened and she found her hands had curled into fists in her lap.

  There was a porthole behind him, the sun making his short, black Mohawk look glossy, and sending the rest of his face into shadow. It made him look dangerous all of a sudden, and the size of the boat didn’t help.

  He was so big. It felt like he was taking up all the space, sucking up all the air.

  “What?” she asked, resisting the urge to smooth her hair.

  “Explain what you said to me back there in the cab.”

  Damn. She’d been hoping he might have forgotten all about that. The way she’d said it had made it sound …

  Like you’re in love with him? Well, you are.

  Maybe. She’d been in love with the idea of him certainly, but now? In love with this very real, very present man? She really didn’t know anymore, just like she really didn’t know him.

  Olivia glanced away, gazing around the cabin instead. On the table in front of her was a sleek silver laptop, plus a stack of papers and a pen. It looked as if he’d been in the middle of some work.

  “Didn’t you want that information from me?” She straightened the pen so it sat neatly beside the stack of papers. “That’s why you turned up at the restaurant all set to kidnap me again, isn’t it?”

  “Sure, but that can wait. I want to know why you said living without me was hard.”

  Well, she hadn’t meant to say it like that. She’d simply wanted him to know that she’d cared about him. That she’d thought about him a lot all the years he’d been away. Living without him hadn’t exactly been hard because she’d never had him to live with in the first place.

  So why did you say it?

  She gritted her teeth, ignoring the thought. What the hell was she going to say to him? She had to give him something, because he was never going to let this go. And it had to be something she could explain. That wasn’t fraught with all these complicated feelings.

  “Okay.” Letting out a long breath, she made herself meet his gaze. “So the truth? I wasn’t lying back in the hotel room, when I told you that I wanted you. I have since I was fifteen. But yes, since you were a Tate and you never showed any interest in me, I never said anything to you about it. I thought it would fade over time but … it didn’t. I still want you and I probably always will.”

  The kettle began to whistle, but Wolf made no move toward it, only stared at her.

  “Kettle,” she prompted, resisting the urge to wipe her damp palms against her dress.

  Wolf scowled, muttered a curse, and grabbed for the kettle, flicking off the hob and pouring out the boiling water into the cups.

  She swallowed, her mouth gone dry, aware of the tension that now filled the cabin.

  Couching her feelings in terms of want was far easier and less revealing than talking about love. And maybe “love” wasn’t the right word for what she felt for him anyway. Maybe she’d been mistaken, because how could she really be in love with a man she didn’t know?

  Yes, maybe she’d been wrong all this time. Maybe it was simply plain-old lust that she’d mistaken for something else. Like she’d been mistaken about a whole lot of other things.

  Dad, for instance …

 
; Her gaze dropped to the computer as Wolf clattered about in the galley getting the tea ready.

  There was a way she could check to confirm Wolf’s suspicions about her father and what he’d intended with regard to Daniel. But it was a step she didn’t know if she wanted to take. Because once she did, there would be no coming back from it.

  You already took that step when you walked out of the restaurant with Wolf …

  Crap. She was going to have to do this, wasn’t she?

  Olivia let out a breath and before she could second-guess herself, reached out and pulled the laptop toward her, opening it up and waiting until the screen flashed on. Then she opened a new tab on the browser and quickly typed in the web address she’d memorized. A password prompt appeared and she put it in, watching as the window to her father’s private intranet appeared. She’d set up remote access to it months ago, in case she needed to access a file when she wasn’t at home.

  Quickly, she navigated through to his diary and began to sort through all his appointments, looking for any references to Daniel May. Her gut lurched. Because there were plenty of references, and a pattern. Every Monday, dead on at nine a.m., he had a meeting scheduled with Daniel. There were emails associated with those meetings too, private emails that would be easy enough to open up and read.

  She sat back against the seat, her fingers cold as they dropped from the keyboard, and shaking slightly.

  You should look at those emails.

  But she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to see if her father had discussed her with Daniel. Discussed her like she was nothing more to him than an asset he wanted disposed of in the right way.

  No. She didn’t want to know that. Did she?

  She reached for the keyboard again anyway, clicking on one of the emails from her father.

  “Don’t worry,” one paragraph began. “I’ll talk Olivia round. She may not like the idea initially but I can make her see reason. ‘No’ will not be an option. You can leave that to me—”

  Olivia pushed the laptop shut abruptly, an icy feeling settling down inside her, her heart trying to pound itself out of her ribcage.

  “‘No’ will not be an option.”

  “Hey.” Wolf’s voice came from near her elbow. “What were you doing with my computer?”

  A mug of tea appeared on the table in front of her and she stared at it as he slid into the circular bench, taking up a position opposite her.

  “Liv?” he asked, sounding puzzled. “Are you okay?”

  But there was an odd roaring in her ears.

  Wolf had been telling the truth. Her father had been going to give her to Daniel May after all. And not in a “go on a few dates, see how it goes” kind of way. In a “no will not be an option” kind of way.

  Oh God. What if she had refused? What would he have done? Forced her to see Daniel? Forced her to marry him? To sleep with him?

  Everything in her recoiled.

  Why the outrage? You weren’t going to say no anyway.

  Yes, even as she’d sat at the table with Daniel, she’d been telling herself it wouldn’t be so bad. Talking herself into it. Her father had seemed so genuine, telling her he wanted someone to protect her after he’d gone and that it would also be a good business decision. Using words guaranteed to make her stop and think and consider.

  Manipulating you.

  The walls of the cabin felt like they were closing in. Her hands were cold and her breath was short, and she wanted to get out, get some air. Get some space. Find somewhere to think, to sort through what she’d learned.

  She got up jerkily, bumping the table and spilling the tea.

  “Liv?” Wolf’s gaze narrowed. “You better fucking tell me what’s going on. You’ve gone white.”

  But she wasn’t listening, already blindly moving on shaky legs out of the living area and down the tiny corridor. She pushed open a door and found herself in a surprisingly spacious bedroom, with a giant bed right in front of her, bathed in light from the portholes.

  This was not the way out. Dammit. She must have missed the stairs back up to the deck.

  She turned. Only to come up short as Wolf appeared right in front of her, his massive, broad-shouldered form taking up the entire doorway.

  His green-and-blue gaze was laser sharp, moving over her. “Are you gonna tell me what the hell is going on with you or are you gonna make me have to guess?”

  She sucked in a fruitless breath, feeling like she was suffocating. He was too close. He made this room too small. He made everything too small. Taking up all the space and all the air. Filling it up with his scent and his heat and his huge, muscular presence.

  A surge of adrenaline went through her, breaking through the feeling of suffocation and the roaring in her ears.

  This was all his fault.

  He was the reason she was here and not with Daniel. He was the reason she was feeling this way. He’d put that seed of doubt inside her. And that doubt was why she’d looked at that email. Now there wasn’t any doubt, only certainty.

  Things were not what she thought. Her father wasn’t what she thought. And now it felt as if the foundations of her life had been undermined and eroded away. Her safe little life, where she worked for her father who loved her. Who needed her. Who was a good man.

  It had all been fine until Wolf had come through her bedroom window and taken her away, telling her things she didn’t want to hear, making her see truths she didn’t want to see. That maybe her father wasn’t the man she thought he was after all. And that if Wolf had been telling the truth about her father giving her to May, then maybe he was telling the truth about other things as well.

  Such as the fact that Dad killed his father?

  “Get out of the way.” Her voice came out far louder than she wanted it to.

  His gaze narrowed. “What happened, Liv? You were okay and then suddenly you went white. What did you see on that computer?”

  He’d lied to her. For ten years Wolf had told her he was her friend and he wasn’t. He’d been playing her.

  Just like Dad was playing you.

  Anger flared, white hot, and before she could stop herself, she’d lifted her hands and slammed them against his chest, shoving at him to make him get out of her way, to give her space.

  He didn’t move.

  It enraged her. She never lost her temper, certainly never hit anyone. But now she relished the burn of anger running through her, shoving him again. Harder. Yet it was like pushing at a big block of stone. He stayed exactly where he was.

  Her anger became fury, fueled by the deep hurt she’d been ignoring and trying to deny. Hurt at the way he’d lied to her, at the way he’d made her believe that it was her he was interested in when he’d become her friend. Hurt at the truths he’d exposed about her father. Hurt at the doubts he’d uncovered within herself. Doubts she’d ignored and refused to listen to. Doubts about her father. Doubts about herself.

  You were never precious to him, just useful.

  Olivia’s hands curled into fists and she slammed them into Wolf’s chest, wanting to hurt him the way he’d hurt her, wanting to do something because she didn’t know how to deal with the complicated rush of pain and doubt and fury that was filling her, consuming her.

  Wolf said nothing as she drove her fists into him. Didn’t make a sound. Didn’t even move. He only stared at her, the expression in his eyes impenetrable.

  Hitting him was like hurling stones at a mountain. It had no effect whatsoever.

  That didn’t stop her from launching fist after fist into his chest, hurting herself because hitting all that dense muscle was like hitting a brick wall over and over.

  Then Wolf grabbed her, wrapping his long fingers around her wrists and holding them still. “You done?” he demanded, his gravelly voice even rougher than normal.

  The restraint only made her madder. “No!” She tried to pull her hands away from his. “Let me go, asshole!”

  But he didn’t. He simply held her as if he coul
d stand there all day while she pulled and raged. Watching her impassively as if all of this meant absolutely nothing to him.

  It made her rage go from burning to incandescent.

  How dare he stand there unaffected? Like he had been for the past ten years, while she’d burned for him. Longed for him. But of course he was unaffected. He didn’t want her. He never had. And that kiss outside the restaurant had been just another lie.

  She had no idea what she was doing. She only wanted to get a reaction from him any way she could. So she stepped right up close to him and rose up on her tiptoes, bringing her mouth to his.

  Then she sunk her teeth into his bottom lip.

  He grunted and jerked his head back, his eyes thin slits of emerald and sapphire, glittering down at her. “What the fuck was that for?”

  She was trembling, her anger not ebbing but changing, alchemizing into something hotter. More desperate. Suddenly becoming aware of the pressure of his fingers around her wrists, the heat of his massive, chiseled body inches from hers, the intoxicating scent of him going straight to her head. And all she wanted to do was to fling herself at him, break herself on him, channel all of her rage and all the years of loneliness and lies into him. Emotionally exhaust herself so she didn’t have to think anymore. So she didn’t have to hurt.

  She didn’t answer him. Instead she rose up on her toes again and this time she didn’t bite him. She kissed him instead, inexpert and clumsy, not knowing what the hell she was doing and not caring. Not caring about the line she was crossing either. She pressed her lips to his desperately, pushed her tongue inside his mouth and tasted him, some dark delicious flavor she couldn’t name, but made her instantly a thousand times hungrier than she’d ever been in her life.

  She made a helpless sound in the back of her throat, wanting more.

  “Liv,” Wolf said harshly against her lips, but she didn’t stop.

  Instead she wrenched her hands from his grip, touching him again, pulling at his shirt as she kissed him, fingers trembling as she yanked open the buttons and found his skin. As hot and as smooth as she remembered.