Secret Revenge: An Enemies-to-Lovers Billionaire Romance

3. Emily

Ilooked at the man in front of me with renewed interest. So far, save for the fact that I knew exactly who he was despite his propaganda and pretense, he sure was smooth.

Travis was wonderful company. As long as the plan was going off without a hitch, I could indulge a little bit… allow myself to get lost in his beautiful eyes -- allow myself to believe his ‘troubled billionaire’ act. Maybe in another life, I could have let myself get lost in him forever…

But today was not that day. Girls like me didn’t get happy endings with billionaire husbands, and billionaires simply didn’t tell the truth. I was on a mission. Nothing more.

Now he’d asked me a question, and I couldn’t tell the truth either.

I couldn’t tell him that the only reason I had chosen journalism as my field was as part of a crusade to expose the way his father had destroyed my family. I couldn’t tell him I was at Calypso to expose him. It occurred to me to wonder if he still had the ability to summon a car and some armed guards to make me disappear.

My blood ran cold. Of course, he could ‘disappear’ me if he wanted to. People with this much money could, and did, get away with murder.

I picked up my glass, pouring the contents down my throat.

Let’s get this over with. How are you going to lift his prints?

I eyed the wine glass he’d been toying with all evening, but the wait staff here were almost pathologically attentive—probably hoping for a massive tip—and I couldn’t figure out a way to snag any of the dishes he had touched before an over-eager waiter appeared to take them away.

Should I have tried to bribe a server to save one of his dishes for me?

No, that would leave a witness who might see my investigation as something he could sell to the tabloids. Then I’d ruin my own credibility and make Ross look like a victim of underhanded tactics.

I stared at him, struggling to pay attention as he spoke. The alcohol I’d had earlier was not making focusing on the plan easier. Instead, I was enraptured by the way his gorgeous mouth moved and the way his eyes bore into me. I could feel the booze buzzing in my system, could feel my brain fogging as I tried to come up with an answer to his question that did not involve a crusade of vengeance against his own family.

Kissing him would probably be a highly effective distraction.

Shut up, brain.

You might be able to get his fingerprints on your bag that way. If I stand close enough to him and just sort of grab his hand and put it on the bag when kissing him.…

That…might actually work.

But first, I’d better at least try to answer his question so that I didn’t look too suspicious.

“I’m…like you,” I tried, “I really can’t stand to see people get hurt. So when the powerful get away with harming people, it really drives me crazy.”

I realized belatedly that even that answer could be perceived as suspicious if he was, in fact, harming people.

Which he was. He definitely was. No matter how sincere and genuinely hurt he had seemed when he talked about his foundation…

He seemed so honest that part of me felt uncomfortable with the fact that I was tricking him. That made me angry. Why did I have to feel guilty or uncomfortable over someone like him? He was not a good person, that much I was sure of. He was probably selling bad assets under the radar, just like his father, and staging hostile takeovers of small businesses.

He was responding to my answer, but I couldn”t focus on his words. Instead, I found my gaze wandering to his hands as he gestured while speaking. They were strikingly large… beautiful.I bit my lips to stop a moan from escaping as I imagined those hands wrapping deliciously around me as he held me down and pleasured me.

What is wrong with me?

I groaned low in my throat. I was a mess. I shouldn’t have been drinking, even for my cover. Travis was so handsome. Irresistible, even. His eyes never left mine as he spoke, staring intently at me as his mouth widened into a grin above a strong jaw, exposing tiny glimpses of his pearly whites.

What was happening to me? I didn’t sign up for any of this.

You wanted him from the start. You just didn’t let yourself admit it.

I thought I told you to shut up, brain.

I picked up my fork, trying to eat to distract me from the gorgeous man in front of me, but I had lost my appetite for food. I shook my head, trying not to think about what I did have an appetite for.

I was losing myself in his eyes and wondering what it would feel like if he touched me with those hands that were wrapped around the stem of his glass. I was certain the alcohol in my system was the only thing stopping me from panicking like I should have been in that moment. I had been fighting my attraction to him, but now I was at my wit’s end. Why was he so handsome? And how did he fake sincerity so well? And why did he rescue me?

Okay, getting mad about that part might be a bit excessive.

I had been holding on to my hate, trying to use it to kill the desire I now felt. Surely, hate was a strong emotion, and it wouldn’t be easily manipulated into something else.

So why was I struggling to hold on to that hate right now?

“I think we’ve both had too much to drink,” Travis said suddenly, pushing his chair back from the table. I let him help me to my feet, enjoying the feeling of his fingers on mine.

“Yes, you’re right,” I replied, eyeing his glass on the table as we left -- wishing I could sneak away with it.

Secretly glad thatI couldn’t because it gave me an excuse to get closer to him.

I had to find a way to get those prints, after all. It would be more than embarrassing to go back to Michael without them, after the risk he took to get me into Calypso…

“I should probably call you a cab to take you home,” Travis said, reaching for the elevator button just as I did the same. Our fingers touched.

I snatched my hand away immediately, heat and electricity burning my skin where he had touched me. I glanced at him and found his intense eyes gazing down at me.

I swallowed, my mind reeling. All I could think about was reaching up to kiss him like I wanted to.

It would get you closer to snagging his prints…

I moved toward him, repeating those words in my mind. Knowing that I was lying to myself. I stepped closer to him, gasping when he met me halfway and kissed me. Bliss flooded my brain. I hadn’t realized how much taller he was than me until he bent to kiss me. His hands wrapped around me, pulling me closer until I was completely pressed against him.

The taste of his lips dulled my senses, disorienting what was left of my already buzzed brain. I ran my hand up his suit, slipping it between the fabric and his skin in search of his bare flesh.I wrapped my other hand around the back of his neck, dragging him closer to me and kissing him more deeply.

Travis’s groan vibrated in my mouth as his tongue slid against mine, and I tasted the red wine on him. I pulled away before he could destabilize me any further and struggled to catch my breath and unscramble my thoughts.

The elevator opened on the basement floor where the parking lot was, and we both stood there for a moment.

“I don’t think I want to go home today,” I said before I could change my mind.

The look on his face was enough to make me almost forget the reason I had made this decision. It was a look that held promise of things I couldn’t even think about lest my knees buckle under me.

“I have an apartment nearby,” he growled, his voice filled with lust as he pulled me behind him to his car.

My heart was pounding throughout the drive. He wasn’t lying about his place being close. It took us five minutes to get there. We were out of the car and inside the building in a few minutes, the air between us still sexually charged. We headed to the elevator, and he hit the button for the penthouse.

“Oh. You bought the penthouse.” I supposed that counted as an apartment… just more luxurious.

“I own the building.”

Travis kissed me again as soon as the elevator began moving, his hands drawing circles around my waist that sent heat pooling between my legs. He pressed against me, leaning closer, and I gasped when I felt his hardness against my thigh. It felt delicious.

When the elevator stopped at his floor, he wrapped his hand around mine and pulled me behind him. He opened the door and ushered me in, closing it behind him and resting against it as he slowly and seductively pulled me to him.

I found myself unable to resist.

I’m going to regret this tomorrow…but so will he.

I gave in readily. Returning the hungry kiss, I parted my lips and entwined my tongue with his. Heat arced through my body, shooting up my spine and effectively sapping the strength from my legs. He turned us over so that my back was against the wall, and clinging to him, I finally let my knees buckle.

“Travis,” I panted a moan breathlessly, gripping the fabric of his shirt over his muscular arms with trembling hands. In seconds, he had my panties down around my ankles and the red dress I wore riding high on my hips. His hands felt like heaven as they slid playfully up my thighs.

Electricity shot through me as his large hand cupped my wet center, and his fingers moved inside me. It was everything I’d dreamed of. His palm was positioned just right so that it rubbed against my sensitive nub every time his long fingers thrust into my swollen wetness. He kept me teetering on the brink of climax, sensations swelling and ebbing as he played me like an instrument.

This was wonderful. Somehow, the fact that I was supposed to hate him made it better.

“Please,” I pleaded, raising my green eyes to his piercing blue ones.

He rewarded me with a low chuckle that rumbled through both his chest and mine. “Say my name again,” he whispered, lowering his head to nibble at my ear and kiss my neck.

I was about to come undone. His fingers didn’t cease their ministrations between my thighs even as I soaked his hand with my juices, showing him I was ready for more.

I had never been more ready in my life. He was the billionaire I hated, but didn’t I deserve to indulge myself for once?

I could feel his hard length poking against my belly, and I imagined how good it would feel to be filled by him.

I licked my lips as he raised his head to look at me again, waiting. His gaze was unwavering, filled with the promise of all that he was going to do to me. This wasn’t what I came here to do, but I was in no position to listen to my rational mind. I wanted this man.

And I’d get his prints afterward. Right?

“Travis,” I breathed and watched the fire light in his eyes. Having the power to do that to him was its own kind of intoxication.

He picked me up the next second, palming my ass in his hands as he raised my legs around his waist. “Good girl,” he cooed.

The praise made me wetter. I kissed him fiercely, my arms around his shoulders as he walked me over to his bed.

Earlier that day, if anyone had told me I would be wrapped around Travis Ross, undoing his belt buckle, and palming his heavy shaft, I would have called them crazy. Yet there I was, straddling him on his bed and lowering myself onto his erection as he lay back, watching me,

Dizzying pleasure flowed through me as he slipped between my wet walls, causing me to cry out and fall forward. He was only halfway inside me. I needed to lower myself more, but my legs were trembling. I was right at the edge and any more movement would push me over.

Travis seemed to know that too. Without waiting for me to collect myself, he grabbed my hips and repositioned himself, thrusting into me in one smooth stroke and burying himself to the hilt.

Our flesh smacked together loudly as pleasure chased all sense away in a mind-shattering orgasm. In that moment, nothing mattered.

Not where I was, not how I would regret it later.

Certainly not my vendetta.