Wash Over Me: A Billionaire Second Chance Romance Read online

  “Uptight?” I asked.

  “That’s one word to describe him,” Gram said.

  “Yeah, well. He’s not the best guy around. But he gave me a job when I needed it, and he just gave me a promotion I’ve been wanting for about a year. He sucks, but if I can hold fast to the managerial position for a year, I can apply to other places and not work for him anymore,” I said.

  “So, you don’t like him?”

  I snickered. “Someone getting jealous?”

  “Not at all. I’d like to think I know you better than that. But if he’s not treating you right—”

  “You’re going to swoop in and save the day? Like you always did?”

  “I promised you when we were kids that I’d protect you. If you’re not protected right now, all you have to do is tell me,” he said.

  I smiled softly as I picked up my drink.

  “Look, Tanner’s gross. He’s a pervert that abuses his power. And it sucks, but I’m doing fine. I take care of the other girls he employs, and I make sure to keep them away from him as much as possible,” I said.

  Gram’s face darkened. “You want me to take care of him?”

  “You sound like a mob boss,” I said.

  “You say the word, Nia. I buy out his shop, he goes away.”

  “He rents it on the strip.”

  “Then, I buy out the strip, and he’s gone.”

  “Wait, you could actually do that?” I asked.

  “I would in a heartbeat if it kept you safe. I’d do anything to keep you safe, Nia.”

  My stomach turned over, and my heart warmed at his words.

  Tread lightly, Nia. He’s only here on vacation.

  “Well, then it’s a good thing I don’t need your protection anymore,” I said, grinning.

  There was something that passed over Gram’s face, something akin to shock. It went just as quickly as it came, and then our food touched down in front of us. I was sorely underdressed for the place he had brought me to. I was in nothing but a sundress I’d spent the day in and some flip-flops while being surrounded by dim lighting, fancy cocktails, and plates with small portions on them.

  Not really my style. But Gram fit into the place well, despite his own casual appearance.

  The two of us talked about everything under the sun. How I’d ended up in Palm Beach. How he’d ended up in New York. What our plans were for the future and where we saw ourselves. I told him I saw myself right here, near the ocean where I could visit it every single day. This place was a treasure trove of things that needed restoration. I could have furnished four houses in my first year alone with the shit I found washing up onto the shoreline and put out on the sidewalks. I liked that. I liked that the city that had welcomed me also provided me with things that reminded me of myself.

  It took a little bit of elbow grease, but I was now shining and living my own life.

  When our stomachs were full, Gram settled the tab and took me home. He helped me out of the car and walked me up to my door. He even smiled down at me and gave me a small kiss on my cheek.

  “I had a really great time with you tonight,” he said.

  “Me too. Thank you for coming by. And you can come by anytime you’d like,” I said.

  “Promise?”

  “Pinky promise,” I said, grinning.

  I unlocked my door and walked in, feeling him coming in behind me. So, I whipped around and placed my hand against his chest. I looked up into his eyes. I felt him stop, but he didn’t back away. My legs grew weak with the intensity of his gaze, with the heat of his body radiating against the palm of my hand.

  “Not tonight. I have to work in the morning,” I said.

  “Then, let me see you tomorrow. After work,” Gram said.

  My hand slowly slid down his torso, feeling the strength beyond his shirt.

  “Meet me at the beach. After my shift. It’s called Crystal Lagoon,” I said.

  “I’ll be there promptly at five,” Gram said.

  “I don’t get off until six.”

  “Exactly.”

  And after we made our plans and I’d closed the door, I leaned against it and smiled. I was excited to see him tomorrow.

  Something I knew wasn’t good.

  Chapter 13

  Gram

  I stood at the sign for Crystal Lagoon, turning our dinner from last night over in my head. No protection. She said it was a good thing she didn’t need my protection. I sighed and closed my eyes. What happened in the past was eating away at me. It had all night. I turned everything around in my head, analyzing where I’d gone wrong. She had pulled away from me, shut me out to protect herself. It made me sick to think about.

  “Gram!”

  Her voice pulled me from my thoughts, but her beauty settled me back into another trance. Her beautiful beach waves blew around in the breeze, and she had nothing but a sheer tie-dyed skirt tied around her hips. Her bikini was bright yellow. It was a pathetic excuse for a bathing suit. She walked toward me, holding her wide-brimmed hat to her head.

  Never in my life had she looked more beautiful than in that moment.

  “Woo! Hey there. Bit windy, huh?” Nia asked.

  “You look… spectacular,” I said.

  “Yeah, well. I’m half-naked,” she said, winking.

  My pelvis burned at those words.

  “I was going to say we could take a swim, but this breeze is going to make it chilly. Especially since the sun sets soon,” Nia said.

  “We could take a walk. On the shoreline, where the sand is a little stronger,” I said.

  “My legs would really thank you for that.”

  I offered her my arm, and she took it. We walked all the way through the moving sand until the water splashed against our ankles. We started our way toward the pier off in the distance, maybe a mile or so down the beach. The sun began setting alongside us over the ocean, bathing Nia in a beautiful cascade of reds and pinks and oranges.

  I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.

  “How was work?” I asked.

  “Ah, same old, same old. Tanner with his shit. Customers with theirs,” Nia said.

  “Why don’t you try to find a different job if you don’t like it?”

  “I don’t know. It’s a job I can always bank on. Gives me enough to live and support myself. Plus, like I said, I want to try and make it to a year so I can officially apply for managerial positions. Just need more experience in the field,” she said.

  “Got any places in mind where you might want to work?”

  “I’d love to work in, like, a hobby shop or something. Or possibly an interior-decorating store.”

  “Doesn’t shock me with how much you like to refurbish and decorate with things you find.”

  “I love it. That’s my goal one day,” she said.

  A brief pause fell between us as we walked closer to the pier.

  “Nia?”

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “Have you gone home since…”

  “Stop,” she said.

  I whipped my gaze down to hers as her body grew rigid against my arm.

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

  “Do you talk about it with—?”

  “Stop,” she hissed.

  The two of us stopped walking, and she turned to me.

  “Anything else. Anything other than that. Please,” she said.

  There was a pain in her eyes that made me sick. So, I nodded instead of pushing the topic.

  “Okay. I’m sorry,” I said.

  She turned back to the pier and linked her arm with mine. She leaned her cheek against my arm, filling me with her warmth. We walked all the way down to the pier. We stopped and watched the sun between the pier legs as it dropped below the ocean.

  I kept gazing into her eyes as she watched it.

  “You’re not looking at it,” Nia said.

  “Yes, I am,” I said.

  “The sun’s that way,” she said, giggling.

&nbs
p; “I can see it in the reflection of your eyes.”

  “Well, the reflection has nothing on the real thing.”

  “Wanna bet?” I asked.

  She slowly turned her eyes up to mine as my arm slipped around her waist. I pulled her close to me as the abandoned beach surrounded us. There was no one else, just us, the waves, and the sunset. It was beautiful in her eyes. It lit up her face and drew from her a beauty I’d dreamed of for years.

  I cupped her cheek, smoothing my thumb over her skin just so I could have more of her warmth.

  “You look beautiful tonight,” I said.

  “I mean, I could say the same, but… you sort of beat me to it,” she said.

  I slid my thumb across her lower lip and sizzled with lust when she kissed it.

  “Nia?”

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “Can I…”

  “Just shut up and do it,” she said.

  Then she fisted my shirt, rose up onto her toes, and crashed her lips against mine.

  Chapter 14

  Nia

  I wanted to kiss him. Despite everything, I wanted to. Seeing how handsome he looked in the light of the setting sun tugged at something inside me. Something I kept hidden. Something I kept stuffed down. A dream I’d had as a little girl. A dream of kissing his handsome face on the shoreline while the sun set. It was right out of my teenage fantasies as I fawned over the boy who’d always told me he’d protect me, that he’d whisk me away, that’d he’d be next to me, always. No matter what.

  I wanted that dream to come true so badly.

  Our lips melded together. Our bodies sank to the sand. I slipped his board shorts over his ass, feeling his thickening cock slip out. He pulled my bikini bottom off to the side as the wind caught the skirt of my cover-up. The wind blew it off to the side, as if helping us through our lust. I clung to him as every inch of him was swallowed up by my pussy. The waves lapped at our ankles as he thrusted, rolled, shot fire through my veins and kissed my lips and threaded our fingers together.

  He pinned my hands over my head, taking me on that abandoned shoreline as daytime gave way to night.

  I watched the sun set in his eyes. I felt juices dripping down my ass crack before the ocean came up and cleaned me off. I dug my heels into the sand, meeting him thrust for thrust. His lips fell to my neck. I shuddered as he marked my skin. I clung to his hands, digging my nails into his skin as my legs trembled.

  “Nia. Fuck. You’re so beautiful. So beautiful.”

  “Gram. I’m gonna come. I’m so close. Don’t stop. Please. Let me have it. Let me have you.”

  “You have me, Nia. Always.”

  Our lips crashed together as my back arched. My pussy pulsed around him, draining his cock of arousal as we let loose together. We flung ourselves over the edge, shaking and writhing as we swallowed each other’s sounds. His cock sat against my swollen walls, my pussy pulling him in deeper with every pulse of ecstasy my body gave off. I swallowed his grunts while he swallowed my moans. He dug my hands into the sand, pressing himself further into me. I collapsed into the sand. I linked my feet around his calves. He crashed into me, his face in the crook of my neck as he kissed me, over and over.

  In the same places he had marked with his teeth.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” I whispered.

  Gram nuzzled against my neck as he slowly slid from between my legs. He dropped to my side, holding me against his exposed pelvis as the waves slowly encompassed our legs, rhythmically and slowly, ushering in the night over the ocean as he held me in his arms.

  He kissed my bare shoulder. “I missed you, Nia.”

  I closed my eyes and swallowed. I knew what I had to do, and I didn’t like it. But it was for the best. For both of us. It was to protect us from the toxic fire we had churning between us. We had many times to make it work, and we never did. We had many times to meld our lives together, and there was always an excuse. Always something that kept us apart.

  I was tired of the disappointment that came with Gram Oden.

  “This is probably the last time we should see one another,” I said.

  I felt Gram’s arms go lax around me, and I pulled away. I sat up from the sand, feeling it fall from my back as I stood. I fixed my bikini bottom and wrapped my skirt back around me, tying it off at my hips. I gazed out over the darkened horizon as Gram got up, stuffing himself back into his board shorts.

  “Is that really what you want?” Gram asked.

  I sighed, nodding in answer to his question. Because if I looked at him, even for a second, I’d back out of it.

  He didn’t have to protect me any longer. But I had to protect him. Just once. I had to protect him from the toxicity that was the two of us.

  And in response to my nod, he nodded in return.

  Chapter 15

  Gram

  I spent my first week in Palm Beach thinking about all the things I should have done. The things I should have said to Nia. Instead of simply looking at her and nodding, I should have swept her off her feet, taken her back into my arms and spewed the years of pent-up emotions I’d held back because of our moments passing in the night. I should have invited her to dinner again. I never should have let her out of my sight.

  I should have told her what I had always wanted to tell her for the past nineteen years.

  “Then do it,” I murmured to myself.

  I talked with Vince about it, but that conversation didn’t go well. He thought Nia was right. After he got done chastising me about sleeping with her—twice—he told me that he sided with Nia. That I needed to leave it alone. That I needed to finally “move on” and “pick myself up by my bootstraps” and all sorts of debilitating fucking nonsense.

  Nia was the only important factor here.

  Herself, and me. And what had always been blossoming between us.

  I got myself ready and headed to her apartment. I wouldn’t force myself in. But I wouldn’t leave until she spoke with me, either. She wasn’t there, though. And the only other place I knew to check was the trinket shop.

  Police or not, I was going to speak with Nia.

  “Stay here,” I told my driver.

  I held my hand out to him as I slipped out of the car. I walked into the shop, swinging the door open and listening to the bell ring. I looked around the small, dark place. No one was in the front room. I walked over to the register and looked behind it, figuring maybe Nia was ducked down cleaning something.

  Then, I heard her voice.

  “Stop it, Tanner.”

  I heard rustling around, and my ears perked up.

  “I told you, I don’t want—anything to do with—Tanner, stop!”

  Her voice was muffled, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I pushed off the register and tore down the aisle that hugged the wall, heading for that damn stockroom door. My nostrils flared. My fists balled up. My eyes widened and every part of my being was ready to tear that fucker limb from limb. I heard scuffling. I heard Nia’s voice muffling more and more. I heard her whimpering and crying out as I slammed through the door, taking stock of the sight in front of me.

  Tanner, with his body shoved against Nia’s and his hand clamped over her mouth.

  “Come here,” I growled.

  I ran for that man as his eyes widened and he took stock of me. I reached for him and wrapped my hand up in his shirt, pulling him away from her. I slammed him against the wall. I wrapped my hand around his neck and pulled him straight off his feet. Anger rushed through my veins. The need to kill this man for putting a hand on her was all I could taste on the tip of my tongue.

  Tanner wrapped his hands around my wrist as he choked out his words.

  “I’m calling… the cops.”

  “Good. Then I can tell them how you were pawing at one of your employees,” I snarled.

  I was so blinded by my rage that I didn’t even think to look at where Nia was. It wasn’t until I felt her arms wrap around my bicep that I looked down at her. I
saw her face filled with fear, but her eyes filled with a lackadaisical stare, one I’d gotten to know very well ever since we were children.

  Ever since her father started taking advantage of her as a teenage girl.

  “Outside. Now,” Nia said.

  Her voice was soothing. It pierced through the anger that always boiled over in my bones. It cleared the foggy haze of my head and wiped away the flood of unused energy I always wanted to direct toward her father. I slowly put Tanner back down onto his feet. I gazed into her eyes as I released his neck. The man fell to his knees, sputtering and murmuring about arresting me and having me thrown in jail.

  But I wasn’t paying attention.

  My attention was solely on Nia.

  “Outside. With me. Come on,” she said.

  Then, she tugged me away from the man on his knees and back out into the main floor of the trinket shop.

  Chapter 16

  Nia

  I guided Gram back out onto the curb and leaned him against his car. I hadn’t seen him this mad since we were children, since he’d barged into my house after he heard me screaming and found my father on top of me. I shook the memory from my head, but I saw it rolling behind Gram’s widened eyes. He was replaying that moment—the moment he’d pulled my father off me when we were in high school and threw me over his shoulder to get me out of there.

  “Gram, can you hear me?” I asked.

  His eyes slowly turned down to me, and his hand came up to my cheek. He cupped it and stroked it, something he’d always done when he had to ground himself. I cupped my hand against his and nuzzled into his palm, coaxing him down from his cloud of anger and helping him plant his feet on the ground again.

  “I’ll be right back,” I whispered.

  I don’t know why I kissed the palm of his hand before I left. But it felt right. I walked back into the shop and saw Tanner coming out of the back room with his phone stuck in his ear. He eyed me and made a beeline right for the door. I stood in front of it, putting myself between Gram and him.