Chapter Twenty
Bryna silenced her phone for the second time that morning. Celia kept calling her, and Bryna did not want to talk to her. If her own father hadn’t called, why would her stepmother think that she would want to talk to her?
She had thought about calling her father in New Zealand, but he was the parent. Shouldn’t he care enough to call or at least text? He was a modern man. He knew how to use a smartphone, and he had an unlimited international package plan, so he could use his phone anywhere at anytime. Apparently, that time didn’t include calling his daughter on Christmas.
She didn’t want to let that bother her. Not today while she was spending the wonderful day with someone who actually cared for her.
Her eyes cut across the pool to where Jude was swimming laps. His shoulders and back were ripped. While he wasn’t bulky, he had great definition. She couldn’t tear her eyes away. They’d had sex before breakfast, but when he was half naked in front of her, it wasn’t fair how much she wanted him. He made her insatiable.
Her phone started buzzing again, and she grumbled under her breath. How distracting!
She went to silence the ringer when she noticed that Gates was calling, not her stepmother. She rolled her eyes but answered anyway.
“Merry Christmas,” she said faux-cheerfully.
“Bri, where the fuck are you?” Gates asked.
She froze. Gates sounded freaked out.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“I just got a call from Celia. You haven’t answered your phone all morning, so she called your mother.”
“She what?” Bryna shrieked, sitting up in her lounge chair.
Jude’s head popped up out of the water at the commotion. He wore a concerned look on his face. “Everything all right?”
She covered the phone to hopefully muffle any noise and nodded at Jude. She hoped she didn’t look as terrified as Gates had sounded. Because this was fucking terrible. “Yeah. Just a call from home,” she told him, trying to hold on to a smile.
“All right,” he said. His brows furrowed, but he went back to swimming. At least there was one benefit of his sneaky conversation this morning. No questions.
“Who are you with?” Gates demanded.
“It doesn’t matter. I cannot believe Celia had the audacity to call my mother. What a bitch! How dare she question me like that and reach out to my mother just because I didn’t answer some stupid phone call. You would think she suspected me of doing something wrong!”
“Well…aren’t you?” he asked.
“Whatever,” she said. “Wait, how do you know all of this?”
“Because when Celia realized that you weren’t, in fact, spending Christmas break with your mom, she went off the deep end trying to find out where you actually were and called me.”
Bryna’s stomach dipped. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. “Why would she call you?”
“I don’t know, Bri,” he said exasperated. “Maybe because I’m the only friend you have.”
Bryna rolled her eyes again. “Please.”
“And I’m your ex, so it would be reasonable to assume that we had snuck away together, which is what I told Celia when she called.”
“You covered for me?” She breathed out a sigh of relief. Thank God!
“What the fuck was I supposed to say?” He groaned and muttered curses under his breath. “Fuck, Bri. I don’t want to be in the middle of this shit. You’re obviously with some other fucking guy somewhere, and here I am, still covering for you with your family.”
“Cut the shit. You didn’t have to cover for me. I know you too well. You did it because you want something. What is it?” she asked. She was grateful that Gates had told Celia they were together, but he hadn’t done it out of his own good grace. He was a schemer much like she was, and if he had done something generous, it was because he wanted something from her for the favor.
Gates exhaled softly into the phone. “I did have to cover for you. While you might choose to believe you have other friends, I know that you’re the closest thing to a real friend I have. Even if you are a total psycho sometimes, Bri.”
“How charming.”
“Come with me for New Year’s.”
“There it is,” she muttered. Of course. She should have known. “I knew you wanted something out of this.”
“You already knew I wanted you to come with me.”
“You have to fucking promise not to tell anyone about me being gone,” she insisted.
“It’s not an I’ll-fucking-tell-if-you-don’t kind of thing,” Gates cried. “I told Celia you were with me, and you will be until you get back. I’m a man of my word.”
“Good, because if that isn’t the case, be sure to remember that I know about you and Chloe.”
“Jesus, Bri!” he griped. “You don’t have to blackmail me to keep a secret.”
“Just making sure.”
She couldn’t let anyone find out about her being away with Jude. Things were finally starting to get on the right track, and she couldn’t risk anything going wrong. As much as she wanted to trust Gates, it was always easier to have dirt on the other person to ensure that they kept their mouth shut.
“Well, are you going to come with me?” Gates asked.
She glanced back down at Jude slicing through the water. He had said that he would be out of town for business on New Year’s. It wouldn’t hurt anything to go with Gates. “Fine. I’ll go but just as friends.”
“Sweet,” he said, excitement in his voice. “Have fun on your trip.”
“Yeah, thanks. Tell Chloe I said hi,” she said, laughing lightly at the end.
“Don’t be a bitch, Bri.”
“All I know how to be.”
* * *
Sometime later, Jude hoisted himself out of the pool. Water dripped down his body, and his soaked shorts clung to his legs. Bryna couldn’t tear her eyes away. He lazily smiled at her as if he didn’t already know that she was staring at him with desperate need.
“So,” he said, taking a seat on her lounger. He planted a kiss on her lips, and water trickled down her white bathing suit.
“So,” she muttered. She ran her fingers up into his dark wet hair and tugged him back down for another kiss.
“I might have planned something for you today.”
She arched an eyebrow. “You took me on a private plane to Saint Barts. I don’t think you need to plan anything else!”
“But I like to,” he said, looking meaningfully into her eyes. “You appreciate it.”
“I do.” Their fingers interlocked, and she leaned into him. “I love this.”
He kissed the top of her head. She didn’t need any other plans if they could do this all day. Being here with him was enough.
But he did have plans, and she wasn’t going to keep him from them if he had made them for her.
“So, what are we doing?” she asked.
“You are going to the spa. I have a car waiting to take you into town, and when you come back, put on something nice.”
“And what will you be doing?”
“That is a surprise,” he said with a devious smile. “You’ll find out when you get back.”
More surprises? This man was full of them. “A spa day does sound pretty amazing.”
“I thought you might think so. The car will be here shortly.” He stood up and helped her to her feet. “I can’t wait to see you when you get back.”
He kissed her until they were both breathless, and she considered skipping the spa to stay in the bedroom. But he reluctantly pulled away with a chuckle and scooted her toward the house. She wistfully looked back at him, and then she scurried inside to change before meeting the car waiting for her downstairs.
Bryna spent the entire afternoon at the spa. The resort spa took comfort to a new level. They needed this kind of heaven in Los Angeles. By the time she left the place, she felt more relaxed than she had in years.
When she returned, a butler directed her up the back stairs to the bedroom. The spa had blown out her hair and done her makeup. She opened up the closet and pulled out a shimmery gold dress. It was the fanciest piece she had brought with her, and she hadn’t ever thought that she would have a place to wear it on this trip, but she had wanted to be prepared for anything.
The form-fitting material clung to her body like it had been made specifically for her. It dropped to her knees and had a tiny button at the back of her neck with a long open slit down the middle of her back. She paired it with black Jimmy Choos and clasped the gold buckles around her ankles.
After assessing herself in the mirror, she grabbed the Christmas present she had gotten for Jude from her suitcase before walking out of the bedroom and into the living room. Her eyes nearly bugged out when she saw everything he had done.
The room was completely decked out in Christmas decorations. A tree—a real freaking Christmas tree—sat in one corner with red ornaments and a star on top. She had no fucking clue where he had gotten that on an island in the middle of the Caribbean. Red and green pillows were on the furniture, decorated wreaths were hooked to the windows, stockings hung from the built-in bookshelves, and candles burned everywhere. The television was even set to appear as if an open fire was blazing in the fireplace.
Jude was standing in the middle of the room in a tuxedo, drinking a glass of scotch. He smiled at the shocked look on her face. “Merry Christmas, beautiful.”
“What is all of this?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly bring you somewhere that is very festive. Since we didn’t end up in New York City or Paris where we could do Christmas activities, I thought that maybe I could bring Christmas to you.”
“It’s…amazing,” she breathed. Truly she was mesmorized.
“I’m glad you like it. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I used to go to Tahoe and go skiing with my parents when I was younger. But once I grew up, I usually worked too much around the holidays to really enjoy myself. So, thank you. I’m enjoying Christmas this year because of you,” he said, pulling her into his arms.
“You did all the work.”
“But you made it worthwhile.”
She stared up at him, speechless. How had she gotten so lucky on that night at Allure to have gone home with this incredible man? She’d had no idea what she was getting into, and she didn’t regret a minute of it. He was handsome and charming. He took care of her, appreciated her, enjoyed her company. In fact, her company was enough for him, which was something she had never experienced before.
“Before we go into the dining room to eat dinner, I do have a Christmas present for you,” he told her.
“Me first,” she said, remembering that she was holding his present in her hands.
He laughed and took the small box from her. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“I wanted to.”
After setting his scotch down on the glass coffee table, he pulled back the gold-and-silver wrapping paper and opened the box to reveal a silver Rolex with a black face.
The week before, she had been frustrated while looking for a present for him. She had wanted to get something extravagant, something to match the gifts he had gotten her. But she wouldn’t have access to her trust fund until July, and she hadn’t wanted to draw attention to her credit card with an obscene charge. She could chalk up a Rolex as a gift for Gates.
He slipped the watch out of the box and slid it on to his wrist. Then, he wrapped his other arm around her waist and crushed his mouth down on hers. She smiled against his lips.
“You’re amazing. Thank you.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
She had been unreasonably afraid that he would toss the watch aside because it wasn’t up to his standards. She had known the idea was irrational, but it had still eaten away at her. She had never felt like this before, and she wasn’t sure what to make of it, except that she liked him enough to care about his opinion.
“My turn.”
He reluctantly released her before picking up a slender red-wrapped box. She slowly tore away the paper to reveal a navy-blue box with HW printed in gold on the top.
She swallowed and anxiously looked up at him. “Harry Winston?”
He took the box from her hand and pried it open for her to see the contents. Inside was a cursive B gold pendant inlaid with a series of exquisite diamonds on a slender gold chain.
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
Jude removed the necklace from the box, and when she reached up to pull her hair off her back, he secured it at the nape of her neck. It rested against her skin just below her collarbone.
He pressed his lips to her shoulder. “There. It’s perfect.”
“You’re perfect,” she murmured before kissing him.
Dinner could wait.