Chapter Thirteen

“Your man is in an awful hurry to leave,” Suzy observed. “If I were you, I would have done more to make him stay.”

“At the very least gotten a better kiss from him!” Gail pointed out.

Flushed, Dana tucked a hair behind her ear. “This is a business and personal trip. I hadn’t expected to see him at all until dinner,” she said hastily. It was obvious that Cole had been having a good time until the older women started making comments on their relationship. Dana wasn’t dumb enough to believe that Cole was actually falling in love with her. Last night had been incredibly hot, but it wasn’t the actions of two people in love. It was sex between two people who needed to blow off some steam.

And dominate for control.

It still hurt to have him leave within minutes of her getting there, but she needed to thicken her skin. She had a feeling the entire cruise would feel like that.

After chatting with the women a little bit longer, she left when some of the men started to hover. Heading back to her room, she changed into a green bikini with her green-and-yellow printed cover-up. It was a sleeveless, sheer cover-up, gathered at the shoulders, and it fell to midthigh. Pairing it with some flip-flops, she tossed some sunscreen into her bag and hit the pool deck. Smothering herself in sunscreen, she stretched out on the lounge chair and closed her eyes. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d basked in the sun.

“I see Cole has already abandoned you.”

Dana opened her eyes and smiled when she saw Kathryn standing there. “Relaxing before your spa date?”

“Our spa date,” Kathryn reminded her. “And based on the look on your face when you sat down, you need it. Is everything okay?”

Nothing is okay. “Of course! I’m spending a week on a luxury cruise liner! What would not be okay about that?”

“Money isn’t everything.” Kathryn put her things down and sat on the lounger next to her. Before them, the beautiful pool sparkled under the sunlight. “I just assumed you’d be sporting a smile after the night that you’d had.”

Dana raised an eyebrow. “And how do you know what kind of night I had?”

“I saw you two in the club.” Kathryn snorted. “I suspect you two had a late night. Watching him push you up against the wall like that made me hot!”

“Why aren’t you here with someone?” Dana couldn’t believe that the beautiful woman didn’t have twenty men following her every move. If Kathryn had wanted a date for this cruise, she would have had no trouble finding one.

“I just got out of a relationship. There was a diamond ring and everything,” Kathryn said.

Kathryn’s misery swept over Dana, and she gasped. “That bastard. Did he cheat on you?”

“It wasn’t like that at all,” she said softly. “My father is Dan Wellington. Dating Cole, I’m sure you’ve heard the name. Anyway, my father always wanted a son, but alas, he’s stuck with me, his one and only child. He pretty much ignored me until I became a teenager, and then he began to see me as a tool. Something to help him unite the Wellington family with someone of equal power. The moment I turned eighteen, there have been nothing but men from rich and powerful families vying for my attention, all with my father’s encouragement. Jason Combs was the worst of them. His sexcapades were no secret, and I knew that he wouldn’t change for me. I wanted to see just how far my father would go. So even while Jason was in the middle of a sexual harassment scandal involving his assistant, I agreed to marry him. I bought a dress. I hired caterers and a live band. I booked a venue. I did it all up until a week before the wedding when my father hugged me and told me that he was so proud of me.”

“Oh, Kathryn.”

“I knew right then and there that my father was going to let me marry a man who would make me miserable for the rest of my life. I canceled the engagement. I pretended the broken heart was too much for me to take, and I faked swearing off men. This cruise was a chance for me to be alone and figure out what my next move was going to be.”

Dana reached over and squeezed Kathryn’s hand. They barely knew each other, and they weren’t really friends, but Dana wasn’t about to let the woman spend her week alone. She needed support, and Dana was going to give it to her. “You have to take your life back,” Dana encouraged her. “Don’t let your father or any other man control your happiness.”

“I just wanted my father to see me as his daughter and not as some tool,” Kathryn said with a sad smile. “But I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”

Dana shook her head. “I honestly can’t imagine what you’re going through. My parents have always loved and supported me. Sure, sometimes we struggled to put food on the table, but my parents have only wanted my happiness. I guess that’s why my mom keeps pushing me to start dating again.”

“She doesn’t like Cole?”

Dana tried not to wince. She was getting so comfortable with Kathryn that she almost forgot about the lie. “They don’t know that I’m dating him. My mom’s the type to start planning a wedding after three dates, so I try to be careful about who I introduce them to.”

She wasn’t too worried that her parents would see any articles or pictures of her and Cole. They weren’t the type of people who followed social media, and it wasn’t like the news of Cole Parker’s new girlfriend would hit small-town Idaho.

“That must be nice,” Kathryn said wistfully. “So, are you going to work on your book while you’re here?”

Oh, God. “The book. Yes. I’m hoping to get some inspiration while I’m here.”

“Inspiration?” Kathryn looked intrigued.

“Sure. I find it very plausible that there could be a diamond heist by robots on a cruise ship,” she said as she tried to keep a straight face.

Kathryn bit her lower lip. “And love. Don’t forget love. It’s a romance story.”

“Oh yeah. Love is definitely in the air.”

Silence hung between them, and Dana could see that Kathryn was trying to decide whether it was a joke or not. Saving her new friend from the decision, she changed directions. “You’ve known Cole for a long time?”

“All three Parker brothers,” Kathryn said as she wrinkled her nose. “Hawk is the absolute worst. We actually dated when I was in college, but Hawk has always been a womanizer. My father and his father were competitors and friends. We were often forced to attend the same events.”

“Cole doesn’t talk much about his past,” Dana said carefully. She didn’t want to make it too obvious that she was going to pump her for information. “And I haven’t spent much time with his brothers.”

“And you want some juicy details?” Kathryn grinned and stretched. “I’m sure you know that their mother died shortly after Hawk was born. Cole and Blake used to be close, but Hawk was always the young kid left behind. He didn’t care much for the business, but Cole and Blake used to do anything to get their father’s attention. They always wanted to impress him. I guess that’s where Cole’s competitive streak came in. It got worse after they took Garret in, and I heard that Cole and his father had a huge fight right after Cole graduated from college, although I don’t know what it was about.”

“It’s sad, isn’t it? I’ve always wanted siblings. I’d kill to have two brothers,” Dana said as she got up and adjusted her top. They were clearly made to look good, but Dana had a feeling that if she jumped into the pool, her girls would be hanging out in no time.

“I’m the same way,” Kathryn admitted. “But Robert Parker didn’t exactly raise his boys with love and goodness. He fostered their competition. Hawk always hated it.”

There was a different look in Kathryn’s eyes when she talked about Hawk. Dana wanted to ask her about it, but she didn’t want to pry. “Why would their father threaten to leave the company to Wiltshire and Donovan? It seems like a huge deal.”

Sipping from her water bottle, Kathryn nodded. “I overheard my father talking not long after the will was read. Apparently, there was a time when Robert Parker and William Wiltshire used to be friends. When Daniel Janice, Lisa’s grandfather, started making inquiries about selling his business, Parker was all set to buy, but Wiltshire found out and bought it right out from under him. Parker was furious, and things have been cold between them ever since.”

Dana frowned. “Over one company? What did Wiltshire get out of it?”

“An international company with stock options that were through the roof. Janice’s company was the ticket item of the decade. Anyone who bought that company was an instant billionaire.”

“But money over friendship? That just seems cold.”

Kathryn sipped on her water and closed her eyes. “Unfortunately, that’s just how it is in their world. Business and money mean everything. I guess that’s why everyone is so surprised that Cole has someone like you. We all thought that he was just as cold as the rest of them. I’m not going to lie. When he approached me at the coffee cart, I thought my father had offered him something if he married me.”

Dana was appalled. “Cole would never do something like that!”

“Because he has you, but if he was single? I don’t know. Cole seems to be hell-bent to prove to the world that he’s just as savvy as his father was, as his older brother is.”

“But he wouldn’t do something like that. That’s just heartless.”

Kathryn didn’t object again, and Dana was uncomfortable as she leaned back and tried to relax. She had no idea that there was so much betrayal in Cole’s history. No wonder he had such a thick exterior.