Page 21 of The Billionaire's Runaway Bride

“Whatcha looking at?” he teases as he lowers his shorts at the same time he toes his shoes off.

“Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

He narrows his eyes.

“Nothing special,” I add, hoping my harsh words will cool the way I’m attracted to him. If he’s mad at me, I can’t want him. Right? “Nothing every woman in New York hasn’t already seen.”

He rolls his eyes, looking away.

“You’ll break your neck,” I warn when he steps toward the bank.

“Then I guess you won’t have to worry about hanging out with me anymore.”

“But I’ll have to not only carry the picnic basket back, I’ll also have to lug you all the way down the trail too.”

A splash is his reply, and I don’t bother looking up to see if he’s made it. Of course, he has. He’s too cocky and smug to be wrong, but I won’t risk the temptation. I busy myself setting up the picnic, focusing and sating myself with food. Not throwing longing glances at Caleb. Or the water. The more I hear him jump and splash in, I’m lured to at least dip my feet in. I bet it feels amazing, but I’m not that daring.

The old Lauren never would have considered this hike at all. I never would have had a chance to do something spontaneous like this in California under my parents’ control. Jeremy only tolerated the outdoors when going golfing on pristine greens. He’d never be caught dead in a natural place like this, full of bugs and no AC.

It feels thrilling and risqué to be here so far from where I was expected. Right now, if I’d married Jeremy like I was supposed to, we would’ve been on our way to our honeymoon where Jeremy could check out all the women like the eye candy they were. Instead, like I’ve stepped into an alternate universe, I’m embracing this new version of myself. The same, but not. It hasn’t been long enough to gauge if I’m improved or better off, but I’m eager to prove I was right to get the heck out of there. I have a lot to discover about myself, things I wouldn’t have experienced as Jeremy’s wife. I know what that life would entail. Being a trophy, pumping out kids, and becoming a shell.

Finished with the setup of the picnic, I glance up at Caleb. The teenagers are no longer horsing around and jumping into their pool behind Caleb’s. They moved on, leaving me alone with the handsome man.

He pulls himself up out of the water, his eyes on me the whole time. I watch, mesmerized as though he’s put me under a spell. Water streams over his muscles and down his chest. His arms, his shoulders, all of him is built like a Greek statue. He’s the embodiment of power and strength, not a flimsy attempt at a physique like what Jeremy tried to get from the gym and supplements from the vitamin shop.

Caleb is all man, and when he smirks at me, he taunts me.

“What?”

I shrug, not caring that he sees me checking him out so blatantly. He’s trying to get my attention and it’s stupid to pretend otherwise. Besides, looking doesn’t mean anything. He won’t get under my skin.

“Coming in?” he teases. He shakes his head, sending water flying from his hair.

I don’t reply, not sure what words would come out of my mouth. I’m tempted. I really am, but the old, more reserved part of me surfaces, warning me not to consider it.

Not to consider him.

I felt this giddy attraction before. Way back in college when I happened to meet Jeremy and before we had been dating for a long time, I gazed at him with lust and excitement, and look where that got me.

“Yeah. Figures.” Caleb rolls his eyes. “I bet you’ve never done anything that’s scared you. A careful, meticulously perfect life, huh?”

I press my lips together to hold in the retort that’s waiting to burst free. Maybe he’s right. I don’t take risks. I never had the chance to consider them because my whole life has been so tightly controlled and monitored. My parents raised me to be a perfect daughter who does no wrong, and it’s not so easy to shed that.

“You’re wrong.” I stand, remembering I have pulled off a frightening feat. I ran from my wedding. I fled from Jeremy and the unsatisfying future he represented. It took a lot of guts to run from him and give up the ties that kept me tethered to my family.

Caleb can’t know this. And if he’s some playboy billionaire, he won’t ever relate to the imprisoning situation I ran from.

I reach for my jean shorts and unzip them. Staring right at him and refusing to break my stride now that I’ve decided to live a little, I strip down to my panties. My shoes roll and smack into his. I wish, fleetingly, that I could be daring enough to strip all the way down, but I’m not. I climb up the rocks, still without a word to Caleb. He’s watching me. I feel his gaze like a living, searing caress, but I do my best to ignore it so I don’t fall. I’m no more of a rock climber than I am a groundskeeper, and as I reach up to the same handholds I saw Caleb using, I feel the stretch and ache in my forearms. All those tiny muscles I never use are firing alive right now. It doesn’t hurt. It reminds me I’m living in the moment.

I reach the top of the rock and don’t hesitate. Jumping high, I hold in a squeal, then keep my breath trapped in me for the plunge. Water cooler than I expected rushes at me as I break the surface. I sink in, relishing the blissful change of temperature and the sensation of floating, suspended in the water. If I could bottle this feeling, I’d treasure it forever. This weightless nothingness. It’s the remedy I need, to remember why I ran, and why I’ll never go back.

When I surface again, I blink up at Caleb.

He stares at me so intensely with lust and admiration, I know the tables have turned.

I stride over to him feeling so powerful in showing him up. He doesn’t know a thing about me. He thinks he’s got me figured out as an easy lay. I knock his shoulder with mine as I pass by, jarring him out of staring. My shirt clings to me and my panties aren’t modest.

“Coming in?” I taunt, tossing his words back at him.

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