Page 38 of The Heiress

“Very good friends?”

He fished around in the little foil bag, finally withdrawing a chip. “Are you very good friends with Jace?”

I scowled at him. “Don’t change the subject.” There was no way I was letting him worm out of answering.

“We’re very good friends.” Then he set the empty bag aside, crossed his legs, and gave me his full attention. “Which is why I care a great deal about her health and wellbeing. Discovering you are alive has been a shock.”

“Tell me about it.” I meant that sarcastically because, duh, it was a shock for both of us.

But Charles, intentionally or not, took it literally. “I was with her when Dombrowski broke the news. Her reaction was odd. Unlike her in many ways. It’s almost like the minute she heard the words, she stopped feeling anything at all. Maybe it’s a protection thing. The woman you’ve met is a shadow of the woman I know and love.”

That was interesting. I spent quite a bit of time wondering if she was this cold all the time. “I understand. It’s hard for me, and I had no idea. I can only imagine spending a lifetime with this. It probably doesn’t feel quite real to her.”

But he shook his head. “No, it’s different than that. I’m sure it’s partially true, but there’s something else at work here. I’ve also been surprised by how much she wants to keep you away. She wants you here, but she also wants to send you back to your life. Quietly. She says it’s for your safety but,” he sighed heavily, “it just doesn’t make sense. Why would you be in any more danger than she is?”

“Maybe she doesn’t want that for me.” Or maybe she didn’t want me around at all.

“Once she had a little too much wine and she got to talking.” A sweet, wistful look came over his face. “She babbled away about what it would be like to have you here with a boyfriend or husband. She even brought up grandchildren. But it wasn’t just a wistful family wish. It was more. She talked about working with you and sharing the company as two powerful women. It was a beautiful vision that at the time I thought would never happen. But now...”

“You just said she wants to keep me away.”

He shrugged. “I can’t help but to be selfish and wonder what it would be like if she wasn’t forced to carry the burden herself.”

“I don’t know anything about running a company.” The very thought terrified me. Ever since Jasmine informed me I was now the technical majority owner of the Stroman businesses I’d had trouble keeping my heart rate level. Anxiety kept creeping into my waking thoughts.

“You’re smart, you know how to learn and dig into information, and you’ve got Georgia’s DNA. She didn’t start out as CEO either. But she rose to the occasion. You should visit the companies; see the work we do for yourself. I think you might change your mind.”

I hesitated.

He smiled. “This is part of why I like you so much, Samantha. You don’t want this. You’re not here for power or money. You’re here because of family.”

14

“Ihate to say it Sam, but I fucking love this part of your new life.” Jace held his hands out wide, taking in the ocean breezes on the back of the private yacht.

Georgia—who I still hadn’t spent much time with—wanted us to have a relaxing day of fun, so she arranged for a day on her yacht, complete with gourmet meals, tubing, and snorkeling. Just me and Jace.

And all my confused feelings.

His shirtlessness for the last three hours had only thrown gasoline on the fire raging in my heart and, increasingly, between my legs. I tried not to stare at his tattoo and all the things it made me feel, but that left me with his arms, his abs, hisback.I’d never properly appreciated the male back before. Shapely and muscular, yes, but it was the way it all moved together. Like it was visually screaming at the universe, “I’m deathly strong and not afraid to use my power.”

We arrived at the boat under big hats and sunglasses and only told we could come up from below once we were out to sea. Dombrowski didn’t want to take any chances that stray photographers were staking out the yacht and willing to go to the effort of researching my face to figure out who I was.

But now we were here, alone, and Jace hadn’t stopped smiling. Not when he was thrown off the tube for the third time. Not when our lunch was served with a four-hundred-dollar bottle of champagne. And not when the captain pulled us alongside a pod of dolphins enjoying the waves. His smile was incandescent. Pure.

Sexy as hell.

How had I never noticed this? I spent several hours over the last few nights going back over my memories of Jace in high school. No matter how hard I tried, there was never a moment I thought of him as anything but my best friend. I think part of that was because I genuinely wasn’t very interested in dating at all. I felt too young. I was far more interested in my books and dreaming of what my future might hold. College, travel, adventures.

Not boys. Definitely not sex. And most certainly not Jace Malone.

I realized he was always handsome. When I took off my friend filter I could see it clearer. He had swagger even in high school, I just ignored it. He was kind and generous, had great hair and that same incredible smile...a lot of the girls in school must have seen it.

The blinders were off now.

Now I couldn’t help but to see Jace as a man. A man Iwanted.My body reacted to him in the most mysterious ways. And being here, in this incredibly unusual fantasy environment made it all seem easy.

I knew it wasn’t easy.

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