Page 44 of The Billionaire Offer
Between him, the skydiving, and the sex, I’d been feeling more inspired than ever. Songs were flowing out of me like water down a stream after a heavy rain shower. It was almost like I couldn’t stop writing now that we were in each other’s lives again.
Bart had spent the week preparing for our next trip, and I knew he was going to go all out. He always did. As excited as I was to see what he had up his sleeve, I was also just eager to be with him again.
Since we’d both been busy this week, we hadn’t seen much of each other since skydiving, and I missed him. It was funny how we’d spent years apart and I’d hardly ever even thought of him after the initial grieving period. But now that we were spending time together again, I found myself wanting to see him again only hours after he dropped me off.
He had told me that he would come up to the apartment to get me this time, so I stayed put, hovering close to the door for when he finally arrived. As I started straightening another picture on the wall that was already straight, the knock came.
I quickly took the two steps separating me from the door and grinned as I opened it, so excited that I just about threw myself into his arms. He caught me easily, laughing as he held me close and I breathed in the fresh scent of him.
“It’s good to see you, too,” he said, still chuckling as he pulled back and those vivid green eyes caught on mine. “I hired a car again so mine wouldn’t have to stay at the airstrip all the time we’re gone. Our driver is waiting downstairs, so unfortunately, we should probably get moving.”
He held me for another beat, his fingers caressing my cheek for a moment as he kept looking into my eyes. “Are you ready?”
I nodded mutely, swallowing. I stared back at him and wished I could kiss him. When my gaze dropped away from his and settled on his lips, I swiped my tongue over my own and then took a step back. He was right. We needed to get going, and if I kept looking at him like that, we weren’t going to go anywhere other than my bed.
“Yes, I’m ready.” I motioned toward my things. “Let me just grab those, then we can go.”
He stepped around me and picked up the suitcase. “You bring the backpack. I’ve got this one. Before you say anything, I know you can carry the big one, but I want to, so no arguments.”
“No arguments.” I smiled as I shouldered my backpack and followed him out the door, pausing briefly to lock it behind us. “Can you believe we’re on our way to Egypt? I can’t. I was researching it a bit more last night and there are so many things I want to see.”
“I can’t wait to hear about your Cairo bucket list. I’ve got one of my own, too. We’ll do it all, even if it means staying a few extra days. We’re going to be gone for weeks this time, anyway. I’d rather slow down and take our time at each place than race on to the next.”
“We’re going to be gone for weeks,” I repeated after him incredulously, shaking my head as we climbed out of the elevator. “What happened to my real life? When did it become all about fun and adventure?”
“This is your real life now,” he teased, gesturing for me to precede him out of the building. “It’s good to know you’re still thinking of it as fun, though. I’ve been worried that you were going to back out on me because we’ll be gone for so long this time.”
“Not a chance,” I promised. “I said I was all in, and I am. I will have to do some work while we’re there this time. I hope you don’t mind.”
He chuckled. “I don’t mind at all. In fact, I’m looking forward to seeing you do your thing. How’s the writing coming?”
“Better than ever,” I admitted. “Seriously. I have more songs ready to go than I’ve had in a long time. I’ve got clients for some of them, but not all, and I still have more than enough for myself. It’s a great place to be.”
“You’ll sell them,” he said confidently. “I’d still love to hear them all, but I don’t need to hear them to know how good they are. You’ll find people to take all the others off your hands in no time.”
“I’m writing so much now that I have a decent selection for new clients, too, which is great. It puts me in a really amazing position to be able to present anyone who asks with songs that are ready to go and that they don’t need to wait for.”
We settled into the back of the car, and Bart took my hand without making anything of it. He simply twined our fingers together. I didn’t pull away, and he held on. Glancing at me as we eased into the traffic, he smiled and his eyes lit up in this happy, relaxed way that I hadn’t seen from him for a while.
“I’m really excited about this leg of the trip,” he said, which explained how happy he looked. “Weeks of fun and adventure with you? It doesn’t get much better than that.”
I squeezed his hand and nodded. “I feel the same way. You know, when you first asked me to come with you, I thought you were completely crazy. I was so scared that it was going to be awkward or that we were going to realize we didn’t get along at all anymore if we had to spend any extended amount of time together, but saying yes has been the best thing I’ve ever done.”
“Asking has been the best thing I’ve ever done,” he said, then laughed softly, still looking at me as he released a long breath through his nostrils. “If you want to know the truth, I thought I was completely crazy, too. I mean, obviously, I wanted you to come from the second I got the idea, but it was such a random suggestion I really didn’t think you’d say yes.”
“I didn’t think I was going to say yes, either.”
“Why did you?” he asked.
I shrugged, but I couldn’t keep the corners of my lips from tipping up. “When someone asks you to do something like this with them, it’s just stupid to say no. It was the chance of a lifetime, and it was with you, so regardless of how crazy it seemed, I knew I wasn’t committing to the next few months with a serial killer.”
“Well, there’s that,” he said, chuckling. “At least I’m not a serial killer. So that’s the standard, huh? You’d have gone with anyone but a serial killer?”
I pretended to think about it, then nudged him with my elbow and laughed. “No, that’s not the standard.Youwere the standard. I wouldn’t have agreed if it was anyone other than you.”
“Not even Leah?”
I shook my head. “Not even Leah. I love her, but she’d never have asked, anyway. She’s far too career driven for something like this. She encouraged me to come, though. If it had been her and me traveling, she would’ve found a way for us to perform in every place we visited.”
