More Than a Billionaire (24 page)

He asked a lot, but he had no other option until she was cleared by the Agency?

“The Russian project is just about done. After that, I’ll have no reason to work with Nadia Danilova again.”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she went back to packing. “Just get me another room, Gray. I’ll fly home tomorrow. Goodbye, Gray.”

Kiera walked passed him, not bothering to turn around when he called out to her. Icy fingers gripped his heart and he turned toward the bedroom door. He had to convince her that nothing had happened. Things between them couldn’t end like this.

He ran out of the bedroom. “Please Kiera don’t leave. I love you. You’re the only person I want to be with.”

She stopped walking and looked at him. “I wish that was true, but I don’t think you know what the word love means.” She took a few more steps and pulled open the door. “Don’t bother me again tonight, or I promise I’ll call hotel security.”

The door slammed shut and Gray bowed his head as he leaned against the wall.

He hadn’t cheated on her, but he had lied to her. Although he never meant to hurt Kiera, she might never forgive him.

Raw grief ripped through his body. He needed her like he’d never needed anyone before. He’d make things right. He had no other alternative.

Left with no other choice but to wait, Gray called the front desk. If Kiera planned to get her own room, he’d at least make sure he got the bill for it.

***

Gray spent the rest of the night pacing and flipping through television channels. He had to try talking to her again. Maybe now, after several hours, she’d listen and not threaten to call hotel security on him. She might not accept the ring, but perhaps she’d give him a chance to make things right.

Without changing out of the clothes he’d worn all night, he went downstairs. It was still early. He hoped Kiera hadn’t checked out yet.

A too perky young woman stood at the front desk when Gray approached.

“I need to know what room Kiera Renault is in,” Gray said as he kept an eye out for Kiera. In order to leave she’d have to check out first and come through the lobby.

“I’m sorry sir. I cannot give out that information.”

Under other circumstances, he’d accept the answer and walk away. Not today. “Why don’t we ask the manager, then?”

The clerk picked up the phone and asked the manager to join them.

“Mr. Sherbrooke, what can I do for you this morning?” the hotel manager asked when he appeared.

Gray forced a tight smile and read the man’s nametag. “I just need to know what room my friend is in, Miles. I paid for it last night.”

“Yes, yes. I remember when you called.”

He watched each guest who passed by while he waited for the information.

“She was in room four-twenty,” Miles said.

“Was?” He should’ve camped out in the lobby last night.

“Miss Renault checked out at five o’clock this morning, sir.”

She had a two-hour head start on him.

“Thank you, Miles. I’ll be checking out myself soon.”

He’d head back to Providence and try talking to her again. For now, that was all he could do.

***

“We’ve reached cruising altitude; you may now use any electronic devices,” the flight attendant’s voice came through the speakers.

Kiera unclipped her seatbelt. The way she saw it, the safety device wouldn’t make a bit of difference in an emergency anyway. Then she reclined her seat and looked out the window while trying to ignore the passenger next to her who kept moving around as she pulled one item after another from her carry-on bag.

What a different plane ride this one promised to be. On the trip down, she and Gray had been alone. The only other people on board had been his private flight crew. Now, she was surrounded by at least a hundred other passengers.

“Do you mind if I use your tray?” The passenger next to her asked, a laptop and several file folders out. “I need to get some work done, but don’t have enough room.”

“Go ahead.” Kiera lowered the tray, grateful she never worried about getting work done while traveling.

“Thanks. I was in Anguilla for business. I work for a linen company. We supply the towels and bedding to many of the resorts. My boss wants all these requisitions on his desk the moment I land.” The overworked female passenger put some files on Kiera’s tray. “What about you? Were you in the Caribbean for business or pleasure?”

Heartache
. “A short vacation.”

“I haven’t had a vacation in over three years.”

She hoped the passenger didn’t talk all the way back to Providence. Right now her overtired brain couldn’t handle it. “This was my first one in a while.” Kiera pulled her ear buds from her purse, hoping her neighbor would notice and focus on her work.

“My last one was right before my husband moved in with his new girlfriend. We flew down to the Florida Keys to celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, then two weeks later, he moved in with his twenty-two year old fitness trainer.”

Kiera had enough heartache of her own, she’d rather not have anyone else dumping stuff on her.

“That’s awful. I’m so sorry.”

Maybe if she put the ear buds in her talkative neighbor would get the hint.

“Take my advice. Stay single. Men want only one thing. When they get tired of you, they move on.”

She learned that already. “I’ll try to remember that.”

Done sharing her sage advice, Kiera’s neighbor got to work while Kiera popped in her ear buds and closed her eyes. She would not fall asleep, but her neighbor would never know that.

A mere week ago, she’d walked around on Cloud Nine. How could things change so fast? Kiera leaned against the bureau and slid it, inch by inch, across the room. She’d already moved the desk so she could put this in its place. After that, she’d turn the bed, too. With the furniture moved around, the room appeared smaller, but so what? Maybe now she wouldn’t think of the two-faced jerk every time she came upstairs. If she had the energy, she would change things around downstairs when she finished up here.

One final good push got the bureau against the wall.

Finally
. Kiera took a step back. The bureau looked okay there, but the desk had fit better. In another few months, maybe she would move it back. By then, she would’ve scrubbed Grayson Sherbrooke from her head.

Keep telling yourself that
. Kiera ignored the voice and reached for the drawers she’d stacked against a wall. She replaced five of them, then picked up the last one. The one that contained the clothes Gray had left behind. She didn’t stop to consider her actions. She balled them up and tossed them into the trash. He’d never miss them. By now, he probably didn’t remember he’d even left stuff here.

How could she have ever believed he’d done all that traveling for work? Was she really that naîve? Gray didn’t know the meaning of the word work. Instead of working, he used his family’s money and influence wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted and with whomever he chose.

She wished she’d listened to her mom. She’d told her Gray would break her heart. That he wasn’t the settling down type.

Mom had been right and the next time she said a guy was wrong for her, Kiera would listen and bolt the door against him.

Kiera shoved the last drawer into the bureau, the force shaking the mirror. Seven years of bad luck was the last thing she needed.

With the desk and bureau moved, she set her sights on the bed. For now, she’d push it up against the wall. No one needed to get in on the other side, and it would give her a little more open space.

Kiera turned the bed; thankful the darn thing slid so well on the area rug, and found a single white sock hiding underneath.
Gray’s
.

As she’d done with the rest of his stuff, she tossed the sock in the trash. They hadn’t been together that long, yet she kept finding his stuff everywhere. Little reminders that sent thoughts of him back into focus. Yesterday, she’d found the extra winter gloves he’d left behind. The day before that, the razor he’d left in her bathroom had set off tears for an hour. She hoped she didn’t find any more of his belongings.

With the other furniture moved, she started pushing the nightstand back into place. A sound downstairs caught her attention and she paused, trying to identify it. Before she could, Kiera heard another sound that she recognized, and froze. Her apartment door had just closed.

Kiera looked around for anything she could use as a weapon. When nothing useful appeared, she hoped she remembered a little of what she learned in her women’s self defense class. She patted her pockets.

Fudge.
Her phone was downstairs.

Well, she couldn’t stay up here and get cornered. She had to make a run for it.

She prepared to sprint down the stairs, her heart racing so fast her chest hurt.

“Good, you’re home.” Gray appeared at the bottom of the stairs and she fell to her knees.

Gray might be a cheating jerk, but he wouldn’t physically hurt her.

“You scared the hell out of me.” Kiera put her hand over her racing heart and stood up, her legs a little wobbly. “Did you forget how to knock?”

“Sorry. You haven’t answered any of my calls, and I didn’t think you would let me in.”

Well, he got that right. “If you’re here for the things you left behind, give me a minute and I’ll get them.”

“That’s not why I’m here. I need to talk to you.” He came up the stairs toward her.

“Well, I don’t need to talk to you.” If she knew it wouldn’t kill him, she’d push him back down the stairs.

“Please, Kiera.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I only want to talk and work things out between us. I miss you.”

She missed him too, but she’d never tell him that. “There’s nothing to talk about, Gray. You’re free to see anyone you want. Have a great life.”

“I can’t accept that.” He came toward her and took her hands. “You love me as much as I love you. We’ll work through this.”

Tears gathered in her eyes, and she blinked to keep them from falling. “Correction, I
loved
you. Past tense. There’s nothing to work out.” She tugged her hands free. “Please go and leave your key here.”

She didn’t need any more surprise visits from him, and the building manager would charge her to change the locks.

“You don’t mean that.”

“I’ve never meant anything more. Go.”

His shoulders slumped. “If you change your mind, I moved into The Hillcrest yesterday.”

She watched him walk down the stairs. If he’d done almost anything else, she could forgive him. No one was perfect. Cheating… That, she couldn’t get past. She’d rather be alone than be with someone who cheated on her.

Kiera stood until she heard the door close downstairs. Confident that she was alone, she let the tears she’d held back flow. How she wished she’d never gone for lunch with Gray after Trent’s wedding. If she had declined the invitation, she could have saved herself so much heartache.

***

Life sucked. Gray rested his head in his hands. How had everything gone south so damn fast? One minute, they had been discussing wedding dates, and the next she was walking out the door on him. It all seemed like a bad dream. Unfortunately, he knew that he was wide-awake. The constant ache in his chest reminded him twenty-four seven.

What was his next step? Today’s conversation proved she was as upset now as when she left their hotel room.

She still loved him. He knew she did. She might say otherwise, but Kiera couldn’t turn her emotions on and off like that. She only said she didn’t love him to either protect herself or hurt him. Or both. It didn’t matter. He needed her to believe him. It looked like in order to make that happen, though, he would need to tell her the truth about his work with the Agency. Something he couldn’t do yet.

The wait until he could was going to kill him.

He needed some fresh air. He yanked the door open and came face to face with his brother.

“You moved in,” Trent said, his hand up as if about to knock. “Addie said she saw you in the lobby when she left this morning.”

“I moved in a few days ago. I guess I didn’t see her down there.”

His older brother looked happy. The way
he’d
felt the night Kiera accepted his proposal.

“Are you going to let me in?”

He could use a distraction. “Yeah, sure.”

Gray walked back toward the kitchen. Other than the bedroom, it was the only area that had furniture.

“Going for the minimalist look?” Trent paused in the living room before he joined Gray in the kitchen. “You and Kiera can stay with us if you want until this place is ready.”

“I’ve got furniture coming tomorrow.”

“Addie wanted me to invite you two up for dinner tonight.”

One word described how he viewed a night with his happily married brother. Hell.

“Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

“If Kiera’s working tonight, how about tomorrow? She might like some company besides you. I know I would.”

“Go to hell.” He should’ve shut the door in his brother’s face rather than let him in.

Trent shot him a dirty look. “For someone who just got engaged, you’re in a foul mood. Did Kiera kick you to the dog house already?”

Why had he ever told Trent he planned on proposing?

In Gray’s head, his fist made contact with Trent’s face but his brother didn’t deserve the brunt of his frustration, so he kept his hands clasped together. “Get lost.”

“What’s up your ass? I’m joking with you.”

Gray knew that, and most days he’d appreciate his brother’s company. Today he didn’t have the patience.

“It’s been a rough week.”

“Did she say no?” Trent asked, all humor gone from his voice.

“She said yes and the next day gave me back the ring.”

“Did she say why?”

“She thinks I cheated on her.”

Trent glared at him and crossed his arms. “Did you?”

This time Gray did make a fist. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know. She must have had a reason to think that.”