Passion Abroad: A BWWM Billionaire Holiday Romance (8 page)

“
I
just got a call from Venezuela. Something is not going so well in at
La Nacio de Café and I just bought thirty per cent stock,”
he said. Erica felt as if she had just been stabbed. This could only
mean one thing. Her short fling was over.

“
Does
that mean you have to go to Venezuela?” she asked.

“
Sadly,
yes,” he nodded.

“
Guess
that’s that then, huh? Can you say shortest fling ever?”
she frowned.

He
smiled and took a seat on the bed.

“
You
know it doesn’t have to be over yet,” he said as he
looked at her.

“
What?
You are going to let your thirty per cent stock go down the drain and
not go to Venezuela?” she questioned. “No. You can come
with me,” he said with mischief in his eyes.

She
raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Come on, get real.” “I
am being real,” he said with a serious face.

Her
eyes grew wide as she looked at him. She shook her head and got up
from the bed.

“
Me?
Go to Venezuela?” she asked as she turned to look at him.
Daniel climbed across the bed and got off on the other side.

“
Why
not? You are the one who told me that you took a break from your
career and everything. This would be a great opportunity for you to
experience a new culture and country,” he said. She shook her
head unsure of what she was supposed to say. Daniel took her hands in
his. “If history has taught us anything, it’s that you
will go out there and come back here with your bags packed asking
when we’re going to leave,” he said.

She
raised an eyebrow and gave him a dirty look. “Really? You are
going to bring that out now?”

“
Too
soon?”

She
nodded.

“
So
when do you leave?”

“
As
soon as you make up your mind,” he said as he looked at her.
She smiled and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“
You
are really sure that I am going to be on that flight with you, huh?”

“
I
have a lot of confidence,” he smiled and nodded. She pulled her
hand away and smiled.

“
Let
me figure a few things out first,” she said as she walked to
the door.

“
Can’t
you figure them out here?” he called out when he heard the door
open and close but there was no answer. She was gone.

When
she got to her room, she grabbed her phone from the night stand and
looked at the screen. She could almost feel all the curses her sister
and Cassandra were hurling at her.

“
Twenty
two missed calls, nine text messages, fourteen voicemails…”
she thought as she
looked through the messages.

Hey
sis. Sorry I was a bit tied up. Are you with Cassandra right now?

She
put her phone aside and walked over to the closet. She was wondering
what she would wear. She could do a maxi but that was just good for
the beach. If she was going to accompany Daniel to Caracas, then she
might as well wear a pair of pants.

“
Listen
to you considering the trip to Venezuela. You don’t even know
this guy that well,”
she
thought as she looked through her closet. She heard her phone vibrate
loudly making her drop the hangers she had in her hands. She ran to
the bed and picked up the phone.

Yes.
Video chat?

She
smiled and typed ‘sure’ before she grabbed her iPad and
called her sister. She sat on the bed and waited for Emily to answer
the call.

“
Hey?
Where the hell have you been?” Emily asked when she picked up.

“
I’m
fine thank you and how are you?” Erica smiled as she looked at
the screen. Emily who looked seemingly upset shook her head. “And
where is Cassandra anyway?” she asked as she tried looking over
Emily’s shoulder.

“
I’m
here. Your sister won’t let me look at you,” Cassandra
said as she positioned the computer in a way that Erica could see
both of them.

“
Hey
girl,” Erica said as she smiled at Cassandra.

“
Hey.
How’s Acapulco?” she asked as she looked at Erica who
shrugged.

“
It’s
all the sun and sand you could ever want. It is beautiful,” she
said with a smile. “And that’s why I left my phone in my
room and…” her voice trailed off when she noticed the
look on her sister’s face.

“
You
are lying. You always take your phone everywhere,” Emily said.

“
Yeah,
even in the bathroom. I’ve been there when you’ve done it
you know,” Cassandra said. Erica smiled. “Your sister
told me something about a guy you met out there. Did he have anything
to do with the fact that you were not answering your phone calls or
texts?” Cassandra asked. Erica looked at the two of them and
shook her head.

“
Oh
my God. Cassie, she has that glow. I haven’t seen it since…I
don’t even remember when,” Emily said excitedly.

“
She
got laid, Ems. You got laid, didn’t you?” Cassandra said
as she looked at Erica who was now smiling shyly.

“
Guilty,”
she said in a low tone.

“
Finally,”
Emily and Cassandra said in unison. Erica raised an eyebrow.

“
Hey.
It was not that bad,” she said.

“
Come
on, you used to get pissed off at the old guy who walks slowly at the
store,” Emily said.

“
Well,
I was in a hurry. He was making me put a lot of things on hold,”
Erica frowned. Emily and Cassandra exchanged a knowing look.

“
For
a whole year?” Emily asked.

“
Hey,
it was only seven months,” Erica said.

Emily
shook her head and shrugged. “Well, it seemed longer. So,
what’s going on? What do you have planned for the day?”

Erica
took a long deep breath. “Well, I am either going to swim with
the dolphins at the Cici Acapulco Magico or take a trip down to
Venezuela.”

“
Wait,
what?” Cassandra asked as she looked at Erica. Erica touched
the corner of her iPad and ran her finger on the screen.

“
What
the hell are you talking about?” Emily asked.

“
Well,
see that guy I told you about? He is part of this company La Café
Nacion and there seems to be a problem so he asked me to go with
him,” Erica said.

“
You
mean La Nacion de Café,” Emily said.

Erica
raised an eyebrow. “You know it?”

“
Yeah,
my company handles their American market. How did he even get his
foot in that? The shares are like a hundred and fifty dollars,”
she said.

“
I
have no idea…today was the first time I heard anything about
that company. But that’s beside the point. What the hell am I
supposed to do? I mean I haven’t known him for that long…”
she never got a chance to finish her statement. Emily was giving her
one of those looks that made her thank God she was not right there.
She would have most definitely smacked her right on the forehead.

“
Go,”
Emily said. Cassandra was nodding.

“
Am
I the only one who is still reasonable here?” Erica asked. “Did
you miss the part where I said that I hardly know the man?”

“
You
and the man you hardly know have already bumped uglies. There is no
way you can get more acquainted than that,” Cassandra smiled.

“
Yeah,
plus we all know that the only reason you are asking us is because
you need validation. You already want to go, you know that,”
Cassandra said.

“
Word,”
Emily said as she fist bumped Cassandra. “And plus this is sex
on the regular without any kind of attachment. You know you need to
get laid and you are on vacation. Just consider it one more
destination that is not on your dime,” Emily said. “I’m
a money person and that makes a lot of sense to me.”

Erica
laughed and shook her head. She looked at Cassandra and Emily and
shrugged.

“
I’ll
let you know what I’ve decided. Talk later.”

“
We
all know what you’ve decided sis. Safe journey,” Emily
said before she hung up. Erica looked at the screen for a few seconds
and shook her head. She tossed the iPad aside and laid down on the
bed wondering what she was going to do next.

“
Well
I do want to go, that’s for sure. But what is he going to
think…”
her
train of thought was lost when she remembered that she stopped
thinking of what he thought of her the previous day. She got up from
the bed and walked to the bathroom and turned on the water before she
took her clothes off. As she stood under the running water, she could
feel herself feeling more and more inclined to the idea of visiting
Venezuela and by the time she was out of the bathroom, she knew
exactly what she wanted to do.

When
Erica showed up at Daniel’s suite with one of her bags, Daniel
couldn’t help but smile. He had seen this coming long before
she had. He looked at her bag and shook his head.

“
Is
this it?” he asked.

“
I
have two more in my room,” she said.

“
I’ll
send for them. Right now, you need to have your passport handy
because I booked us on a flight later this evening,” he said.
She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “I knew you would come
around,” he smiled. If she was not so happy at that moment, she
would have been offended but she didn’t really care. She didn’t
mind stepping into the next chapter of whatever this was. But when
they got to Caracas, Daniel had another favor to ask of her, a favor
she wasn’t so sure about.

“
You
know what would be really good?” he asked.

She
shrugged and shook her head. “What?”

“
I
think that you being by my side would be a great idea,” he
said.

She
shook her head and shrugged.

“
I
don’t know the first thing about this market,” she said
matter of factly.

“
Well,
you could be my legal adviser or something,” he said.

“
You
own thirty percent of a company worth thirty million dollars and you
don’t have legal representation?” she frowned. He frowned
and then smiled. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she
said.

“
Come
on, you’d be my muse in there,” he teased.

“
Really?
Did you turn into Vince van Gogh overnight?” she asked smiling.
He looked at her and shook his head before he took a step forward.

“
Okay
if I am a hundred per cent honest, are you going to come with me?”

“
Do
a good job at convincing me and we’ll see.”

“
Okay,
fine. I have never come here without some kind of company, mostly
lawyers or someone…anyone. I need to go in there with someone
otherwise these damn Venezuelans will eat me alive,” he said.

“
But
I don’t even know what to wear or what to say…”
she started before he shrugged.

“
We
can always stop at a store on the way. We can get you everything you
need,” he said with a smile. She looked into his eyes and
smiled as he pulled her close to kiss her.

“
Fine,
let’s go,” she said with a smile. He slipped an arm
around her waist and walked her out to the car. She didn’t
remember the last time a man treated her like this. She was even more
surprised when he took her to a clothing store. When she looked at
the price tags, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be there. But
Daniel looked at her and handed the store clerk his credit card. “You
know you don’t have to do that, right?” she said as she
looked at him.

“
I
brought you out here. You are my responsibility,” he said with
a smile.

“
No
I’m not,” she shook her head as she looked at him.

“
What?
I have to take care of my woman?” Daniel said as he held her.

She
raised an eyebrow at him. “Now I’m your woman?”

“
Well,
I would like you to be. Is that a problem?” he asked as he
pulled her close to him and brushed her lips with his.

She
shook her head and smiled. She actually liked how that sounded. She
looked at him and kissed him softly before she grabbed a dress from
the racks and walked to the changing room. She smiled when she got to
the changing room.

“
What
are you doing, Erica? You are acting like you are this man’s
girlfriend,”
she
thought as she changed into the green dress she’d picked off
the rack. She walked out of the changing room and looked at her
reflection. She was still looking at her reflection when Daniel
walked over to where she was.

“
Not
bad,” he said in a low voice.

“
Not
sure those were the words I was going for,” she said with a
smile. He nodded and handed her an eggshell white dress.

“
Try
this on. I think you’ll like it,” he said with a smile
before he let his hand slip to her ass.

“
Daniel,
we are in public. In South America,” she said in a whisper.