“Because they’re stuck-up, snobbish, and too traditional for my taste. They wanted me to fit a particular mold I didn’t want to slide into. So they happily handed me my inheritance early to get rid of me.”
Ash glanced at Kallie from time to time, but she didn’t look up at him. He was confused. A normal woman would’ve been overjoyed to snag a rich man like him. But the more he talked, the more hurt she looked. It was like his money had absolutely no bearing on the situation at all. And he liked that.
But he knew he was also in trouble with that.
“How long until we’re back at St. Barts?” Kallie asked.
Ash’s stomach dropped with disappointment.
“I’ll get us back as soon as I can.”
He watched Kallie nod out of the corner of his eye before she went to sit back down, leaving him in silence for the rest of the ride. He didn’t have the gas to get them back. He had to dock on the island and fuel up. He saw it come into view and the lead boat flashed its lights, then drove off into the distance. Ash pulled the boat up to the private dock and worked on getting the boat attached to the post, his eyes flickering to Kallie every now and again.
But she wouldn’t look at him.
And he didn’t know how to fix it.
Chapter 26
Kallie
Kallie looked over after a few minutes and saw Ash waiting for her. The boat was docked, but they weren’t back at St. Barts. She furrowed her brow as she got up, making her way over to the bridge that would lead her onto an island she didn’t recognize.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“A private island about forty minutes off the coast of St. Barts. I have to refuel,” Ash said.
“How do I get back? I need to get back.”
She saw Ash’s eyes flicker with sadness, but she didn’t care. She was trapped on a small island with a man she didn’t know and she wanted to get back.
Get home.
The romance was over, and Ash was nothing but a liar.
“If you need to get back before tomorrow, you can take my family’s plane. There’s one stashed at the small airport on the island,” he said.
Was he serious? This man had more than one plane? Who in the world was he? All Kallie knew was he certainly wasn’t the bartending surfer she thought he was. The bartending surfer he’d painted himself to be. Kallie quickly got off the boat, leaving her stuff below deck. She didn’t want to be around him a second longer.
All she wanted was to be back in her villa.
Alone.
She followed Ash to the airport and they walked in silence. She fell a few steps behind him, not wanting to be next to him. She felt betrayed. Lied to. Like her ex had done to her before their wedding. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe deep. She wasn’t going to cry. She had to be stronger than that.
They got to the small private airport and Ash jogged over to the massive garage. Kallie shuffled on her feet as he readied the plan. She crossed her hands over her chest, bracing herself against the wind pouring over the island.
But Ash’s voice ripped her from her trance.
“Why are you so upset?”
She scoffed and turned around, finding Ash with a confused look on his face.
“Do you not like money?” Ash asked. “Because everyone likes money.”
Kallie opened her mouth, but nothing came out. How could she explain this to him? Rather, how the hell could this man not see what he’d done? He lied about who he was. Painted a false narrative, then dropped his life on her like it was nothing. How could Kallie explain to this thickheaded rich dickhole that she’d been treated like the possession of a rich man for years? That she’d been accused of being a gold digger and people around her laughed like it were a joke? Kallie had sworn off men like her ex. Rich men like James who could own the world if they dished out the right amount of money.
Did Ash really not understand that she felt betrayed? Did Ash really not understand that his allure was the fact that he was nothing like the rich men on the island?