The Billionaire's Proposal

He reached down beneath the waves, and the next second, his dripping black swim trunks were in a puddle on the floor. “There. Neither do I.”

My breath caught in my chest, and I said a silent prayer of thanks that he’d turned on the foaming jets before I’d come down. Otherwise, there would be no way I could string together a coherent thought. Let alone force it into a sentence.

I opened my mouth to automatically refuse, prepared to go back upstairs and plant myself firmly on the right side of the line the two of us kept blurring. So it was as much of a surprise to me as to anyone when I heard myself saying, “Okay.”

Well aware that his eyes were watching every move, I slipped the silk bathrobe off my shoulders. Then the tiny nightgown beneath. Without a single stitch of clothing on my body, I slowly reached up and let loose my hair. It tumbled in dark waves down my shoulders as I stepped into the tub. At once, my face steamed up and I flashed him a grin.

“It’s hotter than I thought.”

He nodded slowly, but didn’t respond. His eyes

had dilated almost completely black during my little strip tease, and he seemed no more capable of speech now, than I was when I’d first come down and seen him.

Finally, when he could manage, he patted the seat beside him with a little smile. I waded slowly into the water, but took a seat on the far side instead. Somewhere just slightly out of the man’s reach. Somewhere that I could look at him to my heart’s content.

He followed every movement, tracing my hair’s spiraling journey down my chest before looking back up with a twinkle in his eye.

“So...what’s the verdict?”

“We’ll buy ten of them in the morning,” I announced. “Then another for the plane.”

He chuckled softly, and nodded his head.

“Yes ma’am.”

The chuckle made me smile. Then I remembered that look on his face.

“Nick?” I asked softly.

He looked up swiftly, picking up on the change in my tone.

“Yeah?”

“Is everything...” I paused, wondering how to phrase it. It’s not like I could admit that I’d been spying on him from the balcony. “Are you...upset about something?”

“Upset?” he repeated in surprise. It was an admirable performance. If I hadn’t been there for the first one, I might have believed it myself. “No—why would I be upset?”

I shrugged, dropping my eyes to the foamy waves. “I just thought...I don’t know. I just thought you looked like something was bothering you when we went upstairs for the night.”

Only someone who knew him well could have caught it. The way the muscles in his face froze—betraying just the slightest hint of guilt. The way his eyes tightened ever so slightly. The involuntary twitch of his hand.

For a second, it looked like he was going to deny it all anyway, then he bowed his head with an almost imperceptible sigh.

“Sometimes I forget.”

I shook my head, trying to follow along.

“Forget what?”

He glanced up with a wry grin.

“That you’re you.”

I blinked quickly, and looked back down at the water. It was a rather strange way to start a discussion, but on the other hand, I didn’t think there was any greater compliment he could have given me.

I didn’t know what to say. Instead, I simply looked up—waiting for him to begin.

“When you asked about the press,” he began uncertainly, “when you asked if I’d like you to leak it to the press about our date...”