The Tycoon's Seductive Revenge Page 16

  Teeth chattering, she forced herself to keep moving. Her soaked clothes made her descent to the beach an exhausting ambition. She ducked as a metal road sign flew over her head, nearly decapitating her.

  “You can make it,” she urged her fatigued body. “You have to reach the dock.” There, she’d be more visible, if anyone looked back and saw her waving.

  A jolt of strength welled up inside her. She raced through the storm to the beach. Waves crashed against the shore with ferocity that terrified her. But she stayed focused, even as the sand gave way beneath her shoes.

  Just a few more yards. Hurry!

  Her rush of adrenaline was fading fast. Exhaustion nearly overcame her, as she lunged up the steps to the dock. The wooden structure dipped and swayed, fighting to hold out against the crushing waves.

  She raced toward the end of the pier, waving her arms, praying Carter might look back one last time and see her flagging him down.

  “Carter, wait!” she cried. “I want to come with you. I want to spend my life with you.” Her voice faded to a futile whisper. “I love you.”

  Her arms fell to her sides as the helicopter kept moving out over the ocean, becoming a speck in the gray-green sky. Then it disappeared.

  Chin trembling, Ellie choked back tears.

  “I’m sorry, Carter,” she said, unable to hold back a sob. “I’m so sorry, I realized too late…”

  Everything you mean to me .

  Hugging herself, shivering in the cold rain, she felt desolate. She’d lost her last chance to make things right. Now she’d never see him again.

  Her heart shattered into pieces. The shards seemed to fling out from the center of her chest, tearing through her, shredding her insides. Tears and rain stung her eyes. The sky opened up and the rain pounded harder, as though mirroring the depths of her pain.

  Suddenly, a gigantic wave came barreling toward the pier. Ellie’s eyes flew wide as the menacing wall of water rose higher, higher, a deluge great enough to knock her into the ocean and drag her down into its frightening depths.

  Horror clawed through her. She stumbled back, barely escaping the water that crashed onto the pier. She needed to head for cover. Her instincts screamed for her to run back to the hotel.

  But something about being there, facing the vastness she’d always feared, while she stood strong against the raging sea, filled her with strength. She’d braved an oncoming hurricane to get to Carter. She’d faced down her most paralyzing fears.

  And she was alive. She felt more alive than she had in years.

  She stood there one moment more, empowered as she watched the ocean’s violent retaliation against her inner strength and determination to no longer live a life ruled by fear.

  A weight lifted off her chest as she came to recognize that there was no curse on her, or her family. There were only choices. She’d made some terrible ones in the past twenty-four hours. She’d forsaken the love of her life, but she could still take control of her fate.

  And she could guarantee that her fears never again clouded the knowing in her heart.

  Ellie turned away from the ocean and headed back toward the beach. The winds were dying down. Gray skies lifted. An eerie calm settled over the windblown landscape.

  “Must be the eye of the hurricane,” she assumed.

  The sun broke through the clouds, blinding in its brilliance, comforting in its warmth. This moment seemed to her as if Mother Nature was rewarding her for her perseverance, for battling her fears in the name of love, for taking chances for the sake of her heart. Instead of using the past as an excuse to run from the unknown.

  Sunlight glittered on raindrops that sparkled like tiny stars descending from the sky. Breathtaking .

  An inner prompting told her to look up.

  There, at the entrance to the pier, stood a dark figure. As she drew closer, she recognized his jeans, leather jacket and incredible silver eyes.

  Her heart stopped. “Carter?”

  The hint of a smile spread on his lips.

  “Oh, thank God.” Ellie picked up her pace, running to him. Before she reached the steps, she paused. Shock and turmoil twined with elation. Her voice cracked as she whispered, “What are you doing here?”

  “Enjoying the lovely weather we’re having.” He shrugged with a teasing glint in his eyes.

  She stammered, “B-but you left…”

  He spread his arms. “Obviously not.”

  “I thought you went to the mainland with the chopper, with Matilda and James.”

  “Couldn’t do it.”

  “I’m so glad.” The pressure of intense emotion made her catch her breath. “I’m sorry, Carter. I was stupid to let you go. You mean more to me than this hotel ever could. I ran after you, hoping you’d see me, hoping you’d turn around. One last time. Even if I didn’t deserve it…” A swell of unspeakable feeling clogged her throat.

  Similar emotion swam in his eyes. “I never left, Ellie. Because when you love a woman, you stand by her side through anything. Even a hurricane.”

  Her body trembled. “Did you just say you love me?”

  His smile rivaled the sun. “I can make it more obvious, if you want.” He opened his arms welcomingly. “I love you, Ellie.”

  Ellie leaped into his embrace, nearly knocking him over. He laughed and squeezed her tight. Rainwater dripped from their clothes. Then he lifted her chin and sealed her lips with his. Their mouths explored their confessions of love, as if they’d said the words for the first time.

  “I’ve always loved you, Carter,” she murmured against his lips. “Thank you for coming back to the island. For standing beside me, and for believing in us.”

  “Well, you’re pretty much stuck with me, because I’m not going anywhere,” he affirmed. “For better or worse, through anything this world can throw at us, you’re mine, Ellie. I’m going to marry you, have my children with you, and spend the rest of my life loving you—and I’m not taking no for an answer.”

  Tears of joy shimmered in her eyes. “I accept.”

  His expression turned serious. “I don’t have a ring to make this official. Hell, I don’t even have clean clothes to wear—my bags are on the chopper. But I promise you’ll be wearing a rock the size of Gibraltar as soon as I can get you one, and propose to you the right way.”

  She smiled up at him. “You’re here. That’s all the proof I need.” Pulling him down to her again, their mouths joined for another impassioned kiss.

  Then a thought came to her. She slid her hands down his leather jacket, pressing gently on his chest until he released her lips. “Carter, I still don’t think it’s right that the hotel is entirely mine. You should own it, too. It’s your money that made this possible.”

  “It was a gift, Ellie. Not charity, like you thought.”

  She pressed a finger to his lips. “I know. And I’m honored by your intentions, But I just don’t feel right about it. When the storm blows over, I’m going to call a lawyer and have your name put on the deed. It belongs to both of us—and I’m not taking no for an answer.”

  “You’re too stubborn for your own good, you know that?”

  Grinning, she shot back, “No more stubborn than you.”

  He feigned an aggrieved sigh. “Looks like we’re meant to be.” He lowered her until her feet touched the sand. “But we won’t have time to appreciate the moment if we’re stuck out here when the eye of the hurricane passes and the inner wall hits.”

  Ellie glanced out over the ocean. A huge funnel of black clouds headed their way moving at deadly speeds. She swallowed. “Good idea.”

  Carter straightened and held out his hand. “Let’s go home.”

  Perfection filled the moment as she slid her hand into his warm, strong grasp. Together they headed back to their hotel, back to where it all began, with the renewed commitment to a lifetime of love she would treasure forever.

  *

  Four months later…

  Carter stood on the beach in a tuxedo, ba
refoot, anxiously awaiting his bride.

  The weather had cooperated this spring, with April providing the perfect temperatures and atmosphere for new beginnings. The start of the rest of his life with the woman he’d never stopped loving.

  The sun sank low in the sky, and the hint of a cooler night blew in with the ocean breeze. But the day’s warmth still lingered in the grains of sand beneath his toes.

  Everything was perfect. Except…where was Ellie?

  He glanced at the angle of the sun again, as its rays mingled with the clouds, spreading magenta and orange striations across the heavens. A sailboat’s silhouette coasted in front of the bright orange orb sinking into the water, reflecting a path of gold from the horizon to the shore. Musicians on the violin, base and cello provided the musical backdrop, and the strings’ harmonies soothed his taut nerves.

  Why was he so nervous?

  This was the day he’d been waiting for since the second he and Ellie locked eyes on the beach for the first time, now thirteen years ago. She’d been the only woman in his heart ever since.

  He flicked a glance toward Matilda and James, their witnesses to their vows. They were gazing at each other, their age-spotted hands clinging tightly together. The epitome of life-fulfilling, enduring love. Warmth filled Carter’s heart. This would be him and Ellie in forty years. The notion filled him with a rush of love and gratitude.

  The music paused.

  Then the cello’s first strain of the Wedding March rang out, the notes sending tingles down his arms, reverberating through his soul. He looked down the white silk carpet that had been laid across the sand for Ellie’s walkway, scattered with pink rose petals in honor of his mother’s memory.

  The moment he locked eyes with Ellie took his breath away. It was unexpected, but he couldn’t keep dampness from pooling along his lower lashes. Her amber eyes sparkled, and her smile lit up his world.

  Biting his lower lip to keep the surge of emotion at bay, he watched her walk barefoot toward him, so graceful, a glowing angel in ivory, lace and silk.

  So beautiful.

  As she approached him, he held out his hand to her. When she accepted, he tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and turned to the clergyman.

  Pride and devotion filled his heart until he thought it might burst.

  Despite his strongest efforts, more stupid tears crept into his eyes as he gazed at her. Her profile was bathed in ambient light from the setting sun, her eyes shining brighter than the purest gold, her dark hair threaded with copper highlights, pulled halfback from her face, then falling in waves that framed her features perfectly.

  The pastor began, “Dearly beloveds, we are gathered here today to witness the joining of these two souls in the bonds of matrimony…”

  Matilda and James smiled at them knowingly, as if the eternal bonds of love had somehow transferred to them, a rite of passage. A continuation of all the love that came before and was now his and Ellie’s responsibility to pass on, the eternal continuum that spread into forever.

  Carter’s sigh held reverence and relief. Every fiber of his being told him this was right. And that it was about damned time.

  Some guys were dragged to the altar. Others were forced there because of circumstances beyond their control. Others did this out of obligation to things they may or may not believe in. But, in all the stories Carter’s male friends relayed, none of them talked about the rush of total adoration he felt for Ellie in this moment, so complete he could barely catch his breath when the pastor asked him to recite their vows.

  “Ellie,” Carter said, his voice hoarse as he looked into her eyes and saw forever unfold before him, “I take you to be my lawfully wedding wife…to have and to hold…in sickness and in health…for richer for poorer…until death do us part…”

  The look on her face, as she seemed to stare into his soul and recite her vows, ensured the wetness in his eyes wouldn’t go away. As she finished, Carter rubbed the edge of his white shirt-cuff against the outer corner of one eye. The motion seemed to undo Ellie’s composure.

  Two tears dripped down her cheeks. When the pastor pronounced them man and wife, Carter reached up to cup her face. With his thumbs he brushed her tears away, and with a fingertip she touched the damp spot at the corner of his eye.

  “I love you, Carter. I always have. I always will.”

  “Couldn’t have said it better.” He stood before her, incredulous yet deeply grateful for the rightness of this moment.

  As he pulled her into his arms, the sun made one final brilliant flash before it descended into the waves like a woman melting into her lover’s awaiting embrace.

  And by the glow of nature’s perfection, Carter kissed his bride.

  Then, by the glow of candlelight, an hour later he laid her down amidst the plush fabrics of the bed in the hotel’s most exquisite suite. He spread her over the finest luxury satin bedding that he’d sprinkled with red rose petals before the ceremony. Champagne sat chilling on the bedside table, next to her red-rose bouquet.

  He gazed down at Ellie, completely enraptured. But something troubled him, and he wanted to know how she truly felt. “Do you still think this was a good idea?”

  Startled, she blinked at him. “Marrying you? Of course!”

  “I mean leaving the island to get married and honeymoon at my Bahamas resort. We didn’t get married on El Dorado, like you’d expected.”

  Taking his hand, she said, “Carter, the best thing I ever did was proving to myself that I could leave the island. This resort is beautiful, the stuff of fairy tales. The pictures from our wedding will be worthy of magazines.”

  “I can probably arrange that.”

  She held up her hands. “Not necessary, I assure you.” Her expression reflected his own exquisite happiness. “If not for you returning to the island, I never would’ve recognized how perfect we are for each other. I don’t regret anything. I love you, Carter.”

  As he sat on the bed beside her, he stroked her face with reverence. “How do you feel, otherwise?”

  “Amazing,” she said with a smile that dipped into a frown a few seconds later, her elation touched by a shadow of sadness. “I wish my father could’ve walked me down the aisle,” she murmured, wet droplets clinging to her lashes.

  “Because it would’ve meant so much to you, I wish that, too.” Carter gently removed the pearl-beaded veil from her hair, setting it on the nightstand. “But I’m not sure he would’ve shared out sentiments.”

  She gave a watery laugh. “You’re probably right. But if he knew then how much I loved you—how much I still love you and always will—he might have reconsidered.”

  Carter poured the champagne into the long-stemmed glasses provided by room service, then dropped two plump strawberries into each one. “We can’t recreate the past in the present,” he conceded, “and I don’t know why things happen the way they do. But I believe everything we’ve ever said or done brings us to this exact moment—and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

  “Agreed,” she said, the lovely glow returning to her face.

  “I suspect they know,” he affirmed to ease her wistfulness. “Those we’ve lost. I think their love stays with us, in our memories.”

  Ellie glanced at the locket necklace spiraling around the stems of her bouquet. “I believe that, it’s just…I miss my parents so much.”

  “Who’s to say they weren’t here today? Looking down on us, sharing the moment. I think that’s possible, don’t you?”

  “I think so,” she whispered.

  He passed her one of the glasses, even though he knew she wouldn’t drink it, then took his and held it up to her in a toast. “Cheers to those who came before, and to our children, who’ll know our best memories.”

  Ellie smoothed her hand over abdomen. “Do you think our baby girl will want to know about her grandparents?”

  “I know she will.” Carter leaned forward and kissed Ellie’s eyebrows, her temples, her cheeks, her nose, her chin. Th
ey’d found out two days ago they were going to be the proud parents of a baby girl—and Carter had never experienced a more profound joy than to know Ellie was pregnant with his child. He dipped his head and brushed his lips reverently over Ellie’s. “But if our little princess thinks she’s going to run off with some no-name scoundrel from El Dorado Island, she’s got another thing coming.”

  Ellie scoffed at him. “Hey, she can grow up to love whoever she wants.”

  “Doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”

  “And so it comes full circle,” she murmured, her eyes shining with laughter at the irony.

  He released a sigh that came from the bottom of his heart. “I’m so happy you’re my wife. And I’m proud of you for agreeing to live with me in Miami. I think the hotel will be in fine hands, with Matilda and James running the place.”

  “Summer vacations on the island will be wonderful. Still, I don’t want our children to grow up in the same prison I did. They should explore this world the way I never could.”

  “Our first stop, the Grecian Islands.”

  Ellie’s eyes widened. “You expect me to fly for twelve hours and then travel around the Mediterranean?”

  He glanced at his watch. “Okay, I’ll give you another twenty-four hours to acclimate yourself to life beyond the island. Then, we’re hitting the road, baby. There’s too much you’ve missed out on. I want to show you everything.”

  She blew out a breath. “Well, I couldn’t ask for a better traveling companion.”

  He grinned. “That’s my girl. Always up for new adventures.”

  “I remember you saying the same thing when we found the blueprints of the hotel. I wasn’t feeling very adventurous back then.”

  “I think you’ll be up for plenty of them in the future. You’re the strongest, bravest woman I’ve ever known. Besides my mom, of course.”

  “Of course. I’m honored to be in her league.”

  He pressed his lips to her palm. “Our parents made a lot of sacrifices for us. Probably more than we’ll ever know.”

  Ellie nodded. “Although if we’d ignored their ‘better judgment’ and listened to our hearts from the start, we would’ve been just fine.”