Page 14 of Naked Truth

“There’s a problem with one of the shipments. Can I see you, please?”

“I donated the bar tonight,” he says to me. “I’ll bring you back a taste of something North.”

I laugh at the double entendre that clearly references my drink and him, turning back to the railing with the first real smile on my lips in a month. No. No, if I’m honest with myself, it’s been far longer. I knew there was something off with my father. I knew for a long time and I never spoke up. My mind travels back in time, trying to find the moment I’d connected with that idea,weeding through moments until there’s a shift in the energy behind me.

I smile at the idea of Jax re-joining me, but a clawing sensation rushes over me just before he steps to my side, and says, “Hello, Emma.”

This is not Jax. I know this even before I whirl around to facehim. He’s Marion’s surprise. He’s my nightmare.

Chapter nine

Emma

He’s the reason I don’t believe in karma because he never gets his. I do. York Waters is a billionaire, the heir apparent to the Waters’ yacht and boat empire, for most of the time I knew him. He’s now inherited it all. He’s also my ex-fiancé. A man who is tall, dark and good looking personified. A man of power and money. A man who knows more about me than I want to know about myself. He is every mistake I have ever made. He is the secrets I keep. He is arrogant, and as I have learned, dangerous.

“What do you want, York?” I demand, knowing this man well enough to know that he does nothing without a self-serving agenda.

“I was out of the country when your father died. I wanted to come and check on you.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” I say, knowing what he wants, what he’s always wanted, “but I didn’t inherit. Perhaps you could date Randall, my brother’s right-hand man. He’s now been given more power than me.”

He steps closer and I step back because yes, I believe in standing my ground, but this is York. This is a man whoconvinced me to do things I barely know as me. His gray eyes spark with sharp, distinct interest.

“Running?” he challenges, and coming from him rather than Jax, it feels different, like a threat. Like I’ve made myself his prey.

“Running is a reaction,” I say. “I’m making a decision to say no.No.That’s my safe word, remember?”

His lips quirk. “I don’t believe in safe words.Remember?”

“And there you go,” I say coolly when indeed, I remember all too well. “One statement that personifies the beginning, middle, and end of you and me.”

“Stop,” he says, his gray eyes glinting steel. “Stop drawing the line neither of us wants drawn. I’ll step over it. Why make me?”

He’s wrong. I don’t just want a line between me and him, I want a wall. “I told you, York. I didn’t inherit.”

“And I told you, I wanted to check on you.” He steps to me again and this time, I don’t back away. He’s close, too close, when Jax couldn’t be close enough. “No one knows you like I know you. I’m your safe place. I’m the one who knows all of your secrets. I’ve always kept them between us. I’ve always protected you and your family.”

In other words, he will destroy me and my family if I cross him and his family. Marion must have sensed that I knew about the affair. She wasn’t willing to risk me telling and her losing the husband that gave her Breeze Airlines. Or there is more to this. Something else they think I know, but I don’t know at all. The something else, combined with things I read in my father’s journals, is the only reason I rein myself in when I want to back him up in every possible way.

“York Waters.”

At Jax’s voice, I jolt, and instinctively rotate to find him standing just inside the patio, while York does the same.

“Jax North,” York says. “How the hell have you been?” It’s a familiar greeting that gives me pause and reminds me of the similarities of my conversations with each man, the reference to me running. Are they friends? Is this all just one of York’s head games?

Any second, I expect Jax will join us. They will crowd me. They will play the game of power and submission, but that’s not what happens. York crosses to greet Jax, but any relief I feel by the distance quickly fades with the familiar way these two interact. Maybe this isn’t a game, but if these two are friends, I know more about Jax than I ever wanted to know.

The two men shake hands and I tell myself this formal greeting defies true friendship, but I’m too soon off my father’s death, too clear on his sins, thanks to that journal, to risk being cornered. A cluster of a good six people joins us outside and I embrace the opportunity this presents. In a rush of fancy dresses and tuxedos, I find easy passage, slipping back inside the yacht. Once there, with sure footing, I cut through the crowd and make my way to the top deck. Scanning the crowd for Chance, hoping to avoid him so as not to give York a chance to use my brother against me, I fail.

Chance steps in front of me. “There you are. How’d it go?”

“York is here,” I say, a detail that he’ll understand is awkward for me, despite the fact that the two of them are old college buddies and still golf on occasion. They wouldn’t if Chance knew what I know about York, but I can’t tell him without exposing a piece of me that I don’t want exposed. “Between him tonight and Randall last night, I need that timeout, Chance. I’m going to catch an Uber.”

“Stay. I’ll run cover for you.”

I squeeze his arm. “Why don’t we both just leave?”

“The President of Nations Bank is here. He wants to talk. Right after—”

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