Page 1 of Billionaire's Surprise

One

Emerson Blake

Eyes wide with awe, I felt like Rose staring up at the Titanic. The gleaming white cruise ship before me washuge!Sure, I knew all the stats on it because that’s who I was. I’d immediately looked into the ship when I’d won this all-expenses-paid trip.

And holy mackerel… No one in the office where I worked had even known our security firm had put us all into a pool to win this extra special Christmas bonus. And weren’t they all super jealous that Emerson Blake—that would be me—from the coding team had won.

There I was, minding my own business when this group of people,the awards committee, had converged on me, interrupting me at a critical moment in updating a massive line of code and wiping out a couple hours of work that I’d had to re-do. The moment had been a perfect fucking storm—being the center of unwelcomed attention, my project taking a sharp left turn into hell, winning a prize I didn’t want…

All I could do was stare at them with a super-fake expression while they presented thisreally expensiveprize.

Everyone was envious, some a little snotty, and I was stuck. How did the new girl say thanks but no thanks?

She didn’t. She couldn’t. Even if she was deathly afraid of the ocean and more than a little afraid of large bodies of water deeper than her ankles, like lakes and pools and hot tubs. It was crazy since I lived in Chicago,right on Lake Michigan!But I just didn’t go over to Navy Pier or the Lakefront Trail or Lake Shore Drive, if I could avoid it.

Water. Me. Ugh.

And so here I was. Way too close to the ocean, breathing in the salty air from the lapping water. Looking up at a mammoth boat and remembering the cruise ship on its side in the Mediterranean that had been all over the news when I was a teenager.

Okay…deep breaths, Em. You’ve got this. Ships are safer than airplanes. You know that, and you’ve managed to fly with no problems.

Because I wasn’t afraid of planes. I loved to fly. Just recently, I’d taken a fun, long-weekend trip to New York City for my college friend, Laura’s, engagement party. And that had been great. Of course, the Manhattan didn’t feature huge expanses of water—if you ignored that NYC was essentially an island, and just like in Chicago, I never saw said water. And I stay way back from the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, as well as the one in Rockefeller Plaza. Just in case.

I sighed, turning toward the huge crowd waiting to board the ship. I’d always envisioned just walking up the gangplank and boarding. Nope. They’d checked my luggage through security, much as would happen if I were flying, and now, I was standing on this maze-like corral, which wove upward toward the ship,along with all the other cattle—um, passengers—waiting to board.

Pulling out my phone, I took a few pictures. People back at the office were sure to ask about the sights. Then I flipped to my photo album to look at how the snaps had turned out. Almost unconsciously, my thumb scrolled me back to the NYC pics from three months ago. I didn’t have many since I’d offloaded most of them to the cloud. But there was one I looked at all the time.

Him.

Fraser Cassel.

It was silly, really, that I was so hung up on the guy who’d been in and out of my life in what amounted to a split-second in the whole scheme of things. We’d met at a new club that my friends wanted to check out, though in truth, all the places were new to me since I wasn’t from New York. We’d stopped in before the Broadway show we were attending. Then I’d met him.

Talk about being thunderstruck… I’d never had such an instant reaction to a guy. He was like… I don’t know. A modern Clark Gable? Yes, my affinity for old movies was showing. But God, he was so put together and smoldering. I’d itched to drag him into a dark corner, push my hands into his hair and kiss him as if he were my last meal. The way he devoured me with his piercing dark eyes told me he’d like the same.

We’d settled for having a drink in the VIP lounge and learning a little about each other. I told him why I was in New York, and he’d revealed he was a businessman of some kind, at the club with his brothers to celebrate closing a deal. The whole time, I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and I’d wanted to kiss him so bad. Again with that outlandish need.

I didn’t cave, not wanting to be one of those drunk girls who regrets losing control on vacation and hopes the repercussions don’t follow her home.

I’d still left with regrets.

My finger traced his image on my phone, inadvertently blowing up the picture and magnifying his model-like features. He had dark hair and eyes like me, but we were hardly a matched set.

I was kind of curvy, kind of bookish, kind of plain. Men didn’t give me a second glance, so it had stunned me when Fraser had. I swore the man should be on the silver screen or gracing the covers of books. Women probably swooned in his path. But he’d zeroed in on me, and he hadn’t let go until he’d escorted me safely to my cab—along with the other girls with me, of course.

His fingers had feathered over my cheek, such longing in his eyes, as we’d said goodbye. I thought I heard him sayfor now,but that was probably my imagination. No. There was noprobablyabout it. Itwasmy imagination. I mean…three months had passed. Besides, we were strangers who’d spent ten minutes together in a bar. We didn’t even live in the same part of the country.

Now, I was taking a cruise with almost a thousand more strangers over the winter holiday. It could be a good opportunity. If I let it be one. Maybe, I’d meet someone who wouldn’t make fun of me for fearing water, yet inexplicably spending a full week on a boat. Nice idea, but all I wanted was the guy I’d probably never see again. At least, the ship had a library and two theaters and a ton of shows, so I’d just keep myself busy that way. Maybe, I’d spend some time inthe Caribbean sun getting a tan that everyone back in snowy Chicago would be envious of.

The first order of business was to look over the excursions available and pick what I’d do. I’d been told I didn’t have to choose them before boarding. As a prize winner, they were holding open a spot for me in all the activities at every port, but I would need to decide today, so they could open up whatever I didn’t want to other passengers. That was a nice perk.

Perspiration was beginning to bead beneath my collar when the linefinallystarted to move and I could see people boarding the ship. As I neared, loud, festive music reached me, and a buzz of excitement thrilled through the crowd. Ahead of me, a group of girls bopped to a dance version of Santa Baby. I grinned, kind of wishing my college friends were with me on this trip. We’d had so much fun in in New York. Who knew what we’d get up to if let loose on a city-sized ship?

Surprising excitement vibrated through me. Anticipating the trip of a lifetime, my steps were rapid as I hurried along the final gangplank into the ship where gregarious crew members took pictures, handed out ship IDs that were keyed to individual staterooms, and welcomed everyone aboard. They directed passengers toward the party on the upper deck for food and fun until we embarked. Apparently, we weren’t allowed to go to our rooms until after departure. I didn’t plan to spend much time in the cabin anyway, so it was all cool.

I grabbed some fries from the deck grill and avoided the dance party at the pool’s edge. The crowd was fun to watch. One of the cute cruise directors was leading the dance, his short springy dreadlocks bouncing with each move.

When it was finally time to go down to the cabin, I was exhausted. It had already been a long day. Who knew it was such a production to get aboard then set sail? If I ever cruised again—Ha! Unlikely—I’d be prepared. But now, I just wanted to sprawl out on my bed for a few minutes before dinner.

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