Page 68 of Owned By a Billionaire

Caroline

Afterlanguishinginmyown hell, missing the man I’d imagined spending my twilight years with, I allowed my heart to remain open.

I finished my drink and broke the oppressive silence by saying, “I prefer Markus to Carrington.”

His brows merged. “As a name?”

My lips curved up in a real smile, which helped ease some of the tension between us. “I meant as a person. I have finally seen you. But I also prefer Markus as a name.”

“Now I feel naked.” He gestured. “While there you are, staring down at me in your billionaire robes.”

“I’m not staring down at you, Cary… I mean, Markus.”

“Call me Cary, if you like. You can call me anything. Just being here with you is everything.” He wore a sad smile that pulled on my heartstrings.

I went from desiring him to wanting to hold him and stroke him. I loved this man—even more so after hearing his story. Flawed diamonds had always been my preference. I could barely feel my heart pump around perfection, despite my life seeming that way on the surface.

Markus was right. He was naked now, while I still hid behind a world of make-believe.

I took a breath. “I also have a dark past.”

He rose, picking up his empty glass. “That’s been obvious to me for a while.” His dark eyes drilled into mine, reaching for my soul, only it was already mortgaged to Crisp.

Touching his hand, I asked, “Can we go somewhere?” My eyebrow rise said it all. He understood me better than most, especially my inflamed needs that had only grown since meeting him.

“If you like.” He returned a bemused half smile as though challenged by a tough decision.

“You don’t want to?”

He released a stuttering breath. “Oh, I want to. But I don’t have a very nice place.”

“I really don’t mind,” I said, dying to know where he’d been staying.

He looked embarrassed. “It’s a tiny bedsit. And my landlady’s chatty.”

“Oh? Is she pretty?”

He rested his hand in the middle of my back as we stepped outside.

“Audrey’s not that kind of woman. She’s more like someone’s sweet, caring aunt.” He smiled and looked so ruggedly handsome that I wanted him to make love to me until it hurt.

My vibrator had proved a frustrating and inadequate replacement for him. It didn’t hold me while I returned to earth after a climax that had me climbing to stratospheric heights. Nor did my vibrator kiss me, unleashing electrical impulses all over my body and flooding me with urgent desire.

I tilted my face to his. “Do you have privacy?”

He chuckled. “Why? What did you have in mind?”

“Anything that involves you being naked.”

He crushed me against his tall, firm body. “As long as you let me see what’s under that pretty blouse.”

I laughed for the first time in weeks. “My car’s parked over there.”

We jumped into my Mercedes and drove only a little way up the road before arriving at a two-story red-brick terrace.

Young people, big and small, crowded the street, kicking balls, scrolling on their phones, or poking each other. It was a noisy rabble of life, stirring memories of my upbringing. I’d grown up on a very similar street.

A gang of older teenagers, dressed in hoodies and sloppy gym-wear, all turned when I pulled up, their attention riveted on my car.

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