Torn Between- Seduced by the Billionaires Read online

  “Thinking of me, eh?”

  “Camellia, I’ve done nothing but think about you for a month. Why not give me a little down payment now and you’ll reap the rewards later?”

  He started to guide her to him again, but he didn’t have to pull far. Cami licked her lips and willingly put her head is his lap. She started on the back of his shaft, at the base and let her tongue lick him all the way to the head, then pursed her lips and began to slowly kiss and suck him. Her mouth opened slowly, taking just a little more of him in with each movement, then she would pull her head up, pressing with her lips on his shaft until she dived farther down.

  Removing his hand, Eddie put both arms behind his head and leaned back in his chair enjoying the hot, wet sensations of Cami’s mouth bathing his cock in her attention. His sighs of pleasure motivated her to lap his member even more enthusiastically, her tongue flicking at his shaft while she her head moved back and forth in long draws, practically pulling the cum out him. She cupped his balls with her hands, her manicured nails scraping him just slightly, causing him to jerk his hips forward.

  She could feel the fabric of his pants rubbing against her face, her nose occasionally touching the sharp metal of his zipper. With any other man she might have felt humiliated or ashamed to be sucking his cock when he didn’t even have the decency to disrobe. But with Eddie, it was an exciting development. She enjoyed leaning over, servicing him as they sped across the sky.

  “There is where I want to be,” she thought, feeling his swelling member jump and throb in her mouth. She slowed her movements, focusing on his head as her hand moved up and began squeezing the base of his shaft. Eddie put his head all the way back and gave a loud, pleasured groan. She locked her mouth around his cock, sealing her lips and swallowing rapidly to keep anything from spilling on either of their dinner attire. Swallowing the last bit, she used her tongue to dry and clean him.

  “Good girl,” he sighed, encouraging her to sit back in her chair but keep her head on his chest. He kissed her cheek, neck, top of her head and wrapped his arm around her. Right as they were falling asleep he mumbled. “You’re so beautiful, Camellia. You will belong to me.”

  About an hour before they hit the city by the bay, the assistant pilot came back to let his boss know they were nearing their destination when he discovered them that way. Cami asleep on Eddie’s chest, his pants open and satisfied member exposed. He wisely went back to the front and suggested they go ahead and call for the limo to meet them at the gate and announce arrival over the loud speaker.

  Eddie gave Cami time to freshen up her lipstick in the plane’s restroom before they set off for La Folie. She came out of the bathroom refreshed and excited for the rest of the unexpected evening to unfold. He reached out his hand to help her down the stairs and she jostled her little purse from one side to the other.

  “If I had known we were going to do this much traveling, I would have brought a more practical purse,” she said as she descended.

  “Leave it here. I’m not going to make you pay for dinner.” He laughed, took her purse and bounded back into the plane. A few moments later he joined her for the next step in her whirlwind dream come true.

  The dinner was everything she imagined it would be. Fine wine, stunning ambiance and food, a private table and personalized service from a French accented waiter. Ravenous, they ate more than they chatted, but by the time the dark chocolate opera cake was served, they were lounging and sharing stories again. Eddie explained La Folie was an old-fashioned French place and gentlemen paid in private. He excused himself from the table for what seemed a very long time.

  “Madam,” their personal waiter came back into their curtain covered table. He handed Cami a small sealed envelope. “The gentleman who paid for your dinner said to give you this.”

  Cami took the envelope and opened it quickly, wondering what the next surprise could possibly be. Inside she found a card embossed with the Dunning Research Group logo and her driver’s license.

  Dear Camellia, I truly enjoyed our time together this evening. But a month ago you gave me an incorrect formula and let me submit it. There are consequences to one’s behavior. However, because of your lovely ‘investment’ this evening I decided to have mercy and give you this. I’m sure it will be of great comfort when the waiter informs you my plane left 10 minutes ago. I’m sorry you won’t be flying back with me. You are divine.

  -Eddie

  “Oh. My. God.” Cami turned sheet white and looked at the waiter, mouth open. “When did he give this to you?”

  “When he paid, madam. He said to give it to you exactly at 10:00 p.m. Is it bad news, madam?”

  “Bad news? BAD NEWS? Oh, my God.” Cami put her head on the table. Her stomach churned and her mind was reeling a hundred miles per second. No purse. No wallet. No money. No phone. Nothing. “He left me, he left me here in San Francisco. He left me with nothing and I am 3,000 miles away from home!”

  “Shhh….please…keep it down!” The waiter dropped his fake French accent and bent down to the table. “If the manager hears you, he’ll throw you out. Just calm down a minute.”

  “I’m stuck across the country in an evening dress with nothing but my ID and you want me to calm down?” Cami began to shake uncontrollably.

  “Do you know anyone in the city?” he asked. Cami shook her head. “Is there someone you can call?”

  “You mean someone ELSE with a private plane who can fly out here at a moment’s notice and pick me up?” Cami blurted then put her hand out to apologize. “I’m sorry, I just…I…”

  The waiter straightened back up as another server walked by.

  “Please excuse me, madam,” he said again with his fake accent in place. “I shall retrieve a phone for you.”

  2

  Cami stared at the ID and watched the waiter leave. She kept hoping this was all a joke and that Eddie was going to jump out from behind the curtain any minute. She’d kick him in the balls and tell him it wasn’t funny. But, she knew him too well. This wasn’t playtime. This was payback. The waiter appeared with a portable handset phone, leaned over and whispered.

  “Use this. Call someone to buy a ticket back to DC electronically. Pick it up at the airport with your ID.”

  “But I don’t even have enough to get there,” Cami moaned.

  “I’ll handle it. Just make the call.” The waiter shoved the phone in her hand and disappeared. Cami dialed the only number she knew by heart.

  “Oh my goddess! It’s one in the morning. Again. Do you not care about my sleep?”

  “Shut up. I’m in trouble.”

  “What’s happened? Where are you?” Maralee’s groggy head cleared instantly at the sound of panic in her best friend’s voice. Since the day Cami saved her from Holly Ward in the cafeteria, she had always been there for Maralee. The freak-turned-priestess wasn’t going to let Cami down now.

  “I’m in San Francisco. Eddie left me.”

  “What? That’s all? Oh geez. Tell me about it in the morning.”

  “Idiot! I don’t mean he stopped seeing me. I mean he LEFT ME! HERE!”

  “He left you in San Francisco? Where is he?”

  “On his way back to Grafton. On his plane. Without me.”

  “Are you serious? He left you across the country? When you get back I hope you kick his ass.”

  “It’s worse than you think,” Cami tried to talk urgently, praying she could get the whole message to Maralee before someone realized she was making a long distance call on their phone. “He took my purse.”

  “You’re not making any sense,” Maralee muttered. “One of the richest men in Grafton flew you across the country to steal your purse? What?”

  “Listen to me. He is punishing me for Tyler’s formula. You need to buy me a ticket to DC online. Straight through, if you can. I’ve got to get back in time for work Monday. I don’t care how much it costs. Just get me home tonight.”

  “There is no ‘tonight’—it’s already Sunday morn
ing here.” Maralee opened up her laptop and began initiating the process, cursing Eddie Dunning in her head. “I knew that man had Venus ascending…”

  “Mar, not now! I don’t have a phone there’s no way for me to talk to you again. Call the airport and page me in about a half hour. If I don’t answer try again later. I’m not sure how I’m getting there.”

  “Can’t you get a cab?”

  “I don’t have any money, dammit! I don’t have anything but YOU!”

  “Okay! I’ll get an e-ticket, call you later.” Maralee hung up the phone and started frantically scanning for flights. Cami placed the receiver on the table and looked at her wrist.

  “Shit. I don’t even have a watch!” she said aloud.

  “I can’t get you a watch, but I got you this.” The waiter stuffed a wad of cash in Cami’s hand, hoping no one was watching. “I told the servers what he did to you. Mr. Eddie spends a lot of money here, but we think that was a real dick move. It’s sixty bucks. It will get you a cab to the airport. I already called it. Manager’s getting weird about you.”

  Cami’s eyes welled with tears as she looked at the money. Every ounce of pride in her body wanted to give it back and say she didn’t need it, but the truth was—she did. She needed it more than pride.

  “Thank you, all, so much,” she said, her hands closing around the cash. She pointed at the name Pierre LaSalle on his badge. “What’s your real name?”

  “Brian. Brian Hudson.”

  “I’ll pay you and your friends back. Have you ever heard of the rule of three? My friend Maralee taught it to me. It means whatever you give—good or bad—comes back to you in threes.”

  “That’s nice, but you don’t have…” Pierre/Brian stopped and listened to his earpiece a moment. “Your cab is here. Go quickly and don’t look back.”

  Cami followed his advice, noticing the nervous glances from the young wait staff watching her exit the private table, and fled to the safety of a yellow cab in the doorway. After the ride and the tip she had fifteen dollars in her hand and her ID. Finally she heard her name over the loud speaker calling her to the Delta counter.

  “Cam, they have your ticket. There’s a stop in Denver, but you stay on the plane. You’ll be back in DC by 2:00 PM Sunday. Be safe.”

  “Thanks, Mar,” Cami said as she breathed her first sigh of relief since receiving Eddie’s envelope. “Hey, there’s a Western Union here. Can you wire me about 100 bucks? I can get a tracfone and some decent shoes. These heels are killing me. Oh! And there is a young man at La Folie named Brian Hudson. Can you wire some money to him tonight before midnight here? Have a courier take it right to the restaurant. Send 180 dollars and put ‘rule of three’ on the card.”

  “You taught him the rule of three? That’s so wonderful; I knew Diana’s moon would—”

  “Not now, Mar!” Cami barked and handed the phone and her ID to the ticket agent.

  Maralee smiled as she put down the phone and got back on the laptop to handle the money transfers. She knew Cami didn’t follow the same spiritual principles she did, but every once in a while, one of them seeped through.

  Cami picked up her cash and strolled into the airport store to pick up a Tracfone and a sixty minute card. That left her just enough money for a pair of Croc knockoffs. She put her heels in the bag and wandered to the ticket area. She got plenty of odd glances from security and other bleary-eyed travelers taking the midnight flight. How often did you see a plus-sized woman in a black seductive evening dress and baby blue sandals holding nothing but an Airmall bag and a boarding pass?

  Crammed in the narrow window seat with a sweating businessman stuffed into the chair beside her, she couldn’t help but remember the luxury she had earlier in the day. Now she was dragging her sad ass home crumbled in coach with borrowed cash, plastic shoes and no pride. The stop in Denver was for fueling only. The dimmed lights and sounds of other sleeping passengers finally put her in a dreamless sleep where she was grateful to escape her thoughts about Eddie Dunning.

  “Ladies and Gentleman, this is Captain Hollings, your pilot for your journey this evening. I regret to inform you that due to wind shear through the airstream corridor, we will have to land in St. Louis. All flights have been grounded from this airport until further notice.”

  Cami’s eyes shot open as the rest of the passengers began to groan. As soon as they hit the ground, she was on the phone.

  “It’s only 5:00 a.m.! You can’t be home!” Maralee said, answering the phone with a still sleepy voice.

  “I’m not. We are grounded. I’m in St. Louis. There’s some kind of wind shear. I have to get home another way. I’m not going to make it in time if I wait for another flight.”

  “Well, I can try a spell to Venti, god of the winds but I’m much better with goddesses. Maybe Aura could do it, she’s goddess of the breeze, but I don’t know if I’m powerful enough to cast a wind spell all the way to Missouri.”

  “I don’t need a spell, fairy-face! I need a train ticket!”

  “Oh, yea, that would work too. I’ll send 300 dollars to the Western Union there in the airport.” Maralee flipped open her laptop and started the process yet again. “Hey, you haven’t called me that in long time. Remember when Dustin—”

  “Not Now! Just do it.” Cami hung up her Tracfone and paced through the airport with hundreds of other angry travelers. The whole time she was picturing Eddie, lounging in his recliner, sipping a drink with his stomach full of quail and his heart happy with revenge. The thought gave her all the angry energy she needed to get the money and get to the Amtrak station.

  “We’re sorry ma’am. Our tracks on the eastern corridor are closed for repair until Tuesday morning.”

  “Are you kidding me?!” Cami blurted as she noticed a security guard walk toward her and place his hand conveniently near his weapon in case the crazy Crocs lady decided to throw a scene. Her drooping dress, dripping eye shadow and shaking hands must have had some magic left in them because the counter agent waved off the guard.

  “The last train before Tuesday is Charleston, West Virginia. I can get you that far and you can take the Megabus to DC.”

  “How long will it take?”

  “The train leaves in an hour and it’s a ten hour trip to Charleston. You’ll get in at 5:00 p.m. Sunday. The bus to DC is another eight hours so depending on when it leaves, you’ll likely get there about 4:00 a.m. Monday morning.”

  “I’ll take it.” Cami fished the money out of her pocket and dropped the cash into the metal scoop. The clerk handed her the train ticket and made direct eye contact with her as if no one had dared to do that before. She spoke quietly and gently.

  “Everybody has rough times, honey. You take care now and be careful.”

  Cami again had to hold back tears at the young woman’s kindness. Noticing a Walgreens near the station, she made a quick stop, purchasing a pair of pea-green sweats and white, “I Heart St. Louis” t-shirt. She called Maralee and explained the arrangements.

  “I hate to be dense,” her three-times awakened friend mumbled into the phone, “but, why don’t you just call Tyler? If Eddie has a private jet, Tyler probably has ten. Just ask him to come get you.”

  “Are you out of your mind? Tyler can’t know about this. He has got to think I’m home sick and I have got to get my ass to work Monday morning if I have to crawl there from the bus stop. If I told him I’d have to explain what I was doing in San Francisco with Eddie in the first place!”

  “What were you doing in San Francisco with Eddie in the first place?”

  “Fucking up,” Cami said glumly.

  She knew Maralee would never judge her, but her friend also never held back when it came time to tell the truth. Cami remembered standing at her father’s funeral. Her mom was numb, staring off into space and Johnny was drunk off his ass. Cami stood there as a preacher she had never seen before read words she didn’t understand—feeling very much alone in the world. Out of nowhere, Maralee appeared. She reached
out and took Cami’s hand, holding it through the rest of the ceremony. Later than night as Cami sat on the floor next to Maralee sobbing into her pillow, her friend put her hand under Cami’s chin.

  “Your dad wasn’t a saint,” Maralee said matter-of-factly. No fairy stories, no elves or goblins—just the blunt truth. “And it sucks that he’s dead. But you’re not. You’re not gonna die today. You’re not gonna die tomorrow.”

  Walking down the thin aisles of the train to the quiet car, Cami looked at her reflection in the window: flat hair, baggy cheap sweats, plastic shoes, worn make-up, carrying an evening dress and heels in a Walgreens bag which only slightly outsized the bags under her eyes.

  “I’m not gonna die today. I’m not gonna die tomorrow,” Cami mumbled to herself as she plopped down in a chair. “But, Eddie might.”

  ***

  The rhythmic thump of the train on the tracks lulled Cami into a sort of numb haze that passed for sleep. She tried to keep her mind off her situation, but every time she closed her eyes her brain would start counting—what she was doing twenty-four hours ago, how much money she owed Maralee, how many people helped her without cause, how many people hurt her with cause and worse, how many people she hurt all rushed through her mind.

  She imagined telling Tyler what happened, watching his face contort with the pain of her second betrayal. That picture was too much for her frail emotional state so she just began to picture him beside her, his nurturing hand brushing itself through her soft, brown hair. Making love with Tyler was like floating on a pool of water. His gentle hands massaged her body as he kissed her. His entry was smooth and tentative, rocking her into comfort as he held her. He was a strong, handsome, steady man. Cami felt her tears welling beneath the surface. She looked to the sky to hold them at bay.

  A long day later, existing on snacks from the food car and fantasies of wrapping a golf club around Eddie’s neck, her train pulled into the station twenty minutes late, leaving her only ten to catch the bus. Thankfully the train station and bus depot were very close and she burst through the doors of Megabus with six minutes left before boarding.