The Tycoon's Seductive Revenge(40)

“So?”

“You’ll come with me. I’m bringing you along when I travel.”

Oh, no you’re not .

“I want to show you the yacht’s master suite. Now that’s real luxury.” He pulled her against him, his crooked teeth visible through his sneer. She’d think with all his money he’d get them fixed. Dentures would be an improvement. “Let’s go see what kind of action we can find in my bedroom.”

“No!” She tried to calm down. “I’d rather stay out here in the fresh air.” She put her hand on her stomach, reminding him she wasn’t feeling well.

“You’ll get used to it—you know, the sickness. I want five, maybe six kids.

Gross! Ellie was tempted to dive overboard, even face her worst fear, anything to get away from him.

“You’ll look okay pregnant, even with the weight gain. Just make sure you lose it right after. I want you looking good, your hot, tight little body beside me.” He gazed at her with condescending ownership. “You’re great arm candy. The perfect woman to show off my success.”

Instead of dignifying his statement with a response, she angled away from him.

Every conversation they had since last night ended with her sidestepping his sexual innuendos, and him believing she’d come around.

She wasn’t sure how he would respond to an outright rejection. Better to wait until they got back to shore before she hit him with the news.

No, I won’t be your barefoot, pregnant little wife. No, I don’t want to have your children. I would rather be stranded in the middle of the ocean—during a hurricane—than see you naked or feel you touching touch me.

Shaking her head, she wondered how on earth she’d landed in this mess. Two investors. Two different plans for the hotel. Yet the same intentions for her once they took over. She gripped the brass railing as aggravation consumed her. She wanted a choice in her own destiny. However, that wasn’t an option either of them were offering.

A niggling worry circled her mind like a vulture. When would Carter be back? Was Carter coming back?

Would he still bid on the hotel, even though she’d refused his proposition?

Yesterday morning he’d left without a word to anyone, and hadn’t returned. The auction was still set for tomorrow.

While Arnoff babbled incessantly about his “grand plans” for her hotel, with her as his “arm candy,” she looked off in the distance toward the mainland, a blue-green sliver on the western horizon.

She let herself imagine—what if she left El Dorado Island?

Could she make it in the big league hotel chains? Would the Montgomery curse hunt her down?

She tried to picture an existence she could barely fathom, on that blue-green coast where life raced by. Where no one knew her name or face. Where she could start over, begin a whole new life that belonged to her alone.

But where would she go? She had no money, no means of survival until after the hotel sold and the funds transferred, which would take seven business days. She wouldn’t even know where to begin. All those people, so many strangers, so many choices—too many.

How did they do it? How do you choose which man to love, which house to live in, which people are trustworthy and which ones are just out to get something from you?

Ellie was coming to realize how living on the secluded island had crippled her ability to become her own woman on her own terms. She was terrified to leave, yet too proud to accept a life chosen for her by someone else.

A jittery feeling overwhelmed her. Panic set in. She felt out of breath and lightheaded, her chest tight and her vision blurry.

“We have to go back,” she insisted to Arnoff.

“Why? What’s the rush?” He looked out in the direction of her stare.

“Please, I’m really not feeling well.”

“Oh, look—dolphins!” He squeezed her shoulder, his fingertips grazing her breast. He snorted with pleasure. “I have that kind of luck,” he stated. “Stick with a casino owner, hot lips, because luck always favors the house.”

When she recognized what he saw in the water, a trickle of fear slid down her spine. She shook off his grasp. “Those aren’t dolphins. They’re sharks. Really big sharks.”

Their gray dorsal fins patrolled the waves between the mainland and the island, like a man-eating barrier that warned her not to stray into unfamiliar waters.

“Sharks?” Arnoff looked a little pale. “That’s inconvenient. I bought you a bikini and everything.”

Cold terror plunged through her veins. “You actually think I’d get into the water?”

“I want to see you wet,” he said, suggestiveness laced through his tone.