The Billionaire's Forgiveness (A Winters Love Book 3) Read online

  I went home right after that and opened all of the windows in the apartment. I happily breathed in the fresh, almost spring air while I cleaned and dusted, mopped and vacuumed. I hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything other than Igor and the money for the past two weeks, not even housework and laundry. I was on my last clean pair of underwear. I turned up the music and danced as I cleaned. I felt like my soul was finally at peace.

  My phone rang around four, it was Aaron. I still had some residual anxiety so for a few seconds, I held my breath to see what he was calling to say. My imagination was working overtime again and I was imagining now that Igor had called him as soon as I’d walked out of that restaurant. My life was becoming consumed by guilt and paranoia. I was going to start hearing the pounding of my guilty heart in my ears soon.

  “Hi baby,” he said when I picked up the phone. God that sounded like heaven compared to the creepy sound of when Igor calls me that.

  “Hi there, handsome, how are you?”

  “I am great. I just finished my last meeting of the day and I wondered if you would be free for a date on the town tonight.”

  “I’m always free for you,” I told him. I couldn’t wait for a night out with him now, completely stress free at last. I wondered if he wanted to go dancing again.

  “Okay then,” he said. “I have tickets for Wicked at seven-thirty. Dinner before or after?”

  “Wicked! Really?” I was so excited I was beside myself. I was glad I was alone in the apartment because I was actually dancing a little jig. I’d always wanted to see that play on Broadway. I think I’d mentioned it once to Aaron in passing. He remembered. He was amazing.

  He laughed, “Really. Orchestra A seats too.” With Aaron, I had come to expect nothing less.

  I looked at the clock and down at myself. I looked like Cinderella way before the ball. “How about we wait and do dinner after. I’d like time before to get really pretty for you.”

  “I’d be willing to bet you look gorgeous right now,” he said. “But okay, we’ll have dinner afterwards.”

  “You’re sweet, but you’d lose that bet. What time shall I expect you?”

  “Jeffrey and I will be there by six.”

  “Okay, I’ll hurry,” I said. “Thank you for this, I’m so excited.”

  “Good, I want your life to be filled with that feeling. I love you, Robyn.”

  “I love you so much!”

  I hung up and squealed out loud. I was so excited I felt like a little girl on her way to Disney World. I went in and looked in my closet first to see what I would wear. I had an Anne Klein dress I’d bought on clearance a while back and I had yet to wear; I thought it would be perfect for tonight. I took it out and held it up to me.

  It was a sleek sheath design, red with black piping and a round, notched neckline. The sleeves were elbow-length and it zipped up the back. There was a little vent in the center of the back and I had a pair of black pumps that would go great with it. I ran myself a bubble bath to soak in and when I got out, I carefully applied my make-up and put my hair up in a loose bun with curls hanging down along the side of my face. I put on the necklace Aaron bought me for Valentine’s Day. I touched it, remembering what Igor had said about me selling it. I shuddered at the memory. Fortunately, the doorbell rang, pulling my mind out of that particular gutter, Aaron to the rescue once again. I put all thoughts of Igor behind me and resolved to go out and have the best night of my life with my love tonight.

  The play was amazing, I sat enraptured by it while Aaron held my hand and occasionally whispered in my ear. During the intermission, I was still exploding from so many different emotions. I wasn’t sure which ones were from the knowledge that I was free of Igor and which were from the literally incredible show. I mean who doesn’t love a dancing monkey? Who wouldn’t be spellbound by the love between a green girl who everyone is frightened of and a handsome young man that all the girls want? I certainly was and it felt like I finally had all of those questions I had as a kid when I watched the Wizard of Oz at least a hundred times finally answered. While we had a glass of wine and Aaron and I posed for pictures for the press, all I really wanted was for the intermission to be over so that we could go back in and watch some more. As we sipped our wine and I tried not to act too anxious, he introduced me to one of his business associates that we ran into, a man named Boris and his wife Felicia. I felt the sick knot of anxiety twist its ugly fist in pit of my stomach once again when Boris opened his mouth. He was Russian and he spoke with a very deep accent. Fighting the nausea I was feeling just at the sound of the man’s voice I put out my hand and shook his and said, “So nice to meet you.”

  Then, I began imagining that he was someone Igor sent here to watch me. I realized that paranoia was becoming a part of my every day and it was becoming ridiculous. Hopefully after a few days without that monkey on my back my thoughts would return to normal. At last the intermission was over and we got to go back to our seats. I asked Aaron on the way in how he was enjoying it.

  A deep smile crept across his face. “The score is fantastic.”

  “You’ve never seen the Wizard of Oz, have you?”

  “No, I never have.” He at least had the decency to look embarrassed about it. I just shook my head at him and told him that we would have to put it on the top of our list the next time we had a movie night at home. He smiled, but I wasn’t sure he was as enthusiastic about it as I was.

  After the show was over we went to a really nice little French bistro in Manhattan for dinner.

  The neighborhood around the restaurant was loud with eclectic music drifting out from the apartment building down the street and heavy traffic passing by on the main Avenue out front. It was a little stone store front with tiny little wrought iron fences along the front and potted sego palms on either side of the door. When we walked inside it felt like we’d been transported to Paris, or at least the way I imagined Paris to be. The restaurant was quiet with soft lighting that gave it a warm glow and charming atmosphere. It smelled of rich pastry and fresh bread and soft, French music piped through the speakers. We were greeted warmly by the hostess who knew Aaron on sight. Aaron introduced me to her and she said, “I’m so pleased to meet you, Mr. Winters told me all about you the last time he was here for one of his business dinners. He speaks very highly of you.” That gave me a warm feeling in my chest, to know that Aaron talked to other people about me was the highest compliment that I could receive.

  We were led straight back to a little table in one corner of the restaurant with a glowing red candle in the center of it. Aaron pulled out my chair and I sat down and took a look around. There were lush, green potted plants in large red vases sitting strategically around the room providing a sense of privacy to each table. The floor was a shiny red and white marble tile and the tables were made of thick, dark cherry wood. 1930’s style paintings framed in heavy ancient frames surrounded the walls. I was relaxed and happy and when the waiter came over he only made it better by saying, “This must be Miss Hurst?”

  “Yes, hello,” I told him.

  “Hello Madame,” he said. “Mr. Winters, you were right, she does take the breath away.”

  I looked at Aaron and smiled. He was amazing and I was so damned lucky. I can’t imagine what I ever did to deserve all of this.

  I ordered the grilled sea bass and Aaron got the steak tartare which looked amazing. We ate fresh bread while we enjoyed our meals and light conversation. I asked him if he’d ever been to Paris.

  “A few times,” he said. “It’s nice, but if I take you to Europe I would like to take you to Italy first.”

  “Why is that?” I asked, all aglow inside with the fact that he thought about taking me to Europe. It seemed like we were moving closer every day to the possibility of a lifetime together and I realized that I wanted that more than anything.

  “Because I find it much more romantic. The buildings are like works of art and there are flower boxes everywhere filled with these big flowe
rs that just pop with color. They have music piping out of speakers along the streets and the gondolier’s can all sing as well as the cast of that play you just loved so much.”

  “Wow that does sound amazing. I went on a Gondola ride once,” I told him.

  “You did? Where?”

  I laughed and then told him, “Don’t laugh.”

  “Oh, you can laugh, but I can’t?”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay, I won’t laugh.”

  Rolling my eyes at him I smiled and said, “In Las Vegas. My girlfriend’s and I all have birthday’s one month apart. After the third of us, who was me, turned twenty one we flew out there for a weekend. It was so much fun. We took a gondola ride in front of the Venetian hotel. Our Gondolier’s name was Marco and he sang like an angel.”

  “You remember his name five years later? He must have been an amazing singer.” I felt my cheeks flush and he grinned and said, “You went out with him, didn’t you?”

  “Oh look, a dessert cart,” I said.

  “Uh oh, it must have been more than a one date thing,” he said. “She’s avoiding.”

  “I’m not avoiding, it’s just that old rule about what happens in Vegas staying in Vegas.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “Did you marry him?” he said, catching me off guard.

  I got that feeling again, the instant guilt, nausea, racing pulse, feeling like it was hard to catch my breath every time anything was mentioned that reminded me of what I did or why. I realized that Aaron was looking at me funny. I’d sat there spacing out for too long and he was wondering why.

  “Yes,” I finally said. “We got married on one side of the street and then we drove to the other side and got a divorce. They have drive-through divorces there you know?” He smiled again and said, “If I ever get married, it will be forever.” My breath caught in my throat and I was thankful for the server. She came up right then and asked if we wanted dessert.

  “Share a chocolate mousse with me?” I asked him.

  “I love a girl with an appetite,” he said. We shared the dessert and the conversation of Las Vegas and marriage was forgotten. I was so stuffed full afterwards that I could hardly breathe again. I really needed to stop eating like this. Either that or maybe start going out for a run at the crack of dawn every morning like Aaron does. That was how he stayed so fit and fantastic looking.

  Jeffrey was waiting for us outside when we finished but Aaron looked at me and said, “How about a walk? It’s a lovely night and we’re only a few blocks from my apartment.”

  “I’d love that,” I told him. “I was just thinking that I’d eaten too much and some exercise would be nice.”

  As we walked along Aaron said, “When I was a boy, after my parents died, I used to dream of nights like this.”

  It was a rare thing for Aaron to talk about those days, so I stayed silent until he was ready to go on. When he was ready he said, “I always felt so closed in, you know? I spent years at the Foundling Hospital for orphans. It was a dark, dank place. They let us go outside and play during the day, but it was on a playground that was enclosed with a big cyclone fence and everything on the other side of it was old and decrepit. I used to lie in bed at night and imagine what it would be like to stroll free someday. I made up scenarios in my head. When I was really young I would imagine strolling through a neighborhood… a nice one and I would meet a nice family and they’d invite me in out of the dark and they’d make me part of the family. They would adopt me and my troubles would be over.”

  I stopped walking and looked up at him. The thought of that little boy with his heart aching, all alone in that place… it tore at my own heart. “What did you fantasize about your life for when you got older?” I asked him.

  He looked down at me and took my hands in his. He said, “This, this is what I dreamed about. Strolling through a place like this, my own neighborhood with my own true love. You’re what I dreamed of, Robyn.”

  He brought his lips down to meet mine and we kissed. This man was magic and although I’d only known him for a few months, I already couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without him.

  ~

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ~

  ROBYN

  I fell asleep Saturday night in Aaron’s arms and woke up there Sunday morning. After we shared a hearty breakfast together he had a meeting to get to. He dropped me at home on his way and I spent all day Sunday with a goofy smile on my face. I worked on small projects around the house and every so often I would catch myself staring off into space, remembering how magical the night before had been.

  The smile bled through to the next day because I also woke up on Monday morning with it still painted there. I went to work that morning looking like I slept with a coat hanger in my mouth and it had gotten stretched out into a permanent smile.

  “Good morning, Hayley,” I said, when I saw my pretty young friend at her cubicle.

  “Good morning Robyn. How was your weekend?”

  “It was fabulous,” I told her, honestly. “I’m so glad you asked because it was so great I had to tell someone or I was going to bust. How was yours?” She smiled brightly, looking almost as happy as I was.

  “Mine was the same,” she said. “I’m glad you asked too. You’re actually the person I’d like to talk to about it.”

  “Maybe we can have lunch and you can tell me all about it,” I told her.

  “I’ll tell you if you tell me about yours,” she said.

  “It’s a date then. I’ll meet you in the cafeteria at noon.” I wanted to tell someone how amazing Aaron was. I wanted to brag on him for taking me to a club dancing and taking me to see Wicked and learning how to do things that I know he has no interest in at all, just for me. I headed into my office and sat down at my desk. While I waited for the computer to load I called my bank and checked to make sure my paycheck had been deposited into my personal account and checked my balance. After I did that, I turned back to the computer. I transferred five hundred dollars out of my account and into one of the business accounts that I had “borrowed” the seventy-five thousand dollars from. That’s how I was thinking of it now. I’d forced myself to stop thinking of it as stealing. That was self-preservation, I know. But I was losing my mind over it and I’d had to do something.

  I felt so much better after making my first “payment.” At five hundred dollars every two weeks I’d be long dead before I paid it off completely, but I was going to give it my best shot. I got to work then and around ten Gary came into the office again, only this time he was sporting a huge smile.

  “Hi Robyn, how was your weekend?” he asked.

  “Amazing,” I told him. I was still smiling. “It was a lot of fun, actually. I was sorry to have to come back here when it was over. How was yours?”

  He sat down in the chair on the other side of my desk and said, “Even more amazing,” with a big grin on his face.

  “Really? I noticed that Hayley looked really happy when I came in this morning. Did you have anything to do with that?”

  Gary laughed and said, “I don’t usually kiss and tell, but yes! I mean nothing like… we just…”

  I laughed, “You went out?”

  “Yes, we had dinner and we went to a comedy show. It was the most fun that I’ve had in years, Robyn. I did what you said. I tried hard to concentrate on my good qualities… I think it worked. She seemed like she had a really good time too. We took a walk in the park on the way home and she let me kiss her. It was even better than I imagined it would be. She said she would like to go out with me again. More than like to, she said she’d be really happy about it.”

  “I’m so glad,” I said, sincerely. Gary’s a good guy. He deserves to be happy. I was just not the girl to do that for him.

  He stood up and said, “I just wanted to thank you.”

  “Aw, it was all you, Gary,” I told him. “You don’t have anything to thank me for.”

  “Yeah, I do. If it wasn’t for you taki
ng the time to talk to me and tell me nice things about myself… Well, I probably would have screwed things up with Hayley. You’ve boosted my confidence many times. So, thank you. You’re awesome.”

  “You’re welcome,” I told him. “So are you.”

  Gary left and I worked until about eleven-forty five. We had a new ad campaign coming soon for television. Winters had only done radio so far, so we’ll see how it goes. I had been online watching commercial after commercial for other companies trying to decide what people might find funny or interesting about them. Those were the ones that people remembered, the fun ones. I was seeing double from watching so many of them by lunch time. Maybe if Hayley is not too busy, she could watch a few more for me after lunch. I shut things down and got ready for lunch then. I grabbed my bag and went to meet Hayley. She wasn’t at her cubicle when I went by, so I assumed that she was already waiting for me downstairs. When I got to the cafeteria I looked around but I didn’t see her. I saw Gary in line and I went over and said, “Hey, I was supposed to have lunch with Hayley. Have you seen her?”