Trouble in Paradise Read online

  “Wow, where are we going where I’ll need those? I thought we would be in Colorado and I don’t need all that swimwear for Colorado.”

  Bambi smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. “That is part of your surprise. I will not tell you and I cannot tell a lie,” she winked. “Just know that you’ll very much need these where we’re going.” She was excited herself. They were going to Tahiti. She hadn’t been back there since she left. She was super excited that they were going and even more excited that they would be gone an entire month. Sterling was going to do a lot of his work out of the home he had acquired for their stay while she filmed down on the private beach. He said he would have to be at the hub as well to take care of some things, and of course the director had a couple other locations he wanted to shoot the video at so she knew she would have to do more work away from the home too, but as it stood, everything sounded like the perfect setup to her.

  “Okay, I’ll forgive you for not telling me but only because you refused to lie to me about it too.” She giggled. “Does that woman know?”

  Bambi laughed. “She knows he’s taking you away, but she doesn’t know exactly where. Besides, the way your custody agreement works he doesn’t need her permission to take you anywhere. Sweet deal don’t you think?” She winked.

  “Yeah, because if he did that woman would always say no.”

  She could agree with that. Jordana could be evil and would refuse his visitation plans just to make his life hell. Again, score one for the judge on this because she clearly saw Jordana for what she was—a gold digging witch bent on making some poor unlucky man’s life hell.

  “She’s dating you know?”

  “Really?” There was somebody brave enough to go where no man wanted to go?

  “Yeah, the doc who did her last boob job has been taking her out for a couple months now. I heard them talking wedding bells. He’s smitten apparently—that’s because he doesn’t know her. She hasn’t brought him here to meet me though.”

  “Then how did you hear their conversation?”

  She laughed. “I pulled a Dad,” she said. “I learned the last time I was in his company how to splice wires together so I could hear a conversation without being observed doing it.”

  Bambi shook her head. “Girl you are going to get in so much trouble,” she laughed. “Your case is packed. Let’s go. I’m eager to get this journey started.” She did a quick two step, shoulder shimmie happy dance.

  “It must be some place amazing to have you that happy.”

  “No comment,” she winked. “Now, wipe that smile off your face until we get past your mother because I don’t want to have to explain why you look so happy.”

  She giggled. “I would make her sit on eggs all summer, but I don’t want any more drama before we go. I’ll rub it in her face when I get back. See if she calls me a slut cunt again.” She rolled her eyes and scowled.

  That woman just didn’t understand how much she was hurting this girl. Bambi made a mental note to talk with Sterling about it. She knew it could ruin the mood of the trip going over so she would have to find a good time to talk to him—if there were such a time—about his ex and the damage she was causing to this wonderful young woman. It had to stop. There had to be something he could do even if that meant taking her back to court and going for full custody of Jocelyn.

  Chapter Two

  “Hey, Dad.” Jocelyn bounded toward the four engine Lear Jet. Sterling had it built specifically for his company complete with all the required safety features and designed for comfort. If they had a long flight they would definitely not be uncomfortable with the plush black leather expansive seating. He had a bigger sitting area designed for if he needed to conduct business in the air. It was rare that he had more than five or six people on the plane at a time, other than himself, her, the pilot and the flight attendant that is. Rarely did he take any of the employees up and when he did it was for something special, like Kip Johnson going over to Monte Carlo to protect one of the young men in an elite family that stemmed from royal descent. He had taken only a couple of his top assistants each time they had flown. Mariel Brogan, his fabulously wonderful attorney, and Hill Forester, the right hand man with the plan. When they weren’t needed he usually just took his personal assistant, Gail Mason and another security expert, Josh Dumas. Other than that everybody else could be met with at one of the offices overseas or they just didn’t need the extra hands.

  While the plane was never crowded, Sterling had still had the plane built with the possible need to take up to nineteen extra passengers somewhere. They would fly in style and comfort. The seating looked more like an oversized living room than an airplane. And then there was the private sitting area that had a smaller horseshoe couch arrangement equipped with a television and full access internet. The smaller office had everything Sterling needed to work on proposals from the air, and he had an area just off from the office with an area for him to sleep when he got tired. The flight attendant had her own area up front but it wasn’t closed off or private. It looked comfortable, but basic.

  Bambi had taken this flight each time Sterling had because that was part of her contract. She had missed that part of the contract when she read it before signing. She should hate it, but in reality she loved it. She didn’t have family near her. She didn’t get along well enough with her sister to care if she didn’t see her every year. She didn’t have a boyfriend to worry about, or kids to worry about. She was a free woman—one who could leave whenever she pleased. Of course it didn’t hurt that her boss was not too bad on the eyes. Oh gosh, she was in trouble. Lately she had been looking at Sterling with more passion and longing than she should have. It wasn’t that way at first. He was cute, but she hadn’t had that initial knee jerk attraction to him. She never had that with anybody. She always had to get to know people first. Even in high school the first guy she liked enough to end up calling her boyfriend had been a friend for nearly a year before she looked at him and thought they could maybe have something. He wasn’t ugly. He was a Tahitian god really—great body, great hair, great dimples when he smiled—and all the girls fell at his feet they wanted him so much. She, on the other hand, just thought he was an okay looking guy with a moderately good level of popularity. With that many girls after him all the guys wanted to be his friend so they could pick up the ones he didn’t.

  They got stuck on a science project together, it was on food and calories and kilocalories and something in that had her spending more time with him than normal. She realized he was smart and funny. He made her laugh and that was the deal maker. He asked her out, she said yes and they dated until their senior year when he decided spectacular kissing just wasn’t enough and she just wasn’t ready to give him more than that.

  Now she was starting to look at Sterling like a woman would look at a man she wanted to keep. He was thirty-five, nearly thirty-six and she was just turning thirty-four come a week from today.

  She shook the thoughts she had from her mind as she watched Jocelyn wrap her arms around her father.

  “Where are we going? Bambi wouldn’t tell me.”

  “You’ll see when we get there.” He tugged on the shoulder length ponytail hanging from the middle of the back of her head. “On you go.” He motioned with his finger.

  “Dad, next time you should come get me. It’s not fair to send Bambi to deal with that bi—”

  “Watch your language,” he cut off her word sharply and quickly.

  “Rochelle’s mom calls her that.”

  “Rochelle’s mother is not you. That language is not becoming of a lady, of an intelligent woman—both of which you are. Find another word from your arsenal of words, but don’t ever speak that word again.”

  She lowered her head. “Sorry, Dad. She just makes me so angry.”

  “I think I need to get you a thesaurus and a dictionary when we get where we’re going so you can learn some new words while you’re on summer break.”

  “Buy that woman you call my
mother one too and maybe she won’t call me a slut cunt again.” She jogged up the steps.

  Bambi saw the rage in Sterling’s eyes. She exhaled slowly. “Oh boy.” She had hoped she would be able to find the right time to discuss this topic with him later. She had hoped they could do it while he was thousands of miles away from Jordana and not just an hour drive to her home. “Jocelyn needs you more than Jordana needs to hear the rage in your heart. Go on up. I’ll catch the—”

  “Get on the plane, Bambi. You always fly with me.”

  “I thought you would want to fly alone with Jocelyn. I thought you booked me on a commercial flight.”

  “You thought wrong. Your bags are already loaded. Get on.”

  The anger was still in his tone, but it wasn’t anger toward her. She nodded and went up a few steps turning to see if he was coming behind her and he wasn’t. He was standing at the bottom but his feet hadn’t moved.

  “Sterling?”

  “Yeah, I’m coming.” He took the first step and so she continued upward as well. Jocelyn and Sterling were both going to have to brighten up in mood once they reached Tahiti—at least she hoped the tropical sunshine would brighten their mood otherwise it was going to be a long month.

  Sterling wanted to go have words with Jordana but he knew Bambi was right. He had quickly decided he could say what needed to be said once he returned home.

  What stayed his feet at the bottom of the stairs was not his rage, it was his desire. He took one look at her firm, round behind in those white hip hugging pants as she walked up the stairs and all he wanted was to reach out and touch it, caress it, caress her.

  He thought he was in trouble watching her behind, but when she sat down in front of him and he took one look at the hint of skin showing beneath the princess cut of her cerulean blue top he had an entirely new area he wanted to explore. When she shrugged out of her white suit jacket and exposed the two inch wide straps of her top and bare arms that looked smooth like satin and silk the only thing keeping him from exploring his mile high fantasy with her was the fact that Jocelyn was sitting next to him.

  How long had he wanted this woman? Since the first time he saw her. It’s why he was quick to give her her asking price. He was thinking with the wrong head. He gave her what she wanted without compromise, without negotiation and that wasn’t something he did. Although in a way he did have his own strings attached. He gave her what she wanted but he demanded she be his exclusively because he wanted her one hundred percent. The traveling, the long hours together, the late nights of work with this Tahitian goddess was all he could think about. And of course his mind saw those long nights turning into him taking her on his desk, on the office couch, on the floor, against the wall in every position, in every way, he wanted her and that’s what he saw the entire time her lips were moving to make her insanely expensive demand.

  Of course after he got her under contract he remembered that her working for him meant hands off. He was doing relatively well with keeping his hands off her sexually even if he couldn’t make his mind do the same thing. But recently the urge to strip her naked and caress the toned, feminine curves of her petite body was getting harder and harder to resist—much like his penis; it was getting harder to the point of pain. God help him he was going to burst.

  “What’s wrong, Dad?”

  Well that had helped like a bucket of ice. He needed that because the fantasies running through his mind about what he could do with Bambi, do to her, was increasing and he felt as if he were seconds away from pulling her off the horseshoe shaped seating area and taking her back to his office where he had a small bed just waiting for her to join him. Thanks to Jocelyn’s voice he had yet another reminder as to why he wouldn’t be realizing his fantasy.

  He opened his bottle of water the attendant brought him after takeoff and he started drinking it trying to calm his emotions down. While Jocelyn’s voice had snapped him back to reality he had quickly started thinking about exploring Bambi’s body once again. Maybe next time they had to fly somewhere he would send the others ahead of him and get Bambi alone on this plane. Then again, the cost in fuel was high and while he had plenty of money thanks to the success of his company he didn’t like to waste it.

  “Dad, are you a born again virgin?”

  He choked on the water he had just taken a swallow of, coughing until the air came back to his lungs.

  “Well? Are you?”

  “There’s no such thing, Jocelyn. Once you give that part of yourself away there’s no getting it back. It’s been a long time for me—only once since Jordana, but no—nobody can be a born again virgin no matter how much they claim to be. Is there something we need to talk about? I know we had the sex talk, but do we need to discuss something?” He had been the one to have the discussion with her because her mother wouldn’t. He started the discussion young because he refused to have his daughter be the next Nine Years Old and Pregnant news story.

  “No. Bambi are you a virgin?”

  “Jocelyn!” He couldn’t believe she would even ask her that. He watched Bambi’s eyes take on a faraway look.

  “I…didn’t have a choice. I didn’t give it away. I had it stolen from me a long time ago.”

  “I’m sorry. I had no idea. How do you forget something like that?”

  “You don’t. You never forget. You try to move forward. You try to stop playing it in your mind and thinking if you just hadn’t spent an extra hour in the campus library, if you had just gotten campus security to walk you back to your dorm then things would have been different. It wouldn’t have happened to you. Eventually you forgive yourself for not carrying a gun, for not knowing how to fight to protect yourself. I wish my husband or at least the man I loved had been my first and only but…well sometimes you have that decision stolen from you and you have to try to learn to move forward the best you can.”

  Sterling felt anger rising like a fire inside him. “Did they get the guy?” He tried to curtail the anger in his tone, but he failed.

  She nodded. “But his mommy and daddy had enough money and political connections to get the DA to drop the case. The only thing I was able to do was get him kicked out of school. That only happened because I told them I would go straight to the Press and make sure other parents knew their daughters wouldn’t be safe on their campus with him there. I doubt it hurt him much, but if it saved another woman from going through it then it was worth it.”

  “How can the DA just drop the case?” Jocelyn looked as angry as he was feeling, but for an entirely different reason. He had the anger of a man who wished he had been there to protect her, and one who wished he could find the bastard now and rip his beating heart out of his chest.

  “His frat brothers were ready to swear he never left the party. Even with the rape kit proving he was the one the DA said with his family’s connections and reputation he couldn’t win it. In other words you have the rich white boy from a good upstanding family or the dark skinned woman everybody would just assume was black and they’d believe the rich boy—the rapist. I didn’t know what I could do. My dad wanted to kill the guy. Sometimes I wish I had let him. When he and my mom came to help me I sometimes wish I had let him serve justice since the courts wouldn’t.”

  She stared off into the distance as if recounting the story brought her pain and while he wanted to know what happened he didn’t want her to have to relive it, to explain it, to talk about it. But maybe talking helped her. Talking wasn’t helping him; it was making him want to track down the bastard now and get the justice she never got.

  “Back then there were many nights where I wished somebody would one day separate him from the only thing declaring him a man—violently, painfully. I know I shouldn’t have, but I wished a thousand painful deaths on that man. I wished for the evil he had within him to destroy him. And one day I realized I had to move on—not forgive him, but move on if I wanted to live my life, to have a chance to be happy. I finished school. I worked for a while before starting my co
mpany, and then I met your father and signed a life changing deal with him and life is good to me. Despite what happened I survived.”

  “But you haven’t dated.”

  “Jocelyn,” he growled.

  “Well she hasn’t.”

  She laughed. “At first that was part of the reason. I figured nobody would want me. I grew up with very morally and religiously ethical parents. Sex outside of marriage wasn’t something they promoted. And sex for the sake of sex definitely wasn’t. My mom always said if it happened that I lay down with a man before we were married to be sure it was a man I loved and who loved me, who deserved me. I hadn’t dated because I hadn’t come across that man.”

  “Hadn’t,” she grinned. He noticed the same words and he wondered if she had now. Was there some man she had taken an interest in? He wanted her for himself. He didn’t want her to fall in love with anybody else.