Lusting For Luke_A Billionaires of Palm Beach Story Read online

  “I would say I’m surprised to see you, but I’m not,” she said, not bothering to greet me as I got out of the car. I didn’t have to guess any more. She knew. No question.

  “I can explain.” I slammed the door shut, leaving my father inside the BMW. He didn’t try to get out. Thank god. “This isn’t…”

  “What is this?” She held up a piece of computer paper, but she didn’t give me the time to see it or to answer her. “Never mind. I’ll tell you what this is! It’s an article announcing a new development, and it outlines your father’s plan to ‘revitalize’ the area. What the hell?”

  “It’s something he cooked up. Something my father decided to do, one of his ‘big ideas.’”

  “With you, right?” She glanced at the article. “That’s what it says here. That he bought this development with your permission. Your input. It says this is going to be a father-and-son venture, and that you’ve both been working on this for months. Months.” Natalie shook her head. “When were you going to tell me?”

  “I swear—I didn’t know anything about this until the meeting this morning. I had no idea what he planned for this development. I’m serious. No clue.”

  She crossed her arms and it crushed the paper. Fitting. “Somehow, I find that hard to believe. This is the family business. Your business.”

  “No, it’s not. It hasn’t been for a while.” I glanced back at the car. My father still sat in the passenger seat, watching us argue on the sidewalk in front of her aunt’s business. “I’ve barely had anything to do with my father’s company for the last two years. You know that.”

  “Pfffftttt. No, I don’t.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Helen was right.” She narrowed her eyes, and I guessed she was hearing my words, but not listening. “Damn it. She was.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “She warned me about you and your family. She said this”—she sliced a hand through the air— “whatever this was, wasn’t all that it seemed. That it never is when it comes to your family. If you all can’t profit from it, then you’re not interested.”

  “You know it’s not like that. Not with you, babe, not—”

  I tried to speak further, but she held up a hand to stop me. “Please, don’t say anything more.” Her voice cracked. Somehow, the fire had been sucked out of her in an instant, only to be replaced by uncertainty and pain. “D-don’t make excuses. J-just don’t.”

  I cleared my throat, fighting the urge to yank her into my arms and soothe the sudden anguish dulling her pretty eyes. “But I think if you could just give me a chance to explain…”

  “Leave.” Her voice became a raspy whisper. “Now.”

  “Natalie—”

  She shook her head, causing one lone tear to spill over her cheek.

  My own eyes stung when her teardrop dripped onto the paper she held close to her chest. To hell with it. To hell with Dad. I needed Natalie in my arms, in my life. I swore under my breath and took a step toward her, my arms open, ready to take her into my world.

  She shifted her worried gaze toward her aunt’s yoga studio and I caught a gleam of loyalty and love for family there. I admired that in her, even envied it, envied that I couldn’t have that with my father.

  She stumbled backward. “Luke, did you hear what I said? Just go.”

  “But, Natalie, I told you… I didn’t know about this until this morning when—”

  She crossed her arms and stared at the sidewalk. “Please. I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered.

  I studied every saddened yet determined nuance about her for what felt like eons, and I wondered what this was. Was this a breakup? Goodbye? What was this? Was this all about loyalty to her aunt, or was she really done with me?

  My world turned gray, dismal, but I knew what I had to do.

  “Okay,” I finally said. “If that’s what you want, I will. I’ll go.”

  “You have to understand something, son. It’s just business. Nothing more,” dad said as I drove us back towards Palm Beach. “And you can’t make business personal. When you start adding emotion to it, you get burned. I’ve always tried to teach you that.”

  “Stop,” I muttered before turning to him. “You have no heart, do you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your empire. It has consumed you.”

  My father shook his head. “I hardly think that’s an accurate description of me. I work hard. I built a great company from nothing. And now we are going to take it to the next level. South Florida is a great place to invest right now, and we absolutely don’t want to miss out on it.”

  “Something you are willing to do at any cost.”

  “Certainly. At any cost.” The corners of his mouth turned down. “Jesus, you’ve done exactly what I warned you to never do, haven’t you? You’ve fallen for that yoga instructor. A nobody.”

  I grunted.

  “As if I need to ask any more.” His voice turned sharper and he settled back into his seat. “A yoga instructor. Of all people.”

  “That’s just it,” I said. “She’s not ‘just’ a yoga instructor. She’s—she’s a better person than I’ll ever be. Did you know that she saved a homeless person’s life the other night?” I looked over at my father, and the anger I felt towards him threatened to spill over into rage. He simply didn’t get it, and for Christ sakes, I knew right then that he never would. “She has a good heart, and she’s not driven by the hollowed out, empty things that you are.”

  Fuming, I focused back on the road and tried to concentrate on driving. It didn’t work very well.

  “Remember, Luke, you’re a Rothschild. We are one of the most storied families in the country. And that aerobics instructor—”

  “Yoga. Not aerobics. Yoga. And she has a name.” I flipped the turn signal as we approached the next four-way intersection. When the light changed from red to green, I drove us back on the bridge toward Palm Beach. “Maybe not a name you recognize, but a name.”

  “Think about it, son, how will this look?”

  “Her name is Natalie Johnson.”

  “I don’t care what her name is,” he grumbled. “I don’t have to know it to know that she doesn’t fit.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “No, she doesn’t, and I’m certain she never will.” He gripped my shoulder and I moved out from underneath his hold. He sighed. “You can be pissed off at me all that you want, but it’s the truth, and you can’t get away from it. You’re the scion of the Rothschild family. My first born. You have duties that you can’t escape. One of those is that the company I built is your birthright. The other is that you need to make sure we live on—that we don’t become one of those families that fades away. We’ve been in this country for over four hundred years, and always at the top. I’m not about to let you tear that down.”

  “But I—”

  “No, Luke!” He pounded his fist on the dashboard. “You don’t get to destroy us.”

  “Us? Since when is this about us? It’s always only ever been about you.”

  “Come on, you know that’s not true.”

  “Yes, it is, Dad. You don’t want to admit it, but it is.” I maneuvered the car onto the bridge, silently counting the seconds until we’d get back to The Breakers and I could put distance between my father and myself. “This is always about you. Money. Prestige. The three things you love the most.”

  “If you don’t take on this development with me, Luke, there will be no turning back.”

  I frowned and stared at his faceless expression for a long moment. He’d said this sentence so clinically, as if he’d completely divorced himself from me. “What do you mean?”

  “I’ll be forced to implement the alternative.” He waved a hand. “Delay my retirement. Place your brother in line as the main heir.”

  “My half brother.”

  “Whatever you choose to call him. I don’t want to do this, but I’m losing my patience. Besides, Marcus is a ver
y bright student.” His mouth twisted into a half-smile. “And perhaps I can make it work with him.”

  “Sounds like you want that more than you’re willing to admit.”

  “I want someone willing to make hard decisions. Someone who won’t let emotions get in the way of a good deal. You’ve always had trouble with that, Luke. It has always been one of your weakest traits.” His tone softened. “Come on, son, I know you. You’re part of me. We’re the same. This isn’t something you want to turn down. Imagine all we can achieve.”

  I sighed. “I need time to think.”

  We drove the rest of the way home in silence. As we approached the valet drop-off, he turned to me again. “Listen, Lenora and I are leaving town in the morning. I want your answer before we go.”

  “Answer?”

  “You’re either a Rothschild, or you aren’t. Simple as that.” He cleared his throat. “You either join the project, or you’re out of the family. For good.” He opened the car door and stepped out of my BMW. “I’ll give you some time to consider everything. But as I said, I expect to hear your final answer tomorrow. We’re departing Palm Beach International at eight.”

  After I dropped my father off at the resort, I returned home and wandered around my beach house. I had to admit it—I’d relied on the Rothschild name for everything I had. What would it be like if I didn’t have it to back me up? What would that life look like? Could I make it on my own?

  Maybe.

  It wouldn’t be pretty or make me comfortable, but I could do it. I had a degree, and decent business background. I knew more about life than my father gave me credit for, and on top of that, I had common sense.

  Even better—I knew I didn’t want to let the one decent thing that had happened to me in years walk away.

  Sitting in the study about a half hour after the confrontation at the yoga studio, I placed a call to Aaron. He picked up on the first ring. “Luke, what a surprise! Up for a round of golf later this week?”

  “No, I won’t be able to make it.” I sank into the blue leather armchair located in the corner of the library. “Listen, if I needed to liquidate my holdings, how much could I get a hold of, and how long would it take?”

  “Are we talking the full amount or—”

  “My accounts. What I own outright, and independent of the Rothschild holdings.”

  Aaron let out a whistle. “You know that’s less than thirty percent of your net.”

  “I do.” I rubbed my brow, aware I was asking him for something he never thought he’d hear. “But that’s the figure I need.”

  Aaron didn’t reply for a beat. When he did, he croaked out the words. “What is this about? It sounds serious, man.”

  “In a way, it is.”

  Aaron cleared his throat. “Meaning…?”

  “Earlier this month, you mentioned that hedge fund had done pretty well.” I tapped my fingers on the armchair. “Where are we now with that?”

  “I haven’t checked the balance in a few days, but it looked good last week, and the market has been up lately.” He paused. “Do you mind if I ask why you want to know? You never care about things like this.”

  “Just give me a ballpark. I know it’s a lot less than it was when I first came to you—”

  Aaron laughed without humor. “I’ve never seen someone spend money the way that you do. Are you thinking about getting another car? Maybe a vintage one?”

  “No.” I sat up straighter in the chair and chose my next words very carefully. “This time it involves my future. My future with Natalie.”

  “I see.” He made a clicking sound with his mouth. “It would take a little while, but I can get a number to you this afternoon.”

  “Perfect,” I said. “Why don’t you bring over a report this evening?”

  “I’ll have something ready around seven.”

  I didn’t know what to think. Didn’t know what to feel. Didn’t know how to process any of what I’d just learned. I was sad. Incredulous. Disappointed. In shock.

  “I need to go home,” I told Helen just moments after Luke and his father drove away. “I can’t—I’ll call you later. I need a little while to deal with this.”

  “But we…we must come up with a plan for winding down the business,” she said, the words leaving her mouth hard and fast. “What are we—well, what am I—going to do? I have less than thirty days to come up with a solution.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’ll call you later. I promise. We will get through this.”

  I couldn’t even remember how I got home, but somehow, I made it to the parking lot of my apartment complex. I sat in the car for a few minutes, staring into space as I tried to process the reality of what had just happened. What had I been thinking? Luke and I came from different worlds, and there was no denying that. He had family commitments, a name, and a business putting pressure on him. I had none of that, and nothing to offer him. We’d never fit. This would never work.

  Sometimes, reality just had to be faced.

  I found my way into my second-floor apartment and located a bottle of whiskey in the kitchen cabinet. I couldn’t remember who’d given it to me as a college graduation gift, but I’d promised myself I’d save it for an emergency.

  No time like the present—which qualified as an emergency.

  I poured half a can of diet soda into a plastic glass and topped it off with a generous serving of the liquor. “Bottoms up,” I said to no one. Then I swallowed a third of the drink in one large gulp. It felt smooth. Crisp. Like an escape.

  And god, I needed it.

  Bang. A pause. Bang. Bang.

  “Natalie?” a muffled voice said. “Are you in there? Natalie.”

  I opened my eyes. Somehow, I’d made it to the couch and lay there, sprawled across the cushions. Everything seemed foggy. I stared at the door. How long had I been asleep?

  “Natalie?” The person on the other side of the door knocked a few more times. “I saw your car in the parking lot.”

  Recognizing the voice, I sat up from the sofa. Luke. What was he doing here? I glanced at the clock above the stove in the galley kitchen. It read 9:45 PM.

  Wow, I’ve been asleep a long time…

  “Give me a minute,” I called toward the door. My voice sounded like I had a half-dozen cotton balls in my mouth.

  “Okay,” Luke said through the door.

  I rushed into the bathroom, located in the short hallway between the living room and bedroom of my apartment. The alcohol had done its work. A haggard, pale, still halfway drunk woman stared back at me in the mirror. I splashed some water on my face, wiped my lips with a tube of Black Honey I found in the medicine cabinet, pinched my cheeks, and wrestled my hair into a topknot on my head.

  When I opened the apartment front door, I found Luke on the other side with one arm propped against the doorframe. His handsome, flushed face didn’t hide anything.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “We need to talk, Natalie. Can I come in?”

  I shrugged and stepped aside. In all honesty, I still felt too drunk to care about having Luke Rothschild inside my meager apartment. It had been a long day. Long week.

  The perfect time to start giving zero fucks.

  “What do you want?” I asked again after I closed the door. “If this is about the eviction—”

  He held up a hand. “Just give me a chance to explain.”

  “I don’t know if I want to.” I leaned against the door and didn’t bother crossing the room. If Luke noticed, it didn’t show on his face. Instead, he settled onto the left side of my shabby red couch and placed a manila file folder on the cushion beside him.

  “I can only guess what you must think of me. What you must think of the last few weeks.”

  I closed my eyes. “I have a few opinions.”

  “This is not what you think.”

  I opened my eyes. “What do you mean? Seems pretty clear to me.”

  He tilted his head, giving me his full atte
ntion.

  “I’ve been thinking this over.” I let out a long, heavy breath. “And no matter what—not matter how hard we try, we can’t overcome the one thing that will always keep us apart.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “We are from two different worlds.”

  It surprised me how detached I managed to sound as I made this argument to Luke. Maybe the cocktail had been a better friend than I’d expected.

  “Being from two different worlds has never stopped us before,” he said, his voice even, steady, and calculating. “It doesn’t have to stop us now.”

  I shrugged. I wasn’t following him. “How?”

  As our gazes locked, Luke’s eyes softened around the edges. “I don’t care about being a Rothschild anymore, Natalie. It doesn’t matter to me.” He tapped the manila folder. “And I realized this afternoon, I don’t have to care. Not anymore. My father doesn’t own me.”

  “But what about the contract?

  He stood from the couch. As he said his next words, he took a few tentative steps toward me. “It doesn’t matter to me anymore. My father can take his company and all he has with it.” He paused. “I’m leaving it all behind. For good.”

  Natalie’s eyes bulged, and her mouth dropped open. She closed it and gulped. “What?”

  “You heard me loud and clear. I’m leaving the company for good. Permanently. No questions asked, no turning back. I’m giving up my place as the heir to the Rothschild fortune.” I stopped a few inches away from her—close, but not too close. “I don’t need it. I’m walking away from all of it.”

  “You are?”

  I nodded. “Effective tomorrow morning.” Then I laughed. The decision to take this leap felt so liberating, so true. It might have been the first real thing I’d ever done. “In fact, I never really did need it.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope.” I squeezed her shoulder. “I wouldn’t joke about something like this. You might not believe me, but I wouldn’t lie to you. I never have, and I never will. I am deadly serious.”

  She frowned. “You’re telling me that you’re willing to walk away from a ten-billion-dollar fortune.” She swallowed again. “Ten billion.”