Teased: Resisting the Billionaire Volume One

"I don't care about the money." He said. "I never thought twice." He was rocking her world again; her head was beginning to spin. "When I saw you, I walked right up to you and told you what I thought. I made sure you would be on our jet so I could have you to myself for nine long hours on the flight and then ten days together on Tahiti. If I couldn't make you love me in that amount of time, then it was never meant to be. But I knew it was."

Melanie held her hand up to stop him.

"Why did you pretend to be him? We almost made love on the plane. Why did you trick me?"

He stared at her for a long moment. Tension filled the air.

"Yes Sebastian, why the charade?" His brother added. Sebastian gave him a slow angry stare.

"I didn't trick her."

"Bullshit!" His brother spat.

"Alex! Let him have his say."

The older brother ground his teeth.

"Thank you, Melanie." Sebastian said. "I never told you I was Alex. You assumed. You thought because I was being nice to you that I must be him. You called me Alex but I never, ever said I was him."

Melanie had searched frantically in her mind. She it did again as she sat alone on the sand that stark and empty morning.

My God, it's true! Her jaw had gaped and Sebastian smugly nodded his head.

"What was I supposed to do? I see my dream girl, my... my soul-mate, and in ten minutes my older brother who has beaten me at everything in my life from skateboarding to earning billions has stolen her away from me, just because I'm not as smooth as him." He looked pained, a lifetime of resentment and failure to live up to expectations etched on his face. "I couldn't let you go. When you kissed me on that plane, it was the real me, no matter who you thought you were with."

The three sat in silence, a tropical evening breeze swaying the trees in the forest.

"But like I say, there's one thing that sets me and my big brother apart." Melanie was transfixed. How could he make her go back and forth like this? He had fooled her, cheated her, lied to her, and now all she wanted to do was draw him to her, hold him, and believe in him.

"Do you remember what I said to you on the plane? I told you that I would resign from the Drummond Corporation. It was before we even kissed. Isn't that right?" He was telling the truth. Again. He was sexy when he was a lying snake, but coming clean here in front of her about his love and desire set Melanie in danger of losing control of herself.