My Dutch Billionaire 2 (5 page)

His thumb slowly moved across her knuckles.

I’m sorry.
 

Back and forth his thumb moved, an apology for every stroke, mending and breaking her heart at the same time.

Oh, how she still loved him, and it hurt.
 

Dimly, she heard Melanie struggling to get Shane up and Willem ordering a pair of his bodyguards to help her stepmother.
Poor Shane,
she thought dully,
drunk on a night that Willem might have begun thinking of proposing to her.
 

Because that was what this was about, wasn’t it? For all she knew, that might have been why the billionaire had been unable to return her feelings. It wasn’t because he didn’t love Serenity. Maybe it was because he was already in love with Shane.

As soon as Melanie managed to usher Shane out of the dining room, Willem nodded at the rest of his security
team in dismissal. “Guard the door and let me know in advance if either or both of them are about to return.”

“Ja, meneer.”

His bodyguards filed out of the room, and only when they were completely alone did Willem allow himself to glance at the girl beside him. She was absolutely still in her seat, her face pale, her back straight, and her eyes resolutely focused on the wall opposite them.

“Serenity.”

She didn’t look at him.

“
Say something.
” His tone was as harsh and tight as his grip on her hand under the table. He knew he should let her go now…but he could not.

But still, she was silent.

Cursing silently, Willem released her hand to cup her face and forcibly make Serenity look at him.

Their eyes clashed, and this time he cursed out loud. The pain in her blue gaze was too much, and even as he hated her for making him feel he was in the wrong
when he was not,
he hated himself more for even caring.

“You can’t blame me for something that happened before I met you,” Willem heard himself snarl.

But still, she didn’t speak.

“
You were a child then,
” he said harshly. “A fourteen-year-old child! How the fuck would I have known that you’d grow up to—” He didn’t allow himself to continue and, cursing again, he released his hold on her face.

“I never lied about Shane and me,” he bit out.
 

She only stared at him in answer, and just when he thought she would keep giving him the cold shoulder, he heard her say, “I know that.” Her voice was low but tremulous, and her face seemed to have whitened even more.
 

“I’ve always known it,” Serenity whispered. “But it doesn’t make it hurt less.” And as soon as she uttered the words, she knew then. The hurt wouldn’t go away for as long as she could see Willem.
 

She jerked to her feet, muttering under her breath, “I have to go.”

Willem stood up abruptly as well. “Where are you going?”

She didn’t answer, only turning around to walk away, but the billionaire swiftly held her back, his fingers wrapping tightly around one wrist.

“Let me go.” She didn’t look at him as she spoke.

His grip tightened. “We need to talk.”

She shook her head vehemently. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“There’s
everything—
”

She whirled around, crying out, “I just want to forget you, okay?” She no longer cared if Melanie or Shane could hear her. She no longer cared about lying. She just wanted things to be over so it would stop hurting.
 

“I want to move on.” She was hysterical in her pain, and she could no longer stop herself from talking. “I want to forget I ever fell in love with a heartless bastard like you.”

A muscle started ticking in his jaw.

“I want to start fresh, find someone else—”

Willem’s blue eyes turned icy.
 

If Serenity had been in her right mind, she would have known what that gaze meant. But she wasn’t.

“Someone who will welcome my love and
kiss me back—
”

Willem heard nothing else.

He only had to hear Serenity talk about another man kissing her, and his vision had gone completely black.

He hauled her to him, and as she stumbled against his chest with a shocked gasp, he drove his fingers through her hair, gripped her head back, and slammed his mouth down on hers.

“If you ever dare kiss someone else,” he rasped against her lips, “I’ll probably strangle you.”

Her eyes were wide on his as he spoke, and when she parted her lips to answer him, Willem didn’t give her a chance to say a single word by driving his tongue deep into her mouth.

Passion exploded between them, and a shudder racked his body as he heard Serenity whimper in a mixture of shock and confusion.

For one moment, Willem was unable to move as well, his mind reeling at the sheer intensity of the kiss.

But then Serenity whimpered again, and he was no longer able to control himself.
 

His fingers tightened its grip on her head as he thrust his tongue in and out of her sweet, warm mouth. His other hand moved down, stroking her back until he reached one plump cheek. Squeezing her bottom hard, Willem used it to push her closer to him—

His erect and throbbing cock came into contact with her soft pussy.

Serenity moaned against his lips, and he kissed her harder even as he started grinding his cock against her sex. He knew he should stop, but he couldn’t. He knew he was making it worse, but he no longer cared.

All that mattered was to make the kiss last forever—

Someone knocked on the door.

“Mrs. Raleigh is on her way back,
meneer
.”

Serenity’s senses swam as the billionaire slowly lifted his mouth from hers, could only stare and follow him like a limp doll as he guided her back to her seat and took his place next to hers on the table.

“Tomorrow,” he said tersely under his breath. “I want you in my office at eight in the morning.”

Chapter Four

Monday:
Where are you?

Tuesday:
Answer your phone.

Wednesday:
Name any date, time, and place. We need to talk.

A scowl marred Willem’s forehead as he scrolled up to read his previous messages to Serenity for the past three days. Even now, it galled him how difficult it had been to limit himself to a single call and message for each day.

Dropping his phone back on his desk, Willem picked up his spoon and began to enjoy his soup. Or at least he tried to, but lately, everything tasted bland to his tongue. He surveyed his dining hall, a vast space decorated in rich luxury that spoke of the family’s old and respected history as one of Europe’s most powerful clans.
 

Whoever he married would have to be comfortable with this kind of setting
, Willem thought. He tried to imagine Shane seated next to him on the twenty-foot table, glamorous and worldly, her conversation certain to be as sophisticated as the guests’, and it felt like the right and dutiful thing to do.

But then an unbidden image of Serenity came to his mind, of her soft, peaceful beauty and her quiet ways. She would never seek to dazzle like her half-sister did. Instead, she would just be herself, and that, too, felt right. But more than that, thinking about Serenity next to him made Willem...

He pushed his chair back and stood up, leaving the rest of his plate untouched. He walked away, intent on driving all thoughts out with more work. But even with the skies changing colors outside the windows of his private library, the word that he had tried to escape remained in his mind.
 

Happy.

It was what Serenity made him feel, and he hated himself and her for it.

Taking his phone out, he placed a call to Shane, knowing there was only one way to end this insanity.

****

Willow:
Are you okay?

Serenity:
Yes, Mrs. M. I am okay.
 

Willow:
Now I know why Willem hates it when you call him Mr. De Konigh. You have this knack of making a person feel like they’re sixty.

Serenity scowled at her friend’s reply. She had explicitly warned her newly married friend
not
to mention the Dutch billionaire’s name.
 

Serenity:
That is below the belt, and especially for someone who should be a respectable figure of society, considering your marriage to Stavros Manolis.

Willow:
Wow. You could have just said you’re still heartbroken.

Her fingers froze over the screen at Willow’s reply, and Serenity wondered gloomily why her only friend had to be someone as tactless as the former Willow Somerset, now Mrs. Manolis since she married one of the most powerful Greek billionaires in the world.

But rude or not, Willow was right.
 

It had been six days since the last time she had seen the Dutch billionaire. Six long days, made more dreadful by the way she couldn’t stop herself from waiting for his text or call, which came at the most unpredictable times.

Monday, he had only sent her a text at nine in the morning, when it had become obvious she wasn’t bowing to his orders. Tuesday, he had called and sent her a message just as she was getting to bed and had given up on hearing from him again. Wednesday, she woke up to his message. Thursday, he had left her a voice call while she was in the shower – a fifteen-second message that she had listened to about fifty times now.
 

But last night, there had been no message, no voice call, no anything.

It left her torn between confusion and relief, love and despair.

Serenity:
I’m okay.

If she said it enough times, maybe it would come true.

Willow:
If you’re okay, then why can’t you make yourself talk to him? You need closure. You both do.

Serenity:
Only people in love need closure.
 

She winced as soon as she hit Send.
Way to go, Serenity. You are officially Little Miss Bitter.

Willow:
You’re saying he doesn’t love you?

Serenity:
He never did.

Just typing the words hurt, and she had to bite her lip hard to stop it from trembling. To distract herself, she stared blindly at the picturesque scenery outside the expansive windows of ODA. This side of the building faced the port, which afforded them tranquil views of sailboats traversing the city’s dark blue waters.
 

These days, most of her time was spent in the library, with Serenity finding it a safe haven from Melanie’s constant harping about money as well as Shane’s continuous gushing about Willem and how she was absolutely sure he’d propose to her in the future.
 

The first night following the billionaire’s visit, Shane had shared with them her rosy visions of the future. It had made Serenity want to puke, with the way Shane kept saying his name.
Willem, Willem, Willem.
It had made Serenity want to alternately cover her ears and scream.
Willem
was hers. She had wanted so much to tell her sister that.

But she didn’t.

Because it wasn’t true.

Even so, the urge hadn’t gone away, and Serenity had eventually found herself escaping to the library, staying there until its doors closed for the day. After, she would cycle up and down the canals, pedaling until she was bone tired, and going home only when she was no longer able to keep her eyelids open.

It was a good strategy to avoid speaking with either Melanie or Shane, but it had not worked at all in keeping Willem out of the picture.

Wherever she went, she saw Willem.
 

Whatever she did, she thought of Willem.
 

And no matter how much she prayed, she felt Willem – inside her, owning half of her heart.

Willow:
I’m here for you, okay? I know I’m not good at comforting, but you should know that I’m the last person to judge you, with what you’re going through right now.