The Billionaire I Never Married

Emily's P.o.v

Emily? There's someone I'd like you to meet."

I turned at the sound of Christian's voice and my body, soul and mind went into shut down mode.

I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting but it was definitely not this. Another polite and boring chat with one of the Companies investors and employees maybe.

But not this. Never this.

I know this man's name. There is no way I could ever forget it. He'd grown out of his boyish build and into the strong physique of a man who obviously spends a lot of time at the gym. The closely cropped beard he was sporting made him look older and more sophisticated than before, but i would know those eyes anywhere. Those blue orbs used to see right through me.

"Morgan, this is Mr Grayson Pierce. He's the owner and CEO of Piestro Constructions and Co. He'll be working with you this year on our mainland project."Christian continued to prattle on, completely oblivious to the reactions of the two people standing with him. At least to my stunned reaction.

Grayson doesn't look too surprised to see me in fact he even looked a bit...well...smug. He looked rather amused as he extended his hand to me.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Hayes," he said.

I know I should shake his hand. Play along with this ruse and not make a scene. And yet, I could not make myself reach out and touch him.

That same hand had caressed every inch of my body. The same hand that had slipped a petite diamond ring onto my ring finger during a small holiday rendezvous in his grandmother's cabin in Brentwood. The same hand to the man that slept with my sister a day before our wedding. Yeah I would shake him. When hell freezes over.

"Emily,"

Christian's concerned voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I plastered a fake bright smile onto my face and thrust my arm out to barely shake Grayson's hand. I have to treat him like any other business acquaintance. Christian doesn't know about my past with Grayson.And if all goes well he never would.

"She's usually not like this Mr. Pierce, she's probably too excited to speak right now. Anyways, I'm sure our companies will do great things together this summer."

Grayson reached over to grasp my hand in a firm handshake and no matter how much subtly I tried to shake them free, he wouldn't let go. I myself had a hard time convincing myself to let go. There's something about the way his touch made me feel and i hate it. He shivered slightly and I know he feelt it too. Our bodies remembered each other, even if our minds resisted the idea.

He finally let go and I switched my champagne flute into the other hand to let the chilly glass dull the electric feel of him against my skin.

Then I took a large gulp to dull the feel of him inside my head as well.

Who the hell approved this? My father certainly wasn't involved.

He'd rather shoot River on the doorstep than let him inside after what happened back in college. It's new news to me that Piestro Construction&Co and Grayson were one and the same entity. I've heard mention of the company in passing and never once questioned who owned it.

He called his Company Piestro. The Bastard even had the audacity to use the name we'd planned to give our firstborn.

"Mr Christian? Can you come here for a minute?" One of the Company's investor's voice called out.

I tensed immediately. I don't want to be left alone with Grayson. We would hardly be alone in the traditional sense, but being in the same room having a discussion was more intimate than we'd experienced since the day I left him.

"Please excuse me." Christian smiled and clapped Grayson on the back before he left.

With just the two of us standing on the edge of the crowd together, I'm not quite sure what to do. This is more awkward than a junior high dance. What am i supposed to say to the boy-man-who had broken my heart all those years ago?

"You're looking well, Emily," Grayson said. He was clutching a glass tumbler of scotch in his hand as his dark eyes raked over my body from top to bottom. "That emerald dress suits you. It brings out the green in your eyes."

So we're settling for Polite. "Thank you. I would compliment you but I think we both know there's no part of you that I like. " It's silly, but I don't what else to say to him.

He chuckled at my choice of words. ""Still as beautiful as ever, Emily."

"And you're still as heartless as I remember.""

He glanced down at my hand that held my glass. "Not married yet?" he asked.

My eyebrow arched up in surprise and confusion at his question. "Yet? Don't you mean married again, Mr Grayson?"

He just shrugged off my challenge with a roll of his eyes. "As far as the state of New York and your family is concerned, you've never ben married, Morgan, and neither have I. It never happened. That's why you mailed the ring back, remember? All the nights we spent together doesn't mean anything I mean especially that day in the cold tennis ball field when...."

"Will you shut it?," My eyes widened as I quickly looked around at the people nearby to see if anyone was listening. Thankfully, everyone seemed to be involved in their own discussions.

I reached out for Grayson's elbow and tugged him with me into a far corner of the ballroom where no one could hear us.

"What is all this about, Grayson?" I hissed at him through clenched teeth.

He crossed his arms over his chest, straining the shoulders of his designer tuxedo. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"The hell you don't. Why are you here tonight?"

"I was invited," he replied with a satisfied smirk.

I growled out in frustration. He was going to make me spell this out just because he can. "How did our companies end up working together, Grayson? This is the first I've heard of it or it sure as hell wouldn't have been approved. Was this your big idea? To weasel back into the family somehow through your business?"

"Why would I want to be in your family, Morgan? For the few moments I spent with the Hayes famiy, I was treated like dirt. You've always been so arrogant. Acting like somehow everything always revolves around your important family and what people want from you." There was audible venom in his voice. "I didn't want anything from you but your love, Emily and your family wouldn't even let me have that."

I watched a flicker of pain dance across his eyes. But he had caused me a greater amount of pain. You know what they say karma is a B word.

"No, they wouldn't, but you seemed all too happy to settle for a night with my sister instead."

My father tried to reason with me when I got engaged to Grayson that morning. Grayson wasn't good enough for me. What could a poor athlete offer me? He was only using me to get to my money. Marriage? Without a prenuptial agreement? Or even a background check? He warned me that marrying Grayson could have a disastrous outcome, he had insisted.

But I didn't listen. I loved Grayson and I naturally assumed he loved me too. But he never did, my father wasn't wrong. He was using me but not for money, he was using me to get to my sister. Just like everyone else.

And when he got what he wanted, he proceeded to discuss and compare the both of us with his little basketball buddies. He didn't just break my heart, he shattered it.

Grayson stiffened at my words. Maybe he wasn't very proud of that, either. He narrowed his dark sapphire gaze at me for a moment, and then let his arms fall helplessly to his side.

"If that's what you really think of me, then maybe it's a good thing we didn't go through with the wedding. We never would've made it."

My jaw dropped. What was i suupposed to say to that?

He took a step closer to me and I took one back.

"Do you still tell yourself you were the victim, Emily? Or do you finally realize you were just scared of being with someone your family couldn't control?"

"Control? That's rich, coming from the man who needed two sisters to feel like a man."

Did he know of the mess left behind? He hadn't been there. He had no idea about all I went through when I lost him and lost everything.

"Still wearing your emotions on your sleeve, I see. I expected you to be a little more...composed after five years."

"And I expected you to have grown a conscience. But i guess we both disappoint."

Grayson leaned closer "Don't worry. Your little stunt at the altar toughened me up. Maybe I should thank you. But I do have a question for you. Do you think anyone here knows the truth, Emily? That the woman with the superb charity pitch couldn't beat to stay with a poor man and left her fiancé at the altar?"

My grip on her champagne flute tightened. I could feel my pulse hammer away in my ears as the heat of his words ate at my composure.

I turned my head sharply, my voice low but firm

"Better that than the truth about the man who thought he could have both sisters."

His expression darkened, his jaw tightening as a flicker of guilt and anger crossed his face."Careful, Emily," he said, his voice hardening.

"Throwing stones doesn't suit you. Especially not when we both know you're far from innocent. You couldn't handle what we had, so you ran. Admit it-you were scared of being with someone you couldn't manipulate."

My breath caught and my voice grew louder, "Manipulate? That's rich coming from the man who used me to get closer to my family. And when that wasn't enough, you moved on to my sister."

Grayson smirked, his gaze raking over me with infuriating ease. "Still as dramatic as ever, I see. But here you are, putting on a show for everyone, pretending to be the perfect daughter. Do you think they'd still applaud if they knew you're just as broken as the rest of us?"

Without a second thought, I hurled the drink at him, the liquid splashing across his impeccably tailored suit.

The room falls silent,the music slowed, the clinking of glasses and murmurs of conversation stopping as all eyes turn toward us.

"Don't you dare lecture me on being broken, Mr Grayson Pierce. At least I'm not hiding behind a façade of tailored suits and empty promises."

Well there goes my composure.