Binding Agreement- Book 1 of the Tipton Dynasty

No Punishment, For Now

"He called me after you showed me the store. He gave me this speech of seeing how I am with you and it should be him. I told him I wasn't interested and to leave us alone." I explained.

"Anything else?" Damon asked. The hint of anger in his tone remained.

"He tried saying that if I went back to him he would leave you alone but I still told him no. Then he said he was going to figure out a way to knock you down from your position." I answered.

Damon's icy blue eyes stared me down. He was clearly thinking about something. It was a few minutes of silence before he finally spoke. "I'll give you a pass this time. But there will not be a next time. You are not allowed to speak to him ever again, if he calls you you are to ignore it and I will handle it. Do you understand?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Kaydence, he's not a good person. This is a dangerous game he's trying to play with me. The less involved you are the better." His tone and eyes were softer this time. "If he gets just the right words from you he will twist them to come back on me."

"I understand." I responded.

He gently grabbed my hand. "I will look past this because I don't want to ruin our day. Let's go see some things around the city." He suggested.

"So no punishment?" I asked.

He let out a small chuckle. "No punishment. For now anyway."

"Why?" I studied his expression. His anger seemed non-existent right now.

"Because all you did was answer a call Love. You answered him appropriately, it's Justin who should suffer from his actions. He should know by now not to test me." He seemed calm, too calm. He was up to something.

"What are you up to?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it." His tone was stern, warning me not to ask any further questions on the topic.

He then proceeded to give the driver a destination for us to go to. The driver drove through the traffic for about fifteen or twenty minutes until we had reached where a ferry was docked. We got out of the car and Damon held my hand as we headed for the boat. "Where are we going?" I asked.

"I want to show you the statue of liberty. You can't leave here without visiting it." He smiled at me.

I was relieved that all the tension in the car had dissipated. I wasn't going to dwell on what happened earlier. This was mine and Damon's first trip away and I was going to enjoy it. I followed Damon onto the ferry. He had the security team with us to help make sure we weren't bothered by anyone.

We sat down on the boat and waited for it to start moving. "So you've never been to New York? Even with your internship?" Damon asked.

"No, my internship was for a designer based in Chicago. That's the farthest I've really been out of Nashville." I answered.

He placed a kiss on my forehead. "Well as the future Mrs. Tipton that will change. Travel is a big part of my role in the company."

The ferry began to move, taking us to the direction of the statue. Damon held my hand as we waited to arrive at the destination. As usual, every time we were out together people looked. Occasionally I would notice a picture snapped of us. Probably someone wanting to sell it to paparazzi or show their friends they saw Damon Tipton.

I tried not paying attention though. It was easy to ignore while I looked at the skyline of the city getting further and further away. It was such an amazing view. I had never seen anything like this before. I was grateful that Damon was giving me the opportunity to experience this.

Justin would go away on trips but only took me with if it was for a client. Even then we flew first class, he didn't have his own jet. He kept me locked up in the room until his client was ready. Then we would be on the first flight out once everything was settled. He didn't like to linger too long after his contract had been signed.

The ferry had finally arrived and we had gotten off of it. Damon still held my hand as we headed into the doors to go into the statue. Damon wanted to take me up to the top, where the crown was. We started ascending the stairs, it felt like there were a million of them.

I lost track of how long it took to reach the top. I held Damon's hand tighter as we looked out of the window of the crown. Heights were not my thing, I did my best when I had to but I was still nervous. He picked up on my nerves and decided to wrap his arms around my waist. "I've got you." He spoke.

We looked out of the window at the city in the distance. The view was even prettier than it was from the ferry. "It's beautiful." I stated as Damon still gripped me close to him.

"Yes, but not as beautiful as you." He placed a kiss on my cheek.

I could feel myself blush at his words. "Thank you handsome."

I pulled my phone out to get a few pictures of the view. This wasn't something I could see very often. It was also my first time here and I wanted to remember it. I even had one of the staff use my phone to take a photo of Damon and I. I intended to post it to my social media.

Once we had finished looking through the crown we headed down the stairs back to the Ferry. It was alot easier going down the stairs rather than up them. We sat down in the same spot we had when we took the ferry to the statue. The boat started to move again.

I noticed Damon's gaze was fixed on me and he looked like he was in deep thought. "What's wrong?" I asked.

I could tell I pulled him out of his thoughts. "Nothing's wrong."

"Are you sure?" I probed further.

He chuckled. "Yes Love. I'm sure."

"What were you thinking about then?" I questioned.

"You don't have any second thoughts about agreeing to marry me right?" He responded.

"No. Not at all." I answered.

"When we get home I want you to fully invest your time into designing enough clothes for the store to open." He instructed.

"But that's three months away Damon. What's the rush?" I asked him.

He caressed my cheek with his hand. "Because I can move up the opening. Then once the store is opened we can focus on planning the wedding and getting married."