Epilogue
Lexa
Aiden had a habit of watching me sleep, and I sometimes wondered if that was how he spent his nights. I opened my eyes to find him at it again, and I buried my face against his chest and fought the urge to wake.
“Rise and shine, sleepyhead.” He kissed my hand and then rolled me off of him, only to rest on his elbows above me.
As I looked up into his eyes, I couldn’t believe it had been almost a year since we’d met. Things were going better than ever between us, but I was still holding my breath for a proposal and turning blue. Bre assured me it would happen, and I had to wonder if he’d talked to her about it. I’d tried to pry it out of her more than once, but she denied any involvement in such conversations.
He stared down at me with his own sleepy eyes, and I couldn’t imagine waking up to anyone else. He was my perfect match, and he’d made my life so much better that I sometimes needed to pinch myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream.
His phone made a buzzing, and he reached across to the nightstand and let out a curse. “Fucking Layne. He wants me to come up and get the rest of my father’s things. Seems he had a storage closet there. Who knew?”
“Do you ever regret giving him the business?” I stroked his cheek and closed my eyes.
“Not one bit. I’ve got everything right here in this house, everything that I’ll ever need. Including you.”
“So, we don’t have to go out to dinner tonight with my parents?” I’d been trying to talk him out of that little dinner date since he broke the news to me. I’d wanted the two of us to have a nice romantic dinner for two to celebrate our year together, but since it was also the anniversary of our families reuniting, as well as the official conception of the foundation, he wanted to celebrate by taking us all out to dinner.
“We do. We can’t back out on them now. Besides, your mother said she had some exciting news.” He shrugged his shoulders, and I narrowed my eyes. That didn’t make any sense.
“And, when did my mother say that?” It seemed she would have told me before telling Aiden, though I do think she had started to like him best. I tapped my finger on his chest as I waited for his answer, but he kissed me instead, pressing himself hard against me. I pushed him back and rolled over. “I’m waiting for your answer.”
“Don’t be difficult tonight, okay? We’re going to a nice dinner, and that’s all you need to worry about.” That was his polite way of saying that’s all I needed to know. He wasn’t going to fool me. He had something up his sleeve. The last thing I wanted was a surprise of any kind, but more than that, I didn’t want to ruin anything Aiden had planned. He loved to do things for me, and I had learned to let him.
It was his way of taking care of me, and while I wasn’t about to get into another argument with him about how independent I was, I’d learned to pick my battles and let him feel in charge.
It’s funny how when you love someone so much, you learn to let them have their way. The truth was I had learned to love it. I wouldn’t take that kind of shit from anyone else, of course, but Aiden was mine and I was his. I loved being his.
“Yes, sir,” I rolled my eyes and giggled.
“I’ll give you something to giggle about.” He tickled my sides, and I went into a fit of laughter so hard I had to warn him off.
“You can’t tickle a person first thing in the morning.” I nudged him away and sat up.
He rose up behind me and planted a kiss on my shoulder. “Mattie’s making breakfast for us this morning, so we better get ready and go down.”
I knew better than to argue about Mattie waiting on me. She’d been part of the package deal, and I had to respect the lady’s livelihood. Besides, it was nice having the extra hand around the house. It wasn’t like I could handle it alone with all those rooms, half of which I’d only been to the door of during my tour.
I’d turned one of them into a sitting room where I could work on the foundation in peace, far away from anyone else, but Aiden had learned that I was a pushover when it came to his ability to distract me from my work.
“Then I’m going to hurry up in the shower, so yours doesn’t get cold on you.” I jumped up and raced him to the shower, but he met me in there and slowly washed me from head to toe. He worked me up to such a thick lather I had to remind him that we were in a hurry and our food was getting cold.
Minutes later, we were dried off and dressed and headed off to the kitchen where Mattie was finishing up our meal. She’d baked a breakfast casserole that had become one of my favorites.
“Pete Jr. is going to be making a trip to the nursery next week and wanted to know if there are any special requests. He’s going to rework the flower beds out front and replace a few of the plants that aren’t thriving. He should be around to talk to later.” Mattie stepped over to the small table by the window that overlooked the oaks, and that’s when I realized she was talking to me. “He said he’ll get anything you want.”
“Oh, thanks, but I’m not really sure I have anything special to request.” I hoped he wouldn’t be too disappointed, but I had never really known much about flowers.
“You’re the lady of the house now. He remembers when he was a kid, and Mrs. Walker would ask for the most particular flowers. You could always request some petunias or maybe some lilies.” She went back to her stove and shut the oven off, then she went off to the private quarters where she spent her downtime during the day.
I waited until she was well out of earshot and muttered, “Lady of the house?”
“You are and not just any lady, but a special one.” His smile widened to meet his eyes. “I’d like you to start having more to do with the place, Lexa. I think it would be nice to share the place and you’ve been here almost a year and haven’t replaced anything or moved anything other than taking over that guest bedroom. It’s your home, so feel free to do with it what you like. I want you to feel at home.”
“You saw my apartment, Aiden. I never did anything special to the place. It was clean and tidy, and that’s how I liked it. I love the house the way it is.”
“Suit yourself.” He didn’t seem irritated, but I decided I’d try and have a little more say in things like gardening and my preferences of food, which Mattie had been trying to get out of me for months.
After lunch, I made a few requests with Pete and had him show me some options on my cell phone. I chose several flowers in mixed colors and hoped that Mrs. Walker would approve. I liked to honor her memory as often as I could because I knew she was still alive to Aiden when it came to Olde House.
I glanced down at the time and panicked as I realized I’d be in a mad rush to get ready for dinner with my parents. I was holding Aiden to the dessert he promised. When we got home, I wanted to be spread out like a feast for him to devour.
I ran upstairs and jumped in the shower wondering where he was, but knowing it didn’t take him half as long as it did me. I spent the rest of my hour alone getting dressed to impress, then Aiden came waltzing in and stood behind me in the mirror.
“I saw you with Pete. Did he get the flowers you wanted?”
“I had a little help choosing, but I’m certain they’ll be lovely.”
He undressed behind me and stepped into the shower. I watched his reflection, the perfect, thick cord of his muscular torso and his strong jawline, the one I loved to kiss and bite. And there were other things there I wanted to bite as well, and I heated up thinking about the pleasure he got from such teeth scraping actions.
We finished getting ready, and before long, we were in the car. He made small talk about my parents and how far along in their relationship we’d grown as he drove out toward the restaurant. The whole way there he went on and on about my parents, so much that I was sick of the both of them by the time we made it there.
“I think you’ll enjoy dinner very much.” He pulled into a parking spot and shut off the engine. We’d taken his sister’s mustang, and even though I loved the Shelby, his sister’s car was more comfortable.
“I hope so.” He came around to get me out of the car, and I took his hand when he opened the door taking a deep breath to try not to pout.
As we approached the restaurant, something felt a little off. It was the way he held my hand as if he wasn’t ever going to let it go.
We walked inside, and a small crowd of my friends and family all shouted surprise. I tried to grab hold of Aiden’s arm as I looked around and saw all the happy faces, including my parents and Bre, who’d dragged Daniel along. My smile was beaming, and I was so embarrassed, but then a hush fell over them, and I could see eyes fixed on the space behind me. I turned around to see Aiden with a tiny black box in hand.
I covered my cheeks and gasped as he dropped down to one knee. I reached for Bre’s hand as if doing so would keep me on my feet. She’d always been my support and my rock, and I knew with her there, I couldn’t fail.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes a moment, but then he gazed up into my eyes with such sincerity that tears pooled in mine. “Alexandra Marie Patterson, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” The crowd hushed even more as I prepared myself to answer.
Our entire past year flashed before my eyes. The night we met, who had known when I cut his clothes off and scrubbed his wounds that he would be kneeling before me at that moment asking me to be his wife. It had been a hard road, one made rockier from my lie, but here he was, and he still wanted me. That was true love. Unconditional, forgiving everything else that had happened to make the journey seem like an impossible dream.
“Yes, of course, I will, yes.” There was a collective aww that lifted up in the room as he slid the ring on my finger. Like us, it was the perfect fit.
He rose up from his knee and scooped me up into his arms, and we spun so fast that our friends and family became a blur. Then he put me down on my feet and kissed me as everyone cheered.
Even though I was drunk with emotion, I felt safe and content knowing we were meant to be. And at that moment, I could feel Shawn’s eyes on us, as well as Ally’s and her parents. I knew that somewhere, somehow, they were looking down at us and giving us their blessing.
BILLIONAIRE’S VACATION
By Claire Adams
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Claire Adams
Chapter One
Christian
I tapped my fingers against the edge of the couch as I waited for them to finish the final sound check and whatever other miscellaneous things that they were doing. I thought that they would get all that done while I was still in hair and wardrobe, but apparently, they weren't aware of how valuable my time was. I should have charged them extra.
“All right, I think we're ready,” Kelly, the interviewer, said, dropping into a seat to my left and giving me a winning smile. As though she needed a smile like that with legs like those. I watched as she carefully crossed her long, tanned, muscular limbs in front of her and carefully arranged her navy skirt. When she leaned toward me, clearly trying to appear friendly for the cameras, I caught a glimpse of a lacy, black bra beneath her gray shirt. Maybe she wasn't quite as straight-laced and prim as she appeared to be.
I smiled back at her, albeit more predatorily than anything else. I was so going to bag her by the end of the night no doubt. No woman could resist me for too long, though the small portion of the chase was most of the fun.
“All right, everyone, we're live in three, two, one!”
“Rolling!”
Kelly turned toward the cameras, giving her viewers her classic grin. She was a pretty girl, no doubt. Half the reason the viewers watched her was because she reminded them of who they wanted to be. Young. Successful. Sexy.
“All right, everyone, we're here on The Latest, bringing you the best in entertainment interviews and gossip. And tonight, we have a very special guest for you: Christian Wall!” There was clapping from the studio audience, and even though I hated interviews like this, I forced a charming smile on my face. Time to put on my best façade and give them what they wanted. Sounded like the cadence of my life story.
The thing was, even though I wasn't the sole owner of Sunrise Real Estate, I was the face of the company. I loved working press conferences, and I loved going out and talking to people who were looking to buy houses and helping them find their dream homes. I'd had the chance to be on a number of reality TV shows where I helped sell homes to couples looking in various cities that we operated in, and that was always worth all the fuss.
But the entertainment ones were always a bit trickier. I'd have to be careful not to let Kelly trip me up. I knew the kinds of things that had been in the news about me lately, things that were making everyone, even Paul, a bit frustrated.
“So, Christian, as you probably know, the main reason that I've asked you here today is that you have recently been named the hottest bachelor in the United States. Can we just start with a talk about that title?” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I couldn’t help but wonder how many other people in the world were walking around, faking happiness.
I laughed a little, shaking my head. “Well, it's of course very flattering,” I said. “I've heard about guys getting named the hottest bachelor in their city or things like that, but I thought Mr. USA had to be a model!”
Kelly gave me a smirking once-over and looked out toward the audience. “I don't know about the rest of you, but if Christian here isn't fit to be a model, then I don't know who is! In fact, I'd say it's only a matter of time before they have you up on underwear ads around the city.”
“You wish, maybe!” I said, even though I was inwardly rolling my eyes. Sure, I was hot enough to be up on those sorts of ads, and what I did with my personal life had always been, I held, no one's business except for my own. However, she did have to realize that for all the other things that had made it into the news, I did have some professional reputation that I needed to uphold. Not many young husbands would feel comfortable buying a house from someone they knew their wives were wanking to. It was disturbing, and yet a little hot.
“From what I hear in the news lately, there are other ways to get the great Christian Wall down to his underwear,” Kelly said, a gleam in her eyes, and of course that was where she had been heading with that remark. I might have seen that one coming.
I cut her off with my canned response before she could mention the whole underwear incident. It had been a stupid bet with one of my friends, fueled by way too much alcohol. We'd been out at this bar, and girls had been stripping their shirts off so that guys would do body shots off them. Originally, I'd ended up on the table with just my shirt off, but then one thing had led to another, and there had been these two sexy Swedish girls practically fucking me right there on the floor, their hands trailing everywhere.
Someone had gotten a shot of me stripped down to my black boxer briefs and laid out on a table for them to do body shots off of me. That photo had proceeded to be picked up by seemingly every entertainment source in the world. It wasn’t my finest moment by far, but one that everyone seemed to cling to as if they had nothing better to do. It was one of the incidences that had made Paul a bit exasperated. Or maybe more than a bit.
But, obviously, I couldn't just tell Kelly to fuck off.
Instead, I smiled at her. “If you're suggesting that we go out to dinner on Friday night, I'm afraid I'm already taken,” I told her. “I've recently started seeing someone. It's nothing too serious now, but I'm not sure how much longer I'll be the hottest bachelor in the U.S., unfortunately!”
“Oh, really?” Kelly asked, arching an eyebrow at me.
It was total bullshit unless you counted this thing that I had going on with this girl Megan, but that was more of a 2 a.m. drunken thing than anything else. I wasn't about to quit being a bachelor anytime soon.
“But the parties aren't going to stop, are they?” Kelly pressed. “It seems like you've been at all the red-carpet events lately; it seems like you and Jamie Michaels are getting pretty chummy, hmm?”
“Jamie's a great guy,” I told her. “I was lucky enough to meet him on a ski trip last winter in the Alps; we started out at Meribel, but at the end of the week, neither of us were ready to go back to the grind.” I laughed a little. “Fortunately, I could get some work done remotely, and off we headed to Italy for a second week in Cortina. He's an amazing skier and a great guy.”
“Some people might say that you have a little too much fun sometimes,” Kelly said. “Tell us what you think about that? Is life just supposed to be fun and games for some and toil and work for others?”
I shrugged and smiled disarmingly at her. “I’m not too sure about what life is supposed to be about, or if you could put it into one or two words.” I shrugged. “But as far as my crazy life, you know what they say. Boys will be boys. And especially for Jamie and I, who have access to some of the best toys in the world, from snowmobiles to dirt bikes and more, yeah, we're going to have a ton of fun. Of course, we're always safe with them, and we haven't dropped off the globe like we did during the ski tour. For me, things have been busy around the office as people book their last-minute summer vacation homes and start looking ahead to next winter. And Jamie's working on shooting his latest movie.”
“Any details you can share about that?” She wagged her eyebrows.
I laughed. “Jamie's totally close-mouthed about it,” I told her, and that one wasn't a lie. “You probably know more about it than I do!”
“We wish!” She glanced toward the cameras as if including the audience in her ‘we.' “Christian, one more question before we let you go: any details you can give us about this mystery woman who has captured your interest?”
I mimed zipping my lips and throwing away the key, laughing at the noises of protest from many of the female audience members. “A gentleman never kisses and tells,” I said, holding up my hands. “Anyway, I believe in true love and all of that. I'd hate to think that I jinxed things by getting too far ahead of myself.”
“Aw, that's sweet,” Kelly said. She looked back out at the audience and began to introduce the next segment of the show; I gave a little sigh of relief, keeping the smile plastered on my face, and tuning her out.
Despite all the talk about this woman who I was supposedly seeing, I didn't even have to try to take her home that night, really. She would entertain me for the night, or a bit of it, for sure. The way she subtly eye-fucked me before the interview gave me full assurance. I was fucking her within an inch of her life later.
I walked off stage with various members of her crew patting me on the back and shouting words of encouragement. I needed a shower, and then I was headed to find her again.
Funny enough, I ran into her as I was finally coming out of my long shower. I'd done my best to scrub off the excessive makeup they'd covered me with prior to the interview, highlights and eyeliner and all sorts of silly things that combined to make me look better under the harsh lighting of the studio. Finally, I felt human again. Like a man.
“Oh! I didn't realize you were still here,” Kelly said as her eyes went a little wide. The soft smile playing at the side of her lips let me know that even though she might be a little surprised, she was happy about it.
I smiled at her, running a hand back through my still-damp hair. “Yeah, I chatted with a couple of the other guests for a bit and then got someone to let me into your dressing room so I could take a shower. I hope that's okay.”
I watched her expression carefully and, yeah, she was probably already wet in her panties. I could only hope her panties matched that flash of a bra that I'd seen. I could only imagine the way the black lace would look across her tight, sexy skin. My cock twitched in my pants at the thought of gripping it and running in along her soft curves.
“It’s perfectly fine.” She licked her lips and eye-fucked me again. “Did you like it?”
I chuckled. “The shower? Yeah. There was this hot guy in there, and he let me run my hands over his wet, muscular body.” I winked. “Wait. That was me…”
She laughed. “You’re so full of it. I swear the world waits in wonder for your next stunt or to see who you really are under that handsome mask.”
“I’m just me.” I lifted my hands to the side and gave her the cutest little boy look I could. “And me wants to know if you'd let me buy you a drink. It’s a ‘thanks’ for not totally destroying my reputation like so many entertainment anchors seem to want to do lately,” I told her, cocking my head to the side and smiling down at her.
There was a moment of indecision on her face, but then, she smiled. “Sure thing,” she said. “Can you give me ten minutes to get changed out of my suit, though?”
I spread my arms generously, nearly snorting as I saw her eyes dart down toward my abs. “Take as much time as you need,” I told her. “I've got some work emails that I need to answer, so I'll just lurk around the break room doing that.”
“Great,” she said and disappeared for a bit.
My mind became a playground of possibilities. I loved women. Especially when they were naked and moaning. Chill bumps pinpricked my skin as lusty images rolled through my mind, one after the next. I was heated and panting a little by the time Kelly showed back up.
“You ready?” she asked, looking like heaven.
“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.” I stood and lifted my hand. “Lead the way, beautiful.”
“Oh no, don’t you start that.” She laughed as she turned and walked in front of me. I let my eyes run down the long line of her back to the thick curve of her ass. Wonder if she likes anal?
“Start what?” I asked innocently.”
“You know what.” She laughed and moved through a large crowd of people.
From there, it was easy enough to lead her out to the street with a hand at her lower back. “You know,” I said slyly. “My place isn't that far from here, and rather than going out to a bar, I've got a really good wine that you might like. I picked it up the last time I was in Italy.”
Kelly moved onto the street and glanced over at me as she bit her lower lip, no doubt thinking about that imaginary girlfriend. Sure enough. “I thought you were interested in someone?” she asked.
“We're still pretty casual,” I said. “She's not going to protest if I have you over for a glass of wine. I think people are putting a little too much weight on the relationship anyway. She’s not wearing a ring, and I’m not buying one. And here’s this… what with you interviewing me and all, we're basically coworkers, right? It’s like a coworker happy hour. At my place.” I lifted an eyebrow, hoping like hell my antics would work.
Kelly laughed. “Maybe just for the day we are,” she agreed. “All right. I'd love to. Anyway, I can only imagine what kind of pad the world's hottest young real estate bachelor lives in.”
I shook my head, still smiling. “I hardly think I count as the world's hottest young anything,” I told her. “Maybe the city's hottest young real estate bachelor.” I winked at her, and could practically see the way she melted.
Of course, she didn't see much of the penthouse apartment that I lived in. I cornered her as she was taking off her shoes, crowding her up against the door as much as I thought she'd let me. “You’re a very attractive woman; do you realize that?” I told her.
“Oh no,” Kelly said, laughing and shaking her head, but making no move to leave, even though she must know what was about to happen. “I'm not going to be just another of your flings, Christian Wall. You can forget all about that.”
I sighed. “That's a pity,” I told her. “I'm pretty sure you're the world's hottest young journalist. We would have made quite the pair.”
Kelly bit her lower lip. “Do you think so?” she asked breathily.
Playing on a woman's weakness to want affection was all too easy. And it was a pretty easy guess that anyone who had chosen the entertainment field definitely had an underlying need to be wanted, namely by the masses. For some reason, it seemed like the hotter a girl was, the more worried she was that she was a no one.
“Fuck yes,” I whispered seductively. “I’ve been hard since I got to the studio.” My eyes moved down her body. “I’ve imagined making love to you twenty times since the interview started.”
Suddenly, Kelly surged up and kissed me, as I might have predicted that she would.
I slowed the nervous motion of her lips, stroking a hand down her back to calm her down. Even though I wanted to make this quick and dirty, to make her scream my name. I could tell I would have to go a bit slowly with her. She clearly didn't have that many one-night stands, and she had to know that this was a one-night stand; she was in entertainment, and she had done her research before interviewing me.
I lengthened the kiss, allowing it to deepen into something slow and lewd, our tongues twining around one another's. I slid my hands up under her shirt, stroking them tantalizingly across her skin before lifting the garment up over her head, revealing that lacy black bra that she'd unknowingly been teasing me with. It was thin, flimsy, and I could see her nipples were already pert little nubs beneath the fabric. I bent down and raked my teeth over those two points of pleasure while my hands worked at her jeans.
Then, once I'd stripped her down to nothing more than lace, I led her into the bedroom. She looked gorgeous sprawled out across my sheets like that. I kept a burning gaze on her as I stripped off my clothes, and then I crawled across the bed toward her, nudging her knees apart so that I could crawl between them.
I licked and sucked my way up those luscious legs of hers and then pulled her panties down away from her pink pussy, bending in to kiss that as well. Even with something that simple, she was arching against the sheets, and I knew this was going to be over fast.
It was a pity. I always hoped to find a sexy girl with a bit more stamina. But then again, if her stamina was that good, it probably meant that she slept around a lot, and I wasn't exactly looking to sleep with a slut.
Sure enough, though, it wasn't long before Kelly was gasping out my name and coming, her pussy pressing hard around me and her hands clawing desperately at the sheets. I kept going, managing to bring her to come again and again.
“Stop,” Kelly whimpered, pushing back against my shoulders. “It's–It's too much, Christian.”
I rolled my eyes and pulled out, jacking myself hard for a few moments before coming across her tits. That was never my preferred way to finish, but that seemed to be the way it always happened with women at this point. They just couldn't handle me.
I slipped out of bed and began collecting her things for her, ignoring the disappointed look she gave me. What, had she thought I was going to let her stay over in my bed? The thought was almost laughable. I escorted her back downstairs and got her into a cab. That was the most I had to offer.