Chapter Four
Julian
Melody blinks the longest, slowest blink in the history of humankind. She looks from me, to the half-empty bottle, and back to me.
“How much of this did you drink?” she says.
“I’m not drunk,” I say. “I’m serious. This would be a business arrangement between us. Strictly business. You be my fiance for a month or two, however long I need you, and you can name your price.”
She purses her wonderfully full lips and I shift a bit in my seat, my cock swelling as I imagine just what she could do with a mouth like that.
Every bit of this good-girl, small-town veterinarian is made to bring out the animal in me. Full breasts that call out to be kissed, hips made for holding and an ass that even her conservative veterinarian’s scrubs can’t hide. In the right clothes, she’d be a fucking knockout, and, as it is, she’s more than hot enough to get my cock’s attention.
Jesus, man, you’ve already lost a pint or two tonight, if you don’t get yourself under control, the rest of your blood rushing to your cock is going to make you pass out.
“No,” she says after a bit of thought.
I don’t like hearing those words come from her sexy mouth. I don’t want to hear her say them to me ever again.
“I’ll put it to you like this: you just listen to my offer, and as a thank you for stitching me up, I’ll pay up your rent and you can go back to being a veterinarian, free and clear. Though I hate to break it to you, you’ll end up closing sooner or later. Probably sooner,” I say. “You listen, and you decide to accept, you can walk away enough money to keep you set for a long time.”
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head a bit, sending her raven hair swirling over her shoulder. What I wouldn’t give to see that dark hair of hers mussed up from a night of fucking. “Fine. Whatever. It’s not like I’ve got anything to lose.”
There she goes, pursing her lips again. And there my cock goes, swelling up again.
Fucking focus, man.
“I’ve got a bit of a reputation—” I start.
“— really? That’s funny, cause I’ve never heard of you,” she says drolly.
I smile at her. I can’t help it, I like ‘em with a bit of fight to ‘em. “To be fair, I’ve kept out of the news for a little while. I was up in Alaska on this natural gas and mining project in the middle of fucking nowhere… Regardless, if you’d been up on the same kind of news as your friend Alice, you’d have heard of me.”
It’s cute, the way she glances upward, her semi-buzzed brain looking for clues. Her gaze being elsewhere gives me even more of an opportunity to check out her tits. They’re incredible. Full, perky, made for me to grab hold of while I fuck her from behind.
“Maybe I’ve heard your name before… Once… maybe…” she says, after another drink of rum. Then she shrugs in this sheepish, semi-embarrassed way that is so disarmingly attractive. “Honestly, I mostly read veterinary journals.”
Even though she’s looking cute as hell right now, I’m not going to sugar-coat my proposal to her. I’m going to give her the truth, the same way I’d talk to a business partner. I know she’s fought hard to get where she is, she’s smart, and I respect that.
Hell, between the two of us, I might be the only one who respects her right now.
“My great grandfather, Mason Augustus Stone, started my family’s business, Stone Capital, a long fucking time ago. He was every bit the kind of person who goes by their full name all the time. He was an asshole,” I say. “Long story short, through a combination of real estate holdings, high-end development projects all over the world, and some shrewd venture capital investments, Stone Capital is worth around eighteen billion dollars.”
Her jaw drops so far I’m surprised I don’t hear it thunk into the floor.
God, I love when they do that.
And the sight of her mouth, with those full lips parted in this awed ‘o’ is sexy as hell.
“Billion?” she says, slowly, like she’s trying to grasp that number as a real thing instead of some abstract concept.
I nod. “Billion. With a ‘b’.”
“So why do you need me?” she says, taking a drink and leaving just a couple generous gulps of rum in the bottle. “I’m sure you could find any number of women willing to be your fake fiance.”
“I want you because you’re not my regular type, because you’ve never heard of me, which means it’ll be a lot easier for us to go our own ways when this is over. It also doesn’t hurt that you’re easy on the eyes. Plus, I need a fiance right now. Stone Capital is in flux — my father’s dead, my older brother’s in jail — and, to convince the board that I’m the one to lead them forward, I told them that I’d mostly changed my ways and even gotten engaged to a good girl.”
“And let me guess? You have no real intention of changing your ways, right?”
“I just got stitches in a veterinarian’s office and I feel pretty comfortable with that. What do you think?”
“I think you’ve made some poor life choices,” she says, dryly. But there’s a smile on her face and I can tell whatever resistance she had is dissolving. “But who am I to judge. My only other patient today was a gassy Great Dane. Think about that. That’s your fiance, right there.”
“Fair enough. So, what is it going to cost me to have you as my fiance?”
“It’s fair to say your pretty fucking rich, right?” She bites her lip again. If only she knew the way she’s able to twist me up with a glance, she’d be able to take me for anything she wanted. And I’d happily let her lips do all the taking she wants.
“Yes.”
“Ok,” she says. “You pay my rent for a year and I want fifty thousand dollars.”
It’s so low an ask, she might as well be doing this for free.
She is way undervaluing herself and I hate just the thought of it. If she weren’t doing me such a favor — and if I didn’t respect her hard work and how much she obviously cares about what she does — I’d take advantage of it and call it a win.
But this is not the way I want to take advantage of her. I want that to come later, in bed, with my name on her lips and her eyes rolling back in her head.
“No,” I say.
She gets that perplexed look on her face that only semi-drunk people can manage. “No? I thought you wanted my help?”
“I do, but my fiance isn’t going to sell herself short. You need to realize, when I say you’re going to be my fiance, I mean you’re going to act the part in public. I will touch you, I will kiss you, I will put my hand on that incredible ass of yours and give it the kind of squeezing it demands. Do you understand?” I say, pausing for a moment.
She nods.
“So, here’s my counter offer,” I start. “I’ll buy this whole damn building and give it to you — not just your office, but all the adjoining shops — so you can collect rent and I’ll give you two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
She gapes at me. That look is worth the quarter million on it’s own. Then, swishing the rum around in the bottle, her face hardens.
“Make it a half million.”
I have to fight back a smile. She’s starting to get it. This is going to be fun.
I have myself a partner.
“Done.” No hesitation. She’s going to be worth every penny.
She takes a swig. “Then, Mr. Stone, you just bought yourself a fiance.”