Billionaire BWWM Romance 1: The Billionaire's Arranged Marriage (6 page)

“Mother is going to be furious if she finds out,” Jillian said, her eyes falling to her hands that were folded in her lap.

“Well, just don’t tell her that part. I’m proud of you anyway. I’m glad you think enough of yourself to stop a man when he goes too far.” Samson smiled at her. “You’re a strong woman. It’s one of your best traits. You know you get that from your mother,” he said with a wink and a smile.

Jillian rolled her eyes and sighed, letting out the last of her grief from the evening. She had cried herself tired. “Well, I’m going to sneak off to bed so I don’t have to talk to her about it until tomorrow. Maybe I’ll dream up a good story tonight that I can tell her later. She just doesn’t understand me! You’re the only one who really gets me, Daddy. You’re the only one who is even a little bit like me.” She reached over and set her hand beside his, looking at the comparison between the two of them. Matching skin. Matching people. Her team.

“Baby girl, I am leaving early in the morning.” Her dad looked at her with sorrowful eyes.

She sat up and looked at him in surprise. “Leaving? Where are you going?”

“Your uncles in Japan need me there to help them with the business for a little while, so I’m going to go give them a hand,” he admitted to her.

She shook her head in denial. “No! Daddy don’t leave me here! Take me with you!”

“I’m sorry, my girl, but this is a long trip and you need to stay here at home.” He patted her back. “I’ll call you and check in on you. I promise,” he said with a half smile.

Jillian was back to being miserable. “How long will you be gone?” she asked in a whisper.

“A month,” he answered quietly.

She lowered her head sadly and laid it against his shoulder. “I’m going to miss you so much, Daddy.” Her voice wavered.

“I’m going to miss you, too, baby girl.”

Chapter4

Reed walked into the dining room the morning after his disaster date and his father didn’t even bother to greet him with a ‘good morning’.

“How did it go last night?” Carter asked immediately.

Reed sagged down into his seat and picked up his coffee cup. “It was terrible.”

Carter’s gaze hardened. “What do you mean it was terrible? What happened?”

“She’s a snob and a goody-two shoes. It was a rotten night.” Reed stabbed at his breakfast with his fork.

Carter leaned toward his son and glared at him. “Please tell me you didn’t try to make a move on that girl. She’s a conservative girl from a traditional Japanese family and she isn’t like one of your little play things. She’s a lady. What did you do to her?” Carter demanded.

Reed grew defensive. “Nothing! Carter, nothing happened. I just don’t like her.”

Carter drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, son, that’s too bad.”

“Why is that?” Reed asked as suspicion built in his mind.

“Because you’re going to ask her to marry you.”

Reed almost jumped out of his chair. “
What?!
” he shouted.

Carter looked at him with an unwavering gaze. “You are going to ask that girl to marry you, immediately. If you don’t ask her to marry you, I’m going to give the company to your younger brother and you are going to be disinherited. You will lose your car. You will be kicked out of this house permanently. You will have no money whatsoever to go and make a new life. You will be barred from ever returning, and you will not have any place in my life again.”

Reed was too stunned to speak.

Carter continued. “You have driven me too far, Reed. You are an embarrassment to this family and to the company that I have worked so hard all of my life to build. You go through women and money like they are running water. You have done nothing to improve your life or yourself, and you have no future ahead of you.

“I refuse to continue to contribute to your lifestyle or the impending demise of my home, this family’s reputation or my company because you have chosen to be a careless playboy. This is your one and only chance, and you know I am dead serious about this. You marry that girl and make a solid responsible life for yourself or you are out of here. I want an engagement ring on her hand within the week.”

Reed stared at his father. He knew Carter was deadly serious. He also remembered quite vividly, the sting of the slap she had planted on his cheek the night before and her insistence that she never wanted to see him again.

“I’m not so sure that Jillian likes me very much. What if I got engaged to another girl?” Reed offered weakly, trying to compromise with his father.

Carter held his gaze on his son. “You will marry Jillian. It’s your problem and your fault if she doesn’t like you. You figure it out. You have one week. Get a ring on her hand.”

Reed sat back in his chair and felt chaos and disbelief flooding through him. He was going to lose his whole life. He was going to lose his home and his family. He was going to lose everything, because he had been too hot handed the night before and let his hormones get the better of him like they always did. There was no way she was going to even agree to see him, let alone allow him to try to talk her into marrying him.

The idea of marriage terrified him. It was a lifelong commitment to one woman. He could not see the appeal of it at all, except for the fact that everything he had, everything that meant anything to him would be gone forever if he didn’t get engaged to a woman who hated him, and he had less than a week to do it. Hercules never faced a tougher task than the one that was looming over Reed.

He stood up and left his breakfast on the table, shoving his hands down into the depths of his pockets. He looked at his father and let out a deep sigh. “No problem, Carter,” he said shortly, and turned and walked out of the dining room.

Reed headed to his brother’s office which was near his father’s. He was grateful to see the young man sitting at his desk when he walked in and closed the door.

“Hey, Anderson,” he said quietly and lowered himself into a chair in front of his brother’s desk.

His brother turned to look at him. “Hi, Reed.” He looked at him carefully and leaned back in his chair. “Dad must have talked to you.”

“Yeah, he did,” Reed said with a sigh. “Listen… Andy, if by some chance you wind up getting… everything…. Would you cut me out of it all? Would you leave me hanging out in the wind like Carter was saying? Or would you look after your big brother and maybe give me a job or something?”

Anderson shook his head. “A job? You mean a handout. Listen, Reed, you’re my brother and I love you plenty, but you’ve done a lot of damage here and at the company, and I’ve had to clean up a lot of the messes you’ve left. You think dad goes in and takes care of it all? No way, Reed. He always dumps it in my lap and I get to deal with it.

“I’m on a first name basis with most of the elite businesses around town because I’m constantly on the phone with them sending them checks to pay for the havoc you wreak.”

Reed sank down in the chair.

“Besides, the old man had the lawyers draw it up so that no one in the family or the business can lend you a hand, or a handout. You’re on your own for real if you don’t tie the knot with that girl. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, though, Reed. After all, you’re the ladies’ man. Didn’t she fall in love with you the minute she laid eyes on you? How did it go?” Anderson asked, tilting his head and raising his eyebrow.

Reed leaned forward and covered his face with his hands. “She hates me.”

Anderson leaned forward in his chair and stared at his brother in shock. “She hates you? How could she hate you? No women hate you!”

Reed raised his head and rested his chin in his hand. “She is the exception to the rule, of course. Trust me when I tell you, you probably better plan on getting everything. Let’s have dinner before the end of the week. I’m going to miss you, little brother.”

Anderson gaped. “No way…. No way!” He almost laughed just a little, but it turned into a frown. “How…?”

“I’m asking myself the same question, Andy.” He stood up. “Well, I’ll see you soon for dinner, brother. Bye.” Reed walked out of his brother’s office and headed for his car, pulling out his cell phone as he closed the car door behind him.

It rang once and she answered. “Hey, baby!” Excitement  poured through the phone and made him smile a little.

“Hi, Daisy. Listen, are you busy? I’m going to spend the afternoon and probably the night on my father’s yacht in the marina with a very old bottle of booze. Care to come to the boat and join me?” he asked, hoping for some sympathy.

“Um, well I’m supposed to dance at the club tonight, but I’ll see if I can get one of the other girls to take my show.” Daisy sounded uncertain.

“Oh… well, if you’re busy I can find someone else who has the time to…” he started to drawl. He felt like being mean to someone, anyone, just to bleed some of the poison from himself that had been building all morning.

“Oh, no! Baby, don’t do that. I’ll be there. Don’t you worry. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She jumped right into his sentence, reassuring him.

“Okay. See you soon,” he said and hung up.

Two hours later he was lying on the deck of the boat, sunglasses on, bottle of scotch half empty and hanging from his hand when she strolled over to him and sat on the deck chair beside him.

“Hi, baby.” She grinned down at him.

“Hey,” he said, opening his eyes and looking over at her. She was in a skimpy bikini and it was barely covered by a white tie-front shirt. He laid his head back, his eyes feasting on her body. “I’m so glad you’re here. I need you to make me feel better.”

She grinned and leaned over to him, kissing him softly and slowly for a long moment before running her hands over his bare chest.

“What do you want, baby?” she asked with a happy smile.

He pulled her on top of him and wrapped his arms around her. “Everything. I want everything.”

“You got it.” She  pressed her soft pink lips to his, running the tip of her tongue over them and then taking her sweet time to taste his mouth. She felt his erection grow beneath her body and she giggled happily and reached her hand down to rub the stiffness of it over his shorts.

He arched his back and moaned. “Come on, let’s go downstairs. I don’t need anymore bad publicity.” He sat up slowly and they walked down the steps into the center of the yacht. He took her to the master cabin and slowly began to untie her cover shirt, slipping it from her shoulders as he kissed her breasts, one at a time, and then he let the shirt fall to the floor.

She stared at him for a moment and then closed her eyes and let him do whatever he wanted. He tugged at the strings of her bikini and it too fell away from her body easily, and in moments she was standing before him nude. She pulled his shorts off and ran her hands up his arms, resting them on his shoulders.

Reed lifted his hands to her large round breasts and stroked her hard pink nipples. She’d paid a lot of money for her breasts to look the way they did, and she believed it had been worth every dime. He squeezed and massaged them, cupped them and rubbed them.

“What’s all this about, baby?” She opened her eyes and studied his face. He didn’t look at her, he just studied her body as though he was sealing it into his memory forever.

“Shhhh.” He hushed her, and moved his hands down over her belly and her hips, then lifted her and laid her back on the bed. She closed her eyes and smiled. Reed took his time running his hands over her legs and then he took a long swig from the bottle of scotch he’d brought with him and offered some to her. She drank. He put the cap back on the bottle and set it close to them on the bed.

“Why are you always around, Daisy?” he asked, running his fingers over the soft triangle of blonde hair beneath her belly and stroking the core of her. “You’re always there when I need you. Why do you do that?” he asked, looking at her face.

“Do you really want to know?” she asked, knowing that it should never be spoken aloud.

“No,” he said and using both his hands, he pushed her thighs open and lowered his face to her, running his tongue over her and slipping it inside of her. She arched her back and soft sighs escaped her. He was slow and gentle at first, kissing her body with his lips and his tongue, giving her intense pleasure and bringing her to orgasm over and over, but as she came for him each time, he grew more and more hungry for her and after a while he raised himself up and trailed his tongue along her belly to her breasts, and he began to rub his erection against the outside of her.

She closed her hands around the back of his head and moaned as he ran his tongue slowly and deliberately over the width of her nipples, wetting them and rubbing his lips over them, and then flicking them with the tip of his tongue. She wrapped her legs around him in growing need, but he continued to move the length of himself against the outside of her, sliding against her moist body and building the heat between them.

Reed’s hands and fingers occupied her breasts then, and he brought his hot mouth to hers, licking her lips and sucking on her tongue, kissing her deeply and teasing her mercilessly. He closed his eyes and moved his tongue over hers, twisting and turning it, moving his mouth as though she was his to own and control and in his mind, somehow the kiss faded to the night before and the lips he tasted suddenly belonged to Jillian, and the body he hungered for beneath his was no longer Daisy’s, but Jillian’s.

White hot need rushed through him and he could not hold himself back. He angled his erection and plunged it into her, driving it as far as he could and she gasped and cried out in pleasure as he began to move in her, his hands clasping her body, gripping her curves desperately as though he wanted to hold all of her at the same time, and he pushed himself into her depths over and over again, his breath becoming loud moans of pleasure and desire.

Daisy clasped her legs tightly around him, and held her hands on his back as he rocked himself into her as he had never done, and all the while, all Reed could see was Jillian in his mind. The blue dress was gone and she was lying underneath him, wanting him, needing him, crying out in bliss from his lovemaking as he delved his solid erection deeply into her and kissed her until she was breathless. He imagined the big breasts in his hands were hers, that the nipples in his mouth were dark and hard and that her long silky black hair was splayed out beneath them, and he pressed himself as far into her body as he could, heat and raging passion growing in him as he kept his eyes closed and kissed the lips that he imagined were hers, sucking and biting them gently as she orgasmed for him time and again and finally he could no longer hold himself back.