LOVE AND HATE (A Billionaire Romance) (36 page)

“Way to go, Dad. I’m happy for you, truly I am. But it would have be nice to consult us before you guys ran off and got married like teenagers,” Chance said and turned to Claire. They needed to get out of there, and soon.

“Chance,” Bryan said. “It was so impromptu and felt right.”

“Good day, Father,” Chance said. He looked at Claire, who shook her head at both of the older adults and held onto Chance’s arms as they walked away. From lovers to stepsiblings in one week!

CHAPTER 13

“Chance, come back,” Bryan called after his son.

“Claire, I can explain,” her mother called.

“Chance,” Claire whispered as they kept walking. “Maybe we should go back and congratulate them.”

“Do you know what that means for us?” he asked. “That means we are now a family.”

“I know, but it might not be so bad. We might be able to work things out.”

He raked his hand through his hair and paced the floor. “I can’t be any part of this.”

“But Chance, let’s think rationally,” Claire said, but Chance was already gone.

Claire stood alone with the grown-ups; all she could do was walk back to them and congratulate them. She hugged her mother and smiled; she shook Bryan’s hand, and as soon as she could, she dragged herself up the stairs and went to her room. Amy and Mario were nowhere to be found.

When she stepped onto the balcony, Chance wasn’t there. She knew he was stewing somewhere. Granted she didn’t know him that well to reasonably assume what he was doing, but she knew how he felt. She personally felt like the rug had been pulled out from under her, and she was nursing bruised ribs and shattered bones.

***

Chance sat on his bed pondering the situation until a knock on his door interrupted him. He opened the door to let his father into his room, then turned and walked back inside without saying hello to the older man.

“That’s not the usual response you get when you make a wedding announcement,” he said as he closed the door behind him.

“That’s not the usual time frame it takes normal people to get married,” Chance fired back. “Dad, you met her, what, a week ago?”

“And what does that matter? I love her.”

“Just cut the bull, Dad!” Chance shouted. “You knew I was interested in her daughter, and you didn’t say a word. Was I the only one in the dark?”

“It had nothing to do with you, Chance,” Bryan said as he walked to the balcony. “Your relationship shouldn’t have to affect mine.”

“Nothing to do with me? You married her! She is now my stepmother, and the girl I am seeing is now my stepsister! How does that not have anything to do with me? We were here, and we didn’t even get a say in it until after the fact.” Chance flung the cushion across the room out of frustration and kicked the chair from his path. “What do you mean your relationship shouldn’t affect mine?”

“Chance, don’t be so upset,” Bryan said. “I’m sorry it worked out like this, but how do you expect me to give up the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with simply because you are having a fling with the daughter?”

“It’s not a fling, and even if it was, you have made it extraordinarily uncomfortable for that fling to continue, haven’t you? So I hope she makes you happy and that it lasts forever.”

“There is no need for sarcasm, son,” Bryan told him. “But just in case, you do know that whatever was going on with her daughter can’t continue?”

“Yes, I am aware,” Chance smirked. “How many chances do you get to make me miserable? An unlimited supply? As many as your money can buy?”

“I didn’t hear you complaining about the money yesterday on the yacht,” Bryan fired back.

Chance froze in his step and kept his back to his father. “You know, if it wasn’t Mom’s, I’d have sold it.”

“You know that’s not what I meant, Chance.”

But Chance had already opened the front door and left. Bryan called after him, but Chance kept walking. The only place Chance wanted to go was to Claire, so he hurried down to the lobby and turned towards her door. He pounded on the door until she answered.

“Chance, what’s the matter?” she asked when she saw the panicked look on his face.

He didn’t respond. He simply forced himself inside, pulled her to him, and kissed her with so much passion her head spun. When she composed herself, she stepped back. “I don’t think we should be doing this, Chance.”

“Maybe they shouldn’t be doing anything,” he told her and held her to him again. “Claire, for the first time in my life I am with a woman who actually means something to me. There is no way I am going to stop this just because they decided to get married. We were right here, and they didn’t even consider us. Let’s just do what we want to do.”

“I don’t think it works like that, Chance,” Claire said and stepped away from him. “They are married now, and we are a family.”

“That’s just a technicality,” Chance pleaded. “Who knows if they will even last?”

Claire thought about that for a moment. It had been five years since her mother had been with anyone, and she had just had her heart broken by the man she was supposed to marry. “It just seems selfish to take all of this away from her, you know.”

“What? They are the selfish ones. They ran off and got married without our knowledge,” Chance persisted.

“Chance, let’s just forget about this,” she said dejectedly and sat on the bed. She curled her legs under her and hugged the pillow. “It was only meant to last for a short while anyway, and it did. We have to coexist now as a family. My mother would be so disappointed if she knew I was seeing you after this.”

“Claire, they don’t have to know,” he said. He sat next to her on the bed. “I am sure my dad will go to his estate in Los Angeles, and I have my own place. We’ll just hold them off until we figure out what to do.”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “This is just too much for me.”

Chance silenced her with a kiss, and though she tried to be reasonable and logical, there was no denying how she felt about him. At the moment, she completely understood why her mother and his father had married so quickly. She slowly eased into his kiss, and he buried his face in her neck. He nuzzled her skin, and Claire’s head fell back; she enjoyed the way his touch lingered on her skin and warmed her from heel to crown. She gripped a handful of his hair as he found her lips, and even then, she tried to talk her way out of it, but Chance would have none of it.

“Just be here with me in this moment,” he whispered against her skin. His breath tickled her, and she shivered. He held her forearm and eased her back onto the bed.

“No, Chance,” she tried to say between kisses, but all he did was place his forefinger on her lips and kiss her smooth ivory skin.

“Shh,” he followed up.

She gripped his neck and pulled him closer as her breathing intensified, and she could no longer deny her instincts. She straightened and wrapped her legs around him, and he slid his hand underneath her, resting his palm flat at the base of her spine. He writhed on top of her; he could feel her body responding to him, and suddenly that wasn’t enough for her anymore.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked even as she struggled to take his clothes off.

“Absolutely,” he told her and held his hands up to accommodate her effort. He stepped back and yanked the dress off her, leaving nothing between him and the honeyed pleasure he was desperate to taste again.

Claire gripped his hips and with wild eyes pleaded with him to take her. He drove into her like he was sprinting towards the end of a marathon and was anxious he would be overtaken by a competitor. Such was the urgency of their need as she spread her legs to receive him and he sank all the way into her. Claire screamed and dug her nails into his flesh as he ravaged her, but she was open to this kind of abuse and begged him to go harder. And faster. She held his hips and kept him inside her, burying him deep when he plunged, and Chance bellowed like a wild animal as he took her.

Not long after they had begun, he could feel the blood rushing below, and he closed his eyes and squeezed her breasts and filled her with his love. As Claire came, she wrapped her legs around him even tighter and took it all as if she would never taste him again.

When he lay next to her afterwards, his chest heaving, she knew she could never be away from him. He made her come alive when she didn’t even know she had died. She looked over at him and grinned, and he stroked her face with his forefinger. They both smiled at each other. Something about their taboo relationship made having sex with each other so much more spectacular.

***

Claire’s mother paid her a visit the following morning. Willow stood there with her arms folded across her chest and watched Claire walk around the room like she wasn’t there.

“Are you going to talk to me?” she finally asked.

“That depends,” Claire responded. She pulled on her summer dress and caught her hair at her nape with a scrunchie.

“On what?” Willow asked. She tried to go to her, but Claire sidestepped her and went to the balcony instead.

“How do you just run off and get married to a man you only met a week ago?” Claire asked, turning to her mother with disgust. “Did you forget what the last divorce felt like? Did you forget your promise not to get close to any man like that again? Was it his money that caught your eye?”

“You’re pushing it, missy,” Willow admonished her daughter. “I remember what I said, but sometimes things change. I love Bryan.”

“Do you even hear how that sounds? You don’t even know him. This is not the normal order of things. First, you get to know the guy, then you decide to marry him if he is worthy of your love. You don’t even sound like you really love him.”

“Bryan is a great guy, and he treats me like a queen,” she smiled. “When he asked I didn’t think there was any other answer to give. He wanted to at the time, so we went to a chapel nearby and did it.”

“Without stopping to think about how I’d feel,” Claire reminded her softly.

“Are you upset because I got married, or because of Chance?” she asked.

Claire turned to her with a terrified look on her face. “So you do know about Chance.”

“Bryan told me last night how close you guys actually are, and I am sorry, Claire. I did not set out to destroy you. I was encouraging you all along to let your hair down, but I wasn’t aware that you had. If I had known, I would have reconsidered being with Bryan.”

“Which proves you don’t love him at all,” Claire confirmed. “Maybe you can just call this off.”

“You know I’m not going to do that.” Willow looked at Claire, and the words she didn’t say were loud enough for Claire’s heart; as far as Claire was concerned, Willow’s selfish act had made it an awkward situation for her and Chance now.

Claire glared at her mother and walked back to the bed. “So what now, Mom? You move in with your new husband and I pretend I never met Chance? What about when I run into him at a family dinner or something? We were here…in this room…making…” She couldn’t even bring herself to say the words. Her eyes watered and she turned away, but Willow was able to read the words she didn’t say.

“Oh my,” Willow said and covered her mouth. “I didn’t know it had gotten that far.”

“Well, maybe if you had introduced me to Bryan before getting married, we would have cleared up most of this. Instead, I’m left with the bitter end of the stick…again. Your decisions are always so selfish, and I always get caught in the crossfire.”

“Claire, honey, I’m so…”

“Just forget it, Mom,” Claire heaved an exasperated sigh. “Just go.”

“Actually, the reason I came here was to invite everyone to breakfast. We started off on a bad foot, and I would like to make it right.”

“So I’m just supposed to go to breakfast and pretend this is all okay?” Claire asked. “Mom, I gave my virginity to Chance.”

Willow looked at her, and Claire could swear she saw the life go out of her. Willow dragged herself to a nearby chair and sat down. “Claire, I don’t know how to start…”

“Mom, please, just save it. I would have done it even if I had known you married his dad.”

“I don’t know…”

“You’re the older person here and should know. I need to shower. And yes, I’ll be down for a family breakfast,” Claire said sarcastically.

“Claire, we need to talk about this.”

“No, we’re done. You may leave my room now,” Claire said, moving to the door and opening it for her mother, who hesitated for a second before getting up.

“I don’t expect you to act like it’s okay, Claire, but I expect your respect when you see Bryan. Please,” Willow said as she walked to the door. “Breakfast is at nine.”

Claire fumed at her mother. She remembered what she had said to Chance last night about being selfish, but after seeing her mother, she hadn’t been able to stop the words that had escaped her mouth. She paced the floor for a few minutes, wearing out the carpet, trying to decide if she should really go to breakfast with them. She wondered if Chance was going to be there as well. If he was, she didn’t want to leave him all by himself with their parents. She pondered her other options. Maybe she should just go home and pretend none of this happened, but she knew deep down her heart would never allow it.