Rapine 2: Ravished by the Billionaire (The Trophy Wife) (20 page)

I occasionally
forget that I am a trophy wife like all other beautiful women are to their wealthy and powerful husbands. Very wealthy men do not have it any other way; they don’t settle for average, they settle for trophies. Being married to an extremely beautiful woman is a status symbol for a man.

Timot
hy excuses himself for a moment and Julian talks to Emily for a while about Timothy’s big wins at the poker table. Then he turns his attention to me. “I love you,” he whispers into my ear.

Timothy comes back and sits back beside Julian.
I listen as the men discuss more business.
They never stop talking business do they!

Emily abruptly gets up and pulls me up with her. “Come on, let’s dance,” she says loudly. There is a good
electro beat playing and we begin dancing together, holding up our cocktails, moving our hips, holding hands, smiling, while our men ogle us.

“I can’t remember the last time I danced with my girlfriends a
t a venue,” she says loudly, smiles and takes a big swig of her cocktail.

I remember the last time I was dancing with girls at a nightclub was in Las Vegas with Derek.
I push aside the thought quickly. I take a big swig of my cocktail and smile back at Emily.

I notice the men c
onversing with each other while glancing at us every once in a while, but the music is too loud to hear what they are talking about.

T
imothy orders us more cocktails and we continue dancing with each other, downing our cocktails. The music changes to a sexy tribal rhythm and we let loose, shaking our hips and moving to the rhythm.

“Come on, let’s have some shots,” Emily suggests
, clearly getting in the partying mood.

Timothy orders us each a tequila shot. Emily and I
lick salt off our hand, link arms, down the shot, and suck on a lime. We giggle after the shot burns down our throat. “I can’t remember the last time I had tequila,” Emily says loudly.

We dance some more, shaking our hips, holding hands, and feeling more drunk with each passing minute.
Julian approaches us. “We’re heading to another venue,” he whispers into my ear.

Emily and I
grab our purses from the couch, hold hands and follow our men out of the lounge to our next venue. “I’m so happy I came out with you,” Emily whispers into my ear, alcohol reeking from her mouth.

The venue we arrive at is louder, darker and
even more intimate than the previous. It has curvy architecture with glamorous décor and purple and blue lighting.

We are ushered to a reserved booth. There is a bottle of Grey Goose
vodka and a bottle of Moët champagne in an ice bucket.

The music is pumping loudly and Emily
grabs my hands and we begin dancing together again. I look to see Timothy and Julian clicking glasses filled with vodka and taking a swig. Then, they each light up a cigar.

I lose myself to the music
and dance uninhibited with Emily, feeling slightly woozy but super energized from the previous tequila shot. I look over to the men ever so often to see them chatting, drinking their vodka, and puffing their cigars.

I notice a few young men from the
crowd checking Emily and me out. The crowd is mixed with people in their early twenties and those in their late thirties. I even see a few men in their early forties.

My feet begin to ache. “Let’s sit down for a bit,” I tell Emily.

“Okay, but you have to promise you will dance with me some more.”

We sit beside our men. They offer us
flutes filled with Moët champagne. Emily goes back to dangling off her husband and I hang onto Julian’s arm.

“I’m having so much fun,” I whisper into Julian’s ear.

He turns his attention to me, wraps his arm around me, and puts his mouth to my ear. “You’ll have a lot more fun when we go back to our suite. I plan on ravishing you.”

I feel my stomach clench
and desire sprout forth. Julian goes back to talking with his friend and I decide to make him want me just as much as I want him at this moment.

“
Fuck me until I can’t walk,” I whisper into his ear.

That
seems to grab his attention and he turns his attention toward me, piercing me with a hot, dark gaze. He grins mischievously. “I’ll take you back to our suite and fuck you so hard you will forget your own name,” he whispers into my ear. My inside clenches hard.

I notice Timo
thy and Emily observing us and whispering to each other. They appear to be talking about us. I smile at Emily and she flashes pearl white teeth at me. She is probably the prettiest blonde I’ve ever seen. I know I won’t see her tomorrow since we are leaving Monte-Carlo so I decide I want to stay a little longer even though I am longing to be ravished by Julian.

“I
still want to stay for a while,” I whisper into Julian’s ear.

He nods and turns his attention back to his friend.
Timothy pours more vodka into Julian’s glass, they click glasses and both take a big gulp. I notice Timothy is more lively now as he speaks to Julian energetically. They are still talking money as they drink and puff their cigars.

I t
ake a few sips of my champagne and put it aside. I stand up, grab Emily, and we begin dancing again.

“You
’ve really changed Julian,” she says into my ear.

“Really? How?” I ask loudly, my volume control going out
of order because of the alcohol and the music.

“He is so pussy whipped
, girl,” she whispers and giggles.

We dance more before she says
anything more. “He has never paid attention to any girl he’s had hanging around him as he has with you.”

“I’m his wife,
of course he should pay attention,” I say, shocked.

“The girlfriends that he had
in the past, he treated them like disposable objects, you know,” she says in a grave tone.

I gaze at Emily as I consider this. Julian has told me he has a few girlfriends before in addition to
having sex with courtesans and prostitutes. His past disturbs me but I push it aside, recalling the words he once told me:
Let’s leave your past and my past behind us and move forward
.

“
Julian is a changed man,” Emily slurs into my ear. She smiles and we continue dancing liberally. My feet begin to ache again so Emily and I sit down beside each other. Timothy hands us our glasses of champagne.

Emily takes a sip. “
You’re very lucky, though,” she slurs into my ear. “So many women were throwing themselves at Julian but he never took any woman seriously.”

“You want to know how we met?” I s
lur, the alcohol slacking my thoughts and my mouth. Emily and I are now slurring all our words.

She gazes at me
curiously and nods her head eagerly.

“
I was with Derek at the time. I never met Derek’s friend Julian. I went out to a nightclub with my girlfriends. Derek sent Julian to the nightclub to test out my loyalty to him.”

“OMG,” Emily shrieks. “Go on.”

“When Julian saw me at the nightclub, he decided he wanted me for himself, and so from that day forward he pursued me and well…” I compose my thoughts, trying not to give away too much of the really gruesome details. “Well, then I fell for him.”

“And Derek?” Emily
slurs, wide-eyed. “He’s going to come after you.”

“I know,”
I slur. “And I think he is planning on killing Julian.”
I can’t believe I just told her that.

CHAPTER TWENTY

In the morning, I awake, feeling extremely dizzy, weak, and fatigued.
Julian is not in bed with me. I sit up and see a bottle of water and Advil on the bed stand. I gulp down half the bottle of water along with an Advil. I feel my head throbbing and lay back down, waiting for the Advil to take effect.

Once I feel a little better,
I get out of bed and go searching for Julian in the massive suite and find him tapping away on his laptop in the suite’s office.

“Cheryl,” he says as he looks up at me from his laptop. “You’re finally up.”

“What happened last night? I don’t remember the rest of the night after we went to the third venue,” I murmur.

Julian grins and then frowns. “You and Emily got really drunk by the end of the night and I had to take you home and put you to bed.”

“We didn’t have sex?” I say, shocked that I got so drunk last night and that Julian didn’t fuck me.

“No, I like a little resistance you know.”

“Actually, you like a lot of resistance,” I correct him and smirk.

Julian turns his attention back to his laptop. “Why don’t you get dressed and we can head out.”

I take a long shower. I drink more water and take my time as I get dressed, allowing myself to slowly recover from last night. I know some food in my stomach will make me feel much better.

Once I am ready, Julian and I head out together. “You and Emily were really dancing wild last night.” He smirks.

“I had so much fun last night. Emily is a great girl.”

“That she is,” Julian
responds. “But you are the best.”

We sit outside in the hotel’s
beautiful courtyard and have coffee while Julian explains the rest of our upcoming travel itinerary. The waiter comes by to take our orders but Julian doesn’t order.

“Why aren’t we ordering?” I ask, my stomach grumbling.

“I know you like Emily so I invited her to join us for lunch.”

A few minutes later
, Emily and Timothy join us at our table. We all order lunch. I notice Emily’s eyes are red and bloodshot, but she still looks very pretty.

“OMG.
I woke up with a killer headache today,” Emily tells me as Julian and Timothy begin chatting about business and money yet again.

“I don’t remember a thing after I told you about how I met Julian.”
I search her facial expression to see if she still remembers what I told her.

The look she gives me tells me she still remembers.
Her eyes indicate concern.

The waiter brings our lunch and we begin eating and continuing to chat about less serious things.
I compliment the clutch that Emily is toting.

“It’s
Lana Marks. She creates one exclusive clutch annually. I have this year’s edition which has white diamonds set in 18-carat white gold.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“I know you’re leaving Monte-Carlo today, but please keep in touch with me.” Emily smiles sweetly. “And you’re always welcome to invite me over once things settle down after your honeymoon.”

“You want to come to Switzerland?”

“Yes sure, why not? How else is a girl to keep in contact with her friends? Timothy lets me hop onto our private plane on my own and fly over to visit any one of my friends whenever the urge strikes me. I have many friends spread about all over Europe and I have family in America.”

We finish off breakfast.
Timothy tells us they need to go and so we say our goodbyes.

“We definitely need to get together and drink more tequila,” Emily says and she hugs me before she leaves.
“And please invite me over when you settle into your home.”

“That’s sounds great.”

Emily smiles. “Just know I am only a plane ride away.”

Julian and I are headed to our next destination. It feels like it’s been a very long honeymoon and I start to feel the need to finally settle down in our home and start my new married life with Julian.

“I think I’m ready to finally settle down,” I tell Julian on our helicopter flight to Austria.

He examines me carefully. “If you’re ready then I’ll plan out the rest of our travel itinerary which will be another month and after we can go home to Switzerland.”

I nod my head in agreement. I’ve completely left my past behind me
at this point and I am ready to start a fresh, new life with Julian in Switzerland.

“Just know
that I do travel for work every month, so you can accompany me if you so wish, or you can stay home, the choice will be yours.”

“How often do you need to travel?”

“I travel at least once a month and usually for a few days or sometimes a week. I hope this is okay with you.”

I nod my head and know that I will gladly go with Julian because I’ve enjoyed traveling with him so much during our honeymoon.
“I’d love to always accompany you.”

Once we arrive in Vienna,
Austria, Julian has our limo driver stop by a bank. Julian tells me he needs to make some transactions. I sit in the limo waiting for him.

I haven’t really thought about the money in my account provided by Julian until now. I dig into
my purse, pull out my iPhone and tap open my banking app.

I log in and
look at my checking balance:

USD $12,000,000

Julian has bought my attention. However, the main reason I love him is because of his personality and his manliness. I fell in love with him when I started to get to know him, understand him, and be romanced by him.

I consider what the
money in my bank account from Julian really means to me. It’s not a lot of money in terms of Julian’s net worth of $89 billion and I’ve seen him drop $20 million at a poker table as if it were no big deal.

I realize that
the money is what helped me to take a chance and get to know Julian. I have to be thankful to that companionship contract we signed in the beginning for giving my mind and heart a chance to get to know Julian when I was so blindly loyal to Derek. That money in my account represents a chance—a chance to get to know a man that is the right match for me at a time when my heart was already committed to someone that was not for me.

Julian comes out of the bank
and hops back into the limo beside me. I push my iPhone back into my purse. I grab ahold of his arm and kiss the side of his face. “I love you,” I whisper.

Julian turns to me with a gleam in his eyes. “Check your
bank account at this time.”

I gaze at him for a moment
and he stares back at me. “Go ahead, check your balance,” he encourages.

I pull out my i
Phone from my purse and login through my banking app. I look at the balance and my mouth pops open. There is an additional EURO €100,000,000 in my checking account that looks like it was just deposited into my account a few seconds ago.

I stare at the balance for a wh
ile, shocked and unable to move. Then, I whip my head to Julian and he is gazing at me with an amused grin on his face.

“The
$20 million that I put into the game of poker in Monte-Carlo, well I had a few very lucky hands,” Julian explains. “Just a few minutes ago I was at the bank to transfer the money into your account.”

My breath catches in my throat
and my heart is pumping as I still process how much money is now sitting in my account.

Julian is waiting for some kind of response from me and his grin transforms into
an inquisitive frown.

“Thank you,” I finally say.

“Just a small token of my appreciation for you,” Julian says and he wraps his arm around me.

I push th
e iPhone back into my purse, still feeling surprised and overwhelmed. Julian easily lavishes me with gifts and money because he has so much to offer and it’s just one of the ways he wants to show me he cares for me. I forget about it after a while as we pass by the breathtaking scenery, driving through Austria.

As we head toward yet another one of
Julian’s residences, I notice Vienna is a European city similar to other famous European cities but even more beautiful-looking than any other city I’ve seen so far. It embraces all the traditions of a European city, from Roman foundations through to Gothic, Baroque and Historicism. It’s a city amidst mountains, lush grassland, and forests that cover about half of the city and there are beautiful stretches of sparkling lakes and rivers. It’s a place of awe-inspiring natural scenery that I could easily call paradise.

Julian informs me he owns a hotel in Vienna, but he has decided that we will stay in one of his residential properties.

We arrive at one of the most picturesque luxury properties that I’ve ever seen. It’s a palatial and imperialistic estate, nestled right by the edge of a lake with large mountains surrounding the estate.

We get out of the limo and walk toward the entrance.
The driver follows behind us with our luggage. Julian performs a fingerprint and eye scan to get into the home.

We
enter through the extremely elegant and spacious grand entrance hall where a maid greets us, takes our luggage in and unpacks it for us.

In the entrance hall there are
two huge cast-iron curved staircases leading upstairs and a large chandelier. Throughout the entire home are white quartz floors and white furniture.

Julian first shows me the ground floor where t
here is a living room, a den, a library, a dining room, and a kitchen. There is an open fireplace in the living room, which is open on both sides and can also be viewed from the library. Each room has an unobstructed panoramic view of Vienna. There is an elevator leading up to the next floor.

On the next floor there are bedrooms with en suite bathrooms and walk-in closets, p
lus a master bedroom, and an office. All the bedrooms on this level offer direct access to a terrace with a gorgeous view over the city.

The next floor up has additional bedrooms with walk-in closets
as well as en suite bathrooms. Julian explains that altogether the home has sixteen bedrooms, three fireplaces, and twenty bathrooms, a twenty-car garage, as well as an indoor and outdoor pool. He explains that the entire home has state-of-the-art security like all his other properties.

Julian also shows me the basement which has
a guest unit, a huge home movie theatre, a massage room, a wine cellar, a wellness area with a large indoor pool, a sauna, and a steam room.

There is a perfectly maintained park-like garden, with a spacious outdoor p
ool and an adjacent sun terrace which is situated right by the lake and the mountainous views.

My
curiosity takes over at the end of the tour and I have to ask. “How much is this home?”

“$85 million,” Julian says casually as if talking about
dimes and nickels. “I want your unfiltered opinion, Cheryl.”

“The home is beautiful,” I gasp.

“Well, I custom-designed it like I do nearly everything I own or purchase,” Julian says proudly. “When I’m not in Switzerland or traveling for business, then I am usually here or in my London estate.”

Wow
, Julian has so many homes and leads such a busy, worldly, fabulous life, and now I am a part of it. I’ve heard that many expensive mansions stand empty and I could never understand why but now I do. Derek led a more simple life regardless of his net worth so this is all very new to me.

The
rest of the day, Julian gives me a tour of Vienna, visiting the city’s most significant historical sights. We see the State Opera House, Parliament, City Hall, the palace of Empress Elizabeth and a few art museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts.

I’ve seen so many beautiful oil
on canvas paintings during the course of our honeymoon that I am getting so inspired to finally resume painting again.

We have dinner in a
traditional Viennese restaurant. After dinner, we head home where we relax in the living room by the open fireplace. Julian pours us each a flute of Dom Pérignon champagne.

Julian heads to the library on
the other side of the fireplace and comes back with a book. He sits beside me and puts the book on my lap.

“We are continually getting to know each other, and
I’d like to share more about myself with you.”

I nod my head eagerly.

“Of course it can take many years, even a lifetime, to truly get to know someone, to understand what makes them tick and their psychology but there are tools of self-discovery that can help with the process.”

I look at the
book in my lap entitled,
Numerology
.

“I find numerology to be one of the most accurate tools for explaining a person’s personality, even more so than as
trology. Open the book and turn to page eight,” Julian commands.