Romance: The Billionaires Collection (Watched By A Billionaire, Stranded With A Billionaire, Caught By A Billionaire, Billionaire Stepbrother) (39 page)

Yet neither of us mention it. Neither of us do anything
about it. We just bathe in the bliss, shut everything else out, and
pray that when the time comes we'll have the conviction to follow
through.

About a week before the wedding, Stephen throws a party
at the Four Seasons in Manhattan. He hires out the banquet hall, puts
on an amazing spread, and celebrates with hundreds of friends,
family, and business associates.

I feel quite in awe of it all, and wonder why exactly
he's holding such a bash only a week before his wedding.

“
Abby my dear, I want to celebrate this union as much
as I possibly can. This event is merely the warm up. You'll see what
I mean in a week's time.”

The evening is quite lavish, the ballroom bathed in gold
and covered in flowers. Stephen does the rounds, meeting and greeting
everyone and introducing them all to my mother.

I suspect that the main reason for this event is for
that very purpose: to let my mom meet everyone before the big day
itself. Weddings can be stressful and nerve-wracking enough without
having to worry about meeting powerful businessmen and women,
politicians, celebrities, and even the odd head of state.

I can tell my mom is slightly overwhelmed by it all, but
she holds it all together. Meanwhile, Tyler mingles confidently, the
charm of his father shining through, and helps to ease me into
proceedings in the same way that his father is doing with my mother.

The evening is filled with merriment, and gradually
turns into a party, the dance floor slowly filling with plenty of
'dad' dancing and middle aged women trying to recapture their youth.

By this point I've drunk plenty, and when Tyler whisks
me off away from the hall and into an unused and dark meeting room, I
don't question it.

We fuck in the dark, the music of the party faint in the
distance, our bodies, poisoned by alcohol, ignoring the fact that we
might be disturbed or stumbled upon.

“
No one will come here,” Tyler tells me, as though
he's got some inside line and knows the schedule of the room.

I don't question him, or care. I only care about feeling
the thrust of his dick inside me.

He sits on one of the many chairs covering the floor of
the room, and I hitch up my dress, pull down my panties, and straddle
him so hard the chair almost tips over. I twist, letting him see my
ass as I sit on his lap, bobbing up and down like a cork in the ocean
as his cock impales me.

Our moans are hidden by the music of the distant party,
our lust secret and forbidden and hopelessly irresistible as a
result. It's something neither of us can escape or control, a desire
that we want to explore over and over before it's too late.

So we fuck there, in the dark silence, and do so without
a word. When we return to the party, our absence has not been noticed
by the sprawling masses, many of whom are now half cut and making
fools of themselves on the dance floor.

We slide beside each other in a corner of the room, and
laugh and giggle and watch the entire event play out.

Knowing that it's all just the calm before the storm.

Chapter Three

“
This is it,” says Tyler, his chestnut eyes locked
on mine. “The big day.”

I'm dressed in a beautiful light blue gown while he's in
a tuxedo that wouldn't look out of place in Bond movie. His hair is
perfectly slicked back, his face cleanly shaven, his teeth seeming to
shine whiter than ever.

But in his eyes there's a hint of turmoil, something
brewing in the background.

He takes my arm and leads me through the grounds of the
Black Estate, strolling around the front lawns as my mother rushes
upstairs to prepare herself for the ceremony.

Up there, a team of stylists and make up artist will be
waiting to make her look even more beautiful, like a old Hollywood
starlet from the golden era of film, graceful and alluring and
stunningly beautiful.

“
I can't be long. I need to be with my mother.”

“
I understand,” says Tyler, and we continue to walk
in silence.

A weight has dawned between us, one that had been
building inside me for the last few days. Now it's crushing on my
shoulders, and I feel tense and strained and burdened with nerves.

The gardens are already starting to fill, cars arriving
up the main front driveway, wonderfully dressed men and women
stepping out. I recognize many of them from the party the previous
week, gazing around the grounds and up at the mansion with impressed
looks.

Some even stare in wonder, perhaps not so used to this
grandeur, old friends of my mother's and Stephen's from the days
before he got rich. They stand around with startled eyes, too
spellbound to speak.

But my attention is on little else but Tyler, his arm
locked to mine, knowing that we've depleted the last of our lust as
our pact and promise told us to.

We reach the house and Tyler slips his arm from mine and
gives me a tender kiss on the cheek.

“
Go tend to your mother, this is her day more than
anyone's,” he says. “I'll see you at the ceremony.”

And with that he turns and walks toward the mingling
guests, ready to do his duty as his father's son and best man.

My mother granted me the same privilege, asking me to be
her maid of honor as soon as we got back from St Barts a month ago.
I'd said yes immediately, but now am regretting it slightly and
feeling woefully out of my depth.

Over the last two days, my nerves have built to such a
degree that I'd been let off delivering a speech. I don't know if it
was pride or stupidity, but I told my mother I was adamant that I'd
say at least a few words.

My toast will be nothing more than a congratulations,
though. I certainly don't have the same oratory gifts as Stephen or
his son.

I climb the stairs in the main hall of the mansion and
find my mother being attacked on all sides by a series of women,
painting and shaping and configuring her look.

“
Abby, darling, have some champagne.” My mother
calls me without turning her head, and I can hear the nerves in her
voice.

I take a glass and sit in front of her. Her eyes are
filled with apprehension and I can see that her chest is rising a
little more forcefully than normal.

“
How do I look?”

“
Beautiful, mom. Perfect.”

“
Thanks sweetheart.”

We talk as the woman continue to transform her, and I
put all of my efforts into keeping her distracted the entire time.

In truth, the distraction is intended for me as well.
Tyler continues to cling to my mind and refuses to let go, always
ever present and taunting me with his perfection.

So I talk, and make sure to drink at least two glasses
of champagne to shut him up, and soon my mother is standing in front
of the full length mirror, ready to wow the world.

“
Breathtaking.”

“
Stunning.”

“
Gorgeous.”

The stylists and make up artists rattle off their
compliments, but my mother is only really only interested in mine.

“
Perfect,” I say, just as before, and she gives me a
hug.

Then we step out together, down the stairs, through the
back of the mansion, and down the long corridor leading to the rear
gardens.

Beyond, I can make out the sight of chairs set up on the
lawn beyond the courtyard, a magnificent stage and altar erected
where the groom waits, Tyler by his side along with various other
groomsmen.

The place is filled, and busy, and bustling with the
sound of excited chatter. We get closer, and I feel my mom's hand
grip me tight.

“
Wish me luck,” she whispers.

At the end of the corridor stands her father, pride in
his eyes. I haven't seen him in some time, and he looks much older
and more frail than he used to. Still, there's a sparkle inside him
and a smile on his face that helps to draw his age back again and
snatch away a few years.

“
Susan, you look...” He seems to choke up, unable to
finish his words.

“
Thanks dad. So, shall we?”

They join arms and wait as the music begins to fill the
air and everyone stands from their seats. All eyes switch around and
turn to us as I walk forward with the other bridesmaids, my mother
and grandfather bringing up the rear.

I catch eyes with Tyler as I near the front, a stoic
look on his face that soon breaks into a smile as my mother joins his
father at the altar.

The ceremony begins, and the motions are gone through,
and everyone claps as they kiss as man and wife for the first time.

And right then, right at that moment, when everyone's
eyes are on the happy couple, mine and Tyler's are the only one's
that aren't.

We're looking at each other, and our eyes are both sad.
Because the union of our parents means the end of our secret
relationship.

And from that moment on, we can be nothing more than
stepbrother and stepsister.

Chapter Four

Beyond the altar and the stage and the hundreds of
chairs where the ceremony was run, giant tents are set up further
down the lawns toward the wooded areas at the back.

Above, the sky, which had threatened earlier to unload
its contents down onto us, has miraculously cleared and is now
shining a bright shade of blue as the sun continues its slant toward
the horizon.

The day has been humid and warm, and large air
conditioner units are working the inside of the tents, making sure
the guests are all kept suitably cool.

The catering staff, meanwhile, rush between tables,
delivering drinks of various kinds to anyone who requires one. From
my perch on the top table, I watch the entire evening unfold before
me, but my thoughts and my mind are elsewhere.

In the center of the long top table sit my father and
mother, facing everyone like the King and Queen of the banquet. I'm
to my mother's left, and Tyler is to his father's right, and ever
since we caught eyes at the ceremony several hours ago, we've had no
further contact.

Maybe this is how it will be now? Silence and
avoidance.

By the time the speeches come, I've hardly had an
opportunity to grow nervous, preoccupied as my mind is. So, I stand
almost without thinking, deliver my toast on autopilot, and return to
my seat as the applause rings out.

None of it registers.

Then Tyler speaks, and I watch him closely. Yet still,
he never makes eye contact with me, looking intermittently between
his father, my mother, and the crowd in front of us.

Since I've known him, he's always seemed adept at
controlling his emotions. At flipping switches in his head that allow
him to take what's in front of him with the right mindset.

Right now, he's delivering a fantastic speech, and seems
in no way distracted or perturbed by anything that's going on inside
his head. It's a fine quality that I haven't yet developed and
probably never will. Perhaps it's just a guy thing, the ability to
shut off and do what you gotta do.

I can't do that.

My mind is racing with thoughts of him, even more so now
that I'm watching him there, commanding everyone's attention with his
pitch perfect oration. He seems so far from the cocksure, arrogant
boy I met in that hotel room only five weeks ago.

Once the speeches are finished, the event opens its
doors up and people begin to swap tables and mingle and dance. They
spill out into the evening air to sip their drinks on the lawns under
the setting sun, the sky glowing with an ethereal orange and purple
hue.

Stephen departs outside with Tyler and his other
groomsmen, and they light up stogies and toast the groom with the
finest bottle of whiskey money can buy. I watch Tyler as he passes by
in front of the table, still not looking at me, and feel my insides
ache for a need to kiss him, touch him, talk to him at least.

I can't bear being ignored, as if suddenly now that he's
my stepbrother he can treat me so differently. Treat me as if I'm a
burden to him and nothing more, an unwanted addition to his family
that he'd rather wasn't around.

“
What's the matter, Abby?”

My mother's voice breaks me from my thoughts. I turn to
her to see concerned eyes that seem to be able to look right through
me.

“
Nothing, mom.”

“
Are you sure, honey. You've been quiet all evening.
I'm your mother. I can always tell when there's something wrong.”

I change the expression on my face and lift a smile out
of my solemnity.

“
Really, mom, it's OK. I just feel a little dizzy,
that's all. You know how nervous I get talking in front of people.
That toast took it out of me.”

My mother nods and tells me she understands, but her
eyes don't carry a look to suggest she believes me.

“
Baby, go and have a lie down inside for a little
while. The night is still very young. Take a break and come back when
you're feeling better.”