Billionaire Unwed

by Scott, J. S.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  She pulled out a wine cooler and tried to unscrew the top. When I saw her struggling, I snatched the bottle, removed it for her, and handed it back.

  Lia looked adorably sleepy, her beautiful blonde hair tousled like she’d been tossing and turning in bed.

  She hopped onto one of the kitchen counters, and then her eyes ran over my towel-clad body boldly, an action that made my dick hard almost instantaneously.

  Dammit! I wanted her to want me, but the moment she did anything that even remotely indicated that she might be having dirty-minded thoughts about me, it was hell not to explore that possibility.

  “I think I am okay,” she answered, and then swallowed a portion of her wine cooler before she continued. “I messed up big this time, didn’t I, Zeke? God, I nearly screwed up my entire life. I’m not exactly beating myself up, but I don’t understand why I let it go for so long.”

  Her wistful tone and the sadness in her eyes nearly sent me over the edge. “Not your fault,” I snapped out. “And you got the hell out of the situation before you married him.” In a gentler tone, I added, “I know you’re trying to find a more rational explanation, but you’re eventually going to have to forgive yourself and just move on. You were vulnerable, and Stuart is a twisted asshole. I think a lot of it was just timing.”

  She nodded absently, but continued on thoughtfully, “I think I was searching for…something, and I wanted it so badly that I ignored all of the warning signs. I’m not a stupid woman, Zeke, and I’m definitely not naïve. Hell, I don’t know, maybe it was timing. Maybe I was just vulnerable. Grandma Esther was all I had left. Maybe I thought Stuart gave me some kind of stability when I felt like I was just drifting and dead inside. Did I really think he was going to be the one person I loved who was never going to leave me?”

  Watching the tormented, confused expression on her face as she struggled to figure out why she’d made that mistake completely tore me up.

  I got it. I’d been there when she’d lost Esther. I’d held her, wishing I could absorb her pain while every single one of her tormented sobs had driven a stake through my heart. Knowing that, experiencing that loss with her, how in the hell had she ever convinced me soon after the funeral that she was okay?

  Oh, yeah, that’s right. She hadn’t. I’d been the one who had backed away from her because she met Stuart, and I’d been pretty damn busy licking my wounds over the fact that Lia had started dating someone before I’d had the chance to tell her how I really felt.

  However unknowingly it had happened, I’d just been one more person who cared about her who didn’t…stay. Maybe not physically, but emotionally I’d checked out of our friendship once she’d met Stuart.

  Now, I understood what she’d been craving, and why she’d been so willing to cling to Stuart. Fuck! He’d been the only one available, and she’d had no idea he was full of shit. Could I really blame her for buying his bullshit at a time in her life when she’d been so damn defenseless and exposed?

  First, her parents had left her, and then, the only other person who had loved her like a parent had passed away, too. Yeah, her rational mind understood that none of them had abandoned her willingly, but let’s face it, sometimes the mind and the heart definitely didn’t always communicate.

  I put my bottle down on the counter and situated myself between her legs. I took her bottle from her hand, and put it down on the counter beside mine before I placed my hands on her hips. I let my forehead drop to her shoulder, my heart, body, and soul filled with so much sorrow and regret that I was nearly choking on it. “I’m so fucking sorry I wasn’t there for you, Lia. I don’t know what I would have done without you after Dad died, and there was never a time you weren’t there for me back then. You needed a hell of a lot more from me than what you got after Esther died, and instead of being there for you, I just...checked out.”

  She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. “I wasn’t there for you, either,” she said with a sigh. “I’m guilty of letting us drift apart, too. In hindsight, I should have fought to keep you close because you were the one person I trusted, but it just seemed easier to avoid any kind of confrontation about Stuart. Now, here you are, temporarily stuck with me for a wife just because you’re the only one who always cared, and I don’t know what to do anymore.” She finished in a rush, confusion and pain echoing in her voice.

  Just love me! See me, Lia.

  I couldn’t make that suggestion out loud right now, but I sure as hell was itching to say it.

  Fuck Stuart!

  Fuck the past!

  Fuck the regrets.

  Fuck all of it, and everyone else.

  This was about us, her and me, and everything we should have been to each other years ago. For me, there had never really been anyone else but her. I’d just been too damn afraid of losing her completely, so I’d used any excuse I could find not to tell her how I felt. I’d continued to make up bullshit excuses…until I couldn’t anymore. Until the day she’d nearly married an asshole because of my silence.

  I jerked my head up, meeting her gaze as I gripped her hips tighter. “Give me a chance, Lia. Give us a chance. After everything we’ve been through together, don’t you think we owe that to each other? I don’t expect you to get over everything that happened with Stuart overnight. I’m just asking you to try to see me as something more than a friend. I know this attraction goes both ways now.”

  I almost regretted my words as I watched Lia’s beautiful green eyes turn liquid with tears. She gnawed at her bottom lip nervously, and then shook her head slightly as she repeated, “I still don’t know what to do.”

  It killed me to see my Lia look so damned indecisive. It wasn’t like her. The Lia I knew rarely hesitated about what she wanted, and it took me a few seconds to realize that even though Stuart was out of her life, some of her insecurities still lingered.

  It wasn’t like I didn’t know that Lia’s stubbornness and strength wouldn’t eventually triumph, but it still made my gut ache that Stuart had been able to crush her spirit in the first place.

  “What do you want to do?” I was distracted by the feel of her soft body leaning into mine, and I almost groaned when she hesitantly threaded her fingers into my hair.

  “Right now, I just want to be with you,” she said softly. “I don’t quite understand exactly what’s happening, but I want you, Zeke. I’m just…scared.”

  Every protective, possessive, out-of-control instinct I’d ever buried when it came to Lia tried like hell to break free, but I squashed them down. This moment was too damn important to me to screw it up now. “It’s just me, Lia. We’ve known each other for a long time. Don’t you know that you never have to be afraid of me?”

  “I’m not afraid of you. I’m afraid of the way I feel right now, and the last thing I want is for you to be disappointed. What if we try to change our whole relationship and it doesn’t work out? What if we lose our friendship over it? I hated it when we weren’t really talking. I don’t want to go through that again.”

  “You could never disappoint me, Lia. Ever.” The words came out of my mouth in a low growl. I wasn’t Stuart. “When has our relationship ever been conditional?”

  She shook her head slowly. “It hasn’t. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that,” she answered as a tear dropped to her cheek.

  I swiped at the droplet with my thumb, and then lifted her chin. “Look at me, Lia,” I cajoled, knowing that if I didn’t push for what I wanted right now, she’d back off. I knew that she would because I’d done it myself way too many times not to understand that instinct to withdraw instead of taking a risk.

  I wrapped my arms tighter around her waist, and waited until she finally lifted her eyes, and squarely met my gaze. “We have to be sure, Zeke,” she said cautiously. “I’m not sure we can ever go back again if we change everything.”

 
“I’m not about to change my mind, sweetheart,” I warned her. “I’ve wanted you for way too long.”

  My smile grew wider as Lia leaned back and boldly shoved her index finger into my chest. “Don’t you dare give me that damn panty-melting grin and tell me that you don’t have any reservations, Zeke Conner. I’m serious. One hasty decision could change everything between us for the rest of our lives.”

  I could feel her resolve weakening, even though her fierce expression remained unchanged. “Christ, I hope so, Lia,” I grumbled against her ear as I pulled her body tightly against mine. “If I can’t get my cock inside this gorgeous body of yours pretty damn soon, I think I might completely lose my mind.”

  “I really did think you were just saying that you wanted me to help me get my inheritance,” she sputtered.

  I shrugged. “I did want to help you, but I also meant every single word I said when I asked you to marry me. Jesus, woman, don’t you recognize a desperate guy when you see one?”

  My dick twitched as she licked her upper lip. “I don’t think I do. Maybe because I’ve never seen one look at me like you are right now.”

  “Then you haven’t been paying attention,” I said in a gruff voice. “I’ve been looking at you just like this for a long time, Lia. You’ve just never noticed. Say the word, and I’ll have you in my bed faster than you can blink. And I guarantee I’ll make you come until you beg for mercy.”

  Her breath hitched as she searched my face. “Those are pretty big words,” she said breathlessly.

  I stroked a hand up her spine slowly, and then gently caressed the sensitive skin at the nape of her neck, savoring every second of desire that flared in her emerald eyes before I replied. “It’s not that you can’t thoroughly enjoy sex, Lia. You just haven’t…yet. Say the word, and I’ll make it happen.”

  I wanted to kiss Lia more than I wanted to take my next breath, but since I was also anxiously waiting for her to speak, I settled for tasting the smooth skin of her neck.

  “Zeke,” she murmured softly as her head fell back, allowing me access to any part of her skin that I wanted to explore.

  That trust, and that obvious signal that she wanted a lot more than she was getting, nearly made me come unglued. I’d wanted to touch Lia like this for so damn long that it was a constant gnawing in my gut that never stopped.

  “Say. The. Damn. Word,” I demanded, every muscle tight as I stilled and rested my lips against her ear.

  She was silent for a moment before she finally whispered, “Word.”

  All of the tension drained out of my body as I said huskily, “You’ll never be sorry you said that, Lia.”

  Before she could utter another word, I lifted her up, my hands firmly gripping her gorgeous ass. She had no choice but to wrap those shapely legs of hers around my body as I carried her to my bedroom before she changed her mind.

  Lia

  Every single negative thought flew out of my brain as I pressed my body against Zeke’s. They were replaced with heat, desire, and anticipation, which were much more pleasant things to focus on at the moment.

  I’d laid in bed for over an hour before I’d finally gotten up and found the reason for my sleeplessness in the kitchen. Denying that I was attracted to him definitely wasn’t working for me. In fact, the way my body reacted to Zeke just from a single touch was something I’d never experienced before, and I’d been so tempted to explore that attraction that the compulsion was pretty much irresistible.

  Maybe he was right. Maybe I wasn’t really a sexual dud. Maybe I just needed…him.

  I’d initially gotten out of bed to try to find something that would put me to sleep.

  Ha! When I’d seen the sexiest man alive dressed in nothing more than a towel, sleep had been the furthest thing from my mind.

  Just let it happen.

  I relaxed as he let my feet touch the floor in the bedroom, but I kept my arms around him like I was afraid he’d disappear into thin air.

  “I feel like I’ve waited forever for this,” he said, his voice hoarse and unsteady.

  My heart was kicking against my chest wall as I looked up and met his unflinching stare. “Me, too,” I confessed. If we were about to get naked, I saw no reason to not be completely honest.

  I’d wanted this man for over seven years. After my twenty-first birthday, I’d managed to bury those emotions, ignore them completely, but that desire was emerging with a vengeance.

  He stepped back and reached for my tank top, and then pulled it over my head.

  This moment felt so natural with Zeke, and I needed him to touch me so desperately that nervousness was the furthest thing from my mind.

  “You’re so damn beautiful, Lia,” he said in a deep voice that rolled down my spine, and then branched out to every single nerve in my body.

  My breath hitched, and I reached for his towel. “I want to see you,” I answered. “I really need to touch you, Zeke.”

  “Not yet,” he said sharply, nudging my hand away as soon as the towel fell to the floor. “If you do that, I won’t be able to focus on what’s really important.”

  I tried to step back so I could see him, but he picked me up way too fast and carried me to the bed.

  “What else could be more important?” I asked breathlessly as my back hit the sheets.

  He supported himself with his powerful arms as he hovered over me. “I want to see you come, Lia. It’s just about the only thing I can think about right now.”

  His words made me shudder, and I moaned as his mouth covered mine.

  I no longer cared about the outcome. All I wanted was Zeke, and it was worth any risk just to be with him like this.

  His kiss was ravenous, hungry in a way I’d never experienced before.

  He demanded, and I happily gave, losing myself as I tangled my fingers in his gloriously coarse hair.

  I got drunk on his masculine, musky scent, breathing him in as I tried to absorb his essence into every pore of my skin.

  I was finally touching him, and I’d never felt anything so seductive.

  “Zeke,” I whimpered as he finally released my lips so I could speak.

  “Don’t think about anything, Lia. Just feel,” he commanded, his mouth leaving trails of flame as it moved down my neck.

  His torso finally dropped down over me, and I loved the feel of our heated skin pressed together.

  When he pulled away, I nearly begged him to come back.

  Until I felt his hands cupping my breasts, his thumbs circling the hard peaks of my nipples.

  “Yes,” I hissed. “Touch me. Please. I need it. I need you.”

  I can’t say that he was gentle. Zeke’s firm touch coaxed every sinful sensation he could get from me.

  My back arched as he took a hard peak into his mouth, his teeth scraping against the sensitive flesh as his fingers continued to torment the other nipple.

  When he nipped, I squeaked, and then let out a tremulous sigh as his tongue stroked over the tip he’d just bitten.

  The pleasure/pain of the action fueled my need, and I felt moist heat that had been simmering start to pool between my thighs.

  Pressure started to build in my lower abdomen, and I felt that tension start to knot tightly from the pleasure of Zeke’s relentless, sexy assault.

  “I need…more,” I said, not caring if I sounded greedy.

  “I’ll give you everything you need, sweetheart,” he growled as his mouth traveled into the valley between my breasts, and then down to my abdomen.

  He pulled the thin shorts from my body in a frenzy before he knelt between my legs.

  Every inch of my skin felt like it was on fire, and my muscles were tight as I waited for him to come over me and fuck me.

  But what I’d expected didn’t happen.

  Instead, he spread my legs wide, and I shivered as the cool ai
r wafted across my vulnerable pussy.

  I moaned as I felt his fingers brush against the pink flesh. “You’re so damn wet, Lia. So damn responsive. So hot. I can’t wait to taste you.”

  I startled. I suddenly realized why he was settling between my legs instead of getting on with the business of fucking me. “You don’t have to do that,” I said nervously. “Nobody ever has.”

  No man had ever put their mouth on me, and I was trembling with anticipation.

  Stuart had hated oral sex…unless I was sucking on him. He’d never been willing to do the same. The other two men I’d had sex with weren’t my boyfriends for very long, so I’d been just fine not getting that close.

  And oh, my God, this felt really intimate.

  My body quivered as I watched the voracious look on Zeke’s face.

  “I don’t just want to. I have to, Lia,” he said insistently. “Let me. I guarantee you’ll like it.”

  “Yes,” I moaned, helpless as he stroked a thumb through my slick heat lazily.

  All thoughts of any kind of protest flew out of my brain as his tongue stroked over the quivering pink flesh. He owned it in one long, satisfying swipe.

  “Oh, shit, Zeke. Oh, my God!” The words left my mouth on a whimper, and my hands speared into his hair as I held onto him for dear life.

  He groaned against my flesh, and the vibration almost made me jump out of my skin.

  I flopped back against the pillow and closed my eyes, letting my body just enjoy every sensual sensation.

  I’d never experienced this level of intimacy, this much pure carnal desire. And I savored it because it was so damn good.

  “Yes,” I moaned. “Please.”

  I felt the knot in my belly begin to loosen.

  Zeke put his hands under my ass and lifted me so he could explore every single inch of my pussy with his very wicked mouth and tongue.

  He was brash, bold, taking what he wanted while giving me the most exquisite pleasure my body had ever experienced.