His Brother's Wife

by Michelle Love

  Angela picked up her cell phone up from its current location laying on the bed beside the small blue purse she had selected to match her dinner dress and shoes. She looked at the number on the LCD screen and saw that it was Maxine.

  “Hey, girlie,” Angela answered with a cheerful voice. She was happy to be hearing from Maxi.

  “Uh uh! Don’t even try to give me that hey, girlie bullshit! Where have you been, stranger?” Maxine teased. Angela could hear the mock sarcasm in her friend’s voice.

  “Oh, Max, come on! I’m so sorry! I have been a little bit preoccupied, I admit. But I was going to call you tomorrow if you had not called me first,” Angela explained. She wasn’t lying. In fact, she really had been thinking about Maxine lately and had made a mental note to give her a call or maybe even pay her a visit on the following day.

  “So what’s been keeping you so damn busy that I haven’t heard from you in so many days? Is his name Anderson or Mark? Or perhaps a little bit of both?” Maxine asked.

  Angela let out a small giggle at her friend’s blunt question.

  “Actually, I haven’t really talked to Mark lately. I was supposed to meet him for lunch yesterday, but I told him that something had come up and I was unable to make it.”

  In a way, though, Angela hadn’t lied to Mark. In fact, what had actually come up was her billionaire plaything, Anderson Cromby’s, thick, humongous cock. And when it came up, Angela wasn’t interested in anything else other than taking advantage of the situation. Something about Anderson’s dick had her completely hypnotized every time she even so much as thought about it. He had her utterly “dicknotized.”

  “So have you decided which way you’re going to go, yet?” Maxine asked. Her intentions were definitely good. She only wanted her bestie to be happy and to have a healthy, blissful relationship with whichever man she chose to be with.

  “You know what, Max? I think that I have. I am going out dinner with Anderson tonight. Though I have been somewhat afraid of asking him about our relationship, I’ve decided that tonight’s the night. I am going to spill the beans and let him know exactly how I feel and what I want. If he feels the same way, I am going to take that chance and completely dedicate myself to him.”

  Maxine could tell by the tone of her best friend’s voice that Angela was serious. She was in love and she was going to let the man she loved know it. She had a deep respect for Angela. She knew that it couldn’t possibly be easy for her to have to make such an important and difficult decision between two men she clearly had deep, unfathomable feelings for. Maxine couldn’t deny that she was very proud of her friend, and she hoped more than anything that Angela’s love life would end up working out for her for the best.

  Angela stepped out of the luxury car that Anderson had sent over to her apartment to pick her up and take her to the restaurant they were meeting at for a nice romantic dinner. The restaurant was called Chez LaFre’ and it offered an exquisite selection of top-of-the-line French cuisine. Angela thanked the limousine driver and walked into the front entrance of the huge, fancy, 5-star-rated French restaurant.

  Her eyes lit up with wonder as she entered the lobby area of Chez LaFre’. It was one of the most beautiful restaurants she had ever set foot inside of. She looked around in awe as the host, who was dressed in a stylish black tuxedo, led her toward an elegantly-decorated private VIP booth up on the veranda area of the large venue.

  Angela saw Anderson sitting in a comfy little VIP-area dinner booth, talking on his cell phone. He looked incredibly handsome in his three-piece teal-colored silk suit. His shirt was a multi-colored one, form-fitting, accentuating the well-defined muscles of his toned arms. He had the jacket lying beside him on the seat of the booth and his hair looked extra-thick and shiny in the dim lighting of the restaurant. The well-dressed Hispanic-looking restaurant host led her to the table and motioned for her to sit down in the booth across from Anderson.

  “You look ravishing, darling,” Anderson said, standing up to greet her with a kiss on the cheek. He pulled out her chair and she sat down. Anderson sat back down across from her.

  “Thanks. So do you! As usual,” Angela replied, flashing him a smile

  “I took the liberty of ordering us a fine bottle of imported white wine and I also ordered an absolutely scrumptious appetizer I think you will like,” Anderson told her. He opened the bottle of wine and proceeded to fill their glasses.

  “I’m really glad you invited me out to dinner tonight, Anderson. This place is incredible,” Angela commented, her eyes wide with impression.

  Anderson loved the way Angela always expressed her appreciation to him.

  “Anything to keep a smile on that beautiful face of yours,” Anderson stated with a grin. Angela blushed like a school girl, in spite of herself.

  “There’s something I want to talk to you about, Anderson,” Angela said. She felt her heartrate begin to increase as the feeling of nervousness started to take over. “And I have to admit, I’m really nervous about it.”

  Just then, the waiter brought over their appetizer and set it down on the table. The aroma of the food made Angela’s mouth water.

  “Are you ready to order?” the well-dressed waiter asked them.

  “Give us just a few moments, please,” Anderson told him.

  “Sure, monsieur,” the waiter replied and walked off.

  “What is it, Angela? I would like to think that you would be able to talk to me about anything,” he said in a soft, comforting voice. His face showed genuine concern.

  “Well … I ... um,” Angela stammered, fidgeting uncomfortably in her seat. Anderson reached across the table and took her hand.

  “Angela, please. What is it?” His gorgeous eyes were searching hers. It made her heart melt.

  “Well, I was just … um … wondering. What are we? You know?” She looked at him with questioning eyes. “I mean, I always enjoy myself in ways I never have before when I’m with you. I’ve never felt so alive, so free, and so happy. But I want you to understand that if I am only a phase, only a passing fling, I am okay with it, as long as I get to spend as much time with you as possible while it lasts.”

  Anderson grew quiet for a moment, as if allowing her words to fully sink in.

  “How do you feel about me, Angela?” he asked her with a soft, but serious look on his face.

  “Honestly? I am in love with you, Anderson. I have been for a while now. I just wasn’t sure how you felt about me, so I didn’t want to bring it up. I didn’t want to make things weird between us, you know?”

  “Are you still seeing that Mark guy?” he asked her.

  There it was. He knew about Mark. Actually, Angela wasn’t all that surprised that he knew. She knew Anderson was no dummy and that he had friends and associates all over the area. She just hadn’t been sure whether he cared or not. Angela lowered her head, feeling just a tad bit ashamed for some reason.

  “Mark and I have a past. He wasn’t the worst boyfriend in the world, but he wasn’t the best either. He came back into my life right before you and I met. I never thought that you and I would end up where we are, and I wasn’t sure if we were going to be a serious ‘thing’ or just a passing ‘fling.’ So, I guess I was sort of keeping him around as … insurance of some sort, kind of a back-up plan.”

  “Just in case things between you and I didn’t work out,” Anderson added. It was more of a statement than it was a question. He said it as if he had known all along.

  “Please understand, Anderson, I have never met anyone like you before. You are a man who has everything in the world and you could have any woman you wanted. I was just scared that whatever you saw in me would eventually wear off, you know? I was afraid you would get bored with me and move on to the next new and exciting young woman who happened to catch your eye.”

  Anderson listened to her quietly, allowing her to completely state her piece.

  “If you could have your way, what would you want us to be?” he asked her.

&nbs
p; “If I could have my way, Anderson, I would want to be with you for the rest of my life,” Angela answered.

  “I want to tell you something that I probably should have told you a while ago,” Anderson began. “I have dated plenty of different kinds of women in my lifetime. Models, actresses, dancers, you name it, women from all kinds of different backgrounds and social statuses. You see, it’s easy to find a woman, but it’s very hard to find a woman like you.” He emphasized the word “you” and looked directly into Angela’s eyes. “You are beautiful, intelligent, driven, independent, yet still so submissive, and you are also sweet, kind and amazing in bed. You are the kind of woman I could see myself settling down with.

  “You are happy whether we go to a 5-star restaurant or a have a turkey sandwich picnic in the park. You don’t need any of the things I choose to do for you, but you appreciate all of them. I can trust you with my business, and I feel like I could also trust you with my heart. I just didn’t understand what it was about that Mark that you just couldn’t seem to let him go. So I wasn’t sure if this was where you truly wanted to be. So I just never pressed the issue.”

  Angela’s eyes filled up with tears of happiness that threatened to spill over and run down her cheeks.

  “So what are you saying, Anderson?” Angela asked in soft voice, barely louder than a hoarse whisper.

  “I’m saying that I want you to be my woman and my woman, only. If that’s what you want as well,” Anderson replied, giving her hand a little squeeze.

  “Oh, Anderson! That’s exactly what I want! I’ve never wanted anything more in my entire life!” Angela allowed her tears of joy to run freely down her cheeks. She was overwhelmed with emotion. She reached out and grabbed Anderson’s other hand and squeezed them both.

  “These are the only tears I ever want to see in your eyes,” Anderson said, reaching up to wipe one of them away. Angela smiled at him as another tear replaced it. He leaned in and kissed the other tear as he placed something in her hand.

  “What’s this?” she asked him, wiping away a stray tear.

  “I want you to go in the ladies’ room and put it in your panties, right up against your clit. I have the remote in my hand. When you come out, you’re going to call this Mark character and tell him it’s over.”

  Angela’s heart began to race again. This time, it was with excitement. She grinned at Anderson and leaned in to give him a kiss on the mouth.

  “Order for me, will you?” she asked with a wide smile and then hurried off to the ladies’ room.

  Epilogue:

  Angela and Anderson became an exclusive couple and she broke things off with Mark, for good. She and Anderson enjoyed many more erotic lunch dates, dinner dates, and steamy, passionate nights together. Maxine fully recovered from her illness and eventually had the baby she always wanted. She made Angela the godmother. Mark met a new young woman at his job and soon got over Angela. Anderson eventually promoted Angela to his executive manager and proposed to her a year later.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading A Billion Dollar Arrangement

  Shiver Series

  A BAD BOY BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE

  By Michelle Love

  When billionaire art dealer, Sam Levy, meets gorgeous young artist Isabel Flynn, his life is turned upside down. The incredible sexual attraction between them is only matched by their emotional connection – they both fall hard and fast for the other. But outside their little bubble of happiness, they both have people in their lives who wish them harm, and when Isa’s first exhibition is vandalized and the gallery burned to the ground, they must face up to the fact that dark forces are at work which could destroy their love forever…

  Part #1 Love Me

  Afterwards, Sam would think back about how it all started and how he had found her. After all of the love, the laughter, the tears, the terror, the blood. The loss. After all of that, how it began came down to a simple matter of whether to turn left… or right.

  It was that rare thing – a cloudless Fall day. Above Seattle, Mt Rainier painted itself onto the skyline; the calm waters of the Bay swishing gently on the wooden piers and pillars. Tourists and locals intermingling; panhandlers ducking the sharp eyes of local cops.

  Samuel Levy sat on one of the benches on Pier 39, people-watching, breathing in the smell of the water and of the restaurants along the waterfront. He watched the ferryboats leaving their moorings and drifting lazily, churning up the water of Elliot Bay in their wake.

  He envied their sedate passage, the excitement of travel, delivering people and tourists to the many islands of Puget Sound.

  He, however, had back-to-back meetings, most of them nothing to do with his actual job, his passion: art. Accountants, business managers… Sam sighed. The minutiae of running his own business. The dull stuff, the thing he had been trying to avoid all week.

  He glanced up at the mountain again. It always seemed to him that it wasn’t real, that it had been painted onto the Seattle Skyline as an afterthought. Beautiful.

  Sam took a swig of bottled water. Nah. Nope. No. He’d blow off the meetings; it was too gorgeous a day to waste in airless meeting rooms, losing the will to live. He could go do tourist stuff – although since falling in love with the place a few years back, he’d already done most of it. He could catch a ferryboat out to one of the islands to go and see old friends or to check out new local artists.

  He stood up, still trying to decide. Left to the city, right along the waterfront to the ferry terminal.

  Left or right?

  Ten minutes later, he was on one of the ferryboats on his way to Bainbridge Island. He pulled his cell-phone from his pocket and scrolled through his contacts and dialed.

  ‘Eagle Harbor Gallery.’

  Sam recognized her voice immediately. Zoe Marshall, retired art professor, gallery owner.

  ‘Zoe, it’s Sam.’

  There was a long pause. ‘Samuel Alexander Levy, where the hell have you been? It’s about damn time you called me!’

  Sam laughed; Zoe was only a few years older than his thirty-eight, but she always made him feel like an errant schoolboy, in the best way.

  ‘I can do you one better than that; I’m on my way to you now.’

  Zoe squealed excitedly. ‘Your timing is perfect. Seb’s home from college, he’ll be so delighted to see you. Isa will be here later too, it is about time you two met.’

  There was a distinct tone to her voice when she said the young woman’s name and Sam grinned.

  ‘Zo’, what are you up to?’

  ‘Nothing.’ She was all innocence. ‘Anyways, you’ll stay for dinner, yes?’

  He agreed and saying goodbye to his friend, ended the call. He laughed to himself. Zoe never changed; she was always trying to fix him up.

  Sam had known Seb, Zoe’s teenage son, from when he’d been a child (his father hadn’t stuck around long after Zoe fell pregnant) but he’d never met Isa – Isabel – Zoe’s de facto daughter. He knew she was an Art major, that Zoe had taken her in. Sam shook his head; he couldn’t remember the rest of her story now. He knew she was an artist, that Zoe and Seb adored her and that she was kind of reclusive. After Casey, his now thankfully ex-wife, Sam knew he wasn’t about get involved with another artist, but it would be good to meet someone so special to his old friends.

  Zoe screeched across the gallery floor, a whirlwind of multi-colored scarves and enveloped him in a perfumed hug. His six-five dwarfed the African-American woman, despite her breakneck designer heels. Her round face, with its soft lines and sparkling brown eyes, beamed up at him. Sam laughed at her exuberance and hugged her tightly.

  ‘Hey shorty, it’s been too long.’

  Zoe drew back from the hug and tried to look disapproving. ‘And whose fault is that, you big lug?’ She squinted at him and touched the salt-and-pepper hair at his temples. ‘That wasn’t there the last time we saw you – in fact; I seem to remember you were fresh out of diapers…’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, keep
on exaggerating. Some of us have work to do. We can’t go gallivanting around pretending to be professors.’

  Sam ducked to avoid the swipe she aimed at him, then covered his ears mockingly as she screeched ‘Seb!’ towards the back of the gallery.

  Sam briefly wondered where the mysterious Isabel was but then was assailed again by the young man who came bounding through the door, his wide smile already ear-splitting.

  ‘Dude!’

  Sam hugged him. Seb was nearly as tall as he was now, but gangly. All loose limbs and energy. His long dark dreads were tied back neatly, his t-shirt artfully torn to reveal a hard athlete’s body. Sam suddenly felt old and told him so. Zoe rolled her eyes.

  ‘Imagine how I feel,’ she muttered, then turned to Seb, ‘Where’s your sister?’

  ‘Still at work.’

  Zoe sighed. ‘Of course, she is.’

  Sam smiled at her exasperation expression. ‘What does she do?’

  ‘She’s a research fellow at UW,’ Seb interrupted his mother. ‘A good one. They all wanted her when she applied.’

  ‘Of course, they did,’ Zoe was preening, and Sam grinned. ‘Seb, go and call the university, ask her where she is.’

  ‘Or I could just call her cell phone, Grandma,’ Seb muttered, wandering off. Zoe scowled at his retreating back and bore Sam into another room off the main gallery.

  ‘Come here; I want to show you some of Isa’s work.’

  Isa’ slid around the corner of the gallery unseen and quickly darted up the stairs to the apartment above the garage. Inside, she didn’t turn the lights on, wanting to be alone before she was inevitably summoned for the ‘family’ meal up in the main house. She just needed an hour, two maybe, on her own to unwind, chill out, eat junk food. There was a bag of hand-cooked potato chips with her name on it that she’d been thinking about all day.