by Mia Ford
Archer knocked on her door at eight and she opened it, his smiling dimpled cheeks greeted her. And Ivy was filled with a conviction that she had made the right decision.
“Where is he?” She asked him, her heart thumping.
“Who? Leon? I’m not sure, but I told him last night that we’re leaving today. So, he knows.” Archer said, smirking at her before picking up her bags off the floor.
“How are we going to get into town? Are we taking a train?” She asked him, mighty anxious now. She had never been to Minnesota and she was beginning to grow excited. Archer smiled at her, as he turned to carry her bags over to the front entrance.
“Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything. You just get ready.” He said, and she nodded her head.
Ivy had been ready since six, but now she gave herself the once over in the full-length mirror. She would miss this room, she thought, as she pinned in a few more black bobby pins into her hair, holding her beautiful golden ringlets in place, neatly away from her face.
But Archer was rich too. They were both wealthy, and she bit down on her lip wondering what kind of house he lived in.
She was in a yellow summer dress, that matched her hair perfectly. One she knew Leon loved her in, because it accentuated her curved. Not that she wanted to stir anything in Leon any more, that would be wrong of her to do, she knew that. She was the one leaving him.
Ivy smoothened the pleats on the front of her dress, and a noise at her door made her turn. She hadn’t shut the bedroom door and now Leon was leaning against the frame. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he was looking at her with his usual expressionless face.
“So, you’re ready to go?” He asked her, and she smiled at him. Nothing could change the fact that she was leaving, so it would be better if she left on good terms, she thought.
“I am. Archer has everything arranged.” She said, walking up to him.
“I’m sure he does.” Leon said, straightening up. She studied his sharp chiseled jaw, that sparkle in his eyes that was lost somehow. His broad chest that made his plaid shirt taut with tightness, how narrow his waist was, how strong his legs were. Ivy gulped, this was going to be more painful than she thought. Leon was like a drug to her. She had fallen for him when she least expected to and he had taught her everything. He helped her explore her own sexuality and she hadn’t thanked him for it.
Ivy fell on him, wrapping her arms around his waist. For a few moments, it seemed that Leon wasn’t sure how to react. His arms were spread open in surprise, till slowly he started to relax. She felt a hand on the small of her back. He was holding her.
“Thank you for everything Leon. I promise I won’t disappoint you. I’ll keep studying.” She said, drawing her face away from his chest, where she had buried it earlier. Leon was looking down at her, and something had changed. His expression had grown softer, and his eyes were shining bright.
“Ivy…” He began to say, and she bit down on her lip. She had no idea what he was about to say, but this was the first time she had seen that look on his face. This was the first time there was an actual imminent danger to their relationship. Was he finally going to say something?
“Stay with me.” He said it in the most neutral, but heavy voice. There was a hint of a strain there, but she had heard it. And Ivy was suddenly struck with a feeling of utter happiness, like she had never felt before.
She flung herself on him again, pressing her face to his chest, tightening the grip of her arms around his waist.
“That’s all I wanted to hear from you, Leon.” She cried into his chest, as she felt his hand on her head. He was stroking her hair.
“That’s all I wanted to say to you. I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner.” She heard him say, and she couldn’t control herself any more. Ivy felt like she was going to burst.
She pulled herself away from him, and Leon dropped his hands to her face, caressing her gently. Holding her in place.
“I love you Ivy. I always have. That was why I didn’t want to share you with Archer, with anyone.” He was saying, but Ivy could barely hear him. She was laughing from her burgeoning happiness. Nothing that Leon could say could make her feel better. This was what she was waiting for. There was no choice now. She would never leave him; she couldn’t live without him. Everything she did, had done…she had done to please him.
“I love you Leon. I don’t want you to share me with anyone. I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to stay here with you.” She was crying by now, but they were tears of joy.
“As my wife. By my side.” He said, looking deep into her eyes. He wasn’t the kind of man who was going to get down on his knees, and Ivy didn’t care.
“As your wife.” She said and they were kissing, blissfully unaware of the fact that Archer had appeared at the bedroom door. He had turned away, leaving Ivy’s bags at the front door. He knew when he had lost, and this time, he had lost to his brother Leon. And he was man enough to admit defeat.
Billionaire Smutty Romance Collection
BOOK 1: BAD BOY BALLER
MAYA
I was young and stupid, but that was no excuse. Everyone is young and stupid at some point in their life, but not everyone makes the mistakes I'd made. It all started when my brother Luke brought over a new friend. I was a senior in high school, a good girl. A girl my family could be proud of. I didn't go out and party like my brother. I studied. I worked hard. I was going to be a doctor one day, and that meant taking advanced classes while I was in high school, to prepare myself for college and beyond.
I was the white sheep of the family, my brother the black one. He would disappear for days on end, partying and drinking, until he finally couldn't party anymore. Even at twenty-one, he was still living at home. He worked mostly odd jobs – his latest one at a club in Chicago. Luke told me all about it, making it sound like an incredible opportunity, rather than the latest waystation on the road to nowhere he was on. But I'd listen as he told me how great it was to sling drinks and flirt with all the hot women – and to get paid for it too.
He'd apparently found his dream, and I guess that I had to be happy for him.
Every week, we had a family dinner. It was something of a tradition with my folks. Once a week, we'd all gather around the table and eat a home-cooked meal, all in one place. During the week, my father's job kept him away a lot and Luke was, well, Luke. He was hardly ever around. But he was good about never missing a family dinner. Mostly because mom would have had his hide if he had.
But I remember clearly, this one specific family dinner, when Luke brought a friend from work to our weekly family gathering.
“His name is Reese,” he told my mom beforehand.
“Reese isn't family, dear,” she said. “Only family should be at family dinner.”
Yeah, my mom was a bit uptight. Sometimes too uptight for her own good. But I had to admit that I agreed with her. At least on this one thing. I didn't want any of my brother's scumbag friends hanging out with us. Especially not on the one night we were supposed to come together as a family.
“He has no family, mom. I feel bad for the kid,” Luke complained. “Would you really turn away a guy who has no family instead of welcoming him into ours for an evening?”
I rolled my eyes as I listened from the living room. My brother knew how to work it and play on my mom's heart strings. It made me sick.
I heard my mom sigh as I walked into the kitchen. She put the lasagne in the oven and wiped her hands on her apron. She tried a little too hard to be the picture of the perfect mom – her perfectly coifed hair, the church dress, the pearls around her neck. She had that Donna Reed thing going on, but was exactly the type of woman I aspired to be. Except, of course, that I wanted a career. I gave her props for all she did, but being a stay-at-home mom wasn't for me. In that regard, I was more like my dad – who was a doctor too, of course.
“Fine, I guess I shouldn't be so cold,” she said. “Tell him he can come over, but please – and I beg of yo
u, Luke – tell him to make sure he dresses properly. None of those baggy jeans and baseball caps at the table.”
I snickered. It was hard enough to get Luke to dress properly, especially back then. He was trying so hard to be a gangster type – baggy jeans, tennis shoes that cost his entire pay check, baseball caps turned backward with the brim left unmoulded. He didn't want people to believe he was the adult son of a doctor and a stay-at-home wife living in middle class suburbia outside of Chicago. That would have damaged his street cred or whatever he called it.
If Luke heard me laughing, he ignored me. Instead, he agreed – reluctantly – that they'd dress appropriately for the dinner table. Though, it didn't take a genius to know that his idea of appropriate and my mom's likely didn't match up too well. I figured we'd be lucky if he wore anything that even remotely resembled appropriate dinner table attire.
When he brought Reese over though, I wasn't surprised to see that the kid was wearing the exact attire that mom had said not to wear to the table. Of course, he was. So was my brother.
But Reese, unlike my brother, made it look natural. Unlike my upper middle-class, spoiled snot of a brother, Reese actually looked the part. His brown hair was shaggy and stylishly messy. And unlike my brother, he had the decency to take his hat off at the dinner table – something that surprised the hell out of me.
My mom shook her head, mumbling to herself about ungrateful kids, but she let it go without causing a scene. She never let us argue at the dinner table and always made sure to set the example for us.
I, of course, was dressed in a pink floral skirt with a white, button-up blouse. Not the type of outfit I'd wear to school, but for family dinner, I was expected to dress a little nicer than normal. My father usually wore whatever he wore to work that day – usually a shirt and tie.
“Luke, would you care to say grace?” my mom asked, shooting him a look of pure death that was camouflaged by a saccharine sweet smile, of course.
“I'd rather not,” my brother said. “I'm sure Maya would be more than willing though.”
It was my father, the one who normally didn't like confrontation, who started the dinnertime prayer. I bowed my head, but caught myself staring over at Reese with wide eyes. He pretended to bow his head, but while everybody had their heads lowered, he looked around our dining room, his eyes almost as wide as mine, but probably for different reasons.
I was staring because Reese was actually pretty hot. My dorky brother usually had dorky-looking friends, but this time, his friend wasn't so bad on the eyes. So, sue me. I was a warm-blooded high school girl who didn't get much attention from boys because I was shy and often kept my face hidden by a book. But there was an older guy, someone with a little more experience behind him than the stupid boys in my high school class. I stared until Reese caught me staring. I quickly looked away, my cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
My father ended the prayer and we all started eating. I kept my eyes lowered and tried hard not to get caught staring again. I was, after all, a dorky high school girl and he was a cooler, older guy who worked at a club. There was no way, in a million years, my brother's best friend was going to look twice at me.
But a girl could dream, couldn't she?
“Dude, where did you get the money for that?” my brother asked.
We were hanging out in the living room, watching television as I pretended to study, and my brother was on the phone – talking to Reese most likely.
“I'm so jealous, dude,” he said, shaking his head.
“Could you please be quiet –” I started to ask him, but it was my mom who beat me to it.
“Please don't make us listen to your conversations, Luke,” she said. “Take it to your room.”
“Nah, it's fine,” Luke said. “He's coming over anyway.”
“Who is?” I asked, already knowing the answer and feeling the heat rise in my cheeks.
“Reese, Duh. He just bought a killer new sound system for his car and wants to show it off,” he said.
“Where does he get the money for stuff like that?” my mom asked.
It was a question that had occurred to me, but one I never really pursued because it really didn't matter all that much to me. But I had thought about it briefly given that my brother worked at the same club and couldn't even afford his own toilet paper – he made our parents buy it for him.
“I dun no. Side jobs and stuff,” Luke said, not meeting our gaze. “What's it matters to you? At least he's making a living, right?”
“Unlike someone we know,” I muttered under my breath.
“You're just jealous and you have a massive crush, Maya,” Luke said. I turned bright red. “But keep dreaming. There's no way he'd ever be into a nerdy little high schooler like you.”
“I don't have a crush,” I lied, looking down at my textbook as if mitochondria and nuclei were the most interesting subjects on the planet. “I would never have a crush on one of your loser friends, Luke.”
“Ha. Yeah, right. We both see the way you gawk at him every time he comes over,” he sneered. “You're not fooling anyone.”
“Enough!” My mom shouted, putting her hands up between us. “Stop it already. Just stop arguing. I'm trying to watch my movie.”
I glared at Luke and he smirked at me. He knew he was right. And even worse, I knew he was right. He knew I had a crush on Reese, and no matter what I said, there was no denying it. And now that Reese knew, well, that would make running into him even more awkward than it already was.
I picked up my textbook, slammed it shut and walked toward my room. The tears were fresh in my eyes and stung, but I couldn't cry in front of Luke. I couldn't give my obnoxious brother anymore reason to smirk or laugh at me than he already had.
Only a few more weeks until graduation, then I was off to college, I reminded myself. I'd be going to North-western, so not terribly far – but far enough that I would be able to avoid my brother and his friend. I'd meet other boys at college and forget that Reese even existed, I was sure of it. I was going to meet more worthy boys, not boys who worked at nightclubs and likely sold drugs on the side to live an expensive lifestyle that he otherwise shouldn't have been able to afford.
It was hard being eighteen and a virgin still, but I'd survive. One day, I'd find the right boy and we'd have sex and it would be magical. Reese would be a distant, shameful memory. And sooner or later, he'd wise up and drop my brother, the wannabe gangster. Then I would be the one laughing at Luke.
But until then, I'd hide away in my room, do what I needed to do to get ready for college, and escape from it all. I'd watch from my window as the two of them played basketball, laughing to myself as Reese obliterated my brother every time. Luke sucked at basketball – most sports, really. He only played so he could look cool next to his new friend from the city. The basketball hoop attached to our garage was just beneath my window, so sometimes they'd catch me watching. Luke would flip me off, Reese would roll his eyes and pretend I wasn't there.
But I could always find some measure of escape in my room. And by escaping, I, of course, meant masturbating, because God knew, I was still very much a young, warm blooded woman with needs and desires that needed to be met.
And yes, I often imagined Reese while I touched myself. Because I knew that he was just the right type of bad who could talk me out of my panties. He'd let me do all the dirty things my heart desired – and I wouldn't have to feel guilty about any of them. Not with Reese.
Not that it would ever happen, of course.
Which is why they were called fantasies.
A Few Months Later
Allie poked her head into my room with an overzealous smile. “We're all going to a club downtown, wanna join us?”
Inwardly, I groaned and stared down at the textbook in my lap. I was studying for a test, my first one in my chemistry class and I wanted to ace it. But there was some small spark of desire in me to get out and have some fun.
“Come on, the test isn't until next week
, Maya,” Allie said, rolling her eyes at me. “Don't you want to get to know your sorority sisters?”
Yes, my sorority sisters. Me, of all people, had pledged a sorority – though, it hadn't been my choice. No, my mother had insisted I pledge. She'd been a Delta Lambda back in her college days and wanted her little girl to be her legacy. Even though sororities were so not my thing. I got in – thanks to my mother being an alumna – but I never really fit in. The girls – and my mother – kept trying to get me to come out of my shell, but it hadn't taken very well.
“You're a smart girl, Maya. Smarter than most people I know,” my mother had once told me. “You don't have to study all the time to do well. Go out with your sisters, make some memories. Heck, maybe meet a good man like I did with your father.”
I tried telling my mom I wasn't interested in meeting a husband, not while I was in college. Not with medical school on the horizon. I didn't want that to deter me from my dreams. I could meet a husband afterward, once I'd gotten settled into my career. I had plenty of time and wasn't in any hurry.
And as far as the sorority went, well, I wasn't thrilled to be a sorority girl. Though, I had to admit – if only to myself – that it was nice to have friends and feel like I was part of the cool crowd for a change. I knew my mom was right about getting out and creating memories with my newfound friends. I didn't want to look back at this part of my life twenty years into the future and remember that all I had were books and tests in my life. There was a part of me that wanted some fun and some wild stories to tell. And Allie seemed cool enough – so did a few of the other girls.
“What club? You know I can't get into most clubs because I'm not twenty-one –”
Allie held up what appeared to be an ID – an ID I knew had to be fake. “We have you covered, girlie. And we're headed to the Neon Dragon – that hip place downtown.”
