Billionaires Runaway Bride (A Standalone British Billionaire Romance Novel)

by Claire Adams

  “Hey, Owen.” A couple of girls walked by me, eyeing me up and down, then giggling. I just nodded to be polite then shook my head as they disappeared. I may not have had a big ego, but I was used to girls checking me out or trying to flirt. It had been a total rush in the early days, but now that I was older and wiser, I'd really gotten over it for the most part.

  Still, that did nothing to damper their enthusiasm, especially if they knew who I was and the amount of money I had rolling in. It didn’t bug me necessarily, but I did my best to keep my distance with women because of it. It seemed I never knew what their real reason for liking me was, and that was something that had gotten more and more important to me as the years had gone by.

  I finished off my fourth beer then got up, heading for the kitchen to grab a couple more. I was feeling a bit better, and it helped ease the pressure from some of the things that were constantly occupying my thoughts.

  Two beers later, I was starting to feel pretty damn buzzed, and I certainly didn’t mind the feeling. It fogged out all the other thoughts and worries in my mind for the time being. I felt a lot more as if I was living in the moment rather than merely stressing about the future and forgetting about the present, which was, admittedly, something I was prone to doing.

  “Owen, you going to come up and play something for us?” Jeremiah called across the room as I stood in the kitchen doorway and polished off my sixh beer. I waved him off, not in the mood to sing to a crowd of people. But Jeremiah didn’t give up that easily. “Aww. Come on. Grace us with the soothing sounds of Owen Young’s angelic vocals.”

  I snorted. “I haven’t drunk enough yet.”

  “Come off it, bro!” Talon chimed in, “You’ve performed in front of a lot more people without a drop of alcohol. Get your ass up there.” That’s when he started chanting my name so that it caught on, and within seconds, everyone in the room was chanting it as well.

  Finally, I conceded, blushing a little despite—or perhaps because of—the alcohol now flowing thick through my veins. I put down my beer and strode over to the area in front of my fireplace that Jeremiah and Nate had been occupying. I picked up my acoustic guitar, slipping the strap over my shoulder, and settling myself on the raised stone of the fireplace.

  “Fine then,” I said, relenting with a smile. “This is a little something I’ve been working on,” I told them, then started strumming my guitar. I was pretty decent on guitar, but with Bleeding Heart, I had chosen to focus on singing and songwriting. Writing was a form of therapy for me.

  I found myself strumming a song I’d written about love. Not that I’d really ever felt I’d been in love. But just the idea of it and what I imagined love would be or, at the very least, could be, somehow found its way into lyrics and a melody. It was a newer song, one I hadn’t shared with the guys yet since I didn’t feel like it was fully finished. Still, now seemed to be as good a time as any to break it out and see how people responded, since it was pretty different to the stuff I usually did with Bleeding Heart.

  Everyone listened intently; even Talon quit his flirting long enough to listen. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the music as I sang, not even paying attention to the large group in the room, just getting lost in the melody. When I strummed the last few notes, I opened my eyes to see everyone sitting there quietly, staring at me with smiles of fascination and appreciation across their faces.

  “Wooooo!” Talon called, breaking the silence. Everyone else erupted in appreciative cheers, as well. I blushed, waving my hand dismissively. I wasn’t great at taking compliments. It was an odd trait for a performer to have, but I did appreciate the positive feedback.

  “All right, all right that’s it. I’m done.” I smiled and put my guitar back on its stand, getting up and heading for the kitchen as their cheers quieted.

  “Hey, that was amazing.” A hand brushed my arm, and I turned around, another beer in my hand. A pretty blonde with big, blue eyes stood there smiling at me.

  I blushed again. “Thanks.”

  “My name’s Alicia, by the way.” She put out her hand, and I shook it.

  “Owen…though, I’m guessing you might have already known that.” I smiled, feeling more than a little of the beer buzz now.

  “I did,” she giggled and pushed her hair back, taking a sip of her cocktail. “I mean, you did just have your name chanted through the living room. So, what are you doing hiding out in the kitchen? Not much of the partying type?”

  “I suppose not,” I laughed, looking her over as she leaned closer. “Not with a ton of people, anyway. I don’t know half the people the guys invited.”

  “Oh, well, if it makes you feel better, neither do I. We could hang out in the kitchen, now that you know me,” she said with a wink. Alicia was definitely cute and had a nice figure, accentuated in a pink, baby doll dress that showed off some rather impressive cleavage. Her grin widened when she caught me looking.

  Drunken idiot, I scolded myself, then smiled as if I hadn’t just been giving her the once over. She didn’t seem to mind.

  “Sure, we could hang out in here,” I said, chugging back more beer. “But what do you want to do?”

  She bit her lip, this time giving me the once over, not being vague about it at all. “Hmm, well, to be honest, I could think of more than a few things I'd like to do with you.”

  “Oh, is that so?” I licked my bottom lip, more than a little amused with her flirting. “And just what might those things be?”

  Without hesitation, she stood on her toes and pressed her lips to mine. “Something like that, maybe?” she said when she finally pulled away. Drunk and definitely more than a little bit horny, I pulled her back to me and kissed her, flicking my tongue against her lips.

  “Or, maybe we could go upstairs,” I suggested, pressing her back against the counter. I normally wasn’t so bold, but I’d had just enough beer to lessen my inhibitions.

  Alicia let out a soft moan against my lips, nodding, and I wasted no time in pulling her toward the stairs. We stopped a few times on the way up to my bedroom, kissing and groping. By the time I shoved my bedroom door open, she was already tugging off my shirt.

  I lifted her up, letting my hands slide under the skirt of her dress and over her ass, giving it a gentle squeeze as I did. She cupped my face, kissing me deeply as she wrapped her legs around my waist. I lowered her onto the bed, crawling over her and breathing heavily with eagerness. I ground my hips against her, letting her feel how turned on I was, pushing her dress higher up until it was at her waist.

  She took over quickly, surprising me a little as she pushed me onto my back and pulled her dress over her head, revealing a matching pink lace bra and panties. I let out a pleased groan as she crawled toward me and undid my jeans. She pulled me free, gently stroking my aroused form before taking me in her mouth. I laid my head back, moaning and running my fingers through her hair, enjoying this moment immensely. It had been a while for me, and I definitely missed it.

  When I couldn’t take it anymore, I pulled her back up to me, kissing her mouth and wrapping my arms around her while undoing her bra. Alicia let the straps slide down and tossed her bra aside, letting her round ample breasts fall free. I took one nipple in my mouth, swirling my tongue around it and flicking it, my hand fondling her other breast as she ground against my hard on.

  She let out a pleasing little noise as I played with her breasts, and I stiffened even more, my dick jerking against her. “Do you have a condom?” she whispered.

  I released her breast and nodded, pointing to my nightstand. She leaned over, reaching into one of the drawers and produced one. I obediently slid my jeans and boxers all the way off, letting her slip it on me.

  It was rather obvious that she liked to be in control, and I was completely okay with that. In fact, I found it quite sexy. She tugged off her panties and flung them in the same direction as her bra and dress. I smiled up at her, letting her rest her hands on my chest as she lowered herself onto me. Both of us moaned
in unison as she took all of me inside her, and I gently bucked my hips, pulling her back down to me so I could kiss her.

  Her tongue flickered against mine, and I moaned into her mouth as she rode me. I felt close to exploding, but wanted to hold out longer. I reached down, rubbing her clit, wanting her to come first. She moaned against my lips, and I gently tugged her bottom lip between my teeth as my fingers made determined little circles around her clit.

  “Oh my God, Owen!” She pulled back, whimpering, her movements quickening. I moved my hips to match her pace, watching her expression as she came. My own orgasm came upon me with equal force, and I dug my nails into her ass, thrusting deeper inside her, letting her moans fuel me on over the edge.

  When we were finished, however, I immediately knew I wouldn’t be too proud of myself the next day.

  Chapter Four

  Nalia

  “I think I need to get laid tonight,” Grace announced as she carefully applied her eyeliner in the bathroom mirror. “It's been a while, and, well, girls have needs, too.”

  I laughed and looked up at her through her reflection in the mirror over the dresser in the bedroom of the hotel.

  “So is that your plan for the night?” I asked. I couldn’t really say I’d blame her, though. She’d just gotten out of a long relationship that had turned downright sour toward the end, and I was guessing that she probably needed to blow off some steam. And she was entitled to do that in whatever way she wanted.

  She smiled at me and nodded. “Well, if the right opportunity arises, anyway,” she said with a sly smirk. “I'm not about to hop into bed with any old Joe. I have my standards, and I'm not about to lower them just because I'm in the mood to get some!”

  I laughed and went back to applying my eyeshadow and eyeliner. After a moment, I regarded my reflection and adjusted the little black dress that I’d brought along just in case Grace wanted to go out. In our many years of being friends, I had learned to be prepared for anything with her because the unexpected was almost always the case when we went on little trips like this. Grace loved her spontaneous ideas and, more often than not, those ideas involved getting dressed to the nines and hitting cocktail bars and clubs. In that way, “spontaneous” had become, well, kind of predictable to be honest. But hey, it was still fun.

  I studied my reflection. The dress hugged my curvaceous figure quite nicely and made my ass look great, if I did say so myself. I didn’t go anywhere without this dress being packed. It was my go-to dress.

  “You’re looking really hot,” Grace commented, looking me over as she grabbed her heels out of her bag. I waggled my eyebrows at her then did the same, sitting on one of the double beds and slipping on a pair of silver stilettos. “Keep it up and we both might get laid,” she added with a mischievous grin and a quick wink.

  “Nah. Not tonight, Grace. I'm just not feeling it. I’m way more interested in dancing,” I assured her with a shrug. Honestly, I was much more focused on the job possibility we’d talked about earlier. In fact, my thoughts had been focused almost entirely on that since she'd first told me about it. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of finding a job in the music industry earlier. Now, all I knew was that I had to get this job somehow. My mind wasn’t really on guys. Especially not players at a club that were only good for a one-night stand. That wasn't exactly what I needed in my life.

  “Right, well, I’m sure we’ll do plenty of that, too,” she giggled, clearly a little buzzed from the pre-game cocktails she had already polished off. I, on the other hand, had barely taken a few sips of one. Grace was definitely the party girl out of the pair of us.

  “You ready?” I asked. She nodded and stood up, twirling to show me her own skimpy, sleeveless dress. I quickly gave her an approving thumbs up and a grin. Grace did the same for me as I posed in a joking manner before I grabbed my purse.

  “Which club are we going to?” I asked as we headed down the hallway toward the elevator.

  “Le Venin Lounge,” she replied with a smile. I wanted to sigh, but instead, I simply returned the facial expression back at her. I really should have known that would be her choice. It was her favorite club to go to whenever we came down to San Diego, and like the other aspects of her so-called spontaneity I've mentioned, it was also becoming a little predictable. Really, I hadn't even needed to ask.

  Le Venin was French for “The Venom” and the interior of the club—from the entry to the bathrooms—was done up in plush red and black. In a way, it kind of reminded me of what I imagined an upscale vampire club would look like if such things actually existed. I was pretty sure that that must have been the vibe the designers were going for when they planned the place.

  Truth be told, despite all the complaining I did about it in my head, I was actually fairly fond of the club, as well. We always ended up getting our drinks covered by the guys there without too much effort on our part, so there was always that to look forward to.

  Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the club, and I followed Grace straight to the bar when we walked in. Sure enough, a couple of guys nodded in our direction, and a few minutes later, free drinks were placed in front of us. It had to be a record on our part. I leaned over close to Grace’s ear and said, “I told you this dress always works.”

  We smiled as we took our drinks and offered an appreciative nod to the guys, with Grace throwing in a playful wink just for the fun of it.

  “The one on the left is pretty cute,” she all but shouted to me over the music as she took a sip of her cocktail. I nodded in response.

  I had to admit that neither of the guys were bad looking, but I was really just interested in dancing and having some fun tonight. Not that I couldn’t do that while dancing with a guy who didn’t mind buying me a drink or two. Of course, I didn't want to lead anyone on or get their hopes up for something that just wasn't going to happen. Still, I'd have to at least have a chat with them, even if that's all they got out of me. Not that I had a choice since Grace was already motioning for them to join us.

  Both guys came over at Grace’s encouraging smile, and the one she’d been eyeballing started chatting her up immediately. The other guy seemed a bit shy, so I motioned to the dance floor and held my hand out for him. He took it and followed me out to an empty spot among the crowd. The club was thumping with a heavy beat, and I let him dance up on me, grinding and gyrating my backside against him as I took a drink.

  “You’re beautiful. You live around here?” he shouted.

  Ugh, he was actually trying to make conversation. Well, I couldn’t be mean, even if I wasn’t interested; he had paid for my drink, after all, and was being nice enough so far.

  “Thank you. And no, I’m from L.A. We're just down here for the night,” I responded.

  He slipped his hands onto my waist and brushed his face against my shoulder, so he could speak closer to my ear and not have to shout so much, I suspected. “Oh? Just for the night? That’s too bad.”

  “Yep, just needed some time away and a girls’ night out.” I took another sip, not really wanting to continue chatting. He seemed to take the hint and turned me around, rolling his hips against me and smiling. I had to admit, he was quite handsome with his light eyes and perfectly styled head of dark, wavy hair.

  “That’s cool. My name’s Devin,” he said with a wink.

  “Nalia. Nice to meet you, Devin,” I smiled at him and took another sip. “Thanks again for the drink.”

  “It’s no problem, no problem at all! There's plenty where that came from. Let me know if you want another.”

  Oh yeah, he was hoping to get laid all right, and it certainly already looked like his friend would with Grace. For a brief moment I did consider it, but one-night stands had never been my thing and besides, I had too many other things on my mind. Plus, this guy seemed more sweet than smooth, unlike his friend who was already making out with Grace in a booth. I’d hate to mess around with him and give him hope when I had no interest in relationships at the moment. That would
have been cruel and selfish on my part.

  “I think your friend seems to be getting along pretty well with mine,” he laughed, nodding toward the booth where the two were sucking face.

  I grinned. “Yeah, I think that’s a safe assumption to make.”

  “Need a refill?” He motioned to my empty glass, and I nodded, thanking him and following him back to the bar. Grace eyed me over the guy’s shoulder and gave me a thumbs up as the guy she was making out with nibbled at her neck. I couldn’t help but laugh at my wild friend.

  Devin and I both got another drink and sat at the bar for a bit making idle chit chat. I think he was picking up on the fact that he probably wasn’t going to score tonight with me, but he didn’t seem to mind and was still interested in hanging out. I found it a little refreshing that he didn’t assume buying me drinks meant I owed him something. So, after a bit more chit-chat, I ended up playing his wing man when I spotted another girl eyeing him from across the bar.

  “I think she’s checking you out.”

  “Huh?” On instinct, he looked around, then looked embarrassed as he had been talking to me. I motioned toward the girl subtly, however, and he looked. “But I’m talking to you.”

  “Yes, and you’re a really sweet guy, but I don’t live here and I'll probably never see you again. She might, though. And trust me on this, I’m fairly certain that chick is digging on you and that you should ask her to dance. In fact, if you don't, you might be wasting a really great opportunity.”

  A confused expression came over his face, like he was unsure of what to think of my help. “You think I should go talk to her?”

  I nodded, giving him an encouraging smile.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really! I’ve had a lot of fun dancing with you and chatting, but I think that girl is into you, and like I said, maybe she’s local,” I added. “Trust me, I know that look she's been giving you. I know exactly what it means.”