Billionaires Runaway Bride (A Standalone British Billionaire Romance Novel)

by Claire Adams

  “I’m Brandon. Nice to meet you,” I replied as I moved in close so we could dance.

  The thing about meeting girls at dance clubs was that you really couldn’t talk to them, which was perfectly all right with me. Since becoming divorced a few years earlier, I had come to the conclusion that dating and me just weren’t a great mix. More specifically, picking up women from clubs and dating them wasn’t the best mix for me. I was sure there were better women out there, but I just wasn’t ready for that type of commitment, so club girls were what I liked.

  When dating a club girl there really were only two possible options.

  The first option was that you’d go home together and have a fun night and then one of you would never call the other one. You would both go on about your lives without incident and nothing bad would happen. This was my favorite option when picking up club girls.

  The second possible option was that you thought the girl was really nice and started dating her on a regular basis. Sooner or later, she would be unable to cover up her insane personality, though, and you’d end up with death threats or crazy ex-boyfriends pounding on your door. I was not a fan of option number two.

  Recently, I had signed up for a dating company that promised to match me up with the woman of my dreams. It seemed unlikely that such a woman existed, but there was a small part of me that hoped I would find such a woman someday. Didn’t everyone want to find their perfect life partner? I was content to continue playing the field until I found that forever match, though.

  Kendra grabbed my belt loops and pulled me toward her. My body throbbed as she held her thigh up against me and wiggled it around. The warmth of her body as it pressed against mine was growing rapidly. Her hands suddenly reached down and grabbed a hold of me as she pressed her lips near my ear.

  “My place or yours?” she asked.

  “Mine.”

  Just like that, I had my company for the evening.

  I grabbed her hand and whisked her through the sweaty group of dancers and out to the waiting taxi stand. In the lights outside of the club, I got a better look at Kendra. She was very typically attractive, with long, blonde hair, fake boobs, and a fake tan. She clearly subscribed to all the latest hair and makeup trends and enjoyed getting coated in cosmetics before heading out to the club.

  “I need to text my friend to let him know I’m leaving,” I said as I pulled out my phone and we slipped into the back of the cab. “Do you need to let anyone know?”

  “Nope, I’m good,” she said in a high-pitched chipper voice.

  I sent off a quick text to Josh that he had free-range of the VIP table if he wanted it and could charge to my account there. My gut turned with a little regret for not hanging out longer with him. He worked from home and didn’t get out of the house very often. Our weekend sessions on learning the art of stock trading were often stretched into a whole afternoon of talking just because Josh didn’t get out to talk with people all that much. He was a really likable guy, but he was always trying to earn money and never took breaks to build his social network.

  My life was all about balance since my son passed away. Partying hard was an awesome coping strategy, and without it, I wouldn’t have survived Noah’s death and my divorce from Rose.

  When it came down to it, though, I was always a man of steadiness and worked hard to allow myself the time for partying. My parts manufacturing business had been my whole life and up until I sold it, I’d really never imagined I would do anything else. Now that I had all the money I could ever ask for and nothing to fill my time with, I spent more and more time partying, which had me way off my normal equilibrium.

  “You’re really cute,” Kendra said seductively. “I’m glad we ran into each other.”

  “Thanks. I only live a few miles from here. How was your night at Avalon so far?”

  “It was such a drag. My boyfriend left me there after we fought.”

  “You have a boyfriend?” I asked with an eye raised.

  “Not anymore,” she replied as she leaned in to kiss me.

  If I had been a man looking for a girlfriend, Kendra’s situation wouldn’t have been ideal. Fortunately, I wasn’t a man looking for a girlfriend, at least not on that evening. I needed a nice girl’s company for the night and Kendra fit the bill just fine. I didn’t need to talk to someone, and I certainly wasn’t looking for a long-term commitment.

  I leaned in to kiss her – partly just because I really didn’t want to talk about her love life and partly because I needed a little primer before bringing her to bed. This girl was obviously eager to get back at her ex-boyfriend, and I was more than happy to oblige her with an evening of fun.

  When we burst through the doors to my house, I had my shirt half unbuttoned and my body still throbbed with desire. Kendra’s hands made quick work of unbuttoning my pants as we kissed and we finished undressing each other on the way to the bedroom.

  Her lips pressed roughly against me and her hand moved forcefully up and down my body when we reach the bed. She wanted me so badly that she probably would have taken me without any protection, but that wasn’t how I rolled. As much as I loved a good one-night stand, I always used protection.

  “Just a second, babe,” I said as I reached into the side drawer.

  “Your house is so big. You are so big. I can’t wait to have you,” she said as her hands started to play with her breasts.

  It was obvious this girl was a wild one. I watched her as she grabbed herself and moved in front of me. She reminded me a bit of a woman who worked on a pole for a living, but I wasn’t about to ask her if that was what she did.

  “Those are some beautiful breasts you have there.”

  “Oh, I know. I just got them a few months ago. Do you like?”

  “Yep,” I said as my mouth wrapped around one of them and I pressed her back onto the bed.

  There needed to be less talking and more action. I didn’t invite this girl to my house to have a long, thoughtful conversation. I invited her to screw her – and that was exactly what we were going to do.

  I let my tongue tease her nipple for a little bit while I unwrapped my condom and slid it over me. There was no need for a long evening of teasing; this girl was obviously primed and ready to go.

  Our bodies moved together in a furry of thrusts and moans as we both let out the sexual tensions built up inside of us. It was a relief to have a woman who seemed so readily accepting of the one-night stand option. Most of the women I brought home really seemed like they wanted to move things into a relationship era as they talked about their lifelong goals and dreams before we made love.

  Not Kendra, though; she and I had barely spoken a few sentences to each other before she was ready to fall into bed with me. I wasn’t judging her; it was a fun night for me, just not something that was going to go past that evening.

  By three o’clock in the morning, Kendra was dressed and we were out front waiting for the Uber I had ordered for her. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me before sliding into the black leather seat of the vehicle.

  “Thanks for a fun night,” she said and blew me a kiss.

  There was no need to respond. I simply waved her goodbye as the car pulled out of my driveway. A sigh of relief came over me, and I made my way back to my bedroom and into my extra-large shower. The rainforest showerhead was pounding my back with warm water in less than five minutes, and I was fast asleep shortly after that.

  There wasn’t anything better than one-night stands. I had a fun evening of sex with no consequences and was still back to sleep in a reasonable amount of time. I didn’t have to buy the girl presents, meet her parents, or make compromises on where we should go for boring dates.

  Of course, there was a downside to dating women with no intention of moving a relationship forward.

  The emotional connection of a real dating relationship could be very mutually beneficial. I was eager to give it a try again with Dating the Rich. Even if I just found some stable women to go ou
t on dates with, it would give me the opportunity to practice my real-life dating skills. I hadn’t really dated since I was in my early twenties. I didn’t call what I did with the women from clubs dating; it was more like primal need fulfillment.

  Chapter Three

  Delilah

  “What are some good interests I have?”

  “You want me to tell you your interests?” Mattie laughed as she looked up from across the cubicle. “I don’t know. Wait, why don’t you know your own interests?”

  “I’m filling out a fake profile with my information so I can test the coding I used for the updated personal interests section. Just help me out here. What do I do that’s actually interesting?”

  The last thing I wanted to do was put up an actual dating profile. I didn’t want to date anyone, and I was certain of that. But the errors were bugging me and in order to get the coding to work, I wanted to test it out on a page that I could manage.

  Working in information technology was harder than I had ever expected. I learned something new every day, though, and I liked the challenge of my work. There weren’t too many jobs out there where you could literally reprogram a whole company’s livelihood and then hang out in the free lunch room over a mocha cappuccino.

  Dating the Rich was a fabulous place to work. We had free food everywhere in the building. We could take as much time off as we wanted, although we didn’t get paid for it, so I never used it. We also had a gym downstairs and a massage therapist that came to the office once a month.

  The only thing I didn’t like was my current supervisor, but those guys turned over so quickly that I knew someone else would take his position soon and I just had to tough it out for a bit.

  “Hmmm, besides horribly boring art shows? I don’t know, you do a lot of things. Volunteering, working with your son and his school, all your running stuff…can you put that stuff in there?”

  “Yep, I’ll add my love of cat sweaters, too, just for fun.”

  “Ha, yep, I’m sure that would totally get the millionaires to love your profile. That’s just the type of woman they are looking for: lonely cat lady.”

  “It’s not a profile to actually meet guys. I just need to test if everything is working, I’ll make it private again soon,” I said as I flipped my monitor around to show Mattie the profile I had set up so far. “You know, I swear I’ve fixed this error a dozen times and every time I think it’s totally good, I log in and it’s not.”

  “If you don’t want people to respond to that profile, you shouldn’t have put that amazing picture of you on there. Damn, Del; that’s hot. Where was that taken?”

  “On the beach after Spencer passed away. Spencer’s parents took me and Connor on a vacation. They are truly the best in-laws in the world. I’m so lucky to have them.”

  “That is one kick-ass body you’ve got there, lady. I’d kill to look that good in a bikini. You should just walk around in a bikini. I mean, if I looked like that in a swimsuit, I’d just wear the damn thing to work.”

  “It’s called running, Mattie. I ask you to come with me all the time and you always refuse. I’m only in shape because I used running as my only form of therapy after Spencer passed away.”

  “Oh, I don’t want to exercise. I meant I’d actually kill someone if they’d just give me some abs,” she laughed loudly at her own joke. Mattie’s laugh boomed through our office and soon everyone had turned their heads toward us to see what was going on.

  I loved her humor, though. Having her there with me over the years had been a big source of inspiration. She could turn even the dreariest of days into one where we were both laughing so hard we were crying. It was a special talent, that was for sure.

  “Get back to work,” our angry manager grumbled as he stuck his head out of his office.

  “One of these days he’s going to move on and we will get a decent manager,” I said softly. “I really thought he’d be sick of this job by now.”

  “I know. I mean, what kind of man is that angry all the time? He is working at a match-making website. It’s not like we have a super stressful job or anything like that. You’d think that some sort of happiness would be a requirement to get a middle management job around here. All of the upper management seems so happy all the time.”

  “Maybe he’s grumpy because he works here. You know what I’m saying? He needs a girlfriend and working here and being reminded that he doesn’t have one just makes him sad.”

  We both giggled as we turned back to our computers and continued working. No matter what code I put into the social interest section, I continued to get errors throughout the morning. I reloaded several versions of the code and even read the entire code line by line as I tried to fix my error. It was exhausting.

  By the time lunch rolled around, I was in the middle of a pure frustration fit. Coding for our clients’ profiles was my main area of work. I had to fix this error before I could continue on to test any other issues we were having. As I was about to walk away from my desk for lunch, an instant message window popped up on my screen.

  IM from Brandon: Do you accept?

  “Oh, Mattie, I’ve got a guy messaging me,” I laughed. “See what happens when I put an amazingly small bikini photo on my profile?”

  “Is he cute? If he’s cute, you need to answer him. Remember, these guys are rich. You need a rich guy in your life.”

  “It doesn’t matter. This is a fake account; I’m not going to accept the message. I don’t need anyone in my life. I’m very happy exactly where I am.”

  “Del, it’s not really all that fake. It’s your picture and your details. Just answer him. Is he cute? And, yes, you do need a rich handsome guy in your life. Hell, I need one in my life. Answer him – for me. Take one for the team, Delilah!”

  “Yes, his profile looks like he is acceptably handsome.”

  “Let me see,” she said as she jumped up and came around to my desk. “Oh, wow, Del; he’s really handsome. You’ve got to talk to him. Message him, or accept his message, or whatever you need to do. Let’s make this happen.”

  I looked around in fear that our manager would come walking past. I didn’t want to get caught using the instant messaging app on our dating site while I was supposed to be working on fixing our problems. He already yelled at us enough for no reason at all, so I didn’t want to give him an actual reason to yell at me.

  “I only have my profile up while I’m fixing this error. I really shouldn’t be talking to any of the guys on here.”

  “Why not?”

  One of the things I loved most about Mattie was her willingness to go against the norms of everything. She was so much bolder than I was. I was pretty sure I’d always be a rule follower, but I liked having her around so I could live vicariously through her and her wild ways.

  “I’m an employee here. I’m sure there are rules about us having a profile on the site. Plus, I’m not dating right now.”

  “Yes, you are. You totally brought that guy home from the charity event last month.”

  “That wasn’t dating,” I clarified. “That was a one-night thing.”

  “Oh, come on. Just say hello to the guy. What could it hurt to say hi? Everyone is heading out to lunch. Robert isn’t even around to see what you’re doing. You are flat out of excuses. Say hi to the guy.”

  Mattie reached around me and clicked the accept button on the message. Soon, another message popped up and she went scurrying back to her desk with a huge smile of pride across her face.

  “Mattie!”

  “You can thank me later when the two of you fall madly in love and you’re married to a millionaire.”

  Brandon: Hi, I’m Brandon. It’s nice to meet you.

  Delilah: Hi, Brandon. I’m Delilah, my friends call me Del.

  As I typed my reply, I looked at his profile to see who this guy was and if he was anyone I might be interested in. Even though I wasn’t really dating, there was always this little voice inside my head that said there was another righ
t guy out in the world for me. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever find someone I could love as much as my late husband, but I still had a little hope that someday I would cross paths with a man of equal standing.

  “What’s he saying?” Mattie asked as she leaned in from across the cubicle. “Is he nice? Are you going to go out with him? I bet he’s really rich. Ask him how much money he has. Wait, no. Don’t ask that.”

  “He just said hello, and I said hello. Now go to lunch; I’m only going to talk to him for a second before I’m getting back to working on this project. I need to get this error fixed before the end of the day.”

  Mattie laughed as she grabbed her purse and headed out. We normally ate together for lunch, but she knew how I was when I had a lot of work. I wasn’t on a regular break and lunch schedule like she was, so I could always leave early if I skipped my lunch. Mattie worked in customer service and had to be at her desk at specific times.

  Brandon: That’s one hell of a profile picture.

  Delilah: Well, it got your attention, didn’t it?

  Brandon: Definitely. I was a little disappointed you didn’t have a cat sweater photo, too. I bet you look amazing in cat sweaters.

  Delilah: That was a little joke my friend and I put on my profile. I don’t actually own a cat or a cat sweater.

  Brandon: What! False advertising. I can’t talk to you if you don’t actually own a cat sweater. Man, that was a huge selling point.

  I paused our conversation for a minute while I looked through his profile a little closer. If I could have designed my ideal man, physically at least, it would have been Brandon. He was six-two with medium-brown hair cut in a trendy, short style. His light-green eyes popped out from every picture on his profile, and I was pretty sure the guy was incapable of taking a bad picture. Even the one of him crossing the finish line at the Boston Marathon had him looking epically handsome.

  Brandon: Did I lose you?