by Ivy Layne
When I found out, I’d assumed Aiden was behind it and I’d been furious. He’d been as surprised as me. Holden and Tate were the only ones who had any idea I’d applied for the job, and they knew exactly who I was when they offered it to me.
I hadn’t been sure about taking it. On one hand, the salary and benefits were good, and the flexible hours would let me go back to school part-time. On the other hand, I wasn’t comfortable accepting favors in the form of employment. Holden and Tate swore I was the best qualified applicant, but I wasn’t sure I believed them.
In the end, I took the job. I’d been there five months and it was everything I hoped it would be. WGC was laid back, the employees dedicated and passionate, with a sense of humor. Half the time they acted like work was play and it made every day in the office entertaining.
Two days a week I commuted to Athens, an hour away, and attended classes towards my Master’s Degree in Accountancy at the University of Georgia. My compromise was the car and driver Aiden sent with me. I’d insisted I could take the bus. In fact, we’d had a knockdown, drag-out fight about it.
Providing me with a car and driver was a ridiculous waste of money, in my opinion. I could drive myself, but the bus gave me two hours a day to study. Aiden pointed out that I could do that far more comfortably in the spacious backseat of his Bentley.
It was Charlie, the master of fighting with Aiden, who tipped the balance. We’d been arguing—again—our disagreement getting more heated as the fall semester grew closer, until she pulled me aside and said, using the nickname she’d picked up from Chase, “Vivi, choose your battles. Don’t waste your energy on the car thing. Let him have his way and fight him on something really worthwhile. Trust me. It works better if you save your disagreements until you really need them. Do you want to take the bus that badly?”
“But it’s a waste of money,” I’d protested.
It was one thing when Aiden was with me. Then I didn’t question the private plane or the hotel suites. But this was different. This was just me. I was perfectly fine taking the bus.
Charlie just poked me in the shoulder and laughed. “Seriously? Not to Aiden. First of all, he’s not even going to blink at what a car and driver costs two days a week. Second, he’d spend any amount of money to make sure that you’re safe and comfortable. Let him. It’s just money. He’s got enough of it.”
So I gave in. Charlie was right. Aiden didn’t love me because I was a pushover. He loved me because I stood up to him, but there was nothing wrong with choosing my battles wisely. And I had to admit, if only to myself, that the Bentley was a whole lot more comfortable than the bus.
Really, after six months, we only had one ongoing issue. We couldn’t settle on a plan for our wedding.
Not that Aiden had asked. Not formally. There was no ring and no date. I wasn’t fishing for one. In my opinion it made more sense to wait at least a full year. Wasn’t that the conventional wisdom? You should be with someone for all four seasons before you commit for life?
I couldn’t help being cautious. I think Aiden worried that I still didn’t trust him, but that wasn’t it.
I struggled to put it into words. My whole life had changed. Before I met Aiden, I was adrift, tethered only to Chase, mostly alone in the world. And then there was Aiden and his big, messy, affectionate family. My life had been quiet and a little lonely. Overnight, it seemed, it was full, bursting with friends and love, so much so it felt like a dream.
A tiny part of me was afraid I’d wake up one morning and it would all be gone. Moving into Winters House, marrying Aiden—those things were so big. So permanent. So final. Deep in my heart, I feared taking that kind of step would break the spell and I’d wake up alone.
I hemmed and hawed on wedding ideas. Aiden’s brother Jacob and his fiancée Abigail were in the final stages of planning the wedding to end all weddings. I knew I didn’t want something like that.
I didn’t know what I wanted. A small destination wedding? Something at Winters House? Winters House had seen its share of weddings in the last few years; Tate and Emily, Charlie and Lucas, Gage and Sophie, and most recently Annalise and Riley, though they’d married at their house in the woods and not in the main house.
I wanted something different. Not a big splashy society event—just the idea of that gave me the shudders—and not something at home.
Something different. I just couldn’t figure out what that was.
I even had a dress. Crazy, I know. Who buys a dress before a proposal? Me, it turns out. I didn’t mean to. Buying a wedding dress was the last thing on my mind when I joined Abigail, Charlie, Maggie, Sophie, Emily, Jo, and Annalise at the bridal shop to pick out bridesmaids dresses.
Abigail wanted her future sisters and cousins-in-law to make up her wedding party. The lot of us were quite a crowd. The shop was closed just for us, and there’d been champagne. A lot of champagne.
I blamed it on the discount. When the wedding dress of my dreams was sixty percent off because of an almost invisible tear in the silk—it was like a sign from the heavens. I couldn’t say no.
Annalise talked me into trying it on, and once I saw myself in the three-way mirror I knew this was my dress. Strapless white corded lace with a low back, the bodice sparkled with a spray of hand sewn beads. And the skirt…the skirt was a confection. Yards and yards of that delicate corded lace, it bloomed from the tight basque waistline, the train flowing behind me.
The dress was fit for a queen. Romantic and elegant, it made a statement. With my summer tan and my hair pinned up, I looked regal. Timeless. For the first time, looking at myself in the mirror, wearing that dress, I felt like I could be Aiden’s bride.
The rest of the girls agreed, and I ended up with a wedding dress hidden in the back of Charlie’s closet. She said she didn’t trust Aiden not to peek and ruin the surprise. I’d agreed.
Time marched on, and still, we were in limbo. Just before Christmas, Aiden talked me into a long weekend in Las Vegas. He had some details to wrap up for his project with Dylan Kane, and we both wanted to get away for a few days. This time I skipped the meeting with Dylan, opting to give myself an early Christmas gift of a spa day.
While Aiden went over reports and toured the site, I got a massage, some kind of seaweed mud wrap thing, a facial and a mani-pedi. By the time I wandered back to our suite in my robe I was relaxed and glowing.
Aiden was waiting for me, along with a chilled bottle of champagne and that same Harry Connick Jr song we’d danced to all those months ago. Before I could think about changing out of my robe, he took my hand and pulled me into his arms.
That was Aiden. He still worked too much, though he was getting better, but he never forgot to take the time for romance. We danced, my cheek against his chest, his arms holding me close. The song ended too soon. I expected another, but the room fell silent.
Aiden dropped to his knee. My heart went crazy in my chest, pounding so hard the rush of it filled my ears. I’d been waiting forever, and still some part of me hadn’t believed this moment would come.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small black velvet box. His fingers wrapped around mine, pulling them to his lips for a kiss.
“Say yes.”
A smile curled my lips. Typical Aiden.
“Not until you ask,” I countered.
“Be mine, Violet. I want to spend every day of my life making you as happy as you make me. Say yes.”
He still hadn’t asked, but I could let it slide. Usually, I was more than happy to bust his chops, but not now. Not for this.
Aiden didn’t have to ask. I was already his. There was no man I’d ever love the way I loved Aiden. I thought about teasing him a little longer, but the emotion, the longing in his eyes, filled my soul, and I said the only word in my heart.
“Yes.”
He rose to his feet, flipping the lid on the velvet box. Still holding my fingers in his hand, he worked the ring free and tossed the box on a nearby table. My mouth went dry
when I got a good look at the ring.
I hadn’t thought about the ring. Not really. The dress, absolutely. But not the ring. If I had, I wouldn’t have imagined this. A brilliant round center stone surrounded by a geometric bezel frame on a micropavé band, every bit of the ring sparkled.
The frame and band were set with small glittering diamonds and the center stone was…let’s just say it was big. Really big. The round stone and the angles of the surrounding frame had an art deco look, as if the ring was from the twenties.
Aiden slid it on the ring finger of my left hand. “It was my mother’s, and my grandmother’s before her. Now it’s yours.”
“What about…” I didn’t want to say her name, not in the middle of Aiden’s proposal, but he had been married before.
He shook his head. “I never even thought of it. I should have known it was a mistake when I never considered giving her this ring. And with you, I never thought of anything else. I imagined you wearing this ring the last time we were in this room.”
“You didn’t,” I murmured, transfixed by the sight of all those diamonds on my finger. This was more than a ring. It was his legacy. His history. Our future.
“I did. You were trying to figure out how to get away from me, and I was already planning to keep you.”
I laughed a little, dizzy with love, happiness fizzing in my veins like champagne. Aiden hit a button on his phone to restart the music and pulled me close. His lips grazing my temple, we swayed together.
“If you want, we can do it here. Tomorrow.”
Startled, I leaned back. He was serious. “But the family and…”
“They’re here. Charlie has your dress.”
I just stared at him, completely at a loss for words. They were here? Charlie had my dress? How long had he been planning this? Before I could get my thoughts together, Aiden explained.
“If this isn’t what you want, we’ll figure out something else. Anything. But if you want to get married now, Dylan reserved the garden chapel. I checked it out this afternoon. It’s beautiful—stained glass and flowers. I took pictures for you.”
“What if this isn’t what I want? What if I want to wait?”
Aiden pressed his mouth to mine in a slow, sweet kiss. “Then we’ll wait. We’ll make a party of this weekend and take our time deciding exactly what you want for your wedding.”
“But you want this?” Everything was moving so fast, I couldn’t quite catch up.
“I want you to be my wife. That’s it. I’d prefer to do it sooner rather than later, but I can wait if that’s what you need. I would have married you months ago if I hadn’t thought the idea would scare you away.”
A laugh bubbled up. “It might have.” I looked at the sparkle of the ring on my finger, brilliant against Aiden’s dark suit coat. Then I looked into his warm, brown eyes, so full of love.
I didn’t want to wait either. And I didn’t want a big wedding. I just wanted Aiden and our family. And I wanted it now. This weekend. Here.
“Yes,” I said, the laugh still caught in my voice. “Yes. Let’s do it now. Everyone’s really here?”
“They got here this afternoon. I had to charter an extra plane, but we managed to get everyone. My family, Chase, Annabelle, the Sinclairs.”
“Perfect. That’s perfect.” I didn’t need to see pictures of the chapel. I trusted Aiden. And this was exactly right. We didn’t need a fuss, we just needed our family and each other.
“Where are they now?” I asked, looking around, half expecting the whole crew to jump out and surprise me.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.” Aiden swept me up into his arms, just as he had that first night in this room, and he carried me off to bed. “Tomorrow you can celebrate with our families. Tonight, you’re all mine.”
And I was. That night, the next, and every night that came after.
Thank you for reading Aiden & Violet’s story!
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Also by Ivy Layne
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Scandals of the Bad Boy Billionaires
The Billionaire’s Secret Heart (Novella)
The Billionaire’s Secret Love (Novella)
The Billionaire’s Pet
The Billionaire’s Promise
The Rebel Billionaire
The Billionaire’s Secret Kiss (Novella)
The Billionaire’s Angel
Engaging the Billionaire
Compromising the Billionaire
The Counterfeit Billionaire
Series Extras
The Alpha Billionaire Club
The Wedding Rescue
The Courtship Maneuver
The Temptation Trap
ABOUT IVY LAYNE
Ivy Layne has had her nose stuck in a book since she first learned to decipher the English language. Sometime in her early teens, she stumbled across her first Romance, and the die was cast. Though she pretended to pay attention to her creative writing professors, she dreamed of writing steamy romance instead of literary fiction. These days, she’s neck deep in alpha heroes and the smart, sexy women who love them.
Married to her very own alpha hero (who rubs her back after a long day of typing, but also leaves his socks on the floor). Ivy lives in the mountains of North Carolina where she and her other half are having a blast raising two energetic little boys. Aside from her family, Ivy’s greatest loves are coffee and chocolate, preferably together.
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Compromising the Billionaire
Copyright © 2018 by Ivy Layne
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover by Jacqueline Sweet
Find out more about the author and upcoming books online at www.ivylayne.com
