"She hates you." I tugged the dress back down and gave him a sympathetic smile.
"I love a good challenge." He kissed me and brushed his hand down my hair. "Let me change my shirt and let's go. I can't wait to see Jake, and I know he can't wait to see you."
"He doesn't hate me?" I asked and followed him out into the living room.
"Hell no. He's always been on your side, like a fucking cheerleader in my ear for the last six years." He laughed and warmth engulfed me. We belonged together. I had no doubt.
"Then I owe him a debt of gratitude."
"Just a smile will work. No one gets anything from you but me from here on out." He winked and turned to walk back into his bedroom.
"So bossy." I dropped down on the couch and let out a content sigh.
"You like it."
"That I do."
Chapter 25
Caden
"Well, look at what the cat dragged in!" Jake walked toward us as we entered the old Catfish Barn at the edge of the city. His dark hair and Italian looks had half the room turning to look his way. He was the only man I knew that had a heart of gold. I couldn't have had a better mentor in life.
"Hey, buddy." I shook his hand and moved over to pull Kari into a side hug. "I'm Caden. It's nice to finally meet you. This guy hasn't shut up about you in the last year."
"It's not been that long, has it?" Kari moved over to talk with Olivia after Jake stopped hugging the poor girl.
"How are you, buddy?" He pulled me into a brotherly hug and patted my back. "You doing better?"
"Yeah, lots better. I went over to mom’s today and picked this old thing up." I pulled the little black box from my jeans pocket. "Remember this shit?"
He smirked and took it before turning his back on the girls as if to block our secret. "Are you giving her this?"
"Yeah, as a promise ring or something. I know she's not ready for much more than that." I shrugged. I would've asked her to marry me in a heartbeat, but she needed time to heal from Luke.
"I think that's a great idea." He handed me the ring back and shook his head. "Who would have thought this would be the ending?"
"Ending? Fuck that. This is only the beginning." I glanced around him to find Kari and Olivia laughing together. "I wanna enjoy each day with her."
"You got a lot of clean up to do thanks to Luke, my man." He patted me on the back and nodded toward the bar. "Let's get some beers and catch up. Dinner is on me."
"Naw, it's on me. I make ten times what you do, but one day - one day, you'll be buying because I'll be a poor ranch boy with ten kids and a simple life."
"If that's what you want, then go get it." He walked with me to the bar, filling me in on his parents and the talk of the town as of late, which was nothing new.
Football, drama, and scandal. Sounded like life to me.
***
"Where are we going?" Olivia glanced over at me as I turned down a long dirt road and smiled. She must not have been home in the last year or so. They'd built up a new back road system from the city to the country, and at the end of it was our old football stadium where we played all our games.
"You'll see. Stop being so inquisitive. What are you, an investment advisor?" I smirked and reached for her hand as her face fell.
"I was." She shrugged. "I broke up with Luke this morning."
"Good. You don't need him." I squeezed her hand as elation ran through me. Step one in having her forever was over. "Now we need to either find you a new job or get your old job back at Tangling. You tell me what you want to do and I'll pull every string I can. I have lots of connections."
"I'm not sure what I want to do just yet. I told Luke I was quitting, but I might stick around at your firm just to put the emotional pressure on him." She shrugged and I couldn't help but laugh.
"Why do I find that incredibly sexy?"
"Because you're a horny guy with a cute cheerleader on your arm? A blonde cheerleader that’s just trying to play with the big boys..."
"Hush. You bad thing. You knew I was just baiting you that night at Kadia. I needed to reel you in, and I knew slapping your pride would win me at least another round of fighting if nothing else." I smiled and lifted her fingers to my mouth to suck on the tip of one.
She moaned softly and reached over to brush her fingers down my leg. "Maybe we will break into the old locker room? Make love on one of those weight benches."
"I thought you didn't know where-" I glanced over at her and grumbled. "You're such a cheeky thing."
"That I am." She moved back to her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "I can't believe how badly I let all that shit from our senior year get so blown out of proportion. It ruined everything inside of me over the last six years."
"I did too, but maybe we needed this time to grow into two people that could really appreciate each other. Maybe it wouldn't have worked any other way." I pulled into the parking lot and turned off the lights. "Let's just talk about the really great times we had back then. Not the one moment in all of it that fucked us over."
"Deal." She got out of the car and walked around to the front before reaching up and pulling her hair into some type of ponytail.
I wrapped my arm around her back and moved her with me to the edge of the field.
"You know what one of my favorite memories of high school was?" I pulled her closer and slipped off my shoes as she did the same.
"What, baby?" She wrapped her arm around my back and glanced up at me.
"That cheer competition you guys had and Danny hurt his back." I started to laugh. I couldn't help myself. "So you needed someone to fill in."
"And you said you would, but only if I didn't wear my bloomers?" She popped me in the chest and walked out on the field ahead of me.
I laughed a little more and jogged to catch up with her. "But you were a good girl."
"Was, past tense." She turned toward me and slid her hands up my chest. "I wanted to tease the hell out of you that day, but I figured I would end up in the air above someone else, and no one deserved to see the goods."
"No one but me?" I brushed my fingers down the side of her cheek, memorizing how incredibly beautiful she was. My heart was sealed as hers no matter what happened from that moment on. I couldn't pull it back again if I had to.
"No one but you." She lifted to her toes and kissed me a few times. "Not much has changed."
"I like it." I pulled the box out of my pocket and took a step back as her hands slid down my chest. "This is what I was talking about. It wasn't much back then, and it certainly isn't now, but maybe it could be a promise between us."
She nodded and reached for the box as I popped it open and extended it to her. "I love it."
"Maybe it can be that we promise each other that we'll see where this thing between us can lead. That while we're together we'll be one hundred percent true to each other." I ran my hand up her arm, over her shoulder to hold the base of her head softly in my hand.
She slipped the ring on and smiled up at me. "I like this a lot. Let's just take things slow and see what happens. No promises other than the ones you've mentioned and this one... that even if we don't end up together that I'll love you forever."
I nodded, wanting to correct her and knowing that there was no point. I didn't need a solid commitment just yet. Love would bind us together. It had for the last six years while we were apart and the entirety of my childhood. It would persevere and hold on tight when we weren't capable of doing it ourselves.
"I'll love you forever too, baby." I pulled her close to me and smiled. "Even if it is risky business to do it."
She pulled me down for a long slow kiss before we dropped down into the wet grass beneath us and laughed until our sides hurt from old stories.
She was mine for the moment, and honestly... that's all that mattered.
Epilogue
One Year Later
Olivia
It had been a whirlwind of a year. Between dropping Luke on his ass, attendi
ng Jake and Kari's wedding and planning our own, I was beat. Caden had worked things out with Luke so that the partnership still ran as it was intended to. I went back to Tangling, which felt much more like home than working at Caden's firm. It was a good thing to not be in each other's faces all the time.
He'd booked a private yacht for us for a week-long vacation, and the day couldn't get here fast enough. I woke the morning of the trip and rolled over to shake him violently.
"It's here!"
"Fuck." He sat up and jumped out of the bed like his ass was on fire. He looked impossibly cute turning around the room naked, looking for a threat that didn't exist. "What baby? What's here?"
"Our trip." I crawled across the bed and laid down on my stomach before grabbing his arousal and tugging him back to the bed carefully by it. "I'm so excited."
He pressed his hand to his blue star tat that rested on his left pectoral muscle. "Shit. You scared me half-" He groaned as I licked the tip of his cock and sucked it deep into my mouth. "Nothing. I didn't say anything at all. Just do whatever you feel like doing."
I gripped him hard and forced more of him inside of me as one of his strong hands slipped into my messy hair and tightened. His other hand slid over my back, down to fondle my ass.
"Fuck baby," he groaned and thrust in a slow motion as I gripped his thighs and dug my nails in a little. "Olivia. Just a minute, lover."
"Mmmhmmm," I mumbled against his shaft and reached up to wrap my fingers around his thickness before pumping in tandem with rolling my tongue along his head. "So delicious."
"Shit." He released my hair and slid his other hand down to my ass, squeezing hard. "Don't stop. Please. Don't stop."
"Never." I picked up my speed and arched my back to lift my ass a little as he gripped it and used it to thrust deep into my mouth. The groan that left him when he came rolled over my skin and left goosebumps in its wake.
"God, I love you." He moved back and dropped down on the bed beside me as I shifted over to my side, licking my lips and brushing my hair from my face. "My turn. Get up here." He reached for me and growled as I positioned myself to sit on his lap. "No. I wanna taste you. You know how I like it."
"Caden. You know that makes me uncomfortable." I pressed my hands into his chest and fought against him trying to pull me up higher to sit on his chest and let him eat me out.
The little diamond ring he'd gotten me seven years ago fit my hand perfect. It was about love and goodness, not things or success or even the future. It was simplicity. It was us.
"Get up here. You're soon to be my wife. You have nothing to feel uncomfortable about." He gripped my hips harder and pulled me up, forcing me to move where he wanted me.
I pressed my hands to the wall above our bed and glanced down at him, hating how much I enjoyed when he was right. "I hate you."
"Open your legs. Let me remind you why that's a big fucking lie."
I rolled my eyes and groaned as he opened them for me.
How I lived without him for so long was beyond me. It was a problem I no longer had to be concerned with.
He was mine.
Forever.
The End
Author Note: Ali and I worked on a Billionaires of Manhattan project last year, but we never got to publish out works, so we’re letting you check it out. Hope you love it. It was a good time with some other author friends of ours.
Wake Me Up
Chapter 1
James
A cool hand ran down my chest and across my stomach as my alarm clock sounded. I’d done something I normally didn’t do by allowing Mandy to spend the night, but since it wasn’t our first time together and the weather had gotten bad, I decided to have a heart.
She was a good girl and a lot of fun, but as her hand moved lower, my first thought was that my friend Mark would be over soon for our morning workout.
Before I could protest, she slipped beneath the covers, and her lips moved across my shaft and down to my base. A mental battle occurred in my head, to let her continue or not, and though I knew I only had a few minutes, who was I to turn down a blowjob.
I hissed out a breath as she took me into her mouth and rolled her tongue around my tight, veiny flesh. I would try and finish fast and then send her on her way. She knew there was nothing between us, and our repeat opportunities were random at best. If I’d met up with someone else at Club Expose, then they’d be the one gracing my bed.
Her mouth sucked hard and I bucked my hips, holding her down on me as I stroked her hair. She didn’t even struggle for air, not even when she took me down into her throat. She was a pro and gave me just what I’d gone to the club looking for.
A knock sounded at my door as I tensed for my release knowing that it was best not to keep Mark waiting. Mandy took me deeper, sucking and slurping as she gulped. “Expecting someone so early?” she asked raising up and wiping her mouth.
“Yeah, why don’t you go get cleaned up, and I’ll see you around.”
She crawled to the edge of the bed and got up to gather her clothes as I walked to the bathroom for a robe. “I’ll be at Expose every night this week. See you around.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I went to the door and opened it, walking away as Mark entered from my private elevator lobby.
“You should put a bench in your front entrance if you’re going to finish nutting before you answer the door.”
“Nothing gets past you, does it? And here I thought I was discreet.” I went to the kitchen as he followed.
“Yeah, I don’t blame you, man. I do wish you’d settle down though. You know, find a nice girl and stick to her.”
“No one deserves to get stuck with me. I’ve got too much baggage. Besides, me and the girls down at the club have a good time, and I like my no-strings lifestyle.”
“You’re a glorified hermit, and it’s pathetic.”
“Ouch, tell me how you really feel? I’m not a hermit. I get out all of the time. I got out last night in fact, which is how I picked up Mandy.” I also got out of the house every day to go to the labs and meetings. I was a very busy man who dealt with people every day.
“You know what I’m talking about.” He gave me an accusing look.
“No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I knew. He’d been my lawyer for years and he knew more about me than most, including why I lived the lifestyle I lived.
“You do. It’s the same reason you built a home gym when you have a perfectly good gym on the 50th floor of this building. You avoid contact with people. You’re a loner, and I’m not blind to the reason why.”
“Because people annoy me?”
“James; what happened to your sister was horrific, but the media has died down, the trial is over, you’ve been to counseling for two years now. It’s time to get back out and live, man.”
“I’m not hiding.”
“Your denial is not healthy.” He turned his head as Mandy walked out with wet hair and wearing the clothes she’d had on the night before.
She gave a sultry smile and blew us a kiss. “I’ll see you, James.”
I waved as she made her way out and then walked over to lock the door behind her. Mark stood up and followed me to the gym as I headed that way. “I can sure see why you like those girls down at the club, but I hope you're safe.”
“Always. I’ve got too much to lose not to be.” As a man whose net worth was just over a billion dollars, I had to be careful when it came to paternity suits and other scandals. “You know me; I’m going to dodge as much drama as I can.”
“Yes, which brings me back to you needing to get out more. When your best friends are your lawyer and your accountant, that speaks volumes.”
“That’s all a man like me needs in life.” I gave a soft chuckle. “But thanks for the concern.”
“Do you want to grab a late breakfast when we’re done? I don’t have to be into the office until noon.”
“No. Today’s the day. I’m talking with the people down a
t ScriptTech about the allergy tablets. I was offered a deal, but I’m not sure how things are being handled. If I don’t like their plans, I’ll have to find another company.”
“You could make a fortune with that company; I’d keep that in mind.”
“We’re talking about life-saving drugs. I wish it could be made for free; I’d give it away.”
“You have a good heart, man. But I think you’re crazy. You worked hard in development, it’s only right you get paid for your work, and besides, it’s no different than any other medicine out there that people are charged for.”
I didn’t want to argue that because in some cases it was a true statement, in others, not so much.
“You know,” he continued. “I bet you’d meet a few interests right here in this building if you took a notion.”
“Who would that be? With my luck, I’d have to deal with that asshole Darek Dillon.”
“Hey, he’s not so bad. I’ve been to one of his seminars, and he’s sincere enough.”
“You paid that guy to talk to you about success? You’re one of the most successful lawyers I know and talk about profiting from other people’s misfortune.”
“What misfortune is that?”
“Being born gullible, I’d suppose.” I started my rep of arm curls.
I heard the barbell clank against its rack. “You’re a cynical son of a bitch; you know that?”
“I’m just saying; he’s gotten rich selling bull-shit motivation to people who lack self-esteem. What kind of person needs to listen to someone tell them what they already know?”
“Not everyone knows it, is the point. He’s not living here in The Avalon for nothing. You’ve got to be pretty brilliant to reside in Billionaire Towers.”
“Not necessarily. You can get here being a pretty clever criminal. Sue me for thinking that Darek Dillon is that kind of guy.”
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