Secret Billionaire: Romance Collection

by RC, Steph

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  Bad Boy Billionaire

  I close my eyes and I see him. He has so much happiness in his eyes. I try to touch him but his image disappears in a cloud of dark smoke. That is the moment when I realize that I am dreaming. My heart aches because I know now that he is gone forever. It is the first time he appears in my dreams since the plain crush. They never found the plain but the chances of survival are zero. We already had the funeral even if the coffin was empty. I know he is dead but somehow, my heart does not want to accept reality.

  I wake up each morning without a care in the world. Those are my only few seconds without pain. This ends when I turn on a side and try to hug him. We loved to spoon and this is how we started every day. It was almost like a good luck ritual. When my hands touch his empty pillow, all the pain comes without mercy and crushed my world. I guess this is my new morning ritual. I start the day with hot tears on my pillow and with a panic attack. I have to remember to breath. Counting usually helps but it feels almost wrong to breathe without him.

  My new favorite thing is to remember every little moment we had together. This way it is like he is not gone at all. I get to go back to those moments and relieve them over and over again. It is amazing how many things I completely forgot about. People always take each other for granted and this is what we did too sometimes. Luckily, our magical moments are way more than the sad ones. In a way I am the luckiest woman in the world because I got to love and feel what is like to be loved.

  In order to get back on my feet, my family suggested that I move back home for a while. Normally I love my independence but now I hate being alone. In order to save my sanity, I need to be around people that love me. At home, I get back my old room and it looks much smaller than I remember. My parents are scared to talk to me. For them now I am like a glass they are scared it could break any moment. I want to show them that I am fine so I force myself to smile from time to time. However, I cannot full them. My eyes are not smiling and they can see my sadness.

  The thing I most love about being back in my old village is that I am surrounded by nature. We are surrounded by a beautiful forest and I can take long walks with my dog. One day, during one of my walks, I met a stranger. At first, he was scared be because his beard was growing all the way and he was huge. I am usually attracted to tall men but this one looked more like a cave man. He had a dog too and our dogs started to play with each other. This forced us to do some small talk and introduce each other. As he was talking to me, I was surprised to hear what a beautiful voice he had. He had a calming effect over me and I could had listened to him all day long.

  His eyes were a mixture between blue and green. I could almost say they were grey. I tried to picture him with no beard. His eyes were not only beautiful but they had something similar to mine. They had a deep sadness that ordinary people could not understand. I could, and as soon as I told him why I moved back home, he told me that he lost his wife too. We were both going through the same thing and this made it easy for us to connect.

  His name was Anthony and we met every single day in our secret place in the forest. It was for the dogs to play together but I knew it was a lie. We needed each other. We could talk for hours about the people we’ve lost without being scared that the other person might think we are getting crazy. We shared our memories and this made us feel much better. People were very supportive especial at beginning. As time passed though, they encouraged us to move on and then they started to lose interest and patience. No one really understood what it felt like to lose the one person you love. It was like losing yourself too. The person you used to be before the tragedy was never coming back.

  Because this was something that we had in common, Anthony became my only friend. After trying really hard, I finally managed to convince him to shave his beard. The result was absolutely shocking. He managed to look 10 years younger in a matter of minutes. This was not the only thing that surprised me. He was actually really attractive. He used his beard as a protection and I can understand this better than anyone. The more I got to know him, the more I realized that I was falling for him. This made me feel very guilty but it was like I was cheating on Derek, my late husband.

  Anthony was not showing any signs that he liked me too. He seemed happy with the way things were. I was his friend and he did not want to ruin that. One day as we were walking together, he suddenly stopped and kissed me. It was a magical moment. For a few seconds he managed to make me forget about everything. I was not the girl who was always crying. I was not the girl they all felt sorry for. For a few moments I was happy. It was a feeling I never thought I would have again.

  He broke off the kiss and apologized to me. This was not at all what I wanted. I needed him to never stop the kiss. I needed him to fix me. Unfortunately, he was not ready for this. Anthony asked her to stay just friends because he was scared to get his heart broken again. Losing his wife was the worst thing he could imagine and it changed him. Before, he used to be a bad boy. He told me that he was rich enough to afford almost anything and this attracted a lot of women.

  When I visited his house I saw just how rich he really was. Anthony was in fact a billionaire but you wouldn’t guess it looking at him. He liked to dress in modest clothes and he didn’t owned an expensive car. It wasn’t because he was cheap but he did not like to show off his money and power. He liked to be just a normal person. Normally rich men made feel uncomfortable because in my eyes they were all the same. Anthony told me that he used to be one of those men. He used to play with women and then just throw them away whenever he got bored. His wife managed to change him into the amazing man he was today.

  While I understood why he didn’t want to get close to me, at the same time it hurt my feelings. His rejection made me feel insignificant and unattractive. Even so, I did not want to lose his precious friendship. I needed Anthony in my life even if it was just for his company while we both walked our dogs. Since we got closer, we also visited each other for coffee. After that kiss in the forest though, he did not dare to do any other step towards me. I knew that it was my turn to take a step towards him. The chances that he backed out again were high but I had to risk. What did I have to lose any way?

  I decided to talk to him about our feelings. Even if nothing was ever going to happen, we both deserved to know the truth. My feelings for him changed from affection to love. He told me that he felt the same but he was scared that something bad could happen again. Since he was already in love, it was too late to protect himself. There was no protection from love. This amazing feeling could make us feel like we are in heaven and then it can suddenly send us to hell. We both tasted both sides of love and we knew the risks but we had no choice. It was impossible to order our hearts to stop loving.

  He asked me to move in with him and for the next couple of months we were so happy. Everything changed though when I started to receive some anonym letters. They were from someone who sounded a lot like Derek. I knew this was not possible because he was supposed to be dead. I was told that no one could survive such a plane crash.

  However, the things he told me were little details that only he and I knew. In one of the letters he asked me if I had another man to give me my morning hugs now. This was our thing and whoever was sending those letters was very cruel. I assumed it must have been someone who knew him and maybe he heard those details from him.

  I did not tell anything about the letters to Anthony. We were doing so well and I didn’t want anything to ruin our happiness. After all we both been through I thought we deserved a little bit of happiness. We got so few of those amazing days in life that when we do have them, we really need to enjoy every second of it. This was one lesson I learnt after losing Derek. The letters kept on coming and it was clear that whoever was sending them, wanted to make me feel guilty.

  The truth is, he or she succeeded to do just that.
They say you cannot cheat on a dead person but this is exactly how I felt. Worst of all was that I had no one to talk to about this. I did not want to make Anthony feel guilty too. I was also scared that he might get angry and find the person who was sending the letters. I didn’t want to create any problems to him. I assumed that sooner or later it had to stop. The last few letters I didn’t even open. I did not want to get upset anymore. So I was burning the letters as soon as I received them.

  In the last letter, the person confessed that he was in fact Derek. He survived the crush and he fell in love with another woman. He was too ashamed to tell me this and he preferred to let me believe that he was dead. Since I wasn’t reading the letters, I was shocked to see Derek showing up at my front door one day. I just fainted and he had to carry me on the bed and splash some water over my face. When I woke up he explained again what he wrote in the last letters I didn’t read.

  He also told me that he realized too late that he still loved me. He wanted me back but it was too late. First of all, I could never forgive me for what he did to me. It would had been less painful if we broke up. At least I would had known that he was okay and alive somewhere even if it was with another woman. I deserved my chance to have some closure to move on with my life. No, for me, the Derek I loved died in that plane crush. Anthony was the man I lived for now.

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  Romance: Secret Billionaire

  I am too tired to even get my clothes off. As soon as I see my bed, I put my head down and I fall asleep. Eating will have to wait because I need to rest my tired body. I have been working two jobs because I am saving to move out.

  No, I am not a teenager trying to make it on her own and moving out of her parents’ home. In fact, I am a grown up woman. I just turned 30 this month and I am married. Unfortunately, my marriage is not one of those happy stories you hear all the time.

  Our story begun 5 years ago and back then I thought that I was the luckiest girl in the world. Damian was everything I was looking for and he made me so happy. He was the type of man who could bring a smile on your face no matter how bad your day was. He could dance with me even when there was no music. Most of the time we didn’t even need a TV or anything else for entrainment.

  We would joke, laugh and run around the house like a bunch of naughty teenagers. Damian is ten years older but he has a very young spirit. He told me once that he never wants to grow up. He thinks that a person is as young as he or she feels. I hope this is not true because right now I feel around 100 years old.

  Let me start with the beginning. I like to remember those days because it helps me relieve those magical moments. However, at the same time it makes me really sad because I know we can never go back there. If only I could go back to a certain moment in time, I would choose our first night together and I would stop the time forever. I was no virgin but I never felt anything like that for a man before and this made me feel like a shy virgin.

  He touched my body in a way that I never thought it was possible. It was like he had electricity in his fingers. He used his moth to caress every inch of my body. I remember being so happy that I had tears in my eyes. He panicked thinking that he did something wrong. He had no idea those were in fact tears of happiness.

  We got married after only one month of dating. Everybody told us that we were crazy. What did we actually know about each other? All I knew was that we were both struggling to build a successful career. For now, it was difficult enough for us to pay our bills. Moving in together was going to help us because we would share the bills. This was not a very romantic thought but it did cross my mind.

  We had a small wedding because we could not afford anything else. I did not care very much about it. I was never one of those girls who dreamt about their wedding day. I thought the important thing was getting a good husband and being loved. Since I already got that, I wanted to rush the wedding and get to the good stuff as fast as possible.

  Before I knew it, I was a happily married woman and my husband was the center of my universe. He didn’t care that I was not a very good house cleaner or cook. He loves to cook and he is really good at it. I usually help him but that is about it. We never even have any arguments. If sometimes we would argue, a couple of hours later, we were best friends again.

  Our love life wasn’t the only perfect aspect of your relationship. I was never good at making friends. As a child, I was the shy girl who was always the target of bullying. As an adult, I chose to keep my distance and spend most of my time alone. It was difficult for me to trust people enough to open up and show my real self.

  Damian was the first who did that too. He became my best friend and my life was never the same. Every time I had something exciting happening at my job, I would call him and tell him all about it. He did the same with me and we supported each other unconditionally.

  The day he started to keep things for me, I knew something was really wrong. It was little things that made me suspicious. If before he used to come back from work and talk to me about his day, he was avoiding me now. Whenever I asked if anything was wrong, he was trying to calm me down and say that he was just very busy.

  Whenever I surprised him. He would hang up the phone or close a page on the computer. At that moment, I knew it was more than work. He was hiding something from me and I needed to know what it was. After all what did I really know about my husband? We got married so fast and I was starting to doubt everything about him and about us. Was it all just a fantasy?

  I kept insisting every day and finally he admitted that he had a big secret. He told me that he was a billionaire. The reason he kept this information from me before we got married was because he was scared I would want it just for his money. He also said that he had his heart broken a couple of times before by women who just used him for his money.

  He really loved me and he wanted to be sure that I felt the same way for him. His idea was that if I married him as a poor man, it meant that I really loved him. He was planning to tell me right after the wedding but then he never found the right time. He was starting to realize that lying to me was a big mistake and he was scared that I would leave him.

  The moment he said that he was a billionaire, I started to laugh. It just sounded like a big joke to me. It took him hours to proof to me that he was telling the truth. He called a private jet and we went for a short trip to Italy. We then went to his real house. This was in fact more like a castle than a house. For the first couple of days I could not really say how I felt about all that. It was too surreal.

  For many women this would be like a dream coming true. For me it was starting to look like a betrayal. I felt hurt that he did not trust me enough to tell me the truth. He did not believe in my love for him when I thought that I showed him how much he meant for me.

  Since he told me the truth about himself, our life completely changed. We moved into his huge house and I did not have to worry about cleaning the house anymore. I think this was my favorite part about being the wife of a billionaire. What I was not very comfortable with was giving orders. I even felt bad asking the maid or the driver to do something. Damian tried to explain me that there was nothing wrong with it.

  They were just doing their job and they didn’t feel hurt or offended if I asked for something. He also told me that all his staff was paid better than average salary. This made me feel a little better. Who said that being rich was easy was wrong though. Damian took a long break from work to get to know me and marry me but now he had to go back to his usual routine. This meant that he had to work 12 to 16 hours per day.

  I did not want to get a job at his company because I needed to maintain my independence. To be able to spend some time with my husband, I had to visit him at work. This was the only way we could have lunch together or have a quick love session in his office. On my way out of the office I could see his secretary was staring at me.

  I just assumed it
was because she was curious about me. I was after all the secret wife that no one knew anything about until just recently. Most probably she thought that I married him for his money.

  Damian was also very good looking but this did not matter. People always liked to assume the worst. As much as I want to say that I do not care about what people think, this is not at all true. I hate to be the trophy wife who does nothing all day long but spend her husband’s money. Of course I love shopping like any other woman but at the same time I kept my own job to prove that I could make it on my own.

  I am working at an art gallery and I love my job. Damian tried to help me open my own gallery. This has been my dream but I did not feel comfortable taking his money yet. This was because he was just starting to trust me.

  I did not want to make him think that I was interested in his money. In a way I wished thinks would just get back to how they were. I preferred being married to a modest man who was starting to build a career just like I was. Of course I was very proud of him for his achievements but money did not bring just happiness and fun.

  One day, when I surprised him by showing up to his office without announcing, I saw his secretary getting out of his office. Her cheeks were red and she looked scared when she saw me coming. Damian was also very surprised to see me there. Then I knew he was having an affair with his secretary. Instead of spying on him, I just asked him.