ROMANCE: Billion Dollar Question (BWWM Billionaire Bad Boy Romance) (African American Alpha Mail Order Bride New Adult)

by Aisha Brooks

  “Money.”

  “What the fortune run out or are you being sued for child support?”

  “Damn, you make me sound like some sort of frat boy who doesn't know how to keep his seed to himself.”

  “I'm sure plenty of women have met your seed, Jessie,” she laughed laying aside her magazine. Years of working in the bar had given her an ear for gossip and as a strong believer in what goes around comes around, she knew Jessie's luck had finally ran out. It was written all over his face.

  “Keep your day job, Debs,” he laughed. “You suck at being a comedy and your psychic powers are lacking,”

  “Well, I don't need to be a psychic to know that something isn't going your way.”

  “Eh, I'll figure it out. I always do.”

  “What's on your mind?”

  “Awww,” he mocked. “I didn't know you cared.”

  “I don't, but I don't want your depressed cowboy syndrome spreading through the rest of my patrons when they start arriving.”

  “You have the thickest skin of any woman I've ever met. If you were nicer, you'd be married by now.”

  “What? Married to a man who was only happy when I was stroking his ego or he was screwing around with a woman who wanted to stroke his much smaller ego? No, thank you.”

  “You’re a beautiful woman. You could have been married by now if you were nice.”

  “Screw being nice. I'm real and if a man can't handle that, then he isn't much a man is he?”

  “Don't you get lonely?”

  The question stung. Sure, she got lonely from time to time and she wasn't against having the occasional one nightstand when the mood hit her. She was always more discreet than Jessie was and the mood hit her few and far between. Most of the time, she didn't need a man around.

  “Did you really put on that sappy cowboy face to try to pick me up? Jessie, I wouldn't even throw you the dead bone of pity sex. So you can cut it out.”

  “Sweetheart, as much as I'm sure that you'd be a wildcat in the bed and I'd never forget you, I don't give puppy dog eyes to any woman. It's them that come begging for my attention. If you really want to know what's wrong, my Uncle George died last week and I finally received a copy of the will today. It's not officially going to be read until next month, but it confirmed what I always thought about Uncle George.”

  “And what's that?”

  “He hates me.”

  “What? Did he write you out of the will?”

  “Might as well have. He set some very demanding conditions and I don't think it should be legal to do that. What right does he have to tell me what to do with my life?”

  “None, but then again you aren't exactly entitled to the money either.”

  “It isn't just money at stake here sweetheart. It's the whole damn estate of my family. It usually passes from eldest son to eldest son, but Uncle George didn't have any children of his own. His wife couldn't have children due to a long drawn out sickness. I'm the eldest son in my family. The whole damn thing was supposed to be mine. By the time I was born, they already knew they couldn't have kids.”

  “What are these conditions that are so horrible? Do you have to take over his cult or marry his favorite cow?”

  “Ha ha ha,” Jessie spat. “He expects me to get married.”

  “Is that so uncommon in traditional families?”

  “No, but..”

  “You just don't want to admit that you've slept your way through most of your options and even then, they weren't the sort of women you'd want to take home to your mama at the ranch.”

  “I wouldn't have taken any of those women anywhere near my family.”

  “So, I guess you can just kiss that estate goodbye. Maybe if you're a really good kisser, it'll stay on one more night to make things easier for you.”

  “Are you crazy? I'll order a bride from Russia or something before I do that.”

  “You really think that money can solve all your problems, don't you?”

  “No, but it can solve this one. You know the old saying that you've got to spend money to make money.”

  “So you're going to marry a hooker?”

  “No, I'm going to find a respectable woman who has a mind for business.”

  “No respectable woman in her right mind would agree to marry you.”

  “Not even for a million dollars?”

  “Oh, so by a mind for business, you met a gold digger. I'm catching on now, but what is said to keep said gold digger from robbing you blind during the divorce proceedings? I know you're not going to stay hitched to one woman forever.”

  “It's called a prenuptial agreement, sweetheart.”

  “You have all the answers, don't you?” Debbie laughed.

  She would have felt sorry for most people in this predicament. If it was the normal story of I haven't found the right person or my true love broke my heart, she would have given him a tissue. This was Jessie and nothing was usual about him. His case against marriage was solely built upon the fact he wanted to continue to sleep around and sow his wild oats for as long as they kept coming.

  “All, but one. I still have to find a woman who'll be my business partner. What about you, sweetheart? You've had to do more than double the income of this bar since your father died. You've a head for numbers. Just think about what you could do with a million dollars.”

  “Hire a bouncer to keep cowboys out.”

  “You might need to once I'm your ex-husband. I might be the jealous type.”

  “What? Afraid of taking a dose of your own medicine? You know you should never leave a woman who you can't imagine seeing with another man.”

  “You know I'm being serious, right?”

  “About what? That I need to hire a bouncer to kick your ass out of my bar? What? Are you going to become a mean bitter drunk once you find yourself flat broke?”

  “About my offer.”

  “Your offer?”

  “One million dollars, Debs.”

  “To marry you?”

  “Exactly. We have six months to plan the wedding. Make it however you like. I really don't care. Just make it big and convincing. I'll foot the bill for it. Just give my mama something to cry at. Then we'll stay married a year or two and then we'll plan for how our marriage will fall apart. While we're married I'll pay for everything, hell, at this point I'd pay for anything. Then when we sign the divorce papers you walk away with one million dollars.”

  “Get real, Jessie. What would I do about the bar?”

  “We'll hire a full staff to keep it running.”

  “Okay, so let's say I agreed, but had one more term to add to it.”

  “I'm listening, sweetheart.”

  “No sleeping around until we're divorced.”

  “Don't want to share me with anyone else?” he chuckled.

  “No, I have no plans of sleeping with you. My time and lies can be bought. My body cannot. I just don't want to be the poor woman everyone feels sorry for, because her husband's running around on her.”

  “So what we put that in the contract?”

  “Nope, if I even think you're running around on me, I'll tell your whole family about this little conversation and given that your Uncle George felt the need to put it in his will that you had to be married, well, I guess they know how you are too.”

  “Fine, pack your bags tonight, because tomorrow we're going to Montana. We have to be hitched before Christmas. My thirty second birthday is December twenty-sixth.”

  “I'll see you in the morning, cowboy.”

  Chapter 2: A Reputation To Follow You Home

  Debbie pulled the blankets over her head and squeezed her eyes shut. It was still dark outside so whoever was knocking on the door could come back later. She groaned when they discovered the doorbell and began to lay on the button. The sound vibrated her teeth until she finally threw her bedding onto the floor and stomped into the living room cursing. She grabbed her robe from where she left it on the back of the sofa the night before an
d wrapped it around herself.

  “This better be a damn emergency,” she swore opening the door.

  “Rise and shine, Debs,” Jessie grinned at her.

  “Go away,” she went to slam the door. He caught it easily and stepped inside.

  “On the ranch we rise with the sun.”

  “The sun isn't out yet.”

  “Well, we have to get ahead start on the day. My mama is super excited to meet you and we need to go over the finer details of how we met. Are you packed?”

  “Yes, for a week.”

  “We'll send for the rest of your stuff later then.”

  “No, I'll need everything here when I come back.”

  “Fine, I'll buy you more clothes then. Mama will force you into shopping trips anyway.”

  “It's too damn early for this, Jessie,” she said shutting and locking the door. “I'm going back to bed. You can come back later.”

  “Or I could join you.”

  “Screw off, Jessie. I already told you I'm not sleeping with you.”

  “Oh, we'll be sharing a room at my parents' house.”

  “What? Nope, we'll tell them we're waiting for marriage.”

  “They're not going to believe that. So we will be sharing a room.”

  “Then you can sleep on the floor.”

  “There's more interesting things we can do on the floor.”

  “Coffee. If you want me functioning this early in the damn morning, Jessie, you bring coffee. Until then I'm going back to bed.”

  “Let's go out for coffee,” he said, but Debbie had already started back up the stairs.

  An hour later, he woke her up again, but this time with coffee. She sipped it allowing its warmth to clear away the morning fog. As she drank, she listened to Jessie's carefully laid plans about what to tell his parents. This man really did have an answer for everything.

  “What is your family going to say about me being black?”

  “What? Do you think this is the twenties?” Jessie laughed. “They're going to see you for what you are.”

  “And what's that?”

  “My beautiful, strong, intelligent, and sassy wife to be.”

  “I'm going to need more coffee for this,” she laughed.

  “I do mean all of those things,” Jessie said and scooted his chair closer to hers.

  Debbie scooted hers away and he inched closer. If she didn't give in and let him sit next to her, she had a feeling they'd play the game and go all the way around the table several times.

  “If we're going to pull this off, you aren't going to be able to keep me a football field away,” he chuckled.

  “I usually prefer two football fields of distance or at least a bar between us.”

  Jessie wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she didn't pull away.

  “I guess I can let you touch my shoulder for a million dollars.”

  “I plan on touching a lot more than your shoulder.”

  Jessie easily lifted her and pulled her into his lap. She was wearing only her nightgown which she fought to keep pulled down over her thighs as her legs straddled his. Debbie blushed when she realized only her panties divided her most sensitive and private areas from his jeans. Jessie gently took her hands and entwined their fingers for a brief moment before wrapping her arms around his neck.

  “See this isn't so bad?”

  “You're already getting hard you perv.”

  “Natural reaction between man and wife,” she said gently pushing her hair out of her face.

  “Except this is business only.”

  “It doesn't have to be.”

  “Yes, it does, because I'm not going to be just another notch in your bed post.”

  His hands trailed up her thighs and she didn't pull way. His soft touch told her everything she needed to know about why women didn't turn him down more often.

  “Don't we have a plane to catch?” she asked standing up.

  Jessie pulled her back down and wrapped his arms around her. His lips hovered just inches from hers.

  “Yeah, but we still have a few hours.”

  “Then why'd you wake me up so early?” she licked her lips.

  “For this,” he said and closed the distance between them. His lips were soft, but demanding as they claimed hers. She tensed at first, but it had been too long since she had reveled in the feeling of a man's lips against her. Slowly, Debbie found herself giving into his kiss and her lips parted willingly when his tongue probed them. She leaned into him and allowed her fingers to run through the back of his hair before finally taking his cowboy hat off and sitting it on the table.

  Jessie pulled her closer and she wrapped her legs around him. His muscular body felt delicious pressed so closely against hers. Her mind was shouting for her to stop to not let the moment linger. He'd only break her heart, but her body wasn't listening and maybe her heart neither. She ran her hands through his hair and sighed in pleasure as his hands trailed over her back and then her sides before pulling her even closer.

  When the kiss finally broke, she was panting for air. Her eyes were still closed as she let the simple bliss of the moment settle around her. She could feel Jessie flashing her his famous cocky smile, but she ignored it. Maybe men weren't the only ones who could take advantage of an opportunity to feel so damn good.

  She opened her eyes and kissed him softly one last time before standing up.

  “I'm going to take a shower,” she said. Jessie stood to follow her, but sat back down when she shook her head and added, “alone.”

  “Are you trying to give me blue balls?”

  Debbie walked out of the room with a grin on her face. Her hips swung ever so slightly from side to side and for the first time since she met him, she enjoyed knowing Jessie's eyes were on her ass as she walked away.

  By nine o'clock, they were on the plane heading for Montana. Jessie insisted on keeping his arm wrapped around her on the plane and eventually she gave up arguing with him. She had worked a long shift at the bar and then stayed up late packing the night before. She decided to take advantage of the situation and use his shoulder as a pillow.

  Landing in Montana was hotter than she ever thought it would be. Even the well paved roads of the airport were covered in a thin layer of dust. The day passed in a whirlwind of meeting his relatives and repeating the story about how he met her at the bar and it was love at first sight. Jessie kept her close and she pretended the story was true. He was careful to never leave her alone with any of his relatives which Debbie really did appreciate.

  It was easy to feed off of Jessie's energy and tell the story, but she didn't know a damn thing about these people and she was pretty sure that happy couples talked about their families. Fortunately for her, the family ranch house stayed busy enough that she was only given the minimum amount of attention needed to welcome her to the family. She was more than happy to call it an early night shortly after dinner. Debbie truly was exhausted, but more than that, the less time she spent around his family the less likely she was to put her foot in her mouth and ruin the whole affair.

  The bedroom that had once belonged to Jessie in his teen years was huge compared to the bedroom she jokingly referred to as her sleep-in closet as a teenager. Over the years since he'd moved out, his family had redone it into a guestroom.

  She took a shower and slipped into her favorite pajama outfit. The clean cotton material felt like a heaven sent after a day even partially spent in the hot Montana sun. Debbie lingered in the bathroom thinking about how much her life had changed since yesterday afternoon and how much more it was going to change when she became Jessie's wife.

  The man she had seen at the bar with the ladies had become a completely different person around his family. He was funny and his smiles seemed more genuine. The tension in his shoulders had melted away too. Debbie liked him better here, but she had to wonder how much of it was an act? Was this the real Jessie or was that the man who had frequented her bar cruising for women to bed down with
for the night? She hoped it was this one. Here she was starting to see Jessie as a man she could marry even if only for a short period of time.

  She came out of the in suite bathroom to find a very shirtless Jessie sprawled across the bed reading a newspaper. For a moment, he didn't notice her and Debbie allowed her eyes to linger over his naked torso. His muscles were well defined and chest gently fell and rose with his breathing.