The Billionaires Convenient Bride

by Laura Gray

  “Archer!” Ellie gasped as he began to pick up the pace, his eyes boring into Ellie’s with a fevered intensity she’d never seen before. Ellie surrendered herself to his grip, waves of pleasure shuddering through her. She couldn’t get enough of him. She grazed her hands across his chest and clawed at his back as he began to ram into her increasingly faster. She wanted all of him, every single inch.

  Ellie could sense that Archer was approaching his climax so she reached out and pulled him down into her breasts, her fingers gripping his thick, brown hair. Archer went mad, drilling into her with explosive passion, his muscles flexing and undulating as he brought Ellie close to an orgasm.

  “Oh, Archer!” Ellie moaned as she neared the edge, desperately waiting to tip over. Archer was close too—his eyes had begun to roll back in his head, his jaw falling open. Ellie felt her entire body contracting, clenching together tightly, prepared to ride the orgasm. He rammed into her cave once, twice and three more times and then it hit.

  Ellie felt a rush emerge from her vagina that spread through her entire body, leaving her skin warm, tingly and covered with goosebumps. Archer moaned as he came, his shuddering weight collapsing on top of Ellie. Ellie wrapped her arms around his trembling skin, placing a soft kiss on his neck. He shivered at the touch of her lips, his skin flushed and sensitive after his orgasm.

  Then, Ellie felt tired—too tired to move her arms or even open her eyes. The orgasm had taken it out of her, leaving her breathing heavily. Her arms and legs felt weightless, as though they were disjointed from her.

  Archer raised his head to give her a soft kiss on each of her cheeks and one on her forehead. Ellie raised her head off the bed and kissed him on the lips. Their lips pulled apart softly.

  The moment Ellie’s head touched the pillow, she passed out. The last thing she saw was Archer’s eyes.

  Chapter 9

  The Right Call

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  Again? Ellie felt a flash of anger. She buried her head under a pillow.

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  Can I get my sleep for one day on this vacation? Ellie wondered.

  “Ellie!” she heard Connie’s voice call. Ellie cracked open one eyelid to take a look at her surroundings.

  I’m naked, Ellie realized, turning over onto her stomach. She glanced to her left and saw Archer’s naked body lying beside her, rising and falling rhythmically as he slept.

  There was a moment of confusion followed by a moment of panic.

  “Ellie!” Connie called again from outside the room. “Are you awake?”

  Ellie hurried out of bed, stumbling and tumbling over the messy sheets. Heated memories from last night assaulted her hungover brain. Ellie turned around in the room, trying to spot some clothes.

  Where did I throw them? Ellie wondered, hunting for her underwear. When she couldn't find them, she reached into the wooden closet in their cabin and pulled out a bathrobe, wrapping it around herself.

  Ellie walked over to her door and pulled it open just as Connie raised her fist to knock again.

  “El!” Connie said.

  “Shh,” Ellie said, waving at her to keep it down. She slowly stepped out of the room, making sure the door stayed as close to shut as possible. She didn’t want to show Connie Archer’s naked butt, first thing in the morning.

  “Let’s go to your cabin, Archer’s asleep,” Ellie said.

  “Wait, we can’t go to my cabin,” Connie said, stopping her. “Let’s got to yours.”

  “Well, we can’t go to mine,” Ellie said blankly. They looked each other up and down—they were both wearing bathrobes.

  “Why can’t we go to your room?” Connie asked Ellie suspiciously.

  “Why can’t we go to your room?” Ellie demanded.

  The two stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, Connie broke and spoke up.

  “Arjun’s naked in my room!” she burst out.

  “Oh god,” Ellie mumbled.

  “Yep, we had sex. Insane, wild, monkey sex in a boat,” Connie finished, breathing slightly harder. “Now, can we go to your room please?”

  “Uh, no, we can’t do that,” Ellie shiftily. “Let’s go to the upper deck and get some sun—”

  “Oh my god,” Connie gasped. “Archer’s naked inside isn’t he?”

  Ellie sighed. “Yes he is.”

  “Score!” Connie yelped, raising her hand for a high five. Ellie reluctantly slapped her palm, giving her a half grin.

  “I’ve been waiting for this to happen!” Connie said.

  “You’ve been waiting?”

  “Uh, yeah? El, I don't think you notice the kind of chemistry you both have. You should have seen yourselves last night—you guys were like the perfect couple.”

  “It was just an act,” Ellie unconvincingly. She knew she didn’t mean that—she’d felt their spark last night, clearer than ever.

  “Yeah, right,” Connie said with a smirk. “Come on, you like him, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you...love him?”

  “No,” Ellie said quickly. Connie gave her a look.

  “Ellie…” She eyed her suspiciously. “Are you sure you’re not in love with him?”

  “Maybe?” Ellie breathed.

  “Wow!” Connie cried excitedly. “If I had to guess, I would have said it would take at least three more years for you to say that about someone after Edwin.”

  “I know!” Ellie exclaimed. “My head is spinning at all this, at how fast everything's moved! Just last month I was all roughed up about something Edwin said. Edwin! He feels like ancient history now!”

  “Good riddance.”

  “What happened with you guys?” Ellie inquired. “There were so many people around me and Archer constantly, I couldn’t find you.”

  “Well...Arjun and I started talking and I accidentally let him know that I was feeling jealous,” Connie sighed. “He told me he felt really jealous of Tyler, so he understood how I was feeling.” Connie took in a deep breath. “He’s amazing.”

  “He is,” Ellie agreed.

  “And then I told him that I told Tyler not to come,” Connie said. “And...we kissed.”

  “Wow,” Ellie said with a shake of her head. “You and Arjun.”

  “Weird, huh?”

  “Actually, no,” Ellie replied truthfully. “You guys have always had chemistry—the same thing you see so clearly between Archer and I. You make each other laugh. It makes sense.”

  “I think so too,” Connie replied thoughtfully. “What are you going to do about Archer? Quite a vacation, huh?”

  “Quite a vacation, indeed,” Ellie snorted in agreement. “I better go inside. When’s our flight to Amsterdam?”

  “I think we need to be ready to go back to the hotel within the hour,” Connie said, glancing at her phone.

  “Alright,” Ellie replied. “I’ll see ya then?”

  “See ya.” Connie turned to walk back towards her cabin. Ellie watched her go, wondering what she would find when she entered her room. Would Archer be awake? Would he want to talk about what happened between them?

  Ellie stepped into her room nervously, slowly shutting the door behind her. Archer was already awake and dressed, sitting up on the bed as though he were waiting for her.

  “You’re back,” he said plainly.

  “Oh, I was just—”

  “Speaking to Connie, I know,” Archer interjected. “I heard you guys.”

  “Cool, cool,” Ellie said nervously. Had he heard the part where she said she might love him? That would be mortifying. “So, I probably don't need to tell you what we talked about since you already heard everything. Right?”

  “No, I just heard your voices mumbling,” Archer said, much to Ellie’s relief. “I assume you told her what happened with us?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “And what was her reaction?”

  Elie shrugged. “She said score and asked me to give her a high five.”

  Arch
er chuckled. “She’s a lot like your friend, Arjun.”

  “Yeah, she kind of is.” Ellie smiled to herself. She looked up to see Archer staring at her with an unfathomable expression.

  “So…” Ellie trailed off, shifting on her feet.

  “So?”

  “We had sex,” she finished.

  “Yeah, I remember,” he said with a small smile. “We got a bit carried away with the act there.”

  The act? Ellie wondered wrestling with a stab of disappointment. “Listen, Archer,” she began, “I think we may have made a mistake, hooking up.”

  “We did?” he asked lightly.

  “Yeah, I mean, we decided to keep it professional, right?” Ellie tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. Whatever she thought she might feel for Archer would have to wait. She’d made plans for herself and with herself— Juilliard, writing, traveling—and the idea of committing to anything that would threaten that future was something Ellie couldn’t bear.

  I have stuff I gotta do, Ellie thought, pulling herself to her full height. Archer does too.

  “I think we should take it easy, focus on the plan, all that good stuff,” Ellie finished lamely.

  “Right,” Archer said with an unreadable expression on his face. His forehead wrinkled between his brows. “The plan. Well, my uncle will declare the new trustees in two days so you’ll be free then.”

  “Yeah, it's been a real pain pretending to like you,” Ellie said jokingly, crossing her arms around herself.

  “You too,” he said softly. Ellie looked up to see his green eyes trained on her. She swallowed loudly, wanting to look away but being unable to.

  “Well, I’ll go find my uncle, see that everyone’s ready to go back to the hotel,” Archer said, finally breaking eye contact. As he moved towards the door and swung it open, he called, “Ellie?”

  “Yes?” she turned to face him.

  “Do you regret it?” he asked her. “What we did last night?”

  Ellie felt her heart race as the answer came to her readily.

  “No,” she replied. “I don't.”

  “Well, that’s something,” Archer said to himself with a bemused expression before turning to shut the door behind him. Ellie watched the closed door with a pained expression, her heart of two minds.

  Chapter 10

  The Decision

  It was a breezy day in Amsterdam when they landed. Fluffy white clouds filled the sky in patches, glowing white against the sky’s bright blue hue. Ellie stepped off the plane and shielded her eyes with her hand—it was sunnier here than she expected.

  “You told him what?” Connie asked Ellie after she described her conversation with Archer to her. “You told him it was a mistake? Why?”

  “Because it was!” Ellie explained as they followed Niles to their car. “Sleeping together when we’re spending so much time together? When we’re pretending to be a couple? Of course it's dangerous! Our emotions are going to get all weird and confusing and I decided that I was done with weird and confusing. I still have to go to Juilliard and I still want to go live in random places around the world.”

  “How do you know Archer will have a problem with any of that?” Connie asked. “You didn’t even talk to him, you just assumed that it can’t work.”

  “No, I—”

  “You’re trying to stop yourself from getting hurt again,” Connie said confidently, crossing her arms against her chest. “I can tell because I was doing the same thing. And from friend to friend, it’s dumb. If you care about Archer, don't waste your time pretending otherwise.”

  Ellie turned away from her, biting her lip in thought. She knew that Connie was right, but her heart had spent so long guarding itself that it had fallen into a habit of it.

  Their vacation was to extend for another five days after the declaration of the will. Ellie could only imagine what Bennet’s already unpleasant demeanor would be like after losing the nomination to Archer. If Bennet had any fear of losing after the yacht party, he showed no sign of it, drifting around his father with a complacent smile on his face.

  “He doesn’t look too fazed, does he?” Archer asked Ellie when they were filling up for gas on the way to their hotel. He eyes Bennet and Hannah standing in a corner, sharing a smoke.

  “Maybe he’s just playing it cool,” Ellie offered.

  Archer’s eyes were narrowed. “Somehow, I doubt that. Bennet’s never been good at playing it cool.”

  “I know you’re nervous about the nomination,” Ellie said. “But we did everything right. Your uncle won’t be able to stick to his reasons for insufficiency. We made sure of that.”

  “You’re right,” Archer said, giving Ellie a small, grateful smile. Ellie quickly flickered her eyes away from him, afraid to make contact.

  The Bradfords' Amsterdam mansion was much more modern and sleek, as compared to the castle-like design of the Barcelona chateau. All three stories and a few rooms were visible from an enormous glass wall that stretched across one entire side of the house. It looked over an olympic sized pool and beyond that, an expansive field of lavender, waving and shimmering under the afternoon sun.

  “Wow!” Ellie cried as they rolled into the driveway. “This place is incredible!”

  “We bought the lavender farm here—my father loved this view,” Archer said. “It’s also a great place to party with Amsterdam so close by.”

  Once they reached the mansion, everyone retired to their rooms to freshen up after the travel. Ellie could see that Archer was nervous about the declaration and tried to distract him as much as possible. The mansion had several board games stashed across one enormous bookshelf and Ellie grabbed a few games that would keep them occupied until the evening. She and Archer spent two hours playing chess before they were interrupted by Connie and Arjun. With four people there, they could play some of the longer games like Settlers of Catan and Cyclades. The rest of the evening passed by in a blur, and it wasn’t long before Niles was at the door.

  “Sir,” Niles said to Archer when the door opened. “The executor of the will and your lawyers have arrived. They’re waiting downstairs.”

  Sharing an ominous glance with one another, the foursome made their way to the Bradford’s enormous and lush living room, ready to see the result of their plan.

  The environment downstairs was strange and tense. They waited for Mr. Bradford to leave his study where he was discussing the details of the will with his own lawyer and the executor of Gordon Bradford’s will. Archer’s lawyer, a Mr. Desang, sat beside them, going through a copy of the will through his small, rounded spectacles. Katharina and the girls sat on the couch, having whispered discussions amongst themselves. Hannah and Bennet stood on the other side of the room, deep in discussion with their lawyer.

  “I feel like he’s up to something,” Archer said to Ellie, eyeing Bennet suspiciously. “He’s up to something. I’m certain of it.”

  “Archer, just relax,” Ellie said to him. She reached for his hand with apparent ease. “We can’t do anything more now. Whatever happens, happens.”

  Archer stared at her for a long moment before sighing, his shoulders sagging down.

  “You’re right,” he said to her with a small smile.

  Just then, the study doors flew open and two impeccably dressed lawyers strode out, followed by Mr. Louis Bradford. He hobbled towards the main area of the living room and sat down on a leather chair, his face grave and expectant

  “Hello, sir,” Archer said to him. Bennet, curiously enough, did not respond to his father’s entrance, continuing to chat with his lawyer.

  “Archer,” Mr. Bradford greeted him roughly. “We’re ready for the declaration. Are you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Father!” Bennet called suddenly, striding into the main area of the room with purpose in his gait. “I have something to show you. You might want to hold the declaration until you hear this.”

  Mr. Bradford stared at his son with curiosity and mild annoyance.
Bennet pulled out his phone and kept it on the table.

  “When Archer told us about his girlfriend, Elizabeth, that he’d been dating for six months,” Bennet began with a sly grin on his face, “a question popped into my mind immediately. Why had we never heard of her before?”

  Ellie stiffened. She glanced at Archer, who kept his face straight. “Yeah, I don't like to tell you things about my life, Bennet,” he replied. “You’re not my friend.”

  “Fair enough,” Bennet snapped back. “But you would have told someone—Katharina, Morgana, Regina—even Niles, if he ever dropped you to Ellie’s place. But none of them knew about her. None of them had even heard about her.”

  “So what?” Mr. Bradford asked gruffly. “Do you have a point, Bennet?”

  “I think Elizabeth and Archer aren’t really together,” Bennet said sharply. “I think they didn't even know each other six months ago, and I think they just met recently and decided to do this act so you choose Archer as the beneficiary.

  “It’s my father’s money, Benji,” Archer retorted. “You can’t claim it, no matter how many ridiculous lies you make up.”

  “Do you have any proof of the things you say, Bennet,” Mr. Bradford asked.

  “I’m so glad you asked, Father,” Bennet said snidely, pressing a button on his phone. Ellie’s eyes widened when she heard her and Connie’s voice emerging from the cellphone.

  “I’ve been waiting for this to happen!” Connie said.

  “You’ve been waiting?” Ellie’s heart dropped to the floor. Bennet recording us talking on his yacht!

  “Uh, yeah?” Connie’s voice continued. “El, I don't think you notice the kind of chemistry you both have. You should have seen yourselves last night—you guys were like the perfect couple.”

  “It was just an act,” Ellie’s voice said. Ellie squeezed her eyes shut at the sentence, guilt and anger thundering through her body.

  “Yeah, right,” Connie’s voice continued. “Come on, you like him, right?”