Susannah called me from Hard Grind. She was working with the part-timer that we got to hire back a week ago thanks to Fire Lake Coffee turning into an instant hit with the town. Mica had sold us a new blend that Blue Bean hadn’t gotten yet, and from what the customers said, it was better than anything at Blue Bean.
While I didn’t want to take business away from anyone, I got a little thrill knowing we had the best coffee in town, if not the state.
Susannah had told me to watch Joke’in James’s latest video. I did and then hopped in my car to race to the hospital.
The woman whose nametag said Dolores tapped at her computer. “Yes, he’s still back in the emergency room. Give me a minute to find out if you are allowed back. You can take a seat in the meantime.” She pointed toward the row of chairs facing a flat screen television mounted to the wall. A soap opera was playing.
I found a chair near her desk to see if I could overhear her conversation with the emergency room area. Unfortunately, Days Drifting Until Tomorrow was drowning out her voice.
After a minute she called back, “Marika?”
“Yes.” I hopped up and darted over.
“Through this door.” She pointed at a set of double doors near her desk. “It will open when you get close. Then down the hall and make a left. He will be in the middle bed.”
“Thank you.”
I made my way through the door and followed her instructions. I passed bed after bed separated only by green curtains. Some curtains closed off the bed from view, and some were wide open. I turned left and found the middle bed, but the curtain was closed.
“Hello?” I stood on the outside of the curtain. “James? Are you in there?”
There was a muffled yes that didn’t sound much like James. I tentatively peeled back the curtain that revealed a man with lips the size of sausages and one eye swollen shut.
“Oh, my God! What did you do to yourself?”
“Ma-ree-kee,” he said as best he could with lips that barely moved.
“I saw the video and realized you were doing it live. Once you said you were going to the hospital, I raced over.”
There was a pad of paper and pencil on the movable bed table. He lifted the pencil and wrote something down before pushing the pad to me.
I read it aloud, “I’m sorry for hurting you. For ruining your chance at the contest. I’d rather be stung by a thousand bees than hurt you again.”
My hand covered my chest as I tried to hold back the tears. That was the sweetest and weirdest thing anyone had ever written about me.
“As sweet as that is to say, I wouldn’t have expected you to do it. You could have done some actual damage, James.” I glared at him, but it was hard to stay mad at a man who willingly screwed up his face with bees just for an apology.
“I’m sorry I assumed the worst of you, James. I thought because you barged in on the contest that you’d be like that all the time. I had no idea you were jealous about me going out with Steele. In fact, I thought once the contest was over, you’d forget about me.”
Susannah was right when she said I would sabotage dates or make excuses about men so they wouldn’t break my heart. I did that with James too. Instead of being upset but reasonable enough to talk with him about the Date a Billionaire contest debacle, I ran and told him I never wanted to see him again.
He wrote more on the paper and held it up for me to read.
“It was wrong of me to ruin it. I was afraid that once you talked to Steele and saw he was a stable guy, you’d forget about me. I had a successful show but wanted to run off and be a farmer. I knew how that looked. Like I was crazy. Steele is the most orderly guy in the world. Even his sock drawer is color-coded.”
I giggled.
And as I gazed into James’s one good eye, I knew I wasn’t just my father’s daughter, but my mom’s, too. She was wild and fun-loving. While she was reckless, she also had an enormous heart.
“I kind of like crazy. And I kind of love you, James.”
I couldn’t tell if he was going into some shock and couldn’t breathe, or if he was just staring at me. With everything swollen, it was hard to tell.
I blew out a breath of relief when he snatched up the pencil and took a minute to write something down. Finally, he held up the paper.
“I love you too. I love you so much, Marika. You make me think and not just dream. You help me see all the people and their need, not just my own. You make me smile, and I’d do anything to get you to smile.”
I turned the paper back to him and pointed to the last line. “Then you failed.”
His eye blinked, and he waved his hands in the air as if to ask how.
“This is why.” I put down the paper and pointed to his face. “You went about hurting yourself. That will not make me smile. It may cause your viewers to laugh, but they don’t know you. They just see the funny man on their screen. They don’t love you like I do. The last thing I would want to see is you in pain.”
He scribbled down on the paper and held it up. “Then move in with me. Live with me and take care of me. Because who knows what crazy I ideas I might come up with, and if you aren’t there to stop me, I might hurt myself.”
I folded my arms. “That’s your idea of wooing me into living with you? By telling me your life is in my hands. That you’re so childlike that if I don’t live with you, you could hurt yourself? That isn’t a very appealing offer.”
I knew he was just saying it to get me to move in with him, and I suspected the bee stings weren’t helping him think straight.
He scratched at his nonexistent chin. It had swelled to where I couldn’t tell where his face began and his neck ended.
He tore off the paper since it was filled and wrote on the next sheet.
I read it after he was done. “How about this? I take care of you. Promise to give you multiple orgasms daily while cooking you breakfast and dinner. I can’t promise to cook lunch because I’ll be busy on the farm. But I’ll wake you up with orgasms and make sure you have one before you go to bed at night. And you don’t have to work if you don’t want to. No more worrying about coffee.”
I really hoped that wasn’t the venom from the bee stings talking. It was time for me to tap my chin as I pondered his offer. It was good . . . a little too good.
“But I want to keep Hard Grind. It’s my family business. And one day, when we have kids, I will pass it on to them.”
His lips parted a crack, and I heard a gurgling sound come out. He grabbed the pencil and quickly wrote. “We.”
I pursed my lips, trying to hold back my smile. “How about I move in and still work at Hard Grind? I’ll cook breakfasts while you cook dinners. We’ll keep multiple orgasms a day, but that includes you, too. Oh, and my father has to live with us.”
He wrote on the paper. “You can’t tell, but I’m smiling so hard right now. Yes! You have a deal.”
I grabbed his hand to shake, and he pulled me in for a hug. I fell on him with an umpf. It felt good to have his arms wrapped around me again. I nuzzled into his thick neck and smelled smoke. But there were hints of James mixed in that scent, and I couldn’t get enough.
“I’d kiss you right now if I wasn’t afraid of popping your face,” I said and grinned when his chest vibrated with laughter.
We were in the middle of the hospital, but in James’s arms, it felt like I was home.
Chapter 28
JAMES
Six months later . . .
I glanced at the clock. The red digital numbers read five in the morning. Time to wake Marika up.
Slipping under the covers, I turned on the switch of the little metal device in my hand. It buzzed to life.
She made a sound and shifted. Bingo. Marika spread her legs. She was still asleep, but we had done this morning ritual so many times that her body naturally responded now.
It was muscle memory, but I liked to think it was more orgasm memory.
Her pussy already glistened, and my mouth watered in greeting. I had gelled up
the vibrating butt plug in my hand with lubricant, so I lowered it straight to its destination.
A little wiggle of the plug and Marika widened farther. To tease her awake, I slowly drew circles around her asshole.
It had been three months since Marika and her father moved in. With Hard Grind doing better than ever with Mica’s coffee, she was reluctant at first to move out of town. But I promised to always wake her up in time for work...with my tongue.
Blue Bean at The Blue Spot took a little hit as most of the townspeople went back to getting their coffee from Hard Grind. But my brother wasn’t hurting. With an almost always filled resort, there was still need for coffee from Blue Bean.
Three of the bedrooms were now built, along with two bathrooms and the kitchen. The house was only partially complete, but I was happy she was here with me.
“Please,” Marika said, her voice hoarse.
The covers were thrown back, and she lifted onto her elbows, her gaze turning hungry.
I loved watching her light gray eyes darken in the morning. I loved her pussy as it glistened for me at the crack of dawn. But most of all, I loved having Marika in bed with me when I woke in the morning.
“Maybe I’ll have the farmhand start the eggplant seeds in the greenhouse this morning and just take my time with you today.”
She arched her back, knowing how I loved her body’s reaction to my touch. I played with her pussy, and she played with my desire.
Lowering my head, I spread my tongue flat against her clit before bringing my lips into the action and sucking. God, she tasted incredible.
I was about to slide my fingers inside her core when she looked up and said, “Your cock. I want your cock to fill me.”
Smirking, I was about to refuse, but Marika played me like a sap. She knew my weakness. It only took one word to undo me.
“James.”
My name on her lips with sex on her mind caused my cock to take over. My brain shriveled up like a walnut and let my third leg do the thinking.
I already had the condom on because I knew we’d get to it eventually. Marika grabbed her knee and pulled her leg back as she leaned on her side. She was beautiful.
My tip slid up and down her wet lips until I heard her moan, then I gently slipped inside, gradually shifting my hips until I was full.
I couldn’t move or I’d come. That didn’t stop Marika. She ground down on me, looking for more than I was capable to give at the moment.
“I love it when you fill me.”
I swayed my hips, slowly at first. The pace was too leisurely for Marika, and she let me know. “James, please. Fuck me hard.”
She liked it rough, and I liked to watch her whither in desperation until she was gasping for relief.
“Like this?” I asked with a wicked slap on her ass.
Her eyes widened as she sucked in air before she nodded. “More,” she whined.
I gave it to her. Marika’s ass was pink when I was done, and my palm rubbed away the pain. She was tugging at her nipples. I watched with fascination as she struggled to make herself come.
Her hand slid down her stomach until it was between her legs. Normally, I would slap it away, but there was a softness in my heart today. It was seven months ago today that we first had sex.
And, as I promised her then, I built our bedroom on that exact spot.
She had no idea I kept track of the dates. Marika just thought once a month I let her get away with more in bed. Watching Marika work her body until it tipped over the edge was the monthly anniversary gift she never knew she gave me.
“James, I’m coming,” she said as her hand jerked erratically between her legs.
Her pussy tightened, and I picked up my pace, finally let her have what she wanted. She cried my name as I slammed into her one last time, my release exploding inside her.
As I came down, I felt the vibration from the butt plug still going. I reached over and removed it from her. With her eyes closed, sweat rolling down her brow, and her breath deep, I eased myself out of Marika and got out of bed. I took the plug to the bathroom to clean up.
After a few minutes of preparing the bath, I came back into the bedroom and lifted her out of bed.
“I’m not a rag doll. I can walk,” she said with a lazy smile before she kissed my chest. I loved her like this—satisfied.
“But why should you walk when I can carry you? The woman of my dreams.”
I placed her in the half-filled, white claw-foot tub. Then I stepped in and sat at the opposite end than her.
“I like this,” she said as she rested her head back. “I want to wake up like this every day.”
“Then it’s a marvelous thing you moved in with me.”
“I never had time to thank you for letting my father help manage the farm. I think he needed that. He was bored before. That’s the reason he started that ISnapIt account for Bernard.”
“I did it as much for him as for your dog. Once Bernard moved up here, he refused to wear those hats anymore. Now he can chase chickens and bark at the cows. Though, he learned the hard way to stay away from the bees.”
Marika barked out a laugh. “Bernard looked worse than you did back in October with the bees. At least the swelling went down faster for him. I couldn’t believe it took days for your face to go back to normal. But you had some killer duck lips that Hollywood celebrities would kill for.”
I loved our mornings together. Sex and delightful conversation with my best friend. What more could I ask for?
I knew it was time to call Pru. Joke’in James was more popular than ever with all my funny farm videos. It seemed what people liked were videos of animals. What they liked even more were rich people trying to deal with animals and failing miserably.
Pru had suggested that I try a few humorous building-a-farm videos while the farm was still being built, and my subscribers loved it. The transition from prank videos that happened in New York to funny farm videos in the mountains was almost seamless.
But I had an idea for another video.
One that involved a secret proposal of marriage.
Epilogue
Sneak Peek of Surprising the Billionaire with a Baby
Monty
ONE DAY. One day my brother would pay for this.
“I’m naked.” I gnashed my teeth and raised my voice just enough for James to hear.
As I pressed my ear to the door, I heard his muffled snickering.
“And your point, Monty?” He responded with irritating glee.
My younger brother may be the funny one, but I was clever. And whenever I got him back, I would make sure he never saw it coming.
James wasn’t going to let me out. The realization settled on me with irritation like a bang from a flat tire on a dirt road in the middle of July. I felt deflated and desperate. The only person with a spare wanted something so idiotic thoughts of peeing in his ice cube tray filled my head.
Turning from the door, I looked around. I couldn’t see anything. The small room had no light. Blackness may be engulfing me, but I wouldn’t let it hold me down.
There had to be a way out of this dark prison he held me in without resorting to his stupid plan.
“I told you, I won’t streak naked through the Jingle Ball. These people didn’t pay five thousand dollars a plate to raise money for testicular cancer to have me do a naked dance with my cock wrapped up like a candy cane as I shout ‘I’m giving licks away because I’m a festive fuck’.”
He coughed.
“Oh, man... when you say it out loud like that I realize what a brilliant idea this was. My viewers will love it. And don’t forget to wrap that red ribbon around your dick tight enough that it won’t fall off. You didn’t throw the ribbon away, did you?”
I knew he wanted to film it for his VidTube channel, Joke’in James. I was a rational man who loved his brothers. They were family and I would do just about anything for family. Anything but that.
I was happy for James that he found success
with his prank channel, but he promised that he’d never include me in one of his episodes. I wouldn’t even donate to his business until he swore not to include me in his videos.
Yet, here I was naked, in a closet, with a red ribbon in my hand about to plead with him to let me go.
“You know Rock will kill you. We’re here to spread the word about his exclusive resort The Blue Spot which opens in spring. How will anyone want to stay there if I run amok naked and flashing my candy cane dick around?”
More laughter. I sighed and leaned against the cool door. I had given up trying to jiggle the handle several minutes ago. The lock was solid as was the wood they made the door from. Yes, I had flung my body against it too.
Only James could let me out. He held the power to my freedom and, therefore, my humiliation.
“What our big brother doesn’t know, won’t hurt him.”
“Just because he’s not here doesn’t mean he won’t find out. You will post it on your channel and that’s when Rock will see it.”
I loved my brothers. Rock was like a father to me and James was the baby of the family. After our parents died almost ten years ago Rock took care of us and I tried my best to keep an eye on James.
Rock helped us find success. First with me and my app business and then with James. He was even James’ first cameraman for his channel. He put his life on hold so we could find our way in the world.
Now it’s his turn. Rock dreamed of opening a resort and I jumped at the chance to help him out, both with investing money and now with promoting The Blue Spot at this swanky charity ball.
Besides, I wanted to expand my business into unique areas of technology. I may be a billionaire, but I still required investments to expand. How better than to schmooze with other wealthy people.
The Jingle Ball was the perfect opportunity for me and my brother. Then James had to ruin it. I loved him too, but sometimes he forgot that his actions affected others. That not everyone wanted in on the joke.
“Fair point. Maybe we change it up a little. There’s an auction happening right before the main meal. What if I offer you up to the highest bidder?”
Dating Disaster with a Billionaire (Blue Ridge Mountain Billionaires, #1) Page 16
