How to Lasso a Billionaire

by Katharine Sadler

  "Well, I still think you're brave. You're starting a new life in a new city and you're going back to school. I'm so proud of you." Isla crossed her legs under her. "Now, tell me about this volunteer job. Do you think they'd be interested in someone who could teach photography?"

  Bri's heart swelled at the idea, not just because Isla wanted to help, but because she was putting herself and her photography out there. "That would be amazing. I'm sure--"

  A knock interrupted Bri. Isla crinkled her brow, but put her plate on the bed and hopped up. Bri saw him when Isla opened the door, his dark eyes meeting hers over Isla's head. Isla glanced back at her with a worried look, before she stepped outside and pulled the door shut behind her.

  Bri let out her breath in a hard pant. She'd known she'd see Jude again, known it was inevitable. She just hadn't expected it to happen so soon. She pulled in a deep breath, her heart racing.

  The door swung open and Jude stepped into the tiny space, expression grim. Isla didn't appear behind him and he closed the door, trapping them there together. Damn it, Isla. Way to leave a woman behind.

  "I've been trying to find you," he said. "You weren't in Towle, you weren't in Colorado. Imagine my shock when Maureen told me you'd moved back here without telling me."

  "Why did you want to find me? I'm the one who screwed up."

  His brows quirked and his mouth twitched like he found her amusing.

  Tears choked her throat. "I'm so sorry, Jude. I should have trusted you. I should have let you in. I should have told you about Max and let you take us to Addy."

  All amusement vanished from his expression. "I've told you before, you never have to apologize to me, Brianne. I understand why you didn't tell me about Max and why you didn't want me to go to see Addy with you. I wish you would have trusted me, but I understand, and I want you to know I've spoken to both Max and your mother and made sure that I'm back in their good graces."

  Bri couldn't believe what she was hearing. He should be angry at her, he shouldn't be going out of his way to do nice things for her. "Is that why you bought Max a house?"

  "First." He took a step toward her. "I didn't buy your brother a house. I helped him find an appropriate property and bought it for myself. He's going to pay me rent and then he's going to buy it from me."

  She rolled her eyes. "How much rent is he actually paying you?"

  He waved a hand like he was swatting away a fly and took another step toward her. "What matters is that he is paying me something in rent. And I didn't buy the house for him, I bought it for you."

  "For me?"

  "Well, in all honesty, I bought it for myself. I knew if he and your mother and Addy all lived here, you'd live here, too. And I wanted you in my city so I would have a chance to convince you to let down your walls and let me in, to let me love you and maybe, eventually, return that love."

  She wanted to be mad at him for manipulating the situation, but she didn't feel any anger. "I'm grateful, but you didn't have to do any of that, Jude."

  He hesitated, his confidence slipping just a bit. "Why?"

  She stepped up toe-to toe with him. "Because I already love you, Jude. So much. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you weeks ago. I--"

  He pressed a finger to her lips, his smile wide. "No apologies, Brianne. Not now and not ever."

  He put a hand on her cheek, and she froze. His touch felt so good her eyes drifted shut and she sighed with relief. Damn, she'd missed him. "Say it again, sweetheart."

  She opened her eyes and met his warm blue gaze. Looking into his eyes felt like coming home, like being exactly where she'd always wanted to be. "I love you, Jude. So much. I think I loved you before I even realized it."

  He pulled her in and kissed her. A kiss that quickly turned to more as Jude's hands slid over her butt and squeezed her tight against his hardness. She moaned into his mouth and he shuddered. "Damn." He said. "You feel so good."

  A throat cleared behind him and Jude pulled away from her with a smile she'd never seen. "Isla said you might need some help unpacking and getting settled into your place."

  It took Bri a moment to come back to earth, for his words to make sense. "I should probably run to the store first, I need an air mattress."

  "An air mattress?" He glared at his sister. "We can do better than that."

  Bri put a hand on his arm. "I need to do this myself, Jude. What I can afford is an air mattress."

  His gaze smoldered with heat and desire. "Move in with me. Tonight. You'll be spending every night at my place anyway."

  It was nearly impossible for Bri to say no to him when he looked at her like that. "I love you, Jude, but I don't think moving in together so soon is a good idea. Let's give it some time, with our own space, and get to know each other again."

  He frowned, his eyes emptying of emotion. "You're still worried that you can't let down your guard with me."

  She walked to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He hesitated only a moment before hugging her back. "All my guards are down, Jude. I swear. No more secrets and no more holding back. I just want to do this on my own for a little while. I'll feel better about our relationship if I know I'm coming into it able to support myself and with a plan for my future."

  He sighed. "Fine. I can accept that. Let's go shopping."

  She pulled out of his arms and looked to Isla for help. Isla shrugged like she didn't see the problem. "When I say I want to do this myself, I mean I want to do it all myself, including buying my own crappy air mattress to sleep on."

  His hug tightened a bit. "I'm letting you do this yourself by not insisting you move in with me tonight, by not demanding that you work for me rather than for Sebastian. You can meet me halfway by allowing me to furnish your apartment."

  Bri bit back a laugh. He was still the same control freak she'd fallen in love with, and maybe it wouldn't be so terrible for her to learn to depend on him a bit, to let him take care of her. "Okay, I'll let you buy me a real mattress, but you are not to spend a ton of money on me."

  He stepped back and laced his fingers through hers. "I'm not making any promises."

  Bri ended up with more furniture than she'd planned, like an actual bed that converted into a couch, but Jude didn't go overboard with either cost or extravagance. He stayed and helped her unpack. Isla disappeared, claiming she had to get to work.

  Once the place was done, Bri had to admit it looked really good and she couldn't help the happy little squeal that popped out. Jude wrapped his arms around her from behind. "You weren't kidding when you said you didn't need much to make you happy."

  She put her hands over his. "Nope. What you see here is all I need."

  His chuckle was warm and dark in her ear. "I'm going to have so much fun spoiling you."

  Before she could respond, he'd spun her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers. She melted into him, into his kiss, letting his scent and his touch and his sounds fill her senses. It was so good to be back in his arms, to push all her worries and plans aside and just be with him in that moment.

  Home with him, wherever he was.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Six months later

  "Welcome home," Jude said, unable to stop smiling. He hadn't smiled so much in his life as he had since Brianne had come back into it.

  Brianne stepped across the threshold and grinned at him, as though moving in with him was more than a formality, as if it were a momentous moment. "Did you say something about rules on the way over here?"

  He shut the door behind his girlfriend and pulled her into his arms. He had a very, very hard time keeping his hands off her and he couldn't come up with a good reason that he should. "I did say something about rules, but let's get you unpacked first."

  Brianne laughed and poked him in the chest. "You're not as funny as you think you are, Jude Cassidy."

  He released her and she dropped to her knees in his foyer to open the one box of belongings they'd brought over that morning after she'd finally agreed to move in with h
im. The rest of her things, including all the clothes Jude had bought for her when she'd been his assistant, were already in her closet in the master bedroom they'd been sharing on a nightly basis for the last four months, and an almost nightly basis for the two months prior to that. Jude had been moving her stuff in, piece by piece since she'd moved into her Vegas apartment. He'd taken her toothbrush with him the first night, because he'd wanted to be sure she'd be in his bed the next night. Some would call him pushy, but he preferred aggressively loving.

  He would never waste a moment not appreciating how lucky he was to have her in his life. Nor would he ever forget how close he'd come to losing her. Losing her and losing a decent chunk of his business to a thief that was not Max Mason.

  As it turned out, the thief had been someone close to him. His friend, Mark, had managed to blow through his trust and his event planning business had suffered from his gambling habit. He'd charmed an employee in Jude's casino to find some information that would help Mark convince Jude to hire Epic Events. At least that's what he'd said when Jude had confronted him with proof. He'd refused to admit he'd also convinced the woman to skim cash from whatever registers she could gain access to, but Jude didn't need a confession to know the man was guilty. Turns out, Mark had never been the friend Jude had thought, and he couldn't handle Jude succeeding in Vegas when Mark hadn't. Based on his attitude and opinion of Jude, he wouldn't be surprised to learn Mark had planned to do more than simply spy on his business and steal a few thousand dollars. He hadn't reported Mark's actions to the police, but he had declared their friendship over.

  Brianne shuffled through the box and sighed. "I have no idea where to put this stuff."

  He offered her a hand. "You don't have to figure it all out today. This house is big enough for your tiny box."

  She stood, trying to look annoyed, but failing miserably. He knew she loved his pushiness, even if she never admitted it. "Of course, it is."

  He led her past the kitchen to what had once been a guest bedroom, a room she'd had no reason to go into for the past six months, because he'd been having it redone. She stepped inside and clapped a hand to her mouth. "What have you done?" she asked, tears in her eyes.

  He smiled. "I just decorated a bedroom. Most of the ideas came straight from Addy. It hardly requires tears." He hated to see her cry, even if they were tears of happiness over the fairy-land themed bedroom and playroom he'd had designed and built for Addy.

  She grinned at him. "She's going to love this. She might even want to move in here with us."

  Jude doubted that. Addy was over the moon to have her daddy back in her life and rarely let him out of her sight. If she wasn't following him around, Max was following her, adoration in his expression. "She's welcome here whenever and for however long she wants."

  She smiled absently as she moved across the room to look out the window at the playset he'd installed in the backyard the day before, while she'd been at work and then out for a girls' night with Isla. Bri huffed out a laugh and spun to him. "I can't believe you--"

  She stopped and her hand rose to her mouth again, her eyes glistening at the sight of him on one knee, open ring box in hand. Always one to push every advantage he could bulldoze into place, he smiled up at her. "While you're focused on how wonderful and giving I can be and not how controlling and bossy I am, I thought it would be a good time to tell you I love you, Brianne Mason, more than I can ever show you even with all the money and resources at my disposal. I want you to be my wife, to move into my house and into my life for the rest of our lives."

  He waited, praying she wouldn't tell him he was moving too fast, or that she needed more time to figure out if they could live together without killing each other before she committed to him. When he'd planned the whole scenario out in his head, she hadn't stared at him silently for so long, hadn't appeared quite so shocked. No, she'd jumped up and down in effervescent joy and declared that yes, yes of course she'd be his wife.

  Instead, she slowly dropped her hand to her belly, her happy smile turning a bit wicked. He tensed. He knew that look, knew she was about to turn the tables on him in a big way and shock the hell out of him. He felt a bit sick, until he noticed that her hand had stopped on her belly and she was rubbing it a bit protectively. "There's one thing you've missed. A final step in my great plot."

  "I doubt it," he said, playing along. "I'm rarely wrong about anything."

  Her smile widened. "The final step in lassoing a billionaire is to get knocked up so I can trap him into marrying me."

  Her words sent his emotions on a roller coaster ride he'd never experienced before. He bit back a smile. "Are you avoiding answering my question?"

  For the first time, she looked nervous. He hated that look on her face, especially when he was with her. She should never doubt that he loved her, should never doubt that he would do absolutely anything for her, should never doubt she was the most amazing, brilliant, wonderful, gorgeous woman he knew. When he saw the first tear fall, he stood and went to her, pulling her into his arms. "You don't want to marry me?"

  She laughed. "More like I'm not sure you still want to marry me, now that I'm a two for one deal."

  He pulled back and cupped her face in his hands. "How could you ever think I'd change my mind about marrying you? I don't ever change my mind. Once a plan's in motion, I never backtrack."

  Finally, he got a smile out of her. He brushed her hair back from her face and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "I love you and I love our baby, so, so much." He dropped a hand to her belly and placed it over hers. "There is nothing I want more in this world than for you to be my wife and for us to raise our child together."

  She sobbed and wrapped her arms around him tight. "I knew you'd say that. I did. I just . . . I think it's hormones and not sleeping at night and being queasy . . . I just thought it all might be too fast for you."

  He pressed a kiss to her jaw. "Never too fast. The past six months trying to convince you to move into my house have been agonizingly slow."

  And now Brianne was crying on his shoulder, full out crying. He rubbed her back, utterly confused. "What's wrong?" He pulled her into his lap as he sat in a truly comfy, colorful armchair.

  She sat up and wiped her face. "It's just that I finally enrolled in my first classes. I finally saved enough money and paid for those classes and now I'm going to have a baby."

  "Are you unhappy about the baby?" he asked, trying to keep his voice even, trying not to let on how badly he wanted that baby.

  "No. No. I'm happy. I'm so, so happy. I just wanted to do so many things before I had a child. Shouldn't I at least have a degree and a few life goals before I become a mother?"

  "I don't think those are requirements for motherhood." He squeezed her tighter against him. "As much as I hate to change the subject, there is one piece of information I don't yet have which could affect the way this conversation goes."

  She raised her brows. "Really? What?"

  He kissed her lips, puckered in confusion. "Will you marry me, honey? Will you make me the happiest asshole on this planet?"

  She smiled. "Of course, I'll marry you, Jude. I love you and I want to be your wife more than anything."

  Finally, his heart settled peacefully, right where it needed to be. "Then there's no problem. I'm a billionaire. You don't have to work, and I'll pay for whatever classes you want to take for as long as you want to take them. You can figure out what you want to do with your life and raise our baby, and I'll be here to support you, whatever you decide to do. And, if you want to fill this house with foster kids, then I'm on board with that, too."

  She bit her lip, her eyes glowing. "I think I could handle that."

  "Good. Problem solved. Now, we just have one more matter to discuss."

  "What's that?"

  "Exactly how far along are you?"

  She looked down. "I saw the doctor yesterday to confirm, the test came back positive a week ago, and my period was two weeks late, so maybe a month? I'm
thinking it was that morning in the shower when I'd been so very dirty."

  He grinned, momentarily distracted. "You were deliciously dirty. You've kept this secret from me for more than a week?"

  She looked up at him from under hooded lids, her smile wicked. She knew where he was going with this. "Uh-huh."

  "You've been a very, very bad fiancée to keep such a major secret from me. You've denied me a week of planning for this baby."

  She leaned back in his arms. "Then let's plan. Can I try on the ring first?"

  He sighed, but held out the ring box to her and watched as she slid his ring on her finger. Of course, it fit perfectly. "Love has made me soft," he said with a mock huff. But he looked at the ring and then up into her sparkling eyes and he couldn't resist pulling her in close and kissing her.

  Couldn't resist pushing her shirt up and over her head, exposing her beautiful body to him.

  "Don't we need to start planning? We only have nine months."

  "We can start in an hour or so," he said kissing her neck.

  She melted into him and sighed, so warm and soft and perfect in his arms.

  <<<<>>>>

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you to my family for their unfailing support. And a big thank you to my husband/business manager for making sure I keep my priorities straight and keep writing and editing and publishing, even on the days I’d rather spend curled on the couch reading a good book. Thank you to my friend and beta reader Becky Kyslinger for letting me know when something isn’t working for her and giving me spot-on advice about how to improve the book. Thank you to Romance Rehab for their amazing beta reading service – constructive criticism that was spot on! Thank you to www.CoverYourDreams.net for the gorgeous cover on this and all my books.

  I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

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