Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy Book 3)

by Nikki Wild

  It was an incredibly well-orchestrated plan, and frankly, I was in awe of just how perfectly it had gone. But I was also pissed, because it seemed pretty unnecessary for him to have said what he did before.

  “They threatened to come after you, Maddy,” he finally explained. “They would have ruined your life… Or worse. And they’d frozen all my assets until I forced you to go, so our plan of running away together wouldn’t have worked. I needed you to be so convinced I was a monster that you didn’t come back until everything was settled.”

  “And is it now?” I asked him. “Settled, I mean.”

  “As much as it can be,” he said. “I have my money back, as well as unfettered access to the company’s finances, too. In addition, I get to direct our future endeavors—and that means the shelter on 39th Street stays right where it is.”

  “You’re incredible,” I said, laughing as I let it all sink in. “I can’t believe you did all this.” But one thing gave me pause. “How’s Mom taking it?” I asked him.

  “Not well,” Preston answered. “I’m afraid I’m no longer going to be your stepbrother. I know you’re broken-hearted over it, but we’ll just have to get past it, somehow…”

  I punched him in the shoulder, and he cringed dramatically. “Shut up. You’re serious, though? They’re not getting married?”

  Preston laughed. “My father is very possibly going to jail, and even if he’s not, he’s been disgraced. She blames him for everything, while he blames her for being out of the country while I turned him in to the authorities. Really, they’re perfect for each other. I don’t see how it wouldn’t work out.”

  I shot him a look and he added, “Don’t worry. I’ve made sure she won’t have a thing to her name. I gave her a nice little going away package. And then I told her never to come back. I hope that wasn’t overstepping it.”

  “It wasn’t,” I assured him. “I cut off all contact a while ago, and I don’t regret that decision one bit. I’m glad she’s out of my life. Speaking of which, why didn’t you let me know any of this sooner? If you’d explained, I would have stayed away until it was through.”

  “I tried,” Preston said, “but you wouldn’t take my calls. And you changed your number, remember? Didn’t you listen to any of my voicemails? I just assumed you’d given up on me. That press conference was a last ditch effort to get through to you. I thought for sure you’d never want to see me again. But despite everything…” He softly, tentatively laid his hand on mine. “I had hope.”

  Just like the first time, an electric charge swept through me as Preston touched my hand. I shivered in a way I hadn’t dreamed of since the last time we’d been together. When I looked into his eyes, it was like all feeling returned to my body. I was alive again, all because Preston had touched me again.

  “I missed you so much,” I whispered to him.

  Preston cupped my face in his hands. “I missed you too,” he told me. “You’re like the oxygen I breathe, Maddy. I can’t live without you.”

  He kissed me hard on the mouth, pulling me into a tight, passionate embrace. The city passed us by, but I wasn’t aware of any of it. All I knew was Preston’s love and desire, and it was all I ever wanted to know.

  It had been too long since he’d held me like this, too long since I’d felt anything but agony at his absence. “I want you,” I murmured into his mouth, knowing that I didn’t have to say it, but needing to anyway.

  “We’ll be home soon,” he whispered back, tangling his fingers through my hair. “I need you more than anything, Maddy, and in a few minutes, we’ll have each other again.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t wait that long,” I told him. Then I pressed the button that put the tinted, soundproof divider between us and Mr. Fletcher up, and I lifted my blouse up over my head.

  Preston smirked and shook his head at me, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from my breasts. As I released them from my bra he pulled it away, taking one in each hand as he kissed me again, his fingers brushing over my skin with such reverence I thought I would burst into tears right there.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said over and over again. “I wish there had been some other way…”

  “Make it up to me,” I told him, pushing his head down between my thighs.

  Preston sank to his knees in front of me, pushing my skirt up my hips and sliding my panties down my calves as he gingerly kissed his way up my legs. He took his time, caring nothing for what was happening outside the limo, focusing only one my body and how many ways he could make it sing under his expert caress. I leaned my head back and moaned as he pulled me toward the edge of my seat, and when he pressed his lips against my aching womanhood, I felt my core shudder and hum with delight.

  “Preston,” I breathed, grasping his hair. His tongue made one long lick from my entrance to crest of my vulva and I sighed, arching, my nipples puckering in the cool air conditioning as he spread my folds with his fingers.

  “Every day of my life,” he said between licks. “I’ll do this every day of my life if it means you’ll forgive me.”

  “Oh, Preston,” I said again, shivering as he began to torture my bud in earnest. “I already do.”

  But that didn’t stop him. I knew it wouldn’t. I had been counting on it.

  He slid one of his fingers inside of me, using it to brush my sweet spot as his lips wrapped around my tender nubbin and sucked gently. I reeled, my heels on his shoulders as he devoured me. I felt like the only woman in all the world at that moment, like nothing that had happened to either of us had ever mattered. We were all there was, all there ever would be. I closed my eyes, squirming as Preston brought me to the edge of oblivion, holding me there as I moaned his name and inhaled his scent with every labored breath I took of him.

  “Don’t stop,” I urged him, pulling on his hair as a wave of pleasure shook me. “Jesus Christ, Preston. Don’t ever stop!”

  “Never,” he promised, getting back up onto his knees. He laid me back against the leather seat, climbing on top of me as we kissed again and I tasted my sweet nectar all over his lips.

  I whimpered and pressed up against him, my fingers quivering as I worked each button on his shirt. I swept it away, reveling in the sensation of his smooth, broad chest pressed against my own. I could feel his abs ripple against my taut tummy, could feel the weight of him pressing down on me in all the right ways. Involuntarily I parted my legs for him, letting his hips rest in the valley between them. I didn’t even have to think about making love to Preston. It was something as natural as blinking, as breathing in the air around me. My body acquiesced to it before the question was even asked in my mind.

  He slipped his strong arms around me, his biceps bulging and quaking as he lifted me up to his mouth. In the space between us I unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, pushing them down his legs along with his boxer briefs until I could feel his hard flesh brushing against my mound. He was so stiff, so swollen for me that I knew it must be painful. I let my hand wander over it, teasing his shaft with my fingers as I traced every vein that ran from root to tip, making him shudder and groan.

  “Maddy,” he gasped into my ear. His breath was sweltering hot. “I need you.”

  “I need you too,” I told him, wrapping my legs around his waist as he took the invitation and dove inside of me, striking deep and true.

  I threw my head back, my hair spilling over the seat behind me as Preston captured my throat in his lips. He placed soft, lazy kisses all along it, each press of his mouth inspiring in me a new kind of pleasure I’d never felt before. I wiggled as he teased, sighing and shivering, digging my nails into his shoulders as he pumped steadily into my warm, wet chasm. There was a tenderness in his touch this time, a desperation that transcended mere carnal need.

  Preston wasn’t fucking me this time. This time, we were making love.

  I hid my face in the curve of his neck, muffling my cries of ecstasy on his flesh. He only allowed this for a few moments before he took a handful of my ha
ir and pulled me away from him, gazing into my eyes as he said, “Look at me.”

  I bit my lip, my cheeks flushing with shy desire. He smiled and kissed each one, showering that redness with affection as it lit up my freckles like the lights on a Christmas tree.

  Preston drove into me again and again until finally he sat back on his heels, pulling my hips up onto the tops of his thighs and knees. He held me with one hand as the other drifted to my pussy, his thumb grinding into my clit as I seized and shouted, clenching him between my thighs as I gasped for breath.

  “Fuck! Preston!”

  “Cum for me, Maddy,” he said. He sounded more like he was begging than commanding. It thrilled me all the same. “Please, baby. I want to feel you around me. I need to feel you…”

  I grasped my tits in my hands, tugging and toying with my nipples as bolts of bliss jolted into my core. A tension was building, one that had been waiting quite some time for release, and when the dam finally burst I careened headlong into a beautiful abyss.

  I writhed uncontrollably, my inner muscles clenching down around Preston’s cock and milking it for all it was worth as wave after wave of rapture overtook me. It was like a tide was sweeping me out into an endless sea, pulling me down into depths I could not fathom, assuring that I would never breathe again as I sank and sank. And yet I didn’t care. I wanted those waves to drown me, to pour over me and wash every ounce of my being away. But Preston kept me grounded. He held onto me, watching as his face twisted with pleasure, gritting his teeth as his own passion consumed him just as it had consumed me.

  “Maddy,” he groaned. That word left his lips like a prayer, and a moment later, he worshipped me with his seed.

  He fell forward and I caught him, kissing him over and over as he filled me in the way I’d needed ever since we’d last seen each other. That sensation of wholeness returned to me, and for the first time in weeks, I felt utterly at peace with him and with myself.

  We lay together for innumerable moments, entwined in one another and unwilling to let go. Tears were brimming in my eyes again. The tidal wave of my pleasure had been replaced by one of emotion, and I couldn’t stop the sobs wracking my body as Preston kept me safe in his arms.

  “Hey,” he said, finally drawing away from me. “You know who deserves a happy ending?”

  “We do,” I said, laughing as I blinked the happy tears from my eyes. “We fucking do.”

  Preston smiled. He brushed the last tear away with his thumb. “You’re damn right,” he told me. “And I think I know just the place to make it happen...”

  Chapter 16

  If you’d told me three weeks ago that I’d have Maddy out on my boat cruising through the Caribbean, I would have said you were crazy. Back then she was still my soon-to-be stepsister, it looked like my father had won, and I’d firmly believed I’d chased away the love of my life for good.

  Now here we were, just the two of us aboard my boat, the shadow of impending relation no longer looming over us. We were finally, completely free, and it was the best feeling I’d ever had.

  I watched her as she sauntered over in her white string bikini, the one with a big, gold ring that pulled together the front of her top and accentuated her inhumanly perfect cleavage. The way her hair fluttered in the warm breeze made her look like she was in some kind of Sports Illustrated ad as she bent over to hand me another daiquiri.

  I gently pulled open the front of her top with one finger and peeked at her bountiful breasts. She laughed and slapped my hand away before sitting down on my lap, relaxing against me in the sun.

  “This is perfect,” she said, sipping on her drink as we baked under the clear skies together. “I can’t believe how lucky we are.”

  “Good things come to those who do good,” I told her. It might have been ineloquent, but it was true. “You taught me that,” I added, kissing her shoulder.

  She smiled and turned toward me, placing her own kiss on my temple. “I love you, Preston Harvey. You know that?”

  I grinned. It was the first time either of us had said it to each other, but we’d both known well before now how we felt. It had been love at first sight—we just hadn’t known it at the time. Now that we did, it was something we’d never forget.

  It still felt good to hear her say it, though. And it was only fitting, since I had a very important question for her.

  “I love you too,” I replied, kissing her on the lips. Then I tapped her thigh with the palm of my hand. “You gotta get up, though. I have something to give you.”

  Maddy giggled and stood, looking up at me as I got up from the lounge chair. “Is that a ring box in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

  I stared at her, mouth agape. “You bitch,” I muttered, giggling as she slapped my shoulder. “You ruined the surprise.”

  “The real surprise would be if you managed to slip something past me,” she said, biting her lip as she gazed up into my eyes. “Come on, Preston. Ask me. You already know what I’m going to say.”

  I smirked. “Yes, ma’am,” I said as I did what I was told.

  I lowered myself down on one knee with much grunting and groaning and holding my back while Maddy rolled her eyes and tried not to smile at me. Then I reached into the pocket of my shorts and pulled out the ring box she’d already known was there. At least she didn’t know what was inside of it.

  “Madison Hearst,” I began, and even though I knew what her answer would be, my pulse quickened all the same. “You are the single best thing to have ever happened to me. Before you, I thought I knew what wealth was. Before you, I thought I knew how the world worked. Before you, I was sure there was no such thing as love. Well, I was an idiot. You made me see that. And now I want to show you something in return.”

  I opened up the box. I’d never felt so proud in my life as I did at that moment when she gasped.

  “Oh my God,” she breathed. “Jesus, Preston. It’s beautiful!”

  She stared down at the rose gold ring I’d picked out for her, the one with a twisted, diamond-encrusted shank framing the brightest pink diamond money could buy. Knowing and loving Maddy had made me rich in an intangible way, but being an actual billionaire still had its merits when it came to gifts.

  The sun reflected off the gem’s surface, painting Maddy’s face with an array of prisms that would have rivaled the Hope Diamond. I took her hand—she was too flabbergasted to give it to me on her own—and slowly slid the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly, just as I’d intended. It had been hell getting her ring size while she was sleeping.

  “Madison Hearst,” I intoned, trying to sound very, very serious. “Will you marry me?”

  Maddy looked from me to the ring, then back again. I quirked a brow at her as I waited for her to respond.

  In typical Maddy fashion, she made me wait. And then she grinned and threw her arms around me as I stood, bouncing up and down as she cried, “Yes! Yes!” over and over again.

  My heart swelled as I took her in my arms, holding her tightly and kissing over the waves of her hair as she committed to being my wife. I’d never wanted anything so badly in all my life as this, and now that I had it, I felt utterly complete.

  Maddy looked up at me and bit her lip. With a very put-on Southern accent, she asked me, “Does that mean we ain’t gonna be kin no more?”

  I shook my head at her and laughed. “Only by marriage,” I replied, and kissed my bride-to-be once more.

  You’re not done yet. I’ve got one last surprise in store. Turn the page and read ROUGH RIDER! My bestselling biker romance.

  I hope you love it!

  -Nikki

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  Novels by Nikki Wild

  Bad Boy Fighters:

  KNOCKOUT (A Bad Boy MMA Romance)

  Bad Boy Bikers:

  Saving Landon (A Bad Boy Biker Romance)

  Saved by the Bad Boy (A Devil’s Dragons Biker Romance)

  British Bad Boys:

  Royal Prick (A Bad Boy British Romance)

  Arrogant Brit (A Bad Boy British Sports Romance)

  Rock Hard (A Bad Boy British Rockstar Romance)

  Played (A Bad Boy British Romance)

  Bad Boy Rockstars:

  Illicit Behavior (A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance)

  Rock Hard (A Bad Boy British Rockstar Romance)

  Bad Boy Stepbrothers:

  Lust (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance)

  Richard (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance)

  Bad Boy Billionaires:

  Protect And Serve (A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance)

  Rough Rider

  A biker romance from Nikki Wild

  For a limited time, EVERYONE who signs up to the WILD LIST will receive a free exclusive romance novel from Nikki Wild that you can’t find anywhere else!

  The Wild List will send you exclusive updates from Nikki Wild and you can be among the very first to receive all of my hottest new releases!