Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story

by Cher Etan

  Meaghan smiled back at him. “We’ve both had crazy evenings; it hasn’t been easy to maneuver with all the crazy that’s been going on. I think we should probably not do too much thinking right now.”

  “You’re probably right,” Daniel said but he still sounded miserable. “When he goes home, he’ll probably want some.”

  Meaghan stared at him, “You say that like you have no choice but to give it to him.”

  Daniel shrugged.

  Meaghan glared at him, “Look Danny, Bain is my friend and I know you’re not saying he would force you-“

  “Of course he wouldn’t force me. It's just he would expect –“

  “God Danny don’t tell me you feel like if he wants then you have to. I mean…you’re a guy; you weren’t even socialized that way.”

  Daniel laughed softly and looked down. “I guess…sometimes…I feel like Bain is this…amazing architect, great all around guy, sensitive, generous; and what am I except good looking? If I don’t sleep with him then what good am I to him?”

  “Jeez Danny low self esteem much?” Meaghan exclaimed in genuine distress. “Please don’t tell me Bain told you that.”

  “He didn’t. he wouldn’t,” Daniel grimaced. “I guess these are old hang ups. My own shit. I need to take care of it myself.”

  “You really do Danny because you’re one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met and if you were straight or I was a gay man, I’d totally fight Bain for you so don’t you go saying that all you’re good for is looking good,” Meaghan chided.

  “Don’t let Dean hear you say that,” Daniel smirked.

  “I don’t care if he does; it's true. You are great and you need to believe that.”

  “Thanks girlfriend,” Daniel said with a shy smile.

  “No. Thank you Danny for being exactly the guy Bain needs in his life. Never doubt your importance to him…or to me,” she pressed.

  Daniel just looked down, the smile playing on his lips like he wasn’t really aware it was there. Meaghan leaned forward so she could look into his eyes.

  “You believe me right?” she asked.

  He looked up to meet her honey brown eyes with his piercing gray ones, “Yes.”

  Chapter 14

  They got home at 4am, what with the various goodbyes that took the form of conversations that just couldn’t wait. Bain and Meaghan made a date to hold a post mortem on Monday since Sunday was definitely blocked off for sleeping in and recovery. Meaghan made a point of telling Bain to treat Daniel like a lady and he responded with guilty agreement and a meaning-loaded glance that let her know that Daniel would feature prominently in their post party breakdown. Smith made a point of kissing her on both cheeks in the French manner and expressing his happiness that she’d come for the do within hearing of his parents and Poppy’s mother. He even went so far as to introduce her to Jonathon Winchester, his father. His mother drifted off strategically before he could introduce her as well. Bella smiled from the sidelines in her fiancé’s arms and gave her a side shrug as if to say, “What else could you expect?”

  If someone were to ask Meaghan directly she would say that she would expect a little civility. I mean it was like these people were so used to getting their own way in everything that the slightest glitch in their plans led to epic sulking. I mean hadn’t they ever heard of ‘man proposes, God disposes'?

  There were some cameramen outside the museum, waiting on guests to depart so they could take photos. Perhaps they were paparazzi, who knew? There were some celebrities among them after all, it would make sense that the paps would want to take pics. Meaghan wondered if she should shrink into the background while the cameras were snapping but Dean wound his arm around her and pulled her close, so Meaghan figured that he didn’t mind. He even paused on the step with her so that the cameramen could take as many pictures of them as they wanted. Meaghan tried not to worry if she was displaying her good side or not or whether her dress was draped right or what people would say about her when they saw the picture but it was hard not to.

  “Who’s the girl?”

  “Are you going steady?”

  “What happened between you and Samantha Crawford?”

  “Is it serious?”

  The questions followed them as the cameras flashed and photographers ran after them. Dean mostly just ignored them and ushered Meaghan forward. Microphones were thrust in her face as people asked her questions. She knew intellectually that Dean was a handsome young billionaire and so inevitably people were interested in his love life but this was the first time she’d come face to face with public interest; right in her face and she maybe wasn’t enjoying it as much as people might think she might. She just hoped she didn’t trip and fall or hit her head on one of the ubiquitous microphones. Suddenly, they turned a corner and there was no-one surrounding them except other guests waiting for their cars. There must be some invisible velvet rope whose threshold they’d just crossed.

  “Let’s go home,” Dean whispered in her ear and she nodded her agreement. He took her hand and led her through the throngs to where the valet was waiting with their car keys.

  *****

  Adriana watched them go with a considerable amount of chagrin. Dean had barely exchanged two personal words with her this evening and she was…displeased. She needed to do something to ramp up his interest levels but she currently had no idea what. Jan came to stand next to her.

  “I think you should give up the dream of becoming Mrs. Dean Wesson, Ad,” he said.

  “Why would I do that?” she asked him.

  “Maybe because he’s clearly completely besotted with that black girl,” Jan said.

  “For now,” Adriana said.

  Jan turned to smile at her, “Oh Adriana, clearly you’ve never seen a man in love.”

  Adriana frowned at him, “That’s shows how much you know. It’s a rebound relationship.”

  Jan laughed, “Shows how much you know. He left his girlfriend of fifteen years for this one. You don’t do that unless you got bit bad.”

  Adriana stared at him in stupefaction and then back at the duo as they got in Dean’s vehicle. Her face fell so comically that Jan couldn’t help doubling over with laughter. “If you hurry though, I’m sure you can snag some other billionaire. I saw quite a few people checking you out tonight,” he teased.

  Adriana flipped him off and then went off in search of her own car. Time for plan B.

  *****

  Meaghan flopped on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table, waiting for Dean to stop pottering about checking security settings, light switches, anything he could find to stall this talk. Meaghan let him delay the inevitable as much as he could, amusing herself by imagining the next thing he’d find to do. At last resort he could always whip up a pot of coffee.

  “Coffee?” he asked her right on cue.

  She laughed to herself before nodding her head and he went to the kitchen to watch over the coffeemaker as the coffee came to boil. Clearly it couldn’t do it without his supervision. Meaghan adjusted herself to be the most comfortable on the soft leather couch and put on CNN. Perhaps she could create some perspective by watching really bad news – like that disappearing Malaysian plane or the war in Ukraine. Heavy stuff which really mattered as opposed to a few lies and omissions by her darling boyfriend.

  Dean walked in with the coffee and placed her cup carefully in front of her. It was brimming with cream and he’d clearly taken his time to do it just right for her. She decided to award him ten points for that. Since lying was like minus a thousand points it really wasn’t much but it was something. Dean picked up the remote and changed the channel to a music channel instead. A black girl with flaming red hair was running through a field as she sang in a fiery contralto;

  Want you to MAKE ME FEEL!

  Like I’m the only girl in the WOORLLD!

  Like I’m the only one that you’ll ever LOOOVE!

  Like I’m the only one who holds your HEARRRT!

  O
nly Girl in the World

  Meaghan could totally relate. What girl didn’t want to feel like that? She turned her attention back to Dean, and drew a breath. Time to get to business.

  “So,” she said and picked up her coffee to taste. It was perfectly made and she added another five points for attention to detail.

  “So,” Dean repeated.

  “Why did you lie to me about the recreation center?” she asked at once.

  “I didn’t lie,” he protested at once. “I just didn’t tell you.”

  “Why?” Meaghan asked.

  Dean looked off into the distance. “I always feel like that’s the wrong question. Isn’t that what they say in therapy? The why question is the wrong one?”

  “Are you going to stall all night? Because if so I’d much rather just go to sleep and break up with you in the morning.”

  Dean smiled. “If you weren’t my girlfriend; if you were just maybe someone I knew who happened to work at this foundation whose project I was funding, would you expect that I would tell you about this?” he asked.

  “Of course not. But I’m not just Jane Public here. I am your girlfriend,” she said, sounding a little more intense than maybe she intended.

  “Yes you are, but you’re also an employee and if you knew that your boyfriend was funding this project would it have made you maybe, self-conscious at work? Maybe feel like every compliment is because of what I was doing? Maybe that I was trying to buy you a better job?”

  Meaghan thought about it trying to imagine herself in that situation. “I don’t think I’m that insecure,” she said at last.

  “Okay maybe not but it wouldn’t have raised questions in your mind?” Dean persisted.

  Meaghan sat back eyes narrowed, she was silent for a long while, thinking.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds to me like you woke up and decided for me how you thought I’d react to something and on that basis or not, you decide for me, whether or not I should know something that concerns me directly?” she said.

  Dean went over her words, trying to find a loophole but closed his eyes finally. “Yes,” he said.

  “I see,” Meaghan said.

  “Meaghan listen-“ Dean began to say.

  “No, you listen Dean Wesson; I do not know who you think you are but you do not ever decide what is good for me or what I should think or do or anything!” she said.

  “Okay. I’m sorry,” Dean said.

  “No!” Meaghan snarled. “You don’t get to say sorry and expect forgiveness.”

  “Why not?” Dean asked.

  “Because…this is a new low and I’m not just going to dismiss it and say it's okay because it's not.”

  Dean’s face became very serious. “I do understand what you’re saying and in the spirit of being completely honest I’m going to tell you the real reason why I didn’t tell you.”

  Meaghan stared at him in surprise, she hadn’t expected a curve ball.

  “The real reason?” she asked.

  “Yes. The real reason,” Dean said his face solemn.

  “Okay. Hit me,” Meaghan said.

  “I was…I won’t say jealous because that’s not the word and it implies that I still have questions or don’t trust you which is just not true. I do trust you, completely. I think that I’ve come to trust you more than anyone else in my life because you’re just so upfront with me; the good and the bad.”

  “Okay,” Meaghan said at a loss as to how to react to this.

  “And I say the good and the bad but honestly what you consider “bad” is just really cute to me and I don’t feel like I should contaminate you with my darkness.”

  “What darkness?” Meaghan scoffed.

  “That’s another thing about you. You see me in this like…great light and I don’t want to tarnish that,” he said sadly.

  “You won’t,” Meaghan assured him gently. “Just tell me already.”

  “So I know you say he’s just your supervisor, your colleague and your boss. But I’ve seen how he looks at you; the way his eyes light up. I know that look. It's familiar, I see it in the mirror every day, every time I think of you.”

  Meaghan looked away.

  “No. Don’t look away,” Dean said and Meaghan looked back at him.

  “I don’t trust him, and I think he’s interested in more than a professional relationship with you. So don’t get me wrong. We did the due diligence, we passed it by the board, got their approval. I’m the one who proposed it of course; just seeing the way your eyes light up when you talk about making a difference in those lives…I mean we’ve had a foundation for as long as I’ve been alive, possibly longer. But we don’t do hands on,” he said.

  Meaghan inclined her head to the side and sighed. Dean knew he was being long-winded but he wanted her to understand.

  “So yeah, I proposed that we fund the recreation center that Conrad’s foundation needs and the board approved it and I volunteered to liaise between their foundation and ours because I was familiar with the players…but really I did it so I could keep an eye on him. Make sure he didn’t try anything. It's not that I don’t trust you Meaghan, you have to believe that.”

  “I do,” Meaghan said.

  “It's just that I’m maybe a little more jealous and possessive than I have let on,” Dean finished sheepishly.

  Meaghan stared at him in stupefaction. Then she laughed and laughed and laughed. “I quite literally do not know what to say,” she said between chortles.

  “Say you forgive me,” Dean said a tentative smile spreading over his face.

  “No,” Meaghan said shortly.

  “Come on Megs. Please?” Dean begged.

  “No,” Meaghan repeated.

  “What do I have to do? I came clean with no prompting. I could have just shut up about the jealous possessive shit,” he bargained.

  “That’s true,” Meaghan conceded. “But I can’t condone your Cro Magnon behavior because you were honest with me.”

  “What if I promise not to be such a Neanderthal?” Dean asked.

  “Actions speak louder,” Meaghan declared.

  “Fine you can have me on double secret probation until I prove that I can behaved like an evolved human being.”

  “Deal,” Meaghan said holding out her hand to shake.

  Dean looked at it and then up at her face. “Really, we’re regressing to hand shakes now? What happened to kissing?”

  “You do like to push it don’t you?” she said.

  “Hey, I’m not a billionaire by accident,” Dean said.

  Meaghan opened her mouth to point out that most of that wealth was inherited, but then she thought about all the effort he’d put into keeping the company stable when his father had his stroke and closed it again.

  “So come on lets kiss and make up,” Dean said.

  “We can do that, but don’t think you’re off the hook,” Meaghan warned.

  “I won’t,” Dean said leaning forward with his eyes on her lips.

  “Wait,” Meaghan said and Dean drew back immediately. “I need to get out of this dress first. It's rented.”

  “Not anymore,” Dean said.

  “Excuse me?” Meaghan asked.

  “You look lovely in it, no way you’re giving that back,” Dean said.

  “There you go again with the pre-historic shit,” Meaghan said.

  “Sorry. Let me rephrase. Please allow me to purchase that garment on your behalf because it looks really lovely on you and my heart would be broken to see you return something that was clearly made for you.”

  “Pretty pretty words,” Meaghan mocked.

  “Do they have the desired effect?” Dean asked.

  Meaghan shrugged. “Well I guess you are right about one thing; this dress was made for me,” she said making Dean laugh.

  “And I guess it would be churlish of me to refuse to let you pay for it,” she continued.

  “Really churlish,” Dean agreed.

  “So okay, you can bu
y me the dress,” she said.

  “And the shoes, the handbag and most especially the bobby pin in your hair?” he asked eagerly.

  “You just can’t help yourself can you?”

  “I really can’t,” Dean agreed.

  Meaghan just shook her head and laughed.

  “While you’re in an agreeable mood…” Dean said after a long silence.

  “I’m in an agreeable mood?” Meaghan asked in surprise.

  “Yes, you are,” Dean informed. “So while it lasts, I might as well ask you; how would you feel about living together?”

  “What?!?” Meaghan exclaimed completely taken by surprise. She knew from all the books on ‘handling men’ that the man never asked to progress the relationship without some sort of prompting from the woman…more like manipulation. Dean was going completely off book. This was unacceptable?

  “I said, how would you feel about living together?” he repeated.

  Meaghan stared off into the middle distance. “I don’t know; this place is a little far from my work,” she hedged.

  “Yeah, I mean of course we’d have to find a bigger place somewhere more central to both of our workstations. Or maybe I can get you a vehicle so you can get anywhere from anywhere,” Dean suggested.

  “Whoa. Slow down,” Meaghan said.

  “Why?” Dean asked.

  Meaghan opened her mouth and then looked around for a bit, searching for inspiration. “You seem to have thought about this a lot,” she said at last.

  “Its been floating around in my head for a while,” he admitted. “Are you saying you’ve never thought about it?”

  “What? Living together? How could I think about that when your mother doesn’t even acknowledge my existence. It's like a stonewall blocking any thoughts of the future,” she said and then caught sight of his face and hastened to add, “Not that I’m blaming you or even her it's just that these are the facts.”

  Dean sighed. “Okay eliminating all the bottlenecks, have you thought about me and you, maybe living together, maybe…someday…more than that?”

  “Yes, I’ve thought about it. Of course I have. More like in the guise of a fantasy. Us living in a two story house with a garden and a dog and beautiful blended children running around causing havoc and not getting shot by the cops…”Meaghan smiled but Dean didn’t.