The Billionaire's Second-Chance Bride (The Romero Brothers, #1)

by Shadonna Richards

  “Not half as beautiful as you,” Antonio murmured in a low, deep voice.

  Lucy turned to him. She was, in a word, stunned. Did he just say she was beautiful? Oh, God! Her belly was really bubbling up in a tingly way. Oh, God! “Thank you,” she replied sheepishly as she looked out at the scenery, trying to avoid his gaze. This was stupid. She was a grown woman. What was she afraid of?

  “You want on some music?” Antonio asked with a dimpled grin.

  “Sure. Can you get one of those oldies station or easy-listening channels?”

  Antonio reached over the satellite radio and set it to a station.

  Before she knew it, the song “Never Knew Love Like This” by Stephanie Mills boomed through the speakers. Lucy thought she would faint. Good thing she was sitting. The smooth, soul ballad with the catchy melodic tune sounded: "I never knew love like this before, now I’m lonely never more...since you came into my life...”

  Oh, God! Lucy felt as if she could sink into her seat. What a coincidence for that song to play! How embarrassing. The song was one of the most beautiful ballads she’d ever heard. An old eighties tune but it certainly couldn’t have spoken for the mood any more than it did. It was as if Antonio’s car was alive and played music to what a person thought inside his or her mind.

  Antonio glanced in her direction and his grin grew wider. Great! He sure was enjoying this, wasn’t he? He probably thought she was in love with him or some such nonsense. Egotist.

  “Nice choice. The station, I mean,” he quipped.

  Lucy resisted the urge to playfully slap his muscular arm. She wanted to pinch him but she didn’t.

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head in amusement. By the time that song ended, the beautiful ballad “Lost in Your Eyes” by Debbie Gibson played. It had to be one of her all time favorites. Both of them were quiet in the car for a moment as they pulled up to the top of the hill with the gorgeous view of the mansion and the enormous green spread below.

  “Well, we’re here. What do you think of the view?” Antonio seemed a bit more mellow. Was it the music? Could a beautiful ballad really tame the beast, so to speak?

  She got out of the car slowly as he held the door open for her. “Thank you,” she said.

  “You’re a very polite woman,” he commented. “You must have said thank you at least three hundred times since this afternoon,” he surmised with a boyish grin. "But who's counting?"

  She would not say thank you to that comment. She willed herself not to. Gosh, he was right. She was very over-thankful for everything, if one could call it that.

  Antonio took that opportunity to grill Lucy about her life. What she enjoyed and what she didn’t and how noble it was for her to take over her auntie’s business, though he still wanted to discuss letting his grandfather down as gently as possible. He loved that old man. Lucy asked him about his own family since clearly he knew much about her.

  Antonio was closed at first but as they meandered around the hillside they got to talking more. He loved to capture the beautiful scenic images, and in fact, he owned a mini gallery in one of the cottages where he displayed his artwork and nature photography. He even showed her some images on his smartphone. Lucy was awestruck. His mood darkened somewhat when she asked him about his father. He didn’t want to delve too much into his father’s passing and what type of man he was. And what Lucy noticed more was the pain in Antonio’s eyes when he answered a question about his mother. She was alive but it sure didn’t feel like it. He didn’t want to discuss anything about his mother. She was off limits apparently. Period. Done with. A nonissue. Lucy wondered in horror about what type of relationship they might have had for him to never want to trust women. Perhaps there was more to the story than the little she had heard. There must have been. Antonio was a sweet, resourceful man who gave a lot to the community, though he never spoke directly of it. While questioning him on his projects, she learned that most of it was to help young people succeed in life on their own regardless of their backgrounds. He seemed to be quite passionate about that. Obsessed even. It was one of the forces that drove him daily. To turn underdogs into top dogs. Who could blame him for wanting to do that?

  Was it because he didn’t have much himself growing up. Not in material things, obviously, but in love. Companionship.

  Lucy had explained to Antonio that the reason she wanted to continue the agency, despite having her own reservations about some of the stunts the brides and grooms wanted to pull off, was it was a way to grant dreams to deserving people. Antonio commended her on her intent but still made it clear that by Friday, he wanted her to resolve the issue with his grandfather’s wedding.

  Way to ruin the moment, she thought.

  They enjoyed the scene of the lake below and Lucy also noticed the chairlift to the side going all the way down to the bottom of the hill.

  “You guys own all of this land?”

  “We do.”

  “But it’s like cottage country up here. Is there a resort near by?” Lucy felt so out of her league and so out of bounds. How could she not have known this? She knew that Romero Realty owned plenty of properties and land but never envisioned this. Unlike Antonio, it wasn’t as if she went around ordering background checks on everyone with whom she did business. Although it would probably be a good idea. Everything she knew about people was reduced to whatever she could Google about them. Ha! That made her feel so amateurish compared to the Romeros.

  “During the winter months, we open up the cottages over there and we pretty much run a ski resort. We do a lot of student packages.”

  “Can the students even afford this?”

  “We do complimentary packages, Lucy. We give back to the community and to the young people.”

  “Oh, right.”

  “I trust you will be present at the Diamond Ball this Thursday evening?” Antonio’s tone made the sentence sound more like a command than a question or invitation.

  “Well, I do have a lot of projects this week,” she answered with a grin. “But I think I will try to squeeze it in.”

  “Good,” Antonio answered curtly.

  The sun was setting and the sky was turning into swirls of red and purple in the distance. When she looked at the lights of the town below, it was a picture-perfect image.

  “You must love coming up here, Antonio.”

  “Like I said, I like to get away from the city when I can. And from people.”

  “From people?”

  “Yes. Why, does that surprise you?”

  “Well, you seem like such a people person.”

  “I do?”

  “Yes.” Lucy then thought back to their first meeting at the office. He didn’t exactly seem people-friendly at the time but that was obviously because he was peeved with her about his grandfather’s wedding.

  Oh, no. His grandfather’s wedding. Just then, Lucy’s feelings took a serious nosedive.

  Lucy kept directing her gaze to the chairlifts going up and down the steep hill, empty. It was sad in a way. Here, Antonio had all this land and it was practically empty. It was like owning an amusement park and not allowing admittance.

  “You want a ride?”

  “On the chairlift?”

  “Come.” Antonio didn’t wait for her to answer.

  Oh, my. This was so not how she had planned her evening. It was better. Too bad it was a work night.

  Lucy didn’t know why but she just wanted to spend the whole evening with Antonio. Heck, she wanted to spend more than just the whole evening with him. There was something about him that lulled her senses. Something about Antonio that she just couldn’t quite pinpoint.

  What was it about Antonio Romero? This man was as elusive as he was sexy and hot as hell. His presence captivated her every time she saw him. Whether in person or in her dreams or her fantasies. And there he was. With Lucy. Alone. Just the two of them.

  He had some sort of magical effect on her emotions. Like some sort of sedative that mellowed her mood and relax
ed her at the same time. She glanced at his softly defined lips. What would they feel like on hers? As if he could hear her, Antonio escorted her to the chairlift, but before he got on, he glanced into her eyes.

  Her legs weakened.

  Please kiss me.

  Just then, the image of him touching her, caressing her, making love to her, engulfed her mind. God, she really needed to get a life. She really needed not to be celibate right now. How long had it been since she’d been intimate? Way, way, way too long.

  Antonio’s cell phone buzzed and shattered the moment. He paused. She thought she heard him curse under his breath. He turned away to answer. It had a distinctive ring so it must have been somebody important.

  “Yes, Grandfather. You have a good night, too.”

  “Sorry, I wasn’t listening, but that was so...sweet.” There. She said it.

  “You’re really something else, you know that?” he said, guiding her to the chairlift.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “You’re sentimental, for one thing.”

  “Thank—" Lucy stopped herself and watched as Antonio’s lips curled into a smile.

  The scenic chairlift ride was extraordinary. She grabbed on to Antonio’s arm as he casually leaned back in the luxury seat of the lift gliding all the way down at a swift pace. Lucy was breathing hard, catching her breath but enjoying the sights. How could Antonio be so calm when dangling in the air from a thin cable?

  She gripped his biceps and could feel the steel hardness of his muscles. Good God! This man was built solid like a sculpture. Oh, my. What could he be like in bed?

  “Are you going to be okay, Miss Shillerton?” Antonio turned to her, grinning.

  She playfully rolled her eyes. “I’m afraid of heights.”

  The grin vanished. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “No. It’s okay. I’m...I’m with you so...”

  He held on to her. “We’ll be down soon.”

  Lucy leaned into Antonio. She really did enjoy the scenery, it was just the thought of the cables holding them up so high off the ground worked on her nerves. They must have been at about two-thousand feet above sea level, she guessed. Of course, who cared about sea level? To Lucy it looked like a million mile plummet to earth!

  Antonio turned to Lucy and lifted her chin up so that their gaze met. Lucy looked into Antonio’s dark, sexy eyes and she felt oddly protected. He gave her the look that he would not let anything happen to her. But there was also something else in his eyes. Oh, those beautiful dark eyes framed by long, thick lashes.

  Then as if time had stopped, he leaned down and pressed his soft lips to hers. Lucy felt electricity pulse delightfully chaotically through her blood. He slowly slid his tongue inside her parted lips and twirled and sucked on her until she felt heated between her thighs.

  Holy crap!

  Lucy and Antonio were locked into the hottest, most passionate kiss she’d ever experienced in her life. He held her closely and sucked on her lips and pleasured them in a way she never imagined.

  This. Man. Can. Kiss!

  She didn’t know where she was she was so lost in the moment. She couldn’t care less if she were dangling from the Empire State Building in New York or the CN Tower in the downtown Toronto core. Her mind buzzed, her body convulsed.

  What a kiss!

  Antonio’s lips tasted as sweet as they looked. His lips tasted of savory wine and were divinely intoxicating. Heat coursed through Lucy’s blood. Her blood pumped fast and hard, and she didn’t know whether she was coming or going. She was in a trance. When he licked her lips and pulled away from her, she was still buzzed, dazzled, discombobulated. Her lips tingled from his soft, intimate touch. Her body reacted like crazy. Her nipples were hard as if she was in the Arctic and her inner thighs pulsed and pounded from want.

  Oh, God!

  Oh, God!

  Antonio’s lips. His kiss.

  Lucy was breathless, she was dazed and needed oxygen ... like yesterday.

  “Are you okay, Miss Shillerton?” Antonio’s low voice slid into her.

  She took a minute to catch her breath and realized that they were already at the bottom of the slope. She was still panting, breathing hard and fast.

  “Well, I’m glad you didn’t pass out on me up there.” He grinned.

  Lucy gazed into his eyes, her mind was still reeling from his soft, sensual kiss. This man oozed power. Sexual power and lots of it. Yet he just claimed that he didn’t fall in love. That was what he said, wasn’t it? She was aware he was never heartbroken but he must have broken a hell of a lot of hearts.

  Lucy was shaking. She was shivering and it wasn’t because of a cool night breeze.

  “Lucy, come on. I’d better take you home.”

  “M-m-my car,” she stuttered.

  “Maxine drove it home, remember?”

  “Oh, right.” Lucy clutched her forehead. Superman CEO here just stole her breath away and all her senses and her memory, too, with just one hot, memorable kiss.

  “Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,” he murmured.

  “Done what?”

  “I sometimes get ahead of myself. I just didn’t want you passing out on me there.”

  “Yeah, I...I know. Thank you.” So that was all it was? Antonio was saving her, not seducing her?

  Then why was her body still pulsing and reacting to him?

  It wasn’t anything, Lucy. Don’t get ahead of yourself. It was only a kiss.

  No. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was freaking the best feeling I’d ever experienced sexually and he hadn’t even undressed me...yet.

  Later, when Lucy arrived at her apartment, she pressed the remote for her iPod dock and the first song that loaded really spoke to how she felt at that moment. It was a hot, soulful ballad from Deborah Cox titled “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here.” That woman sure could sing. And she was singing just what Lucy was feeling. Lucy crouched down on the floor by her door after closing it. She grabbed her knees to her chest.

  Shit!

  She was falling for Antonio Romero.

  That was so wrong on so many levels.

  He wasn’t relationship material. He told her that. Not just told her, screamed it from the mountaintops.

  She didn’t want to get her heart slammed into pieces again.

  But yet, he made her feel the way no man had ever made her feel before. Not even her first love. The song boomed through her dock speakers. She pondered the lyrics. “How did you get here...nobody’s supposed to be here...I’ve tried that love thing for the last time...”

  Lucy had to get Antonio out of her system and fast. This was all wrong. She craved the way he made her feel. She craved him. But she could not, should not give her heart to him.

  Once bitten, twice shy.

  Once betrayed, twice afraid.

  She had to try to un-fall in love with this guy. He was so out of her league. Besides, she swore off men—for now, anyway. Look what Jeff did to her. And she really had trusted Jeff.

  So why was her heart telling her that she needed Antonio, that she should be with him?

  She squeezed her eyes shut. She was shivering all over. She was still buzzing from Antonio’s sexually charged, passionate kiss. Her lips still tingled from his touch. Those soft, hot lips of his. His amazing tongue twirling. How did he do that? She was stoked by him. Captivated by him. She was...in love with him.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Antonio kissed me.

  Lucy was reeling over that seductive kiss. She was still thrilled about Monday’s sexually-charged kiss with Antonio Romero. It was two days ago and yet the erotic touch of his lips remained as a phantom sensation. Ah, those lips of his. Soft, sweet, tender. She’d never met anyone like Antonio. His kiss could bring a woman to dizzying heights of sensual pleasure. What would it feel like to be even more intimate with him? Lucy's body was still pulsing over the naughty thoughts swirling in her mind. So there really was such a thing as sparks flying when you kissed the right per
son? Lucy had never felt that way before with Jeff. Never.

  But the words that followed after her close and personal encounter with Antonio left a bitterness in the pit of her stomach. He said he didn’t want her passing out on him. It meant nothing to him, yet she was having these crazy whirlwind feelings about him. Her body desired his touch, his passion. What was wrong with her?

  The Diamond Ball Fundraiser was the following evening and Lucy honestly didn’t know if she could handle seeing Antonio again. The thought was overwhelming in more ways than one. Then there was the decision regarding what to do about his grandfather’s wedding.

  Oh, God! His grandfather’s nuptials. She was going to have to hurt one of the Romeros and the mere thought scorched her heart.

  This was not going to be easy.

  “Penny for your thoughts.” Maxine raised a brow coupled with a wicked grin. She and Lucy headed up the grand escalator of the Metro Convention Center towards the Bridal Show.

  Lucy came out of her daydream and drew in a deep breath before answering. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind, Maxine.”

  “I’ll bet you do. And I bet his name is Antonio Romero, the third,” she said, rolling the R in Romero.

  “Maxine!”

  “What? I’m just saying.”

  “Antonio is the grandson of one of my clients. Nothing more.”

  “Yeah, if you say so. I saw the look on your face when he asked to be alone with you on Monday. Come on. You must have gotten some.”

  “Maxine! I would never just...I’m not easy. Besides, that would be just so unethical.”

  Maxine grinned and rolled her eyes playfully as they both stepped off the escalator and walked towards the carpeted corridor towards Showroom A.

  “Lucy, you’re a woman in love. You may not want to admit it, but I see the way you are around that dude.”

  “And just how am I around that dude?”

  “You’re always blushing and incoherent for one thing.”

  Lucy stopped walking for a moment and turned to face Maxine. She could not believe her ears. “Excuse me?”

  “You know what I’m talking about, girl. And then, you’re like, not letting anything around the office bother you as much. You’re always daydreaming and thinking about something and there’s that silly grin on your face.”