The Billionaire's Big Beautiful Bride (BWWM Romance Book 1)

by Fielding, J A

  “Me. I happened.”

  “What does that mean?” Victoria asked and Axel shook his head.

  “I fucked up,” he said as she took a long sip of the water.

  She put the bottle top back on and looked at him.

  “I need you to tell me more, Axel. How did you fuck up? What happened between last night and this morning?” she asked.

  “Nothing happened last night…I mean, last night was amazing. Magical even but today I told her that I wanted her to move here,” he said and Victoria nodded. “You know, help me with running the resort and maybe even the clothing line. I mean, she does have the body for it.”

  “Okay.”

  “I think it came out more as a demand than a request because when she disagreed with me, I got so angry and stormed out.”

  Victoria raised an eyebrow.

  “I think I am beginning to understand your predicament,” she said. “Asking her to move here means asking her to leave her job and she has worked her butt off at HHM to get to where she is in that firm.”

  Axel shook his head.

  “I messed up big time, didn’t I?” he asked and she nodded.

  “I mean, I haven’t known Trina for that long but in the few months I have been at HHM I have seen just how much of a hard worker she is. Everyone wants to be her in the court room,” she explained.

  Axel forced out a laugh.

  “That’s what she said about you,” he said and Victoria smiled.

  “Well, I just do what I can but she was the first woman to impress the senior partners at the firm.” She forced out a laugh. “The bosses had to make her partner to make sure they retained her because all the other competitive firms wanted her.”

  Axel bit his lower lip.

  “I really messed up,” he thought as he looked at Victoria.

  “Asking her to give up her job and stay here is almost as bad as her asking me to give up my position here. Give up Ornen and the Anderson Collection,” he said as he looked at her and she nodded.

  “Actually I think you are more passionate about the clothing line than you are about the resort,” Victoria pointed out and Axel looked into her eyes. “And even though I know that you love the resort, what you did was the equivalent of asking you to give up the Anderson Collection,” she explained.

  And at that moment, Axel understood just how bad he had messed up. He looked at Victoria and shook his head.

  “Tell me what to do,” he said in a soft voice. He was practically pleading with her. “Because I know to everyone it might seem like we rushed into this marriage but the truth is that I don’t want to lose her. I would do anything, even give up Ornen if it meant that I would never lose her.”

  Victoria nodded.

  “I know,” she said.

  “So? What do I do now? Where do I go from here?” he asked and she shrugged.

  “It’s simple really. You need to apologize,” she said.

  “How do I do that if I can’t even get her on the phone?” he asked and she shrugged.

  “The Trina I know would go to one place to get away from everything,” she said and he shrugged.

  “Where?”

  “Back home.”

  “Back home,” he echoed and Victoria nodded.

  “She will bury herself in work to make sure that she doesn’t have to think about what is really going on in her reality,” she said and Axel nodded.

  He reached for his phone and made a call as she took another sip of her water.

  “Oliver, hi. Axel here. Get the jet ready. We’ll be wheels up in one hour,” he said and Victoria’s eyes grew wide. “Where? San Francisco.”

  He hung up and looked at Victoria.

  “So you are going to up and leave just like that? Right now?” she asked as he flipped through his phone.

  “Yes, I don’t see why I cannot leave right now.”

  “But what about the hotel?” she asked.

  “Well, I don’t have to be here to make sure the resort runs smoothly. Besides, I don’t like to micromanage,” he said as he looked at her. “And if I have any chance of showing Trina just how important she is to me. The more she is away from me the greater the chance of losing her gets. And I am not about to lose her or lose this marriage.” He shook his head. “This was most definitely not a mistake and I will not let her feel like it was one.”

  *****

  When Trina walked into her place, she was not feeling as relaxed as a person who had just spent a long vacation away from home was supposed to feel. If anything, she felt a little tired and not just physically. She was spent. Both physically and mentally.

  She slammed the door shut behind her and locked it before she walked in. She had left her bags by the door and as she slowly walked through the house that she had called home for so long, she could not help but shake the feeling that she was a stranger in her own house. She slowly made her way to the kitchen and got the kettle started before she got a bottle of vitamin water from her fridge.

  Her eyes were still puffy from all the tears that had rolled down her cheeks earlier that day. And all through the long flight from Zurich. And just like that, the water works were on again. She leaned against her kitchen counter and took a sip of her water and then she brushed off the tear that was already rolling down her already stinging cheek.

  The worst thing about how she was feeling was the fact that she was still very much in love with Axel. That at the back of her mind, she still wanted to step right back out of her apartment and make her way back to the airport, take the first flight to Zurich and then go on to Ornen from there. But that was the stuff that usually happened in movies. There was no way she could just see Axel and pretend that everything was all fine because it wasn’t. It was clear that the two of them had very different ideals when it came to marriage, it was all about partnership. And her idea of a partnership was majorly based on communication. And it was clear that was not something Axel took seriously. Something had to give. And hopefully it was not going to be her personality. She was not about to give up her life even though she had basically no social life. But she did have a thriving career. One that she had bent over backwards to make sure she got to where she was.

  She took a cup from the dish rack and put a strawberry flavored teabag in the cup before she poured the boiling water in. She then put in a teaspoon of honey before she made her way back to the living room. She sipped on her tea as she slowly made her way to her entertainment center. She was in a mood for some good music but something nice and soft. Something soothing that would make her forget everything about the mess her short lived social and love life had become.

  Another teat rolled down her cheek and she brushed it off and then ran her hand over her vinyl records feeling a little spoiled for choice. She wanted something soothing but at the same time, something that wouldn’t make her think of Axel but that was obviously inevitable. She pulled out the first record she held and sighed when she saw what she had picked out.

  “Enya,” she said to herself. “And it just had to be Watermark.”

  She put the cup down and pulled the record out of the case. She looked at it long and hard before she put the record on and placed the needle on the vinyl record. She closed her eyes and took a long deep breath as the atmosphere suddenly changed when the all too smooth rhythm of the first song took over. She then took her cup and made her way to the couch and sat down.

  “Maybe the cliché saying is true,” she thought as she took another sip of her tea. “Vinyl is the only way to listen to music.”

  But even though she was trying to push thoughts of Axel and her new marriage that was officially on the rocks to the back of her mind, she could not help but think of him. And her marriage. She was blaming herself while asking herself a million and one questions.

  Was it possible that she had been too fast to react?

  Should she have waited a little and tried to have a conversation with Axel before she decided to leave the resort and the country? />
  Was she even right in beginning a relationship with someone like Axel after only knowing him for a few days?

  She took a long deep breath again and took another sip of her tea.

  “Should I even consider myself a married woman?” she thought as she looked down at her left ring finger. She still had the beautiful engagement ring and her wedding band on and for the first time, she wanted to take them off. She was not sure she knew or even understood what they represented anymore. And besides, she was already considering an annulment. Having been in the legal field for as long as she had been, she knew just how ugly a lengthy court process was going to be and she also knew that she did not want to go through any more pain than what she already felt.

  Her heart was racing when she put the cup on the coffee table. What she was doing was not healthy. She needed to move on from what she was feeling. She needed a distraction. She needed to keep her mind busy.

  “I need to work,” she thought as she reached for her iPad and quickly turned it on. This would be the first time in two weeks she would do anything work related and maybe it was about time too.

  A smile played on her lips when she saw the emails from her boss. “Perfect,” she thought as she read one of the emails. One of their clients was being sued for medical malpractice and as much as she hated handling medical malpractice suits, maybe that was exactly what she needed to get her back in the real world: her world.

  She did not know it then, but the real reason she was so keen on going back to work was getting back the control that she felt like she had lost along with everything else she thought she had found in Ornen. Her heart, her love, and her happiness. And maybe the only way she could go back to being the confident woman she knew was to go back to work and go right back to telling people what they could or couldn’t do. It was the only way she was going to remain sane anyway.

  Chapter 10

  Four Years Ago…

  Being a big shot in the legal field was something Trina had always wanted to do. But she never knew just how much work that meant. Being undermined, being at the bottom of the totem pole…these were not pitfalls she thought possible. After all, she had done her part being the bottom feeder. Being an intern first and then being an associate and working as a paralegal before HHM became what it was. Those were the worst years of her life especially because one of the senior partners was as racist as they came. It was like working for a Trump and KKK love child. So it was only normal that she hated the idea of going to the office when she woke up every morning. But on this particular morning, she was feeling especially low not because her job sucked big time but also because she was dealing with the latest disappointment in her life. A disappointment by the name of Lucas Keen just months after dealing with yet another break up.

  She was not sure why she kept on falling for the same kind of people.

  Liars.

  Cheats.

  People who kept on misrepresenting themselves to her, just to get what they wanted from her. And every single time she looked at Lucas, she could not help but feel that there was something more about him that she was not seeing. At least not yet. After all, Lucas was almost as perfect as her last boyfriend…or whatever the hell Josh was.

  He was tall and perfectly tanned as if he spent every single weekend in some weekend getaway in Hawaii or Miami. And his hair…he always had perfect hair. Nice thick brown hair that was a little too long for some people but he made it work. He made it work in a suit, in pants, in a pair of cargo shorts…whatever the hell he had on. And his body…that was perhaps the best thing about him. He had this perfectly chiseled six pack that was evident of the long hours he pulled in the gym on almost a daily basis.

  She had just so many questions about him. So many questions about why he had decided to date her and not one of the other paralegals in the office. She was still lost in thought when she heard a knock on her desk. She looked up and sighed when she saw Charles Norton, her racist boss looking down at her.

  “I need the stat reports for the Cara Smith case,” he said.

  “I already emailed them to you an hour ago,” she said.

  “Well, Crews. I didn’t get the email,” he said in a cynical tone and Trina was doing everything she could not to roll her eyes at him.

  “Maybe that’s because you didn’t check your damn email,” was what she wanted to say but instead she grabbed a file off her desk and handed it to her. “I already gave a copy to your assistant earlier but since you might not have gotten that report either, you can have this one.”

  She could tell from the look he was giving her that he had something smart to say. Possibly something derogatory as he usually did. She looked at him and shrugged.

  “Anything else I can get for you, Mr. Norton?” she asked as she looked at him.

  “Report on the Mark Clayton divorce settlement,” he said and she looked through the files on her desk before she handed him another file.

  “Hard copy just in case you never got the email I sent you. And,” she took two more files from her desk. “This one is all the phone records between your ‘not guilty’ client and his so-called nanny. The literal home run this firm needs to close the case on the whole alimony case and that other one is the one that proves that Vince Maher, our client in a coma was indeed a DNR patient. So, all this is just in case you never got the other email updates I sent you earlier today.”

  Charles looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

  “There is no way you did all this on your own in a day,” he said and she shook her head.

  “I did all that and more because unlike those other blonde paralegals who just happen to spend hours in your office doing God knows what, I spend my time here proving to you and everyone else who thinks like you that I am not just a woman or a black woman for that matter. I am a Harvard graduate and I am damn good at my job, Mr. Norton and the more you sit in your office wondering how you are going to get rid of everything that is not white in a firm that doesn’t even have your name on the door, I will be working hard to make sure I make partner in the same damn company,” she said as she stood up.

  “You have a lot of nerve talking to me like that,” Charles said and Trina forced out a laugh.

  “That’s because I know exactly what I am worth,” she said as she grabbed her bag and made her way to the exit leaving a stunned Charles still looking at her. She had just walked into the elevator when she felt someone holding her waist from behind making her gasp loudly.

  “It’s just me,” she heard Lucas’ familiar voice.

  “Don’t do that. You almost scared me to death,” she said in a soft voice. “What are you doing hanging out in the elevator anyway?”

  “I was coming to pick you up but I saw you handing Charles Norton his ass on a platter and I thought it would be best not to interfere,” he said smiling as she turned around and looked at him.

  “So you saw all that?” she asked as he held her close and he nodded.

  “Everything you said to him. Every last word,” he said in a whisper.

  “You do realize that I was just really rude to my boss, right?” she asked and he shrugged.

  “Your racist boss. The man who thinks that America should have assassinated Obama rather than hand him the presidency?” Lucas asked. “That’s the guy you feel bad about going off on?”

  Trina smiled.

  “Okay, when you put it like that I feel like a hero,” she said as the elevator got to the gound floor. He leaned in and kissed her softly before the elevator doors opened. “So, I was thinking a nice home cooked dinner made by yours truly and a bottle of your favorite Sauvignon Blanc,” he said as they walked out of the elevator.

  “Just what do you have planned for me?” she asked and he shrugged.

  “I just want to make sure I give my woman all the personal attention she deserves,” he said just as they approached her car. He looked at her and she smiled. “Or we could just go to a restaurant and have another chef’s dessert. Though to
be quite honest, I would much rather have this dessert standing in front of me.”

  “You make this all sound perfect….so perfect,” she said as she leaned against her car.

  “Well, I already got the whipped cream ready. So, there’s that.”

  Trina laughed and shrugged.

  “Fine,” she said. “Meet me at my apartment building?” she asked and he nodded.

  “Sounds like a plan,” he said before he kissed her again and walked off to his own car. “Drive safe,” he called out as he climbed into the driver’s seat and she nodded.

  “Right back at you,” she called out as she got into her own sedan and started the engine. She secured her seat belt before she began backing out of the parking lot. Needless to say, feeling like the luckiest woman in the world. It was probably a good idea that they were having dinner at her place and not in a restaurant because it gave her an excuse to sleep in the following morning. And she would need it too considering how Lucas usually worked her. She was almost always exhausted on the morning after if not a little sore. But even though she sometimes woke up feeling like she had spent a night in a BDSM dungeon, the thought of having Lucas in her bed was enough to make her get wet and she could not wait to get home. Hell, she had half a mind to skip dinner altogether and get right to dessert.

  *****

  It was as if the tongue lashing Trina had given Charles Norton had worked in more ways than one. For starters, in the days following after their altercation, Charles had stopped being such a condescending bastard and not just to her. To every minority who worked in the company as well and because of that, the next few days at work were almost perfect.

  Apart from Charles not being condescending, he had somehow screwed up and was now officially out of HHM. And she was one of the most valued assets in her law firm. That much was true, especially since she had been offered a promotion based on all the work she had been doing for the past few months at the firm. And it was only after Charles left that the senior partners found out that all the wins he had been having were all because of her hard work.