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

by Fielding, J A

  “Because it was our first date. I figured I’d at least wait for him to ask me out on a second one before I introduce him to my grandfather. Such a waste of the ‘where is this going’ lecture otherwise.”

  “Mmmph.” Was her granddad’s succinct reply, “is it true he’s a white dude?”

  “Yes.”

  “What’s his angle?”

  Sophie shrugged, “He said he knows what he wants.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Me.”

  “Mmmph,” he repeated. “I like a man who knows what he wants.”

  “Right? That’s what I said!”

  “Be careful with him though. Don’t go giving up the goods too soon.”

  “Gramps!”

  “What? I’m just keepin’ it real like you kids say.”

  Sophie snorted with laughter, took her coffee and cake and trudged off to her room. This conversation was a little too real for her.

  “Did you have to kiss him in front of the whole street, though?” her grandfather called after her. She smiled and ignored him, thinking about that kiss.

  He had stopped the car in front of her building and then rushed to the other side to open the door, earning him a further ten brownie points. He had walked her up to the front door and then stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets rocking on his heels. She bit back a smile at this display of shyness and then leaned slightly toward him, lips slightly puckered. Almost of their own volition, his hands had left his pockets and reached for her hips. His tongue snaked out his mouth and he’d licked his lips. She wasn’t sure he was even aware of it. She took a step toward him and his hands landed finally on her hips. He had closed his eyes and breathed in. She waited for him to breathe out again, but he seemed to have forgotten how to do that.

  “Tony?”

  “Yes?” he had whispered

  “Are you alright?”

  He had nodded slowly, eyes still closed, holding on to her hips ever so gently. She leaned in, placing her chest against his and inexplicably, he gasped. She giggled standing on tiptoe to place her lips on his. He groaned deep in his throat, making her laugh outright. She took a step back out of his arms and touched him on the nose.

  “That’s enough for tonight tiger. Goodnight.”

  At last, he’d opened his eyes.

  “Goodnight Sophie,” he smiled and watched her walk away from him until she disappeared behind the door of the apartment building.

  She laughed out loud remembering the look on his face. She liked a man who wasn’t afraid to show how he felt.

  “Time for me to sleep.” She murmured to herself as she polished off the cake and went to the bathroom to clean her teeth.

  *****

  He was waiting for her outside the door of the office when she arrived early the next day. He had something in his hand that she couldn’t see.

  “Hallo,” she greeted, stopping beside him and digging out the office keys from her bag.

  “Hallo Sophie. How are you?” he asked, turning to face her, “I brought you something.”

  “Oh?” she asked as she opened the door.

  “Yes,” he said, holding something out to her. She looked down and saw a small flask in his hand, “Coffee, white, with plenty of sugar. Didn’t you say that’s how you like it?”

  “Did I?” she asked to stall for time, wondering at his memory. She’d made a joke about how she liked her coffee because of the Black Russian. She hadn’t expected him to be listening. Guys never listened but apparently, he did.

  “Yes. I distinctly remember you saying so.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t have.”

  “It’s a cold day; I just thought you could use it after your commute.”

  “Very thoughtful of you.”

  “If you’d like, tomorrow I could pick you up from home and bring you to work.”

  “Wow. And we haven’t even had a second date yet,” Sophie grimaced, beginning to be uncomfortable.

  “Oh, didn’t I ask you already? Can I cook you dinner again tonight?”

  “Umm. Tonight? Are you sure?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Sophie had to smile despite her discomfort with his forthrightness. He looked like such a lost yet lovable puppy.

  “Don’t you want to play a little hard to get?” she asked.

  “I don’t play games.”

  “That’s a first. Okay then, dinner it is. But if you’re going to feed me twice in as many nights you have to meet my grandfather.”

  “Wonderful. How about I take you both for dinner?”

  Sophie stared at him in disbelief. There had to be a catch with this man.

  “You want to take my grandfather and me for dinner?”

  “I told you...”

  “You don’t play games. Yes, you said.”

  “Well…yes. But what I was going to say is…I told you, I know what I want and that’s you.”

  “You know you don’t have to take my grandfather for dinner to have me don’t you?”

  “Sophie! I’m shocked, and you, such a nice upstanding Christian girl.”

  Sophie stared at him. Had he really just made a joke? She turned toward her desk, placing the flask upon it and turning toward him.

  “Would you like to share my coffee with me?”

  “Sure. I have to wait for Curtis anyway.”

  He sat opposite her at her desk and they sipped coffee companionably as the office filled up with people. A few people glanced quizzically in their direction, but the majority was inclined to mind their own business. Curtis grinned with glee when he came in and saw them, but he too headed to his desk without a word. Sophie watched Tony from beneath her lashes, wondering what his end game was. Did he mean to make her fall in love with him? To what end? If it was sex he wanted, she was quite willing; no need to involve her grandfather. If it was more than sex, well…she didn’t see where that could possibly go. Or maybe he needed a green card?

  “Are you a citizen?” she asked him.

  “Huh? Yes I am. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason. Just curious. You’d said about your father living in corrupt times so I figured it was probably not here.”

  “What makes you think this government isn’t corrupt?”

  He was actually smirking, Sophie saw with disbelief. His sense of humor just popped out at the most unexpected times.

  “Umm, I hate to interrupt your idyll but can I see you in my office Tony?”Curtis asked, sticking his head in Sophie’s cubicle.

  “Sure. I just need to nail down this date I’m trying to get,” he replied with such a guy smirk on his face that Sophie wanted to say she’d wear six inch heels and go jogging before she’d go out with him again, but then he turned to her and the smirk turned into a puppy dog smile.

  “Please say yes.” His electric blue eyes were burning into her and setting fires wherever they landed.

  “No.”

  She saw how his face fell and hastened to add, “The notice is too short for my grandfather. I’d have to ask him first, so day after tomorrow?”

  “I have a better suggestion. Do you work weekends?” Tony asked.

  Sophie hesitated, wondering what serial killer type shit he was planning for her weekend, “Maybe,” she grinned.

  “Well, I have a small B&B down in New Shoreham. How about you and your grandfather come down and stay over for the weekend? On the house.”

  “You have a small B&B down in New Shoreham? Damn, what’s next I wonder?” Sophie murmured.

  “Tune in next week to find out. But first you have to agree to my weekend getaway,” Tony said smiling.

  Sophie gave an internal snort, she hadn’t thought she had been loud enough for him to hear, and for him to come back with a witty rejoinder…every time she thought she had him figured out, he would throw her a curve ball.

  “I have to ask my grandfather,” she told him at last.

  “Okay.”

  “Tony? Any time now,” Curtis interjected a
t this point.

  “Yeah,” Tony jerked in surprise and turned away, following Curtis to his office. Sophie watched them walk away, shaking her head in bemusement. She really did not know what to make of him sometimes.

  *****

  “So tell me, am I being robbed?” Tony asked Curtis as he stepped in his office.

  “You most definitely are being robbed. But I don’t think it’s your accountant doing it. It’s too amateurish for someone who deals professionally with money. I caught it too fast. I need your chain of custody. Who else touches your money?”

  “Like I said, every outlet has its own resident accountant who keeps the books on a daily and then my overall account manager consolidates everything.”

  “And you are the only signatory to your account?”

  “Yes.”

  “Which means money is disappearing somewhere between the till and the bank?”

  “Something like that. There are the daily expense accounts which each accountant and manager must sign out for together. These expenses are accounted for under petty cash and expenses. So where is money disappearing from?”

  “The thing I don’t understand Tony, is that the discrepancies I’m seeing are coming from more than one of the individual outlets. Which either means that there is a massive amateur conspiracy in place involving multiple establishments or someone in your accountant’s office has found a way to doctor these individual accounts.”

  “What are the odds of a conspiracy?” Tony asked thoughtfully.

  “Low. I’m thinking its one person. We just have to lay a trail and follow it to the money. To do that though, I would need your permission to go in and lay a trap.”

  “This is all very James Bond; I’ll need to know everything that you’re doing.”

  “Very good. That’s how to be careful.”

  “Once bitten.”

  “Yes. Well, I’ll come up with a plan for you and we’ll regroup next week after your getaway with Sophie.”

  “Assuming she’ll go with me,” Tony muttered.

  “Oh, she’ll go. I happen to know for a fact that her grandfather would like to see her dating some nice young man as much as I would.”

  “And I’m ‘some nice young man’?”

  Curtis shrugged, “You have a job, you’re single…you are single right?”

  “Yes,” Tony said curtly, offended that Curtis would even ask.

  “Great. You’re single, you have a job, you’re relatively good looking…what’s not to like?”

  “Nothing I guess. Unless he objects to blue eyes or pale skin?”

  “Man come on, since the cute Kardashian married the rapper, mixing the races is all the rage. Think of the beautiful children you’ll make. Every grandparent’s dream.”

  “We would make some good looking children.” Tony gushed his eyes far away.

  “Damn, you got it bad don’t you?” Curtis said.

  “I do,” Tony agreed unhesitatingly.

  “Wow, okay, good luck with that then,” Curtis replied.

  *****

  “Hey Granddad, how are you?” Sophie asked as she came home to find him making vegetable stir fry in the wok.

  “Granddad? Uh oh, what’s wrong Soph?” he asked giving her a look of exaggerated fright.

  “Nothing’s wrong. Why do you think that something’s wrong. Just because I call you Granddad? Isn’t that your name?”

  “Nope. My name is Elijah.”

  “Anyhow, how was your day?”

  “It was good, thank you for asking. Now tell me what you need.”

  “Remember the guy I was kissing on the doorstep last night?”

  “Uh huh…what happened?”

  “He uh, he asked us to stay during the weekend.”

  “Stay where?”

  “Apparently he has a B&B in New Shoreham.”

  “And you said we would go to this…B&B?”

  “No, I said I would ask you first.”

  “I thought you said it was your first date yesterday,” Elijah said, placing the stir fry on two plates and getting some orange juice out of the refrigerator.

  “It was,” Sophie replied, sitting down at the table.

  “And for the second date, he wants to take you and your grandfather on a weekend trip?” Elijah asked pouring juice into glasses.

  “Apparently.”

  “And this is not strange to you?”

  “This is very strange to me. That’s why I said I’d have to ask you first,” Sophie admitted picking up her fork to eat her vegetables.

  “Ah, so you wish me to refuse for you?”

  “Yes…no…I don’t know,” Sophie hesitated picking up her juice and downing it.

  “You don’t know? Do you like him?”

  Sophie paused to swallow before saying “I think so. I mean, yes. So far he’s been great. A little too great. It all seems too good to be true.”

  “And don’t you think spending a weekend with him would be a good way to find out if it really is too good to be true?” Elijah asked smiling at his food as he ate.

  “Wouldn’t want to give him the wrong idea.”

  “The wrong idea being? That you’re interested in him?”

  “No! Just, I don’t want him thinking he owns me just because he took me and my grand pappy away for the weekend.”

  “Again, perfect way to find out what kind of man he is.”

  “So you think we should go?” Sophie asked him, putting down her fork to stare at her grandfather.

  “I guess so,” he replied, clearing the last of the vegetables from his plate, “New Shoreham, here we come. I always wanted to visit these rich white people towns anyway.”

  “It’s not exactly Cape Cod, G,” Sophie smiled as she took the plates to wash.

  “Close enough,” Elijah replied languishing in his chair with a second glass of juice at his side.

  Chapter 3

  The town of New Shoreham, population 1000 was located on Block Island 10 miles off the southern coast of Rhode Island. They took the ferry over and though the day was overcast, windy and very, very cold, Elijah had a beatific smile on his face as he leaned on the railing. Sophie watched him watch the horizon and thought that whatever happened this weekend, just to see that look on his face was worth it. Tony came up to her and handed her a hot cup of coffee.

  “Thank you,” she said, taking it with a smile.

  “Are you warm enough?” he asked, taking the lapels of her coat and pulling them closer together.

  Sophie laughed and sipped her coffee, “I love that you’re solicitous of my welfare, but I think I can button my own coat.”

  Tony removed his hands and smiled sheepishly at her, “Forgive me; I just want you to be comfortable.”

  “I am. Relax,” Sophie said softly briefly covering his hand with hers. As she made to remove her hand, he turned his hand around and grasped it, caressing it thoughtfully with his other.

  “Your hands are really soft,” he murmured, staring at them.

  “It’s the Aloe Vera in my lotion,” Sophie replied unthinkingly.

  “Yeah? Well, it works,” he said still looking down at them.

  Sophie took a deep breath, there suddenly seemed to be a deficit of oxygen in the air.

  “So tell me about your B&B. How and when did you start it? Is it your main gig or is this just a side hustle?”

  “Well, it’s a funny story actually. See, I have a degree in business administration from Stanford.”

  “Oh really? You don’t say.”

  “Yeah. Anyway, my first job was working as an administrator for this Italian restaurant. The owner wanted to enjoy the fruits of his labour rather than take care of the day to day running of his business. I’d just graduated college, I had no more experience than holiday internships, but this guy; he takes one look at me and tells me that I have a trustworthy face.”

  “Good job sticking that in there,” Sophie interjected making him smile but ignore her.

  “So he sa
ys he’ll give me a chance and if I do well, my reward will be more than I ever imagined.” Tony glanced at her self-deprecatingly and Sophie lifted her brows, urging him to continue.

  “I’m this wide-eyed idealist straight from college, determined to conquer the world; Or at least, that Italian restaurant. I assure him I won’t let him down and he takes me on.”

  “The American Dream,” Sophie grinned.

  “Yes, exactly. Anyway, long story short the guy sodded off to Europe as soon as I was settled in and I used to send him monthly reports of how the business was doing. The restaurant was doing well when I took over, but I made sure to double old man Sorrenti’s profits within six months. Within a year, the restaurant was so successful that a conglomerate wanted to buy it from Sorrenti but he wouldn’t sell. So the conglomerate tried to poach me, but I wouldn’t go.” Tony paused at this point in his story, staring off at the horizon where the grey skies met the water. Sophie watched his dreaming face; his eyes seem to take on the color of the skies and his cheekbones stood out pale in the windy cold.

  “Then what happened?” she prompted him.

  “Sorrenti died. Cancer. He’d known for some time that he was dying, that’s why he...” He stopped to swallow convulsively and Sophie realized he had really cared for his former boss.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” she apologized sympathetically.

  Tony looked at her and smiled, “Thank you. Anyway, Sorrenti was a widow and his only son lived in California. He wasn’t interested in his father’s businesses. He sold the restaurant to the conglomerate soon after the funeral. They wanted me to stay at the helm, but the old man, he…made good on his promise to reward me for good service. He left me a house on this island, and a bit of money to run it. It was too big for me and I didn’t want to sell it, so I turned it into a bed and breakfast. It was my first establishment. One eventually became five, and here we are,” Tony finished with a shrug.

  “Wow. That’s quite a Cinderella story you got over there,” Sophie said shaking her head.

  Tony turned his head to stare at her, “Cinderella you say? How Cinderella? All she had to do was fit in a shoe. I worked damned hard for everything I’ve got.” His tone was a bit clipped she thought.

  “I’m sorry; I wasn’t trying to denigrate you or anything. I just meant that…nothing. Never mind,” Sophie apologized.