How Not To Be Seduced By Billionaires (Books 1-3)

by Marian Tee

  Unfortunately, it wasn't even the last straw. If you thought those things were, like, uncool, Alyx taught me the other night that Constantijin’s European exes could be a lot worse. She had DM’d me a tweet of this super famous movie actress in Germany. When I ran it through a random web translator, this was what I got: Inexpensive she-dog nabbed the horse that I rode so well.

  So, you see, I totally had reason to be wary about any unknown woman I got to meet these days.

  “You will like her, this woman. She has very good taste. In fact, she was the one who decorated my pad.”

  A now-familiar green-eyed monster reared its head at the tone of admiration in Constantijin’s words. Even though I thought his pad was beautifully decorated as well, I heard myself saying noncommittally, “We'll see. I mean, we’re from different generations.”

  “Are you saying I’m old?” Constantijin mock growled.

  “No. I’m saying your interior designer is probably someone you did date and she’s old. Like, cougar-old---”

  “Yanna?” a cultured voice floated up to me.

  Shock had me choking because I accidentally swallowed half of my donut. Scrambling to my feet, I had this insane urge to bow, curtsy, and salute all at the same time. Even though I now knew about her difficult past, none of it changed the way I saw her.

  As Alyx would be inclined to say, this woman “got balls”.

  Constantijin was still talking. “Let me speak with my mother, Yanna. I just want her to know that you think she is, what did you say---”

  I ended the call. Nobody surely was interested in what Constantijin had to say.

  Marge pulled me close for a brief, warm hug and kissed my cheek before releasing me. “You look more and more beautiful every time I see you, dear,” she said as she took a seat across me.

  “You, too, Mrs. Kastein.” It was true. She was dressed in this lovely pale pink sheath and matching pumps. A choker of pearls around her neck was her only accessory, and it made her look like a spunkier middle-aged version of Audrey Hepburn.

  There was a moment of silence between us before she spoke again. “Thank you for defending me that night, Yanna.”

  The words had me completely flustered. “It was nothing, Mrs. Kastein---”

  “Marge, please, and of course it’s not nothing, Yanna. Only a few people would have cared to defend me that way.”

  I grimaced. “That way meaning turning into a war freak, right?”

  She laughed. “I prefer war freaks to wimps.” She called for a waiter then, ordering for coffee and a slice of cake. Looking back at me, she said softly, “You know, I had wanted to call you the very next day, but Constantijin asked me to wait.”

  “He did?” Constantijin’s action confused me yet again, but then that wasn’t really new, was it?

  His mother sighed. “If you haven’t noticed by now, my son is not the type to take a lot of risks when it comes to his feelings. I suppose he thought he had to do more things to…win you over to his side before we unloaded more of the family baggage on you.”

  Thinking very carefully of what I wanted to say and what was safe to reveal, I finally murmured, “No matter what others say, I’ll always think you’re a wonderful woman and a great mother.”

  “And my son?”

  Biting back a sigh because I was hoping she wouldn’t ask that, I mumbled, “He’s great, too.”

  “And…” When I didn’t answer, Marge said in an even tone, “You love him, don’t you?”

  Oh, shit.

  “Mrs. Kastein, I mean, Marge, I don’t---”

  “Yanna, I can see it in your face.”

  Oh, oh shit.

  “Please don’t tell him that,” I heard myself whispering. It felt humiliating to do so, but I had to. Life with Constantijin was the sweetest it could be, and I just wasn’t ready to have it end so soon. “He’s not---”

  “He’s not ready to hear it, I know,” she interrupted with a sad smile. “Yanna, I am a proud woman myself so believe me when I tell you that what I’m about to say does not come easy for me. But I want what is best for my son and I think you are that.”

  Her order came just then, and she reached for her cup with slightly trembling fingers. “I was a whore back then, Yanna. But what Constantijin can’t ever bear to admit to himself was that time I was also heavily addicted to drugs. It was the reason I couldn’t get a job to raise him properly. Whoring was an easy way and it would still have been my life if Erik hadn’t found me. His father was---is---an angel. He could have had any woman in the world and yet he chose me. He fell in love with me.”

  Her fingers tightened around her cup as she took a sip, as if preparing herself for another painful revelation. My chest hurt as I waited, my heart aching for what Constantijin and his entire family had to go through.

  “For a while, I couldn’t make myself love Erik---I felt I was too unworthy and I did everything to make him leave me. I had sex with his friend, his driver, I went to bed with anyone close to Erik who was willing to betray him.”

  Inhaling deeply, Marge said with a tear-clogged voice, “But he didn’t leave me. He kept on loving me until I was too tired not to love him back. I thought it would be okay then, but I didn’t realize that the one who would pay for my mistakes was my son.”

  I couldn’t stop crying when she said those words. Even if she didn’t say anything else after that, I already knew, could easily imagine what followed, and her words proved my fears true.

  “He was twelve when he first learned about my past. He got into so many fights after that but he never blamed me. When he was seventeen, he started going out with the daughter of one of our neighbors. She was perfect on paper – pretty, smart, witty, the right pedigree. And then he caught her having sex with another boy – someone whom he considered his own friend.”

  A painful shudder racked Marge’s body. “It was like the past all over again. And…and I know my son, Yanna. He was so gentle back then, so loving. And I think he would have forgiven her, he had a heart like his father. But that girl wasn’t me. She didn’t love my son the way I loved Erik. She hated being caught in the wrong so she lashed out. She said he should forgive her the way his father had forgiven me for fucking everyone in his life.”

  Marge’s eyes met mine, pleading for something I was afraid to give a name to. “Yanna, I know my son is not perfect. I know you know that he doesn’t seem to want to love you, but it’s not that. It was never that. He’s just afraid he’d be like his father if he falls in love again.”

  Lesson #9

  Your billionaire can be an ass.

  But he will be the most delightful ass.

  After pushing the last box of my belongings past the door, Constantijin kicked the door shut and said triumphantly, “And that’s it. You are now under my lock and key.”

  My heart squeezed at the joy underlining his words. My heart did that a lot lately – ever since I had that talk with Marge a week ago. But Constantijin didn’t know a thing about it, and Marge didn’t have to tell me to keep it a secret. Sometimes, the only way you could love someone was to pretend you didn’t know who he really was.

  Mustering up a teasing smile, I said, “There’s something wrong with your English again.”

  But Constantijin only shrugged. “We must celebrate.”

  “I’m not ready to throw a party,” I warned him, alarmed at the gleam in his eyes. And I meant financially since I hadn’t been able to resist buying furniture for my new home. Constantijin had been really smart by sending his mother to me as my interior decorator. With her, I couldn’t even make myself say ‘no’ when she insisted prettily in using her son’s credit card.

  “Sort of,” he answered, his grin mysterious as he reached for me and took me out to the balcony. Standing next to the rails, my back against his chest, Constantijin whispered to my ear, “Do you remember what I said when I was in Dubai?”

  I froze. “Constantijin…”

  But he was already lifting my skirt up, and b
y the time I felt the wind teasing the bare skin of my thighs, I was already wet for him. And when I heard him unzipping his pants behind me, I had to clutch the edge of the railing’s marbled top because my body was already shaking too badly with anticipation and desire.

  “Oh, God.” I let out a whimper as Constantijin pushed me forward, my breasts flattening against the marble as I felt his burning-hot cock knock against my entrance.

  “Ready?”

  I shook my head furiously.

  He chuckled. “Good. It makes this all the more better.” And then he was sliding in.

  Even though the darkness of the night cloaked us, I still felt deliciously exposed as I stared at the world below. My new home was the topmost floor of a five-story building, high enough for people not to see us from the streets but low enough for me to hear the sounds of everyone and everything that was taking place around us.

  His tongue made one painstakingly slow swirl around my ear, making me gasp as my body became even more sensitive to the smooth and deep thrusts of his cock. “If you moan for me loud enough, people might see that I’m fucking you.”

  Biting my ear, he asked huskily, “Do you want that?”

  “No,” I managed to gasp even as I thrust back wildly against him, wishing I could take more of him in.

  “Are you sure of that, sweetheart?” He pulled all the way out until his cock was barely grazing my sex.

  “Constantijin!”

  “But I want them to hear you.”

  “Jerk,” I hissed at him, twisting my head to the sides so I could only glare at him.

  “Moan for me.”

  “No.” But I ruined it by trying to press my lower body closer to him, helplessly looking for a way to make him enter me again. A mewl of protest escaped me when Constantijin gripped my hips, forcing it to stop moving.

  “Constantijin!”

  “Only if you promise to moan as loudly as you can.” I felt him move behind me, and then I could only moan as Constantijin took hold of his cock to tease the folds of my sex.

  When he applied gentle force to the small of my back, I let him push me down further until I was practically lying on the expansive top of the marbled railing, my hands gripping its outer edge.

  “Will you scream for me, sweetheart?”

  When he reached between my legs to thumb my clit, I could only gasp out, “Yes, damn you.” And then he was pounding into me and I screamed with each hard and fast thrust.

  “Yes. Yes. Oh, oh, yes!” I screamed and sobbed the words out as he fucked me so hard I could only be thankful that the railing wasn’t the type to give way easily.

  “Louder,” he panted back as he slammed into me in full force.

  “Yes.” I screamed it as loudly as I could even as I continued to stare at the world below us, fearful of someone looking up yet at the same time horribly excited by the prospect.

  He slammed into me as I screamed and when one of the men walking below us actually looked up, I came, my head bending down to avoid the stranger’s gaze as my body shook under the relentless thrusts of Constantijin's cock.

  Constantijin came not a second after, shouting as I did. It was impossible for the stranger not to hear Constantijin’s shout and the thought intensified my orgasm, turning my body into a mass of soft and weak limbs as the very last drop of my release flowed out of me.

  When he swept me up in his arms I could only rest my head against his silk-clad chest gratefully. And then he murmured, “Tomorrow again?”

  I made a weak effort to thump him, but he only laughingly caught my hands and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. “Jerk.”

  He took me to bed, tucking us both under the covers. He hugged me to him, spoon fashion, and I had never felt better.

  “Yanna?”

  “Mm?”

  “How do you feel about anal sex?” I was at the other edge of the bed by the time he finished speaking.

  Even when he started laughing, it still took me a while to realize he had been joking. Or at least half-joking. I was still too nervous and irritated to tell. I hit his head with a pillow, but it didn’t stop the laughter rocking his body.

  “You’re horrible,” I told him even as I did my best to fight off a grin, brought out by his infectious laugh.

  “I don’t want you to sleep yet,” he said simply.

  “Why not?”

  He shrugged then suddenly suggested, “Let’s hit the grocery. We should stock up.”

  I gaped at him. “Now?”

  He shrugged again. “Let’s go?”

  And so we did. After quickly dressing up in shirt and jeans, Constantijin and I took the elevator to the parking lot since he also decided not to take a driver with us this time. It shocked me more than a little. Constantijin was far from lazy, but he was spoiled. Still I let it go, deciding that Constantijin was in this weird not-like-himself-mood for some reason.

  We had to drive for half an hour before we got to a 24-hour grocery store that met Constantijin’s approval. When we got there, he had me pushing the cart, saying that if I was the one doing the shopping we’d end up with more preserved food than the army.

  “You’ll just do the paying tonight,” he said firmly.

  “If you make me pay more than a hundred dollars, I’ll kill you,” I muttered under my breath.

  In the act of taking a tray of eggs, Constantijin went still, turning to me with narrowed silver eyes. “Did you say something?”

  I gave him my best ditzy smile. “I said you’re the most gorgeous guy on the planet---oomph!” Constantijin had suddenly seized my chin, taking my lips in an open, wet, toe-curling kiss. I almost lost myself in that kiss and I would have if I hadn’t heard someone gasp behind me.

  Constantijin released me after giving my lower lip one last bite. Red-faced, I couldn’t help looking over my shoulder, hoping that I wouldn’t see anyone. A pair of women in flight attendant uniforms stared back at me, a mixture of envy and surprise on their faces.

  I looked back at Constantijin with a glare.

  He sent me a lazy smile, his attention completely focused on me even though I could hear the women behind me talking loudly, doing anything they could to get Constantijin to look at them.

  “Why did you do that?” I demanded in a whisper.

  “Because I felt like it.” And then he gave me one of those shrugs again.

  Now absolutely confused, I said, “Something’s seriously wrong with you.”

  And the hateful man answered with another shrug.

  By the time we finished grocery shopping, I could only stare in horror at our cart, which I literally had to use all my weight to push all the way to the cashier. “Won’t you even help me?”

  Constantijin gave me an innocent look. “But you always say you don’t need my help, sweetheart. I just want to show you how much I respect your need for us to be equals.”

  “You---”

  “If you say something bad about me, I’m going to kiss you.”

  Conscious of the wide-eyed stare from the cashier, I snapped my mouth shut and tried to satisfy myself by glaring at him.

  It only made him laugh and despite his threat, he pulled me in his arms and kissed me anyway. The kiss was over before I could even react and by the time I got my senses back, Constantijin was calmly unloading our cart.

  “That would be $245,” the cashier said minutes later.

  “What?”

  But he only smiled and said, “Go on, pay for it.”

  When we got home, Constantijin told me he wanted us to watch one of the pay-per-view movies offered. He asked me to pick one and when I did, he suddenly told me he wanted to watch the sci-fi thriller, which he knew I absolutely loathed. Then afterwards, he said he wanted me to cook breakfast for him – even though he knew there was nothing else I loathed more than cooking.

  Constantijin made all these insane demands throughout the night and all the way till dawn. When he told me I had better skip work for the day, I could only agree. It was the very fir
st time I was also glad to see him go. Constantijin in a weird mood was totally exhausting.

  His housekeeper, Nora, woke me up around noon, bringing the wireless phone to me and saying it was Constantijin’s mother.

  “I’m guessing you had a bad time settling on your first night?” Marge murmured sympathetically when I greeted her with a scratchy voice.

  Before I knew it, I was telling her everything that happened.

  I was kind of hoping she’d say I was right for thinking Constantijin had been such a jerk all night long but she burst into laughter instead.

  “W-what’s so funny?” I blurted out, confused and not a little disgruntled.

  “I want to tell you a story, Yanna. When Constantijin was sixteen, he asked Erik if he could have his own car. Instead, my husband gave him a puppy – as a way of teaching him how to be mature and responsible. Now, Constantijin always had a soft spot for animals but he was too proud and so he didn’t want to let Erik know he was also happy about the pup.”

  With another chuckle, Marge continued, “So all the time, Constantijin would pretend that he’d forget to feed the pup when all the while he had given one of the maids a strict feeding schedule for it. He’d pretend he had no time to train the pup even though he’d sneak out in the middle of the night to check on it. And then he’d go shopping for supplies and take the tags off before coming home. He’d tell us they were old secondhand stuff his friends had thrown out.” She paused and there was a smile in her voice when she asked, “Do you see where I’m going?”

  “Yes,” I choked out because I did.

  “I’m so glad, Yanna, so glad he’s so happy with you.”

  Lesson #10

  All good things with your billionaire must come to an end.

  “You don’t look okay, Yanna,” Constantijin shouted at me two weeks later, gazing at me in concern. He was seated at the head of the table and I was seated at the opposite end, a good twenty feet separating us because I had insisted that just for once we gave his larger-than-life dining table a try.