The Merger: A Billionaire Fake Marriage Romance (Playboys of New York Book 3)

by JA Low

  “I should have gone with her,” Emma mumbles. “I should not have let her go with those bitches.” Anger laces each one of her words.

  “You didn’t know.” I try hard to assure her this isn’t her fault.

  “I should have known something was up when those girls who made Chloe’s life hell wanted to catch up.” She shakes her head. “What was I thinking?”

  “This is not your fault.” Leaning forward, I whisper in her ear. I need her to understand she couldn’t have known this was going to happen.

  “I should have…”

  I don’t let her finish. Instead, I pick her up and turn her around in the bath to straddle me. My dick twitches, but now is not the time for that.

  “Please.” I look into her distressed face. “Please don’t beat yourself up over the what-ifs, Emma. You will destroy yourself.” She frowns at me. “Noah spent the entire plane riding thinking this was his fault. He’s blaming himself for easing off on security because he thought the threat was over.”

  “It wasn’t his fault,” Emma says.

  “It’s no one’s fault except the perpetrator.” Her shoulders slump, but she nods in agreement.

  Reaching out, I push her wet hair away from her face. “I can’t lose you, Emma.” Hoping she understands the depth of my feelings for her, I continue, “I never, ever want to lose you.” Her long lashes blink slowly as she takes in my words.

  “You’re stuck with me, Andy.” The tiniest of smirks falls across her plump lips. “What’s happened in the last twenty-four hours has made me cut through all the stupid bullshit in my brain. It’s made my feelings crystal clear. I want you. I love you.” She leans forward and kisses me showing me exactly what her feelings are.

  41

  Emma

  Months Later…

  These last couple of months have been a whirlwind. We found Chloe, who was kidnapped by her crazy ex-best friend, Tracey. Like I always said, she had Single White Female vibes. She needed to be in the looney bin, but unfortunately, she killed herself before the police arrived to arrest her ass after Chloe’s ex-fiancé, Walker Randoff, jumped in front of a bullet and saved Chloe’s life. It was the least he could do after the shit he put her through. Actually, it was kind of badass. The bullet has ruined his football career. Guess Karma works in mysterious ways.

  Hey, I’m not heartless. Just, you know, sticking up for my girl, that’s all.

  Things were hard after Chloe’s kidnapping between her and Noah. She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after the event. She and Walker became close as he too was suffering like her. I don’t know how Noah did it, but he’s a better person than I ever could be. He encouraged Chloe and Walker to get help, work through therapy sessions together, considering they shared the trauma, all because he was thankful to Walker for saving her life.

  The more time Walker spent with the group, the more we got used to him actually being around. Weird. But the incident changed him, made him re-evaluate his life and the decisions he made, especially when he found out the baby he had with Tracey wasn’t actually his, and he lost custody. Even from the grave, she was still a heartless bitch.

  As the months wore on and Chloe got better, things began to get back to normal.

  Chloe and Noah purchased a family home out in Greenwich, Connecticut, right next door to Logan and Lenna’s home. Guess, even as adults, twins can’t be too far away from each other. Lenna and Logan had a baby boy, Jagger, and what an absolute cutie he is. Seeing Anderson holding the little bundle against his massive body had my ovaries doing a happy dance. I told those bitches to back the fuck away because I was not ready to be a mother. The idea, however, was now not on a one-hundred-percent no as it was before, which is kind of frightening.

  Anderson and I have been doing well. This being married shit is great. We come home, eat, have sex, watch television, rinse, and repeat. I thought by now getting closer to the one-year anniversary of our Vegas wedding that I would be sick of him, but I haven’t. Definitely not sick of his dick, that’s for sure.

  “Are you packed?” Anderson calls out to me.

  “Yes.” Groaning, I try to sit on my suitcase so it will close. Anderson pops his head around the corner of our bedroom and gives me a look. “It won’t close.” He strides in, pushes hard down on the case, and magically it zips up. So, I do the only mature thing I can think of and poke my tongue out at him.

  “Come on, we’ll be late for our flight.” He grins, grabbing my hand.

  We are off to Vegas to celebrate the one-year anniversary of our prank wedding, which also coincides with EJ’s restaurant opening. The gang is coming—Chloe, Noah, EJ, Stella, Ariana, Lenna, Logan, and baby Jagger as well as Elise, who is meeting us there. Walker was invited as he is part of the crew, but he was working—he’s a football commentator now.

  Stepping onto the private plane, Anderson and I are greeted with champagne popping and hollering of congratulations from our friends.

  “Who would have thought Emma would be the one in the longest relationship.” Chloe smiles as she clinks our champagne glasses together.

  “What an amazing story to tell your grandkids,” Stella tells me.

  “You’ve got the man. Your business is growing. Looks like you’ve got it all figured out now,” Ariana praises me.

  “Urgh, you guys.” Rolling my eyes at them all, I feel a little uncomfortable with all this praise. I take a sip of my champagne to curb my excited nerves.

  “You should be really proud of yourself, Ems. You are killing it,” Lenna tells me.

  These girls. I don’t know where I would be without them all. Our lives have changed so much in this past year and a bit—none of us saw any of it coming. I’m so proud of each of them. Now, I’m going soft and getting all emotional and shit.

  After a couple more bottles of champagne, we eventually arrive in Las Vegas. Stepping from the plane, the desert heat hits my air-conditioned-cooled skin, and instantly I thaw out. We all pile into our waiting limousines and head toward the hotel.

  “I wasn’t expecting to walk away with a wife last time I was here.” Anderson grins down at me, his large arm is wrapped firmly around my shoulders.

  “I most certainly was not thinking of getting married either.” Staring up at my husband, that word still makes my stomach skip. “Guess everything worked out for the best, hey.” I give him a wink.

  “I’m one lucky bastard.” Leaning forward, he captures my lips with his own as he gives me a satisfying, toe-curling kiss. “I’m going to rip this dress off you the moment we get into our hotel room.” His voice deepens with his erotic threat as a shiver slides down my spine.

  “Can’t wait.”

  True to his word, the moment we checked in and were ushered up to our palatial suite, he had me pressed up against the wall, his hand ripping the fabric from my body as his lips move over my heated skin while whispering dirty words against my ear. He picked me up, and the next thing I knew, he had me pushed up against the window of the hotel room, and the sound of his zipper echoed before he slid himself in, filling me. He continued to fuck me until a sheen of sweat laced my body, and my legs went numb as I began screaming his name when my body exploded into tiny orgasmic sparks.

  “Happy fucking anniversary, Ems,” he pants into my ear.

  My eyes finally come into focus as I look out over the Vegas Strip.

  Did anyone see the naked woman being fucked two ways from Sunday against the hotel window?

  Do I care? Yeah, probably not because that was fun.

  Turning around, I wrap my arms around his neck and look into his turquoise- blue eyes.

  “I love you, Andy.”

  “I love you, too, sweetheart.” He grins before kissing me again. “Now, let’s get you cleaned up, so I can dirty you again later.” He wriggles his eyebrows at me, and I can’t help but like the sound of that.

  EJ has planned a family dinner tonight at his restaurant, which we are now running late for because Anderson liked
my dress a little too much and flipped me over the couch and fucked me.

  “You finally made it.” Elise is the first to greet us as we walk into the private dining room of EJ’s restaurant. “We’ve been waiting ages for you two.” She smiles, stands, and greets us.

  “Sorry, guys, my wife looked way too hot not to do something about it,” Anderson declares to the entire room, who all groan at him.

  “You look good.” I kiss Elise on her cheek. “Where’s your hottie bodyguard?” Looking around the room, I look to see if he’s here.

  “He’s back in LA,” she tells me. “His services were no longer needed.”

  A frown forms on my face. “Everything okay, then?”

  Elise gives me a reassuring smile. “Yep. They found them, and they are seeking the help that they need.” I wrap my arms around her again, happy that she is safe and out of harm’s way. I know having fans who are mentally unstable and obsessed with you comes with the territory of being a Hollywood starlet, but still, that shit is scary.

  “I’m glad it’s over,” she tells me quietly. I can see the stress still etched across her face. “It’s going to take a little while getting used to not having to look over my shoulder every two seconds.”

  “You’re with family now. We will help you get back to normal. Maybe we should celebrate with a tequila?”

  She smiles. “Hell, yeah.”

  “Least this time, you can’t marry me off to your brother.”

  She grins. “See, I told you that you two are perfect for each other. I’m never wrong.”

  Rolling my eyes because it pains me to say that she’s right, we are perfect for each other. I look over at my husband, who’s greeting his friends. Then I look at the way his large body fills out his suit and think how gorgeous he really is.

  “Ew… stop shooting my brother sex eyes while I’m standing right here,” Elise moans beside me.

  “You did this. So, you’re going to have to deal with it, sis.” Elise’s eyes widen at me using the word ‘sis.’ It’s the first time I’ve felt comfortable enough to use the word, and her eyes become glassy.

  “Oh. My. God.” She pulls me into a tight bear hug. “We are sisters now.” Elise holds me tightly while Anderson glances over with a strange look on his face. “I have a sister.” Elise jumps up and down. “We’re family now.” She grins as I disentangle myself from her tight grip.

  “Guess we are.”

  Elise’s face falls for a moment. “I just realized I’ve lost my best wing woman.” But then her smile returns. “More men for me now.” She bursts out laughing.

  The night carries on with copious amounts of wine being consumed, good food, and even better conversation.

  Anderson excuses himself from my side and grabs a glass of champagne in his hand. He gently taps a butter knife against it and tries to gain everyone’s attention in the room, then he clears his throat and looks around.

  “I just wanted to say congratulations to my man, EJ, for his one-year anniversary on his amazing restaurant here in Vegas.” The room erupts in congratulations for him. He nods and thanks Anderson for his kind words. “As you all might know, there’s another anniversary tonight.” He turns and looks down at me, then over at his sister. “It’s the night my sister pulled off the biggest prank ever, thus ending our lifelong feud of pranking.”

  Elise raises her glass to her brother.

  “I’ll declare here that Elise, you’re the winner.” Elise nods in agreement. “This time last year, I had no idea what was in store for me this night. I thought maybe I’d take home the hottie I met at the island all those months before, and we would have some fun.” He looks down at me, giving me a wicked wink. “Instead, my sister had other plans.” Elise shouts out her agreement. “As did fate.”

  Anderson turns his champagne glass in his hand around with a slight shake to his hands as he does. Why is he nervous?

  “One year ago tonight, my sister decided that Emma and I should be together.” He turns, and I have his full attention now. “I’m so thankful that she did because Emma Banks, you are everything I didn’t know I was missing in my life.”

  Well, damn, Andy. The tears begin to well in my eyes at his beautiful words.

  “We didn’t get to do all the traditional things couples do when they get married. We started it all backward.”

  That’s so true. I reach out and grab Anderson’s hand, my thumb rubbing his hand ever so gently.

  Anderson places his champagne glass down on the table and moves it to his pocket. “I thought I needed to change all that.” He grins down at me as his hand pulls out a black velvet box, then he’s down on one knee, opening the black velvet box and showing me the most beautiful diamond ring I have ever seen.

  “Emma Banks, will you stay married to me forever?”

  Oh, shit, my mind blacks out, staring at the sparkling diamond—it’s hypnotized me. Anderson’s hand pulls the ring from its case and slides it on my finger.

  “Yes…” As if coming to, I repeat, “Yes. Yes. Yes.” Jumping into his arms, I kiss him.

  Our friends are hollering in the distance.

  “I love you, Emma,” Anderson tells me.

  “I love you, too.”

  42

  Emma

  I keep staring at my gorgeous engagement ring. My real engagement ring. It’s a four-carat antique, very art deco, twenties style, and I love it. Anderson wanted us to have a proper engagement party tonight. Who knew the big man had a huge romantic side to him.

  The girls are all heading off for the day to get pampered, also a little bit of shop and relax while Anderson has organized everything back at the hotel.

  “I needed this,” Lenna groans beside me as someone massages her feet. “I’m so exhausted, I could take a nap right now.”

  “We won’t judge you,” Chloe tells her. “Jagger is a handful.”

  Lenna nods in agreement.

  “Are you going to have any more?” Stella asks while a lady paints her nails.

  “Urgh…” Lenna turns her head to look over at Stella. “Logan wants more. I mean, the man wants a brood of kids. But it’s hard.” She lets out a heavy sigh.

  “Do you think Noah is going to propose anytime soon?” Ariana asks Chloe.

  “I hope so.” She gives us a little smile. “I hate that our happiness was shattered. We are trying to put back the pieces.”

  We all look over at Chloe and give her reassuring smiles. That poor girl has been through enough. She needs her happily ever after.

  “What about you, Stella? How’s stripper-man doing?” Ariana changes the subject.

  Stella giggles. “He’s loads of fun.” She grins. “That man knows how to move.” She looks away, wistfully. “He asked me to be his girlfriend before we came out here.”

  We all holler and make some noise over this little tidbit of information she’s sharing.

  “And what does EJ think?” Ariana asks.

  “I don’t care what he thinks,” Stella tells us. Good for her. “I’m happy with Dan. He may not be the love of my life, but you just never know… stranger things have happened.” Stella looks over at me and smiles.

  This is so true. Anderson wasn’t the love of my life when I met him. He was never anything more than some fun, but I understand how fun can turn into something more.

  Love isn’t like the movies—you don’t look at someone from across the room, and that’s it, you live happily ever after. Sometimes the person you least expect is the one. I mean, look at the three of us so far, Chloe met Noah on her ill-fated honeymoon, then he ended up being her boss. Then there’s Lenna. She had a secret crush on her boss and then accidentally wound up pregnant to him. Then there’s me, my best friend pranked her brother, and he married me in Vegas. Yet, here we all are, in love with soul mates we all never saw coming.

  “What about you, Ari?” Turning my attention onto our quietest friend. “How’s Ewan?” The sexy Scottish lumberjack contractor who works for The Stone Group. />
  “He was a bit of fun.” Her chocolate eyes narrow on me over the rim of her champagne glass.

  “And Smith Johnson, the sexy detective friend?”

  Ariana rolls her eyes again. “He’s fun, too. I like having options.” She grins. “I’m in no hurry, I’m happy watching you all.” She takes another sip of her champagne.

  “What about work? How’s that going?” Chloe jumps in with her question.

  Ariana lets out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know.” Her attention falls to the floor. “I’m not really happy there anymore.”

  “They are a bunch of misogynistic dickwads,” I tell her. Her talent is wasted on that crusty old firm.

  “But they are the best in New York.” She gives me a look.

  “Maybe to other crusty old men like them,” I add.

  She nods her head slowly in agreement. “I’ve been contemplating maybe getting out of the city and starting my own company.” She looks around at us nervously. We all erupt with happiness and a million and one suggestions with what she should do. “Wow, guys, thanks so much for all your support.” She looks around at us all. “I appreciate it. I was just kind of spit-balling ideas.” She shrugs, a little overwhelmed.

  “You should move out to where we are. There are so many people out there that are looking to renovate and such,” Lenna adds.

  “She means there’s a heap of rich people who want to spend money out there,” I add.

  “Hey, like you can speak.” Lenna’s eyes narrow on me. “You and Anderson are one of those rich people.”

  We’ve been visiting Lenna and Logan out in the suburbs since Jagger arrived, and we’ve seen the renovations Chloe and Noah have done on their place. Once that’s done by Christmas, they are looking to move into their new home.

  Logan has been trying to convince Anderson to move out to the suburbs. He’s been so dead set against it for months until we stumbled upon a home that was for sale just up the road from Logan and Noah. The real estate agent was placing the sign out, so we stopped and asked if we could have a look, and next thing we know, we are seriously talking about buying a family home in the suburbs. Who the fuck have I become?