HIS BOUND BRIDE: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance

by Sophia Gray

  That, he had. He had not realized that he was still standing there, like an idiot, in the middle of the damn soup kitchen, smiling at the door as if Teresa was still there. He felt mortified.

  “I can’t imagine why.” Peter snorted. Vance looked at him, frowning. His boss was usually a very kind man, but he also liked to make fun of his employees. Or at least Vance – something Vance would have never allowed if he was not playing the “nice and kind boy” charade for Teresa and everyone else.

  “What do you mean?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest in a defensive stance.

  “Come on, Vance. I’ve seen the way you look at Teresa. We all have. It’s pretty obvious, man,” Peter said, raising an eyebrow. Seeing the defensive look on his face, Peter chuckled and raised his hands in a universal gesture of peace. “But hey, it’s none of my business, kid. See you tomorrow!”

  Peter went back to his office, and Vance was left standing there, again, in the middle of the room. With an angry snort, he left and entered the streets, thinking about what Peter had said. That he looked at Teresa how? In what way? Sure, he found her fascinating and funny, and he wasn’t an idiot to deny that she was beautiful, but he sure as hell wasn’t swooning over her when nobody was looking.

  He only eyed her during their shifts, but that just was because he needed to learn as much as he could about her to conquer her. He needed to be in her line of sight as much as possible so she’d think about him. As they say, out of sight, out of mind. If the others in that damn kitchen thought they had seen something, anything, it was their bloody imagination. He was only paying Teresa that much attention because he had to. For the mission. He had orders.

  “Bloody hell,” Vance muttered. The damn mission was the only thing he cared about, right? He just didn’t want to fail at his first solo project specifically requested by the boss.

  He headed home the long way, trying to bury his thoughts by walking. He looked around at the bustling city. It was a small city, nothing like back home, and it was always full of life and joy. Again, it looked nothing like his home – or maybe he had never seen that side of his city, as he always frequented dangerous areas and was usually out at night.

  Vance looked at the families and the children going in and out of the shops, and the couples walking around holding hands. Suddenly he pictured himself with Teresa: the two of them going grocery shopping, side by side, her hand tightly interlaced with his, dating like normal couples did – going to the cinema or taking a stroll through the park, getting married and having children.

  His goal was to marry her, but their future looked nothing like what he saw in the families and couples he was seeing. If he married her, he would have to drag her back home and force her to return to the life she had run away from…

  Would she be happy then? But why the hell did he care? This was just a job. He had no feelings for Teresa, beyond lust and curiosity. He had to fulfill his boss’ orders and marry her, bring her home, and inherit the club. The mission was the only thing that mattered.

  Suddenly, a small corner shop caught his attention. It was a small bookstore and had some kind of sale going on. Many people crowded the entrance, going in and out of the shop. It looked like there was a presentation going on, but he could not care less.

  He stopped to have a look at a basket of books that sat unwatched at the door of the shop, with a sign that read Secondhand.

  There were all kinds of novels, and Vance shifted through them until he saw a bunch of old thrillers. He didn’t know what made him buy them, or even if Teresa had already read them or not, but fifteen minutes later he was walking out of the store with three novels in a bag. They had not been very expensive, and the owner seemed grateful that, finally, someone was paying attention to the secondhand books he was dying to get rid of.

  Vance wondered if Teresa would like the gift and her smile appeared in his head. He could not get her out of his mind. But he knew that even if he managed to make her fall in love with him, they would never experience the kind of joy he was seeing around him. Teresa would never forgive him for deceiving her that way and bringing her home to her dad. They would never be happy together.

  What the hell? he thought. Why do I even care?

  He grunted again and headed back home at a fast pace, angry with himself. The thought of Teresa hating him made him uneasy, but he chalked it up to the fact that he would have to deal with it for years to come. He didn’t want to think about it anymore, so he pushed the feeling to the back of his head and focused on what he had ahead of him: the first date.

  Chapter Five

  Teresa

  “Remind me why I said yes.” Teresa sighed, looking at her open wardrobe.

  “Because you actually like the guy and honestly had no real reason to refuse him,” Anna replied, looking amusingly at her from the bed. Anna, her best friend, had come to lend her a hand at picking an outfit. She also had the difficult job of convincing her that dating Vance was a good idea, despite her qualms. Luckily, she had not brought the other three girls with her, or Teresa would go crazy before the night had even started.

  “I do not like him!” Teresa snapped back at her and Anna laughed, holding her hands up in the air, calling for peace.

  “Okay, okay, whatever you say, Tess.” Anna laughed over mockingly using the nickname that Vance had given Teresa. Since Teresa had told her friends that he usually called her Tess, they had been calling her that non-stop. “But I really don’t understand why you never date! You’re young, beautiful, and single – are you secretly married or something?” Anna wondered with a fake gasp.

  Teresa rolled her eyes and chuckled. She trusted Anna, but she had never told her where she came from or that she had been the rogue princess in a motorcycle gang. And she definitely had never told her about her abusive father and her distrust of men because of him. She didn’t want Anna to pity her – or worse, fear her because of her past.

  “I just don’t trust men, that’s all,” Teresa replied nonchalantly. “But I suppose one date won’t hurt. It’s not like it’s serious, or anything. And Vance does seem like a decent guy, even though he is a slight nutter,” she muttered.

  “And he’s handsome as hell,” Anna said, laughing. She had only seen Vance once when she’d stopped by Silver Spoons for Charity one morning to drop off a couple of things she had borrowed from Teresa. “Although he did follow you everywhere,” Anna added with a small frown. “Can’t decide if that’s cute or creepy.”

  Teresa bit her lip. “Do you want me to date him or not?” she snapped, pacing back and forth in her room. She had not forgotten that, and she definitely did not need her friend reminding her that the guy had behaved like a total creep prior to the date.

  “Sorry, sorry!” Anna laughed again. “From what you told me, he seems nice, and you guys get along really well. It’s a good thing that you decided to give him a chance, at least. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s the sexiest guy we’ve all laid our eyes on.” She sighed and fluttered her eyelashes in jest. Teresa laughed at her behavior: Anna had really been charmed when she first saw Vance Tate.

  Teresa knew that her distrust of men was out of proportion and that she really should get over her dad one day. She knew not all men were like him, but she simply had not met a guy who proved to be nothing like what she hated.

  But maybe Vance was really one of the good ones. He acted nothing like her dad. In fact, he was everything her dad would hate: kind, caring, intelligent, fun, and sweet. And really, really handsome.

  “You are daydreaming about him again!” Anna hummed. Teresa realized that she had been standing there for three minutes, probably smiling like a teenage girl in love.

  “Shut up!” Teresa blushed to her ears and turned around to face the wardrobe dilemma again. She didn’t know what to wear, and it was getting closer to eight every minute. She was wasting precious time by fooling around with Anna.

  She had already showered, dried her hair, and put in curlers she was about
to take out. Now she only had to pick an outfit and put on some makeup. Jesus Christ, it had been so long since she went on a date that she had forgotten how much she hated this part.

  “Help me out or get out, Anna,” Teresa warned her friend, who was more than used to her blunt language. Anna got up from the bed, went into Teresa’s wardrobe, and after fumbling around for a bit, picked an outfit for her friend.

  “Hurry and try it on! Or he’ll catch you still in your towel,” she warned Teresa, handing her the clothes.

  Teresa put on the dress and the shoes Anna had selected for her. It was a sleeveless, sky blue dress with small flowers at the bottom of the skirt, which ended just above the knees. It was not too formal, but it she hoped it would fit with wherever Vance was planning on taking her. And she had to admit that she looked really good in it.

  “I don’t know why I don’t wear this dress more often,” she mused aloud, going to the bathroom to finish getting ready. She decided to put on a light touch of makeup and started applying a silvery blue eyeshadow that matched her dress.

  “Because that dress screams ‘date me’ and you don’t date, remember?” Anna mocked her. Teresa threw a shoe at her from the bathroom but missed. It hit the opposite wall, and Anna started laughing even louder.

  At a quarter to eight, Teresa was ready, and Anna had left the loft, urging her friend to tell her every detail after the date was over. Teresa barely had time to grab her purse and a light jacket for the night when the doorbell rang. Standing on her doorstep with a small plastic bag hanging from one arm and a bouquet of flowers in the other hand was Vance, as charming as ever.

  “Hey! Good evening,” he said with a smile. “You look wonderful.”

  “Hi, Vance. Thank you. Come in,” she replied, taking a step back to let him in.

  “These are for you,” Vance said, holding the flowers out in front of him. It was a simple bouquet of daisies, and she accepted them gratefully. “I didn’t know which flowers you liked, sorry. But I didn’t picture you as a rose type of woman.”

  Teresa laughed lightly. “Nothing to worry about. You’re right; roses aren’t really my thing. I love these, thank you,” she said, smelling the bouquet. They gave off a nice, spring-like aroma that was really refreshing. “They’re lovely,” she added, heading into the kitchen to find a vase. “You really didn’t have to.”

  She arranged them and left them in the vase on the counter. Vance was still in the hall, standing sheepishly, looking around.

  Teresa couldn’t help but look him over now that the flowers were out of the way. He was dressed casually in dark, slim-fitting jeans that suited him perfectly and a white button-down. She looked at him, and he was smiling at her. The glow in his eyes made her heart jump.

  She cleared her throat. “What’s in the bag?” she asked curiously, trying to hide her moment of weakness.

  “Oh! These are for you as well,” he said, handing her the bag. “I hope I’m not overdoing it.” Something jolted in her stomach, like a hundred butterflies and bolts of lightning swirling around, when his hand lightly touched hers as she took the bag and saw what was inside.

  “Why…?” she started, looking puzzled at Vance. She took them out: three old books, all of them thriller novels.

  “I accidentally came across this secondhand bookstore that had a sale going on, and I didn’t know if you had read them but I thought you may like them and before I knew it I had already gone into the shop and bought them…” Vance rambled on until Teresa laid a hand on his arm and silenced him.

  “You definitely did not have to,” Teresa said, looking at the books again. “But thank you – I haven’t read them yet. I’ll fill a couple of nights with these, thanks.” She winked at him, and Vance unfroze.

  “I’m really glad you like them. Shall we go now?” To accompany his words, he offered Teresa his arm, and she looked at it, amused. She left the books on the table and took his arm gently.

  Teresa was so close to him when they left the building that she felt his breathing, and a warm feeling trickled through her body. She felt the places where they touched tingle, and the butterflies had started to flutter again in her stomach.

  They chatted for a bit while walking to their mystery destination, no more than small talk and trivialities, when Teresa finally asked him where he was taking her.

  “It’s a surprise!” he answered. Teresa looked at him, raising one eyebrow, but Vance did not cave and flashed a smile at her.

  Teresa blushed and looked down. It was both frustrating and bizarre to feel like this. The butterflies, the slight nervousness, the awkwardness, the blushing. Since she had sworn off men long ago, she felt shaky and out of sorts when these jittery feelings resurfaced.

  When Vance finally stopped in front of a small coffee shop, she looked at the place in surprise. She had almost completely forgotten they were heading somewhere: talking and laughing with Vance had made her unaware of all her surroundings.

  “I know it’s a bit weird to go to a coffee shop on a date, but they also serve dinner and their coffee is really good. And I know how much you like coffee, so I thought you’d like it…” He was rambling again, mistaking her expression of surprise at the venue choice for disapproval.

  She laughed. “Vance, it’s fine. It looks perfect.”

  They sat at a table next to the window overlooking passersby and twinkling lampposts and stoplights in the distance. Teresa glanced across at Vance perusing his menu and smiled to herself, feeling glad she took a chance.

  Chapter Six

  Vance

  Teresa sat in front of him, looking stunning. How could she make a simple dress look so good? He had been speechless since the moment he saw her at her door, and during the whole walk to the restaurant, he had to remind himself not to stumble over his words or say something wrong.

  She was just simply so beautiful and amazing that he was afraid he’d forget how to breathe, talk, walk, or properly function when she was around. He felt like a ridiculous teenager when he was with her, and he knew he could never confess it to anyone. Mission or not, Teresa Love was so incredible that she simply jammed his systems by being around.

  He was just relieved that he didn’t make a complete fool of himself. He had given her the flowers and the books, which luckily, she seemed to like. They had walked to the café arm in arm, talking and laughing; Vance was sure that he had caught her off guard a couple of times.

  He even thought that he had caught her staring at him, but he couldn’t be sure of that. Maybe he was so eager that he had made that up in his mind. Regardless, the important thing was that she didn’t yell at him or leave yet, which was a great start in his books.

  “So, have you been working at the charity for a while?” Vance asked after both of them had ordered. He realized they had yet to talk about that, surprisingly. Teresa looked at him like she was evaluating him before giving an answer.

  “Like a year or so,” she responded neutrally. “That’s more or less the time I have been living in this town, and I started volunteering for Silver Spoons for Charity almost since the beginning.”

  “Are you not from here?” Vance tried to sound surprised. Of course, he already knew, but he had to keep up pretenses.

  “No. I’m from… another place.” Teresa seemed uncomfortable talking about it and shifted in her seat. “I always wanted to do some charitable work, but back home it was impossible.”

  “How come?”

  “My father would not allow it,” she simply stated. “He was a pub owner and was not interested in humanitarian efforts.”

  Calling Jimmy Love, the head of the motorcycle gang Grim Rebels, a “pub owner” was a bit of an insult, and Vance had to bite his tongue to refrain from saying anything he shouldn’t.

  “I don’t understand. How could he stop you from doing something good like that?” he asked instead.

  Teresa sighed before answering.

  “Well, when I said he was a pub owner what I meant was that he is a
leader of a motorcycle club,” she confessed. “And contrary to other motorcycle clubs, he thought that charitable work was not something worth doing. Of course, that meant I couldn’t do it either. He’s pretty set in his ways.” She was clearly uncomfortable, and he heard a trace of bitterness in her voice.

  Vance was taken aback. Not because the boss forbade Tess from doing humanitarian work – no, he knew Jimmy Love was a class A jerk like that. What he didn’t know was that other motorcycle clubs did charitable work. He asked Teresa about them, honestly curious, and she smiled at him.

  “Well, there are a lot of charitable motorcycle clubs that do charity work. One of the most famous motorcycle clubs to raise money and resources for a charity was The Royal British Legion Riding Branch. It is a registered charity that supports past and present members of the Armed Forces, although you don’t have to be in the army to join. They do all kinds of events to support the veterans, soldiers’ wives, and so on, and they are just one of many examples!” she exclaimed.