Can't Buy My Love: Billionaire and Virgin Romance Collection

by Jamie Knight

  I had hoped that with my mother being gone and working at our family restaurant, that I would have at least a few uninterrupted hours to myself.

  The steady ringing of my phone, despite my efforts to ignore it, proved otherwise.

  “Hello?” I answered, trying and failing to keep the irritation out of my voice.

  “Don’t you answer me in that tone, young lady,” my mom scolded.

  She had this funny way of almost being able to read my mind.

  “Yes, Mother,” I replied, trying to soften my tone and bite back a sigh.

  “Rachel called in sick today and there’s no one else to cover her shift. So, I was wondering if…”

  This time the sigh did escape me.

  “Mom, that’s not fair. We already talked about letting me have my days off. Plus, I had an order come in that I need to finish so I can get it sent out.”

  I could almost see her slump over through the phone. She heaved a long, dejected sigh.

  “Well, I guess we could close the restaurant for the rest of the day,” she said in the saddest voice that she could muster. “I just hope that this doesn’t lose us customers. Or even worse - have to shut down for good.”

  I rolled my eyes, silently listening to the guilt trip. After the third sigh and before she could inhale to start another sigh, I spoke up.

  “Okay. Fine. Give me about an hour and I’ll be on my way.”

  “See you soon!”

  She hung up the phone quickly, before I could change my mind. I kicked myself for being such a pushover when it came to her. She knew exactly how to push my buttons and made a regular practice of doing just that.

  “Oh well,” I sighed aloud to no one in particular, carefully placing the jewelry that I had been working on into my desk drawer so that I could come back to it when I got back home. I got dressed in my work uniform and threw my apron over my shoulder before heading out the door.

  I started my car and loud rock music blared from the radio, the same station I’d been enjoying upstairs. I shut it off. I wasn’t in the mood anymore to listen to it. My mother had thrown off my whole mood by asking me to come into the restaurant to work.

  We lived about thirty minutes away from the restaurant, so the drive gave me some time to think. I would think about all kinds of things on that drive. But one of the biggest things that dominated my thoughts is this little storefront that I passed by whenever I drove to the restaurant.

  The brick was crumbling and there was nowhere to park, but to me, the space seemed like the perfect location for my brick-and-mortar jewelry shop. It had been my dream for years to expand beyond the internet and have a place where my clients could come and see my creations displayed.

  My heart sank when I remembered my meager savings account, though. I knew that there was no way that I would be able to afford that storefront. So, I let the thought fade away into the distance just as the shop did in the rearview mirror.

  When I got to the restaurant, I was greeted by my harried mother, who was on the phone with an order pad in her hand. She picked up another order pad, thrust it in my direction, and waved her hand towards the booths where a few restless customers sat nursing drinks. I strode over to one of the booths where a tall, cute guy with a dazzling smile sat staring and smiling and me.

  “Hi, I’m Amelia, I’ll be your server today” I said, staring at the order pad, “What can I get you?”

  He licked his lips greedily and looked me over from head to toe.

  “Yeah, I’ll take an order of you. I’ll bring the special sauce.”

  I physically recoiled listening to him talk about his “special sauce.” I was immediately turned off. It reminded me why I didn’t bother dating: a guy can be the cutest until he opens his mouth.

  This guy definitely should have just kept his mouth shut.

  But, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to finally meet a nice guy. He would say something sweet. I would giggle. He’d ask to take me out, I’d let him. We would have a great time. Then, maybe he would take me back to his place where we could spend some time alone. He would pour me a nice glass of wine. Then another. And maybe another…

  And just as the alcohol would start to set in, he’d lean in and kiss me. We would make out like teenagers, ripping off each other’s clothes one piece at a time. He would lean down, kissing from my cheek, down my neck, making a trail of kisses until his lips landed on my pussy.

  He would kiss and lick my pussy until I was a frothy, white mess, screaming his name. He’d press his hard dick against my pussy lips and ask me how bad I wanted it. I would tell him that I wanted it bad right before he slid his rock hard dick into my tight, wet pussy. My moans would echo around the room as he would fill every inch of me, softly saying my name over and over.

  “Amelia!”

  The cook’s voice shattered my fantasy and brought me back to the real world.

  “Order 23 is up,” came the gruff voice from the kitchen. I grabbed the hot plate of a burger and French fries and took it to the cute but gross stranger.

  “There you go,” I said, carefully setting the plate down in front of him. “Is there anything else that I can get you?”

  “Can I get a side of you?” He looked at me with a serious face. I forced a smile and faked a laugh.

  “Enjoy your meal,” I tell him quickly before walking away.

  I shook my head, my stomach still roiling in disgust. Is this what my life is going to be like forever? I thought to myself. I hoped that it wouldn’t be. But, I really didn’t see how it would change. My laughter stopped and I became somber and depressed. I had this nagging feeling that in both my career and love life, I was going to do the same thing: settle.

  But, living in a small town my whole life where few people ever left, I saw my fair share of the smartest and most respected people settle. I guess that’s just life, I thought, walking up to another booth to take their order.

  Chapter Two - Reid

  “Remind me not to come back to this hotel,” sniped a particularly needy hotel guest with a thin, whiny voice.

  “Thank you for staying with us,” I said with a saccharine smile, my voice dripping with sarcasm as I collected the room keys to check her out of her room.

  When I’d come in that morning, Shelley, a new front desk clerk, had frustratedly launched into telling me about the demanding, picky guest in room 213. Her voice grated on my ears as she filled me in, my head pounding from the hangover.

  And what a party it was the night before! I smiled, thinking about my friend, Elliot, swinging from the chandelier of the foyer of his house, screaming like a wild man. Elliot always managed to be the life of the party. I was typically more interested in seeing who was who at the party.

  “Have you already done the hotel walkthrough?” came a voice behind me. It was Ron, one of the managers of the hotel.

  “Not yet,” I mumbled, my eyes fixed on the computer screen behind the front desk. “Why don’t you take care of that?”

  “Okay,” he said, a hint of resentment in his voice. I knew that a lot of the other employees didn’t like me, because I could get away with things that would get them fired instantly. I was late to work almost every day, accepted tips when I wasn’t supposed to, and spent most of my time online.

  Today was no different. The only difference today is that I wasn’t just randomly browsing. I had my sights on a new car. I had been in the market for a new car for a while and the internet offered a plethora of options for me to choose from.

  The phone rang and I answered it. It was the aforementioned party animal, Elliot.

  “That was some party last night, wasn’t it?” he asked, sounding far too energetic, all things considered.

  “Yeah, it was,” I said, wincing as my head pounded like someone was banging it like a gong. “I wish I could say that I was thrilled about this wicked hangover that I have.”

  “I told you to hold off on the Jel
lo shots, but I was accused of being…what did you call me? ‘A fun ruiner’?” Elliot let out a tinny laugh, sound like his mouth was open wide and he was holding his nose. I endured his nasal cackling for a couple of seconds before interrupting him.

  “Is this what you called for? To make my life even more of a living hell?”

  He struggled to stop himself from laughing, clearing his throat as he let out a last couple of guffaws.

  “No, I actually have some news to share with you,” he said. “You remember Andrew and Brian?”

  I immediately remembered our last trip to San Francisco. One of the things that we had done was go to an auction, which is where we met Andrew and Brian. They were pretty cool and knew a lot of the girls in the auction. We went out for drinks after the auction with a few of the girls and had a great time. We made sure that we all exchanged information, and they said that if they were ever in our small town, they would look us up.

  “Yeah. What about them?”

  “Well, I have it from a very reliable source that they are planning on having an auction like the one we went to- right here in our small town.”

  That was definitely exciting news. Whenever there was anything even remotely interesting or exciting, I tried to be there.

  “I’m there,” I blurted out, not even caring about the details. Just the idea of hosting an auction like that here in town was all that I needed to hear.

  “Hey, Reid, there’s a toilet overflowing up on the third floor and it’s soaking the carpet in the hallway.”

  Shelley had managed to sneak up behind me again.

  I grunted, not excited about dealing with any toilet emergencies.

  “Duty calls, no pun intended,” I said to Elliot.

  “Okay, well, I’ll let you go deal with your shit,” he snickers, “Let’s get together when you get off of work so that I can fill you in on the details that I know.”

  I agreed and hung up with the phone.

  “Um, Reid? The toilet emergency?” said Shelley, standing with her arms stretched out, waving her hands at me. Her eyes were so wide, they looked like little moons tucked away inside of her face.

  “I don’t know,” I said, waving her away. “Is Ron around? Tell him about it. I’m sure he’ll know what to do.”

  She stood there for a couple of beats like a deer in headlights before sucking air through her teeth sharply and stomping off. I tried to ignore the pang of guilt,, knowing that she was probably mad like they often are at the liberties and privileges that I take.

  I went into the back office so that I could hide out and still appear to be doing some work. I found a stack of receipts that needed filing and halfheartedly got to work on those. I couldn’t help but think about how cool it would be to have an auction right here in town. I could see myself there already. I licked my lips thinking about the sweet taste of some curvy little virgin.

  Just then, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I looked at the display and winced.

  It was my dad. If he was calling me, I knew it wasn’t going to be good.

  “Hello?” I answered softly, bracing myself for the tongue lashing that I knew was coming.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” he yelled. I could imagine that thick vein bulging from his neck and knew that he was probably the brightest shade of red.

  “Working,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant. “What are you up to?”

  “I’m in no joking mood, Reid,” he said, his voice so sharp it sliced through the air. “I just got the monthly reports, and guess whose numbers are down again?”

  I already knew the answer, but I played dumb.

  “I don’t know. Who’s?”

  “Yours!” he shouted in exasperation. “And I know exactly why. The phone call that I got from Ron a minute ago is a great example of why.”

  “Because someone took a massive dump and made the toilet overflow?”

  “No, because you are so lazy that the things that should be taken care of fall into ill-repair because you don’t take care of them.”

  “Wait a minute, you can’t just blame me for all of it. We’re supposed to be a team, remember?” I leapt at the chance I had to use my father’s words from our last employee meeting against him.

  “Reid, you need to get your head out of your ass,” my father sighed. “I didn’t give you all that I have for you to ruin it into the ground.

  I thought about all that my dad had sacrificed for me to get where he was and I felt a pang of guilt. I knew he was right. So, properly admonished, I promised to do better and hung up the phone.

  I decided that I would actually try to do better and work harder. I focused on what was in front of me, filing all of the papers that were in my input tray until there was nothing left on it. I looked over my work and beamed proudly. I knew that I could do it if I set my mind to it.

  But a big part of me still felt guilty at how poorly I performed as a worker. My dad; and everyone else, for that matter, deserved better from me. But, even with me trying hard to focus on working, my mind kept going to the auction. I started wondering what it be would like, the type of people who would show up, and if it would be a success or failure.

  And truthfully, another side of me felt completely annoyed that my father was always on my ass. I mean, there were a lot of factors that went into how well a hotel performed. Maybe it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the location.

  “Hey, I’m going to the gym,” I told Shelley as I walked out of the office and past the front desk. A good workout always put me in the right mindset. With the type of personality that I had, I was determined to get whatever I wanted. And nobody, not even my father, was going to stop me from getting exactly what I wanted.

  Chapter Three - Reid

  “What made you pick this diner?” I asked, glancing around at the retro 70’s style diner that we sat in. The booths, walls, and floors were lime green and forest green. Fake palm trees stood in each corner of the room making it look like a tacky tropical island straight out of the disco era.

  “They make a good burger,” said Elliot, shrugging and craning his neck around, looking for a waitress.

  “It had better be good for you to drag me clear across town,” I said, sinking down into the lime green leather of the booth. Most of the people sitting in the restaurant looked like they had frequented the restaurant enough to not need to look at the menu. I, on the other hand, perused the menu while I listened to Elliot talk about the auction.

  “This event is going to be epic,” said Elliot. “Do you realize what this will mean for this town? This will put us on the map.”

  One of the things that I liked about our small town was how peaceful it was. I only hoped that this event would add an element of fun to it and not disrupt our peace.

  “Let’s hope that that’s a good thing,” I said, half thinking aloud, half talking to Elliot.

  “Oh, it will be! Just think of it: all of these sexy women in one place waiting for a stud like you or me to swoop in and take them away.”

  “You make it sound like a kidnapping,” I said, jokingly.

  “Well, if I do it right, I’ll be able to keep her busy for a few days, if you know what I mean,” he said, winking and putting his hand up for a high five. I slapped his hand hard, making a few nearby patrons turn and stare at us to see what the commotion was.

  “Okay, but where are they getting the women for the auction?” I asked, the thought just occurring to me.

  Elliot opened his mouth and clamped it shut, his eyebrows furrowing and his mouth twisting into a scowl.

  “I guess I hadn’t thought of that,” he admitted.

  “Hi, there! My name’s Amelia and I’ll be your server today. Can I start you gentlemen off with something to drink?”

  There stood our waitress, one of the most beautiful women that I had ever laid eyes on. Her clear blue eyes were like deep pools of water, ones that I could dive into and get lost in f
or hours. Her curvy frame made me want to reach out and touch her. But, I knew enough not to.

  But I had to at least say something.

  “I would ask for a tall drink of water, but from the looks of it, you’re all the drink I need to quench my thirst.”

  I smiled, waiting to see how my line would go over with her.

  It didn’t seem to land very well. I could see something in her eyes shut down completely and her smile faltered.

  “So, water, then?” she asked, her voice now coolly polite, rather than the bubbly friendliness we were greeted with.

  “Yes, that’s fine,” I said, trying to use all of the charm that I could muster.

  “Okay,” she said, jotting something down on an order pad and walking away quickly.

  Elliot burst into laughter as soon as he thought that she was far enough away. “Shut up,” I grumbled.

  “She’s definitely a looker, isn’t she?” asked Elliot, looking towards the kitchen in the direction that she had walked away. “She gives me an idea, man, how about this? Why don’t we try recruiting girls to help out with the auction? When we find hot girls, we can see if they would be interested in being in the auction. Like this waitress chick, she can’t be happy working here at a dead-end job, right? If she does the auction, she can earn some money. And who knows? It could open up other opportunities for her.”

  I thought about what he said and the more I did, the more his words made sense. When she came back to the table with our drinks, I decided to go for it and take my shot.

  “Look, I know you don’t know me and this is completely random, but I’ve got a unique moneymaking endeavor for pretty young women like you. Are you interested?”

  She paused, uncomfortably shifting from one foot to the other, eyeing Elliot and I suspiciously.

  “I-I don’t think so…” she said, looking around nervously, her voice trailing off.