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

by Jamie Knight

  “Oh, of course,” she grinned. “I have to pay off the damage to the truck either out of the bank or my butt. We made a deal, and I’m not going to go back on it.”

  “Come take a seat,” I said.

  Leaving the coat on the floor, Krystal came over to the table and took Clarence’s seat as he went back to work on the fruit wine mixes. Emma was not far behind him, going back to the counter at the tasting rooms. It felt strange to have her so close to me, especially considering what she was wearing. Or, more to the point, what she wasn’t wearing.

  “How much do you figure for the costumes?” I asked, getting out a moleskine journal and fountain pen.

  “Um, well that depends on how many. I can wear this one, and the angel costumes should be pretty simple. It is the Santa and the other elf costumes that are going to be the most elaborate. I’ll do yours for free, of course. How many other servers are you expecting?”

  “Oh, say seven. Eight, including you, should be a good number.”

  “Okay, so seven elves and two angels,” Krystal said, seeming to do the math in her head.

  It wasn’t like any order list I’d ever heard before and I couldn’t help but be struck a bit funny. But I refrained from laughing, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

  “May I?”

  “Sure.”

  I slid over the notebook and pen and Krystal commenced with notes and calculations, all done in the quick, precise shorthand of a long-term waitress. I doubted Alan Turing could have broken the code.

  “With materials, not including labor, about two grand.”

  “How much with labor?”

  She started calculating again, coming up with a new constellation of cryptic symbols on the page.

  “Five grand.”

  “I’ll give you three-fifty.”

  “Deal.”

  We shook on it. I couldn’t help but notice how soft and warm her hand was, and how small it was in my big mitt. I could more than likely just pick her up and carry her with almost no problem. She really was almost like an elf next to me. Granted, I was unusually big. We all were. It came down to our Norman genes. Equal parts French and Scandinavian, we were thought to be direct descendants of the court of William the Conqueror. Our family name traced back to Old French and translated as ‘King of the World.’ No pressure or anything.

  “We’re going to have to get decorations as well. Something more on theme.”

  “Like this?” she asked, drafting out several designs on a new page, showing impressive drawing skills.

  I was a little disappointed my idea for sleeping with her hadn’t worked out. Seeing her in the elf costume had made me want to put her over the table and take her from behind as soon as my siblings were out of the conference room. Still, the business came first, and she’d had some very good ideas at some pretty reasonable rates. There was no telling how much business a party like the one she was suggesting might bring, and I couldn’t risk ruining it by coming on too strong. Even if I could hear my cock crying out for her tender young body.

  My phone started to ring and I had mixed feelings about leaving the conference room. I was both disappointed and relieved at the same time.

  “Excuse me, I have to take this.”

  “Oh, of course, I’ll just keep sketching.”

  “Great. I’ll be back soon.”

  I couldn’t really explain it, but I had the overwhelming urge to kiss her on the cheek before leaving. I’d never really felt that way about any girl before. I tended to prefer relationships with the kind of women who didn’t like to kiss and demanded cash up front.

  “Clavis,” I said, stepping down into the main part of the conference room.

  “Hey, Frenchie.”

  “Sebastian, you bloody bastard, what are you doing stateside again?”

  “Booking, browsing, carousing, you know the usual. I’m also interested in this Christmas party your brother told me about.”

  “You’re invited if you want to come,” I said.

  “Thank you kindly, I will. What’s more, I have an idea that could make it even better.”

  “I think we have everything under control,” I blurted. I meant me and Krystal, but hoped he would think I meant me and the younger Clavis children.

  “Oh, I’m sure you do, your highness,” Sebastian never stopped teasing me after he looked up the translation of my name, “but I’ve got something I think you’re going to want to hear.”

  “Okay,” I relented, not in the mood for an argument.

  “When the tasting is over, there could be an auction for women. Consenting adults of course, willing to take bids for a kiss or a date or whatever. They could even auction off their virginity. As an example. I went to one here a few weeks back, and I think it could bring a lot of attention to your party.”

  I’d heard about such things happening. There was a rumor in town that one of the clubs did something like that.

  “Sounds like something from the Legend of Shady Glen,” I joked, trying to evade.

  “Was that by Washington Irving?” Sebastian asked.

  “No, never mind.”

  I stole a glance over at Krystal, my eyes seemed to be drawn there by a force of nature. An auction like that could be the best way for me to get her into my bed if I could convince her to take part.

  “Okay, it sounds good to me,” I said, “I’m in.”

  “Great, man, you won’t regret it.

  Chapter Five - Jayden

  Jack Frost nipped at my nose as much as he ever did in Southern California, the temperature hovering several degrees above freezing. It was enough to kick up a good draft, though. I’d left the office with a head full of plans and tactics, eager to get going on them right away. So much so that I had somehow forgotten that Krystal was still in the room, practically naked.

  I turned at the sound of her footsteps as she followed me outside, tugging her coat on over the elf dress. I was struck once again by the beauty of her body and the sexiness of her costume as it disappeared under the longer coat. She held the moleskine and pen out to me.

  “You forgot these,” she said, in a way that almost sounded like ‘You forgot me.’

  Indeed, I did, my little darling. I felt a smile form on my face, wonderful and terrible thoughts joining the plans and strategies already in the blender of my brain.

  “Thank you,” I said, taking them and returning them to my pocket.

  I wanted to talk to her, if for no other reason than to keep her around, but I couldn’t think of anything to say that wasn’t business related. Krystal saved me the mental labor, with a gleam in her eye that implied she knew what I was thinking and concurred.

  “So, how does the winery work?” she asked with the sweetest smile, looking around a little.

  “I was just going to tend the crops if you want to see.”

  “Sure.”

  As we walked down to the fields, I took a risk as well as her hand. She didn’t pull away, and I led her into the fields of grapes and other fruit.

  “We’ve been doing it for a while,” I said. “The family, that is. Handed down for generations, usually from father to son. Our parents moved to Florida, leaving it to us a bit earlier than usual. They insisted that we have equal ownership, even though Clarence and Emma didn’t seem to want it. They are still young, after all. So I took on the responsibility of running the daily business and gave them comparatively easier jobs. I don’t think Clarence wants to be here, but Emma seems to like it.”

  “Do you?”

  “Want to be here?” I asked.

  “Like it?” Krystal clarified.

  “No, I love it. Don’t get me wrong, I never had running a winery at the top of my list of ambitions, but I knew I would do something important that would make use of my skills. Keeping the family legacy going fit the bill nicely. I had to learn a lot in a very short time, but I’ve come to love it for its own sake as well.”

  “D
id you grow up here?”

  “Yeah, but not in that big house. My dad had it put up. Until pretty recently, the wine making was run out of the barn over there, and we lived in the smaller house. Dad switched up the game and used the barn for parking, and the smaller house for production. The new way still keeps cost down pretty well. All the production and bottling is done on site with minimal staff. It lets us keep our quality up and the prices down so we can compete with the more commercial producers.”

  “Not just a money man, are ya?” Krystal grinned.

  “Not at all. I can understand how one might get that impression with my suits and all. What I really like is the strategy. Doing things just right, so they work out as well as possible.”

  “Something tells me you’re good at chess,” she remarked.

  “National junior champion eight years running,” I admitted with a laugh.

  “Wow, what happened?”

  “Puberty. Once I discovered girls, I kind of got distracted and my game started to slip.”

  “Could you still play if you wanted to?”

  “Oh sure, though these days the pieces I’m moving have more to do with keeping things gravy for the winery and the kids.”

  Krystal didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to either. I knew I had misspoken and lurched to correct myself.

  “Emma and Clarence. I call them the kids. Have since we actually were kids. An eleven-year age gap can do funny things to your perspective.”

  “How old are you?” Krystal asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

  “I’m thirty-one. They’re both twenty. Twins, you see.”

  “Oh, gotcha. Must have been a surprise for your mom. Two babies eleven years later.”

  “Yeah, no kidding,” I laughed, “She’d had me pretty young though, and they’d been thinking about having more kids for a while. You're about twenty, right?”

  “Yeah, twenty-one,” she said.

  Her cheeks were turning crimson. No wonder she was so cute. I didn’t want to embarrass her, so I decided to change the subject. Taking her up to a vine of my favorite variety of grapes, I showed her how I checked them, removing any that had gotten too ripe.

  “The best view is up there on the hill. Especially at sunset,” I said, a little dreamily. “There is also a tree my great-grandad planted. It looks a little funny, a great big oak in the middle of an otherwise flat field, but cool, too. We called it the tree of life. Not least because of the number of droughts it has managed to make it through. It must be getting water from somewhere, but I can’t imagine where.”

  Krystal looked with a dreamy look in her eyes. It seemed like she was getting pretty caught up in it all. I couldn’t blame her, really. There had been a time not so long before, when I felt the same. I still did, to some extent. Particularly when I would sit at the top of the hill I mentioned, with a glass of our own red in my hand and watch the sun sink over our land and the ending of the day.

  “So, we’ve done a lot of talking about me. On to you, what are some of your dreams?” I asked.

  “Oh, I - honestly, I’d like to start my own costume shop where I sell what I make. Probably online. I’ve got a page on a selling site right now, which is doing okay, but I’d like to turn it into a proper business.”

  I worried she might see the cartoon light bulb appear over my head. She had just given me the perfect way to get her into the auction. What better way for her to get startup money? The fact that it would also give me a chance to know her in the biblical way honestly wasn’t my first thought, but it was certainly a consideration. It could really be a win-win if all went well.

  After we had been walking for a while, on the way to show her some of my other favorite fruit, which while it might sound like a euphemism was actually true in the literal sense, Krystal stopped. Her hands went to her waist, and her face twisted in a distinctively pained way. This got my attention immediately.

  “Sorry,” she said blushing, her voice a little breathless, “they’re sexy as heck but it can be hard to walk for a long time in a corset. I think I might have done it up too tight. I can’t really breathe so well.”

  It was one of the lace up corsets that did up from behind, I remembered from before. I had no idea how she’d gotten into it by herself, if in fact she had, but considering where it was laced up, it didn’t look like she was going to be getting herself out of it in a hurry either. I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable and while it was the furthest thing from professional, I knew I had to try and help. Even professionalism and the business had to take a back seat to human suffering.

  Taking her by the hips I turned her round and whisked her coat off in one smooth motion and started undoing the laces. Seeing her relax as the air started whooshing into her lungs. It wasn’t until I was nearly at the bottom, wrenching the back lacing loose, so she could breathe that I noticed that the back of the corset constituted the back of the dress, under which she was quite naked. On the top half at least. Her soft, silky bare skin, reddened somewhat by the pressure, clearly visible between the loose lacing. I had only meant to help her breathe, but what started out as a relieving gesture had turned distinctly sexual as I was basically ripping her clothes off. Poor Krystal was bent forward, holding the front of her dress to keep her tits from falling out.

  I tried to apologize, but she set off running. We could still see the buildings from where we were. She was running right for the main house where her car was parked outside the tasting rooms. I could only imagine what Emma might think had happened if she happened to catch sight of Krystal as she got into her car. That could be an awkward conversation.

  Shocked as I was by the unintended result and not looking forward to what else might happen, I couldn’t help but be turned on. I’d seem more of Krystal than I ever thought I would, and she was every bit as lovely as I had imagined. I knew I had to get her into the auction so I could be with her. I felt as if I might well go mad if I didn’t have the opportunity to hold her in my arms. It was something I definitely wanted to do more than once, kissing her tenderly while I did. I had no idea what spell she had over me to make me think in such a way, but I was starting to like it.

  Chapter Six - Krystal

  I could feel my cheeks burn as the tears fell. I felt so embarrassed by the tears. The urge to get away from him was overwhelming. Things would have been easier with my coat, but I didn’t dare go back and get it, so I’d just left it in a puddle at his feet and tried to hold my dress up while I ran.

  I just couldn’t face any of them, especially Emma. I could only imagine what she might think happened with her brother, and I didn’t want to put her through that. With one hand holding up the front of my dress, I started up the car and started backing out. Bending forward awkwardly to keep my chest from being visible through the windows, I drove into town. Luckily, my apartment building wasn’t very far away. The winery was on the same basic end of town as where I lived.

  Confusion ran through my head like a steam train. I knew Jayden had been only trying to help, and to be honest, there was really no way I was getting the corset unlaced myself without double-jointed limbs or a wire coat-hanger, which is what I’d planned to use when I’d gotten home. It was a relief to not have to wait, but I hadn’t realized how erotic it would get. To be fair, I didn’t think he did either.

  By all looks, I’d been wearing the corset over the dress. He would have had no way of knowing that opening up the corset so I could breathe would open up the entire dress. It was all such a mess. Making matters even worse, was I’d really liked it. I loved the feeling of his strong hands basically ripping off my clothes like a rogue in a romance novel. One of the old ones with the painted covers featuring Fabio modeling as the hero.

  I also wanted things to go further. I wanted for him to get my dress all the way open and then off, leaving me in only panties and sneakers before bending me over and taking my virginity right there in his vineyard. I could hardly think of a more beaut
iful setting. Not that it could ever happen. I needed to keep things strictly professional with him and his siblings. At least until I could pay them what I owed for the damage to their truck.

  I didn’t want him to think I might be trying to seduce him to get out of paying. I wasn’t that kind of girl. I knew my duty and always paid my debts one way or the other. I blushed the double meaning in what I’d said about paying with my butt. Glad I had said butt and not ass, the assumption was even more clear. I had honestly meant I would bust my butt working for them and doing my best to save them money in hiring waitresses to help make up for the damage.

  My idea about doing a costume party was similarly meant to help them get more business. I hadn’t actually been planning on charging them for the costumes at all. It didn’t seem right, considering I owed them money, but Jayden didn’t seem like he would take no for an answer. Thirty-five hundred dollars was more than I usually saw from my costumes in a couple of months and felt like a massive success. I was even more determined to do my very best for them and make the Christmas Costume Ball a roaring success.

  Getting to my place without anyone seeing me, I switched over into comfortable and much more concealing sweats. Determined to make things clear, I decided to call Jayden despite having just fled the winery less than an hour before.

  I paced as the phone rang, trying to work out the energy I suddenly felt coming up out of nowhere. It took five rings before he answered. For a second I was worried he might have been avoiding me, which was understandable.

  “Hello.”

  “I really appreciate your help,” I blurt out, “But want to make things clear that ours is a strictly professional arrangement.”

  “Understood. I’m glad you know I was trying to help, and I’m sorry for not asking first. I agree, we should keep things professional.”

  I was glad he agreed, but he sounded a little strained. It wasn’t clear what was going on, and I was getting a bit worried. I wanted to ask him what was going on, but found that I couldn’t.

  “O-ok, good. Glad we have that clear. Thanks. Goodbye.”