Billionaire Unwed

by Scott, J. S.

  “I’m too damn distracted to notice,” he grumbled. “All I can think about is how you look when you come.”

  I laughed. For some reason, Zeke could always throw me off-balance with his blunt comments.

  “Mind out of the gutter, Mr. Conner,” I teased.

  “I guess I’m still disappointed that I woke up without you in my bed,” he answered.

  “Don’t you ever want a reprieve?” I joked.

  “Hell, no,” he said with a grin.

  God, I loved his wicked smile. It made me want to take my clothes off and drag him back to bed.

  But I knew we had plans for the day. We had a full day planned, consisting of swimming in the underground caves, and zip-lining.

  “I’m going to miss all this when we fly out tomorrow,” I said wistfully. “It’s been so perfect.”

  Being in Playa had been like a fairy tale. It mostly had to do with the man I was here with, but the setting had been…magical.

  Maybe I was afraid that everything would change once we were back in Seattle.

  “Nothing is going to change,” Zeke said, like he’d just read my mind. “But I’ll miss it here, too. Things will be crazy once we get back, but now that I have a life, I’d like to bring on another attorney so I can do more pro bono work.”

  I looked at him in surprise. “I didn’t know you were still doing that.”

  Before my grandmother had passed away, I knew that Zeke had taken on a case from a nonprofit organization that helped turn over wrongful convictions. Once he’d become positive the man was innocent of the murder he’d been convicted of years ago, Zeke hadn’t stopped until he’d gotten an “innocent” verdict in a retrial.

  He shrugged. “I take as many cases as I can now. Unfortunately, there are more innocent people in jail than I have the time to defend, but those are the kind of cases a good defense attorney lives for, really. It’s easy to put everything into a case when you’re convinced the accused is innocent.”

  “God, you’re such a good man. Not that I didn’t already know that, but what you’re doing is special, Zeke.” He was a guy who could give someone hope when they really hadn’t gotten justice.

  He winked at me. “It’s not like I need the money another paid case would have provided. My firm makes enough money.”

  I rolled my eyes. And…of course he wasn’t going to take any credit for doing something amazing.

  He continued, “Maybe bringing on another attorney is a little bit selfish, too. Now that I have someone I want to be home with every night, I’d like to stop working twelve or fourteen-hour days.”

  “Couldn’t you have stopped doing that a long time ago?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but I was single, and I really had no reason not to work all the time. I love what I do, but now that I have exactly what I’ve always wanted, I’d much rather be home at night with you.”

  My breath caught because I really wanted him to be there, too. “I’d still like to open a second store once I pay you back.”

  “You already know I support your company expansion wholeheartedly, and you don’t need to pay me back, Lia. We’re married. What’s mine is yours.”

  “I want to,” I argued. “Please.” It was important to me to be able to hand him a check. He’d trusted me when he’d turned over that much money to help me achieve my dream. “I want to start this marriage knowing I’m pulling my share of the load.”

  “Is that really what you need to do?” he asked, sounding slightly disappointed.

  “It is,” I confirmed. “Even if it’s only a symbolic gesture now that we’re married, I want you to know that the last thing I’m after is your money.”

  “I already know that,” he said huskily. “Come here.”

  His eyes were beckoning, and I couldn’t ignore the temptation. I rose, moved to his chair, and he promptly jerked me down onto his lap.

  I put my arms around his solid, massive shoulders to support myself, and his strong arms wrapped tightly around my waist.

  “Thank you for this trip,” I said softly. “It gave me a chance to get my head on straight.”

  “Damn! I thought you were thanking me for all those orgasms.”

  I laughed. “Do you ever think about anything except sex?”

  “When you’re around…no,” he answered bluntly.

  I savored the feel of his body against mine. Just being with him felt so…right.

  Maybe this whole attraction should have been awkward because we’d been friends for so long. Instead, things actually flowed like a natural progression of our relationship.

  I’d known Zeke for so long that there was very little I didn’t know about him. And vice versa. Adding the sexual part of our relationship had just made it seem somewhat different, but it hadn’t really changed our friendship.

  I tilted my head down to look at him, and my heart skipped a beat as our gazes met and locked.

  There was something incredibly intimate about the moment, and there was some kind of personal message in his stare that I couldn’t quite understand.

  “Are you okay?” I questioned in a shaky voice, unable to stop trying to figure out the silent communication.

  His eyes seemed to suddenly shutter, and the moment was gone. “I’m good.”

  Dammit! I knew he’d wanted to say something, but hadn’t for some reason.

  “I guess I should go jump in the shower and get ready to go,” I said, unable to keep the longing I felt out of my tone.

  I didn’t want Zeke to ever feel the need to be guarded with me. Eventually, I’d make damn sure he felt comfortable blurting out whatever was on his mind.

  He let me go as I stood. “Need somebody to wash your back?” he asked hopefully.

  “Pervert,” I accused.

  “Tease,” he shot back in an indulgent tone.

  I folded my arms in front of me. “All I said was that I was going to get ready.”

  “Which means you’re planning on taking off those pajamas. Anytime you’re getting naked, I definitely want to be there,” he replied.

  “You’re hopeless,” I said in an amused voice.

  “I like to think I’m hopeful.”

  I snorted, unable to resist him when he was in a playful mood. The need to be close to him was so strong that I said, “If you join me, you know we won’t get out of here early.”

  “I can be quick.”

  I rolled my eyes. The two of us could never seem to get enough of each other.

  I raised a brow. “Now that’s something I might have to see to believe.”

  I slid through the door of the patio.

  Zeke rose and followed me so fast that he grasped my hand on his way, and ended up pulling me toward the luxurious master bathroom.

  Turned out that I was right, but I certainly wasn’t complaining when we left our suite extremely late that day.

  Lia

  Zeke had been right about nothing changing much when we arrived back in Seattle.

  Really, nothing was different except for the scenery.

  We didn’t spend as much time together because we were both back to work, but once we got home, the craziness between us just continued on. Zeke and I had been back home for over a week, and we craved each other like we were still in Playa.

  “You’re quiet,” Ruby observed as she arranged some of her amazing pastries in the glass case. “Is everything okay?”

  My shop was small enough that I closed down for an hour during midday for lunch and restocking. Normally, I’d restock Ruby’s pastries myself, but she’d stopped in to bring some heavenly Korean food for lunch.

  We’d wolfed it down before I started getting things ready for the next rush of coffee-lovers.

  My manager was working out well, but she had the day off. So I was running the shop solo today. I had several
part-time employees, mostly college students, who worked the evening shifts until we closed.

  “Stuart is coming by to pick up his ring and his mother’s dress. He apparently wants to give them to his new fiancée.”

  Ruby slammed the full case closed. “Asshole,” she snapped. “An engagement ring is special. They aren’t made to be recycled.”

  I shrugged. “He doesn’t feel the same way. And I have no problem returning it. I never really liked it, and it certainly doesn’t have any sentimental value.” The ring was gaudy, ostentatious, and expensive, but it had never been my style.

  My hand went reflexively to the ring currently on my finger, the gorgeous diamond that I’d basically picked out myself when Zeke and I had gone through catalogs. He’d said he just wanted to get an idea of what I really liked since a guy couldn’t pick out a woman’s wedding ring. Ha! He’d remembered every single thing I’d said about those rings, and put all my preferences together in one custom designed work of art.

  Stuart, on the other hand, hadn’t even requested a consult with me.

  I kept replenishing cups and lids as Ruby said, “Are you going to be okay? It’s the first time you’ve seen Stuart since the jerk left you at the altar.”

  I smiled at her. “I’m good. Stuart doesn’t own me anymore.”

  “He never did,” she answered adamantly.

  “Maybe not,” I agreed. “But looking back on it, I felt like a prisoner.”

  “God, I’m so glad you ended up with Zeke.”

  “Me too,” I confided. “I just hope it lasts forever. I’m not sure I’d recover if it doesn’t.”

  Ruby put a hand on her hip and stared me down. “Why wouldn’t it? You love him, right?”

  I nodded. “I do. But I wonder what will happen when we don’t want to have sex every moment we’re together.”

  “Lia, there’s a lot more to your marriage than sex. You and Zeke have been friends forever. You know each other. You understand each other. If that isn’t a great relationship, I have no idea what is. If you love him, it’s perfect.”

  “I think I’ve always loved him. I was just in denial because I didn’t think we’d ever be anything more than friends.”

  “I don’t get it. Zeke adores you. And you’re married to him now.”

  I startled as I heard someone pounding on the glass at the front of the store.

  I turned my head to see Stuart waiting impatiently at the locked door. “He’s here,” I said, unable to completely brush off the twinge of fear that zinged through my body as I looked at him.

  “We can talk later,” Ruby said. “Are you okay being alone with him? Do you want me to stay?”

  “This is something I think I need to do alone,” I told her firmly.

  Ruby nodded. “I’ll be around. I’m nearby if you need me.”

  My heart swelled with love for the younger woman. Ruby had been a steadfast friend who never judged. She was just always…there for me.

  I moved forward and hugged her tightly before I followed her to the door. “Thank you,” I said in a quiet voice as I opened the lock.

  She shook her head. “Don’t thank me. You’ve done a lot for me, Lia. You gave me purpose when I needed it, and you’ve encouraged me to keep doing what I love. I’m happier, and I’m healing because of your friendship. You never have to thank me for being your friend.”

  Ruby had grown so much over the course of our friendship that she was almost unrecognizable as the timid woman who had offered to help me find better products for my store.

  She’d blossomed tremendously because Jett had stood beside her, loved her unconditionally, and encouraged her every step of the way.

  My eyes lifted to see Stuart right in front of me as I pulled the key from the lock.

  My relationship with my ex had been a far cry from what I had now with Zeke, and what Ruby had with Jett.

  I flinched as he pushed on the open door, nearly knocking me on my ass.

  Ruby slipped out as Stuart barged in. I locked the door behind him since I had some time until I re-opened.

  “I’ll get your things,” I told him stoically as I headed toward the counter.

  “You’re looking elegant as usual,” he said in a sarcastic tone. “My God, Lia. When are you going to learn to present yourself as a woman instead of a sloppy teenager?”

  I reached behind the counter and snatched up the bag with the ring and the dress.

  It wasn’t the first time I’d heard his criticism about the way I dressed for work. My place was a casual one and I was wearing a pair of jeans, a pretty jade sweater, and a pair of sneakers that didn’t kill my feet by the end of a long day.

  One of his biggest complaints had always been the ponytail that I sported to keep my hair out of my way while I was running around the store.

  “Luckily, the way I look or act isn’t really your concern anymore.” I held out the bag, anxious to get rid of it…and Stuart.

  He grabbed the ring box, popped open the lid to make sure the ring was there, and then shoved it back into the bag. “You can’t blame me for looking for something better,” he said in the snobby voice I hated. “Look at you. You have very little higher education, and you spend your entire day as nothing more than a…barista.”

  My temper started to flare, and that was something that I had never allowed to happen before when Stuart was berating me. I’d kept it buried to avoid an escalation of his humiliation.

  I was afraid of him. I must have sensed that things could get physical if we actually argued.

  The sudden realization of my true fears slammed into me with a force that rocked my body, and I tensed up more.

  Stuart was an abuser. Maybe he’d never done anything except shove me around occasionally. But I was starting to understand how much the verbal abuse had scarred me, even though he’d never really hurt me physically.

  For well over a year, Stuart had silenced my voice, made me fearful with subtle hints of retribution, and then made me doubt myself for thinking it might not be my fault.

  When I’d been at the weakest point of my life, I’d let this asshole walk all over me, cheat on me, ridicule me, intimidate me, and then practically thanked him for doing it.

  I’d forgiven myself for putting up with it, but I sure as hell didn’t forgive him.

  “I’d rather be a barista than a common bully,” I shot back at him. “And there’s not one damn thing wrong with hard work.”

  “I thought maybe you preferred to be a slut since you married another man within a few days of our wedding,” he said angrily. “Not that you really have any skills at satisfying a man. That’s one of the reasons I needed another woman.”

  It was so damn clear to me exactly what he was doing now, but it hadn’t been quite so evident during our relationship because my head hadn’t been in the right place.

  In some ways, I’d wanted this final meeting for some kind of closure. Now I wished I’d just sent the damn dress and ring back to him and closed that door myself.

  I felt the anger from every single mean word he’d ever said to me rise up to the surface, and before I could stop it, my hand flew through the air, landing with a satisfying smack as it connected with his face.

  Fueled by fury, the slap had snapped his head to one side, and I felt nothing but gratification as I watched his face turn red with wrath.

  “You think you found a better woman?” I asked angrily. “Well, I found a way better man, too. I’m glad I didn’t marry you, and I feel sorry for the next bride you have lined up. I hope she has the balls to tell you where to shove every one of your opinions.”

  “You ungrateful bitch,” he hissed. “You were nothing before I took pity on you.”

  “I wasn’t nothing,” I informed him as I strode to the door. “I was someone, a person I actually liked before I started to listen to you. And
you tried to beat me down until I thought I was the one with the problems. But it didn’t work. I wised up before I married you. If you hadn’t called off the wedding, I would have.”

  Maybe Stuart had bent me, but he had never broken me. And his nasty comments about how lifeless I’d been in bed couldn’t even touch me anymore. I knew better.

  I shoved the key into the door. “Get out. We’re done here,” I said briskly.

  “You fucking hit me!” His voice boomed around the small space.

  “That was nothing compared to what you deserve. You have your ugly ring and your mother’s dress. Don’t ever contact me again.” I lifted my chin and glared at him.

  I’d be damned if I’d show him even a twinge of fear. I was done with that.

  “You’ll be lucky if I don’t sue you,” he snarled.

  I shrugged. “Feel free. My husband is the best defense attorney in the country, so I’m not exactly concerned that I’d lose.”

  I opened the door and waited for him to exit. I wasn’t about to flinch, even though my heart was racing with fear that he might try to physically hurt me.

  Stuart was not a guy who let anything he perceived as an insult go unpunished, but he’d definitely made me pay enough for any of my perceived flaws he’d pointed out for over a year.

  I’d never stood up for myself, so I wasn’t sure if he’d back down, or punch me in the face. Since he’d proved to be a coward, it was highly possible he’d only harass women who he could intimidate.

  My body was tense as I watched the indecision on his furious face.

  I could tell he wanted to get his revenge, but because I wasn’t willing to back down, he was hesitating. Obviously, he preferred his victims to be powerless and indecisive.

  “Get. Out,” I said firmly.

  “Someday, you’ll get what you deserve,” he rasped as he left the store.

  “I already did,” I said softly as I quickly locked the door behind him, and released a sigh of relief.

  I had Zeke, and maybe he was more than I deserved, but I never felt inferior when I was with him. He didn’t hurt me. He smothered me with affection and compliments instead of criticism. He didn’t try to make me into something I wasn’t, maybe because in his eyes, there wasn’t a single thing about me that had to change for him to care about me.