Billionaire's Fake Marriage (Tempting Billionaires Book 2)

by Claire Angel

  And then, Erika went out to a porch that lay at the end of the room where a man who looked a good deal younger than the rest of the residents was sitting with a nurse. The man had a crossword in his hand and was so focused on it that he didn’t even notice when we arrived. The nurse did, however, and said, “I’ll give you some privacy,” as she walked past us and left.

  Erika gave me a concerned look, which I didn’t understand, and then sat down beside the man. I took the seat next to her and we both watched the gentleman for a few seconds. He still hadn’t taken any notice of us, and so Erika finally reached her hand out to him and gently placed it on his arm.

  “Hello, dad,” she said quietly. My eyes widened. This was Erika’s father?

  The gentleman looked up from his crossword finally, and when he saw Erika’s face, he looked confused. “Dad?” he asked her, “Why are you calling me that? Have we met before? Do you know my Oliver?”

  I looked to Erika and saw tears beginning to form in her eyes. “Yes, I knew Oliver very well,” she said gently. “Do... do you remember what happened with Oliver, Da- I mean Richard?”

  Richard Heatherington looked as though his daughter had slapped him across the face with that question. “Do I remember what- how dare you!” he cried, suddenly agitated. “My son lives at fifteen Willowbrook Avenue in the city and has a beautiful wife named Clara. They have a little girl together who is just the apple of my eye, her name is... is...”

  By now, Erika had tears streaming down her face. “Wendy,” she said softly. “Your granddaughter’s name is Wendy.”

  Richard’s face lit up. “Yes of course, Wendy! Such a clever little thing. You know, when she was four years old, she made me the most beautiful macaroni necklace and I’ve kept it ever since...” Richard suddenly started looking around the patio as though he was searching for something. “Where is it? Did I leave it in another room of the house? Did you take it?”

  “No, Richard, I think you left it in your room,” Erika reassured him. “But I remember you showing it to me, and you’re right, she’s a very talented little girl.”

  Richard looked at Erika. “I have?” he asked, obviously confused. “Why did I do that? I don’t know who you are.”

  I heard a sob catch in Erika’s throat, but she didn’t let it escape her lips. It was all I could do not to pull her into me and hold her for as long as she would let me.

  “You love showing everyone that necklace, Richard, so of course I have seen it. It is one of your most treasured possessions,” Erika somehow managed to continue. I had no idea how she was doing this. If our positions were reversed, I wouldn’t have been able to handle my father not knowing who I was. Her true emotional strength was shining through in this moment, and while it was a truly remarkable thing to behold, I wished she didn’t have to bear it.

  “Right,” Richard responded absent-mindedly. “But I still don’t know who you are, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You interrupted my cross word and I would very much like to return to it.”

  Erika nodded wordlessly. “Of course, Richard, we’ll leave you to your newspaper,” she said, and I could practically hear her heart breaking as she did so. “I hope you have a nice rest of the week.”

  Erika signalled to me, but she didn’t have to, I was already getting up. It was only then that Richard saw that there was someone else there on the patio, and when he saw me, his face just lit up.

  “Xavier Franklin?” he said in disbelief. I could hardly believe my ears. Had Erika told him that I would be coming and he was only remembering just now?

  “Yes, sir,” I responded respectfully. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  I stuck out my hand to shake his, but he left in hanging in mid-air as he continued gaping at me.

  “You’re the CEO of AccuTek, aren’t you?” He pushed his crossword to the side and rose to stand in front of me. “I’ve been reading all about your company recently, and I think you’re doing a bang-up job of managing all the flack you’re taking for coming up with that new structuring system.”

  Now, I was even more stunned. Not only had this man, who was obviously struggling with dementia, recognized me from the newspaper, but he remembered enough about me to compliment me on my duties as CEO.

  “Thank you, sir, that’s incredibly kind of you,” I responded, hardly knowing what to say.

  And then, Richard’s eyes gleamed. “You know though, my daughter Erika is the CEO of NowNews, and I think you could take a few pages out of her book,” he remarked as though Erika wasn’t standing right beside him.

  I looked to Erika. She was even more stunned than I was, but made eye contact with me and nodded, telling me to keep him going down this line of conversation.

  “I did know that, yes sir,” I replied, trying my best not to flick my eyes in Erika’s direction. “She’s the most capable woman I’ve ever met in my life, and I count myself lucky to be in her good books.”

  Richard laughed. “That’s my Erika. But good thing you know how lucky you are that she likes you, I’m afraid she takes after her old man in that sense. She and I both have a tendency to be a bit... prickly by times,” he said.

  Erika began laughing herself, and then when Richard saw her doing so, he said, “You’re chuckling as though you know exactly what I mean, young lady.”

  Erika smiled with tears rolling down her cheeks. “Better than you’ll ever understand, Richard,” she said lovingly and touched him on the shoulder briefly.

  Richard stared at her for another minute. My heart started beating faster, and I held my breath, hoping against hope that this man would recognize his own daughter. “You... you look familiar,” he said quietly, narrowing his eyes. “Are you...”

  Erika looked at her father hopefully, but didn’t say anything. I could tell that she desperately wanted him to come to the conclusion of who she was on his own. And then, Richard smiled in a way that told me he was about to give both of us exactly what we hoped for.

  “You’re that girl from the Cheerios commercial, aren’t you!” Richard cried, and my heart sunk. I could tell that Erika was devastated, but she didn’t let her father know that.

  “I was wondering if you’d recognize me from there,” Erika said, her disappointment palpable in her voice. “You love that commercial, don’t you Richard?”

  Richard nodded, chuckled to himself and then went back to his chair and sat down, returning to his crossword. “Xavier Franklin and the Cheerios girl together in one day, I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he said, but it was evident that he thought he was saying that at a volume that only he could hear.

  I looked to Erika to see what we should do next, and she motioned for us to leave. We quietly slipped back into the sitting room and she let the attendant know we were leaving and so the woman returned to sitting with Richard. Erika and I walked through the halls and back to the car in silence. I wanted to ask her about everything, but I knew that it was not appropriate to while we were in the building if at all.

  When we closed the doors on the car, Erika looked straight ahead unblinkingly. “You probably figured out that my father has early-onset dementia,” she explained in a manner that was devoid of emotion. “He’s been in a home for two years because my mom died and neither I nor my brother could care for him the way my mom had. He remembered who I was up until about a year ago, and since then I’ve just been the Cheerios girl... which I don’t get because I look nothing like the girl in the commercial he’s talking about.”

  She sighed, brushed her hair out of her face and started the car. As we were pulling out of the parking lot she continued explaining. “My brother Oliver and Dad had a huge falling out right before Dad started losing his memory. It was so long ago now and such an insignificant thing that I can’t even remember what started it. But it was obviously significant enough to Oliver that the rift made him take his family out of the city. I haven’t heard from Oliver or his wife since, and of course, neither has
Dad. He didn’t even tell me where they were moving to, so I can’t try and get in touch with him. I didn’t take my Dad or Oliver’s side in the fight, but the mere fact that I decided to stay in the city was enough to make Oliver give me the same radio silence he’s been giving Dad. And yet, it’s Oliver who Dad remembers, not me who comes to visit him every week,” she remarked.

  We were now heading down a quiet, tree-lined unpaved country road. I could see the dust flying up behind us in the rear view mirror and hoped that none of the gravel would leave any marks in Erika’s car. But if she made this trek every week, she had to have known if they did that by now.

  I didn’t know how to respond. I would have expected Erika to break down in tears because he father still didn’t recognize her and was speaking so beautifully of her estranged brother. But judging by Erika’s response, she had been dealing with her father’s illness for so long that it no longer seemed to have an impact on her. Or if it did, she wasn’t showing it to me.

  I felt like I had to say something though, so I embarrassingly blurted out, “I’m sorry that it was me of all people who he recognized.”

  However, that seemed to be the right thing to say. “Oh don’t apologize about that,” Erika commented. “I was just happy that he was able to take the picture that he’d seen in the paper and recognize you from it. And that he managed to retain enough information about you that he could compliment you on your CEO abilities right then and there.”

  Erika rounded a bend in the road and suddenly I could see the city rising in the distance like a great spaceship emerging out of a cornfield. “Well, I’m glad that you were pleased with that,” I replied, unsure of myself. “I was really happy that he at least made those comments about how impressed he was by your own successes.”

  Erika chuckled. “Yeah, and then he joked about how prickly I could be. If that isn’t my father, I don’t know what is,” she joked.

  I was happy to see that the visit hadn’t had as much of a negative effect on Erika as I thought it would have, but it was still affecting me. I was furious on Erika’s behalf that her father’s mind was choosing to remember Oliver over her, and that Oliver and his family received the praise that Erika should have received. She was obviously very dedicated to her father, whereas Oliver had practically abandoned the family. I knew that there was something I had to do to change that, but I wasn’t sure what it was yet.

  We continued chatting amicably in the car until she pulled up in front of my house. I thanked her for the drive and the visit to her father, but I didn’t want to leave her alone for the remainder of the afternoon. I knew that she was probably going to be absolutely fine after seeing her father because she was obviously quite accustomed to it, but I was still worried. And so, I came up with an excuse to invite her in so that I wouldn’t have to see her go off on her own.

  “You know,” I tried to comment casually. “I got a call from our wedding planner about looking at venues next week. She dropped off a few portfolios for the different venues, would you like to come take a look at them so we have an idea of what we’d like?”

  Erika shrugged. “Sure, I guess. I’ll just pull around to the parking garage and then I’ll be in.”

  “Wonderful,” I tried to say with a normal amount of enthusiasm, but the truth was I was quite pleased. I loved any excuse to spend more time with Erika, and I just hoped that she wasn’t getting annoyed by my presence.

  Chapter 11

  Erika

  As soon as Xavier invited me in, I was relieved. I hadn’t been looking forward to going home on my own, even though I was alright after seeing Dad. I had dealt with the feelings that arose after a visit so many times in the last two years that they no longer impacted me as much, but they didn’t disappear entirely.

  And at this time, I was feeling very attracted to Xavier after seeing him the way he interacted with my Dad. I hadn’t been with that many men in the past, but the ones that I had been with hadn’t been important enough to introduce to Dad. I was very nervous to take Xavier to see him, but visiting Nonna, I knew that the time was right.

  It turned out I was absolutely right. Xavier had spoken to Dad so respectfully and kindly, and hadn’t once talked down to him. I didn’t know how he knew how to act around people suffering from dementia, but in my books he had passed with flying colours. I now felt more drawn to him than ever, but still couldn’t shake the image of him with Angela out of my mind. I wished that horrible snake of a woman had never coiled around Xavier in the first place.

  After I tucked the car into the massive garage, I came back up to his house. I went in through the side door, he was not therein the hallway and checked but I couldn’t find him.

  “Xavier?” I called him three four times but he didn’t answer, I was utterly baffled.

  I wandered around still calling for him, until I got up to the second floor. The door was slightly ajar, so I knocked softly and said, “Xavier?” But still there was no answer.

  I opened the door in front of me and slowly got inside. It seemed that Xavier hadn’t heard me, because when I got into the room he was in the middle of changing. He had his back toward me, but he had taken off his pants and shirt and was bending over to pick up another pair of pants.

  “Oh my god,” I said in a panic, and Xavier whirled around to face me, covering himself with his pants. “I’m so sorry, I called to you and I thought you”-

  “No, no, it’s ok,” Xavier reassured me, still holding his pants in front of himself. “I have a hard time hearing things in this house, that was my fault, not yours.”

  And then, neither of us said anything for a few moments. I tried to keep my eyes above his shoulders so that he didn’t think I was ogling him, but he was looking at me in a strange way.

  “What is it?” I finally asked, having been made to feel like there was something that he wanted to say.

  He shook his head vigorously, as if shaking himself from a daze. “It’s nothing, nothing,” he mumbled rubbing the side of his head with his free hand. “Sorry, I got... I’ll just...”

  He motioned towards the bathroom, and I replied, “Oh no, I’ll go, sorry, I should have turned around and left as soon as I got in here.”

  I made my way back to the door, but just as I was about to leave, I hesitated with my hand hovering above the doorknob. I knew exactly what I wanted to do in that moment: turn around and passionately make out with Xavier until it gradually turned into lovemaking. But I wasn’t sure if I was brave enough to suggest that... or, more importantly, if that was a good idea. But then, I heard footsteps coming up behind me and my legs started shaking and my heartbeat increased slightly.

  “Why are you so hesitating, Erika?” Xavier whispered and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end at the sound of his voice. I could feel goose bumps rising all over my body, and I suddenly felt clammy with excitement.

  “I, uh....” I stammered, feeling him come closer and closer towards me. “I was just thinking...”

  “Yes?” Xavier again whispered in my ear as he put his hand on my arm. I could now tell that my fantasy was exactly what he wanted to do right now as well.

  “If we were to... touch each other,” I responded hastily, cursing my clunky phrasing, “would... would that be too much of a tease?”

  Xavier swept my hair to one side and when his fingertips grazed my neck. “Too much of a tease?” he asked mischievously. “You mean because we said we wouldn’t do anything more while we were planning the wedding?”

  “Yes,” I whispered distractedly. I was becoming more and more convinced that being in Xavier’s arms was exactly what I needed right now. “Because you wanted to take things slow and I... I needed time to recover after...”

  “That’s right,” Xavier whispered seductively. He leaned so close into my ear that I could feel his lips moving against my lobe whenever he opened his mouth. “But, if you feel like it, maybe we could do something that would just... tide us over?”
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br />   I cocked an eyebrow. “I’m listening...” I said teasingly, even though as soon as he suggested it I was up for it. “You don’t have to convince me, but I’d love to hear what you were thinking.”

  Xavier let out a low chuckle, and I felt my breath catch in my throat. My body was craving his touch and aching to have his throbbing member inside of me. The way he had filled me up the last time had been felt so good that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had sex that good.

  “Well...” he said tauntingly. He kissed where my shoulder and the base of my neck met and I quite literally melted into his arms. He caught me and then placed a hand on my stomach and pulled me tighter into him. He had dropped the pants he had been changing into and I could now feel his member pressing up against my butt. “First, I’d take the strap of your dress down like this”- he gently tugged on my spaghetti strap and it fell down my arm, revealing my bare shoulder to him- “and then nibble at you like I would if I were in between your legs with your thighs desperately squeezing my head as hard as they could.”

  My heart started pounding and I could feel myself getting light-headed, which was an annoying side-effect of me getting aroused very suddenly. Xavier started kissing and lightly biting his way down from my neck to where my shoulder met my arm. Each time he touched me I wanted to throw him onto the bed behind me and shove his cock inside me.

  “When I was done that,” Xavier said, stepping backwards and I turned around to follow him, “I would sit down on the bed like this and caress your breasts until I had you moaning.” Xavier sat down on the edge of the bed and looked up at me. When our eyes met, I could feel myself getting wet as I felt a twinge deep within me. And then, Xavier leaned forwards and, with one finger, pulled aside portion of the bodice of my dress that was covering my breast and pulled me against his mouth. When he began kissing and sucking on my nipples, I took his head in my hands and moaned out loud.