And then I raised my eyes and looked at the man who watched me as if I were the only person in the world.
He looked gorgeous. He’d trimmed his beard and had grown his hair out a little. I liked his new look. It suited him. I liked to think of him as my corporate lumberjack.
What felt like seconds later, my dad was kissing my cheek and handing me off to him.
I looked up at my future husband and smiled. He smiled back at me and whispered in my ear, “Thanks for showing up.”
“Thanks for inviting me,” I whispered back.
As I stood looking at him, I knew I’d made the right choice. Our day had finally come and we would be united forever.
The officiant cleared his throat to get our attention and we promised forever to each other in front of all our family and friends. Before I knew it, the ceremony was over and Griffin and I leaned towards each other and sealed our vows with a kiss.
The crowd clapped and cheered. Mrs. Wallace, of course, clapped a few times and looked around for something more interesting to do.
We walked through the crowd of well-wishers, hand-in-hand. Somehow, Sadie had made her way to the beginning of the pier and started throwing rice at us, a bit too hard. I was starting to change my mind about signing her up for t-ball.
I stood next to the car where Griffin’s driver, Geoff, was waiting to drive us to the reception.
I knew I was supposed to wait until the reception to throw the bouquet, but in my excitement, I threw it then instead. I turned around and tossed it straight over my head. I turned just in time to watch it fly through the air and it landed with a smack in Mrs. Wallace’s hands. I shrugged my shoulders and laughed. She looked horrified. I thought terror was a good look on her.
“See you at the reception!” Sadie yelled to us, already racing to the car that would escort the wedding party to the other building where the reception was to be held. My dad and mom raced behind her, barely keeping up. Griffin and I concealed our laughter, but watching my parents chase down their energetic granddaughter was quite a sight to behold.
Once we knew she was safe, Griffin held the door open for me as I slid into the car. He then slid in next to me with a wide grin on his face. “Now that was a good time, don’t you think, Mrs. Wallace?”
“Mrs. Wallace is my mother-in-law, call me Nina,” I said jokingly.
He leaned forward and kissed me. He then leaned down and placed his head against my belly. “Hey, little buddy, are you ready for some wedding cake?”
I felt a little flutter in my belly and smiled up at Griffin. “I felt a kick, so I’m going to go with yes.” We were expecting our second child in a little less than four months. He had been a surprise… a very welcome surprise.
“I love you, Nina.”
“And I love you, Griffin. Or should I call you Grant?”
“Don’t you dare.”
I gave him a mischievous smile. “I feel like there’s a story behind that nickname of yours…”
“I’ll tell you another time… Right now, I just want to kiss my wife.”
And so, he did.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Billionaire Retreat.
Don’t forget to read the BONUS EXTENDED epilogue.
This book also contains free bonus stories for your enjoyment. Please refer to the Table of Contents to find out more.
Brit Next Door
Beach Holiday Romantic Comedy
Prologue
Jason slid his hand up her silky thigh, loving the feel of her beneath his palm. She made his head spin with her seductive eyes, her wandering fingers, and a voice made for moaning in a man’s ear. He shivered as he remembered how, not five minutes ago, she’d knocked on his basement door, begging to be allowed into the area that served as his bedroom.
He’d let her into his basement domain, more a small apartment than just a bedroom. He didn’t feel so much like he was living with his mother when he was down here, he felt more independent. Like he really was an independent man.
“We can’t do this.” He wasn’t really protesting, he just wanted a minute to make sure this was really happening. “The wedding…”
She walked to him, hips swaying as she pulled the black slip dress over her head, her eyes daring him to turn her down.
“Do you really want to wait for the wedding, when you can have this now?” Her fingernail, painted a blood red colour, trailed down his cheek, down to his lips as she moved close to him.
He stroked her long, dark hair, his hand shaking slightly as he took in her nudity. Full breasts, full hips, and thick thighs made for a man’s touch. His touch.
He kissed her then, a deep kiss, the kind he’d dreamed of giving her for a long time. She let him kiss her for a moment before pushing him to the bed.
“I’ll take that as a no.” She pulled his clothes away before she went to her back, pulling him over her, placing his hand on her breast.
Jason couldn’t believe any of this was real. He moved down her body, touching tanned skin, smooth and silky. His fingers trailed down her rounded tummy, further down, following the path his mouth took.
“You aren’t like any other woman, do you know that?” He spoke the words against her thigh, his lips making her tremble.
For him.
Jason felt his pride swelling, along with other parts of his body, and looked up into her eyes.
“You are all I’ve ever wanted. I’ve waited so long, Jason, don’t make me wait anymore.” She reached for him, an invitation to be hers, at last.
Jason hesitated for a moment. The wedding was only a few days away. Shouldn’t he wait, shouldn’t he hold off until their wedding night? Wasn’t that what people were supposed to do? Mary had said it so many times, that she wanted to wait.
Fingers traced along his inner thigh, over his hard length and he knew he couldn’t wait any longer. He just couldn’t.
“Please, Jason. Take me.” Her breathless words broke the final thread of his will and Jason fell to her, taking her lips, promising his undying devotion with his body as he prepared to slide into her heated depths.
A knock on his door and his mother called down the steps, breaking his concentration, breaking the most intimate moment of his life.
“What, Mom? Can’t it wait? I’m busy!” He looked at the most beautiful woman in the world, a smile playing around his lips as he put his mother out of his mind.
“No, it can’t wait, your wife-to-be is on the landline. Why aren’t you answering your cell phone? She needs to talk to you!”
Jason heard her footsteps coming down the stairs and he bolted under the cover, pulling the quilt over the woman in his bed.
“Jason? Jason, what are you doing? Who is in that bed with you? You have to be kidding me! Jason, you little shit!”
Jason heard the phone fall to the floor as his mother smacked him round the head. He cowered there for a moment, hating himself for being so weak. Too weak to stand up to his mother.
Jennifer, the woman that had changed his world, ran from the bed, picking up her clothes before bolting out of the door.
“How could you, Jason?” He looked up at his mother, guilt marring his face.
“The wedding’s off, Mom. I’m going to marry Jennifer.” He stood up, holding the quilt to his front as he gathered his own clothes and phone. Watching the woman he’d decided was The One run out of the door had given him a backbone at last. “I’ll call Mary later.”
“Jason, you can’t do this. If you come back we can save all this and you won’t be making another huge mistake. Mary is good for you! Please, Jason, just think about this for a minute.”
His mother pleaded with him now that he’d stood up to her, stood up to her insistence that Mary was the one for him. He was a man, dang it all, he knew what was best for him.
“I don’t want to save it, Mom, that’s the point. I never wanted it. I want Jennifer!”
And with that, Jason made the first real decision of his life.
Bad or not, he’d made it and he was going to stick to it. He left his mother there, mouth hanging open as her son walked away.
Chapter 1
Mary Montgomery was buried in the couch, a blanket worn like a shroud across her bent shoulders, her long dark hair pulled over her face. A beautiful face if it could be seen, but she’d hidden under all her dark honey-brown hair. She was sobbed out, the poster-girl of dejection and heartbreak. The occasional sound of a strangled sob came from under the screen of hair, and something else that sounded as though her nasal passages had been glued shut as she tried to breathe, came from the pile she’d made on the couch.
Her feet were tucked under Albert, a large mixed-breed mutt sitting with a rather perplexed and confused grimace on his face. He would dare to glance over at the woman with her cold feet under what had been his warm bottom every now and then, hoping she wouldn’t catch him staring. He was nervous. Mary was sad. Bad things like cold feet on his warm tummy and bottom happened when Mary was sad. Here she was again; slouched on his favourite spot and it didn’t look like she was going to be moving anytime soon. With a doubtful twitch of his hairy eyebrows, he glanced into the kitchen. He couldn’t fill the dog dish himself and he hoped she was aware of it, whatever the predicament was.
Lillian Montgomery, her mother, came waltzing through the front door of their small mountainside home in West Virginia and observed Mary. Mary was almost her twin, though 20 years younger. Seeing her daughter in a mess, Lilian pushed her own long brown hair out of her green eyes, so similar to Mary’s, and put her fist on her hip.
“What on earth is wrong with you? Three days to the big event? I hope you haven’t got cold feet young lady,” Lillian said to her daughter as she stood in the living room, twitching to clean it but realizing something was wrong with her only child.
Albert didn’t exactly understand everything but he knew Mary definitely had cold feet as they were presently freezing his unmentionables. He blew air out of his mouth, shooting Mary a reproachful stare that she didn’t notice. This wasn’t going well, Albert knew it, but he couldn’t speak so he shifted instead, hoping to find a less cold spot.
“Cold feet? Cold feet? No, Mother, I haven’t got cold feet. What I don’t have is a groom to meet me at the church! So, unless you can fit a collar and tie on that flea ridden dog, then it will either be a solo affair or there won’t be a wedding at all, okay?” Mary snapped at her mother, her emotions clearly getting away from her. Her reddened eyes glared at her mother from a very pretty, heart-shaped face.
Poor Albert gave a disgruntled sound, and shifted again. He might just have to bite her.
“I don’t understand,” Lillian replied, pushing Albert off the couch to sit down. Albert slumped to the floor and, looking back just the once, slouched off into the kitchen and stared at them from around the door. His bowl still hadn’t been filled.
“Mary, what’s going on, dear? The wedding is on Saturday. Look, you’ve even upset the dog with all this nonsense.” Lillian waved her hands absently in Albert’s general direction, the dog giving a yawn of agreement. He kicked out at his bowl but he knew from the sounds his humans were making that it probably wasn’t going to be filled be either woman. He went in search of the man. The man would feed him.
“No Mother, it’s off. It’s all off. Jason ran away with that stripper skank from the other side of town. Damn that bitch! She’s had her claws in him since forever. Momma, she’s the size of a whale! Greenpeace have probably set up to protect her house. I hate her!” Mary sobbed, sinking back into the couch, her hair hiding her heartbroken face. Mary, normally above such insults, couldn’t help but go after the most obvious aspect of the other woman’s physique as she felt her world fall apart.
“What in heaven’s name? No! Not that Jennifer Pinegold? The one with more thigh than midriff? I don’t believe it. I’ll kill her,” Lillian said, her head turning as if she could sense the woman in her presence already.
“Yes, Momma, that one,” Mary replied quietly. “They’ve already left. She was offered a job somewhere out west and that stinking, heartless idiot went with her. He left me, Momma. He left meeeee! He was supposed to marry me, and that snivelling dog has ruined my life. FOREVER!!” Mary’s fist flailed as if to pound the couch cushion but it fluttered back down feebly.
“Now, now Mary. I’m sure there’s some mistake. Let me go over there and talk to his parents,” Lillian said as she leaned over to remove Mary’s hair from her eyes. She wished she had more padding so she could comfort her daughter the way mothers did in movies, on well-endowed bosom and hips. Not overweight but not too thin, both women managed their weight through daily walks but still indulged in cakes and other treats.
Mary handed her phone up to Lillian, the message reading:
Couldn’t go through with it. Going to San Fran with Jenn. Sorry. Hope we can still be friends when we get back, alright? No hard feelings babe. xxx
Lillian read it over and over, getting angrier and angrier each time.
“Babe? Babe? Is that all you were to that conniving, no-good SOB? Yes, I’ll go over there and kill him with my bare hands, I swear it,” Lillian snarled, wanting to throw the phone but deciding against it. It was one of those smart phones, though Lillian couldn’t see what was so smart about it.
“He’s gone, Mom. He’s gone. They drove past the house as they left. The lowlife waved as they went,” Mary whimpered, her pain apparent for all to see. Even Albert finally gave in and went back to the couch, hoping to stop the sad sounds that came from the woman that scratched his belly and gave him extra treats.
“Well,” Lillian huffed. “Well.”
“Well what? It doesn’t get easier for saying well a lot.” Mary snapped.
“Hush your mouth, child. I didn’t run off and leave you did I? I mean, well. What are we going to do with all the food we’ve got prepared? All the people we need to tell? Well. I’ll need to speak to your father about this. That’s a lot of money we’ve wasted young lady. A lot of money. That’s a three tier cake I made you. Not like Sarah Rasnake’s pathetic attempt at a cream filled donut, oh no. Three proper tiers of proper cake. What am I supposed to do with it, I ask you?”
Mary hung her head again and sighed.
“I know, Momma. I’m sorry. And it gets worse.” Mary looked away from her mother, her face pained.
“Worse? How could it get any worse? Don’t go telling me you had to marry that useless piece of garbage because he’s put you in the family way!” Lillian barked, her brows knitting together in alarm.
“Noo! Momma! Not that, this,” Mary said as she pulled a large envelope from under the couch cushion.
“Oh? What on earth is that? And why do I feel like I don’t want to know?” Lillian replied reaching for the large envelope.
“I thought we would go away. For a honeymoon. I’d been saving for months and months, Momma. That’s why I never bought myself anything. I saved it all for this,” Mary sighed.
“Well, nothing wrong with a honeymoon. Some nice places up in the hills folk can be alone together to do what needs doing and have fun too. Let me get my glasses,” Lillian replied.
“I didn’t want to go to no shed in Virginia, Momma. I’d always dreamed of somewhere exotic. Somewhere different. Somewhere none of these hillbillies had even heard of. I heard of this place in a movie once. I looked it up and it was real. I saved and booked it.” Mary said.
“Florida? Well yes, it’s pretty and all that but overrated you know? Your Grandma and Papaw went there once. Said it rained so they came back. If they wanted rain they could get it just as well here without alligators,” Lillian replied, her lips twisting into a repressed grin.
“No Mom. The Algarve in Portugal. On a plane.” Mary wouldn’t meet her mother’s eyes as she finally revealed the name of the place.
“Are you out of your mind? People like you get snatched in those South American places. They have these poison darts they fire at you then, BAM! Gone! Good grief no. Wha
t made you want to go there? Full of jungles too. Lots of snakes. You know you don’t like snakes,” Lillian finished pulling out the flight details from the envelope.
Mary sat up on the couch shaking her head.
“It’s in Europe, Momma! It’s sun and sand and lots of historic places to see. It sounds perfectly wonderful.” Mary glared at her mother behind her back, wondering how the woman had got the places mixed up.
“Are you sure, dear? Because I might not have had all the fancy schooling you young un’s get but I’m pretty sure they speak Spanish and it’s in South America, somewhere near, well, somewhere else down there.” Lillian petered off looking confused.
“No, Mom. It’s in Europe, right next door to Spain. Not too far from France and the Algarve is at the sea, with sandy romantic beaches and fine wines and strange food. Doesn’t matter now does it?” Mary sighed.
At the sound of the front door, Albert gave a half-hearted yelp and wandered in from his search for the man to see who was coming in. It was Walter. Mary’s father was a large man. Wide and tall with thinning greying hair. Like Lillian, he was in his mid-fifties. Usually reasonably happy, he was easily confused with a world that made a simple life complex.
“Walter. Glad you’re home. We have a problem,” Lillian said to him as she pushed him towards his favourite armchair in front of the TV and bid him to sit.
“Okay?” Walter responded confused and looking at the tear stained face of his daughter.
“The wedding is off. That low-down skunk Jason has dumped your daughter and run off with a hooker,” Lillian said with a tone that was most accusatory.
“Right, yes I know.” Walter nodded.
“Know?” Mary jumped up from the couch, startling Albert. “How could you possibly know, Dad?”
Walter looked uncomfortably at the two women and the dog staring at him intently. “Well, I met Stan Hardwick about twenty minutes ago down town.”
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