The Billionaire's Convenient Bride: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story

by Cj Howard

  He kissed her mouth hungrily, pushing and rubbing his erection against her in solid need, and as he did so, she knew that the feelings moving through her for him were not much more than lukewarm, and she stopped him.

  “Tristan,” she said in a quiet voice, “we need to wait for this. It doesn’t feel right.”

  He raised himself up on his arms and looked at her face. “What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked. It was clear to her that he had no misgivings about making love with her and that the hesitation was fully on her side.

  She felt so sorry stopping them in their endeavor to be together, but she knew it was the best thing to do. “I think I just need some time. It feels like this is happening too soon.”

  He moved off of her and laid beside her. “Then we will wait. We have all the time in the world to wait and love each other when it is right for both of us.”

  She buttoned her top back up and leaned over to kiss him. “Thank you,” she said and he kissed her back.

  “I am glad to wait for you.” he said with a smile and touched her cheek. They rose up off of the bed and he drove her back to the house.

  Emmaline didn’t see Peter that night, and later the next morning, she didn’t see Tristan until she was in the garden reading and he came to her and sat with her on the swing.

  “Good morning, beautiful lady.” He hugged her close to him, kissing her lips softly.

  “Hello, Tristan,” she said with a smile.

  “I thought a lot last night about what happened between us, and I want to talk with you about something that you may not realize. I know I haven’t made it clear to you, and I want you to understand it fully.” He pulled her up off of the swing and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her close and looking into her face.

  Neither of them noticed that Peter had been walking toward them and when he heard them, he stepped behind a tall bush and watched them through it as they talked. His heart clenched when he saw Tristan holding Emmaline so close to him, but he said nothing.

  “I love you, Emmaline, and as soon as I can, I want to marry you. The minute you are divorced from Peter, I want to make you my wife and spend the rest of our days together loving you with all of my heart.” He dropped down to one knee and she stared at him, her eyes wide and her heart pounding.

  Peter couldn’t breathe or move. It felt like his whole world might just implode at any moment and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He had asked them to wait to date each other until after the results of the election so that he could have some time to figure out how to tell Emmaline that he loved her, but now it looked as though things had moved much further between the two of them than he had ever realized and it cut him to his core. He wished that he could reach through the bush and stop them both from making another move toward becoming a couple, but he knew he had no place doing it.

  “Emma, please say that you will marry me and make me the happiest man in the world.” He gazed up at her with hopeful longing and she wavered slightly as the shock of what he was doing and saying washed over her.

  “Are you saying this because of what happened last night in bed?” she asked.

  Peter closed his eyes in pain for a moment, and visions of her laying nude in Tristan’s arms sliced through his mind and ripped at his heart. So they had already made love, he thought, and for the first time in his life, his heart knew what it felt like to break for love.

  “No, I’m saying this because I want you to be my wife, and I want you to know that every day between now and whenever that happens will be one day too many for me. I would make you my wife right now if I could, Emma. I have never wanted anyone like I want you, and you need to know that. Please say you will marry me when you and Peter are divorced. Please promise you will be mine forever.” Tristan kissed her hand and waited anxiously for her response.

  She looked down at him and tried to find an answer. She tried to reason it out in her head and heart and all she could find was struggle. She pulled him to his feet and leaned up to kiss him, feeling like she could at least soften her answer to him with tenderness and love before she spoke.

  Peter watched his wife and the woman he loved kissing his business partner and he knew that she was going to tell him yes. He knew that Tristan was what she wanted. She had even asked him if she could be with Tristan. He couldn’t stand to be there any longer and watch her as she promised herself to another man. It would rip his heart right in half to hear her say those words to Tristan.

  He turned and walked away quickly, heading toward the house as Emmaline stopped kissing Tristan. “I can’t give you an answer today. I’m so sorry, but I need some time to think about what I’m going to do. I have to talk to Peter about it. I need to talk with my grandfather about it. This isn’t as easy as I wish that it was, and you have said that you would wait for me. Is that still true? Could you please wait for me to give you an answer to that question after I talk with Peter and my grandfather?”

  Tristan nodded and pulled her into his strong embrace. “Yes, my dear. I will give you all the time you need. If you would like me to talk with your grandfather as well, I will. I would like his permission to marry you.” He kissed her sweetly, and then let her go with a smile.

  He walked back to the house and she sat on the swing and lowered her face into her hands. She had no idea how she was going to come up with an answer for him, but she did know that the two men she needed to talk to would give her some good direction at least.

  Peter watched her from his office window as she leaned back and moved the swing back and forth, her hand raised to her mouth in deep thought while she gazed into the distance. He was furious. His heartache had become a rush of anger at the turn of events. He was angry at himself for having been so stupid as to have needed to marry her in the first place, he was angry at Tristan for going after her once he had stolen her heart, he was angry with her for loving Tristan and wanting to be with him, and he was angry at them both for making love, but more than all of that, he was angry with himself for falling in love with her. He paced in his office, looking out of the window at her on the swing in the garden. He had a political career now because of her, and he didn’t know if he could win without her, or if he did win, how he would manage running the governor’s office alone without her support. He realized that she would be leaving and he hated to think of how empty the house would be without her, how he wouldn’t be able to see her or talk to her, how she wouldn’t be just down the hall any longer, or in the kitchen or garden. The house and his life would be so horribly empty without her.

  He stopped his pacing and gazed at her. She was so serenely beautiful and she didn’t even know it. He realized then that he had once truly believed that his life had been so full and so carefree, and that what he had thought was a happy and complete life was really a shell with no meaning in it whatsoever. It was when she had come into his world and changed it so tremendously that he suddenly had meaning to his existence. He had substance and happiness, he had desire and a fire for her and for life. It wasn’t until he had her with him that he found true purpose to his existence, and now it was going to end, and he would be able to live as he had before if he wanted to. But he knew that he could never go back to that, that he could never live as he had, using women and playing with them like they were toys for his amusement. He could not go back to drinking and carousing and living without doing any real good. Even if she left and he won the election, he would still have the remnants of a life that he could devote to others.

  He felt tears fall down his cheeks and his first ever heartbreak began to connect with his mind. Peter began to understand the true depth and meaning of love, and he knew that what he wanted more than anything, even more than Emmaline, was her happiness. If she wasn’t happy and living a full rich life, then he could not be happy either, and it became clear to him that he would have to give her that happiness. He would have to let her marry the man she wanted so much, no matter how it broke his heart.

  Peter rea
lized, for the first time in his life, what true and real love actually was and it was overwhelming for him. He wept and pulled open the drawer of his desk, taking from it an eight by ten glossy photograph of him and Emmaline on the night of the ball. She was wearing her green dress, and they had just finished dancing. He had pulled her into his arms to kiss her, and the photographer had captured the incredible emotion of the moment they had shared and the passion in their kiss.

  Emmaline opened the door of the office and poked her head in. She saw Peter sitting on the wide will of the massive window at the back of his office; the window that overlooked the grounds and garden. He was holding something in his hand and crying. She stepped in quietly and walked to him, but he didn’t seem to notice her. She had never seen him show such vulnerability and deep emotion, and it touched her heart. She reached him and looked over his shoulder and saw that what he was holding was an image of him kissing her after their dance at the ball. The memory of it came rushing back to her in a heated wave and it warmed her just as he turned around to see her standing there.

  He was startled and she saw a wide range of emotion cross his face as he looked at her, the most powerful of which seemed to be something like pain and desperation, but she couldn’t tell what he might have been hurt by.

  She reached for him, realizing that he must need some kind of comfort, and she wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head on his chest. She breathed in his scent and it took her back to their night in the drawing room when they had kissed so passionately. She closed her eyes and breathed him in, losing herself in the heady scent of him and holding him tightly to her in her hug.

  Peter was stunned by her sudden appearance and even more incredulous at her snug embrace around him. He wrapped his arms around her to hold her in return and as they encircled her, all of the emotion in him compounded immediately and came rushing to the surface. He was awash in grief, in love, in remorse, in need, in frustration and in desire. All that he could do was hold her as all of it overwhelmed him. He buried his face in her neck and hair, soothing himself with her closeness and the scent of her skin.

  His breath on the side of her neck and the feel of his mouth so close to her was almost intoxicating to her and she closed her eyes as the heat she had felt in his embraces before returned and rose up quickly inside her. Her heart began to beat faster and her muscles tensed all over her body. She tried to take a deep breath to calm herself, but it only pressed her breasts more firmly against him and the feel of it heightened her state.

  “What’s wrong?” she breathed out against the curve of his ear. She could feel his heart pounding and his body tense up as well. He slowly lifted his head and looked down into her eyes; he was just inches away from her. His eyes wandered over all of her face, and came to rest on her full lips.

  It was a moment he could not let go of or pass by. It was one of the most precious moments of his life, and he felt it. In a swift movement, he cradled her head in his hands and lowered his mouth to meet hers. She tasted sweet and her soft warmth was like a balm for him, easing every pain in his heart and building up flames of need in him. He kissed her as though it was his last kiss with her; he kissed her as though he had to share everything in him with her in that one brief touch and he gave her all the deep and powerful love he felt as his mouth moved desperately over hers. She moaned from deep in her chest as she kissed him back, and it ignited a need in him that he had never felt. He parted her lips with his and as he tasted her, he felt her grasp him more tightly and she returned his kiss with growing passion.

  Emmaline had not expected him to kiss her at all, and when he had cupped her face in his hands and sealed her lips in his kiss, it had stolen her breath from her and fanned the flames of desire in her to the point that her body began to ache. She could not hold back the moan that escaped her, and when he heard it and felt it, it fueled the heat of his kiss and she felt vertigo take over inside her, and all she could do was hold on to him tighter.

  Peter felt his erection as it grew thick and hard, and every time before, he had turned from her, he had hidden behind his desk or walked away from her, but this time he was locked in her arms, this time he was desperate because he knew it would be the last time that she was this close to him, and his desire was too intense. He knew she felt him against her when she gasped, but she didn’t pull away from him in the least.

  He groaned in need and his kiss deepened, but just as she responded to him, they heard voices outside the door and they broke apart and stared at each other, trying to catch their breath as the door opened and Nelson walked in with Tristan. Peter turned away from them and willed his body to relax so his desire wouldn’t be obvious. Nelson and Tristan greeted Emmaline and she was slightly flushed and breathless, but she smiled at them both and then turned back to Peter just as he sat down at his desk.

  “I’ll come back and talk with you later. I need to go see my grandfather,” she said as steadily as she could manage.

  “Please give him my best,” Peter said calmly, and waved as she nodded and walked out of the door.

  Emmaline was in a hurricane of confusion and all she could think of was getting to her grandfather for some peace and direction. She drove to his house and all the while, aftershocks of heat and desire would make her tremble slightly as her mind and her heart returned again and again to the moments in Peter’s arms. She had felt such fire with him, such need and hunger that it was almost overpowering to her. She couldn’t imagine why he had kissed her; he didn’t want her and he had already pushed her away once, saying that he didn’t want to treat her the way he had treated other women, and that they needed to keep their relationship strictly business. The passion in his kiss spoke volumes to the contrary, and the feel of his body against hers as his desire grew apparent made her wonder what was really going on in him. There was no way it could be just business; not with passion like that.

  She pulled up to her grandfather’s house and went in to talk with him. He was happy to see her and they talked about how his health had been doing so much better and how he’d been out fishing and seeing his friends. He was happy and contented. After a while, he sat rocking in his chair and sipping his tea, then looked over the top of his glasses at her.

  “What kind of bee do you have in your bonnet, young lady?” he asked quietly.

  She sighed and looked at him with troubled eyes. “I can’t hide anything from you, can I?” She smiled a little and leaned her head back on the chair she was in.

  “I’m really confused about the situation I’m in with Peter and Tristan,” she told him. “Tristan is the businessman who Mr. Turner leased his building to. He’s Peter’s business partner. Tristan and I have kind of been seeing each other and I really like him, and he really likes me. He wants to be with me, grandfather. He wants to marry me. I think I want to be with him, too, but now things are changing with Peter. He seems a little different with me, and I don’t know what to do.”

  Henri nodded. “Yeah, I saw the papers that you were in for his party. I’d say things are changing between you two. It’s one thing to sell your marriage to the public, but it looked to me like you were both buying your own story as well.” He winked at her. “What is it that’s confusing you?” he asked her, looking for the truth at the heart of it all.

  “Well, I thought Tristan was my ideal man. I have a list of things… qualities and characteristics that I’d like to have in the man I wind up with, and I don’t want to settle for anything less than that, and when I met Tristan and got to know him, I was sure he was the right man for me. I was sure that he had all of the characteristics I wanted in a husband, but then things began to change with Peter.” She shifted in her seat and grew a little sad. “He was so bad, grandfather, you know that’s why I had to marry him to help him with his reputation, because he ruined it. He has this need for women and I don’t want to get caught up in that. I don’t want to be with a man who wants more than one woman. I want a man who is dedicated to me and to us, like you
were with Grandmother.” She looked back at him and he nodded.

  “When was the last time he was with any other women?” he asked.

  She thought about it. “It’s been a while,” she answered him.

  He nodded again. “How do you feel about him?”

  Emmaline took a big breath and sighed. “He turns my head, grandfather. I had my sights all set on Tristan, and Peter just turned me right around. I can’t barely keep him off my mind and out of my heart. He’s lodged in there now and I just don’t know what to do.”

  Henri rocked in his chair and took another long drink of his tea. “Well, Emma, you remember that story I used to tell you about the ugly duckling that became a swan?”