The Billionaire Affair

by Parker, Ali

  “Touché.” He stopped trying to take off his pants and lowered himself onto the rim of the tub, surprisingly docile about the turn of events. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t give up on the bandage thing.”

  “It’s for purely selfish reasons,” I said flippantly. “I’m doing it for all of womankind, really. My species would never forgive me if I was responsible for that handsome mug being scarred.”

  Jeremiah pouted. “I would look badass with a scar there.”

  A soft smile raised my lips. “You’re just the right amount of badass as is, Mr. Williams.”

  Getting what I needed from his first aid kit, I cleaned his cut as tenderly and gently as I could. He leaned into my hand cupping his cheek and closed his eyes as I worked. “You’re good at this.”

  “I’ve had to clean a few cuts in my day,” I said, thinking back to the crowd I used to run with. Fists were swung in bar fights more often than I was proud to admit for having called some of those guys my friends. “All done. Enjoy your shower. I’ll be right outside when you’re done.”

  Before he could get any ideas of trying to lure me into the shower with him, I left the bathroom and started cleaning up while I waited for him to finish. I threw away most of the trash, opened the curtains and patio doors for some fresh air and turned the lights up before I heard him padding down the hallway.

  When he was done, he emerged wearing a fresh pair of loose fitting pants and a white T-shirt. One of his hands ran through his damp hair as he poured two glasses of water and went back to the couch. He handed one to me and motioned me over to him.

  “You don’t have to clean. I’ll do it tomorrow. Right now, I just want to relax.”

  I accepted the glass of cold water he offered me and sank down next to him, surprised he was responding to my being here the way he was. Shadows clung to his eyes, but they were clearer now.

  Reaching up, I twined my fingers into his hair, tugging and massaging softly as I wondered how to approach the question I was burning to ask. Finally, I decided that just getting it out there was best.

  “Why do you shut everyone out? There are so many people who care about you and who are worried about you.”

  He shrugged, dragging his eyes across the city skyline instead of looking at me. Getting him to open up wasn’t going to be simple. I had a theory, but testing it might get me kicked out.

  Sighing internally, I made my decision. If it got me kicked out, so be it. I could always come back tomorrow and beg for forgiveness for being too pushy. Can’t regret the chances you don’t take.

  “Is it because of your father?”

  Eyes drifting shut as if the mention of his father caused him pain, he stilled before nodding once. He still didn’t say anything, but at least I had my answer.

  The instinct to hug him took over, and I found myself winding my arms around his neck and curling into his lap. I just sat there, resting my head on his shoulder and willing him to feel better. Few people could relate to how he was feeling better than I could.

  “I know what it’s like to have parents who don’t understand you,” I said quietly. “Or who never seem to be happy with the decisions you make. It’s easy to crawl into yourself and stay there. Because if the only people genetically programmed to know you and your needs don’t, it’s almost impossible to imagine that other people could.”

  Encouraged when he draped his arms around my hips and rested his head on mine, I continued. “I had to learn to look to other people to fill that part of myself. I found Tiana for that, and my old co-workers.”

  I paused before I carried on, lifting my head to look into his eyes. “And I found you for that too.”

  Surprise flashed in his eyes, but I knew I was right to tell him the truth when the first real smile I’d seen from him since I’d arrived at his apartment spread on his lips. “Yeah?”

  I nodded. “I care about you, Jeremiah. A lot. I was terrified when I found your car empty and all smashed up.”

  Emotion clogged my throat at my admission. I wasn’t expecting to feel tears stinging the backs of my eyes and my chest constricting when I allowed the memories of that morning in. I told him I cared about him, but the rush of emotions I felt made me question just how much I actually cared about him. Much more than I thought, apparently. It was scary.

  This was just supposed to be a job. A means to an end. But it has become so much more. Jeremiah has become so much more.

  Chapter 58

  JEREMIAH

  Stephanie was curled up in my lap. Having her there made me feel lighter than I had over the last couple of days. Contrary to my expectations, she hadn’t cut and run as soon as she saw me or the mess my apartment was in.

  When she first got here, I saw her surveying it all. Me. I waited for her to turn around and run away, but then she surprised me by walking over and making herself comfortable on my couch.

  It surprised me even more when she talked to me like I was a person instead of a fuck-up and tricked me into the bathroom to take care of my wound. A wound I forgot was even there.

  When I thought she was propositioning me for real, my heart sank, but my body reacted in all the right ways. Just like it was conditioned to from years of shoving whatever I felt aside and burying myself in physical sensations for as long as I could.

  It was so easy to slip back into that persona. I would’ve gone through with it too if she hadn’t called me out. It was starting to become a bit of a habit between us, her calling me on my shit.

  Her chest expanded against mine as she took deep breaths. I could tell her admission about having to find other people to look to and that I was one of them, that she cared about me had touched her as deeply as it did me.

  Several of her first few breaths after the words came spilling out were a little shaky, then she got lost in thought. The vulnerability she allowed me to see startled me. No one had ever been so honest with me before.

  Holding her soft body in my arms and feeling her hanging onto me for strength after opening herself up like that felt good. In the past, a woman doing exactly what Stephanie was would’ve freaked me the fuck out.

  I would’ve sprinted for the hills the second she asked about my dad. With Stephanie, it triggered that urge in me to protect her. To be the person she trusted enough to be completely honest with felt good.

  So good, it prompted me to do the same with her. Just as it had when I told her about Jack. It felt natural to talk to her about things that would usually make me so uncomfortable I would’ve thrown my shields all the way up.

  With her, I felt the walls I built around myself coming down instead of getting higher. She was tearing them down one brick at a time in a way that felt so right, I didn’t mind watching them crumbling to the ground.

  The conversation I had with Tanner the night before Jannie took me played in my head. Stephanie made me happy. I wasn’t being foolish, and I wasn’t making a mistake. I still wanted the same thing I wanted that night. My timeline had just shifted a little. Being kidnapped would do that to a guy.

  “I care about you too,” I said, my voice just above a whisper. It felt like speaking any louder would shatter the moment passing between us.

  Steph lifted her head from my shoulder again, wonder dancing in her eyes. “You do?”

  I brought my head forward to rub my nose against hers, all the while keeping my eyes on her bright blues until they blended into one for being so close to her. “I do.”

  She cuddled deeper into me, pulling her head back to press a kiss to the tip of my nose. “It’s always good to know I’m not in this alone.”

  “You’re not.” At all. The woman made me feel things I’d long since written off as myth, legend, or simply not designed for me. “In fact, I had a question for you before Jannie so rudely interrupted my morning on Tuesday.”

  She sat up in the circle of my arms, tilting her head curiously. The light caught her long chestnut hair, causing it to shine like a halo around her. Like the universe was allo
wing me to see she was an angel, my angel. Christ. When did you start thinking like a bad philosopher?

  “Well?” she asked, drawing me out of the melodramatic descriptive brain I seemed to have grown somewhere along the line since meeting her. I would have to cash in a lifetime supply of man cards if anyone ever heard that thought. “What’s the question?”

  Her soft hair brushed my hands where they rested on her lower back. I wound the ends around my fingers, not sure if it was to hold her still if she tried to bolt when I asked. Why was I so nervous about this?

  It was worse than asking out the first girl I ever dated, prom night, and losing my virginity all at once. Actually, I hadn’t been nervous at all about any of those.

  My tongue darted out, and I wet my lips. Steph’s gaze dropped to my mouth, then she frowned. “You’re not getting out of it, Williams. Don’t try to distract me with your wicked tongue.”

  I laughed at her pouty expression, feeling the random bout of nervousness melt away like mist underneath a blazing hot sun. This was Stephanie I was talking to, my Stephanie—at least I hoped she would be soon.

  “I happen to know that you love my wicked tongue. Shelving that for now, I was going to ask you to go steady with me that morning,” I said. A myriad of emotions played in her eyes. Surprise, disbelief, some I couldn’t name if I tried, and then finally, the one I wanted to see most of all: joy.

  An uncharacteristically girly giggle that warmed my insides fell from her lips. “You were really going to ask me that?”

  I nodded.

  Steph smiled, though I could see she was trying to hold it back. “Ask me now.”

  I lifted a brow, unable to contain my own grin. “Really? What if the accident was a sign from the universe that I shouldn’t?”

  What the fuck was it with me and the universe suddenly? I didn’t remember thinking anything like that more than a handful of times in my life, now here I was doing it for the second time in as many minutes.

  Swatting my arm playfully, Steph rolled her sparkling eyes. “That wasn’t the universe, that was Jannie. Last time I checked, the universe wasn’t a tall, crazy woman who was obsessed with you. Ask me.”

  “The universe might be obsessed with me.” I smirked, enjoying bantering with her. But I also really wanted to know the answer to my question. “I had to hold off for a couple of days for obvious reasons, but what do say? Will you be my girlfriend?”

  She smiled so brightly it would’ve made the sun look dim if I’d asked her in the daytime as planned. “I don’t know, you held off on asking the question for a couple of days. Maybe I should hold back my answer for roughly the same amount of time.”

  My fingers tightened on her back, then moved to her sides as I started tickling her. “That’s not how this works. You haven’t been kidnapped.”

  She squirmed under my hands, trying to swat them away from her as she squealed and laughed until she was breathless. “Okay, okay. I surrender.”

  “I’m not stopping until you give me your answer.”

  “Yes!” she called out between giggles. My fingers ceased their torment as my arms went around her to hold her to my chest. Her lips moved against my throat, her breathing erratic but becoming steadier again. “Of course, I will. You idiot. Did you really think I was going to say no minutes after telling you I care about you?”

  I grinned, shaking my head. The movement made me feel her soft hair under my chin. God, it felt good to be like this with her. Enveloped by her. Feeling her in my lap, her arms around my neck, her lips on my skin, and her hair brushing the underside of my jaw. I never wanted to let her go.

  “I care about my car,” I said with barely restrained laughter in my voice. “I wouldn’t date it.”

  “If dating inanimate objects wasn’t frowned upon, I’m pretty sure you might’ve tried,” she said teasingly. “And I would hope you know I care about you a little more than you do about your car.”

  “I don’t know,” I said joking. “It’s a pretty great car.”

  Her laughter vibrated against my chest. “You’re a pretty great guy.”

  I pulled away from her, capturing her chin in my hand so she would look at me and see how serious I was. “You’re an incredible girl.”

  A dreamy smile touched her lips, her eyes softening. “Look who learned to say actual romantic things.”

  I sighed, feigning difficulty and hardship. Already, the tension of the last few days was melting away and being replaced with something I only truly felt when I was with her. Peace. “It’s a tough job, but this girl I like kept teasing me about how unromantic I could be.”

  “Is unromantic even a word?” She shook her head and wound her fingers into my hair. “Never mind. Keep talking like that, and you might just get lucky.”

  “I need to say romantic things to get lucky now?” I asked, raising my brows. I would never cease to be amazed at how comfortable I was around her, feeling more and more like myself with every passing minute. “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked you to go steady with me. We could go back to a time I got lucky just by being me.”

  “Ah, but having a silver tongue will get you so much luckier.” Her eyes glittered as she looked at me, radiating pure happiness.

  I couldn’t resist pulling her in for a kiss. Touching my lips to hers sent a hot bolt of arousal through me. She was mine now. Somehow, that made her exponentially hotter and so much sexier than she had been coming into my apartment.

  “If I remember correctly, there was something earlier about how much you liked my wicked tongue,” I whispered against her mouth. Her eyes darkened as her pupils grew and her plump lips separated. “So what’s it going to be, wicked or silver?”

  “Both?” Her voice raised at the end of the word, making it sound like a question. “Either, actually. Who cares?”

  “Not you?” I guessed, correctly if the way she started trailing kisses from my mouth across my jaw was any indication.

  I groaned when she closed her hot, wet mouth around my earlobe, sucking it in before running her tongue up the shell. “Let the record show that I was trying to be romantic, and you’re the one seducing me.”

  “You kissed me first,” she protested, planting kisses down the column of my throat. “But the record can reflect whatever you want it to. I just like lavishing my boyfriend with kisses.”

  Boyfriend. I knew the repercussions of asking her to go steady, of course. That it came with the official title as somebody’s boyfriend and all that it might entail, but it was the first time I’d been called that.

  Strangely, I liked it. Even if it was going to take me a while to get used to it. I let it go, choosing to focus on my stunning girlfriend and what she was doing to me instead. Her lips were soft and warm against my skin, her heartbeat increasing against mine.

  Securing my arms around her waist, I knotted my fingers in her hair and kissed her fiercely. Passionately. Kissing was never my thing. It was a formality to sex I didn’t care for, too intimate. I avoided kissing on the mouth as much as I could.

  Stephanie’s mouth, however, I devoured like it was an oasis in a desert I’d been stranded in for years. Hearing her soft moans and feeling her little gasps drove me crazy.

  I drove deeper into her mouth, stroking her tongue hungrily. Exploring every nook and cranny. Relishing her taste.

  She adjusted herself in my lap so her hips could grind her core against me. My cock throbbed, as desperate for attention as I knew from her sounds and movements her pussy was getting. My own hips jerked up to meet her, restless to be thrusting into her.

  I pulled away from her just far enough to get a good look at her. Her lips were bee-stung, and we were both breathing hard. As painfully bad as I wanted to get inside her, I wanted to taste every inch of her first. Feel her come on my fingers and in my mouth.

  “Your boyfriend loves being lavished with kisses, but he prefers giving them. Any objections?”

  Chapter 59

  STEPHANIE

  Stunned at the i
ntensity of the hunger in Jeremiah’s eyes and the bruising way he kissed me, I touched a finger to my lips and shook my head. “None whatsoever.”

  “Good,” he all but growled, bracing his hands under my thighs to lift me off his lap and lay me down on the couch beside him. I frowned, unsure how this position was going to lead to more kissing until he crawled over me and held himself up on his elbows. He tucked them close to the sides of my head to fit on the width of the couch.

  Heat spread through me when he slanted his lips over mine again. It sparked and grew, my pulse racing as he stoked a bonfire in the core of my being and tended to it with each wanting lap of his tongue.

  If kissing me was language, Jeremiah spoke it fluently. He knew exactly when to switch between hard and soft, fast and slow. He knew when to let his weight sink into me and when to roll his hips.

  Dry humping was something I hadn’t done since the days of sneaking in a quick make-out session in the back seat of a car or on a lawn at a house party when someone’s parents were out of town. I didn’t remember it riling me up this much, making me this desperate.

  My breasts felt heavy, my nipples tightened and straining against my bra. When I thought about my underwear, I hit a mild panic. I got dressed for drinks with Shawn and an early night to bed. No one was supposed to see these.

  Jeremiah broke our kiss, questions in his heated eyes. “I thought you had no objections.”

  “Not to kissing.” I breathed, feeling my cheeks heat from embarrassment instead of arousal. “But—”

  He placed a soft kiss on my lips. “You’ve been through a lot this week. If kissing is all you want, it’s all we’ll do.”

  “It’s not that.” My cleft ached for him. Empty and swollen. “It’s just… I didn’t exactly dress for the occasion.”

  His eyes slid down to my chest, only an inch of the black tank I was wearing visible from how closely we were pressed together. “You look beautiful to me. You always do but correct me if I’m wrong. If you do want more than kissing, isn’t the point to get out of whatever you’re wearing?”