“Ain’t that the truth. Anyway, I think it’s all smoothed over. Just never do anything nearly as embarrassing as this ever again,” she said, poking his stomach for emphasis.
“I swear it,” he said, chuckling and trying to hide from her attack. “Peace and quiet from here on.”
Megan glanced around quickly and ensured they were alone. “The only place I want you being physical,” she added, a certain longing in her voice, “is in bed with me. Then you can whatever you want.”
“Except maybe knock you out.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Except maybe that.” She reached across to find the growing bulge under Tom’s bedsheets, and gave it a subtle squeeze. She leaned down to whisper to him as her hand pleased him. “Although that doesn’t include fucking me until I pass out.”
Tom laughed out loud and glanced at the door to make sure no-one would be able to see. “I think I’ll be the one passing out if you keep that up. You know how many painkillers I’m on?”
Megan took another moment to enjoy the hardness under her fingers before kissing Tom’s forehead.
“I’m going to check on the other guy,” she said.
“OK,” Tom said warily. “But keep your hands to yourself.”
Megan found Jake’s room at the other end of the busy hallway. Patients waited on gurneys while staff exchanged information in a terse, clipped lexicon which was at once alien but also intimately familiar.
“Are you awake?” Megan asked as she entered Jake’s room.
He was groggy and his eyes seemed a little unfocused, but he looked straight at Megan and sighed. “What have I done, Megan?”
“You were a fucking idiot,” she shot back. Megan took a breath and then sat in a black, plastic chair at his bedside, it felt more appropriate than sitting on Jake’s bed.
“Is Tom OK?” he asked, genuinely worried.
“Yes, he’s fine. They’re going to hang onto him for a couple of days but he’s awake and sounding like his old self.”
Jake was downcast, and bitterly angry with himself. “I made all of this happen. I didn’t know you were dating him, when I was in Asia, but I should have said something about us before I left. Why didn’t I?”
Megan narrowly decided against taking his hand. He may be remorseful, and going through a difficult growing experience, but he still had strong feelings for her, and Megan was determined not to give the wrong impression. “That would have been like announcing it formally,” Megan said. “I don’t know how often you’ve done something like that,” Megan lied, “but it’s quite a step.”
“It is.” Jake frowned glumly.
Commitment, Megan knew, was a concept almost entirely unknown to Jake. She could condemn him as a playboy, if she should chose to, or perhaps instead, simply accept that Jake feared being seen as a ‘one woman man’. What would the Internet say? How would his reputation change? Much as she despised womanizing, Megan understood Jake’s unwillingness to announce to the world – or even just to his brother – that he had found someone special.
“I need you to understand the situation, Jake.” She was firmer now, looking directly into his eyes, ignoring the ferocious bruising which surrounded them. “What you did today, I can forgive and forget. But what’s going to be true in the future... that’s something I need you to get your head around.”
“You mean, you and Tom?” he said, no less sullen than before.
“Yes, Jake. We’re going to be together. You do understand that?”
His face gave away only a fraction of the pain he felt, and for this kind of pain, no medication could help. “I understand,” he said through gritted teeth. “I do want you both to be happy.”
Now Megan took his hand. “That’s a big thing to say, Jake, and I’m very happy to hear it.”
He turned to her. “Could we have... I mean, if I hadn’t screwed everything up, do you think we might have...”
Megan slowly shook her head, and Jake’s final rays of hope died. “I’ve made my choice.”
Wounded, embarrassed but proud of his own persistence, Jake swallowed this truth as manfully as he could. “And I respect that.”
Megan promised to visit him again before his discharge, scheduled for the afternoon of the next day. She returned to Tom’s room just as the cheerful nurse was leaving.
“He’s in a good mood for a man with a broken nose!” she enthused. “Must be in love!” she said with a wink at Megan.
“Must be.” She entered the room, closing the door behind her, and found Tom sitting up in bed, looking a little battered but quite comfortable. “How are you feeling?”
“Ten times better, now,” he said brightly. “What about ‘the other guy’?”
Megan sat on his bed, the gesture already becoming familiar. “He’s sorry, and he’s bruised. But he understands what’s going on now. I have the feeling he’ll deal with it like a man, and not the teenager who was banging on my door.”
“We all live in hope,” Tom quipped. “But thanks for speaking with him. That can’t have been easy.”
“He’s not a bad person,” Megan reminded him. “Just a little selfish. And sometimes he lets his Johnson do the driving. Maybe too often.”
Tom chuckled. “We’re just men, you know. Most of our lives are spent trying to keep our Johnsons happy.”
Megan gave another furtive glance around the room and shifted slightly to make sure she would block the view of anyone walking in. “What makes yours happy?” Her hands slid under the bedsheets and found Tom’s quickly-developing hardness, slipping it through the gap in his hospital pajamas and gently stroking him.
“You do, Megan.” Tom settled back as his girlfriend, her face adorned with a naughty smile, pleasured him.
The taboo of their illicit circumstances super-charged his arousal and it was only a minute before Megan could feel that his peak was close. She glanced once more at the closed door, gave Tom another sexy smile, and kissed him gently, careful to avoid his painful nose.
Then her head disappeared under the sheets.
***
April turned to May with a string of bright, blue-sky days. Shaking off the winter with their accustomed enthusiasm, Bostonians took to the Common, the Public Gardens, and every other green space in the city like animals emerging from an unreasonably long hibernation.
Two blonde kids ran past, racing each other to the edge of the Frog Pond. “We should bring Andrea here again tomorrow,” Megan said. “Remember last time?”
Days earlier, Andrea had seized upon Tom’s new top-of-the-range digital camera and set about taking the perfect portrait of her father and... Andrea’s piano teacher? Her daddy’s ‘friend’? Andrea had eventually felt the need to ask what to say, and Megan was embarrassed not to have pre-empted this awkwardness.
“Well, I love your Dad, and he loves me. Could you think of me as his girlfriend?”
Andrea had exploded with excitement, as though this were the best possible outcome. Over the next few hours, she had worn a perpetual smile. “Will you come and live with us?” Andrea asked at dinner that night.
Megan glanced at Tom. “We haven’t really talked about that yet”. Then he turned to Andrea. “Would you like that, sport?”
Andrea nodded so hard that Megan worried her head would fly off.
Later that night, with Andrea soundly asleep, the master bedroom next door was filled with the sweet but necessarily muffled sounds of sex. Megan cuddled Tom after bringing him to his third, and most overwhelming orgasm. It was then, as he lay breathing hard, amazed once more by her generosity, her kind thoughtfulness, her unfailing, unconditional love, that Tom made his decision.
***
They watched the blonde siblings dashing headlong towards the Frog Pond and took the path which skirted its edge, heading into the quieter areas of the park. “Hey, check out this tree,” Tom said as they approached a giant, ancient oak. “How old do you think it is?”
Megan examined the bark and looked up into the thic
k branches which stretched out, green and verdant, to shade them both. When she looked back, Tom had gone.
“Tom?”
“Right here.” He had taken one knee and was holding something in his hand. A small box.
“Are you...” She stared at him. His eyes were clear and earnest.
This can’t be happening...
“Yes, I am,” Tom answered the half-question. “I’m asking you to marry me, Megan.”
It’s happening...
She said nothing. Her mind, stunned but suddenly very alert, began casting itself into the future. She saw Tom in ten years, and in twenty, and still liked what she saw. There was Andrea, growing up with two devoted, loving parents. She saw the happiness and togetherness of raising Andrea’s little brothers or sisters. She looked and looked, but all she could see was a lifetime of love.
“Yes.”
“You will?”
“Yes. Yes!” she exclaimed more loudly. “Yes, Tom. I’d love to marry you.” Tom stood up and placed the ring on her finger – the perfect ring, and a perfect fit, they both soon found. Megan threw her arms around his neck, kissed him deeply and held him close. Losing herself in his embrace, she was deaf to the smattering of kindly cheers from Boston’s watching public.
Hand in hand, they walked blissfully across the Common, together in the warm spring sunshine.
The End
Thanks for reading! Please don't forget to click here to join Victoria Villeneuve's mailing list so you can be the first to find out about future releases. If you enjoyed this book I encourage you to leave a review on Amazon so you can help others find it. You may also enjoy these other series by Victoria Villeneuve:
Falling for the Billionaire (The Complete Series): Tina's spent years of her life running, running from her ex boyfriend Brandon. When he finds her once more she ends up in the hospital, bemoaning her luck, when a handsome stranger offers her a cup of coffee and, strangely enough, a new hope for her future.
Emboldened, Tina packs her things and moves to New York City, regretting not having gotten the chance to thank the man she refered to as "Her Stranger". Working as a receptionist in Manhattan, Tina begins to live the closest thing she can to a normal life.
But all that is about to come crashing down on her when she meets the head of her company, Alexander Lidstrom, and finds that the billionaire is none other than Her Stranger, the man she revealed all her deepest secrets to in a hospital waiting room.
But as Tina and Alex find their lives intertwining, and find themselves getting closer and closer to one another, Tina also discovers that running from her past is harder than she ever thought possible.
This 45,000 word work contains all three parts of the Falling for the Billionaire series by Victoria Villeneuve.
The Billionaire’s Command (The Complete Trilogy): This novel length collection from Victoria Villeneuve includes the following three stories:
Seduced: When Caroline's company won an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii, she thought all she'd be doing was lying on the beach drinking mai tais with her best friend Lisa. Little did she know her life would be turned upside down when she ran into Mark Selzer in the elevator.
Expecting their one night of passion to be only that, Caroline is shocked when Mark shows up at her door two weeks later. Will she be able to open up enough to let him into her life? And how will she react when she finds out he's the heir to the largest resort company in the country?
Claimed: When Caroline decides to risk everything and move to San Diego to live with Mark Selzer, the billionaire she met in Hawaii, she has no idea how much her life is about to change.
Not only does Mark ask her to do something she's not sure she can do, but when she meets his family Caroline discovers Mark's family secrets run as deeply as hers. But what happens when Mark decides to finally confront his demons?
Loved: Caroline and Mark have to work together to try and figure out how to get control of Mark's charity back when his father swindles him out of it and disinherits him.
But just when they think their problems are gone, Caroline's mother finds her once again. Will Caroline have to leave Mark and run away from her new life to get away from her mother once more?
About the Author
Hi! I’m Victoria Villeneuve. I’m a small town girl at heart, with dreams of living in a cabin in the country with my two dogs and my amazing boyfriend Mike. When I’m not writing you can usually find me enjoying a nice mocha in my local coffee shop, reading some of my favourite books by the lake or playing soccer with my friends.
I want to thank you for reading my story, I do hope you enjoyed it. I love to hear from my fans, so please don’t hesitate to connect with me online:
Website: http://www.victoriavilleneuve.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Victoria-Villeneuve/205624342922072
Email: [email protected]
You can also click here (or visit my website) to subscribe to my email list to be the first to hear about new releases, freebies, contests and more!
Copyright Notice
All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
This ebook is licensed for your own personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to any person. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase another copy for every person to whom you give a copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s hard work!
The Billionaire Brothers Page 15