Ryan takes his one shot then says, “I have me a troublesome Brittany, myself. She’s as closed off as they come. It’s a real shame. The woman is smart, gorgeous, and can be very sweet. The problem is as soon as she realizes she’s showing any humanity, she stops immediately and the next thing you know, she’s gone.”
My head swivels around to look the man over. He’s dark haired and his face is really scared up. He looks kind of frumpy in an old Spiderman T-shirt and some faded blue jeans. Not her type at all but I wonder.
“What’s your Brittany’s last name?” I ask.
“Caldwell,” he says, taking the wind completely out of my sails. “She could be the love of my life if she’d let herself be loved, that is.”
“That’s my Brittany too,” I tell him then drink the entire rest of the beer.
His eyebrows go way up high as he asks, “What are the chances of that?”
“From what she told me, pretty good,” I answer as I wave at the bartender to bring me another beer. “The woman has a bunch of guys from what she said.”
“I know one more,” Ryan says. “A real looker that she takes with her anytime she’s going to something where media will be at. A dude named Josh. I’ve met him. I haven’t met any of the others.”
I take out my phone and pull up the picture I got off the internet of them at the awards ceremony earlier and show it to him. “Is this him?”
He looks at it and nods. “Yep, that’s Josh. I met him a few times. I’m her work boyfriend and he’s her awards boyfriend. And which one are you?”
“I’m not anything to her anymore. I wanted to be her one and only. We’d agreed on that last night. Then she got a call around three this afternoon and the next thing I know I’m seeing her on the television with this dude.” I take another shot and wish I could deliver the alcohol straight into my veins because the pain is not going away.
“Wait! What?” he asks as he looks very confused. “She agreed to be with only you? How the fuck did you even get her to do that?”
“Don’t know,” I slur as the alcohol is suddenly kicking in. “But don’t worry, she obviously didn’t mean it. She didn’t tell me a thing about going to get that guy and going to get her award.”
“Whoa, Buddy,” he says as he places his hand on my shoulder. “You look a little loopy. I think maybe you’ve had enough.”
I nod. “I have. I’ve had way more than I can handle. You see, I’m the guy who messes around on women. They don’t mess around on me. Britt thinks I can be played but I am the one who plays. I don’t know what the hell to do about this.”
“There isn’t a thing you can do. You said you knew her from your younger days. I don’t know how she was but I can tell you now she’s not a woman to get serious about. I wish I had better news for you, but I don’t. That woman will be single forever, she’s told me that, herself.”
I look into his eyes which look very big behind his thick glasses. “You sound like you know her well.”
He nods. “I’ve been seeing her, if you can all it that, for a few years.”
“A few years? I saw her for a few years too, back about six years ago. I can’t believe how much she’s changed.” I get off the stool and try to make my way to the bathroom.
After a couple of stumbling attempts to get my balance, I find the do-gooder who has also had sex with the woman I love, helping me to the bathroom. “Here, let me help you. I know how hard it is to find out she’s heartless. I stayed drunk for a solid week after I found out. It gets easier and if this helps you at all, she’s a great lay even if she won’t get mentally intimate with you, she’ll fuck the shit out of you.”
And just like that, he’s made me sick.
I barely make it into the men’s room before it all comes up. The trash can catches most of it, thankfully. I look up at the guy who can’t be talking about my Brittany and find him frowning at me.
Moving to the sink, I splash cold water over my face. “You sure we’re talking about the same woman? My Brittany Caldwell is twenty-five, makes book covers for a living. My Brittany is rich. My Brittany…”
He smiles. “Your Brittany, as you seem to want to think of her, is no one’s Brittany. She’ll tell you that herself. And if she hasn’t yet, she will soon. She isn’t a liar or a cheat. She also isn’t into being anyone’s one and only. The sooner you wrap your head around that the better off you’ll be.”
“But I was on my way to her apartment. I was going to spend the night.” I check my reflection and find myself looking haggard. A thing I never look like.
“You are special. I’ve never been to her apartment. Well, there was that one time, but only for sex then she made me leave.” He hands me a handful of paper towels. “Clean up, man. Don’t let her get to you. I know it’s hard as she is gorgeous and stacked and I’m sure she treated you real good last night. But that woman isn’t a person to let into your heart. She’s a heartbreaker, Buddy.”
I shake my head. “She wasn’t one until I fucked around on her. She was a good girl. And now you make her sound like a real whore.”
“Whore?” he asks as he looks like he’s thinking about it. He shakes his head. “Nah, I wouldn’t call her that. She’s not into fucking everything that walks. She has her select men. I think she told me there’s five or six of us she makes visits to regularly. Now I guess you’ll be added into the rotation. That’ll mean sex less than once a week for me now. But I can’t complain. When she does give me my hour with her, she makes it count.”
My stomach rolls and I find myself grabbing the trash can again and letting more stuff come out of me. I cannot take listening to this about her.
When I come back up for air, he seems genuinely sorry for me. I wash my face again. “I need to go home. I need to think. That woman may be pregnant with my baby.”
He looks confused and a little mad. “How is that? She’s adamant about condoms. No condom, no sex, ever!”
“We didn’t use one last night and now she might be pregnant and I may have to figure out how to calm her fast ass down. How am I supposed to do that, Ryan? She sounds so set in her nasty ways. She sounds so not like my girl. What have I done to her?” I stagger over to relieve myself and try to think of how I can make her stop being the woman I helped create.
“I can’t believe she let you do that. The way you’re talking doesn’t even sound like the woman I know. Maybe we are talking about two different women. Brittany is very steady with her actions. She runs everything in her life a certain way.”
“I can’t let her stay on this path, Man. I hope you understand, Ryan. I have to get her off this road. I’m going to make her mine again. No matter how hard she fights me, I’m going to make her mine.” I zip up and wash my hands.
The puking has cleared my head a little and I feel ready to deal with the stubborn, cold-hearted creature who is now my old, sweet girlfriend. Her once a week boy toy watches me leave the men’s room with his mouth hanging open.
Just as I get to the door of the bar to leave, I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn back to see him there. “Hey, I don’t want to lose my once a week with her.”
A laugh comes out of me without me knowing it would. “Ha! Well, you are going to lose that with her. All of you other guys will be losing that. The mother fucker who she went to the fucking awards with is losing her too. Maybe you two can make a club of the guys she’s been fucking with and have meetings to get over her. I don’t know or care. I’m going to go get my woman and let her know her philandering ways are over. No offense.”
“No offense?” he asks and then I see him take a couple of steps back and he holds up his fists. “Come on. We need to settle this right now. I can share, but you can’t have all of her. We’ll all come after you. You have to know that.”
With a shake of my head, I say, “Why would you even want to fight for a woman who does you like that? You make no sense. Is that hour of time you said she gives you once a week worth me beating your ass?”
&n
bsp; “I’ll get in a few punches,” he says as he seems to be sizing me up. “And the answer is, yes, that one hour a week with her is worth it. That woman can give head like no one I’ve ever met.”
“Sorry you said that,” I tell him then throw a punch.
My fist connects with his jaw and he’s out right away. I feel awful for doing it but I couldn’t let him talk about the woman I’m going to marry like that.
And then it hits me as I turn around and leave before I get mobbed by the throng of people who are coming to see why this guy is lying out on the floor.
I’m going to marry Brittany Caldwell!
Chapter 3
BRITTANY
Against my better judgment, I went to Jason’s place, anyway. I might find a woman with him but I have to let him know I didn’t do anything with Josh. I took him to the ceremony then my driver dropped him off, no sex was involved.
As I enter the lobby, I see a tall, slender redhead and she seems to be waiting for someone as she sits on one of the plush seats. I glance at her as I walk over to the private elevator that goes up to Jason’s penthouse.
“Who are you?” she asks as I press the button to go up but it glows red at me. “That’s locked. Jay isn’t home yet.”
“Jay?” I ask but I know she has to be one of Jason’s women. He just hasn’t let her in on his real name. And I won’t be doing that either.
She looks me up and down. “Yes, a man by the name of Jay Caldwell lives in the penthouse.”
I nearly laugh out loud as I hear the last name he’s told her. “Oh, my bad. I must be in the wrong building. I’m looking for someone else.”
Her light green eyes narrow at me and I think she suspects I really am here for the man she must consider to be hers. “What’s his name?”
I grapple with a name and come up with, “Todd Strangerfield.”
The last name I’d like to retract but it’s out there and I feel very stupid. No one is named stranger anything!
“Strangerfield?” she asks with skepticism. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that surname before. What ethnicity is it?”
My eyes roll with the woman’s question as I see her as the type of woman I call boorish. An uptown, natural New Yorker who thinks her bloodline makes her something a bit above everyone who isn’t a native of the big city.
I decide to take a seat and wait for my man. The place right next to her will work just fine. We’ll see how he reacts with this little scene when he gets here.
At least this way I’ll be able to see if he was serious at all about letting the other women go and giving me the faithfulness I demand from him.
I am aware there’s a real chance he either won’t be back tonight and sleep in another woman’s bed or he may come back with another woman under his arm and then this lady here will know she’s not his one and only like she thinks she is.
I stretch my legs out in front of me and cross my ankles and jangle my flip flop as I lean back on the cushioned sofa. “My guy’s an American Indian. He changed his name when he became a U.S. citizen.”
A confused expression runs over her really pale face. I don’t think she gets out in the sun much at all. She really doesn’t look at all like Jason’s type.
Who am I thinking about! Jason doesn’t have a certain type. He wants to screw all women! I forgot who the hell I was thinking about for a second there.
“A United States citizen?” she asks me.
“Yeah,” I say and look at my toenail polish that has a tiny chip on the left pinky toe so I know I need to get to my mani-pedi lady tomorrow.
“An American Indian needs to become a citizen of the United States? Is that what you’re saying?” she asks me as she looks at me as if I’m stupid.
“Of course, they do.” I roll my eyes at her again and it hits me like a brick.
Fuck! I am a terrible liar!
But I won’t be telling her how I’m lying. Instead, I sit quietly as she looks me over. I look her over out of the corner of my eye, too.
“So what is it you do? What did you say your name was, again?” she asks.
Not bothering to look at her, I answer, “My name is Brittany Caldwell, I design book covers.”
“Caldwell? Just like my fiancé?”
My head turns very slowly to look at her then down at her left hand and sure as fuck there’s a God damn, big ass diamond on it. I bite my lip and have to hold in a scream.
After waiting a few moments to stop myself from storming out of here and never talking to Jason again, I swallow back the scream and say, “I’m from the Texas Caldwell's. I doubt your, fiancé, did you say he was that?” I wait for her answer.
“Yes, Jay is my fiancé. But he’s from Tennessee, not Texas. I suppose that’s a typical southern name.”
I nod and hold out my hand. “May I see that gorgeous ring he put on your finger?”
She goes pink in the cheeks as she holds out her long fingers and wiggles the one with the rock on it. “Well, he didn’t actually give this to me. It was my great grandmother's. When he told me he wanted me to be his and his alone, I took it out of the safe deposit box my family has kept it in and put it on my finger to keep other gentlemen away from me until he gets me one.”
“Oh, so no formal proposal yet then?” I ask as I take a silent sigh of relief.
“Well, not a down on one knee proposal but he did tell me that he’d get me a proper ring but he wants it to be very special and very expensive. He’s searching for just the right one and then he’ll officially ask me to be his forever.” She gazes at the ring on her hand and I find her very sad.
To have such a belief in a man that you would give yourself a ring, well, that’s just really sad, I think.
And even sadder when you take into account that man has a ton of other women you are completely unaware of.
And now I feel bad for this woman. She seems like a nice person. Just not real man-savvy is all.
“Wow, what a great guy. Tell me about him. Tell me what made you know he was the one for you. What did you say your name was?”
“Pamela Watterson.” She smiles then places her hand on her leg so she can still see the awesome ring she thinks will keep the man she thinks is hers. “Jay was a man who caught my attention. He’s a shy guy.”
I stifle a laugh. Jason is anything but shy. “Oh yeah?”
She seems to be reflecting back to the time they met and her face is all glowing. “I found him in a hospital. He was there checking on a patient. Jay Caldwell’s parents died in an auto accident when he was ten. He lived in one foster home after another. It’s a miracle he managed to make anything out of himself. He became a billionaire after inventing a device that he sold to the medical industry.”
“And what was this device, may I ask.” I am really bewildered that this woman hasn’t done a bit of research to see if he’s telling her the truth. Which he isn’t.
“I don’t know the name of it. I only know it’s a tiny plastic piece that can replace a piece of the human heart. That’s all I know about that. It doesn’t matter how he got his money after all. It’s the fact he’s such an awesome man with a heart as big as they come.”
It’s not his heart that’s big, it’s his lies!
“So how come you don’t have a key to his place? Or did you just forget it?” I ask as I tap my chin with my finger and look at her.
“Jay is a private man. I can’t blame him. He’s been robbed so many times. And once he was held captive by a robber who was trying to get a ransom. Only there was no one to give the robber a ransom, and he ended up letting Jay go, after holding him for thirty hours,” she tells me as she clutches her throat. “I was so worried during that time. I’d shown up, unexpected and when I called him to tell him to buzz me up, he whispered to me what was happening.”
“Why wouldn’t you have called the police?” I ask as this woman is a fucking moron.
“I told him I would, but he told me the man said he’d kill him if they came. He t
old me to go home and wait and he’d come to me as soon as it was over. He assured me it would be over by the next day. One way or the other, he or the robber would be dead.” She goes a shade paler somehow.
“That must’ve been hard on you,” I say as I want to wring Jason’s neck for what he did.
If he’s doing shit like this to her, what kind of antics has he pulled on the tons of other women?
She nods. “I didn’t sleep or eat until he came to me. Then he held me tight, and we made love for hours.”
My stomach lurches and I run my hand over it. “How sweet,” I say with a grin.
This man needs to be stopped. I’ve never felt it more than I do as I sit here and listen to the shit he’s done to just this one woman.
“My Jay is sweet. He’s the sweetest man in the world. He’d give the shirt off his back to anyone who needed it. I mean that literally.” She fans herself with her hand, the one with the ring on it. It seems she likes to flash it around.
“Literally?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says and gets this silly smile on her face. “You see, once I was walking down the sidewalk, and I saw Jay’s car and driver. I waved and went to the car as they were stopped in traffic. Jay took a minute to roll the window down and when he did, he barely did. I could see his bare shoulders and asked him where his shirt was. He told me he saw a homeless man and gave it to him.”
“How nice,” I say and know there’s much more to the story than that. “So did you get in the car with him?”
“I was going to, but he said he had to get to an important meeting about his invention and he’d see me later.” Her eyes show me she had a bit of an idea he might have had another person in the car with him.
The windows on his car are so dark you can’t see in. “Weird he wouldn’t let you tag along, huh?”
She shrugs it off. “Like I said, my Jay is a private man. He did come over later that night, around midnight. He made love to me like he’d missed me so much. It was spectacular. I just wish the man didn’t have such a thing about condoms. He always wears one even though I’m on birth control. It makes me feel as if he thinks I am some disease-ridden mongrel.”
The Shameless Billionaire Series: Billionaire Romance Box Set (An Alpha-Male, Billionaire, Bad Boy, Bad Girl, Romance) Page 8