Billionaires Runaway Bride

by Claire Adams

  “What? Big, bad Brandon can’t control himself inside a restaurant?” I teased.

  “Oh, I can control myself just fine. I’m just worried you won’t be able to,” he said softly as he moved his chair around the table so he was sitting right next to me. “I can be very persuasive when I want to be, and you’ll be putty in my hands. You better be careful.”

  His hand slid under the table and gently stroked my knee as he looked over the menu. His brilliant eyes flashed mischievously over toward me every few seconds to see if I had any reaction to his touch. It was fun to watch him as he teased me.

  Boy, did I have a reaction. His fingers moved up and down just slightly toward my inner thigh. He was tracing small designs and moving in an unpredictable way, and I couldn’t think at all. I felt a rush of excitement move toward my middle as he applied a little more pressure and let his fingers make small circles slowly as he pushed my shirt up.

  “You’re a rotten man,” I whispered.

  “What? You can’t handle it?” he said without turning away from the menu. “I could always stop. You just need to admit that you can’t handle it, and I will gladly take my hand away. Or just ask me to stop and I’ll oblige your request.”

  “No, don’t stop.”

  My words seemed to fuel him as he let his fingers gently stroke the outside of my panties. My hips thrust forward slightly in an attempt to feel him more and more. I didn’t know what I was doing or why I had given in to his teasing, but it felt so good to have his hands on me and I didn’t want him to stop.

  If I had had a little more confidence, I would have pulled him into a back room and had hot, public sex with him. But that was a little too much for me, and I already felt like everyone in the restaurant was looking at us. Although, Brandon was doing an excellent job of making his movements inconspicuous to anyone except me.

  “Are you two ready to order?” the waitress asked as she stood across from us.

  There was no way I could talk. It was taking all the energy I had to keep my breathing calm as he teased me. I watched her to see if she had any sign of knowing what was going on under the table, but she didn’t seem to notice at all. Her eyes looked kindly at Brandon and then over to me as she waited for one of us to answer her.

  “Yes, what would you like, dear?” Brandon asked as he let one of his fingers slide under the fabric of my panties.

  His finger moved softly up and down my body as I tried my best to gather enough energy to respond to the woman. He knew I wasn’t going to be able to talk and purposely put me on the spot. I vowed I would pay him back for this sometime very soon.

  “Um, I’d just like some California rolls and an ice…” Oh crap. I stopped talking as his finger slid into me and I had to catch my breath. “An ice water, thank you,” I managed to say before she turned to get Brandon’s order.

  Every muscle in my body tensed up as I tried not to get pleasure out of his finger moving inside of me. I looked at the table and counted the silverware, then looked up to the ceiling and counted the tiles. I couldn’t give in. I wouldn’t give in no matter what.

  “Can you tell me those specials, please?” Brandon asked as he looked at the waitress, but continued to pleasure me at the same time.

  He was torturing me right there in the restaurant. The longer the waitress stayed at the table, the longer I had to hold my composure. I pulled in a deep breath and reached down to hold his hand and try to prevent him from moving, but his finger was already inside of me and he continued to wiggle it in a “come-hither” motion as he listened to the day’s specials.

  “I think I’ll have the California rolls, also,” he finally said when she had finished rattling off all of the specials for the day.

  “You’re an evil man,” I let out breathlessly when she finally left.

  “Mmmm, that was a lot of fun. Thanks for playing,” he leaned in and gently touch my cheek. “Are you sure you have to go back to work today?”

  His breath made my body tingle as I closed my eyes and felt him near me. I didn’t want to go back to work. I didn’t want to deal with the stress of the hacker in our system or the jerk of a boss I had. I wanted to go someplace with Brandon and let all the stresses of my life just melt away.

  But I knew that I couldn’t do that; as much as I wanted to be irresponsible, that just wasn’t me.

  “I’m going to have to finish work, sorry.”

  “I understand. I used to work, you know,” he said proudly. “I’m unemployed now, though. I promise I’ll make something of myself someday.”

  “My mother always warned me about dating a man who didn’t have a job.”

  “She said to stay away from guys like me, didn’t she?”

  “Yep. She’d be so disappointed in me,” I said.

  We both laughed, and I found myself again feeling totally comfortable with Brandon.

  After our first date, I wasn’t exactly sure if I had imagined how nice it had been to be with Brandon. It had been such a long time since I’d had a decent guy around, I had started to believe I just made up the chemistry in my head to justify why I liked him so much. But as I sat there with him, it was clear I hadn’t made anything up, at all. We did match up very well. There was chemistry between us, and I was more myself around him than I was with most people.

  “So, your ex-wife seemed nice,” I said to break us out of our erotic mood.

  It certainly did the job, and all of a sudden we were in a totally serious conversation. I really did think his ex-wife seemed nice, though. She had smiled at me and made eye contact; she didn’t look like a bitchy ex-wife, like I had built her up to be in my head.

  “Yes, she’s a decent person. We just couldn’t stay married.”

  “Do you mind that she’s getting remarried? I know you said you weren’t so sure about the guy, but do you still love her?”

  “I will always care about her. We had a beautiful son and a great marriage while it was good, but I’m not in love with her.’

  “My friend Mattie seemed to like you.”

  “Yeah, she did. You better be careful; I think she might try to steal me away from you,” he said.

  “Are you mine?” I leaned my head onto my hand and looked over at him.

  I felt like he was mine and I was his. It was weird, and I didn’t want to feel that way. I was the girl who pushed people away. I was the girl who didn’t like commitment and wasn’t going to date a guy because I knew there weren’t men out there who could understand my loss. I was the woman who didn’t know if she would ever fall for another man as long as I lived; yet I sat there hoping that he would say he was mine.

  “Do you mind if I say yes?”

  “Just for now,” I said in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Who knows? I might decide to let Mattie have you,” I winked.

  “Mmm, this blouse is so soft,” he said as his hands moved to the bottom of my blouse and pulled it out from my skirt. “Do you have the white bra on I gave you?”

  “I think you need to keep your hands to yourself, mister,” I teased. “We are going to get ourselves arrested for indecent exposure.”

  I was joking, but there was a part of me that was a little worried that we were going to cause a scene. I wasn’t the kind of girl who had sex in public or let a guy play with me like Brandon had just done. This wasn’t me, yet it felt like me. I was a little out of my comfort zone and needed to pull things back in a bit.

  “I’m not exposing anything, yet,” he laughed. “Please, tell me this is the one I gave you?” His fingers moved under my blouse, and I felt my nipples perk up to attention.

  “Yes, now get your hands back on your side of the table.”

  “Are you really sure you need to work?”

  “Yes. Hands back to your side,” I said firmly as I pulled his hand away and placed it on the table with his other one, while trying not to smile at him. “You are being very naughty.”

  “Okay, I give up. I can’t handle it. I need to have my hands on you,”
he laughed and leaned in toward me.

  Brandon looked at me as if he wanted to actually devour me right there in the restaurant. It had been so long since I’d been looked at like that. So long since a man wanted to flirt with me in the middle of a public place. My heart was bursting with desire for this guy. I didn’t even care if what was going on was just pure lust; it didn’t matter. I felt great and wanted more of it. I couldn’t get enough.

  We finally finished our food and flirted our way right out the door and toward my office. I was tempted to cave in and give up the rest of my day to him, but I just couldn’t step away from the mess that was going on with our systems. As much as I would have loved to spend my day in his bed, I was responsible and work came first.

  “Thanks for walking me back to my office,” I said as he pulled me up against him and we leaned on the building. “I should get back up there now.”

  “So, you’re really going to leave me hanging?” His hips pressed against me and I felt his body bulging with desire.

  I didn’t want to. I wanted to give in and go with him to his house. Oh, how I wanted to feel his hands on my naked body as I screamed out in pleasure.

  I wanted to do it, but I wasn’t going to because I was responsible and I needed my job. My boss already hated me and I wasn’t about to give him a reason to fire me.

  “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

  “Friday, you and me, an official date. Do you have a babysitter for the night?”

  “Maybe. You’ll just have to wait and see.”

  His warmth set my body on fire, and I couldn’t help but press my hips back into him and tease him a little. We were in front of my office building, though, and I couldn’t take things much further than I was already. Instead, I kissed him and pressed away from him so I could go back to work.

  Brandon held onto my hand and pulled me back toward him as he kissed me passionately one last time. His lips urged me on, and I found myself wrapped around him and unwilling to release our lip lock. My body felt comfortable next to his, unusually comfortable for a man I’d only been out with twice, but I went with it anyways.

  “Okay, I really need to get back to work now,” I whispered as I looked up at his amazing eyes.

  “I’m not stopping you.”

  “Yes. Yes, you are. Your lips, your hands, those damn eyes… They are too hard to resist.”

  “I’ll close my eyes.”

  He did close his eyes and pulled his hands behind his back as he stood there smiling at me. I used the only bit of willpower I had to kiss him quickly, one last time, and then ran into the building.

  “Mattie, I’m in love,” I said.

  “Wow, you look in love. But you hardly know this guy. What happened to taking it slow?”

  “Why do I look in love? Is it because I’m smiling? Damn, I can’t stop smiling. Even thinking about him has my body tingling from my toes to my head. What is going on? I seriously didn’t plan this at all. I couldn’t have planned this. I hardly know him, oh man,” I rambled on as I collapsed in my seat.

  “That consultant guy was here a minute ago; he needs you to log him into the system so he can look for the errors again.”

  “Oh God; it’s ridiculous that Robert would rather let some strange consultant fix things than allow me to do my job. It’s like he doesn’t care that I actually work here.”

  “Chauvinist pig,” she said, using my words from a few days before.

  “We went to lunch, and we flirted so hard.”

  “Mmmm, do tell.”

  “I feel like I’m not even in control of my own emotions when I’m around him,” I said. “It’s like he has a grip on my heart and is pulsing it harder and harder each time we meet.”

  “That’s grossly graphic.”

  “I know, but it’s true. I’ve spent the last few years terrified to have any sort of real relationship, but here I am feeling all sorts of love with a guy I barely know.”

  “A rich guy you barely know,” she said with a smile. “Let’s be honest here, Del, he’s an awesome catch. He’s nice, handsome, smart, and rich. I don’t think even you could find a reason to push this guy out of your life.”

  “Who knows? I seem to have a knack for ruining good things.”

  When the consultant came back to my desk, I was forced to get back to work and couldn’t keep talking with Mattie. I felt bad that the consultant had to bother with our issues; it obviously wasn’t what his job normally was, but Robert had a way of convincing people to do things for him. His level of bossiness was off the charts, even around people who didn’t work at the company.

  “How are you two doing with this problem? You know I expect this to be figured out soon,” Robert said as he hovered over the two of us.

  “Sir, we are on top of it and should have it secured shortly,” the consultant answered.

  “Yep, we got this,” I added.

  Robert didn’t stay long enough to hear my answer and quickly went back to his office. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if he was a chauvinist pig or just a jerk to everyone. I was starting to think that acting like a jerk was just part of his character.

  “If you’d like to show me the server where the financial data is kept on, I think there’s a link that needs to be secured so we can verify there isn’t a hacker. The financial data seems to be the main information they go after, so let’s make sure that is secure and we can move on from there to look for their trail.”

  “Of course,” I said as it hit me. “We have some very high profile clients with a lot of money. We definitely can’t have hackers getting access to their personal information.”

  “See this,” the consultant said as he pulled a string of code out and pasted it to the clipboard. “What’s this look like to you?”

  “I don’t know. I’d have to compare it to the original code. What do you think it is?”

  “It looks like a worm. I’ll let you do some research, and then I’ll come back tomorrow to see if we can fix it. Let me make a quick copy of this code and I’ll look it up at home tonight, too.”

  The consultant put a flash drive in and quickly copied the information we were looking at. I hated to admit it, but I was a little relieved he had found the error so quickly. It certainly did look like some erroneous coding and that was the first sign of a hack in our accounts.

  The consultant didn’t seem like the typical computer guy, and although I tried not to notice, I couldn’t help it. He was muscular and fit – not really the norm for computer nerds. But then again, I wasn’t the norm for a computer nerd, either.

  My heartrate was sky high as I spent much of the rest of the evening going through code and trying to see if there were any other signs. If that code was fake, there had to be more, or at least some other sign that I could use to find the hacker. It was also entirely possible there wasn’t a hacker at all and the code was a vital part of the system.

  The longer I stared at the screen, the more I started to question my ability as a computer professional. I had been working with the coding on our website for several weeks and had not been able to find the error. But within one afternoon, the consultant found erroneous coding in our financial system. It really bummed me out that I hadn’t found it first.

  It was close to midnight when I finally climbed in my car to go home. I checked my phone before getting on the road and just in time to see a text come through from Brandon.

  Brandon: How’s your night? Are you curled up in bed thinking about me?

  Delilah: Still at work. Getting on the road shortly, though.

  Brandon: That’s probably my fault for dragging lunch out so long. Sorry

  Delilah: No worries. We actually have a big a mess going on here. Certainly not your fault. I had fun at lunch.

  Brandon: Me, too. I’ll let you get to driving. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven.

  Delilah: Deal. See you then. I’ll text you my address.

  Brandon: Goodnight. Try not to have too many dreams about me. />
  Delilah: Night.

  Oh, I was planning on having as many dreams about Brandon as humanly possible. I hoped I would have so many nasty, naughty dreams that I’d wake up in a state of pure bliss. Our little lunch date was going to fuel my dreams for a long time to come. Pretty much all the time I’d spent with Brandon since meeting him was fueling my naughty thoughts at night.

  It had been so long since I’d allowed myself to be a sexual being. I’d spent the last few years as a mother and a responsible employee. Those were the only ways I identified myself. But now, with Brandon, I felt like a sexually attractive woman who was desired and longed for. I really hadn’t realized how much I missed feeling attractive and desired.

  Desire was just one of those feelings you didn’t realize how much you missed, until it came back to you after being gone for a very long time.

  So far, dating Brandon had been absolute perfection and I couldn’t wait to see how our date went on Friday. I didn’t have expectations and I wasn’t pushing myself into a relationship. I genuinely was happy with exactly how things were going. I was even happier with how full of energy and life I felt because he had come into my life.

  PART 3

  Chapter Twelve

  Brandon

  “What are you doing on your trading account?”

  “I’m just checking to see what’s going on. They still haven’t cleared that flag, though.”

  “I’m starting to think you’ve got a real-life investigation going on here. I think we need to look at the companies you’ve invested in and see if we can figure this out. With your card getting frozen the other day, this isn’t looking good, Brandon.”

  Josh was looking out for me and I knew it, but I didn’t like to be scared for the hell of it. I liked real data and so far, we didn’t have any of that. So far, we just had a red flag on my account and nothing more.

  “The credit card thing was because of a mess up with Rose, it wasn’t part of this,” I tried to assure him.