“Although?” Jed stared down at her in question.
Ailish let her hand fall from the warm smooth skin of his cheek to his neck. She felt the muscles and tendons flex below her touch. Was there even an inch of Jed that she didn’t know by now? She doubted it. She knew him better than she knew her own body.
“Although… you said you had to give your money away to be happy. Well, you have. You signed it over to me this morning. As of this moment you are almost penniless. Can you be happy here Jed? With me? Could you ever conceive of staying and starting a life here? Of taking our dreams and working at them together? Even if we don’t know what that means or even what our dreams are, don’t you think we could do wonderful things here? I truly meant it when I said you could be a part of my family. The first thing I would do is move my parents to this island. I’m going to put my brother through college and arrange online courses for myself. That’s just the start. I want to tell you everything I’ve been thinking of…”
Jed smiled. He actually smiled and Ailish’s heart stopped.
“Have you ever considered becoming a lawyer?”
“A lawyer? No! Why?” She asked, shocked.
“You make a very, very convincing argument. I think you’ve won your case.”
“What?” Shock washed over Ailish and a slow, reluctant hope replaced the heavy grief in her heart. “Do you mean that you’ll stay?”
“Yes. I’ll stay. I’ll stay and I’ll make your dreams a reality. I want them to be my dreams too. Somehow you’ve come into my life and you gave me everything I never thought possible. I’ve found what I thought would take a lifetime to discover. You are my heart Ailish. I’ll always stay as long as you love me.”
“You better plan on forever because that’s how long I’ll love you for.” Ailish grinned.
Jed bent his head and kissed her deeply. His kiss was searing and searching. It was her redemption and hope. He was her love, as wild and crazy as it was. She knew the outside world wouldn’t understand. She didn’t fully understand how everything had happened.
Ailish wrapped her hands around Jed’s neck. She smiled up at the man she loved. “I think we have to believe in past lives now. It’s the only way I’m going to be able to explain this to people including my family.”
Jed’s eyes sparkled. “They’ll understand in time. As long as you’re happy, as long as you’re loved. Isn’t that all anyone can ask for?”
Ailish nodded. “It’s all any of us truly need, even if we don’t know it yet.” She stood on her tip toes and raised her face for another long, passionate kiss.
Epilogue
The screams and shouts of excited youth drifted over the island. The sun hadn’t even been up for more than a couple hours but already the camp was buzzing with excitement.
Ailish smiled as she walked down that trail that led from her cabin to the camp cabins. She spotted Jed up ahead and called out to him. He turned, saw her and grinned. He waited for her to catch up. She slipped her hand into his and was reassured, as she always was, by his warmth and strength.
“You’re up early.”
“Not early enough I see.”
Ailish’s eyes ran the length of the new four new cabins. Camp counselors and children ran around excitedly. Horses nicked in the small corral. Beyond that, though she couldn’t see it, she knew a string of new kayaks were waiting on the brand new dock system.
“Everyone is so excited to be here.” Jed grinned at her.
Ailish could see the pride and love shining in his eyes and her heart turned over.
“As soon as I signed those papers I knew this was what I wanted to do. I wanted this to be our home but I wanted to share it with people who wouldn’t have this opportunity otherwise. My parents are going to be so excited to meet all the kids. When did they arrive?”
“Around seven this morning. The boats started coming up. I went down to help.”
“You should have told me. I would have got up.”
Jed shook his head. “Your mom and dad were up and waiting. They were as excited for our first batch of kids at the camp as the kids are to be here. They helped me.”
“I’m not made of glass you know,” Ailish admonished but her tone was lighthearted.
“Oh believe me, I know. You’re the strongest woman I have ever met.” Jed turned and took her other hand in his. “I just want you to be careful, that’s all. And you need your rest now.”
“I’m always careful.” Ailish was touched by Jed’s concern. She had told him a week ago, as they were finalizing cabin and dock construction, hiring staff and preparing for their first group of kids to stay at the island for a week, that she was pregnant. “Imagine, you thought at one time that you could leave all this.” Her eyes swept over the island again.
Jed smiled down at her. Love softened his features. “I was lost. I know that part of my plan was the best thing I’ve ever done. Finding you and giving my money over to your care. I knew you would have the wisdom to make a difference. You’ve done so much already.”
“No.” Ailish dropped Jed’s hands so she could reach up and wrap her arms around his neck. “We’ve done so much. I would have done it without you because I knew it was what you wanted me to do with the money but it wouldn’t have been the same. This life growing inside of me wouldn’t have been here now if you’d left.” Ailish thought of their blissful first year together and she had to blink back tears.
She’d done everything she had thought of at first to do with Jed’s money and so much more. She’d donated staggering sums to charities. She’d built the camp on the island, sent her brother off to college, enrolled herself in classes and built her parents a small cabin on the island not far from hers and Jed’s.
Jed’s arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her into his chest. “I guess that I’ll have to get on planning a wedding now since your parents would probably think it’s only proper.”
“Oh. You’re going to make an honest woman out of me are you?” Ailish smiled so wide she felt like her face would crack. She loved it. She loved every single second of her life.
“I was thinking that I might want to.”
“And what about what I have to say on the matter?”
“Well, I was hoping you would say yes.”
Ailish laughed. “You sure know how to make a girl feel special Jed. First you disguise yourself as some filthy hobo then you kidnap me then you win my heat and threaten to leave. You sign over all your wealth and now this is your proposal? I would say it’s all… rather ordinary.” She faked a yawn.
Jed’s hand snaked from her hip down to her bottom. He cupped the round swell of her ass. “Minx,” he whispered in her ear. “You know that I love you. If you want to get married it will be a decision we make together. If not, I am happy to live by your side for the rest of our lives. The choice is yours.”
Ailish sighed. She loved this man before her so much that it hurt. He wasn’t like other people. Maybe he never would be but she loved the hell out of him regardless. In eight months they would be joined by their son or daughter and she couldn’t wait.
“Yes Jed,” Ailish whispered. “Yes, I’ll be your wife. I want it to be done here, with just mom and dad and Jeff. Just us. Our family.”
“I couldn’t think of a better way to make you my wife.”
Jed bent his head and kissed Ailish gently. His lips lingered over hers, warm and wonderful. She felt the same spark she always had. She thought maybe it would vanish with time but now she knew it would always be there.
“I love you Jed,” Ailish said raggedly when he pulled away. She took his hand in hers again. “Now, let’s go greet everyone! I’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time.”
“A year isn’t so long,” Jed joked.
“Not when I’m with you. Now that you say that, it has gone by fast, though it sometimes feels like forever. I don’t know.”
Jed lifted a brow and smiled. “What d
o you know Ailish?”
Ailish looked into Jed’s twinkling eyes. “I know that if I had forever with you it wouldn’t be long enough. I know that I love you with all my heart. I know that I’m where I was always meant to be.”
Jed nodded. His eyes filled with deep emotion. “That, my wife to be, sounds like the most perfect knowledge in the world.” He squeezed her hand and led her toward the hoard of laughing, running, screaming excited children.
Three Billionaires and a Lady
A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance
Copyright 2017
Description
Christine Solomen never thought that going as a wingman for her best friend to some ritzy club would change her life forever. Totally adamant that she didn’t need a man to complete her or treat her to the niceties in life, she never factored in how meeting the sinfully handsome Curtis Hanson would change her mind.
It’s been years since Curtis was intrigued by a woman. Somehow the stunning blonde sitting by herself on the chaise lounge in the corner took his breath away. He had to have her. At any price.
Attraction flares between Curtis and Christine right from the start. He convinces her to spend a night with him. He tantalizes her with an offer she can’t refuse. He leaves out one part. The fact that his friends are going to be joining in.
It’s a night that will change her life forever.
When she accepts Curtis’ offer, Christine is plunged into a world of taboo pleasures and heady desires like she has never known. Will she be able to surrender herself completely in order that the men can teach her everything there is to learn?
Chapter 1
Christine Solomen plopped down on the ragged cloth sofa in her apartment living room. She was exhausted from her waitressing shift. She’d been run off her feet all night, burned once, yelled at by a customer as well as her manager, and spilled a tray of coffees in the kitchen. Eight long, hard hours, all for minimum wage and twenty dollars in tips.
It wasn’t even that Christine was a bad waitress. In fact, she was exactly the opposite. She poured her heart and soul into that crappy diner and had for the past three years. With her curvaceous figure, trim waist, ample breasts, heart shaped face and blonde hair she normally made enough tips to make the job worth staying at.
“Hey, you look like you got hit by a bus.” Stacy Longford, Christine’s best friend and roommate, sauntered into the room. She was already wearing her pajamas though it was just past eight, her long, dark hair done up in a high bun. Stacy was one of those rare, true beauties. She looked like she’d stepped from the pages of a fashion magazine. She could probably have been a model if she’d ever been inclined, which she hadn’t. She was almost six feet tall, had long, shapely legs that Christine had always been jealous of, a tight ass, tiny waist, small breasts that somehow looked larger on her frame and a gorgeous face complete with high cheekbones, straight nose, dark eyes and lush lips.
Christine groaned. She knew she was pretty but sometimes Stacy, even in her pajamas and her hair in a messy bun, with no makeup on, still made her feel like an ugly duckling. “Thanks. I feel like it. Or maybe hit by a semi or a mountain or a falling planet would be more accurate.”
Stacy came and sat down on the couch next to Christine. She grabbed the TV remote off the coffee table and switched it on. Immediately some cooking show came on, reminding Christine that she hadn’t eaten all day. They’d been so busy she’d declined her lunch break. So far, Karma hadn’t rewarded her kindness.
“That bad huh?” Stacy turned the volume up and the sizzling sound of pork chops in a frying pan filled the room. Christine’s mouth watered.
“Yah it was bad. Nothing went right. Just one of those days.”
Stacy tried to stay tuned to the TV for a few minutes but she lost whatever battle she was fighting. She turned and faced Christine, who really took in her best friend’s face for the first time that night. It looked like Stacy had swallowed a canary. Stacy wasn’t exactly the secretive kind. She never could keep her emotion out of her face. Right now she either had something terrible to say or she was choking back excitement.
“What is it?” Christine asked, more than a hint of trepidation in her voice. “Spit it out. I know that you have something to tell me.”
Stacy stuck out her bottom lip in a fake pout before she giggled. “You always knew me so well. I can’t keep anything from you.”
“That’s because your face isn’t an open book. It’s more like a megaphone announcing to the entire world that you have an announcement.”
“I have the most exciting thing to tell you!” Stacy giggled again, her excitement obvious. She broke into a huge grin, her dark eyes twinkling.
“Ugh. I’m not going to guess. Come on, just spit it out. Anything to make this day better is worth hearing so I promise I’ll listen.”
“Well, you know how I work with this girl? Lisa Ann? She was telling me about this club that she and her friends went to on the weekend. It’s some upscale thing where the guys have to pay crazy cover to get in but if you’re young and pretty and female you get in for free.”
“Why does this sound like a bad idea already?”
“You promised you would listen!” Stacy said indignantly. She grabbed the remote again and pressed the MUTE button, silencing the TV.
Christine sighed. “I guess I did promise. Okay well… yes. The club. What about it?”
“Well the guys that go there are basically what you would call… sugar daddies…” she clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the giggles. Christine groaned but stayed silent. She knew she was going to hear about this one way or the other. Might as well get it over and done with. She hadn’t seen Stacy so excited about anything in a long time and they’d been friends since they were fourteen. “They’re all rich men, some are older, some younger. They want to find a woman to spoil. You basically just go out on dates with them or whatever and they pay for it. If they like you they might even give you an allowance or set you up in a huge house or give you a car. This chick at work, Lisa, she made three thousand bucks just for having sex with a guy last weekend.”
“Oh my god! So you’re basically excited over a girl selling herself.”
“Well it wasn’t really like that. She’s not a prostitute or anything. She said it was just like regular sex with a really hot guy. He was older and married. He took her out to an opera and bought her dinner and then they went back to a hotel and she had sex with him and he paid her. Paid for the entire date too, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Christine said dryly. She did not like the direction of the conversation.
“I don’t know… would it really be so bad? Look at all the losers I have sex with…”
“Stacy! Come on!”
“Well they really are losers for the most part.”
“Why don’t you find someone better then? I always tell you taking a guy home from the bar isn’t going to get you the kind of guy you’re looking for.”
“What if I’m not looking for anyone? I’ve never said I want to find someone and get serious or settle down. We’re only nineteen for god sakes! I want to live a little first and experience everything. How am I supposed to do that on a receptionist salary though? I’ll tell you how. Get into that club. Find a guy. Make him like me. I would at least get some great free dates. Sometimes you don’t even have to have sex with them. Sometimes all the men want is companionship. Free movies and dinners and shows would be a good enough for me. Maybe I could even get some new clothes or new shoes or a free bag out of the deal. Come on; don’t tell me it’s not an attractive thought.”
“It’s not attractive to me. It’s basically selling yourself no matter how you look at it. Even if you don’t have sex it doesn’t sound like something that anyone should be doing.”
“How is it really different from a regular date? If you’re interested in a guy and you go out with him for dinner and a movie and he pays… how is that different?”
; Christine worried her bottom lip between her teeth. She couldn’t think of a single thing to say and she didn’t like that. She should have some snarky retort ready but her repertoire was currently empty. “I guess that’s not any different,” she finally admitted. “But the whole paying for sex thing is weird.”
“Would you do it if they offered you enough money to go to University? Or if some guy wanted to get serious and he offered to pay for your classes or your living expenses or both? I know that it happens. I did some research. You won’t believe what some of these women get paid or the lives they live. They are basically kept women.”
“I think it’s a bad idea… how could you live with yourself?”
Stacy arched a perfectly manicured dark brow. “Quite easily. First of all I would tell my douche bag boss to stuff it. Second I would get a new car and a better apartment. A whole new wardrobe. Everything. Then I would start socking the money away for something better. We both know we’re smart enough to get into University but it’s paying for it that’s the problem.”
“I think there are other ways to pay for it if you really want to go.”
“Student loans? No thanks. I don’t want to be a hundred grand in debt when I graduate.”
“Yah well… I’m just saying, there are other ways. You don’t have to whore yourself out.”
“What if I want to? Isn’t that the difference? My body isn’t for sale. I’m not selling sex. I’m selling my company, my personality, my time, my emotions and if the guy is right, maybe my body. But I wouldn’t really be selling it. Think about it. Some rich guys have wives that don’t work. They stay at home all day or go to country clubs or the salon or get their little dogs manicured or whatever. They’re basically just trophies. What’s the difference between this and that?”
“I don’t know. A wedding ring?” Christine rolled her eyes. “Are you seriously thinking about this? Please tell me you are not contemplating what I think you’re contemplating.”
Pathological Therapy Billionaire Bad Boy Box Set Page 13