Billionaires Runaway Bride (A Standalone British Billionaire Romance Novel)

by Claire Adams

  "This is insane!" I said as Bugsy tossed the keys to his black Audi R8, a graduation gift from his parents, to the valet and warned him not to scratch it.

  "It's a great turn out," Bugsy said scanning the line and quickly identifying several scantily clad young women that he wanted let in immediately. He indicated which girls he had chosen and the bouncer sent a liaison out into the crowd to fetch them as he waved us in.

  Inside, the club was pounding with a beat provided by Kygo, an EDM DJ that Bugsy had asked to fly in and oversee the night's dance music. The disco ball above the dance floor spun in time to the music, shooting out short bursts of light to the beat. As the expensively dressed bodies writhed on the dance floor below us, Bugsy popped the cork on a bottle of Cristal and quickly poured the golden liquid into flutes, offering one to each of the pretty ladies who'd been ushered onto the private balcony overlooking the dance floor.

  "To new ventures and new acquaintances!" Bugsy shouted holding his glass up in a triumphant toast. "May we live like kings!"

  I gave my friend a wide grin as I tapped my glass against his and then drank deeply from it before turning my attention to a beautiful redhead in an emerald-green dress that looked like little more than a handkerchief. She smiled at me over the edge of her glass and then suggestively licked her brightly painted lips after she finished drinking.

  I was mesmerized by her green eyes and her voluptuous body, and before I knew it, we were headed for the dance floor where she cast a magical spell as she pressed her body against mine as we spent the next several hours engaging dancing with and grinding against one another to the beat of the music.

  On the last trip back up the stairs to the balcony, I took her hand and pulled her into a side room off one of the landings. I knew these rooms well because the club had specifically remodeled them to serve as convenient spots for quickies between club goers. Formerly supply storage closets, the rooms now had low lighting and plenty of space, and more importantly, they kept the bathrooms free of the less savory activities that tended to require police intervention.

  "In here," she said as she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the room, closing the door behind us. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me toward her for a deep kiss as she pressed her body against mine. She was aggressive, but I liked that and I followed her lead. When she moved my hands to her shoulders I slipped the thin straps of her dress off and slid them down to expose her large, heavy breasts. She smiled as she wiggled the dress down over her hips and stepped out of it. Clad only in her strappy high heels, she unzipped my pants as she leaned forward and lightly bit my bottom lip before dropping to her knees and taking the entire length of my shaft in her mouth.

  "Wait, wait," I gasped.

  "What's wrong?" she said looking up at me as she stuck her lip out and gave me a faux pout. "Don't you want me to?"

  "No, I do, I just..." I began as she leaned forward and deep throated me again.

  I groaned loudly as I slid my fingers deep into her thick hair and pulled it away from her lovely face so I could watch her as she licked and sucked her way from tip to base, stopping only long enough to run her tongue around the edge and lap up the liquid that already oozed from the tip. She smiled as she looked up at me and took my entire shaft deep into the back of her throat where she held it for a moment before pulling back and teasing me with her tongue.

  "Oh my God, baby," I groaned as she sucked harder and moved her mouth faster. I hear her moaning as she moved her mouth up and down, and I couldn't stop myself from holding the back of her head and thrusting deeper into her mouth. She moaned loudly and nodded frantically as I moved my hips back and forth, using her mouth and feeling her lips pulling me closer and closer to an intense climax.

  An instant later, I exploded and felt the redhead stop moving as I throbbed and jerked in her mouth. As the waves of pleasure flowed over my body, I sagged against the wall and looked down. The girl's green eyes looked up at me as she flashed me a sexy grin. I reached down and pulled her up off her knees and kissed her deeply before asking, "Now, what can I do for you?"

  "Oh, nah, I'm good," she said as she tipped her head sideways and smiled. "Bugsy paid me up front, so it's all good! Is there anything else you want? He told me the sky was the limit!"

  The pleasure I'd felt suddenly sunk into my gut and twisted like a knot as I realized what had happened. I forced a smile as I shook my head and said tersely, "I'm good. Thank you." The redhead grabbed her dress off the floor and quickly slipped it over her head then leaned over and kissed me before pulling the door open and heading back into the club. I followed her as soon as I'd put a lid on my anger.

  I found Bugsy in the balcony surrounded by a circle of stunners. He was entertaining them with a few of the lame magic tricks he'd learned specifically for this purpose.

  "I need to talk to you," I growled as I motioned toward the hallway. He followed me after assuring the girls that he'd be right back.

  "What's up?" Bugsy asked as he flipped a quarter with one hand.

  "You paid that girl to have sex with me?"

  "Yeah, so?"

  "You son of a bitch," I said as I grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall. "You don't think I can get my own women? You're such an asshole!"

  "Hey, hey, hey, the watch the suit," Bugsy said not at all concerned about the fact that his best friend and business partner was extremely angry with him. "Look, I know you can get your own women. You've done it a million times. It's been a rough day and I just thought I'd grease the wheel and make sure there weren't any loose strings that would interfere with our business right now."

  "Fuck you, Bugsy," I grumbled as I let go of him. "I don't need your fucking charity!"

  "It's not charity, Adam," he said calmly. "It's just good business. Neither one of us can afford to have a woman interfering with our business right now. Keep it simple and straight forward and you can still get your rocks off, you just won't get trapped in something that will distract you."

  "You're a fucking cynic, you know that, don't you?" I muttered.

  "No, I'm a pragmatist, my friend," he said with a smile.

  "Same difference," I said as I shot him a dirty look.

  "No, it really isn't," he replied seriously. "A cynic thinks everyone's aim is to screw him. A pragmatist realizes that everyone will, but doesn't take it personally."

  "Fuck you, Bugsy," I said as I turned and stormed away.

  "See you at home!" Bugsy called after me.

  I marched out of the club and headed back toward Bugsy's apartment, angry and feeling more alone than I ever had before.

  Chapter Seven

  Grace

  We pulled into the driveway of my family's home a few hours after leaving Chicago, and after I thanked my driver and paid him, I turned and took in the familiar sight of the white house set off away from the road. I'd changed into my Amish cotton dress at the last rest stop, but had waited to put on my kapp until I got out of the car. It felt stiff and confining, and I hated the way it covered my hair and made me look like every other woman in Corner Grove. But that was the point.

  The neatly maintained yard and my mother's small vegetable garden were perfectly aligned with the laundry line Dat had strung off to one side. It was achingly empty on a day when it should have been full of bedding, clothing, and towels. To the left of the house was the barn where Dat kept the buggy and his farming equipment in addition to the hay that was harvested each fall and used to feed the three horses and two cows during the winter.

  Off to the left of the barn was another, smaller barn where Blackie, and Belle, our buggy and plow horses, lived with Greta and Genevieve, the family milk cows. Dat had let Faith and me name the cows when he'd first bought them, and we'd settled on names that sounded glamorous. When the Bishop had frowned and told Dat that it wasn't proper for Amish girls to be thinking about such worldly things, Dat had simply nodded to acknowledge his brother's displeasure and then sat us down for a chat
about worldly pursuits.

  As I looked at the barn, I could hear Dat's deep voice asking Faith and me if we understood why the Bishop was unhappy with the choice of names. We'd both shook our heads and Dat had explained that if we were choosing the names as a way of honoring God our Father, then the names were an appropriate tribute, but if we were choosing them because we wanted the cows to become more glamorous and worldly, then there were going to be problems. Faith and I had giggled at Dat's reasoning, and quickly agreed that our cows' names were Godly names. Once we'd clarified our rationale, Dat had kissed our heads and sent us off to help Mamm in the garden.

  The tears threatened to rise again as I thought about all the ways in which Mamm and Dat raised us to be good, Amish girls who also felt free to make our own choices. I took a deep breath and looked over to see Verity sitting on the steps holding a bowl of shelled peas in her lap.

  I could see that her eyes were puffy and red, and as soon as she was close enough, she threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

  "I'm so glad you're home, Grace," she said choking back a sob. "Danny doesn't know about Mamm and Dat yet. How are we going to tell him, Grace?"

  "Shhh, shhh," I said patting her kapp-covered head. "We'll figure it all out and everything will be okay. I promise."

  "Oh Grace!" she sobbed into my shoulder. "They're gone! How will we survive without them?"

  I let her cry knowing that she had most likely been keeping all of this in since she'd learned the awful news this morning. I wrapped my arms tightly around my sister and rubbed her back through the rough, cotton dress she wore as she released her grief and anguish while fighting back my own. I was the oldest Miller daughter, and even though I'd chosen a life outside of the Amish community I'd grown up in, I still felt the weight of responsibility for my family. I would have to be strong for all of them as we found a way to make peace with this devastating loss.

  "Verity," I said after her sobs had turned to sniffles. "Where are Faith, Hope, and Honor?"

  "Faith and Hope are with their families at their own homes, but they said they'd be here tonight after supper," she said as her voice threatened to crack. "I don't know where Honor is. No one has seen her since this morning. I'm worried about her, Grace. When Jacob came to tell us what had happened, she didn't say a word. She just walked out the door and disappeared."

  "She can't have gone far," I said feeling certain I knew where Honor was probably hiding out. "We'll find her. Now, what about Danny?"

  "I've kept him busy all day, but he's been asking for Mamm since after dinner," she said. "I didn't know what to tell him, Grace. He's not going to understand this!"

  "We'll help him, Verity," I said as I patted her cheek reassuringly. "He might not understand, but he'll be okay and he'll know he's safe and loved. We're all going to be okay."

  "How do you know that?" she asked as her eyes filled with tears. "We don't have parents any longer. We're alone. We're orphans!"

  "Verity, we still have each other," I said as I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her to the front steps. "And if we have that, we're all going to be fine. Why don't you get supper started, I'll come help you."

  She nodded as she picked up the shelled peas and headed into the house. I stepped onto the porch and looked out over the yard taking it all in when I caught a glimpse of something moving in the loft over the barn. I set my case down and walked toward the barn. I quickly climbed the ladder to the loft and called out, "Honor, are you up here?"

  I got no reply, but I heard movement on the other side of a large hay bale, so I walked around and found my youngest sister, barefoot and without a kapp, sitting on the floor with her knees pulled up to her chest. She didn't look up when I called her name, so I knelt next to her and put an arm around her shoulder. She shrugged it off without looking at me.

  "Honor, it's okay to be mad," I said softly. "I'm mad, too. And sad."

  She stared straight ahead as I shifted so that I was sitting cross-legged off to one side. My youngest sister was the most stubborn of the Miller clan, though Dat would have claimed that title belonged to me. She was a smaller, more compact version of all the sisters with the same wheat-blonde hair and pale blue eyes that we had all inherited from Mamm's side of the family. Only Daniel had inherited Dat's dark hair, but he had the same, pale-blue eyes as the rest of us, and when we were all together, it was easy to see the family resemblance.

  "Are you okay?" I asked. I was certain I knew the answer to that question, but I wanted to give Honor a way start to talk about what she was feeling if she wanted to. She was the child who had always asked why, and had never accepted a simple answer for anything. She hated sitting still and as a result the frowning Bishop often sent her out of Sunday services.

  It wasn't that Honor was opposed to the Amish way of life, she just didn't accept the simple answer of, "It's God's will," when it came to understanding why things happened. Now that she was seventeen, the answers she wanted were much more complex and while Mamm and Dat had tried their best to provide her with them, it became more apparent that Honor didn't quite fit into the Amish community. During my Christmas visit, Mamm had asked me if I would let Honor live with me during her rumspringa, and I'd agreed.

  I rubbed my sister's arm as I watched her jaw clench and release, and I knew she was wrestling with whatever emotions were threatening to overwhelm her. I also knew better than to push her before she was ready.

  "I'm going to go help Verity with dinner," I said softly. "We're going to break the news to Danny tonight, and I would like it if you could be there."

  Her response was an almost imperceptible nod, and once I'd gotten that, I got up and climbed down the ladder and headed back toward the house. Halfway across the drive I turned and looked out over the fields that ringed our property and marveled at the precision with which Dat had planted the wheat. The amber stems rose out of the ground in a unified manner that made it look like the field was covered in a soft carpet. I pictured Dat behind the horses earlier this spring as he'd sown the seeds and knew that he always looked forward to this time of year when the breezes blew across the crops, causing them to bend and sway in nature's dance.

  I wiped a lone tear from my cheek before grabbing my suitcase and heading into the house. The next few hours were going to be difficult, but once we'd broken the news to Daniel, we'd start to move forward.

  #

  "Gracie!" my brother signed as I entered the kitchen. "You're home, Gracie! Does Mamm know you were coming?"

  "Well hello, Daniel," I said as I mustered a smile to match his as he wrapped his arms around me and rocked me back and forth. "I'm so happy to see you, little brother!"

  My brother Daniel was the last child born in our family. I had just turned thirteen when Mamm announced she was pregnant again. She was quite a bit older than most Amish mothers at that point because she and Dat had married late and started their family when they were in their mid-twenties. With five girls, the community had teased Dat about his lack of an heir. He'd taken it in good stride, claiming that girls were all he'd ever need since they'd eventually get married and bring their husbands into the fold, but I knew they'd both longed for a son.

  Everything went according to plan as Mamm's pregnancy progressed, and she occasionally visited the doctor in town just to make sure that nothing was wrong. The Amish believe in staying outside of the reach of English technology and prefer to rely on instinct and a deep faith in God for all things, so Mamm never had any tests done or thought about the possibility that something might go wrong. If anything was going to go wrong, then it was God's will.

  When Mamm's time came, the midwife arrived and helped her deliver the newest addition to our family. There were shouts of joy as the midwife brought Daniel down to Dat.

  It soon became obvious that there was something different about our new brother, but when we asked Mamm, she would only smile and say, "He is a special gift from God, and we will treat him just like we treat every one of you." We fo
llowed Mamm's lead and treated Daniel like one of us, but from the beginning he was challenged in ways that none of us had been. It took a long time to feed him his bottle because he had trouble swallowing and often would spit up much of what he'd eaten, and it took him longer to reach the milestones that Honor had reached because he didn't have the muscle control or strength she did.

  "What's wrong with Daniel?" I asked Mamm one afternoon not long after his birth. We were we preparing pies for the church dinner, and Mamm rolled the crusts while I filled them. "Why does he seems so different from us?" Mamm simply replied that boys were different, but we knew better. He'd been a quiet baby who never cried or got fussy. Faith had once asked Mamm if it was normal for boy babies to be so silent, and Mamm had said, "I wouldn't know, but I thank God that he is so good natured and unfussy!"

  As he grew, Danny continued to be the quiet one. He smiled and nodded at us all when we talked to him, but he never uttered a sound in return. By his first birthday, Mamm and Dat had grown worried about the fact that Danny wasn't yet talking, so they asked for permission to take him to see a specialist. The doctor performed a range of hearing tests on Danny and then pronounced him absolutely normal on every level. Mamm asked why he wasn't talking yet, but the doctor had no answer for her.

  He suggested that there might be a wide range of causes, and said that further testing would be necessary to narrow down the reasons for Danny's silence. Mamm and Dat both said that no further testing was necessary, and that they would simply accept Danny's condition as God's will. The doctor argued that if the cause was physical, then maybe surgery or therapy could help Danny learn how to speak. My parents had calmly repeated their decision and then brought Danny home.

  The next day, we all began learning sign language so that we could communicate with him. Mamm turned the learning into a game and Danny had taken to the lessons like a fish in water. For the rest of us, it was a struggle to balance lessons with our other responsibilities, but Dat reminded us that it was part of our duty to perform good works and if communicating with our younger brother wasn't something important to us, then we might want to reevaluate our commitment to God.