The Billionaire’s Lighthouse Series: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance

by Michelle Love

  His hand moves over to take mine and I look at him. “I don’t even want you to play a role, Zane.”

  “It’s okay. You did it for me.”

  And as we drive to see my family, I know this is terrible. It’s back to unreal again and I hate this feeling. I wanted to introduce him as my boyfriend but that damn Meagan Saunders has to ruin everything.

  My stomach hurts as we pull into the already packed parking lot. The huge group that is my family is bustling around a set of picnic tables and I want to drive away. I don’t want to go to them and lie my ass off.

  Zane looks at me with a smile. “Come on. You need to act bossy with me. I’ll be all submissive. It’ll be a piece of cake. You’ll see.”

  “You sure about that?” I ask as I go to open the car door and he shakes his head. “Let me. I have to look like a real kiss-ass if we’re going to pull this off.

  I feel like an ass!

  Chapter 8

  ZANE

  “What?” her entire family shouts as Elizabeth introduces me as her husband and takes my left hand in hers to show our wedding rings to them.

  She’s managed to take on a bitchy attitude as she says, “Well, I told him I wasn’t into playing games and if he really wanted me, I needed to see a ring on my finger. So he did it. He took me to Vegas and we tied the knot.”

  Her father looks at me in disbelief. “You just married her because she said that? What is it you do, there? Did she say your name is Zane?”

  “Yes,” I say.

  Elizabeth’s head snaps and she says with a commanding tone, “Yes sir, Zane. Don’t let me catch you not minding your manners or you know what you’ll get.”

  I almost laugh out loud but hold it in. “Yes, sir. And I’m into real estate mostly. I bought that old property with the lighthouse on it. I was going to put up condos but Elizabeth contacted me asking me not to. That’s when I fell in love with her.” I feel good about that line because it’s pretty close to being true.

  “So, we’re going to have some new condos?” one of her aunts ask. “I hadn’t heard about that.”

  “That’s because Zane called that plan off. He gave me the property. He’s going to refurbish the lighthouse,” Elizabeth says.

  Her mother shakes her head as she looks at me. “Why would you do that?”

  Elizabeth answers, “Because I told him to or I would have nothing to do with him.”

  Her mother looks at her like she’s looking at a stranger. “Lizzie, who the hell are you? This isn’t how you act.”

  I see Elizabeth’s face freeze so I jump in to help out. “It’s something in me that has her acting this way. I need a certain amount of control from a woman. I need it.”

  The stares I get make me feel like a loser. And I wonder if this is really the best way to get introduced to her family. A family I might like to be a part of one day.

  “Like some kind of a gimp?” One of her uncles asks.

  I shake my head and cringe when I find Elizabeth nodding hers as she says, “Exactly, Uncle Roger.”

  “Oh, Lord!” her mother says then her father takes her hand and helps her to sit down.

  “Here, sweetheart,” he says to his wife. “You sit down. This is all too much.”

  One of her cousins who is wearing a tight mini-dress leans in close to Elizabeth and whispers, but not low enough I don’t hear, “You little minx, you!”

  Elizabeth gives her a grin then looks back at me. “Some punch might be nice.”

  I hurry to get her a glass of it and find the entire family looking at me.

  This is so humiliating. I had no idea when I told her we should lie about this to her family that this would be how it went. And we have a week here. Well, you can bet I’m not going to be leaving the house much.

  ELIZABETH

  The day is moving at a turtle’s pace and I am hating how this is going. Everyone thinks I’m an asshole and Zane’s acting like a whipped boy. This is not the way I wanted my family to think of him or me for that matter!

  Zane brings me another chicken leg, as I told him to with a barking command, and takes a seat next to me at the picnic table. He leans in to whisper, “When can we get the hell out of here?”

  Feeling the same damn way, I say, “Now. I’m exhausted.” Getting up, I take my chicken leg and eat it as I wave at everyone. “Gotta go. We’ll be here all week. I’ll stop by for a visit, Mom and Dad.”

  Mom looks at me with a scowl on her face. “You do that, missy. We have to talk. Nice to meet you, Zane.”

  My entire family waves at Zane and echo my mother’s sentiment as we walk away. Just as we get into the car, it starts, the tremor in my lower lip and the lump forms in my throat. “Hurry,” I tell him as he pulls out of the parking lot. “I don’t want them to see me crying.”

  “Oh, baby, don’t cry. We’ll figure this all out,” he says as he hurries to turn the car around before I bust out.

  As soon as we get out of sight I start wailing. “My God, what have I become?”

  The tears are pouring out of me and I can’t stop sobbing. His hand on my knee pats away as I cry and cry. “Baby, I don’t know how to get to your house. Can you try to stop so you can tell me?”

  Wiping the tears away, I look around. “The third road to the left. Why does that terrible woman have to exist?”

  “I’ll fix this. I can’t stand to see you like this,” he says. “I’ll just tell the truth and then we can tell your family the truth too. That we’re not married but we are living together because we’re a couple. Where do I go next?”

  “In one mile, take a left,” I say. “That’s not going to work. It’s too late. I’ve lied to them all. I can’t just tell them that.”

  “We can explain the whole thing.”

  His phone rings and I wipe my eyes and find it’s that bitch again. He sees it too and tries to pick it up but I grab it first. “Don’t, Zane. We need to think about things. Come up with a plan. We’ve been doing everything we do by the seat of our pants. Let’s stop, slow down, and make a fucking plan. Because neither of us is any good at this lying thing.”

  “You’re right about that. You especially. A gimp, Elizabeth? Really? I almost shit myself when you agreed to that.”

  Then the image of Zane in one of those bondage things makes me laugh and I stop crying as I laugh. But it’s kind of a hysterical sound and I stop it. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything. I have no idea how we’re going to get the hell out of this mess.”

  “I have enough money to run away forever, Elizabeth,” he says as he runs his hand over my thigh.

  “I love my family. They think I’m pretty disgusting right now but I still love them and I have to figure out how to right this wrong, without losing you in the process.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” he asks as he looks at me with his jaw tight.

  “It means, the only logical thing to fix this lie is with another one. That one being that we got the marriage annulled and went our separate ways. That’s the only thing that will clean this very messy slate.”

  “Well, we’re not doing that,” he says. “I’m not ready to end this. Are you?”

  “Turn here. This is my apartment complex.”

  He takes the turn and asks again. “Are you wanting to end this, Elizabeth?”

  I point to the right. “Go around this way and all the way to the back. It’s the last building on the right. You can’t miss it, the lady on the first floor has her door painted in rainbow colors.”

  He goes where I’ve said then parks in front of that rainbow door where Miss Shirley lives with her seven cats. Then he asks me again. “Elizabeth, answer me. Are you ready to end this?”

  “I think we have to.”

  To be continued…

  The Billionaire’s Lighthouse Series

  A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance

  Book 5

  Her Demise

  By Michelle Love

  Description

  Passion.
Acceptance. Disaster.

  After the family reunion, Elizabeth takes Zane to the lighthouse and they find themselves feeling very passionate in the romantic surroundings.

  When the couple goes back to New York, Zane decides it’s time to end the lies. Once Meagan knows there’s no marriage for certain, she turns on Elizabeth.

  When confronted by Meagan and threatened to leave Zane or suffer what she promises will be devastation to Zane if she doesn’t leave him, Elizabeth has no choice but to run away, leaving Zane heartbroken.

  Meagan conveniently shows up to ease his pain but will Zane see through her?

  Chapter 1

  ZANE

  “No, we don’t,” I tell Elizabeth then get out of the car then get right back in. “Take me to your lighthouse.”

  “Now?” she asks as she looks at me in confusion. “I think we need to reevaluate this situation and how we’re ever going to fix it and you want to go look at the old lighthouse? I don’t understand.”

  “I want to see what inspired you to come up to New York in the first place. So, show me how to get there.”

  Turning the car back on, I head out of the parking lot and take a left as she points in that direction. I’m not sure why I came up with this idea but her saying something I don’t want to hear has me trying anything to get off the subject of ending this thing we have.

  After going about a mile down the street, I see it. It’s old, beat up, and the property looks like crap. But she loves this ugly, old thing so I pull to a stop just outside the fence.

  “How will we get in?” she asks.

  Taking a ring of keys out of my pocket, I hold them up. “One of these will get us in.”

  She gets out of the car at the same time I do and meets me at the gate. “It’s funny how I kind of keep letting that slip my mind that you’re the one who locked this place up.”

  After trying three keys, I find the right one and unlock the padlock. The grass is all grown up so we have to wade through it to get to the lighthouse which has been boarded up, per my orders. “I didn’t think about it being boarded up.”

  “There’s an old crowbar over here,” she says as she moves off to the right. “I saw it here a couple of years ago. I know it’s under this thick grass somewhere.”

  “Let me get it,” I say then she disappears under the tall grass and with a loud grunt, she comes back up with a rusty crowbar in her hands.

  “I found it,” she says with a smile then hands it to me. “I’ll let you use it, though. It is yours now.”

  “I gave it to you,” I say as I take her hand and lead her back to the door of the lighthouse.

  “Well, that hasn’t been legalized yet,” she says as she follows along behind me.

  “I’ll get to that this week. And we can get to making the renovations on the building and the property. You can tell me how you’d like this place to look when we’re done.”

  I see there're only four nails holding the plywood on and easily pry the board off. Elizabeth turns the doorknob and pushes it open, revealing a very dusty floor.

  “Smell, that?” she asks with a smile.

  “Mold, mildew?”

  She shakes her head. “Memories.”

  “Oh, yeah. I can’t seem to get past the other odors in here.” I run my arm around her and turn the flashlight on my cell phone on. “It’s kind of dark in here.

  There're only two small windows on the main floor and they’re both so dirty, they let in only a minimal amount of light. The majority of the light comes from the windows at the top of the thin spiral staircase.

  Elizabeth holds her arms out. “Down here is the living area and a little kitchen area with a tiny dining area included in that space. That one door over there leads to the one bedroom it has and there’s a small bathroom in there too.”

  “Not much room, is there?” I ask then point up the stairs. “How much room is up there?”

  “Come on,” she says with a giggle. “I’ll show you. That’s my favorite spot, anyway. I can see making a living area up there and maybe making the bedroom and kitchen larger down here.”

  “Sounds good,” I say as she takes my hand, leading me up the narrow staircase. “This is very thin. Don’t you think? Maybe a new staircase is in order?”

  She stops and turns to look at me. “No! No way!”

  “And why is it an automatic, no?”

  “Because this is one of my memories. I always walked behind Gramps when we came here. I remember the way the staircase shook with his weight and moaned under it. It’s part of the charm of the place.”

  “Since when did ricketiness become something one cherishes. Safety is important too. Maybe we could keep the staircase outside and use it for something else. You know repurpose it into something else.”

  She looks at me for a moment then turns back and starts climbing up again. “We’ll see about that, Zane. No promises, though.”

  Finally, we arrive at the top and I can see why she likes this place so much. “Nice view.”

  “You should watch a thunderstorm come in from up here, it’s beyond anything you could even dream of.” She plops down on a very dusty sleeping bag and I look down at her as she gazes out the dirty window.

  With a sneeze, because she made dust fluff all the way up to tickle my nose, I shake my head. “I’ll get a cleaning staff up here tomorrow. Do know a good cleaning agency here?”

  “Vera’s Buckets is the only cleaning service here. She’s good. Ninety or so but her grandkids do the cleaning now.” Her eyes are sparkling as she looks around and I have to admit she looks happier than I have ever seen her before.

  So I take a seat on top of the dirty sleeping bag with her. “Okay, we’ll hire them and a landscaping crew to get this place in order so we can look at what we have to work with here.”

  “I can’t believe this is real, Zane.” She looks at me and runs her hand over my cheek. “We have to fix the lie, babe.”

  “We could just really get married,” I say with a chuckle. But somewhere deep inside of me, I kind of mean it.

  “No,” she says too quickly. “I know I like you, but I’m not in love with you.”

  “Ouch!” I say and put my hand over my heart. “That hurt more than you meant it to.”

  She giggles and runs her hand over my heart. “I didn’t mean to hurt you at all. I meant it to bring your head back into reality. The reality is I do like you very, very much.”

  “I know you do,” I say and wish it was three of four months in the future and she’d feel more than that for me.

  Time is such a pain in the ass!

  Chapter 2

  ELIZABETH

  Two days have passed and the cleaning crew is just now finished with the cleaning of the inside of the lighthouse and the landscaping crew has gotten the last bit of grass cut. Zane and I are on our way there to assess what he calls, the damage, to the building and the grounds.

  “What do you say to making additions to the building?” he asks me. “Are you completely against them?”

  “Well, I don’t exactly want it to look a whole lot different. I know there’s not a ton of room in it but it’s only going to be me, and you when you come to visit me.”

  “Whoa! What do you mean by that?” he asks as he pulls to a stop in front of the fence.

  “I’m going to live here,” I say as I get out of the car.

  Getting out quickly, he follows me through the gate toward the lighthouse. “But I have to be in New York a lot.”

  “I know you do.” I keep walking until I get to the door. When I push it open, I like the smell much better. “Mmmm. Lemony!”

  “It certainly looks better and with the windows clean, you can see things much more clearly. I can see how we can make this work.” The door to the bedroom is open now so I go inside of it and find that it’s tinier than I remembered. It was always pretty dark down here is most likely why I never realized just how small it really was. “This will never work.”

 
“I know it’s little,” he says. “But we can take the wall out and redo this whole downstairs area. This wall isn’t holding anything up, anyway. I’ll have to get my contractor to come and evaluate the structure then we’ll know what we can do to make it work for us.”

  “Me, you mean,” I say as I turn to look at him. “You said this is mine, right?”

  “It is yours, baby.” Taking me in his arms, he sways with me. “But I know a thing or two about making renovations. Don’t you want the help of me and my experts?”

  The truth is, I’ve been worried about things since the reunion. I’ve been very worried about how we’re ever supposed to fix this huge lie. When I asked Zane when he thought he could tell Meagan the truth he told me there were three evictions scheduled for next week and he needed her help with them.

  I was more than a little put off by that and found myself growing very quiet. In my opinion, there are more judges in that city who could help him. It has my Spidey senses tingling about the woman he claims to have no feelings for.

  I know she annoys him but he had to have given her more than just the time of day on more than one occasion for her to act the way she does about him. I know he told me they slept together only once and I do believe him but something’s just not all being said by him.

  “I’m going to run out and get that picnic basket you packed and bring in that blanket too and we can eat our lunch on the observation deck,” he says then kisses the tip of my nose and lets me go, leaving me alone.

  Wandering around the small interior, I think about how it would feel to really live in this place. It’s not a thing I’ve ever contemplated before.

  A creaking sound has me turning my head and I see the staircase groaning under Zane’s weight as he’s managed to slip back inside with the picnic basket and blanket. “I’ll get this all set up then call you up when I’m ready for you, baby.”