The Billionaire's Fake Marriage: A Single Dad Next Door Romance

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Okay, I’ll call you when I need a ride.”

  “Now tell me what happened with that delicious neighbor of yours? Did you go over there and let him give you a tongue massage?”

  “Anna! No!” I laughed. “I did bump into him while I was running.”

  “Let’s get some food for this conversation,” she said seriously as I followed her into the kitchen. “How about some Apple Jacks?”

  “That’s straight sugar Anna.”

  “So yes, you want some?”

  “No, I’ll eat this apple. And oh, my gosh, I can’t believe I didn’t tell you about my run in with him. His name is Devin and wow he was so friggin sexy up close that I could hardly talk to him. In fact, I’m not even sure I made a coherent sentence.”

  “He’s a guy, you don’t need to talk. Just wrap your arms around him and plant a nice wet kiss on his lips. That will get things started.”

  “You are the horniest virgin I know,” I laughed. “But no, I’m not doing that. Although I did do something…well something that you probably would have done.”

  I couldn’t stop laughing at the memory of flirting with Devin through my bedroom window. It was definitely something that Anna would have done, there was no doubt in my mind. She was an expert at flirting with men.

  “What did you do?”

  Her eyes widened and she leaned in to hear my story. I described how I had written my name on the window and the look of shock on Devin’s face as I dropped the curtain and let him look at my naked body.

  “It was exhilarating,” I said as I ended my story.

  “I know. Flirting is like a drug. You’ll keep going back to it over and over again in search for a high. How has he been this week? Any big flirting sessions?”

  “I think he’s on a business trip or something as he hasn’t been around. But what should I do the next time I see him? How can I really keep flirting without looking totally desperate?”

  “That’s a good point. You don’t want to seem like you need him to like you. Actually, it might be best if you ignored him and didn’t flirt at all. Make him come to you. He will make an opportunity happen and then when you have him at your beck and call, that’s when you move in for the kill.”

  “By ‘kill’, do you mean that’s when I screw him?”

  “No! You can’t sleep with him yet. Even if you really want to. He needs to want it so bad that he can’t even concentrate at work. You need to occupy his thoughts so much that he’s literally begging to have you.”

  “Wow, I think that might be a bit much for me,” I laughed. “I’m not really the begging to have me kind of girl. That’s you, not me.”

  “Shut up Lilli. I don’t have anything that you don’t have. You could have any guy you wanted. That hair alone is a fantasy for some guys, but you’ve got a rockin’ body that could tease them for days.”

  “You know, not every relationship is about games and teasing.”

  “Well this one with your neighbor is, so listen to me. Don’t look up there. Don’t even glance in his direction. Keep your eyes away from his place and your curtains shut. Let him stew for a little bit.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at how serious Anna was about me teasing Devin. She had it all planned out, much better than I could have dreamed up. All I could think about was seeing Devin again and flirting with him, maybe even getting a chance to talk to him again. I hadn’t even thought of the idea that I should leave him alone. It would be really hard not to look up at his house or peek inside when it was dark out.

  “I’ll do my best. Now let’s go find some outfits for tonight. I don’t have anything interesting to wear in my closet.”

  “Oh, yeah, I’ve got like a dozen new outfits. Let’s try some on.”

  It was hard not to be a little jealous of Anna. She was rich, beautiful and had men throwing themselves at her whenever we were out at the clubs. Her life seemed pretty good to me, at least from looking in on the outside. I imagined there were things that I didn’t know about her, but nothing so far appeared to be hard for her in life.

  In stark contrast I felt like everything in my life was hard. I’d finally met a guy I liked and moved in with him just to find out he was a cheating jerk and we had to break up. I couldn’t keep a decent job at all and I was working in a field that I didn’t really like. My parents did have the means to make sure I was taken care of though; I just didn’t want to always be taking their money.

  “Bam, this one,” Anna said as she held a black piece of fabric up toward me.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s a dress.”

  “Oh, no! That’s not a dress. There’s barely any fabric there.”

  “Lilli, you need to wear this tonight. It’s going to look amazing with your hair. And that tan of yours needs to be shown off.”

  I looked at the small piece of fabric and stretched it out to see if it was anywhere in the realm of being able to fit me. It looked more like a hand towel than a dress though.

  “I’d be showing off my tan lines instead of my tan if I was wearing this. Don’t you have any dresses that are normal length? I don’t actually like it when guys are grabbing my ass all night long.”

  “It just means they think you’re hot.”

  “Oh, okay, but it’s weird.”

  “Just wear it Lilli, please,” Anna said with her big eyes as I grabbed the dress and started to leave the room.

  “I’ll put it on but I’m wearing one of mine if it doesn’t cover my ass. Come pick me up at nine. I’ll take a nap for a while and then I’ll get ready.”

  “Sounds like we are going to have a kick ass night. I’ll call some of the girls.”

  “See you later.”

  Chapter 4

  Devin

  After a week in Bali it was nice to grab a quick drink with Jacob and catch up on what was going on at work. We met up at a little club near downtown called Lively, mostly because it was notorious for the hot young girls and Jacob wanted to pick himself up a date for the night after our drink.

  “Dude, nice tan,” Jacob said as I walked up to him at the bar of Club Lively.

  “That’s what a week on the beach in Bali will do for ya.”

  “How was the board company?”

  “I liked them. Not really an investment opportunity as a group, but I gave them some money and am having some paperwork drawn up for ten percent equity. Just a little reason to go back to Bali sometime.”

  “Going solo on this one?”

  “Yeah, I think everyone is getting a little tired of my surf companies. I don’t mind the risk for a small investment. They had a good business plan and will see some moderate growth this year. Would see better growth if they’d come to the U.S. but they are set on staying in Bali.”

  “Well, nothing exciting at work. I took that drone on a bike ride though, it was pretty awesome. Followed me on the whole ride, look at this footage,” Jacob said as he pulled out his phone and started playing a thirty-minute video of him riding his bike.

  I ordered my drink and was halfway done by the time he actually got the clue that he didn’t need to show me the whole thing. It was pretty sweet though and just confirmed why I wanted us to throw the whole power of our group behind that company.

  “Everyone else on board with it yet?”

  “Not sure, people have been traveling and there were not much communication this week. We will check in at the next meeting. What else do you have planned?”

  “I’m relaxing and going over the numbers for that drone company. I’ll probably stop down in Florida and visit my daughter this week, if I can arrange things with Ashley. I haven’t been able to reach her all week and when I called her mother she seemed to be hiding something.”

  “Did you talk to Izzy?”

  “Nope? My times were off and she was at school when I called. It sounded like she was staying at Ashley’s parents house though, so who knows what’s going on with Ashley.”

  “You should just have some p
apers filed and get custody of her. She’s your daughter too.”

  “Man, I’d love that. But you have to remember they knew me when I was irresponsible and wild. I think I’ll need to put a little work in before I could get custody. A judge would simply have to pull my arrest record and then they’d laugh me right out of that courtroom.”

  We sat and drank our alcohol as we both turned to admire all the beautiful girls in the club. It definitely was a good place for finding women – there were dozens of girls dancing on the dance floor and only a handful of guys.

  “You’re my wingman tonight,” Jacob said seriously. “I’ve got to get laid.”

  “Ha, okay, let’s get you a girl.”

  “Three o’clock. Oh, damn baby girl look at those asses,” Jacob was already out of his chair and on his way over to the blonde and red head before I could get a good look.

  I quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him back to the bar when I realized the redhead was actually Lilli. I also recognized the blonde as the girl Lilli had been out with the last time I saw her, the same girl that had grabbed Lilli and practically yanked her dress off in the driveway.

  “Wait,” I demanded. “I know her.”

  “Even more reason to go over and talk to her,” Jacob said.

  “No, that’s my neighbor.”

  “Oh, damn Devin! You’ve got that hot piece of ass living next door to you. Wow, I’d be in that all day every day if I had something so sweet.”

  “She’s too young,” I protest.

  “Whatever. She’s in here so she’s old enough. Go talk to her,” Jacob demanded. “I want to talk to that hot friend of hers.”

  I was just about to agree with Jacob and go talk to Lilli when I saw her almost fall over as she grabbed onto her friend. She was smashed and even drunker than I’d seen her on the recent nights she had returned home. Instinctively I wanted to go over and help her, but she and her friends laughed it off as they went to a booth to sit down.

  “It doesn’t feel right. Let’s find you someone else.”

  “Fine, how about that one,” Jacob said without losing a beat as he pointed to a brunette at the other end of the bar.

  “Sure, let’s go get you that one,” I laughed.

  As Jacob and I flirted and talked to the group of girls on the opposite end of the bar, I couldn’t help looking back over at Lilli and watching her. She had switched to water and stayed sitting for a bit but then was back on the dance floor with her friends partying and taking control of the floor. All the guys had their eyes on Lilli and her friends and I was no different.

  Her delicious curves fit perfectly in the black tight dress she had on. It was just as short as the last one and drove me crazy with desire. My body was hardly contained as I watched her dance around to the music and a young guy slide up behind her and started grinding on her. She let him dance with her for one song and then pushed him away as she returned to her friends. Lilli didn’t seem to be at the club to big up guys; instead, she was there to let off some steam and dance. I kept my distance though as I stayed with Jacob and continued to talk with the girls that he was hitting on.

  Two hours later I was holding a rather mundane conversation with a girl that I couldn’t remember her name. Jacob and his girl were out on the dance floor and I had a line of sight to Lilli and her friends as they laughed and hung out together.

  Lilli had stopped drinking but she still seemed pretty smashed when the group of girls finally got up to leave. Her legs wobbled with the tall hi-heels she had on and again I felt the urge to rush over there and help her.

  “I better get going,” I said to the woman next to me. “It was nice meeting you.”

  “Here’s my number, call me sometime,” she said as she handed me a piece of paper and gave me an awkward hug.

  I hurried onto the dance floor and let Jacob know I was leaving for the night and then slid out the front door and behind Lilli and her friends. I walked quickly to my car and waited until the girls were in their Uber before I went home. Something inside me told me to get home before the girls got there and I couldn’t shake the feeling that Lilli was going to need my help to get inside.

  I backed into my garage and turned the light off as I stood near my car and watched Lilli and her friends drive up in their Uber. Unlike the last time she was dropped off, Lilli’s friends didn’t stick around for long and quickly left her standing in the driveway.

  Her legs wobbled on the cobblestone rocks as she tried walking up the driveway and then ended up leaning against her parents’ car while she tried to take her heels off. I watched from a distance just to make sure she was able to get into her house. I’d seen her having trouble with her key on more than one occasion.

  It took her nearly five minutes to get her shoes off as I watched her talking and swearing at herself. It was pretty damn adorable as she finally tiptoed up the two front steps and then looked through her purse to find her key.

  Her hands worked their way around the inside of her small purse but she just couldn’t seem to find the key. Finally, she started to ring the doorbell to her house, but no one came to the door. When she slide down the front door and sat on the wet ground, I finally couldn’t take it and came over to help her.

  “Can I help you get into your house?” I offered.

  “Oh, hot neighbor guy,” she said as she sat on the ground.

  I couldn’t help but laugh as she looked up at me with her gorgeous eyes and sexy little dress on. The honesty that came out when a woman was drunk was sometimes very enlightening. Gently I grabbed her hands and pulled her up as she held onto the railing for support.

  “Is there a key in there somewhere?” I asked as I pointed at her purse.

  “Oh, I don’t think so. I’ve looked all over,” she said seriously, as if the purse was larger than the size of a piece of bread.

  “Would you mind if I looked?”

  “Sure thing hot neighbor guy. Oh, wait, Devin, your name is Devin. I remember now.”

  “Yep, that’s my name. And your name is Lilli, I remember that very well.”

  Her face turned bright red as the memory of how she had stood teasing me must have flashed through her mind. She quickly looked away from me as she handed me her purse to see if I could find the key. I couldn’t stop smiling as she was absolutely adorable. The way she had tried to be seductive but now was so shy, it drove me nuts and made me want her more than I cared to admit.

  “That damn blue curtain,” Lilli said under her breath as she waited for me to find her key.

  “Is your family home? Maybe one of them will wake up?” I asked as I couldn’t find her key.

  “No, I forgot, they went to Cancun for the week. They left me their car and I put my house key on that. But I was drinking tonight so I didn’t bring the car keys. I don’t drive if I’m drinking,” she announced proudly.

  “That’s a responsible way to drink. Is there any other way to get into your house?”

  “Probably, but I can’t really think straight right now,” she giggled and then started to slide back down so she could sit.

  “It’s wet out here. Let’s have you stay standing for a minute,” I said as I wrapped my arm around her waist and held her up. “Were you celebrating something tonight?” I said to try and keep her talking.

  “No, just out with my friends.”

  “Yeah, you seem to like partying.”

  “I’m not some crazy party girl you know. I’ve got a job. And I don’t miss work. I just broke up with a crappy boyfriend and had to move home. It hasn’t been a good few weeks for me.”

  Lilli wrapped her arms around my neck as she leaned in close to me. I couldn’t help it as my body reacted firmly to the touch of her skin and the prospect of having her lips against mine.

  “I think we should get you inside,” I offered as I did my best not to give into her.

  “We could just go to your place,” Lilli offered.

  Oh, how quickly I would have taken her up on that offer on
ly a few years before. She was clear headed enough to hold a conversation and she obviously wanted me. But I wasn’t that kind of guy, no matter how badly I’d love to have her in my bed. It wasn’t at all the appropriate thing to do that evening.

  “You are so beautiful Lilli and I’d love to talk about having you over to my place sometime, but I think for tonight we better just get you up to bed.”

  “I think that you would enjoy having me in your bed,” Lilli said as her hand slipped down to the front of my pants and started to massage my throbbing body.

  I let out a breath of frustration as her hand moved up and down and I pulled it away.

  “I’m getting you into your house. Let’s have you lean up against the car for a minute,” I said as I walked her over.

  I ended up lifting her up and putting her onto the hood when her legs looked too wobbly to hold her. She quickly took advantage of this position as she pulled me toward her and held her arms around my neck. I noticed her pierced tongue and it only made me throb harder as I imagined her tongue gliding up and down my shaft.

  “Lilli, I’m going to leave you here for a minute while I check your back windows. You don’t have a security system turned on do you?”

  “I think you should stay here,” Lilli said as she wrapped her legs around me and pressed her body and mine together. “Don’t you want to stay here with me?”

  “More than you can possibly imagine. But I’m still going to go check those windows. Is there an alarm?”

  “It’s not on. It always scares me when I come home late so I didn’t turn it on.”

  “Okay, you stay here. I’ll be right back,” I said as I reluctantly pulled myself away from her and went into the back yard.

  I was light headed from the desire I had to take Lilli right there on that car. The energy between the two of us was absolutely undeniable. I wanted her, I wanted to taste her, touch her, screw her; but I wasn’t giving in. She was in no shape to be making that sort of decision and I was no longer the guy who took advantage of a woman when she was clearly intoxicated.