Billionaire's Bet: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (Billionaires - Book #12)

by Claire Adams

  “You’ll be okay,” he said softly as his hands stroked my hair.

  “I’m sorry, you shouldn’t be taking care of me. I should be comforting you,” I said as Tyler took his jacket off and placed it on the ground so we could sit down on it.

  “He’s been sick for a really long time, Kelsi. I’m sad. I’m very sad for myself and my mother and sister. But I’m relieved for him. He spent the last few months barely able to move and in pain anytime his medication started to wear off. I never thought death could be a gift, but I honestly think he’s happy now. You know there was a little boy who passed away the night before, and Dad talked to him and told him they were going to play together. It was so much like my father to be comforting a sick child in the midst of him being sick himself. But I really do think he’s in heaven, and he’s going to be the best grandpa in the world to all those children who are up there.”

  Tyler had a peacefulness about him that made me feel more peaceful as well. I was probably so emotional because of everything that was going on all at once. I knew his father had been in a lot of pain. I knew Tyler was right about his father being out of pain now.

  “So, tell me, how are you doing?” Tyler said as he wiped the tears from my face.

  “I went to the bank this morning; they won’t give me a loan. They wouldn’t even consider it. They said they want to sell the ranch to someone who has their own cash or financing. The bank basically only wants to do business with people who don’t need their money.”

  “I’m sorry,” Tyler said kindly as I leaned up against him. “Maybe they won’t be able to find a buyer and you could come to them with some different financing in a few months. You know my mother was told it could take up to a year to sell our property. I bet your bank would reconsider you if they have to wait that long.”

  “Maybe, but I think I’m going to give up on the idea. I think I’ll just take a job at the grocery store and go from there. It’s a steady income, and I won’t have to worry about taking care of Clyde. I won’t be rich, but I could be happy there.”

  Tyler didn’t respond and seemed to be off in his thoughts. But I didn’t push it. Instead, we sat there in silence as we looked out over the abandoned property and tried to make sense of our lives. He wasn’t going to be in town much longer, and I was going to have to say goodbye to him. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to do that. I’d come to rely on him and our conversations a lot over the last few weeks.

  “Have you ever been inside this house?” Tyler asked as he suddenly jumped up.

  “No, I’m not going to break into the place.”

  “I bet we could get in without causing too much trouble. Let’s try the windows,” Tyler said as he walked around the front porch and pushed on each of the windows.

  “Why do you want to go in there? It looks creepy in there; I’m not going in even if you get the windows opened.”

  “Oh, come on now, you’re not scared of a little old house, are you?” he teased. “If anyone should be scared, it should be me, I’m the one who actually was scared when we first came over here.”

  “Yes, that’s why it seems odd to me that you’re trying to get into this old house. You know it could very well be haunted.”

  “You’re trying to scare me now.” He laughed as he grabbed me and pulled me into the corner near the back door. “I won’t be scared off. I want to take you inside.”

  “Take me.” I giggled.

  “Yes,” he said with a totally serious look on his face.

  “Tyler Pace, we are not having sex in this abandoned house,” I protested.

  “Are you afraid the ghosts have security cameras?” He laughed.

  Tyler had made himself laugh so hard that he could hardly stand up straight. It was funny to see him telling corny jokes and laughing, and I was really happy that his mood wasn’t as somber as I had expected it to be.

  “I’m not going in there,” I said as I started to laugh with him. “You’ll have to find some other place to take me.”

  “Challenge accepted,” he said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward his car.

  “Not in your car again.” I rolled my eyes.

  “Okay, then your car.” He shrugged.

  “No. Let’s just go back to my house…wait, we can’t go there. How about your house…yikes, can’t go there either. Well, I guess we will just have to head over to the motel and deal with Heath and his gossip.”

  “I can’t wait that long,” he said as he urgently looked around the property and tried to find a place for us to hang out. “I need you. I’ve got to have you right now.”

  The urgency in his voice seemed to be about more than just the sex he wanted to have. Tyler looked like he was in need of some sort of release. His fists were balled up tight, and his lips pressed hard together. This was his form of anxiety. I could understand where he was coming from.

  After Clyde was born, I was so overwhelmed that I could hardly sit still at all. I would have gone out and had random sex if I felt like I looked good, but instead I took to running on the treadmill. I had so much anger and sadness that all I wanted to do was get every ounce of energy out that I could. I would run and run until I literally couldn’t run any longer, then I’d feel back in control again and ready to take on my day.

  “Fine, break into the house,” I said as I finally figured out how badly he needed a release.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, let’s do it,” I said as I grabbed his hand and we went back up to the front door.

  I needed some release, too. It had been one hell of a day, and I didn’t know what the future was going to bring. I didn’t know how long Tyler was going to be in town; I didn’t know how long I’d get to stay living at my ranch. My anxiety was coming out in tears, but I welcomed the opportunity to have a mind-blowing orgasm and hoped it would serve a calming purpose for me too.

  Tyler wrapped his coat around his arm and then smashed his elbow into one of the panels on the front door. It was a small, six inch-by-nine-inch panel and just large enough for him to reach in and unlock the front door.

  The house was less creepy than I thought it was going to be as we walked through the downstairs rooms. I had expected them to be covered in scary cobwebs or have dust all over the place, but they were just empty rooms without anything exciting going on.

  “I thought it would be scarier,” Tyler said as we walked into the kitchen.

  “Me too.”

  “Where did the family move to?”

  “I’m not sure. I thought the coast, but I can’t really remember. The kids could be scattered around a bit.”

  “Come here,” Tyler said as he motioned for me to come over to the large stone island in the middle of the kitchen.

  “That looks a little tall,.” I laughed.

  “We can make it work.”

  “What about the upstairs? Do you want to go up and see if they left any furniture?” I ventured to ask.

  “No way, it’s haunted up there.” He laughed.

  Luckily, it was still light out or even the downstairs would have seemed scary. But with the afternoon light shining in, the downstairs looked rather unassuming.

  “Look,” I said as I pointed to the patio furniture that was piled up just inside the back door. “Now we are talking.”

  Tyler grabbed one of the lounge chairs and a giant cushion that went on top of it. He threw it in the middle of the kitchen and fell back onto the chair as he pulled me with him. Our lips found each other and frantically moved as we both got to work removing our own clothes.

  “I can’t believe you made me come in the haunted house,” he joked as he pressed his jeans down.

  “You’re not blaming this one on me.”

  “Get on,” he said breathlessly as his hands grabbed my hips and pressed me up so I could guide him inside of me. “Shit, protection.”

  I couldn’t help it and started to laugh at how hurried we were and how neither of us had brought the protection inside. With
a raised eyebrow, I slid to the bottom of the chair and shook my head no. There was no possible way I was running outside naked to go find a condom.

  “Fine, I’m going,” Tyler said as he jumped up and ran outside with his penis throbbing and his body shaking in the wind.

  “Oh, my God, I can’t believe you just did that.” I laughed as he ran back into the house and to our chair.

  “What a guy will do for love.” He laughed as he slid the condom on and grabbed me as he fell back to the chair.

  It wasn’t the right time to ask him about the love statement, but I had to admit I was starting to have a lot of feelings about him, too. Even though I knew he was going to leave soon, I couldn’t stop myself from loving him. The big question was going to be how I handled things when he actually left, because at that moment, I couldn’t imagine ever being able to let go of him.

  “I’m going to rock your world,” I said in my best sexy voice as I straddled him and slid on top.

  Our bodies moved together feverishly as we thrust and rocked until we were both drenched in sweat. Making love to Tyler was like something out of a dream for me. We worked together perfectly and seemed to be able to anticipate each other’s next move without needing to talk at all.

  I latched onto him with all my strength as I felt my legs shiver and my orgasm growing from deep inside of me. Tyler gently held onto my hips and urged my body to stay where it felt the pleasure as he moved slowly and watched me give into the pleasure as I screamed out in total delight.

  “I love watching you,” Tyler whispered in my ear and then tugged on it with his teeth. “You’re the sexiest woman I know.”

  As we both fell back in exhaustion, Tyler searched around us for our clothes and pulled a few pieces up to cover us and keep us warm. It wasn’t the most romantic location in the world, but I was going to remember this time with Tyler and I knew it could be the last time we were together.

  “Do you have to go back to Alabama?” I asked.

  There was a long pause as Tyler thought about what he wanted to say to me. It looked like he had intended to say one thing, but then backed off and decided to say something else.

  “Yes, but I don’t have to stay forever. I’ve got flexibility. I can come back. I don’t know how it will work; I just know that I would really like to figure something out.”

  “Let’s not worry about that right now. We’ve got all the time in the world,” I said as I pressed my lips against his.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Tyler

  “Where should I go?” I asked my mother after I had donned my black suit and stood by the door, ready to head to the funeral home.

  “Just wait right there; I’m grabbing a few things then we can go.”

  It was the day of my father’s funeral. The emotions over the last few days had been so extreme, and I was utterly exhausted. I missed him. I was happy he was no longer in pain. I was angry that he had left me. I was worried I was going to make mistakes and he wasn’t going to be there to help me. Every thought I had seemed to have an equal and opposite thought that went with it.

  “You look nice,” Maryanne said as she stood next to me.

  Her normal sarcasm was gone since Dad’s death and was replaced with a kind of sadness that I hadn’t seen since we found out Dad was sick. It was weird, but my sister’s lack of rudeness toward me was harder to take than everyone else showing sympathy for my loss.

  My sister and I fought; that’s what we did. We loved each other, and we fought because we knew at the end of the day we could say anything to one another, and it didn’t matter because we were family. But now she wasn’t being sarcastic. She wasn’t making rude remarks. There was nothing going on between us except sadness.

  The true test of any family had to be how they survived a major loss like this. It tested you as a person, and it definitely tested the family system too. Our family had lost aunts and grandparents, but never had we dealt with the gravity of loss like we were going through at that time.

  “I’m ready,” Mom said as she hurried us out the door and to the waiting car.

  It was odd to me that funerals had limousines delivering the bereaved to and from the cemetery. A vehicle that was normally used to transport people on some of the happiest days of their lives was also used to transport them on the saddest days. It seemed unusually cruel.

  The drive to the funeral home was a quiet one. My mother and sister and I didn’t have much to say to one another the last few days. We were all processing and dealing with the grief that was going through our minds. It was different for each of us and exhausting for all three of us. But it wasn’t just us who had to go through the grief. We had over a hundred family and friends that were in town for the service, plus at least that many locals who would be coming to the service.

  Everyone missed my father, and that was such a sign of what a good man he was. I could only hope to have made such a big impact on people’s lives that they would be willing to take off from work and fly across the country to show their last respects to me. That was truly a sign of the man my father was and his willingness to help others all the time.

  “Is Kelsi going to meet us there?” Maryanne asked.

  “Yeah, I think she’s coming with her whole family so I saved some seats for them near the front, but behind family.”

  “That’s good,” she added as she kept staring out the window. “What are you two going to do when you go home?”

  Normally, my sister didn’t ask me questions about the women in my life. It was odd to be having a normal conversation with her.

  “I’m not sure. I told her I would stay in touch and I could come back here or fly her out to see me, but she didn’t really tell me what she wanted to do. I guess we will play it by ear.”

  “She’s a good woman, Tyler. You should try and make things work out.”

  “I know, I’d really like that.”

  As we climbed out of the limousine and walked into the funeral home, Maryanne reached back and grabbed my hand. She gave it a little squeeze and I felt the emotion in her touch. She was barely keeping it together, and yet she thought to ask about me and Kelsi. That was what sisters did. That was why our arguing didn’t really matter, because in the end, we loved each other and we were family.

  “Tyler, hey man,” Mike said as he gave me a big bear hug. “I’m so sorry about your Dad, man. He was a good guy.”

  “Thanks, Mike.”

  “I’m just going to hang with Bryce and his family. You let me know if you need anything, man.”

  “I will. Thanks for coming,” I said as I looked around to see if I could find Kelsi.

  “Tyler, I’m so sorry for your loss,” an older woman said as she walked up to me and gave me a hug.

  For the next 30 minutes, I was hugged and squeezed by numerous people that I had no idea who they were. But the one person I did want to talk to was Kelsi, and every time I tried to leave a conversation and make my way over to her, someone else would stop me.

  She smiled at me and waved me away like she was doing just fine and I should visit with everyone else. But I wanted to visit with her. I wanted to be with her for the service, and I didn’t want to talk to anyone else.

  By the time I was 10 feet away from reaching Kelsi, I could see that she was talking with Mike and I couldn’t help but laugh. She kept rolling her eyes every time the two of us made eye contact.

  “Tyler, I have to tell you how your father and I first met,” a man said as he grabbed my attention and refused to allow me to move further through the room. “We were in second grade and your father thought I was the scariest kid in school,” the man continued on.

  I glanced over to see if I could get Kelsi’s attention, but she was engrossed in a deep conversation with Mike. I could only imagine what he was talking about and how torturous it must have been for her.

  I finished my conversation with the older gentleman and looked up to see Kelsi looking angrily over at me. I shrugged my shoulders at
her because I had no idea how on earth I could have made her angry from 10 feet away from her.

  She didn’t appear to like my reaction and turned to leave Mike and find her seat for the service. As much as I wanted to go and talk with Mike, one more person grabbed me, and by the time I broke free from that conversation, Mike had found his seat as well.

  During the service, I didn’t get a chance to look at Kelsi to see if she was still angry with me or not. She and her family were sitting a few rows back from me, and I could never get a good enough angle to turn and talk to her.

  After the service, I had to go with my family and the rest of our close relatives as we drove in a funeral procession to the cemetery to bury my father. It was surreal to be putting such an amazing man into a hole in the ground, but I kept reminding myself that my father didn’t believe he was still in the body. He believed his soul had gone up to heaven and we were just burying an empty shell. His faith in the afterlife got me through the days since his death and I imagined that thought would get me through many more days.

  “Have you seen Kelsi?” I asked Bryce when I returned to the funeral home and made my way to the serving area where we were all supposed to eat and share fellowship.

  “No, I think she left after the service.”

  “Oh, she probably needed to get back home to Clyde,” I said as if I had any idea why she had actually left.

  It seemed odd that she would have left the service without even talking to me. I knew I had been preoccupied a lot beforehand, but she didn’t stick around for the food or come to the cemetery. Basically, I hadn’t even gotten to talk to her that day at all, and I really did need to hear her soothing voice to calm my nerves and anxiety.

  “She left,” Mike said as he joined us.

  “Yeah, I heard that.”

  “I think she was a little pissed off. But you can’t blame me, man; I had no idea.”

  “What do you mean ‘pissed off?’ That doesn’t really sound like her.” I laughed. “Maybe she just got bored with your conversation.”