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

by Claire Adams

  “I know it has,” I said. “I’ve missed you, too. I don’t want to be fighting with you guys right now.”

  “So . . . how is everything going?”

  “Pretty good. I mean, I’ve been a little stressed and really busy with everything, but things are actually . . . good.” I smiled, thinking about Leo. And since he had confronted Seth’s mother about the paper and they had both agreed to just keep quiet about everything, I felt as though a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It seemed that things were actually working out, and that made everything else seem more bearable.

  “I’m glad to hear that.”

  I was about to ask how she was doing when I saw, over my mother’s shoulder, that Leo was walking toward us. I smiled and gave a little wave as he approached, and my mother turned to see who I was waving to.

  “Hey, Tessa, you want to . . .” Leo’s voice trailed off when he realized it was my mother. “Oh, hi,” he said.

  My mother frowned. “Hello,” she said. “I was just trying to talk to my daughter.”

  Leo nodded. “Yeah, of course. That’s fine. I can give you guys some space.”

  “That’s not what she meant,” I said, even though I had a feeling that was exactly what she wanted. “Listen, Mom. I know you and Dad don’t approve of this. And I’m sorry that you had to find out about it the way that you did, but the semester is basically over, and Leo and I are staying together. I’m living with him right now, and I don’t have any plans to move out.”

  My mother didn’t say anything for a minute. Finally, she took a deep breath and nodded slowly. “That’s not what I was hoping to hear, obviously,” she said, “but I’ve realized over these past few weeks that you’re an adult, and you are allowed to make your own choices. They might not be the choices I’d make for you, or the choices I would make if I were in your shoes, but we do need to let you make the decisions in your own life.” She looked at Leo. “I’m sure you’re a very nice person,” she said. “This whole situation has just been a bit of a shock to us.”

  “I don’t think any of us planned on things happening like this,” Leo said. “And I do apologize that you had to walk in and see us like that . . .”

  My mother and I both blushed. “Anyway,” I said.

  “I’ll give you guys some time to catch up,” Leo said. “I think that might be a good idea.”

  He gave us both a smile and then strolled off. My mother watched him go. “He is an incredibly good-looking man,” she said, almost to herself. She sighed and turned her gaze back to me. “I’m not going to try to tell you what to do anymore, Tessa. We have a lease on your apartment, though, so regardless of what your father might tell you, we will continue to pay for that because we have to. He’s certainly not going to go through the trouble of finding someone to sublet it, and I have no interest in that either. I suppose we can revisit the issue when the lease runs out in a few months and see where things are. Maybe you should try giving your father a call.”

  “Why?” I said. “I thought you just said he didn’t even want you to come and see me.”

  “Oh, you know how he can be. And I know that he does happen to miss you a great deal, and that he’s worried about you. It might help if he just heard your voice, if you took the first step.”

  I sighed. “I’ll think about it,” I said.

  “But since I’m up here, why don’t you let me take you out for coffee, at least? Could we do that?”

  “Sure, Mom,” I said.

  We went to a little café not far from the school. We sat at a corner table and I got a mocha, and my mother got a cappuccino. It felt a little strange to be sitting with her after not seeing or talking to her for a while, but it was nice, too. I was glad that she’d come to see me, even if it hadn’t been exactly what my father had wanted.

  “So you really think I should call Dad?” I asked. “You don’t think he’s just going to yell at me and then hang up? Because that’s basically how our last call ended. He yelled at me and hung up.”

  “Tessa, you’ve got to understand that what has happened this past semester hasn’t been easy on any of us. We didn’t realize that you’d gotten involved with . . . what was his name?”

  “Nick.”

  “We didn’t realize that you’d gotten involved with him, and that was why your grades suffered to begin with. And then to find out that you got involved with a professor . . . it’s not really what any parent expects to find out about their child.” She took a tiny sip of her coffee and then set it down. “Now, I don’t know all the details about you and Leo—and I don’t need to—but there were a few things that I did not tell your father.”

  “About Leo?”

  “I only told him that I happened across the two of you in a compromising position. I did not elaborate any further.”

  “Well . . . thanks, I think,” I said.

  “Your father didn’t need to know the specific details. And I also did not mention that this whole thing started because of a grade.”

  “You know,” I said, “it might’ve started out like that. And that sounds sleazy or scandalous. It’s not the sort of story you want to be telling your grandchildren when they ask how you and grandpa met, I get it. But the thing is, Mom—I love Leo.”

  Her eyes widened. “You do?”

  “Yeah, I do,” I said, smiling. It was the first time I had admitted it out loud, but it felt good to say, because it was true. “And we haven’t said this to each other yet, and maybe he doesn’t feel the same way about me, but you know what? That doesn’t matter. Well, it does in that I’d be sad if he didn’t love me, too, but even if he doesn’t, it’s not going to change the way I feel about him. And so maybe the way we got together wasn’t the best, it wasn’t some storybook meeting, but maybe it had to happen that way because it was the only way it was going to happen. And if that’s the case, then I’m fine with it.”

  My mother nodded slowly. “He loves you too,” she said. “I can tell. I could tell by the way he was looking at you.”

  I felt a tingling happiness spread throughout my chest and my heart fluttered just hearing her say it.

  “We want to be happy for you,” my mom said. “I don’t want you to think that Dad and I don’t want to be happy for you, or that we don’t want you to be happy. Because we do—more than anything. I don’t want this fight to keep going on. Life is too short to hold grudges like this, and it’s ridiculous to think that we would just stop speaking to you for the rest of your life because we didn’t like how you got involved with the man that you love. This is not going to turn into some Shakespearean tragedy!”

  “I hope not,” I said. “And I would like nothing more than to not be fighting with you guys, either.”

  My mother reached over and patted my arm. “Let me talk to your father,” she said. “We’ll get this sorted out.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Leo

  The end of the semester was always a happy time—it either meant the start of winter break, or a nice, long, summer break. In this case, it also meant that Tessa was no longer my student and we didn’t have to worry about who happened to see us when we went out. Which didn’t mean that we were skipping down the street holding hands or making out right in the middle of the green, but it did mean we’d go out occasionally to places right around the school, and it didn’t really matter who saw us.

  Tessa had managed to pull off what she had thought was the impossible, and she got her grades back up, finishing the semester and her junior year with a 4.0. I could tell by the expression on her face how relieved she was.

  And the first issue of the Benton Daily Journal would have to wait to be published until next semester, as there was simply a lack of quality articles submitted for consideration. It had pained Shannon to make that announcement, though the truth of it had become painfully clear not long after Carla and I had our talk. She had been the one to talk with Shannon about postponing the project, and when Shannon sent out the email announcing th
at we were going to hold off, I think that everyone was relieved. Out of all the articles, though, Tessa’s really was the best of the bunch.

  I could hear the water running in the shower. Tessa and I had slept in and she’d just gotten up. I was still lounging in bed, though after a few more minutes, I got up and went into the bathroom. She was in the shower, soaping herself up. I pushed the curtain back slightly and was hit with a waft of steam and the sudsy smell of the botanical soap.

  “Mind if I join you?” I asked.

  “Of course not,” she said, taking a step back.

  I got in and felt the water running in rivulets down my torso. My dick was already half hard and getting harder just at the sight of her, the suds of soap clinging to her wet skin, her hair slicked back. She turned to face me, and I pulled her close. I started kissing her neck, running my hands down her sides, over her breasts, feeling her nipples get hard underneath my fingertips. She groaned and raked her fingernails down my back.

  I pushed her back into the corner and spread her legs apart, the warm water cascading down on me as I knelt in front of her. I buried my face between her legs, kissing and licking her, feeling her run her fingers through my hair. I put one hand on her inner thigh and then brought the other up and slid a finger inside of her. Her whole body trembled, and she was whimpering, grinding her hips against my hand while my tongue worked on her clit.

  I stopped when I could tell she was close to coming, and her eyes flew open and she gave me a look of such longing that I almost came myself. I lifted her up a little higher and pushed my dick into her, the water actually making things less lubricated. The head of my dick was right there, sort of in but not quite, but then I pulled her hips down a little, and I slid all the way in, all the way where she was nice and wet and warm and her muscles clenched around me, and she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me close.

  I could’ve been done in about two minutes, if I just went for it, but I wanted this to last because it felt so fucking good. How long could I make it last for? How long could I stand it? I kept my eyes open and I tried to watch her and gauge how close she was—I wanted to prolong it for her, too. Every time one of got close to coming, I’d slow way down, sometimes stop completely. Even when I stopped though, she’d contract those muscles of hers around me, and a couple times it almost sent me over the edge. I gritted my teeth and growled into her hair, and I tried to take deep breaths. And then I’d start again, and with the water cascading down on us and the steam all around, it was like being in some sort of cocoon, where the only thing you were aware of was how fucking good you felt.

  I could only prolong it for so long. We got into a rhythm, and I knew that we weren’t going to stop this time, and as the feeling started to peak I tried to just keep going, but then the most amazing thing happened. Instead of the feeling reaching its apex and then falling, it kept coming. It was like being on a rollercoaster and thinking that you’d reached the highest point, but then it just keeps going and going. It was like a wave that had no end. I just kept thrusting myself into her, and she was scratching my back and biting into my neck, and her legs were now wrapped around my waist, and she was squeezing me, and time seemed to have stopped. I had no clue how long we’d been in there, how long this feeling had been going for, if it had been seconds or minutes, or maybe even hours. It just kept going.

  And then finally, there was the crest, and slowly, the intensity began to ebb. It was sped up when the water suddenly went cold. I let out a yelp, and she shrieked as we both scrambled to shut the water off, the cold drops feeling like needles against our hypersensitive skin.

  “How long were we in here for?” Tessa asked. “I can barely even stand. Oh my God.”

  We gingerly got out of the shower, and I wrapped her in a towel, and then I did the same for myself.

  “Probably quite a long time,” I said. “Seeing as we used up all the hot water.”

  She grinned. “I hope no one else in this building was planning on taking a shower anytime soon. Shit, I actually feel kind of bad.”

  “Don’t feel bad.” I kissed her. My whole body was still buzzing. “Do you know what I feel like doing right now?”

  “What?”

  “It’s really the only thing I think I’d be capable of doing, actually.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Going to bed.”

  “Bed? It’s like 9 o’clock in the morning!”

  “I know. I’m not saying I’d go back to sleep or anything like that, but I don’t think I’ll be physically capable of doing anything for at least a couple of hours.”

  She patted at her face with a corner of the towel. “My legs really do feel like Jell-O.”

  “Let’s do it, then. School’s out. We don’t have anywhere we need to be. I’m not saying we have to stay in bed all day, though if we do, I certainly won’t be complaining.”

  I didn’t wait for her to respond; instead, I picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. I couldn’t remember a time when my bed had looked more appealing.

  We lay down next to each other, the cool sheet on top of us. Tessa snuggled up next to me, and I kissed the top of her head, her hair still damp. I had said I wasn’t going to fall asleep, but I could feel myself starting to drift off into some sort of half-awake zone, and I certainly wasn’t going to fight it.

  “You know,” Tessa said, “I’m really glad that I took you up on that offer.”

  “I’m really glad that I made you that offer. I almost didn’t. And when I did, I didn’t think that you were actually going to do it.”

  “I know that school’s out now and everything, but I want to keep seeing you.”

  “I’d be pissed if you didn’t. I’d feel used, actually.”

  She laughed. “Would you? I thought I was the one who was supposed to be the sex toy.”

  “You are definitely so much more than that. Of course I want to keep seeing you. You’re living here now, aren’t you? That doesn’t have to change just because school’s out. The only thing that I think I’d like to see change is for you to go from being my student to my girlfriend. How does that sound?”

  She snuggled closer to me, draping her arm across my chest. “I think that sounds lovely,” she said.

  “Good.” I hadn’t been planning on saying that, on asking her if she wanted to be my girlfriend, but it seemed like the natural progression of things. She was going to keep living here, and we were going to keep having amazing sex, so of course she should be my girlfriend. I wanted that, and I was glad that she did, too.

  We both must have drifted off to sleep, a little bit, anyway, because the next thing I knew I could hear a phone ringing. For a second, I thought it was part of the very lucid dream I was having, but then I felt Tessa stirring next to me. I opened my eyes as Tessa was groping for her phone on the bedside table.

  “It’s my dad,” she said blearily, looking at the screen. “I should probably answer this.”

  She sat up, the sheet sliding off her, her bare shoulder exposed. “Hello?” she said tentatively.

  I lay back and let myself doze, half-listening to Tessa’s side of the conversation.

  “Thanks,” she was saying. “Yeah. It was a lot of hard work. But I’m happy with all the grades I got, too.”

  There was a long pause.

  “Um . . . well, sure,” she said, sounding surprised. “If that’s something you want to do. Tonight? Uh, yeah, I think we could . . . hold on one second.” She brought the phone down, and I pried one eye open and looked at her.

  “What’s up?” I said.

  “Soooo . . . my parents are coming to the city this afternoon to see some friends, and then they want to take us out to dinner.”

  “Us? As in the two of us?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. Is tonight okay? Are you cool with that?”

  “Sure,” I said. It was probably a good sign, an extending of the olive branch, if her father was calling, wanting to take us both out to dinner.

>   But when Tessa got off the phone, I could tell she was anxious about meeting up with her parents tonight. She tried to lay back next to me but her leg started fidgeting and then she started chewing on her cuticles, and finally she wriggled out from my arms and got up.

  “Are you freaking out?” I asked. “Because it kind of seems like you’re freaking out. You look hot, but I don’t want you to be stressed about this. It’ll be fine.”

  She was wrestling with her T-shirt, which had gotten twisted and turned half inside out. “Of course I’m freaking out,” she said. “My dad calling like that was probably the last thing I ever expected. And him wanting to take us out to dinner is . . . I don’t know, kind of weird, don’t you think?” She yanked the T-shirt over her head.

  “It might be a good sign,” I said. “It’s not like he called and is wanting to meet just me down some dark alley or something. I think enough time has probably gone by that your father realizes how much he misses you, and now that school is out and he’s seen you’ve managed to keep your grades up, he’s probably going to apologize for being so hard on you. That’s what I think.”

  She tried to force a smile. “I hope you’re right, then.”

  All right, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous about the dinner. I was never that interested in doing the whole meeting of the parents thing, but if things went well tonight, I knew it could go a long way in repairing Tessa’s relationship with her mom and dad.

  We met them at Sunset, which was a nice, bistro-type place, though not too over the top. They were waiting out front for us.

  “Nice to meet you,” Tessa’s dad said, firmly shaking my hand.

  “Likewise,” I said. There was an awkward silence.

  “Great,” Tessa’s mother said, clapping her hands together. “Why don’t we go inside. This is one of my favorite places.”

  Inside, the hostess led us into the dining room, and we were seated at a linen-covered table. Tessa sat to my right; her father was directly across from me. Wine was immediately ordered, and when our waitress brought the bread basket over, Tessa snatched a roll out and started pulling it apart.