One Night Stand with a Billionaire

by Ayla D. Viktoreva

  Guilty.

  “Sorry for troubling you.”

  “Stop apologizing. It’s all Max’s fault, not yours.” And then he glared at his friend. For once, we actually agreed on something. Sure, blame it on Max.

  “You go ahead of me and find Ayden. I’ll get your revenge on Max. Shoo now,” he said as he put me down. There it was again, playful Blake with his weird choice of words.

  “But…but…” Max protested before smirking when Blake took a pillow. I had a feeling that whatever was about to start…

  “You know what this means?” he asked, playing with the pillow menacingly. “War!”

  “I do.” Max got another pillow. “And I have no intention of losing it!”

  It was something I most definitely didn’t want to be part of. Or I’d die.

  “Go. I’ll cover you!” Blake said, shielding me from Max’s view. “Get her out of here, grandpa!”

  Huh?

  “Yes, sir!” was all George said before he suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me out of there. “Trust me, you don’t want to see the war of the Blackburns.” And I hesitatingly nodded as I followed behind him. Wait, war of the Blackburns? Was Max somehow related to them?

  It was then that I heard sounds of crashes making me forget my previous question.

  “I guess it started,” he mumbled. “Welcome to our family!”

  What the hell were the two of them doing?

  “Don’t worry about the two of them. This is nothing compared to the old days, really. One day, we were having a water war, and the whole mansion had gotten soaked, and they destroyed the paintings. Oh, the paintings they destroyed…Marine made them clean the whole house because of it. She was really passionate about them.”

  “She must have been a scary sister to Blake, right?” I asked hesitantly. She sounded interesting.

  “You know about her?” he asked surprised, and I nodded.

  “Blake told me about her…well, at least, as much as he could. I didn’t want to pressure him, so it’s not like I know much about her.” I left the sentence hanging in the air as he smiled. Blake told me that he would tell me one day, which was why I was going to wait. There was no need for me to keep on urging him to talk about it. Losing someone dear to you invokes huge pain that just doesn’t leave.

  And I experienced it myself firsthand.

  “That’s…surprising. I don’t know what you did, but he never talks about her. I guess I should thank you for making him open up to you, dear,” he said, and I weakly blushed.

  “It’s nothing I guess…” It was surely a coincidence. I was hurting, and it reminded him of his own pain, so he spoke about it. If it were under normal circumstances, I’m sure he would have kept quiet.

  What did I even mean to him?

  “Nothing my arse, dear.” He chuckled, making me widen my eyes. I think I found out from whom did Blake get his interesting dictionary from. “And I would like to apologize as well.”

  “What? No, it’s alright! You haven’t done anything bad,” I rushed as I said truth, but he simply shook his head. That man did nothing wrong to me. There was no need for me to hold resentment for him.

  “Maybe, but my family did treat you terribly. My son almost threw you out.”

  “But you didn’t know, and you tried to stop him, didn’t you? It was maybe my fault that I came in unannounced and I didn’t explain anything.” I recalled Blake’s words. When we do something we were not too proud of, too many scenarios go through our heads.

  I needed to let go.

  “Which is why it’s kind of my fault as well. It is all in the past, I hold no ill thoughts because of it.”

  “What are you talking about, dear? It’s not your fault at all. Don’t burden yourself. I’m older, so I’m wiser. Listen to me. You’re not the one to blame.”

  So unreasonable. But fair.

  “But I still destroyed the party with my speech.”

  “Trust me, if our family knew it all…Let’s just say we would make a much more honest speech. We know them from some party in Austria. I can’t really recall what it was. It’s been two years since we met, so we thought that it might be proper to invite them like all our friends over the world, but we didn’t really expect them to come. They were always traveling around the world,” he explained, and I weakly nodded. Yeah, I knew that.

  “Kay-Kay!” I heard my brother’s voice before I even saw him. We were already in the kitchen, and he rushed toward me.

  “Ade!” I said and caught him and swung him around. “Merry Christmas!”

  “Merry Christmas too, sis!” he exclaimed and giggled. I chuckled. “We’re finally spending a Christmas together?” he asked, and I nodded excitedly.

  “Sorry for leaving yesterday, Ade. I…”

  “Went to sleep earlier so she could get a Christmas present for you from Santa,” Blake’s voice interrupted me as he leaned on the doorframe staring at me intensely. My lips parted. Jesus fucking Christ. It was Blake caveman edition. Has he never heard of clothes? Shirts? Wait! He had some when he came down. When had he lost it?

  “What did you get?” Ignoring Blake like it was normal to walk around the house with your torso naked, Ayden started jumping around me in excitement. I only gave Blake my best yeah-what-did-I-get look, making him grin.

  “You know how your daddy and mommy got together like a family and then you two came?” Blake asked him, and Ade nodded. My face paled. What was he going to say? Nothing good ever came in conversations with kids about how they came to be.

  “Well, your sister got someone to take care of her as well. That means you got yourself an older brother,” he continued, and I sighed in relief. Okay, that I could take.

  “Who is it?” Ade huffed, not liking the idea, making me smile in return. He was so cute and obvious sometimes.

  “Me,” was all Blake had said before Ade smiled. My brother excitedly jumped on Blake and hugged him.

  “Yay, Bwake is my new brother. Thank you, Santa. I promise I’ll be a good kid next year!” he exclaimed, and tears welled up in my eyes. I just couldn’t help but feel emotional when he thought so brightly about the future.

  Home. Safe.

  “Alright then, let’s go,” Blake said, getting up and coming right next to my side.

  “What?” I asked confused and sighed. He only threw me across his shoulders. I was too stunned to do anything.

  “To sleep,” was all he simply said.

  “What?”

  “You saw Ayden. He’s okay and all, so now we can go to sleep. That being said, will you be okay with Amy today, little man?” he asked Ayden. My brother nodded, more than eager to join his friend. Traitor!

  “B-but…What?” I protested as he started moving. Only then did it get to me what he had done, just like the fact that he was carrying me like a sack of potato on his shoulder.

  Caveman Blake, bad Blake.

  “I was lonely without you. Every single bone in my body is aching, and as my future wife, you have to help me when I need you. Who else will?”

  “What?”

  “Everyone, we’re going to sleep, so don’t expect us until dinner. Have a nice day and Merry Christmas.” He started walking back to his old room as George stared at us with an expression too horrified for an old guy to have. Poor man. I believed that his assumptions of “sleep” and those that Blake said were far more different for his heart to handle.

  Me? I was left with only one word on my mind.

  “What?”

  Back then, I believed that going along the flow was the wrong choice, that it would simply stain us bit by bit to that point where we could no longer go back.

  But that was not true. We could all stop. We could all turn around and go back. We just forgot that we had that option as well.

  Chapter 18

  About That Kiss

  Crying is the only way your eyes speak when your mouth can’t explain how broken you are.

  For the second time on that day, I woke up
next to Blake. Or at least, I thought it was still that day.

  The first thing that came to my mind was a single question: Was I going too fast? So many things had happened that I was confused about my own actions. I was never in a relationship before. I was too shy in the past to even kiss a guy, and now I was suddenly pregnant and engaged to a person I knew almost nothing about. I didn’t even know his favorite thing to do. What did he like? Dislike?

  I never bothered to know any of those. I just accepted whatever was thrown my way with a nod. Why was I like that? Was something wrong with me? Why was I different? Was I wrong in some way? All I did was bring disaster wherever I went. I was probably just a burden to Blake. He was free, yet he suddenly had a woman to take care of. I was sure that even he wanted to be freed of me.

  The previous day was so eventful that I’m surprised I could even sleep. And that kiss? The more I tried to ignore the fact that it happened, the more it came back to bite me. I glanced at Blake knowing that I had to ask him what was it all about or I was going to get insane from all those merciless thoughts of mine. I’m not going to lie; he seemed to know what he was doing with that kiss, but then again, why was I even wondering? I mean, it’s Blake we’re talking about. I’d be surprised if that man didn’t know anything.

  What if he were to just say something like “Oh, it was just an ordinary kiss,” or so? How was I supposed to react? I mean, it was my first kiss after all, but somehow, one part of me was glad that it was Blake who took it, not someone else; he was my soon-to-be-husband, and I always wanted to keep it for the guy I’d be marrying. Old fashioned or just foolish, I didn’t know.

  And then again, that statement sounded so wrong.

  Sighing, I tried to get up, but his arm grabbed my waist before bringing me back to his chest.

  There goes getting up.

  “Stay,” he mumbled sheepishly and yawned. I fought my urge to pinch his cheeks at how cute he looked. But I stopped. That was most definitely not the way my thoughts were supposed to go. What was wrong with me? Why was I so relaxed around him? It was not love, I reminded myself. Trust? No, I didn’t think so. I did trust him up to some point but only as much as I could without knowing his real life. Returning to the previous matter, I tried to trick him into getting up.

  “But, Blake, we should get up. We’ve been sleeping for the entire day,” I replied, realizing how long we had been sleeping. I had never slept through an entire day.

  “So what? We said that we’ll be up for dinner, not the rest of the day,” he said, opening his eyes and staring at me intensely. Those blue eyes of his seemed to engulf me. Odd eyes he had; they seemed to have emotions, but when you’d look deeper into them, they seemed like they didn’t know what emotion is at all. I removed my gaze, feeling that if I stared any longer at them, I’d drown in their cold.

  Unknown.

  Yes, Blake was completely an unknown man to me. I could never guess who he really was.

  “Still, it’s not healthy to sleep this much. Last thing we ate was lunch,” I mumbled, trying to hide my discomfort. You don’t know him, my mind reminded me.

  “Are you hungry?” That got his attention as he pulled up. That worked if nothing else. Wait, was I?

  “Not really, but still,” I said, my eyebrow raised in confusion. He stared at me still, and I gulped. I was once again reminded of the effect his eyes had on me.

  “Then there’s nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep, munchkin,” he said and smiled, no more fixated stare as he closed his eyes and fell back on the bed.

  “Munchkin?” I asked once I was able to comprehend his words and shook my head. Only Blake, only Blake.

  “Do you have something better?” he asked, raising his perfectly shaped eyebrow. I needed to ask him how he did that; I couldn’t raise it properly to save my head.

  “Nope. Forget I even asked.” I giggled. This Blake I was familiar with, I could confide in.

  “Can’t promise.” He chuckled. “It’s hard to forget every time you laugh,” he said, his eyebrows wiggling in a way only he could do. A slight blush made its presence known on my cheeks.

  “Sh-shut up,” I said, not coming up with a good comeback.

  “Wow, the day you were left speechless have finally arrived,” he said, turning to me and his head resting on his hand while his hair looked as neat as if he didn’t sleep at all. Suddenly, not feeling too confident in my hair, I moved my hands to somehow style it as passable, knowing that I probably looked like a witch.

  “Yeah, and I can stop talking to you for an entire day as well.” I stuck out my tongue at him, making him roar with laughter as my blush intensified.

  “And just as I thought that I had you.” He sighed once he calmed down, closing his eyes. That’s it; this was my chance. It was now or never.

  “Blake.”

  “Kaley.”

  We both said our names at the same time. A small tug on his lips indicated that he was about to smile, but he stopped himself.

  “Ladies first,” he said, and I nodded, ignoring the whole lady fact. I was here to ask him about the kiss, not start another “I thought I was not a lady” argument with him.

  I didn’t know how to approach him with my question. What would he think of me if I were to ask him something so unusual? I mean, how often do you get asked, “Did the kiss we share mean anything for you?” How was I supposed to begin? Maybe I should’ve just mentioned the kiss and let the story evolve?

  Just ask, coward.

  “Um…It’s…” I bit my lip, and he groaned. “Are you alright?” I wondered if he was in pain.

  “Yes, please continue.” He shook his head, and I shrugged. If he said so.

  “Well…” Fuck everything. Sighing, I decided to get right to the point. “About that kiss…” Even though I wanted to say it loud and confidently, in the end, it sounded like a whisper. And that was not really straight to the point. I didn’t ask what it meant to him.

  “What about it?” he encouraged me for more, raising his eyebrow once again, making him look somehow intimidating in front of me. Or was it because of those eyes that once again remained so focused on me that I felt that way?

  “Well…” My mind stopped.

  “Why are you so confused?” was the first thing he spoke, a frown on his face. It was his usual face I knew so well. “I simply felt like kissing you when I saw you there in front of me, with your lips inviting mine, so there’s nothing much to wonder. I liked it, and I like you,” he said nonchalantly, and I blushed. It was just an ordinary kiss for him after all. Wait, he liked it? And he liked me?

  “Relax now. It was just a little peck. It’s not like it was your first kiss,” he said and smiled. Staring at him with my mouth open and realizing what he’s just said, I immediately covered myself with the blanket. “You gotta be kidding me, seriously?” he asked. No way am I uncovering myself to face him.

  “Shut up,” I said. My blush was in its most intense phase when suddenly, the thin blanket that protected me from his eyes got removed from me, and I gasped.

  “This cannot be allowed to happen. We have to fix that.”

  Yeah, I should undo the time and never ask you about it.

  “First kiss isn’t supposed to be some peck. It’s supposed to be a real kiss.” He looked like a little child who just realized that Santa didn’t exist and wanted to fix that and bring him back. My confusion didn’t falter for a second as he got on top on me, his hands and his legs around my body trying not to crush me. His expression changed from disbelief to pure determination.

  And then it dawned on me.

  Before I had any chance to complain, our lips clashed as if they yearned to meet again.

  His movements were slow. Blake took his time claiming my lips as I gave in to him. I tried to make mine move in sync with his. I didn’t know what to do, so I just tried to go along with the flow. His lips were so gentle and soft that I lost my sense. My hand moved to his neck on its own, my body betraying me for this si
nful pleasure. Everything around me seemed to disappear. Any worry or problem I had was gone from my mind as if I knew of no other action but kissing him.

  Just as I thought that it was all he could offer me, he bit my lip, making me gasp. He seemed to like that since I heard him chuckle above my lips before he, with a swift movement, slipped his tongue into my mouth. My eyes widened.

  Back when I was younger, I would think of it being gross and no-no, but now it seemed so…normal and right like everything seemed to fall back in place. There were no sparks, just a feeling that every movement of our lips being in the right place.

  The pure bliss that had my toes curled stopped when things escalated to another level. His hands had trailed down my sides before I felt the hem of my shirt going up, and panic immediately ringed in my ears.

  No, I couldn’t do it, not now, not again. The moment where I forgot everything became the moment when I remembered everything. The peace and tranquility that came with the kiss changed to fear and panic.

  I did my best trying to wiggle away from his grasp as my eyes got teary, my only thoughts telling me to run from him, and that seemed like it brought him back to some sense. He realized what he had done.

  But it was too late.

  “Shit, sorry.” He was fast to apologize. “I didn’t mean to do that…Please calm down. I’m so sorry.” But his words only brought me more tears. “Fuck, I’m sorry munchkin. Please calm down. Shh, sorry,” he continued as he hugged me. He even kissed my forehead.

  But that couldn’t help. I finally remembered what I had been trying to forget ever since, all the things he did that night to me. It made my stomach flip in fear and want to vomit.

  Shaking my head as I had only one thought on my mind, I escaped from his grasp and rushed to the bathroom before vomiting, though there wasn’t much I could throw up since I hadn’t eaten since yesterday.

  It wasn’t long before I felt his hand moving the strands of my hair behind my ears and gently rubbing my back.

  “Fuck, I forgot about your vitamins and medicines,” he mumbled, rubbing my back with his other hand. Once I was done, he had lifted me up and washed my face. I couldn’t speak. Every time I started to, I’d remember that night.