The Feisty One: A Billionaire Bride Pact Romance

by Checketts, Cami

  Mama Porter brought their food and found the two of them in a staring contest that he didn’t want to end.

  Mama babied Maryn through the short meal and to her credit, Maryn didn’t complain, though she did roll her eyes or pull a face at Tuck a couple of times. “That’s enough, thank you,” Maryn said, obviously exhausted after sitting up to drink some broth and eating a few pieces of cheese and orange.

  Mama helped her lay back down and then took her tray to the kitchen. “I’ll be back for yours in a minute,” she told Tucker.

  “I can bring it down. Thank you, Mama.”

  She nodded, smiling as she looked back and forth between the two of them for a minute then disappeared out the door.

  Maryn closed her eyes and lay still. Tuck felt instant relief that the questions were put on hold for a little while. He wanted to trust her, to share with her, but it was terrifying at the same time. There were parts of his story that not even Mama Porter and Braxton knew. Johnson was the only one who could relate and commiserate.

  “Don’t think you’re off the hook, big guy,” Maryn whispered sleepily. “I’m taking a short nap then I’m done with this wallowing in pain, and my focus is on getting to know my new friend, Tuck.”

  Tuck couldn’t resist leaning forward, brushing the hair from her face, and kissing her cheek. Maryn’s lips turned up in a smile.

  “I think we’re going to be good friends, you and I,” Maryn said then her breathing evened out and within thirty seconds she was snoring.

  Tuck chuckled to himself. This tiny beauty snored? Who would’ve guessed that? He liked that he knew that about her but liked even more that she did it. He ate all of his chicken noodle soup and ham sandwich then allowed himself to lean back in the chair and watch her sleep. His eyelids drifted closed and he’d never felt so at peace in his life.

  Maryn’s eyes flittered open and she forgot for a second why she was in this huge, comfortable bed that smelled like a fine-looking member of the male species, looking out windows with nothing but white. Then she saw Tucker, fast asleep in an overstuffed chair and smiled. The memory of why she got in this bed wasn’t good, but she was excited to get to know this man better. She’d been much too forward earlier when she’d told him her desire to learn everything, but he’d have to believe she was drug-addled and forgive her. Not that she’d give up on her quest to know this man’s secrets. Amazingly, it wasn’t for the article, but because Tuck was so impressive.

  She moved to rub her hands together like she always did when she was excited and bit her lip to hold in the cry of pain. Okay, don’t stretch the arms too far. She was feeling pretty good for someone who was attacked by a bear only the night before. Her head was a little woozy still and her body ached like she’d been beat up, but as long as she didn’t move in certain ways the stitches weren’t bad.

  Mama Porter and Tuck had treated her like an invalid after she used the bathroom. She grinned. Not that she’d minded Tuck picking her up in those burly arms and then kissing her on the cheek. The attraction between them was like nothing she’d experienced before. Laying her head on his chest had been a natural action and wowzers, what a chest it was. James was the only man she’d been close to the past few months and though he had a nice build it was a honed in the gym and on a surfboard kind of build. Tuck’s strength was part of who he was. She wouldn’t be surprised if he chopped wood every morning and slung bales of hay around.

  Ha! Like billionaire Tucker Shaffer was a part-time farmer.

  She pushed her way to sitting and only cried out a little. Tuck jumped from his chair, landing in a half-crouch with his hands splayed out. “Don’t move. I’ll help you.”

  Maryn laughed. “I’m fine, Tuck.”

  His dark eyes swung over her frame and for some reason Maryn blushed. Straightening and lowering his hands, he said, “You’re fine, but you’re not fine.”

  “Now that made sense,” she teased.

  He grinned. “What do you need?”

  “I’m just ready to stand up and move around a bit. My hip fell asleep from lying on my side.”

  “Okay. Should I lift you or just support you?”

  Maryn thought of those large hands lifting her out of the bed earlier. She didn’t want to be a wussy female, but he was very capable. “Just do what you did earlier. That didn’t hurt the stitches.”

  Wrapping his hands underneath her arms, he easily lifted her to solid footing. Her face was inches away from his chest. Maryn glanced up, holding his gaze and enjoying having him near when she was upright and semi-lucid.

  “Thanks,” she whispered, her voice much huskier than it should’ve been. She cleared her throat.

  Tuck stepped back and grabbed a water bottle. “Do you need this?”

  She nodded. Tuck lifted it to her lips and squeezed a bit in. Earlier he’d done something similar to give her pain meds, but it hadn’t felt nearly so intimate.

  “Do you want to just stand for a few minutes?” He grasped her right elbow as if to support her.

  Maryn should’ve told him she didn’t need him to hold her up, she was feeling okay just standing here, but she liked his touch too much to say anything. “Could we go down to the basement and check on Max? I want to thank him for saving my life.”

  “I thought I was the one who saved your life.” The glint in Tucker’s eyes told her he was teasing. “Are you sure you’re up to that many stairs?”

  “If I’m not, I’m sure you’ll carry me.”

  He lifted his eyebrows and then swept her off her feet before she could tell him she’d been teasing. Maryn couldn’t lift her hands too high without tugging at unhealed flesh so she placed them both against that well-formed chest. Tuck grinned down at her and walked toward the stairs.

  “Okay. That worked out well for me. I might have to keep you around as my own personal body lifter.”

  Tuck chuckled. “You don’t strike me as the helpless sort.”

  “True. But you have to admit this is kinda fun.” She licked her lips and blinked up at him.

  “More than kinda,” he whispered, almost too quiet for her to hear.

  Maryn leaned in close to him so she didn’t keep flirting and embarrass him too much as he easily descended the four sets of stairs to reach the basement. This house was a bit massive for her, but she wasn’t going to complain about all this time spent in Tuck’s arms. Her heart was beating quickly and happy nerve endings instead of the stinking pain receptors were firing at triple speed.

  At the far north side of the sprawling basement there was an entrance to a lower garage. The space was full of snowmobiles, four-wheelers, side by sides, and a brown dog.

  The dog ran up to them. Tuck sat Maryn on her feet and she bent down and gently stroked his head. “Max. Thank you.”

  Max tilted his head up and barked. Tucker buried his fingers in the dog’s fur. “She’s a good pup, isn’t she?”

  “She? You’ve been letting me call a girl a boy and what kind of a name is Max for a girl?”

  “Maxine,” Tuck explained. “After Johnson’s favorite grandmother. I think I told you earlier, but you were pretty drugged.”

  “Gotcha.” Maryn shook her head. She glanced over the dog’s body, seeing bits of shaved fur and stitches. “Did she suffer much?”

  “She did fine. Braxton took good care of her and you can see she’s already running around like nothing happened.”

  “What a good girl.” Maryn stroked her head some more, but then her legs wobbled and she would’ve fallen if Tuck hadn’t wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held on. “Whew and I haven’t even been drinking.”

  Tuck held her steady for a second. “You’re trying to do too much, let’s get you back to bed.”

  “No, please. Couldn’t we go sit in your lovely sunroom for a bit?”

  Tuck gently lifted her off her feet and carried her back up the stairs. Maryn was feeling tired, but she was not ready to lie back in the bed. She wanted to talk to Tuck and pretend everything wa
s normal for a minute. He walked through the main area and Mama Porter beamed at them from the kitchen. “Oh, it’s good to see you up and about.”

  “I’m not really up. Tuck’s having to carry me everywhere like a baby.”

  “You’ll get your strength back soon.” She bustled from one pot to the other. “Supper’s almost ready. Do you want me to bring it upstairs?”

  “Sure,” Tuck said.

  “Could we please eat in the sunroom again?” Maryn asked him.

  “Um, sure. If you’re feeling up to it.”

  Mama Porter opened the door for them and Tuck settled her into a comfortable chair. She had to be careful not to put too much pressure on her back or left side, but it felt good to be sitting up. She glanced out the windows at a vastly different scene from yesterday when they’d had dinner in here. The sun was still obscured by clouds and everything was covered in soft white. The trees all had a comfortable blanket of snow and the river trickled merrily with ice on the edges and snow covering any exposed rocks.

  “It’s beautiful,” Maryn said, “but who gets snow in October?”

  “Crazy, huh? But I like it. It’s very different from our other homes.”

  “You say ours like this isn’t all yours.”

  “It’s not.” He studied her and took a long breath before admitting, “Brax, Johnson, and Mama all own shares of my properties and a lot of my investments and products are in their names.”

  Maryn leaned back in surprise. Pain shot through her lower back and she quickly righted herself, swallowing a murmured ouch. “Why?” He’d said something yesterday about putting different products in their names, but she hadn’t realized to what extent he’d shared his wealth.

  “I’d have none of this without them, especially Johnson who’s the reason Friend Zone is so successful.” He shook his head. “Johnson would be the first to say he didn’t do much, but he did and without Johnson and Brax’s business sense and all of them believing in me I would’ve given up a long time ago.”

  Maryn shook her head. “You’ve got a backbone of steel Tucker Shaffer. I don’t think the word give up is in your vocabulary.”

  He rubbed his hand along the metal table and didn’t respond.

  “Why is Johnson the reason for Friend Zone’s success?”

  He leaned back in his chair. “Are you up for a story?”

  Maryn nodded. “You know I love stories.”

  “I don’t know near enough about you, Maryn.” His dark eyes bore into her as if challenging her to spill all her secrets. She was definitely tempted.

  “If you’re a good boy, I might tell you more.”

  Tuck arched an eyebrow and smiled. The little scar appeared at the corner of his lip and Maryn had a hard time not licking her lips.

  “I look forward to it.” He paused and said, “Tell me just one secret about you, something not many people know about Maryn Howe.”

  Maryn smiled, liking that he wanted to know. She thought for a minute. He didn’t need to hear her boo-hoo of a childhood, wishing she had a dad, being poor, watching her mom clean and sometimes be a step above a prostitute to improve their situation, Alyssa and her father giving Maryn what her mom couldn’t and then Alyssa’s dad turning into a scumbag. She wondered about that one, maybe he was a scumbag all along and they just hadn’t recognized it until they grew older. Thinking of Alyssa and her dad, reminded her of a story she could share.

  “My best friend’s dad used to pay for me to go to girl’s camp with her every summer. I met some of my best friends during those weeks.” She thought about all of them. Besides Facebook posts and messages, she really only stayed in touch with Alyssa, Haley, and MacKenzie. Haley came to visit occasionally. She would take her adorable boy to Disneyland and stay at Maryn’s apartment to save money. “One night, Erin, she was kind of our official leader, came up with a silly pact. We all swore we were going to marry billionaires or we’d have to sing the Camp Wallakee song at our wedding.”

  Tucker tilted his head to the side. “There aren’t that many billionaires in the world.”

  “Not that I’ve met.”

  “Lucky you met me.” He blushed and rushed on, “Singing a camp song doesn’t seem like an awful punishment for failing.”

  Maryn thought it was very lucky she met him, but not because of the Billionaire Bride Pact. She couldn’t care less if she ever fulfilled it. “We were twelve and on a sugar rush. But you should hear the song, it’s wicked embarrassing, there are even these screeching caws at the end, and we can’t tell anyone why we’re singing it.”

  “That would be embarrassing.”

  “Yeah, it would.” She shifted in her chair and tried not to wince. “But I always argued that my idea was a better punishment,” she rushed on so Tuck wouldn’t say something about her hurting. “I said if we didn’t marry a billionaire the punk we married had better be a hottie and all the other girls got to kiss our husband at our wedding.”

  “Seems like a punishment for the husband.”

  “No, my friends are cute.” She winked.

  Tuck elevated his eyebrows. “So if you marry a billionaire it’s only for the money because he couldn’t possibly be a hottie?”

  Maryn blushed. “No, no. I was just young and saying if the dude was poor he’d better be cute, but after meeting you I realize you can be a billionaire and a hottie too. I mean.” Her eyes widened. “Well, I didn’t mean, but I did mean. Oh, heavens.” Her tongue was looser than ever. She needed to stop all pain meds.

  Tuck grinned. “So, do you plan on marrying a billionaire?”

  “No.” She shook her head, though she couldn’t resist watching his reaction. He leaned closer to her and waited. “It’s more of a joke to me. Some of my friends have married wealth. One’s already divorced, but my best friend Alyssa is really happy. No, the pact is more something for my boyfriend to tease me about…” She trailed off again as his eyes widened.

  “You have a boyfriend?”

  “No, um, not really.” Okay, no more pain meds no matter how bad it hurt. How could she have said something about James? “I’m going to stop talking now.”

  “How do you ‘not really’ have a boyfriend?” His dark eyes were so intense and probing hers as if he could read the deeper meaning she didn’t want to explain.

  Maryn decided honesty was the only option she had if she wanted Tucker to share things with her. “My editor, James.” She sighed then continued, “We date off and on and he asks me to marry him all the time, but it’s not like a boyfriend because I’ve never allowed it to be, even though he wants it to be. He’s just a really good friend who has always been there for me. You probably think I’m awful, flirting with you when I may or may not have a boyfriend.”

  “I don’t think you’re awful, I just… hoped you were unattached.”

  “I am.” She smiled, hoping he would believe her. She had vowed in her terror of the bear attack to marry James, but she thought the Lord would understand she wasn’t ready for marriage. She could be a saint on her own. “It’s more of a convenience thing for both of us. We work together so it’s easy to go to parties or dinner and sometimes he tries to make more of it than there is. I’ve only kissed him a few times and it wasn’t that fabulous.” Her cheeks reddened but she was committed now. “We don’t have the… sparks that a couple who’s dating should have.” The sparks she’d felt with the man seated across from her who she barely knew and he hadn’t even tried to kiss her. Except on the hand and the cheek. She savored those remembrances.

  He nodded, but seemed unconvinced.

  “So, you got your Maryn Howe secret, please tell me a story.” Maryn was dying to know more about him. “You and Johnson?”

  He clasped his hands together. “It’s kind of a long story.”

  “Perfect.” Better if she didn’t talk and say anything else that might push this man away. She wanted to grow closer to him in every sense of the word. Shifting in her seat to get more comfortable, she ignored the wave of exh
austion.

  “Are you feeling okay?”

  “I’m awesome.” She was a liar and his eyes said he knew that. “Story, please.”

  “Okay.” He studied her for a few seconds, shook his head, and then began, “My dream my entire life was to play football. San Diego Chargers were my team.”

  “Really? They haven’t been that great.”

  “I know, but you’ve got to be loyal to your team.”

  “True. Broncos fan myself.”

  “Not a bad choice. If you would’ve said Raiders I might’ve thrown you out of the house.” His cheek crinkled when he grinned.

  “Ha! No worries. They’re at the bottom of the pile for me.” She paused then said, “So when did you start playing football?”

  “Never. None of my foster parents would pay the fees and I was too shy to ask for assistance at school.” He glanced down again. “I was a really chubby kid and got teased a lot so I withdrew into computer games.”

  Maryn swallowed. Her heart went out to a young Tucker, shuffled from home to home, overweight and awkward and nobody cared enough to pay for his dreams. So sad.

  “I started having all kinds of ideas for how I could improve the games I was playing, so I began designing code and getting involved in a lot of online sites that taught me what to do. I created a few games that made a little money, enough that I bought my own Mac and could hole up in my room and work for hours on end.” He stood and started pacing the room.

  Maryn loved his energy. She couldn’t imagine how this strong body could be holed up, miserable and overweight and designing computer games for hours on end. “Did they even check on you?”

  He shrugged. “None of my families were awful to me. They were just busy and figured they’d done me a favor giving me shelter, food, and clothing. Usually they appreciated how quiet and easy I was. I’d only get moved to a new home when there were overcrowding issues.”