Heart of the Billionaire:

by J. S. Scott

  “I still can’t believe Max is your brother. Although now that I know, you two both have the same unusual eyes and I can see the resemblance,” Kara mused.

  “I still can’t believe it myself, but I’m happy. I just wish he wasn’t so sad. He must have loved his wife very much,” Maddie answered.

  “I think he must have, but I really don’t know. She died before Simon and I got together,” Kara answered thoughtfully.

  Trying to lighten the conversation, Maddie asked, “So when are you coming home?”

  “Next Thursday. And I still have the weekend off, so we can shop since you aren’t allowed to work weekends at the clinic anymore,” Kara replied with laughter in her voice.

  Maddie smiled. Sam wanted her home on the weekends, and she had agreed. They would both be busy Monday thru Friday. Just being at the clinic every single weekday was enough to make her ecstatically happy. There would be a doctor available on Saturdays to see patients who couldn’t make it to the clinic during the week, but it wouldn’t be her. However, she could review the weekend records and they would all be her patients.

  She had just finished her last shift at the hospital. Starting Monday, she would finally be back in her clinic.

  “Like I really need to shop?” Maddie asked Kara in a disgruntled voice. “There isn’t a damn thing Sam hasn’t bought me, including this brand new SUV. He needs to stop.”

  “Um…hate to remind you of this…but aren’t you the one who gave me a lecture about the fact that I needed to deal with the fact that I was marrying one of the richest men in the world? I think you even said that I should let him spend his money on me because it makes him feel like he’s protecting me,” Kara reminded Maddie mischievously.

  “Dammit. Yeah. I did say that,” Maddie mumbled. She had given Kara that lecture, but it felt so much different when it was Sam giving her things.

  “I hope we’re back before you guys need the jet for your honeymoon. At the rate Sam is moving, you might be married by morning,” Kara joked.

  “He’d just get another one,” Maddie said, bursting into laughter. “He’s pretty damn capable of getting anything he wants.”

  “I take it you wouldn’t protest,” Kara said with a chuckle.

  Turning onto the street where Sam’s house was located, she answered, “No. Honestly, I don’t think I would.” It was the honest truth. She wanted Sam just that much. She’d marry him in a heartbeat.

  “Just don’t get married without us,” Kara warned. “We want to be there.”

  “I think we can wait,” Maddie answered with a smile.

  “You better. And we will be shopping for dresses next weekend.”

  “Okay, okay. We’ll go shopping,” Maddie told her friend happily as she turned into Sam’s long driveway. “Have fun and take care of my godchild.”

  “It’s been lovely,” Kara said with a sigh. “But I miss being home and I miss you.”

  “I miss you, too,” Maddie replied softly.

  “See ya Thursday.”

  “Can you and Simon stop over?” Maddie asked as she brought her vehicle to a halt.

  “Are you kidding? We’ll be there as soon as we get home. We need to catch up. Later, girlfriend.”

  “Later,” Maddie agreed, disconnecting the call and cutting the engine.

  Sam’s Bugatti was parked in the driveway, so Maddie knew he was home. Her heart leaped in anticipation, impatient to see his handsome face, bask in the warmth of his presence.

  As she stepped out of the SUV, she marveled at how much her life had changed in such a short period of time. Before, she had dreaded going home to her empty house, her vacant personal life. Now, she couldn’t get home fast enough, couldn’t be with Sam quickly enough to satisfy her need to see him.

  I’m not alone anymore.

  Maddie knew her life was finally complete.

  Bounding up the marbled steps, she unlocked and opened the door, feeling like she was finally home.

  Chapter 15

  Maddie stepped into the shower with a delighted sigh, letting the decadent jets massage her body everywhere. She was tempted to linger, but her need to see Sam was greater than the pleasure of feeling the hot water relaxing her body. The temptation to go to the kitchen first had been almost irresistible. She could smell something delicious cooking, and she knew he was there. But she hadn’t showered at the hospital and needed to remove the stench and germs she accumulated during her long workday before she saw him, so she’d tiptoed through the house to the bathroom.

  Quickly washing her unruly hair, she had just starting spreading shower gel over her entire body when she felt the hard, unyielding presence of Sam’s body pressing against her back. He turned her, letting her back rest against the wall and two muscular arms caged her in, his palms resting against the wall of the enclosure on both sides of her.

  Glancing up at him, Maddie’s whole body started to quake as her gaze roamed over his fierce expression, his eyes so intense and covetous that her body nearly melted into puddle of liquid heat at his feet.

  He was so big, so hot and so hers.

  “I love you, Maddie. I love you so much that sometimes I can hardly breathe.” His hoarse voice was raw and emotional, raspy and rough. “I should have said those words years ago. I don’t know why I didn’t. God knows you deserve better, but you have all of me, every possession I own and everything that I am. I don’t know if that’s good or bad…but it’s the truth. I don’t exist without you.”

  Maddie swallowed hard, her eyes riveted to his. This was Sam, unrefined and unpolished, the core of the man she loved. And he had never been so scorching hot as he was at this very moment, his entire being bared to her.

  Tears flowed from Maddie’s eyes, mingling with the water from the shower. She lifted a hand and ran her palm over his cheek. “I love you, too. I always have. I never forgot you and I don’t think there was a day that I didn’t think of you,” she admitted honestly.

  Hearing Sam say that he loved her nearly made her come undone. Yes, she knew he loved her, but hearing his primitive declaration had her heart fluttering in an unsteady pulse and her breath coming in and out of her lips in ragged puffs.

  “I love you, Sunshine. I love you. I swear I’ll make up for every time I didn’t tell you by telling you so much that you’ll get sick of hearing it,” he whispered in a husky voice next to her ear as he lowered his head to nip at her ear lobe.

  Not possible. Maddie knew she could never get tired of hearing Sam tell her how much he loved her. She couldn’t regret the fact that she had never had those particular words said to her before, because Sam had been the first to say them, and it was almost surreal.

  His mouth covered hers, stealing her breath, mastering her lips, thrusting his tongue between her teeth. Sam’s effect on Maddie was to take every bit of rational thought she may have had right from her head.

  Steam rose all around them, and pulsating jets of water assaulted their bodies, but Maddie felt nothing but Sam and his relentless assault on her senses. As he plundered her mouth, her arms snaked around his neck, trying to bring him closer. Every emotion she had ever hidden was laid bare as his hands came to hold her head in place for his desperate embrace. Fisting her hands into his wet hair, a strangled sob escaped her lips, vibrating against his mouth.

  He pulled back, pulling his lips from hers. “Maddie. What is it? What have I done?” Sam’s voice was worried.

  “Nothing,” she sobbed. “I’m just so very happy. I need you so much.”

  Resting one arm beside her head and tipping her chin up with the other hand, his eyes clashed with hers, leaving his emotions open to her.

  Desire.

  Need.

  Love.

  His expression showed all of that and more.

  “I want you to love me and need me, Sunshine. If you didn’t I don’t know what I’d do. I’d probably fucking lose it. Need me, Maddie. Please.”

  His hands moved between them and cupped her breasts, weigh
ing them in his palms, his thumbs flicking her nipples into hard pebbles.

  Maddie moaned, her pussy flooding with furious heat, desire to have Sam inside her burning her up. “Sam. Please.”

  “I interrupted your shower. Now I’ll finish it and then I’ll finish you,” he told her wickedly, filling his hands with gel and moving them both slightly away from the jets so he could stroke the slippery fluid over her skin. His fingers danced and stroked, massaged and teased, gliding over her breasts and circling her nipples until she arched into his palms, begging for more.

  He kept her back against the wall and she slapped her palms against it, trying to stay on her feet as she felt his slick fingers slip between her thighs, teasing the saturated folds of her begging pussy.

  “Yes. Please.” She whimpered as he run one finger up and down her folds, making her insane to feel him possess her.

  “You’re so hot, Sunshine. I love those needy sounds you make for me. Only for me. I love the fact that I can make you come when no other man ever has. And no-one has, right?” he demanded.

  “No. Never.” Shit. Maddie’s body was on fire, her need for Sam taking complete control. “Fuck me, Sam. Make me come. I need it. I need you.”

  One hand played at her breasts, moving from one to the other, torturing her with erotic pleasure. His other hand stroked her mound, his fingers slowly delving deeper and deeper into her folds.

  “Touch me. Please,” Maddie begged, needing him to stop teasing her and stroke her harder, faster.

  “I love you, Maddie. I love you,” he said harshly as his fingers drove deep, his index and middle finger sinking into her needy channel as his thumb massaged her clit.

  “Yes. More. Please.” Maddie’s hips undulated, begging for him.

  His fingers pumped as his thumb increased its friction on her throbbing clit. “Come for me. I want to watch you take your pleasure. Take it,” he commanded.

  Her whole body quaking, she shattered. Her muscles clenched around his fingers as they filled her, over and over.

  Maddie was so lost that she started when Sam lifted her, hands around her ass, and impaled her with his cock.

  “Fuck yeah. You’re going to come again for me. Around my cock this time,” he rasped, his low voice vibrating with need. “Wrap your legs all the way around me.”

  Maddie had instinctively lifted her legs and put her arms around his neck when he had lifted her, but she wrapped them tighter, loving the slick feel of their flesh sliding together, the gel still not rinsed from her body. “Sam, oh God, you feel so good.”

  His cock filled her completely, and she shivered from the sensation. Surrounded by heat and steam, their bodies hungry, they both groaned with erotic, feral desire as he began to thrust.

  He took her with a combination of primal need and raw possessiveness that had her breathless. Each stroke was a claiming, a branding of her body, and his dominance nearly made her come apart.

  “Tell me you need me. Tell me you’re mine,” he growled as he drove her higher and hotter with every stroke.

  “I love you. I’ll always need you,” she agreed with a whimper, her belly clenching, feeling her climax building to a frightening intensity.

  “Fuck. There’s nothing better than being inside you. You’re mine, Sunshine. You always have been mine,” he rumbled, his voice fierce.

  Maddie gasped as he pummeled in and out of her with a desperation that nearly bordered on madness, a carnal passion that had her exploding into a climax that tore through her body with so much intensity that she threw back her head and screamed.

  Holding her ass with one muscular arm, he kept up his brutal pace, letting her orgasm massage his cock while he fisted one hand in her wet hair and swallowed her scream, spearing his tongue into her mouth, owning her pleasure.

  He buried his cock deeply inside her as his own hot release exploded into her womb, and he released his own tortured groan against her lips.

  Panting, Maddie lowered her legs to the ground, keeping her arms around Sam’s neck to support her trembling lower limbs.

  They stood just like that for quite some time, both of them unable to think, unable to speak, their bodies still connected.

  Finally, Maddie whispered in a tremulous voice. “That was almost frightening.”

  Sam cuddled her close to him, lowered his mouth to her ear and whispered back, “No, love. That was absolute perfection.” His voice was hoarse and held a touch of awe.

  Maddie sighed, knowing she couldn’t have expressed it any better than that.

  *****

  “We’re getting married soon,” Sam growled as he took a gulp of wine and speared Maddie with a relentless stare.

  Maddie was so content she could hardly move. She had just cleaned her plate and was enjoying her wine at the table. Sam had fed her linguini with an awesome alfredo sauce and shrimp. Really, the man could cook, and there was something really hot about a guy who could master a kitchen.

  I think it’s hot when he masters me too. Shit. Sam was just plain…hot.

  Maddie stared back at him with a complacent expression. “How soon?”

  “Tomorrow,” he answered hopefully. “We could fly to Vegas.”

  “Your mother, Max, Kara and Simon would never forgive us,” Maddie mused, her heart skittering at the thought of belonging to Sam.

  “This is about us, Sunshine. Not them. And I’ve waited long enough. I’ve wanted you to be mine almost from the first moment I saw you,” he answered in a husky voice. “Did I tell you I love you?”

  Yeah. About a hundred times since the shower. But I’m not counting. And it makes my heart sing every single time.

  “Mmmm…I’m not sure. Maybe you should tell me again,” she murmured.

  “I could tell you a hundred different ways and show you in so many more, but I got you a constant reminder just in case you forget,” he answered hesitantly, pulling a small box from the pocket of his jeans.

  Maddie’s gaze fixated on the box for a moment before she shook herself and reached for it. Sam moved, crouching in front of her and took her extended hand, opening the box himself. “I’ve loved you forever, Maddie. Please marry me.”

  Stunned, Maddie simply stared at the beautiful ring in a bed of black velvet, a piece of jewelry so beautiful and so perfect she was almost afraid to touch it. She had never owned anything so fine, but it wasn’t the value of the diamonds, it was the sentiment. The heart-shaped diamond was exquisite, but she knew it had a deeper meaning, one Sam was trying to express with this piece of jewelry.

  “You’re supposed to say yes now,” Sam said in a graveled voice.

  “Yes,” she replied breathlessly, her eyes lifting to his face, her smile tremulous. She couldn’t help the tears that flowed down her cheeks as she stared at the man who had always been her destiny. It was difficult not to believe in fate right at this moment. Two souls that had been meant to be together had somehow managed to find each other again, even though the odds were definitely stacked against them.

  Sam took the ring out of the box, dropped the container on the table, and handed her the ring. “I had it engraved.”

  She took it gently, holding the circle sideways so she could see what it said.

  First And Always…I Love You

  Choking back a sob, she asked, “How did you know you were the first to say it?”

  “I saw your journals today. I read some of the entries. I shouldn’t have, but I did,” he admitted sheepishly.

  Maddie smiled, unable to help herself. She loved his honesty, the way he had come right out and unhesitatingly confessed what he had done. No, he shouldn’t have read her journals, but she had nothing to hide from Sam and she never would. “I forgot about them. I’ve been journaling for years. I probably should have boxed those up myself.”

  “I did. I didn’t want anyone knowing you like that except me,” he said jealously as he took her hand and slid the ring onto her finger. “Now tell me you’ll marry me tomorrow,” he demanded as he sto
od, pulling her up and into his warm embrace.

  “Sam, we can’t-”

  “Oh yeah. We can.” He swung her up into his arms.

  Maddie squealed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Sam, what are you-”

  “No more talk. It’s time to do some convincing,” he grumbled.

  Maddie stifled a laugh, remembering how she had told him to convince her instead of ordering her.

  Relaxing into his big, warm, muscular body, she breathed him in, absorbing the essence that was uniquely Sam.

  Somehow…she had a feeling she would end up married by tomorrow if Sam got his way. And as she examined his determined gaze, she knew she would never be able to say no. Honestly…she didn’t want to. She and Sam had waited so very long to be together.

  As he bounded up the stairs, Maddie almost told him yes, but stopped herself before the words left her lips.

  Am I crazy? I have the hottest man on the planet taking me to bed to convince me to marry him tomorrow.

  Maddie decided to wait and let him do some sensual persuasion. The yes was a given, but it could come later….much later.

  Epilogue

  Sam and Maddie were married the next evening, the ceremony private. Their wedding was a joyous union of two souls that had always been meant for each other. Soul mates who had finally found the peace that comes with being side by side, after years of separation, pain and desolation.

  Sam had had no problem arranging a jet to fly to Vegas. He’d called Max and his friend had promptly had his readied, no questions asked.

  Maddie had made a few token protests, but not very many. Honestly, the ceremony had been a private healing, an experience that had meant so much after the years of pain and separation she and Sam had experienced.

  They would have a grand reception later, an event that Kara was already planning as Maddie lay in the arms of her new husband, her mind and spirit rejoicing in her union with Sam.

  “I can’t believe we’re married,” she breathed softly, her voice full of wonder and awe.

  “You’re mine. Forever,” Sam growled back, holding her tighter against him as they lay in the enormous bed in their hotel suite. They would fly back to Tampa tomorrow. Sam wanted to take her on a long honeymoon, but they would do that later, after the reception.