Beauty and the Billionaire_A Bad Boy Romance Collection

by Cassandra Bloom

  The words rushed out of him, “Then why can’t you? What’s bothering you? Can’t you trust me? I’ve exposed my darkest secrets to you. Haven’t I earned your trust?”

  Alyssa shook her head. She couldn’t look at him through the tears swimming in her eyes. “You have. I only want to protect you. I wish I could tell you. I really do.”

  He glared at her. A black cloud crossed his face. “What do you have to protect me from?”

  “Don’t you see? If I told you, I would be ruining you—and myself. Please don’t ask me. It’s hard enough as it is.”

  He pursed his lips. “Are you telling me you want to be with me and return to New York with me? Are you telling me you want to go all the way with me, and there’s something stopping you? Is that what you’re really saying to me?”

  She raised her eyes to his face. If only she could tell him, maybe everything would be all right. “Yes! God, yes! Don’t you know how much I care about you? These last two weeks have been a torture for me.”

  He snatched her hand and pulled her toward him. “Tell me, Alyssa! Tell me what’s going on. Let me help you solve this, so we can be together.”

  She pulled away. “I can’t. I really wish I could. It’s better if we don’t. We’ll both be safe.”

  He scowled a moment longer. “All right. We better get going, then. Once we get back to JFK, you can go your own way and I won’t bother you anymore.”

  He rang for the bellboy, who wheeled their luggage to the lobby.

  Mason took Alyssa’s hand one last time, but it hung cold and lifeless in her grasp. The connection between them died on that day.

  He led her to the dining room for the last time, and they entered the same old crowd. Alyssa knew a few people here now. She didn’t have to worry about sitting alone with no one to talk to, but he didn’t let go of her hand. He led her to the front of the room to say goodbye to his parents.

  She stood still before the two withered figures. She forced a smile and hugged Mason’s mother.

  His parents bobbed their heads and talked to Mason in Spanish.

  Mason hugged them both and kissed them on the cheeks. His mother patted his face and brushed away tears. He stood back, but just at the moment when he took Alyssa’s hand to lead her away, the crowd parted and Tina stepped into view.

  The woman stood straight and tall, and her eyes flashed with wild fury. She leveled an accusing finger at Mason and Alyssa. She spoke in Spanish rapidly.

  Mason’s father’s eyes almost seemed to pop out of their sockets.

  His mother’s hand flew to her heart.

  Tina then spoke more Spanish then repeated in English, “I looked it up on the internet. Their marriage license is so new it hasn’t even been processed yet.”

  Mason leveled a look of pure murderous hatred at Tina. “Is this your way of bringing our family together?”

  “If anyone is tearing our family apart, it’s you,” Tina growled. “You perpetrated this whole charade on us. You’ve done nothing but flout our family for years.”

  Mason looked back and forth between Tina and Alyssa. “Is this the big secret you’ve been keeping from me all this time?”

  Alyssa stared down at the floor. “I’m sorry, Mason. I wanted to tell you, but she threatened to ruin me along with you. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  Mason clenched his jaw. He shook his head and looked away. “I should have known it was something like that. I should have known this was what was bothering you.”

  Mason’s mother lifted her damp eyes to her son’s face. And pleaded in Spanish.

  Mason squared his shoulders at his parents. He hugged Alyssa around her shoulders. He spoke slowly in his native tongue fi or a full minute or more than he stated it in English, “This is the only wife I’ve ever had, and this is the only wife I’m ever going to have. I love this woman more than anyone I’ve ever loved in my life, and that includes you, Mama and Papa. If I had to choose, I would choose her. I’ll love her forever, and I’ll protect her for life.”

  The old woman turned to Alyssa and asked in stuttering English, “Is…this true? Are you his… wife—his true wife?”

  Alyssa sheltered in his embrace. “Yes, I am. I’m his wife. I love him. I love him more than anything.”

  Tina’s eyes narrowed. “This is all part of their act. They made it up, and they’re acting it out now.”

  Mason faced her. “Is that the best you can do? Is that your way of ending this reunion, by tearing us down?”

  Mason’s mother interrupted. She blinked back tears, but a beautiful smile spread across her wrinkled face as she spoke in broken English and Spanish “Si’. Espousa. Amor. I knew it all along. Look at them. You can see amor in their eyes.” She pressed Alyssa’s hands in both of hers. “Si, si. I knew it. I knew you loved him, my daughter. I knew you were his true espousa.”

  She kissed Alyssa’s hands. Then she kissed her fingertips and held them out to Alyssa. She kissed Mason’s cheeks and petted his hair.

  He kissed her back. “Adios, Mama.”

  After all the embracing, kissing and farewells, Mason escorted Alyssa out of the hotel. The limo waited for them at the front entrance. Mason held the door open for Alyssa, and she slid into the seat.

  As soon as she got settled with Mason at her side, she took his hand.

  They smiled at each other, and they never let go of each other’s hands until they got to the airport. They went through immigration and got their baggage checked in.

  Alyssa sat down in the first-class seat on the plane, and Mason leaned back in his own seat. He sighed and closed his eyes. “I thought that would never end.”

  Alyssa peered at him. “You said you enjoyed it. You said you wanted it to continue forever.”

  He opened his eyes, and they sparkled when he smiled. “And now it will.”

  She looked away, but he turned her chin to face her. “Is that what upset you so much? Were you worried about Tina blowing our cover?”

  Alyssa’s eyes stung all over again. “I never cared about Tina. I just couldn’t stand keeping anything from you. I couldn’t let you love me without telling you. I couldn’t look into your eyes and hold you in my arms with a lie between us.”

  “You didn’t lie. You did it to protect me, and you had every right to protect yourself. What did she say she would do if you told?”

  “She said she would ruin me, that she would dog my footsteps and make sure I never got another decent job. She said—”

  He chopped his hand through the air. “That’s enough. I don’t want to hear anymore.”

  “What if she follows through on her threat? What if she comes after me?”

  “That won’t happen. You’ll be with me. Whatever she does, we’ll face it together.”

  She peered into his face. “Really?” she asked. But she already knew she could trust him completely.

  He leaned close to her face. “Isn’t that what you meant when you told my mother we were married?”

  “Yes. Is that what you meant?”

  “Of course. Haven’t I told you enough times?”

  She couldn’t stop smiling. “Yeah. I guess so.”

  “There’s no ‘guess so’ about it.” He buckled his seatbelt. “Now we’re heading home.” He shot her another bright grin. “Real home.”

  She took hold of his hand. She would never let go of that hand now. “Yes. We’re going home.”

  THE END

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  Copyright 2017 Cassandra Bloom; All Rights Reserved

  Billionaire’s Secret Baby

  Chapter 1

  “Are you all right, Ms. Kemp?”

  Gina’s head whipped around and she fixed her eyes on the Skype image on her computer screen. “Yeah, sure. I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

  “You seem a little distracted. Th
at’s all. Have you heard a word I’ve said?”

  “Of course I have. I’ll see you on Sunday.”

  Giles Pendragon broke into a happy grin. His green eyes lit up, and his bright teeth showed between his lips. He looked exactly the way Gina remembered him. The same tinge of gray marked his temples, and the crow’s feet Gina loved so much twinkled around his eyes. “I can’t wait to see you! Five months is too long to wait.”

  Gina smiled. “It’ll be good to see you, too.”

  His image on the screen grabbed a pen and a piece of paper. “Tell me when your flight gets in. I’ll pick you up at the airport.”

  “That’s all right,” Gina replied. “I’ll handle it. I’ll get a cab to my hotel or something like that. You don’t have to worry about me.”

  “I mean it. You don’t want to take a smelly, crappy cab. I’ll pick you up in the limo and take you back to the penthouse. You can stay there until you get your own place.”

  “No. I’d rather just get a hotel room or something the first few days. Thanks for the offer, though.”

  Giles frowned. “What are you talking about? Why would you go to the expense of staying in some rotten hotel when you could stay at the penthouse? You know it’s a lot nicer. You’ve been there enough times.”

  “Yeah. I know it’s nice.”

  “And riding into the city in the limo is a lot better than taking some cab. Come on. When’s your flight?”

  Gina braced herself. She knew all along it would come to this. “I’m serious, Mr. Pendragon. I don’t want you picking me up from the airport.”

  His jaw dropped. “Why in God’s name not? It makes no sense, and you haven’t given me one decent reason why. Just tell me why.”

  Gina set her jaw. “Because I don’t want to. That should be reason enough for you. I don’t want you picking me up. I don’t want to ride to the city in the limo, and I don’t want to stay in the penthouse. Get that through your head.”

  Giles could set his jaw just as hard and straight as she could. “Now you’re making me mad, Ms. Kemp, and you wouldn’t like me when I get mad. I’m not getting off this Skype call until you explain yourself. I’m your boss, and I’m ordering you to give me a detailed explanation of your activities while on my payroll.”

  “And another thing,” Gina shot back. “Once I get back to San Francisco, I’m gonna want to work from home for a while. I can do the same research and submit the same reports. I don’t want to spend all of my time in the office.”

  “That’s fine, Ms. Kemp. We’ll set you a schedule of office days. Let’s say three days a week at first, and you can work your way up from there.”

  “No, that’s not good enough. I want to work from home all the time. I might come into the office for important client negotiations, but I want to spend all my working time at home. I can telecommute.”

  He stared at her with his mouth open. “That’s not possible.”

  “It’s going to be possible, or I won’t be coming back to San Francisco to work for you.” Gina clasped her hands in her lap.

  He couldn’t see them shaking.

  “I had an offer from Southern Mining Company. They want to headhunt me. If you give me any static about working from home, I won’t come back. I can make twice as much here in New Zealand as I can in the States.”

  Black clouds roiled and fought for supremacy in his face. He glared at her in frustration. “I sent you to New Zealand because I trusted you- you, of all people, over all my other employees. You’ve done top-notch work there for five months. No one could fault you for that.”

  “Then you should trust me on this, too. I’ll do top-notch work at home, and I’ll send it to you electronically the same way I’ve done the whole time I’ve been in New Zealand. You’ll see me once a month—or whenever you can’t manage without me—and life will go on as usual.”

  He stared at her in blank incomprehension. “What in the world has gotten into you?”

  She looked away from the screen again. “That’s the way it is, Mr. Pendragon. Take it or leave it.”

  He compressed his lips. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to see you again? Do you know what these last five months have been like for me?”

  She had to look at the screen again. She couldn’t stop herself. Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper, “Don’t do this.”

  The words tumbled out of him in a rush, “You don’t know? I’ll tell you what these last five months have been like for me. They’ve been pure torture. I wanted to wine you and dine you when you got back. I wanted to take you back to the penthouse and pick up where we left off.”

  “We can never pick up where we left off.”

  His face grimaced in agony. “Do you know what you’re doing to me? You’re destroying the one hope I held onto all these months. I wanted to…well, you don’t care what I wanted. I guess this means you never want to see me again.”

  “I never said that. I do want to see you again. It just has to be different now. We can’t go back to our old game of you nailing your secretary whenever you feel like it.”

  “Is that what you think you are—my secretary?”

  “Come on, Mr. Pendragon. You know what I mean.”

  “Is there someone else? Did you meet some Kiwi stud down there? Is that why you’re dumping me?”

  “I’m not dumping you. I just want to change a few things. What’s wrong with that?”

  “You want to see me once a month. What good does that do me? What good does it do me if I can’t nail you whenever I feel like it?”

  Gina bit back a smile. “Maybe it does you some good to have an employee you value. Maybe the work I do does you some good. Maybe you value something about me besides my ass.”

  His twisted face softened. “Of course I value you. I value a lot more about you than just your ass—although that is….well, it’s magnificent. I wish I had my hands on it and my face jammed into it right now.”

  Gina blushed. “Stop it, sir.”

  A grin struggled to show at the corner of his mouth. “Say it again.”

  “Stop it, sir.”

  “Louder. Let me hear you moan.”

  She leaned close to the screen so her lips pouted in the viewing window. She lowered her voice to a sing-song whimper, “Oh, stop it, sir. Oh, please stop. Oh, God, please.”

  He growled into the screen. “Yeah, baby. God damn, you make me so damn hard. I’m gonna bend you over and smack your beautiful ass.”

  She sobbed and contorted her mouth in the window. “Oh, please, Mr. Pendragon. You know I can’t stand it. I’ve been so bad and my ass needs a smack so bad.”

  He rumbled low in his chest. “Are you a filthy little girl? Have you been sticking things in that horny little pussy of yours while your boss is away?”

  “Oh, please, sir. I am so rotten. I know I need a spanking, but please don’t hurt me. I’ll be a good girl from now on. I swear it.”

  “Bend over and let me see your ass, baby. Let me see you smack that ass of yours.”

  She got out of her chair, turned around, and planted one hand on the seat. She hooked her other hand under her waistband and slid her yoga pants over her curvy hips. She looked over her shoulder to make sure her big round white ass showed in the window.

  Giles panted for breath on the screen. His shoulder flexed when his arm moved up and down in front of him. He had his cock in his hand the way he usually did during these internet sex games. “Smack it, baby. Smack it like you know you want me to.”

  She raised her hand and brought it down hard across her own ass. She yelped and jumped at the sudden sting. “Oh, please!”

  “That’s it. Smack it one more time. Just once.”

  She turned her face all the way around, so he could see her scream. She lifted her hand and struck her own ass as hard as she could. The red mark showed up nice and clear on the screen. She screeched out loud and moaned in pleasure.

  “Sit down on it, baby,” he grumbled. “Let me see your pretty little mout
h again.”

  She sat down and brought her mouth up to the camera.

  His arm moved faster. “Yeah, baby. I’m gonna get you on your knees.”

  “Please, sir. Let me suck it.”

  “Lick your lips.”

  She ran her tongue around her lips.

  He gritted his teeth. “That’s good. That’s so good.”

  He pumped his arm harder and harder until a ragged groan escaped him. He finished himself off and collapsed back in his chair. “Do you see what you do to me? Don’t tell me I can only see you once a month. You’ll kill me doing that.”

  She leaned back to her face filled the screen. “We’ll see. I will be working from home, though. That’s not negotiable.”

  He sat up and fixed his eyes on her. “If I agree to this, you’ll have to give me some satisfactory explanation, Ms. Kemp. I have to understand it.”

  “Call it personal reasons. That’s the best explanation I can give you.”

  He frowned his post-ejaculatory frown, but he already relaxed a lot more. “Are you sure that’s all you can tell me?”

  “I’m sure. Maybe someday, you’ll understand why.”

  He sniffed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Alright. I guess I have no choice but to go along with this.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “What will you do? Where will you set up shop?”

  “I’ll rent an apartment in the city, the same way I did here. Everything will be the same as it has been the whole five months I’ve been in New Zealand, except now we’ll be in the same city.”

  His jaw muscle tightened. “Are you sure you won’t let me pick you up from the airport?”

  She smiled and started to relax, too. “I’m sure. I prefer it this way. I appreciate you wanting to wine me and dine me, but I have my own agenda for when I get back to town.”

  “I can see that.”

  She smiled at him. “So are we all clear?”

  “No, we’re not all clear, but at least we have a way to move forward.”

  “I’m looking forward to seeing you again, too.”