The Billionaire From Los Angeles: A BWWM Billionaire Romance (United States Of Billionaires Book 9)

by Simply BWWM

  Agnes was indeed at the party, and hadn't talked to many people. She was instead parked at the bar at the far end of the deck, drinking and chain smoking. Roman had managed to avoid her completely, and he hoped to make it through the night without having to talk to her at all.

  Senator Johnson looked around the deck and shook his head. "This is really a beautiful boat. I am anxious to have a look at her, is it too soon to ask for a tour?" he smiled hopefully at Roman, and Roman nodded.

  "Certainly!" He waved at Allen, who was navigating the buffet table, and Allen almost dropped his plate when he saw that Roman was standing beside their guests of honor. He wiped his hands and rushed over to them.

  "Hello! Senator, it's so nice to have you here!" he said with a wide grin on his face.

  The Senator extended his hand. "Allen, so good to meet you in person. Please, call me Edward, and this is my wife, Carmen. We've talked on the phone enough that I feel I already know you!" They shook hands and Allen looked like he had just won the best prize at the carnival.

  Roman indicated the highest point of the boat. "Why don't we start at the bridge, and you can meet Captain Heatherwick. We'll work our way down from there." With a smile, he turned to lead them all up the two flights of stairs that it took to get to the bridge.

  Jonathon Heatherwick and the Senator hit it off right away. Edward was thrilled to see the bridge, looking at it as the best gift one could receive on Christmas morning.

  "Command Central!" he exclaimed happily. Carmen watched him with a pleasant smile, obviously glad to see that her husband was immersed in something he passionately enjoyed.

  Jonathon and Edward began talking about sailing, which quickly led to the topic of the military and they discovered they had served on the same ships at different times for the US Navy. That sealed their bond, and during the entire rest of the tour, and indeed the night, they were elbow to elbow talking about a great many things.

  Senator Johnson and his wife both loved the boat, and by the time the evening was going full swing, Roman and Allen felt sure that he would probably buy it, as long as Denise didn't manage to further irritate Carmen. Her constant attention and fussing over the Senator's wife had made Carmen excuse herself more than once, just to get away from Denise, and Roman had to pull Denise aside to talk to her.

  They stood a few feet from their group and he looked at her seriously.

  "Denise, you are annoying Carmen, and I can't believe that you don't realize it. I know that you're excited that they're here, but you have got to back off! It may have escaped your attention, but there are several other guests of ours on this boat, and as a good hostess, you should be paying attention to all of them!" He was quiet and kind, but in serious earnestness.

  She glowered at him. "Don't you tell me anything about it! You and Captain Featherpants haven't left Edward's side for a single minute! How am I supposed to become best friends with Carmen if you send me away from her? These are the most important people on this boat, and I'm not about to leave them alone just to go talk to everyone else!"

  Roman exhaled in frustration. "Denise, if you wanted to spend all of your time with Edward and Carmen, you should have arranged a private dinner for them here, not a full blown party like this."

  She grew angry with him, and only barely managed to keep it in check. "Roman! You just don't understand society! It's no good to have them here for a private dinner because then no one else can see how close we are to them! The whole point of the party is so that all of these people can see us with Edward and Carmen and then they will all know how important we are!" She was incredulous that he could possibly be so thick as to have missed that obvious maneuver.

  Roman shook his head and looked away from her. "Don't ignore your other guests, and stop annoying Carmen. You're going too far overboard with her. Please keep it to a minimum."

  Denise breathed out in a rush of exasperation and headed straight back to Carmen, who saw her coming and moved between Allen and Edward to try to avoid her. Denise was not going to be dissuaded so easily, and she pulled on Carmen's arm and insisted that she go to the bar with her to meet Agnes.

  Allen looked after them as Denise tottered down the deck in her high heels, dragging the Senator's wife behind her by the arm. His face was white with panic and fear, and Roman was grateful that Edward was too involved in his conversation with Jonathon to see what was going on.

  Five minutes passed and Carmen came walking swiftly back down the deck toward Edward and the group. Roman saw the look on her face and his stomach tightened. He exchanged silent glances with Allen and they both desperately hoped that Denise had not ruined the evening for them.

  "Edward," Carmen said when there was a momentary pause at her arrival, "we need to leave." She looked at him with deadly serious eyes.

  Edward saw the look on his wife's face and sighed, smiling at Roman, Allen, and especially Jonathon, and he shrugged his shoulders. "I am sorry to go, but it would seem that the clock is striking midnight somehow. It's been a delightful party, and a great visit.

  “Roman, Allen, thank you so much for hosting this for us. I'll give the boat some serious consideration and let you know what I want to do. Captain Heatherwick, Jonathon, please come visit me anytime, and I may sneak down here before too long to spend a little more time talking with you!"

  They all shook hands, the Senator and his wife left just as Denise was hurrying toward them, but she wasn't fast enough, and they left before she could get to them. She stopped beside Roman and Allen, and pouted ferociously.

  "I can't believe she left without saying goodbye!" Denise whined. The men turned to look at her, all of them with scarcely hidden distaste.

  "I can't believe you left her side for a single minute," Roman said, almost under his breath to her while the other two men walked away.

  Denise watched them leaving and frowned. "Well, Carmen said she thought I sat in something, because there was a stain on the back of my dress and she just knew everyone would notice it. She said I should go to the restroom to see if I could wash it off. I looked and looked and couldn't find anything, and by the time I gave up on it and came back out here, they were gone!"

  Roman hid a chuckle behind his champagne glass as he lifted it to his mouth for another drink, realizing that Carmen had only said it to escape Denise, and Denise just didn't understand that at all.

  "Perhaps you could attend to your other guests now. Look, isn't that your friend Amanda over there looking at us? Why don't you go talk to her?" He turned and grabbed a bottle of champagne, and then headed downstairs to the belly of the boat to the Master Stateroom. It encompassed a large area, almost from the middle of the boat, to the outside edge of it, and was nothing short of regal.

  He needed to get away from the crowd upstairs. It was becoming loud and boisterous, and he had no interest in it. He didn't know many of the people, and he wasn't in the mood for Denise's efforts to outshine everyone and be adored by all of them.

  He settled himself on the bed and began drinking champagne right from the bottle, foregoing the crystal flute he left sitting on the bedside table. It had been a night of success, he felt, showing the boat to Edward and Carmen. They seemed to love it, although he could see that they, like him, were quietly reserved people when it came to shiny expensive things being shown to them.

  They withheld their truest thoughts on all of it, but enjoyed looking at it. He felt that as long as Denise left them alone, there was a good chance that the couple would buy the boat.

  He chuckled to himself over the rapport between Jonathon and Edward. It was a stroke of luck that they hit it off as well as they had. He hoped that their shared love of the sea and their service to their country would be enough of a sway that the sale would go through. More than that, he was genuinely pleased to see the two men becoming friends. They had a lot in common, and it's always good to have a deep connection with others like that.

  Roman finished off the bottle and closed his eyes, letting all the bubb
les go to his head. He knew it couldn't have been long, but he wasn't sure of the time when he heard a soft noise and opened his eyes, looking around. He was shocked to see Denise's friend Amanda standing beside the bed in nothing but some miniscule underwear. Her body was bare and her smile was wide as she crawled onto the bed and straddled Roman.

  "I saw you come down here and thought you would want some company,” she purred, leaning down toward him. He stared up at her in shock. She had dark brown curly hair and blue eyes. Her skin was olive toned and her body was extremely fit. She bent down to him and grasped his hands, pulling them to her small breasts, covering the soft curves and hard nipples, as she planted her mouth firmly over his.

  He was stunned for a moment as she kissed him passionately, amazed that his hands were placed over her breasts, and that she was astride him. He turned his head away from hers, pulling from her kiss and gasped, "What are you doing?"

  She began to gyrate her hips over his, slipping her hand down to massage his crotch. "I'm just here to have a little fun with you, Roman. I've wanted you for a long time, and here we are, sneaking away from a boring party, and there's this bedroom right here... handy, isn't it?" She grinned at him and tried to kiss him again as he pulled his hands from her breasts and tried to reach for her hand which was working hard to stimulate him.

  "You can't do this! Get off of me!" he snapped at her, his shock turning to frustration.

  She unzipped his pants and curled her fingers around his body, manipulating it to make him hard. "Sure we can! It's okay. I know you and Denise have an open relationship. She certainly makes good use of that, so there's no reason that you shouldn't as well." Her eyes grew wide and she tried to kiss him again as he angled his hand to pull hers from his crotch.

  Her words stopped him short and he looked at her in horror. "We do not have an open relationship!" he spoke, aghast.

  She laughed at him and planted her mouth on his once more, kissing him hard as she stroked him and her eyes grew wide. "Roman! You're huge!" she grinned, wrapping her arm behind his neck and holding herself close to him.

  He'd had enough. He pushed hard and rolled her off him, but her legs and arm were wrapped tight around him, and she wound up underneath him, clinging to him.

  "Amanda," he raised his voice as he tried to pull away from her, "we do not have an open marriage, and I am not interested in sleeping with you! Now let go!" He pushed himself away from her again and she reluctantly let go, but then climbed up on her knees and reached out to him as he climbed off of the bed.

  "Come on, Roman, just because you don't know you have an open marriage doesn't mean it isn't that way. She's screwing around, so you might as well do it too. Come play with me!" she begged him, moving toward the edge of the bed where he stood. "Come have a good time. It's a party! We're supposed to have a good time. What kind of a host are you anyway, leaving me wanting you like this? I'm not looking for a relationship, Roman, I just want to rock your world once or twice." She grinned at him as he turned and stared at her.

  "What do you mean she's having an open relationship?" He stared at her in disbelief.

  She laughed at him. "Oh, come on! You must know. She has tons of affairs! Come on! Come have one with me." She reached her arms out to him and he stepped back away from her.

  "Get your clothes on and get off this boat. Now." He spoke in a low and commanding tone, narrowing his eyes at her. Then he turned and walked out of the room and went up to the bridge, where Jonathon was sitting with a plate of food and a tumbler of whiskey.

  The party seemed to have died down some, and Denise was running around talking to everyone. He bade the good Captain farewell and told him he would talk with him soon. He warned him that there may be people below deck, and Jonathon said he'd double check it when the party was over.

  Roman slipped off the boat unnoticed and headed for the house, his mind whirring in consternation. Thoughts of Amanda's words and their cold meaning crept through his mind. He knew that he had no room to be angry with her; he'd slept with another woman and as a result, was now a father, but in all the years he had been married, it had only happened once. The way that Amanda spoke, it sounded as if it was a regular occurrence for Denise. If it was true, the thought made him sick. She hadn't so much as touched him in any intimate fashion in ages, yet it seemed that she was willing to sleep with other men.

  He wondered at all of it. How many other men? When was she with them? How could she be regularly unfaithful to him like that and ignore their own marriage bed? He thought about how she had turned so cold to him and moved into her own bedroom, and wondered if that was when she had begun cheating on him.

  He almost had himself worked into a traumatic state by the time he got home, when he realized that Amanda was probably lying just to get into bed with him. He was often the subject of feminine desire for many women, but he hadn't had an experience like the one he'd had with Amanda, not since he'd been married.

  He was fairly ruffled when he went into the house. He showered and went to bed. He let his thoughts go to Emma, and just in doing that, all the worry and stress of his day washed away, and he fell into thinking about her and how their life would be together as father and daughter.

  Chapter Four

  Three days after the party, a new week had started and Allen had been talking with Edward and Carmen. They wanted to see the boat again, and Edward was keen to visit Jonathon. Allen walked into Roman's office and sat at his desk to talk with him about another trip to the boat with the Senator.

  "Allen, you've done great work with him and I appreciate it. I think if you continue to help him the way you are, he may very well buy that boat from us. I do want you to know, though, that Denise is headstrong about spending time with Edward and Carmen as well. She's bent on being Carmen's new best friend," Roman told him with a sorry sigh.

  Allen glowered slightly. "I know. They left the party because Carmen was so annoyed with Denise."

  Roman nodded. "Yeah, I figured that. I think you should know that Denise is planning to have a dinner on the boat with them. You aren't the only one contacting them. She's been hard after them to meet up with us again, and we're going to have to work with her to make it happen."

  Allen bit his lip and shook his head. "That's why..." he said softly, as if he was realizing something.

  Roman tilted his head and looked at the man before him curiously. "That's why what?"

  Allen looked up at him. "That's why they have been torn between seeing the boat again and waiting on it. I think Edward is the one who is bent on getting to the boat, but Carmen is delaying their visit because she doesn't like Denise. I don't think she wants to see her again."

  Roman leaned back in his chair and sighed. "She better not ruin this for us." He rubbed his forefinger over his lip thoughtfully. "Listen, let's do this. Plan a lunch on the boat for Edward, Carmen, Jonathon and us, and have all of the details ready to go. Tell Edward that we're going to have a meeting here at the office and ask him to bring Carmen.

  “Don’t tell him that it's on the boat until the morning of the lunch. Then we say that we have moved the meeting to the boat at the last minute. Then maybe we could have him there with his wife and my wife won't find out about it in time to join us."

  Allen sat up straight and clapped his hands together. "Perfect! I'll get right on that." He left Roman's office, and Roman hoped that his plan would work. He called Janine in and she sat down in front of him to talk with him.

  "I wanted to ask you how things are going with Cami? Did you find a place for her? Is she getting taken care of?"

  He had been texting Cami now and then, and he had talked to her on the phone once since she was in his office. He was trying to navigate the waters of reformed friendship with a woman who was his lover and consequently the mother of his child, and it was awkward at best for him.

  Janine grinned. "I did find a place for them; they're moving in this week to a condo and I got her a nice car and some pieces of furniture that s
he didn't already have. I put an appointment in your calendar to go with her tomorrow to open bank accounts, and I have your accountant taking care of all of her bills."

  Roman nodded and smiled at her. "You're the best, Janine. I really appreciate it. Thank you."

  Janine stood and walked to the door, then turned and looked at him. "You are a lucky man to have Cami and Emma in your life, however they are in your life," she said and winked as she walked out. He knew it was true, and he felt a warm happiness spread through him just thinking about them.

  The next day he picked Cami and Emma up from their hotel and took them to the bank. He opened checking and savings accounts for them both, as well as some investment deposit accounts, adding a healthy amount of funds to all of them.

  Cami was quiet and relieved. She felt as though he didn't need to do as much as he was doing, and she had told him so. He absolutely wouldn't take no for an answer, and it was honestly a great weight lifted from her. She agreed to it, and was truly grateful for everything he had done for them.