by Nicole Casey
“Any and every support you give is much appreciated and we hope we can lock in more than just an envelope of money,” Daxter then said, ending his speech. He was right – while we did need financial investors for the company it would mean a lot more if the businessmen in the room would sign an endorsement contract or if other designers would offer to work for us.
When he gave his closing words and ended the event, I walked up to him and held his arm as he walked off the stage.
“You did really good,” I told him with a kiss on the cheek. He smiled when I did and I realized I was being sweet to him unconsciously. It was becoming my second-nature now.
“Well, let’s see what my dad has to say about it,” he reminded me. He led me to the table where his sister and parents were. “This is it: the moment of truth.”
I nodded and took in a deep breath before sitting down. I smiled at Joel and Carmen and then shook Sonya’s hand.
“That was very impressive,” Joel told us both. “You’ve really stepped up. For a long while, I thought you were still just a brat who depended on Gary and us.”
Daxter nodded and just shrugged it off, “I understand why you feel that way, dad. I was a wreck over a year ago but now I’m in charge. I know what I have to do to stay on top of the game. To be honest, even if you don’t sign me as your inheritor I don’t think I’d mind.”
That really took me by surprise. What was he talking about?
Daxter must have noticed my sudden shift in uneasiness too because he went on to explain further, “We’ve already got Moda Auteur off the ground. I got Mercury Wild, J&E Consulting Firm and the bank giving us their full support. Hopefully we can snag a few more tonight. If we do, we’ll be able to make this the next big thing in the fashion world.”
“You’re very confident,” Joel noted of his son’s words. “You’re confident but for a good reason. Everything you said is right: even if I don’t give you another cent you’ve pretty much built a backup plan for you and your wife.”
“I do have just one question: what does Moda Auteur mean?” Carmen asked. “I know the others here understand but I’m not a clothes designer.”
I reached out to hold her hand and explained, “Moda is Italian for ‘fashion’ and ‘auteur’ is a term meant for an artistic filmmaker who instills his ideals and style in his movies. Moda Auteur generally symbolizes a fashion style that lets someone dress in a way that lets them show off their ideals and personality.”
“Okay, you’ve really done a lot of research,” Joel commented after hearing my explanation. “I have to commend you both. You impressed me. I honestly thought only Gary had the brains and the guts to tackle on such big ambitions.”
Daxter was beaming with delight and Sonya was doing her best to suppress a smile. We all had a good feeling and soon enough Joel gave us the good news.
“I’ve made a decision then,” he declared just as waiters were coming in to bring in the food for every table. “I will sign you and Noelle as my sole inheritors. You not only made me and your mom proud but I have to say even Gary would be proud of what you two have accomplished.”
“Dad, I support you on this, you know I do,” Sonya told Joel. “I know I was your initial choice. I am older than Dax but the fact remains that he is the proper successor. He has the right business mind, he’s dipped his feet into the right social circle and he’s just naturally built for a life of transactions and different marketing strategies. I’m a writer, I’d rather stay in some mountain in France, drink my coffee and let my money sit in a bank until I want to splurge what I have on a dog.”
Joel, in a rare instance, laughed and nodded in agreement, “You are right. I know I scared you all when I named our vice president as a possible candidate but you do understand why I did so, right? I had to protect the legacy of the company and for the longest time, Daxter, you were not the ideal successor. You’ve improved so much though and you’ve proven yourself to me and your mom.”
A lot of chatter sparked on the table. Daxter and Sonya were celebrating. Carmen and Joel were busy discussing their own business plans with the family’s corporation. I remained silent in my seat as I tried to soak in all of the revelations that came with Joel’s magic words. Even I had to admit there was a strong magnitude the way he said things.
This all meant our ruse had been a success. It was not as easy as I thought it could be. I did have to marry him, after all, and I was starting to get addicted to him in the bedroom. I quit my job, and I moved to a new home and uprooted everything in my life for this one gamble.
It was a good thing it all paid off.
However, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do now. I should be happy because it meant my life was going to shift into a direction I thought I’d never experience before. With the Horndale inheritance and the Moda Auteur business, I basically went from rags to riches in a single sweep.
The main problem was what I would do with my life with Daxter. I did love having sex with him and to be honest we did have good chemistry but… did I love him? Did I even like him enough to live with him permanently for the rest of my life? Everything started as a ruse to fool all these people but was it possible that I could truly fall for Daxter Horndale?
…or did I already fall for this ridiculously handsome and daring man?
I had time to think about it. For now, I could just relax, soak in the triumph, and show my affection and support to my “husband.”
14
Daxter
W hen we got home, all I could think about was how my life was going to change. Ever since Gary died, there was the lingering feeling of failure that never left me alone. The fear of losing out on everything my family had just glued to my mind no matter what I did. Now that I had proven my worth to my parents and got their approval, I felt a heavy weight suddenly lifted off my back.
By the time we got home, Noelle was a little drunk and exhausted. I didn’t try to push for sex this night. All I wanted was to let her feel appreciated. I guess I could come up with something tomorrow or the next day. I just picked her up out of the car and carried her to the condo.
“Hmm, are we home yet?” she asked groggily as we walked through the main front door. “I smell donuts.”
I chuckled and said, “Yes, we’re home. Yes, we have donuts. They’re on the table.”
Noelle gently opened her eyes but even as she tried to strain her neck and look for food she was obviously tired and drunk. She slumped back down and allowed me to place her in the middle of the bed.
“Babe,” she called out. “I love you.”
I felt my heart stop and I had to look at her to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. Did she just call me babe? Did she just say she loved me? I took a double-take glance at her and yes, she was still lying down and was still in a drunken stupor but there was no denying she just said what I thought she said.
“Babe? Come here, I feel a little cold,” she then muttered softly. It was so weak it was barely louder than a whisper.
Quickly I took off my clothes, adjusted the room’s temperature and then slid onto the bed and hugged her close. I wrapped us both with the comforter and gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, “Thank you. I couldn’t have done all of this without you. If you didn’t agree to this insane idea then I’d still be a loser.”
“And I’d still be working nights at the club stripping for old perverts and drunks,” she added with a grin on her face. Noelle then opened her eyes, turned to face me and stared straight into my eyes as she said, “You still didn’t reply to what I said earlier.”
How was I supposed to reply to that?
Time seemed to come to a complete halt as her words cycled over and over again in my head. My mind tried to make sense of everything that had happened but no matter what I did, I couldn’t resist the temptation of just staring blankly back at her. I was just too distracted by her beauty and the way she just looked at me. Her lips were barely an inch away and all I could think about was leaning in and
giving her a long, deep and passionate kiss.
“I love you too,” was all I could say. The words just came out of my mouth. “I’ve loved you ever since I first laid eyes on you. Maybe that was why I felt comfortable bringing up this fake marriage idea to you in the first place. I just knew I’d be happy with you even if you never loved me back.”
Noelle closed her eyes, kissed me on the lips and then said, “You know there’s no one else in the world that I’d rather be with right now than you? You’re the perfect catch for any girl and yet I get to call you mine. You’re handsome, you’re smart, you’re famous and you’re rich. I love the way you look at me, I love the way you care for me and I really love the way you fuck me.”
“I thought I was just another spoiled billionaire who only knew how to drink and fuck?” I asked her.
She giggled a bit and licked my lips before she said, “Well, you were a spoiled billionaire but now you’re this resourceful, hardworking and faithful billionaire who still loves to drink and fuck. The good thing is you now do the latter with me and only me.”
There was a lot of truth in those words. Ever since we got together, I did everything in my power to avoid seeing other girls. I didn’t want the public to think I was cheating on the girl I just married. That did mean saying good-bye to some bombshells like Tatyana but in the long run, I didn’t care anymore. I had everything I could ever ask for in Noelle.
“I love you,” I told her. “I love you, I love you, I love you!”
“Should we repeat our wedding vows now that this marriage becomes real?” she asked me. “When we first got married we were just pretending we cared and we were just pretending to be a real couple. Now it’s real.”
My fingers combed through her hair and I gave her a kiss on the forehead, “Noelle Stanley, do you accept me, Daxter Horndale, to be your beloved husband?”
“I do,” she answered with a smile. “Daxter Horndale, do you accept me, Noelle Stanley, to be your beloved wife?”
“I do,” I replied and gave her a kiss.
She then pulled away real quick and bit down on my lip, “I now declare us husband and wife. You may now fuck the bride.”
Noelle didn’t have to tell me twice for that. I quickly rolled on top of her and pushed her clothing up so I could free her moist and anxious pussy. As soon as it was exposed I dug in a finger and slid it through her flesh, not just to make her more excited for what was yet to come but to also make her moan even louder. The sound of her voice whenever we had sex simply drove me insane. Her moans were so seductive that I could get hard and horny simply by the sound of her erotic cries of pleasures.
It didn’t take long for the heat to burn so passionately between us. I could feel the fire burning in her chest as she lost herself to the moment and began to take charge. She pushed me off her and then straddled my hips. She took my cock in one hand and guided it through the lip of her pussy. As I thrust up she descended down on my shaft.
“Okay, you get your dance now,” she teased me as she began to grind on my cock, going up and down its length. She cooed and moaned each second and all I could do was stare at her gorgeous body swaying and pumping away.
I loved the way she squeezed her tits with her arms, I loved the way her hair just flowed with the rhythm of her body and I loved the way she would slightly part her lips to let out a gasp or a moan. I loved everything there was about her. I loved her.
Of course, looking at her bounce just got me even more anxious to plow my way into her. Before long I had my hands on her waist and instead of just letting her bounce I thrust my cock up and deep into her flesh. I began to fuck her like a jackhammer, drilling my cock into her with a violent rage that just made her mouth gape wide open and she screamed her moans until they echoed off the walls.
“F-fuck me, fuck me!” she screamed out loud and I was one willing to oblige to that request.
I pushed her down on the bed, took her legs and hung them up on my shoulders. I spread her open and thrust my cock deep into her pussy, feeling the tightness of her walls squeeze my cock with all the might her body could muster. In this position though, her pussy was made even tighter and I could feel it choke my meat as it burrowed its way into her.
The sensation drove her crazy and she began to claw and grasp at the bed sheet as she spilled her cum all over my cock, down her skin and onto the bed. She was squirting and dripping juices but I still pounded into her until I too could blow my cum into her. I wasn’t satisfied until I spilled all my hot seed in her pussy, on her chest, in her mouth and all over her face. I wouldn’t stop until I could cover her in sweat and all my cum. I wanted to bathe her in my love and my lust.
She was mine.
When I felt my cock slide into her orifice, I knew she was mine. When I saw the gold ring wrapped around her finger, I knew she was mine. When I saw her cum and moan out for more, I knew she was mine. Noelle was my wife and I loved her more than anything or anyone in the world.
At the back of my mind, a victory song rang and it echoed throughout the night. I could feel nothing else but triumph as I now had the wealth that was rightfully mine, a future business that was my own doing and a wife that was not only hot and beautiful but also loving, sweet and smart. This was all a dream come true.
15
Noelle
T hey say life is unfair and that we shouldn’t expect it to give us the chance to change everything that ever happened wrong in our lives. People always say that we should accept the crap that life tosses at us and try our best to make a good life out of what we have.
I am one of the few who can say that saying is utter bullshit.
When this whole affair started, I was just another young stripper at a club. However, maybe it was because I was the only one who cared to aid a grieving friend or maybe it was just pure luck, Daxter Horndale asked me to meet up with him. That date changed the course of my life forever.
Hannah once told me that we cheated. He didn’t really deserve his father’s money and I didn’t really do anything to deserve the wealth I have now. We faked our marriage to get here. What she keeps on forgetting was the middle portion of our story, the part where we had to slowly fall in love despite knowing it was all just a show.
While we did gain the wealth and the Horndale corporation, we didn’t push forward with completely running the whole business. Daxter worked hard with his father to understand how their business worked and they both chose a suitable CEO to work hand-in-hand with them. Daxter could have taken that position but to my delight, he decided to focus on Moda Auteur. He was now the CEO and President of that venture and I became the Vice President.
Together we managed to take over the fashion world. Every new opportunity available to us we took it and worked hard with our designers and analysts to make sure each step was a success. We even got to sign a deal so that several Hollywood studios would use our clothing as part of their costume wardrobes for some movies.
For a while, I feared Daxter would get the crazy idea of spending millions on a new home but he once again proved he had matured. He sold our condominium unit and bought a modest two-story home in the suburbs, inside a very elegant neighborhood. It wasn’t that expensive and he didn’t overload the garage with a ton of new cars.
We did sell my old hunk of junk. In exchange, Daxter bought me a brand new Camaro for my birthday. During the first few days driving it I could only think about how my car might suddenly transform into Bumblebee and Daxter wouldn’t stop teasing me about it. Well, at least that meant that in his eyes I was a hot chick like Megan Fox, right?
Joel and Carmen finally got to relax now that they weren’t too busy handling the family business. I got to spend a lot of time with Carmen, hanging out at different beach resorts or to just shop whenever we could get out of our houses. Sonya came with us from time to time and it was really delightful to learn that she was done with her next book and that it wasn’t just topping the sales but was also being adapted into a Hollywood movie.
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br /> Of course, there were those nights where we would just feel exhausted and too tired to even have sex. It was those nights where I could expect some plain, good old fun. More often than not, Daxter would drive us out to spend time at Mercury Wild. Jasmine and Lyla had become good friends of mine and over time I got to introduce Hannah as well. Fortunately for us both, they all accepted Hannah too.
They even asked Hannah if she would prefer to work there instead of continuing her life as a stripper but to nobody’s surprise, she decided to stick with her job. She loved the attention she got from all those men and the tips she was earning covered all of her expenses anyway. At least she did say she wouldn’t ever feel embarrassed to come to me or Daxter in case she ever needed financial help. She even agreed to model for some of the new clothes we were selling.
Mercury Wild had become a sort of usual joint for us now. It wasn’t just a bar and restaurant. It wasn’t just a rich gentlemen’s club. It kind of became our second home because all our friends were there, not to mention it did have some of the best drinks and the best food in town.
It was during one of those nights at Mercury Wild that Daxter shared us the big news: Moda Auteur was just listed as the top fastest growing fashion company in the past five years! I never would have expected that level of success but it was one that I was grateful for.
Well, there was a lot to be grateful for. People almost never get a shot to turn their lives around like this and both Daxter and I succeeded but we only did so because we worked together. It was through our teamwork and through our love that we got to where we were now.
It was now a year following our wedding and we had made it a point to reenact our wedding during our anniversaries. It may seem silly to some and for others, it could get old really quickly. For us, however, we never wanted to forget the circumstances that got us together and the fake marriage that somehow managed to work out.