Indulgence: A Billionaire Virgin Romance

by Winter, Alexis

  Charlotte felt the panic melt away at the question, and she almost immediately opened her mouth to reply. Preston held up a finger, pressing it to her lips and effectively sealing them shut before she could get out more than the first sound of her reply. He leaned over and looked into her eyes as he continued.

  “And before you answer, I just want you to think about this. Really and truly think. I don’t want to know what your gut reaction is. I want to know what the little voice deep down inside of you is saying. Because to me, this is a big deal. This is forever. I’ve never in my life felt about someone the way I feel about you. But I don’t want you to tell me yes because it’s what you think I want to hear. You’ve been living with me long enough to know that I’m not perfect. I want to know if you want me just like this. Warts and imperfections and everything else.

  “I know you asked to postpone things, and that’s fine. I’ll gladly wait to spend the rest of my life with you if you need the time. I just want to make sure you know exactly what we’re getting into. And I won’t pretend that it won’t hurt if you say no, but I think it’ll be a lot easier on us if you say it now rather than waiting until the last minute or until after we’re already married before you decide that you can’t live with me any longer.”

  His voice sounded like his heart was breaking, and Charlotte could feel a lump in her throat. This was exactly what she’d been afraid of happening when she asked for more time, but she didn’t know how to tell him that without hurting him. She thought she had accomplished that last night, but it was clear now that she’d wounded him more than she had imagined. The guilt that rose up in her chest was so thick it made it hard to breathe for a moment.

  Charlotte pulled back from the embrace she had him in while she tried to figure out what to say. She knew that every moment longer it took her to come up with a reply to his question meant he was standing there another moment in doubt about what her answer was going to be, but he had asked her to think about what she was going to say to him. No matter how much she thought about it, her answer was always going to be the same. Right now, she was only struggling with the words that she wanted to use which left him standing there with a manilla folder in one hand and a look on his face that just kept getting more and more worried as the moments passed.

  “Preston, I…” She took another breath, trying to make the words come, though they didn’t want to. She half felt like crying when she couldn’t put her thoughts into sentences that made enough sense to express how she was feeling to Preston. Instead, she just took a step towards him, taking the manila folder from his hand to lay it on the table behind her, and threaded her fingers in between his to give his hand a squeeze.

  “You know you can tell me anything, Charlotte. I said it last night, and I meant it. I just want to know exactly how you’re feeling.”

  Charlotte knew she needed to get herself together, but for now she just buried her face in his chest and took a breath, keeping his hand clasped in hers. She took in a deep inhale, letting it out slowly between her lips and then another, letting his scent hit her and soothe her for the time being until she could figure out what to say.

  “Just give me a minute, I promise you’ll like what I have to say. I just have to figure myself out.” Her words were muffled by the tie and jacket that he wore hanging around her face in a pair of curtains, but they were clear enough that he could understand her.

  Instead of replying, Preston just nodded, giving her the time she needed to gather her thoughts. She had no idea why it was taking her this long, but she really just needed to breathe for a minute once her whole world felt like it was crashing down around her and this time it was her fault. She chewed on her lip, hoping that what she was about to tell him made sense. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel more abandoned than he was already clearly feeling. Finally, she felt like she could start trying to explain herself to him. She pulled away slowly, grabbing the stool they kept in the back to work on things that took so long standing in one spot that their feet started aching and pulled it up beside her.

  “Sit down. I want to look you in the eyes while I say this, so you know that I mean every word of it.”

  Preston didn’t say a word. He just sat down, tugging his coat out from underneath him when the tails caught on the edge of the stool and turned back to face her when he was settled.

  “Ok, when I decided to go back to mom and dad’s house for the weekend, I was just feeling so overwhelmed that I didn’t know what to do or where to turn. I wanted my mother, and while I miss her, I haven’t really wanted her like that since I was a little girl. I needed her advice, and I needed some space just to breathe where I felt like I didn’t have to be a million things at once. I love you. Before I say any of what I’m about to say, I need you to know that and keep it in mind, because I’m scared that it’s going to make think that I don’t, and I definitely want to marry you.”

  Charlotte looked over at Preston, examining his face for his reaction to what she was saying. Her words had the desired effect. He visibly relaxed when she confirmed that she did want to marry him. As long as he understood that, the rest of this was going to be much easier to explain.

  “I love you too, Charlotte. That’s the most important thing to me right now.” Preston reached out and took her hand. She could hear the noises of the bakery past the doors, but that was the last thing on her mind when she moved her free hand to run her fingers along the line of his jaw.

  “I’ve been trying to do too much too fast, and I don’t know why I didn’t see it. Maybe I got lost in the idea of having all my dreams come true at once. I’ve got my own bakery. I’m living in the city I always wanted to live in since I was a little girl. My blog is bustling. I have a boyfriend — a fiancé— who is one of the most successful men not just in Denver but in the entire world. I’m getting married. It’s like everything I wanted when I was a little girl is getting served up to me on a silver platter, and I felt totally foolish not to be enjoying it as much as I ought to have been.”

  “But then I got to thinking about everything. I was having to become a business owner, a girlfriend, a grown up, a fiancée and pretty soon a wife. One thing happened right after the other before I had time to get used to any of my roles. I’m still trying to figure out how to make this bakery work without me having to basically live here, and I added to the situation by moving in with you and saying I wanted to marry you so quickly because now I have to figure out how to balance my life at home with you and my work here. I just felt like I was drowning. I felt like I was shortchanging us because I was going through the motions of planning a wedding but my heart wasn’t in it. I was stressed and anxious all the time because of how little time I get to spend with you and I was terrified that I couldn’t be the woman you wanted.”

  She watched him carefully and saw the recognition of what she was going through wash over him. She hoped she was easing Preston’s worries by getting all of her thoughts out to him, but she was also worried that she was just babbling and that none of what she was saying to him was actually making sense or that she was just sounding like an ungrateful asshole. She wasn’t even sure that she was making sense to herself.

  “So, let me get all of this straight. I want us both on the same page. You do want to marry me, and you want to be with me, you just haven’t quite figured out where everything stands in your life. Because if that’s the case, then I can fully sympathize. Do you regret moving in with me? And Charlotte I don’t need to dominate you to be happy with you. If that is too much I get it! Hell, I barely gave you any context and I’m sure I scared the shit out of you that night!”

  It struck Charlotte that Preston had been going through transitions almost as quickly as she had. It may have been old hat to him, being a business man, but being in a relationship wasn’t something that he was used to at all. He hadn’t been in a serious one since he was her age. The two of them had discussed that at length when they got together, and he certainly had never been engage
d or invited any of his girlfriends to come and live with him. This was new territory for them both.

  “No!” Charlotte interrupted him as she shook her head quickly and leaned in to press a soft kiss to his lips. “I don’t regret that for a moment. I want to turn that penthouse into a home for the both of us. I want it to be a place that we can go to get away from the busy day to day of everything we both have going on. I just need to prioritize everything I have going on. I need to hire someone else to work here at the bakery for me, so I don’t have to be here as much. You’ve got a much better work-life balance than I think I’ll ever be able to achieve, but it’s something I can work on. I just hate taking time from you to have to be here every single day. I want this to be stable and, on its feet, before I dive in to the challenge of being your wife, but I haven’t for a moment regretted anything that has ever happened between us.”

  “And no the sex is amazing and exciting… I’ll admit I was nervous and a little taken aback that night but I enjoyed it and truthfully I’ve thought about it more than a few times.” She lowered her voice as she spoke and looked nervously at her hands. “I was still trying to rationalize being a woman and no longer this young, innocent girl that didn’t know what she was doing or what she wanted. I have enjoyed all of our encounters together, but I just might need a little guidance now and then because I want to make you happy.”

  She could feel him smile against her lips when she stole the kiss, and he just kept on smiling as she continued with her speech. It was clearly what he needed to hear, and it was exactly what Charlotte needed to say. Preston reached out and pulled her body into his while he stayed perched on top of the stool, pressing his lips to hers once more. This kiss wasn’t the soft peck that the last one had been. It was full of the obvious relief that was finally hitting him now that Charlotte had a chance to say what she was thinking.

  When they broke the kiss, she just rested her forehead against his, keeping her eyes closed while she enjoyed the moment between the two of them. It was only when Preston spoke that she opened them. They were still so close together that his lips brushed across hers as he replied in a near whisper.

  “So then I guess Sophie didn’t go to the trouble of finding all these possible wedding spots for nothing then?”

  Charlotte’s grin melted into a laugh as she leaned on Preston for gentle support.

  “No, I’m pretty sure she didn’t. I guess you and I have some planning to get restarted on, don’t we? My hand is already cramping thinking about readdressing all those invitations.”

  He turned the laugh, shaking his head before he cut both of them off with another kiss. Finally, it seemed like all the pieces in Charlotte’s life were falling into the right places.

  Chapter 12

  Four weeks later…

  Today was supposed to have been the day that Charlotte and Preston were married. A month ago, everything had been all laid out and almost ready to pull the trigger on their marriage ceremony. Instead, today was a Saturday that the two of them were packing their bags. A lot had changed since the day that Preston walked into Charlotte’s kitchen back at the bakery looking for answers, and they were both pretty sure that nothing was ever going to be the same after that day.

  First off, Charlotte was no longer responsible for most of the day to day running of the bakery. Things were going well, better than she ever could have expected, in fact, and she’d been able to hire three more people to work there full time. Riley had been promoted to general manager, which meant that Charlotte didn’t have to be there from before sunrise to well after sunset to make sure everything was running smoothly. She still checked in everyday. In fact, she spent a lot of time back in the kitchen working on special orders while the others made sure the cases outside were stocked and the customers were served as quickly as possible.

  That freed her up to spend a lot more time at home. Being able to have Riley around meant that she could have her dream of having a bakery, focus on having a thriving business and making sure that all the customers were happy without having to devote her entire life to it. Sometimes, she had to sit and thank her lucky stars that Riley had walked into her life. That girl was born to run a bakery, and between the two of them the entire thing was in good hands.

  Preston had already arranged to have the two weeks following the wedding off. He’d planned a huge vacation for the two of them. The tickets were already purchased, hotels reserved, along with restaurant reservations made when Charlotte asked to postpone the wedding. He had half a mind to call and cancel everything when it got pushed back, but Charlotte had a brilliant idea.

  The two of them were taking an early honeymoon. They were going to use the time to get away, relax, and just spend some time with each other without all their work getting in the way. Preston’s business could run well enough without him. Sophie was a smart woman. Honestly, she could have easily taken his place. Any major decisions that needed to be made during that time could go through the board of trustees, and if there was an emergency, he was only a phone call away, though Sophie swore she was only going to contact him if it was necessary. Riley had made the same promise without even being prompted to when Charlotte asked her to run the bakery for a couple of weeks though he if he knew Charlotte she was going to be sneaking off from time to time to make sure the bakery was running smoothly.

  That bakery was her baby. Preston knew that well enough, and he wasn’t going to give her a hard time if she decided she needed to call and make sure that everything was alright in her absence, but he intended to give her his full attention while the two of them were gone. It was going to be the first time that either of them had a stretch of time this long to devote to each other, and he had to admit that he was really looking forward to all of it.

  Charlotte was in the next room trying to capture Andy in his carrier to make sure he got off to Riley’s place in one piece with all of his stuff. She had agreed to take care of him since she lived on her own and didn’t have any pets that they were going to have to worry about him getting along with. The few times Riley had been over here for dinner since she’d been hired, Andy hadn’t been able to leave her alone, so they were both fairly certain that he was going to get on swimmingly while the two of them were away. He was a pretty independent cat, anyway. He’d gotten used to the long hours that Charlotte worked a long time ago.

  Preston was putting the finishing touches on her bag though she wasn’t a hundred percent aware of all of it. She’d packed the clothes she wanted for the trip last night. He was just taking advantage of the fact that she was out of the room to put a few surprises that he’d managed to pick up in the last couple of weeks in there. Sophie had been busy shopping for clothes, and she always knew Charlotte’s size to a tee. There were a couple of new bathing suits, a cocktail dress, and a small pale blue box that he nestled into the top of the bag, leaving it there without zipping it up. It was something he’d been wanting to give her, and he just hadn’t figured out the right time before now.

  All that was left to do was to sit and wait for her to come back into the room once Andy decided to cooperate. Judging from the noise going on in the next room, he hadn’t gotten himself together yet. He heard one loud meow, hiss and spit, and then the sound of half of the shoes in Charlotte’s closet crashing to the ground before she yelled and walked out of the walk in with her strawberry blonde hair in a messy halo around the crown of her head. She let out a sigh and plopped on the corner of the bed, glancing up at Preston.

  “I got him in the carrier, even though it nearly killed the both of us. I’ll head in there and take care of the shoes as soon as I catch my breath. Right now, he’s just going to sit in there alone and think about what he’s done before I drop him off at Riley’s house.”

  Preston laughed gently, walking over to her to run a hand across her hair, smoothing it on one side at least before he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. She was beautiful like this. He’d come to find out that he enjoyed her more whe
n her guard was down, in the moments she didn’t know he was watching her, like when she was reading a book or humming her way through a song while she moved around the kitchen. She’d gotten back to the experiments she used to do before the bakery had opened. Any given evening he would find her there, mixing up a set of ingredients that no one would have imagined could go together.

  He’d become her de facto guinea pig. She’d walk in with a cookie or a cupcake that had some kind of impossible combination for a baked good, like maple bacon, and practically shove it into his mouth for a taste test. She was talented, but some of the combinations she’d come up with were less than ideal. Others were absolute perfection. He’d taken them all one at a time, giving her advice on how they tasted before she decided whether to post them to the blog or introduce them to the menu at the bakery. Before she’d hired on extra help at the bakery, she hadn’t had time for this sort of thing, and all the updates to her blog were news about the bakery. He couldn’t remember the last time she’d made up a recipe for it until things were settled at the bar. It was nice to see her coming back to herself after she’d thrown so much of herself into the business, but it made him realize that he’d almost lost her more than once.

  The two of them needed to work at keeping a balance to things. It was going to be easy to get so busy that you could forget what was important or to let outside influences get in the way. It had happened to them both more than once. They were just lucky that their relationship had been strong enough to get through all of it, and it was stronger now than it ever had been now that the two of them had gotten their priorities straight. That was why he’d bought the ring that sat in the little blue box for her two weeks ago.