The Billionaire's Big Beautiful Bride (BWWM Romance Book 1)

by Fielding, J A

When she got the good news, she could not wait to get to Lucas’ place and celebrate. She planned on cooking for him for a change rather than having him do all the work. And she had the perfect menu planned; Creamy beef stew served over rice paired with a glass of red wine and for dessert, apart from herself, she planned on making a chocolate soufflé from scratch and maybe give him some of her own dark chocolate as a bonus.

  She drove to his place, a smile played on her lips. She had only been to Lucas’ place twice in the three months they had been together and she was sure that this evening was going to be a lovely surprise.

  After doing some grocery shopping, she made her way to his neighborhood. She had even bought a new dress for the occasion. A red and black illusion long sleeved midi dress with a low cut V-neckline. And she had the shoes to match the dress too. A pair of red bottomed nude heels. She had straightened out her curls and her hair was falling luxuriously on her shoulders.

  When she got there, she walked into the building and smiled at the guard before she walked to the elevator. If she had been paying more attention she could have noticed the look the doorman gave her but she was a little too excited which was probably why the short elevator ride seemed longer than usual.

  When she opened the door, she could hear soft music playing in the background. The kind of music one would put on to serve as mood music.

  “Maybe he read my mind,” she thought as she slowly made her way towards the kitchen. But something caught her eye as she walked through the living room. The bottle of wine and the two glasses on the coffee table. And maybe it was the lipstick stain on one of the glasses that caught her attention more than the fact that there were two wine glasses on the table. She gently put the grocery bag down on the coffee table and picked up the glass with the lipstick stain. She was looking at the stain for the longest time and the time she had spent around various women of color, she could tell that the woman who had that kind of lipstick was a very fair skinned woman. Maybe even alabaster skinned and though at the back of her mind she felt like she knew what was going on, she just couldn’t bring herself think the worst of Lucas.

  “There has to be an explanation for this,” she thought. “He must have an explanation…it’s not what it looks like.”

  But even though she was trying hard to convince herself, it was not working. But she knew she needed to hear what Lucas had to say from his own mouth.

  “Luke?” she called as she looked around the apartment. “You in here?”

  She waited for a long minute before she began walking down the hallway. She was just approaching the first bedroom when she noticed a file on a table. The file looked a little too familiar for her to ignore so it was only normal for her to pick it up. Her eyes grew wider and wider as she flipped through the pages.

  “This has to be some sort of weird coincidence,” she thought as her eyes ran down the pages. “There must be a reasonable explanation.”

  She shook her head and gasped silently as she looked another page of the file. She was basically looking at an HHM client list. Every single client they had in the financial business. The only explanation she could think of was that Lucas had used her to gain access to her firm’s clients. That was the only way she could explain just how fast he had risen through the ranks in his own firm but at the same time, she could not help but wonder if she should still stick around and give him a fighting chance to explain himself even though every shred of her being was screaming at her to get out of there. But she still went on.

  “Lucas?” she asked again as she looked around. Her heart was beating hard and fast as she slowly made his way down the hallway. The guest bedroom was empty but the door to the master bedroom was slightly ajar. And from the way she heard the bed squeaking, she knew beyond any doubt that there was someone in that bed. Someone who had company. She wanted to call his name out again but even though her lips were slightly parted, she just could not seem to find her voice. But as far as her doubts were concerned, she had been right about the girl because she was looking at an alabaster skinned red head riding her man and he seemed to enjoy it too. The way he was touching her and caressing her obviously cosmetically altered breasts.

  Trina didn’t know why but for some reason, she could not walk away or even look away. It seemed like forever before he noticed her and he pushed the girl off him.

  “Trina,” he said in a panicked tone.

  “Lucas,” Trina said in a soft voice. The tone in her voice was surprisingly calm for some reason as she looked at the pale girl pulling a sheet and holding it against her chest.

  “Who is this woman, Lucas?” she asked and Trina crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Yeah, Lucas. You should probably tell her who I am,” she said. “Because the two of us are obviously confused about this whole situation right now.”

  The woman looked down at Lucas and then at Trina before she rolled her eyes.

  “I will be in the bathroom as you sort this out,” she said before she walked out of the room but took her time looking at Trina before she walked out of the room.

  “I didn’t know you were coming…” he started before Trina shrugged.

  “You gave me a key to your apartment, Lucas. I didn’t think that I had to announce myself every time I came over,” she said angrily.

  “Baby…” he started and she put up a hand.

  “Don’t you dare ‘baby’ me right now, Lucas. Because right now I am just thinking of how I can get away with murder.”

  “Listen…Trina…Daniella, she doesn’t mean anything to me. It is just a physical thing….” His voice trailed off when he noticed that she did not really seem to care even though she was breaking inside.

  “And what were we? Because clearly we are not as exclusive as I thought we were,” Trina said, still standing at the doorway as he quickly struggled to pull on a pair of boxer shorts.

  “Trina….please…” he said in a soft voice. “Give me a chance to explain.”

  Trina forced out a laugh.

  “Yeah please explain yourself. I would like to know just how you ended up balls deep in what seems to be a model of some sorts if not a porn actress.”

  He began walking towards her and she took a step back. He could not really tell but she was doing everything to fight back the tears that were threatening to roll down her cheeks.

  “You look…great,” he said after looking at her for a long second. “Did we have plans?”

  She forced out a laugh and she shook her head.

  “No. I was coming to make you dinner to celebrate my promotion at HHM but from the file I found on the table in your hallway I am inclined to think that I am not the only one who got a promotion,” she said and he took a long deep breath.

  He put on his pants and then slowly walked towards her but she backed up once again. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say but at the same time, she wanted to hear everything he had to say.

  “We never really had a real relationship, Trina,” he started and she forced out a laugh.

  “And what is a real relationship supposed to be like?” she asked. “Because in case there is something I never knew about what a ‘real’ relationship is, I must have missed that in dating 101.”

  He took another step towards her but again she took a step back. But by that time, she was already against the wall. She looked at him and wondered why she was still there.

  “I don’t even know why I am still here,” she suddenly said but by that time he was standing right in front of her. She tried taking a step to the side but he had his hand on the wall next to her, keeping her from leaving. And on this other side he was looking at her a little bit too closely almost like he was waiting for her to turn around. “Let me go, Lucas. Coming here was a big mistake.”

  “But we probably need to talk about this,” he said and she put a hand on his chest.

  “About how you used me to get ahead in your firm? Or how you cheated on me?” she asked as she pushed him away.

  �
��Trina, it is not really cheating if we were never exclusive,” he said and she pushed him off with much more force.

  “And what do you call spending almost every night together? The weekends we’ve had in The Poconos and Napa Valley?” she asked. “I’m sorry if that made me think that we are a real couple.”

  “Listen, Trina. I love being with you. You are…different from what I am used to…”

  “Different?” she asked and he nodded.

  “I have always had all these women…like Daniella, but no one ever made me do half the things I have done with you. And I got to experience that…” he shook his head. “And honestly I don’t want it to end either.”

  “You are a sleaze, Lucas Keen. That is exactly what you are and I am not sorry to have pointed it out,” she said and then walked out of the bedroom.

  He was calling after her as she made her way towards the living room where she found Daniella sipping on wine as if nothing had happened. She looked at her and then turned around to look at him. And just then, she figured it out. He wanted to have her and Daniella. Have her and a whole lot more women like Daniella. Monogamy was obviously not his strong suit. Plus the fact that he had been an opportunist, using her to get what he wanted and toying around with her heart. It was not what decent men did. And he was not even sorry about what he had done. For him, everything was just as it should be. What he was doing and what he expected her to do was normal.

  “Trina, please. Just stay and let’s talk,” he said but she was already walking to the door.

  She reached into her purse and took her keys out. He was still talking when she took his key off the key ring.

  “Trina,” he said again as she threw the key at him barely missing his face.

  “Lose my number,” she said before she walked out of the house.

  She rushed to the elevator and frantically pressed the button as the tears she had been fighting for the longest time finally rolled down her cheeks.

  She was not sure how she felt about everything Lucas had said. After all, he was an unapologetic asshole. But even then, she knew one thing for sure. She would have preferred Josh’s heartbreak over what Lucas had done any day. As far as Lucas was concerned, Trina was just a long con. And that hurt more than anything she had ever felt.

  Chapter 11

  Present Day…

  When she woke up the next morning, Trina felt a strange sense of déjà vu. It was like she was reliving the pain of her failed relationships all over again. But as much as she tried forgetting the fact that she was hurting, the shining rock on her left ring finger was a painful reminder of what she was feeling and as much as she wanted to pull the rings off, every single time she tried, she just couldn’t seem to find the strength to do it. She was so messed up the previous night thanks to the bottle of wine she had downed while listening to Enya. She didn’t even remember when or how she got to bed. She groaned as she got off the bed and slowly made her way to the bathroom and then got the shower started. She was beginning to rethink her decision of going back to work as she took off her clothes.

  “I slept in my bra?” she wondered as she got undressed. She would have had a lot of questions if she had gone out the previous night but since she had woken up in her own bed in the same clothes she had traveled in, it was obvious that she’d had one bottle too many. Especially since she had a lot of vodka martinis on the flight back. And judging by the throbbing headache she had that morning, she knew that she’d overdone her alcohol intake probably for the month. But who could blame her?

  The last time she felt this way was when she walked in on Lucas and Danielle. And even though her other break up with Josh had been even more humiliating, her break-up with Lucas had made her feel something, she swore she would never put herself in a situation that would make feel that way again.

  But for some reason, Axel had taken her back to that place. She was back in that dark place again. And she hated every single moment of it. It was all she could think about as the water trickled down her body. How much of a train wreck she was as far as relationships were concerned. She was a never ending streak of bad luck or so it seemed. And even when she thought she had a chance, it turned out that she didn’t have anything in control.

  When she got out of the shower, she oiled herself and walked to her closet. But when she looked at her clothes, she didn’t feel like wearing them. At the back of her mind, she knew that she still had a few pieces from the Anderson Collection and against her better judgment, she walked to the living room and got one of her suitcases. She pulled it to the bedroom and looked at it for a long time before she opened it and looked through the still new clothes.

  She pulled out a black elbow sleeved knee length dress and put it on. She looked at her reflection and she had to admit, she loved how perfect her body looked in the fitting V-neckline dress and the color coupled with the mid-section design made her look and feel sexier than she had ever felt before. She pulled her curls back into a puffy bun and put on a pair of silver earrings and a matching necklace before she put on a pair of flat soled sandals and her brace. But getting out of the apartment was the hardest part of her day. She was no longer sure she wanted to go to work. Mostly because she didn’t know how she was going to answer people who asked why she was back at work so soon after a vacation, especially since it was still the festive season. No one would have expected to see any of the senior or junior partners in the office until they reopened the office in the new year.

  “Suck it up Crews,” she thought as she walked out of the apartment. “Or is it Crews-Anderson?” she wondered when she caught a glimpse of her left ring finger once again.

  Her heart was pounding as she drove to her office building. She still had half a mind to go back home but by the time she drove into the building’s parking lot, she knew that there was no way she was going back home. She took a long deep breath before she got out of the car and began making her way towards the elevator.

  “Miss Crews,” one of the paralegals at the firm said in surprise when Trina walked into the elevator. “What are you doing here?” she asked and Trina shrugged.

  “I work here, Rochelle,” she said.

  “No…I mean, we already took a break for the holidays plus I knew that you were out of the country and everything…”

  “Well, I came back,” Trina said curtly as the elevator began to move. “And I saw that we have a medical malpractice suit. So I came to handle it.”

  “The malpractice suit has already been assigned…” Rochelle started and Trina turned to look at her.

  “Assigned to whom?” she asked.

  “One of the senior partners said they would handle it personally. So a few paralegals have been helping out and….” Rochelle started again before Trina shook her head.

  “I don’t care. I want in on it,” she said in a tough voice that shocked even her.

  The elevator doors opened and Rochelle looked at Trina nodding.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” she said as the elevator doors opened.

  “Thank you, Rochelle.”

  The paralegal held the door open and her eyes wandered to the brace on her leg.

  “I’m okay, Rochelle. Just a sprain,” Trina said before she could ask and Rochelle forced a smile. “Really I’m fine,” she said again and Rochelle nodded as Trina walked down the hallway to her office. But somehow, her office seemed so much further on that day than it usually did. But as she got closer to the bull pen, she noticed someone who should not have been there.

  Victoria.

  She was still getting used to seeing her there when she saw Axel standing behind her.

  Seeing Victoria was surprise enough but seeing Axel was what made her stop right in her tracks. They exchanged a long look before he began walking towards her.

  “What…” she started before her voice trailed off. But by that time, he was already standing in front of her. A tear was slowly rolling down her cheek. “What are you doing here?” she finally managed to ask
as he looked at her.

  “I needed to see you,” he said.

  “But you said….” She shook her head. “And then you walked out…”

  He held her face in his hands and took another step towards her. He didn’t even care that they had, at that moment, attracted the attention of the entire office.

  “I cannot let you go, Trina. I will not let you go,” he said in a soft voice. “And I made a mistake storming out the way I did but I came back. I came back to apologize and you were gone.”

  “You made me choose…you made me feel like some chess piece. A pawn you can just move around your board as you wish,” she said and he shook his head.

  “I was wrong. But I want to make everything better now.”

  “How do you know that I want to work things out?” she asked.

  “For starters, you would have pulled away a long time ago and you are still wearing your wedding band. And so am I, baby…” he leaned forward and kissed her softly. “I miss my wife. I want her back and I am willing to do absolutely anything to make sure I get her back.”

  “Anything?” Trina asked and he nodded.

  “Anything,” he echoed. “According to your colleagues you know your way around corporate law. And I couldn’t think of anyone better to head the legal department at Ornen.”

  “Are you just pulling rank right now?” she asked and he shook his head.

  “I have been looking for the right person for the job and one of the main reasons I am doing this apart for the good of the resort is also the fact that I want to give this marriage a chance,” he said.

  “And what about my family…I have a life here, you know,” she said and he nodded.

  “I know. We can keep the apartment here for as long as you want so that we can have a place to come to when you are in town visiting family,” he said.

  “We?” she asked.

  Axel smiled and nodded.

  “Yes. We,” he said. “We are a team now. Remember?”

  His hands slid down to her waist and he looked into her eyes.

  “And I would also like you to oversee everything legal in the Anderson Collection. I mean after all,” he took a step back and his eyes ran down her body. “I never thought I could see someone look so beautiful in an Anderson Collection piece.”