by Marian Tee
The billionaire spotted Ilse before she saw him, and he had to forcibly crush the flash of possessiveness that gripped him at the way other men stared at her. Even with a years-old gray coat thrown over a simple frock and knee-high boots, even with her dark hair swept up in a careless bun, several locks escaping to frame her face, Ilse Muir was still the epitome of careless elegance—-
And she would be his, could only be his. The thought was nothing but possessive, and that it was so disturbed the billionaire even more.
Ilse craned her neck hopelessly to see past the crowd, but it was only when she reached the corner leading to Café Alles that she finally saw the billionaire, and her heart skidded to a stop as their gazes collided.
He stood taller over most other men, his powerful built emphasized by the magnificent cut of his pea coat, and when he started striding towards her, Ilse stilled, unable to do anything but stare at the billionaire’s elegant, graceful movements.
Around him, women blatantly tried to catch his eye, and a conflicting mix of emotions struck her at sight. She shouldn’t be mad, but she was. She shouldn’t be jealous, but she was.
Oh, how absurdly unreasonable her feelings had become ever since the billionaire had come into her life.
“You look cold,” were his first words when he reached her.
“I’m not,” she lied.
The billionaire didn’t answer, was already in the process of unweaving the white scarf around his neck.
Ilse frowned. “What are you—-” She stopped in surprise as the billionaire carefully placed the cashmere scarf around her. “I don’t need—-” But she stopped speaking again, Ilse sucking her breath in as, in the process of knotting the scarf, his fingers brushed her collarbone.
How absurdly sensitive her body had become as well, every time it came into contact with the heat of the billionaire’s touch.
When the billionaire stepped away from her, she realized she couldn’t meet his gaze just yet, and she quickly diverted her gaze to his handiwork. He had the scarf around her in a complicated, fashionable knot, and she did feel warmer now, but even so, she said gruffly, “You shouldn’t have.”
“If I hadn’t, then I’m not the kind of man you should be dating.”
Ilse managed not to let her jaw drop. They were...dating? He had never used the word when talking about them...until now. She slowly, nervously raised her eyes to him, and when his lips curved in a tender smile, her heart raced even faster.
“Thank you for coming,” the billionaire said softly.
“It’s nothing.” Ilse forced a smile. “So you’ll be leaving tonight...” She shoved her hands into her coat’s pockets so that the billionaire wouldn’t see how they had started to shake.
“I wouldn’t leave if I didn’t have to,” the billionaire said quietly.
“Right. Of course.” Ilse forced a laugh.
“You can come with me, you know,” the billionaire heard himself say, and as Ilse’s eyes flew wide open at his words, he wondered which of them was more shocked.
Had he really said that?
It was almost like admitting he couldn’t face a single day without her.
Recovering from her shock, Ilse muttered, “You don’t mean that.”
She might or might not be right, but her words gave the billionaire a perverse desire to prove her wrong.
Four weeks, the billionaire thought grimly. They had only been going out for four weeks, and now he was acting like his life began and ended with her.
“Will you come with me or not?”
“I can’t. I’m sorry.” But even though she had no need to hesitate over her answer, her heart ached at what she had to say. And when she saw the way the billionaire’s handsome face took on a shuttered expression, Ilse’s heart ached harder.
“I...I...” But she didn’t know how to tell him why without revealing everything, and she wasn’t quite ready to do that yet.
“You don’t have to explain,” the billionaire said very politely.
Her heart didn’t feel like it would ever stop aching now. But when she saw the billionaire start to speak again, Ilse knew that whatever he had to say – she wouldn’t want to hear it.
“Kiss me,” she blurted out.
The billionaire stiffened.
She made herself look straight into his bright blue eyes. “Kiss me.”
The billionaire’s jaw clenched. “What the fuck is this about, Ilse? If this is some kind of act of pity—-”
“I want you to kiss me,” Ilse gritted out, “because I want you to kiss me.” And as her face went up in flames, she muttered furiously under her breath, “Idiot.”
A soft, hoarse laugh escaped the billionaire. “Ah, God, Ilse.” How the fuck had things turned out like this? She was the first woman to have called him an idiot, and damn if it didn’t sound as sexy as dirty talk to him.
Ilse gulped as the billionaire’s head started to lower.
From the corner of her eye, she could see that the world still continued to move, to exist. So why did it feel like that same world was starting to fade the closer the billionaire’s lips came to her?
Her throat dried and her eyes involuntarily closed.
But in the end, his lips landed just a fraction away from the corner of her mouth.
Chapter Seven
Ilse’s stomach tightened with an aching sensation as he straightened away from her. Why didn’t he just kiss her? The thought shocked and mortified her – it was almost like she was complaining!
Noticing the look of dismay that flitted over her face, the billionaire said abruptly, “Let’s walk.” But he didn’t really give her a choice as he took hold of her hand and he started to move.
As their steps automatically fell in sync with the billionaire deliberately matching her pace, everything just became worse, with the jostling crowd occasionally pushing them against each other, and Ilse unable to help but stiffen every time their sides touched.
When they turned around a corner, the billionaire placed his hand at the small of Ilse’s back, and oh, how that part of her body burned.
They walked and walked, and Ilse’s heart just went on aching.
He had not kissed her. Why?
She had asked him to kiss her, but he had not. Why?
Why?
Ilse stole a glance at the billionaire, and she bit her lip at the unfamiliar, rigid lines of his face. He was always wickedly smiling with her, and now he was...not.
She just didn’t understand him, but then no one else in the world seemed to.
In the past weeks, Ilse had been unable to resist reading up about him, and one thing she had learned was how the corporate world viewed Jaak de Konigh as a wildcard of sorts, a maverick belonging to a rare breed with how his wealth was completely derived from stocks he owned in numerous Fortune 500 companies.
He was a billionaire without his own enterprise, a king without an empire. Countless speculations had been put forth in an effort to explain his seemingly intentional choice, but Jaak had refused to validate any of them.
Ilse had thought about this a lot, and she had come to wonder uneasily if the billionaire viewed ownership as a form of shackles.
But if he did think that way...what then?
Did it mean he didn’t care about making her...his?
Ilse stole another look at the billionaire, and this time she couldn’t help scowling. How unnecessarily complicated life had become, and to think she hadn’t ever asked for this!
The billionaire suddenly stopped walking, and when she blinked up at him, he said mildly, “You were looking at me like you wanted to kill me again.”
Because she did, Ilse thought.
“Was it something I said?”
Ilse shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
Gazing at her curiously, the billionaire murmured, “I think it does.”
How terribly perceptive of him, Ilse thought darkly, and she knew this was yet another unexpected discovery of him. Jaak de Konigh was c
lose to perfection as any man could be. He had every reason to be self-absorbed, but instead he saw too, too much, often saw beyond what most people were comfortable showing.
“Why didn’t you kiss me?” As soon as the words were out, she wished she could slit her throat for letting such words escape.
The billionaire didn’t answer right away. He hadn’t expected Ilse to be so direct, but then again, he should have. Ilse Muir was anything but predictable, and wasn’t that what had attracted him so in the first place?
When he still didn’t say anything, she said quietly, “You know I have commitments, don’t you?” It was such an impersonal way of referring to Jan, and doing so hurt even though she knew that her brother couldn’t hear her speak in such a way.
“Yes,” the billionaire answered simply. “I do.” And he did. Even when she was so economical with sharing stories about her personal life, Jaak was able to read between the lines, enough to understand that everything she did wasn’t for herself.
“I don’t plan to do anything to make your life harder, Ilse.” Before she could reply, he went on bluntly, “You’re your own person, and that’s what I like most about you. It’s also why you never have to worry about me stopping you from working or telling you how or where to spend your money.”
Running his knuckles down one soft, pale cheek, he murmured, “The only time when I want to be in control of you is in the bedroom—-”
“And yet you don’t want to kiss me,” she couldn’t help point out, hurt confusion underlying her tone.
The billionaire cursed under his breath. Didn’t she realize how hard it was to control himself as it was? Couldn’t she see that he was doing this for her?
Ilse suddenly yanked her hand out of his hold, snarling, “Forget it.”
And then she spun around and walked away.
What the hell?
He caught up to her in moments and spun her back to face him, frustration making his temper match hers in an instant. “Never walk away from me,” he gritted out.
“I’ll do whatever the hell I want—-” She wasn’t able to finish what she had to say, with the billionaire suddenly dragging her to the closest empty alleyway. “What are you—-”
The billionaire pressed Ilse against the wall, and fear and excitement struck her body as she found herself trapped between it and the billionaire’s muscled chest.
She said hoarsely, “Mijnheer—-”
“You’re too fucking innocent.” His tone was as savage as the need that glittered in his blue eyes, and Ilse managed to swallow back the moan that threatened to slip past her lips.
“You even have to ask me why I don’t kiss you—-”
Aaaaah. His eyes roamed her body in a way that couldn’t be described as anything but lustful, and Ilse desperately tried not to think about the way her breasts had started to ache.
“It’s because I know if I have just one taste of your mouth...”
Ilse had been the recipient of just about every kind of proposition there was in her line of work, and yet none of those indecent proposals had made her feel so unbearably hot and bothered, none of them able to make heat sinuously dance over her spine the way the billionaire’s words could.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to stop.”
The billionaire moved closer, and this time a whimper escaped Ilse as her aching breasts swelled even more. Her nipples puckered to life, grazing his chest, and she whimpered anew.
“I’d want to fuck you.”
Liquid heat spread to the lower half of her body, and Ilse hurriedly pressed her legs together in a futile effort to stifle her body’s reaction.
She had asked for this, Ilse thought dazedly, and now she was paying for it.
Even seeing how his words had shocked and frightened her, the billionaire could also see arousal flaring into life in her beautiful brown eyes, and the sight stoked his need to new heights.
“Do you hear me, babe,” he rasped. “I’d want to fuck you over and over—-”
Aaaaaah. Ilse’s hands flew up to cover her trembling mouth as the billionaire pressed his body harder towards her—-
And that was when she felt it.
And that was when she started to struggle.
But it was too late.
Jaak ground his erection harder towards her, and Ilse’s fingers curled against his chest.
“Jaak—-”
His nostrils flared. It was her first time to call him by his name, and he had never heard something more arousing in his life.
“Say it again,” he growled. “Say my name, babe. Say it—-”
“Jaak,” she choked out, helpless against the command in his tone.
His control almost snapped, and his hands swept down the sides of her body.
She bit her lip hard at the feel of the billionaire’s hands caressing and roaming over her skin—-
But then she felt his fingers cup her ass.
Her eyes flew to his just as his fingers dug into the soft, plump skin, and then he was pulling her closer towards him—-
The unmistakable rigid and throbbing feel of his erection rubbed against the triangle between her legs, and Ilse shuddered.
Oooooooooh...Gooooooood...
“If I kiss you, I fuck you. Do you understand?”
Ilse knew she should say something, do something, but God, it was so hard to think with the way the billionaire’s cock kept rubbing against her core, its head nudging her aroused clit.
“I only have to listen to you having a shower, and I could cum—-”
Her lips parted in a silent moan.
“And it’s the same for you, isn’t it?” His cock throbbed against her quivering pussy with every word, and whatever inhibitions she had left faded at the mounting desire inside of her.
It didn’t matter that they were outside, where anyone could find out what they were doing.
None of it mattered except—-
The billionaire chose that moment to bend his head and lick the tender skin of her neck, and she arched against him with a moan. The movement had his cock pressing harder into her folds, and she moaned again.
The naked sound of her desire made the billionaire swear. “You’re so fucking hot, babe.” He started to suck hard on her neck and was rewarded with Ilse pressing her shuddering body closer to him. “You like how you turn me on, don’t you? When you take a shower, and you know I’m listening, you’ve probably thought of me imagining you...and you like that you drive me mad, don’t you?”
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
And Ilse’s control threatened to slip as the agonizing truth of his words swept over her highly sensitized skin.
And then she felt it—-
His hands starting to move under her skirt, skimming her bare thighs—-
All of a sudden, her brother’s face popped into her mind.
Jan—-
Jan, who only had her—-
Jan, who needed her to be strong and whole—-
A cry escaped her as Ilse somehow found the strength to place her hands against the billionaire’s chest as she tried pushing him away. “S-stop. Please.”
Even though it was a shamefully weak attempt, the billionaire slowly loosened his hold at the first sign of resistance, and Ilse scrambled away, panting.
The billionaire was also breathing hard, but his blue eyes stayed with her, hard and intense, and she knew then that there was no going back from here.
“I’m sorry.”
The billionaire’s hardened expression didn’t change. “You wanted it as much as I did.” When she only gave him a small nod, he demanded furiously, “Then what changed?” He watched her turn her head away from him, and his frustration seethed.
And then he heard her whisper, “I started reading articles about you.”
The billionaire stared at her grimly. “Is that so?” There were only three types of articles written about him, and all of them tended to be one-dimensional. The most common type only
saw him as the billionaire playboy and nothing else; the most effusive only cared about his entrepreneurial prowess, while the last—-
Ilse hugged herself at the billionaire’s cold tone, but she forced herself to continue, saying quietly, “Some of them describe you as the black sheep of your family.”
Ah. The billionaire’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Are you asking me if it’s true?”
“I’m not saying you are or aren’t something.” Ilse hated how she sounded like she was begging for him to listen, but she knew she would hate it even more if she didn’t try to make him see the truth.
And that was that he was right.
She did want him, had wanted him from the start.
But she also had Jan to think of, and it was for his sake that she couldn’t let any lies exist between them.
She made herself look at him. “I just want to know you more.”
“There’s nothing else to know.” The billionaire’s laugh was humorless. “I hate to keep disappointing you, babe, but this is it. This is me—-”
“Is it?” Even knowing that she was treading on thin ice, Ilse knew she had to go on. “Every time I look at you, I can’t help but feel that you’ve too many secrets—-”
“Says the woman who’s forbidden me to look her up in any way—-”
“It’s precisely because my life is such an open book,” Ilse answered painfully, “that I needed to keep you from looking me up. I don’t have anything to hide. I don’t have anything to pretend about—-”
The billionaire’s jaw clenched as Ilse’s unspoken but implied words hung in the air. “So you’re basically saying I’m a pretentious motherfucker, a coward who’s unable to face the truth—-”
“No!” Ilse was left pale-faced in horror at the way the billionaire had twisted her words. “It’s not like that at all—-”
But the billionaire cut her off, saying coldly, “It’s exactly like that, and it just shows that you’ve gotten something completely wrong...mevrouw.” All traces of teasing were gone from his voice, and just hearing it hurt because Ilse already knew – oh, she was so painfully sure of it – he was about to hurt her even more.
“I may want you more than any other woman—-”