Page 74 of Billionaire Grump
“What would you do if you could do anything you wanted?” I ask her, so enthralled by her beauty I sometimes wonder if I’m dreaming her. “If you could just work on exactly what you wanted to work on without the stress or the worry of anything else, what would you do?”
She thinks about this for a few seconds, watching my eyes, still dazed with her lingering ecstasy. “I’d work on my music. I’d only post on social media when I felt like it. Or maybe not at all. I’d travel.”
“Where?”
“To those huts.”
This makes me smile. She’s so fucking cute. “What if I told you I booked us into those huts. In Tahiti. Next week. Would you come with me?”
She gives me a look, thinking I’m joking. “Maybe.”
I’m fucking in love with her. I know this as sure as I’ve ever known anything. Ever. I know it because I’ve never felt anything remotely like it and it’s basically like having a wrecking ball of lust, obsession, tenderness, need, beauty, addiction and happiness—all wrapped up in one little golden-eyed goddess—crash straight through the middle of my life. I’d let my empire burn to the ground to keep her.
I’m already imagining her round with my baby as we swim in turquoise ocean water.
We haven’t talked much about the elephant in the room. The fact that it’s very possible I have knocked her up, already, if the stars are aligned for it.
It’s absurd. It doesn’t make sense that I could meet her and over the course of one single weekend know for a fact that she’s the one.
But I do.
I can feel it in the beat of my heart.
I can also feel it in the surge and pulse of my cock, which wants to live inside this girl, spilling my soul and my seed into her until she’s fully mine in every possible way. I want to fucking breed her with a primal need that’s so sure of itself I can’t argue or reason with it.
“Marry me,” I say.
Her eyes get wide and she bites her lip. There’s a light sadness to her smile that only makes my resolve that much more feral. “Sure thing, Maddox.”
She doesn’t know yet that I mean it, and that I’ll give her all the time she needs until I can convince her. Or that I’ve booked a trip for us. Or that I’ve already talked to my lawyers, who are looking into the issue Jack Dempsey confronted us with. And doing a deep dive into Ivy’s father’s background, businesses and banking activities.
She doesn’t know that I’ve got a bodyguard following Josh to make sure he’s not in any danger. People can get touchy about things like having their offshore bank accounts drained, and if Mr. Laine would walk out on his own children, who knows what he’s capable of. I’ve got enough information at this point to know that the man’s a snake and coward, who chose to walk away instead of man up.
Ivy also doesn’t know that I have my people looking into where she lives, the building where her apartment is located and the terms of its sale. Everything’s for sale at the right price and I want it to be hers.
“Sing me that song you sang last night,” I tell her.
“No.”
“Please?” It’s not a word I use very often. But for this girl, I’ll grovel on my goddamn knees.
She narrows her eyes at me, her pussy squeezing as she does this and I’m already hard again. And so fucking besotted it’s painful. I grip her hips and thrust into her slowly.
“Do you want to hear a new one I’ve been working on?” she breathes.
“Yes.”
She starts singing to me as I’m fucking her and it feels so good to know. I know that I’ll spend my entire fortune on her just to see her smile. I know that all those years and all the endless work was worth it. Because now I can use it to make this girl mine.
23
A buzzing noise wakes me from a deep, deep sleep. It’s the kind of sleep where you’re so snug and you feel so secure, your dreams are magic-dusted and restorative and you wake up feeling like a better, calmer, more grounded version of yourself.
I’m not ready to open my eyes. I’m wrapped in the warm cage of his body. I wish I never had to move.
His phone is ringing.
“Fuck,” he grumbles, reaching for it. “Yeah?” he answers. Not the usual “Alexander Maddox” I’ve heard him answer with before.