Page 77 of Billionaire Grump

It’s scary. It would involve trusting him so much. Too much. I look into his eyes and I whisper, “Maybe.”

His grin is devilish and so sublime I’m almost coming already as he pushes himself deep, deep inside me, all the way to the hilt.

24

And so we take a shower together—adding two more to my almost alarmingly high tally of orgasms accumulated over the weekend. We have brunch with the remaining wedding party guests and we say goodbye to Blake and Leah, who invite us to a dinner party next month. We’re spared from any further confrontations with Margot, who seems to have been convinced enough by our performance and left early this morning. And we climb into the Maddox Enterprises helicopter to make our way back to Manhattan.

I don’t know how to feel.

So I concentrate on the view of the Hamptons, which is just as beautiful as it was on Friday evening. But it looks different now. The whole world looks more vibrant and technicolored. Maybe because I’m a completely different person than I was three days ago. My body feels punished but enlightened in the best kind of way. After never having had a romantic relationship of any substance in my life, I’ve agreed to spend another night with my hot billionaire fake date. Because he’s beautiful and sexy as sin and I’m not quite ready to walk away from the magic he infuses into everything.

I’m a realist because I’ve had to be and I’m not allowing myself to think past tomorrow, but right now I’m feeling all of it.

I think I’m sort of desperately love with him, if that’s what this is. It feels overwhelmingly good to be close to him. He feels like mine.

He’s not mine, of course. He’s a guy I met three days ago—actually two—who I barely know anything about except that he’s a sweet-dirty talker, an extremely good lover and he might just break my jaded heart if I’m not careful.

Alexander is checking a few of his messages on his phone. Answering them. He seems to have a lot.

I watch him as he does this. It gives me a minute to just appreciate his magnificence without him being aware of it. That thick black hair that I know the feel of so intimately between my fingers. The handsome face that I once thought was stern and severe but now is relaxed and more endearing than I’d like to admit. The wide shoulders under the black cashmere sweater he’s wearing. The broad chest and hard flatness of his abs. The way his black pants fit him…his muscular thighs and his long legs...it touches something primal in me. He’s so impressive. So outrageously masculine. The swell of that gigantic?—

“You’re relentless, Jones.” He’s caught me staring at him. “You’ll get more of that as soon as we land.”

I turn to look out the window. “I don’t know what you mean.” But I bite my cheek to stop myself from smiling at him and I can feel the warmth on my face.

“What’s your number, Ivy Laine?”

“We’re exchanging numbers now? Do you think we’re ready for that?” I joke.

“We’ve exchanged a lot more than numbers. I think we can handle it.”

We certainly have. It’s shocking to think about exactly how much we’ve exchanged. I give him my number and he keys it into his phone.

“I’ll send you a text so you have mine.” My phone immediately chirps with an incoming message from inside my bag.

I can see the city skyline now. We’re getting close.

My heart beats faster because I don’t know what will happen. It was easy in the Hamptons. We had the buffer of our charade.

Now, we have Real Life stuff to contend with. Including the very heavy threat of police investigations and criminal convictions. Not to mention the possible consequences of having unprotected sex so many times I lost count—which are about as Real Life as it gets.

Tomorrow. I googled it and I have three to five days, at the absolute most. I’ll make that decision tomorrow and act on it. A hundred percent definitely.

Even if it’s only tonight, even if the haze of our playful conversations, our blazing lust and our intense chemistry fades out under the burn of New York’s glow, I’m grateful.

I’m grateful he showed me that an instant connection between two people can actually happen. I don’t have to wonder anymore if there’s something wrong with me because I never clicked with a man before him. I’m not broken. I’m capable of morphing into a sex goddess on steroids and I love that about myself. With him, I feel sexy beyond belief and it’s empowering.

I’m grateful I just had the best weekend of my life. I’m grateful it was him I finally cashed in my V-card with. It was as beautiful and hot as it possibly could have been. That’s something special. Not everyone’s first time is so…luxurious.

I’m grateful we have one more night together. I’ll stay with him tonight then I’ll leave in the morning, without expectations. Expectations have gotten me nowhere in the past and I’m emotionally prepared for this to end whenever it ends. I mean, he’s gorgeous and perfect, and I can hope that some of the things he said to me actually meant something. But chances are they were just words, spoken in the heat of a moment. Which is fine. It was a beautiful moment that’s now almost over. My heart is locked up behind her fortified brick wall that’s taken me a long time to build. I’ll be okay, like I always am. Like I always force myself to be because I have no other choice.

I’m grateful Josh will be back in the afternoon and he’ll have put the money back and everything will settle down. We’ll deal with what we need to deal with.

Everything will be fine.

The helicopter descends over the helipad on the top of Alexander’s building, touching down lightly before the engine revs down and the propellors begin to slow.

“Hey,” Alexander says softly, brushing his thumb gently over the furrow between my eyebrows, smoothing it. He unfastens both our seatbelts and lifts me into his arms. “Whatever you’re worrying about, don’t.”