Accidentally Married to the Billionaire (The Billionaire's Touch, #1) (2 page)

This is Part 1 of a three-book novella series. 18+ due to sexual situations. All of your questions won't be answered without purchasing Parts 2 and 3.

Calli Crawford has given up too much in life; too many rules and regulations forcing her to become someone she can barely recognize. Such is the life of a woman in the Witness Protection Program. With loneliness and fear as a constant companion, she's in search for solitude in hopes of making it to the trial date and getting back to her life.

Captain John "Edge" Barker has served his final mission for the Navy SEALs and the devastation of it has left its mark on the hard-bodied vet. His plan is to focus on his dogs and ignore the rest of the world, but when a raven-haired woman in need moves across the street, his world is turned upside down.

Needing someone to protect, he goes against his better judgment and steps into her world, and makes her fight his own. With the largest syndicate in New York searching high and low for them, the pair doesn't have the luxury of living in the present. They're forced to stay on the razor edge of tomorrow.

Addictive Collision
tells the story of twenty-five-year-old Morgan Tyler, who works as a receptionist at Belmont University and also takes classes on the side. She journeys through the pain of being trapped in a sexless marriage. Tired of having a roommate for a husband, she explores her options. Should she stay in the confines of her unhappy marriage or make the painful decision to leave? As she debates what direction her life should take, sparks begin to fly with a hot, hunky mailman named Foster. Is it time to move on with her life, or should Morgan fight for the man who is ignoring her?

M
arjorie Reynolds knocked on her elderly neighbor’s door. They lived in the same apartment building and had been friends for years. Marj had done some shopping for her. When Maria opened it, she smiled.

“Thank you,” she said, waving her in the apartment.

Marj offered her a cheery grin. “Not a problem. I picked up your prescriptions too.”

“Thank you, honey. I see you remembered the cat food.”

She petted the black cat on the head as it let out a small meow. “Now how could I forget Cuddles here?”

“You’re a Godsend. What would I do without you? My six kids either moved away or can care less about me, and I can’t drive anymore. But you’ve always been here for me. Always. You’re my knight in shining armor. The female version, of course.”

Marj set the bags down on the table. “I’ll take that. Because that means I get to slay big, giant dragons. As long as I’m not the damsel in distress.”

“I think we both know you’re a very independent woman.”

Marj smiled and helped her put the groceries away, then they played cards.

Maria flipped up a card. “I want to set you up with my grandson. He’s my...”

“Shining star,” Marj finished.

“Wait. Have we had this conversation before?”

Maria was starting to develop early dementia and that worried Marj. Maria was such a kind and wonderful person. She always had a smile on her face and made her laugh.

“Yeah, hon. We’ve had this conversation before. I even went out with your grandson, Michael a few months back.”

“Oh, that’s right. He robbed you blind. Took your rent money. I’m so sorry about all of that. He’s all screwed up on drugs now. But he used to be a very good boy.”

“It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault,” Marj reassured her.

“He’s very cute.”

“Very. Just not very stable.”

Maria let out a long sigh. Marj grinned, showing her that she was long past the incident.

“So what happened to the cute guy in Star Bucks?” Maria asked. “The one that looked like my hottie on The Vampire Diaries? And no, I’m not too old to be watching that show. I might be eighty, but I still like a hot man with piercing, blue eyes. I’m very young at heart.”

Chuckling, Marj shook her head. “Anyway, I found out he was married.”

“Seriously?” She tapped her chin. “What about the big, muscular one we always saw jogging? The one that smiled at you when he was all hot and sweaty?”

“He’s gay.”

“I knew he was to good looking!” she squealed.

Marj laughed. 

“How about the dreamy, blond guy in the bookshop?”

“He’s dating three other bookworms.”

“Oh, a player.”

“Yeah. I’ve been searching all over for Mr. Right, but I keep getting disappointed by all the men I meet. I really don’t think there is a Prince Charming or knight in shining armor.”

“Sure there is.” She pointed to the happy picture of her and her husband. “I found mine and we were married for fifty years before he passed away.”

“I hope I get as lucky as you one day.”

She pushed back a strand of white hair that fell from her tight bun. “You will. How that dating site, Blender? Is that helping?”

“Tinder,” Marj corrected with a chuckle. “I’ve met lots of great people, just nobody I want to date.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll find the right Blender match.”

“Tinder match.”

“Right. Don’t just swipe the cute ones. Because those are the ones that are trouble. What do you look for in a profile?”

“Someone who looks like they want to do fun things, and definitely someone who makes me laugh.”

“Maybe you should try more coffee dates. Talking too much online isn’t natural. Meeting someone face to face is the way to go. If they don’t work out, you always have a new friend.”

“Yep. They’re great practice for when my soulmate does come along. Dating is definitely a fun adventure.”

Her bright green eyes twinkled. “Online dating has changed the game for sure.”

“For the better or for the worse?” Marj asked. 

“I think online dating makes the romantic process feel forced and dehumanizing. Why don’t you meet a good man in church?”

Marj tapped her nails on the table. “I think I’ll just focus on my career and my new job.”

She put down a few more cards. “Yeah, let love come naturally. I know you said it’s fun and exciting, but I think offline encounters are the best way to go.”

“I have to admit, it’s exhausting having the same conversations every night. It’s like I’m being interviewed nonstop. It’s like going on one continuous first date. How can these men enjoy serial courtship?”

“It’s a quick hook-up. The ones that enjoy it are the guys getting laid.”

We both burst out into laughter. 

Marj shouldn’t have been thinking about her spray tan. She should have been focused on the orientation for her new job. Still, she had forked over nineteen bucks for some cosmetology student to make her Bermuda tan and she’d left the shop looking more of a Dreamsicle orange. Marj had gone after her limbs with the loofah, but no amount of exfoliation had rid her of her sherbet hue. So instead of listening to the trainer drone on about the PowerPoint, Marj was obsessing over the fact that her gorgeous and diligently toned long legs were an unflattering apricot shade that didn’t go well with her navy pencil skirt. So much for trying to look professional on her first day, she thought.

S
he had enough student loan debt that she wasn’t a woman who took a nineteen-dollar luxury expense lightly. What a waste, she thought with irritation. She’d wanted to look sleek and put together and like someone who took beach vacations instead of someone who only let herself have Starbucks once a week for budgetary reasons. She was in marketing by trade, but she had the soul of an accountant, or so her bookkeeper friend Britt had told her. Correction, her best friend Britt, the former bookkeeper turned billionaire’s wife. Marj sighed, possibly aloud because the trainer gave her the stink eye before droning on about the slides again.

Marj knew that every company thought it was super special and had to build the culture with lots of training procedures but, frankly, she was good at marketing and knew how to do it without a dose of jargon. It was a challenge to leave her phone in her purse. She wanted to check her social media and see if she’d been getting any good swipes on Tinder. Although she was losing faith in dating apps. She hadn’t met anyone halfway decent since she and Luke broke up. And by ‘broke up,’ she meant ‘since he knocked up his secretary’ which is so cliché it didn’t bear mentioning.

She made herself take notes, although she had no intention of ever reading them. Marj jotted down the names of competitors, which she already knew, and noted that the current CFO had been head hunted by a multinational based out of London. Whether this was mere boastfulness or whether the company needed new management, she wasn’t sure. The point was, she wished they’d get a new CFO for a very simple reason. At her last job, before the Luke debacle, Creative Consulting had been acquired by the Fitzsimmons Group, which included a new CEO and his hot son who ended up falling for Britt. So if this joint had a new executive, maybe he’d be hot or have an attractive single relative who’d like to meet a somewhat jaded but very shapely and aerobicized marketing girl.

Until some mythical Billionaire Charming (so much more desirable than a mere Prince Charming, to Marj’s mind) appeared to sweep her off her office chair, she was doomed to at least another thirty years of focus groups and targeting demographics. She tried not to stare at her legs. They annoyed her and also made her crave orange sherbet, which most definitely was not on the low carb diet she just started yesterday.

When the training dismissed, she bolted to the cavernous lobby of the building and checked her phone. A missed call from Britt. She’d been trying to reach Britt for two days and kept missing her. Britt was touring with her husband the adorable billionaire’s band. Because he wasn’t perfect enough, he wrote songs about her and played them on his guitar while looking hot and having more money than most Central American nations. It was hard not to be bitter about the preciousness of the whole Britt and Jack union, but Marj did her best. Because she loved Britt and a truly perfect man was the only solution, because no one else could hope to deserve her. She wanted Britt to be this happy. She just wished that Jack had an equally flawless brother for herself.

Jack did have a brother, but that hadn’t worked out well for Marj. He’d brought a date to the rehearsal dinner and rebuffed Marj’s every advance despite the fact that her incredible cleavage had threatened to spill forth from her dress. Apparently he’d gone ahead and married the girl. So Marj would have to shop outside her BFF’s in-laws to find a mate.