Billionaire BWWM Romance 1: The Billionaire's Arranged Marriage (15 page)

He groaned in need at the feel of her body reacting to his.

Reed saw her reaction and his hand paused in its place on her breast. He watched her carefully and pressed his erection hard to her core again, rubbing the bulge of it back and forth over her clothes, pushing solidly against her, and watching her face. Her eyes flew open and she looked at him partly in panic and partly in wonder, and he smiled slowly and stopped for a moment.

“My sweet little Jillian…” he whispered to her, “would I be correct in guessing that you are a virgin?” He could not hide the pleased surprise on his face.

She turned her head away and bit her lip, lowering her lashes. He chuckled and turned her head back to face him. She opened her eyes and looked up at him, embarrassed.

“Oh Jillian, don’t feel bad about that. Not at all.” He chuckled again and grinned as he pressed his erection against her again and began to rub himself on her core slowly and deliberately, making her gasp and cling to his shoulders.

“I didn’t think I could want you more than I did a minute ago,” he said huskily, “but now there’s no way I’m letting you go.” He closed his mouth over hers and kissed her deeply and hungrily as his hand squeezed her breast firmly and he continued to move his body against hers. She was reeling with desire, and hormones were blazing through her as she tried to find some sort of stronghold in the ocean of chaos swirling throughout her.

Reed’s hunger for her seemed to multiply infinitely then, and his hands and mouth moved over her more rapidly, needing her much more than he had before he discovered she had never known another  lover, but then he paused and stopped and she looked at him quickly.

“Wait,” he said breathlessly, “I don’t want to go too fast with you. You need to be ready for your first time. You need to really want it, and it needs to be with someone who means a great deal to you. It can’t happen because of lust. I won’t do that to you,” he said quietly, his heart pounding as he gazed down at her, needing her with every fiber in his body, and denying himself completely as he put her first.

She saw what he was doing, and it brought a tear to her eye. “When did I begin to matter to you?” she asked him as her heart swelled with emotion.

He looked at her without blinking. “When you slapped me for disrespecting you. I never should have made you feel like you needed to defend yourself.”

She smiled and the tear rolled down her cheek. He leaned down and kissed it away.

“Reed,” she said softly. “Make love with me, please. I want you. I can’t believe, it but I want you so much.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Be my first love.”

He stared at her for a long moment. “No one could be more surprised than me,” he said quietly. “I’m honored.” He kissed her softly and then pulled her up off of the bed and she looked at him in surprise, until he took her in his arms and kissed her, holding her closely before taking a step back and slowly, carefully unbuttoning her sundress, and as each button fell away, his lips kissed her flesh and tasted her.

The dress finally dropped to the floor. He slipped her bra from her, taking his time and enjoying every moment of it.  His fingertips moved delicately over her curves, touching every part of her, feeling her, uncovering her, discovering her, arousing her, and setting her skin on fire where he had touched her.

“You are so much more beautiful than I ever imagined.” He said it quietly, taking her into his arms again so she could feel his body against hers. She closed her eyes, amazed at the sensations it brought her.

He lowered her onto the bed and starting at the base of her legs, kissed her from her ankles all the way to her inner thighs, where he pushed her legs apart and pressed his lips and tongue to her, tasting her, drinking her in deeply, and making her moan in amazement and happiness.

     “Reed!” she cried out as he made her come for the first time with his tongue. “What is that? What’s happening?”

     He smiled. “That’s your first orgasm, my love. I’m going to give you so many of those today that you will lose count.”

He had that accomplished before he kissed her there a final time and moved his ravenous mouth up her body to her breasts. It was there that he had to stop and gaze down at her. Her beautiful long black veil of hair was splayed out beneath her, just as he had imagined, her dark skin soft and warm, her nipples hard and anxious for him, and her mouth smiling up at him, her dark brown eyes looking at him in adoration. He was choked up for a moment and she placed her hands on his face.

“What’s the matter?” she asked him, worried.

“It’s just that looking at you, lying beneath me like this; I’d swear I was dreaming, but I know that can’t be, because you never looked this incredible in my dreams.” He shook his head and smiled down at her and then lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her with all the passion of a lover whose hunger is evergreen.

His hands closed over her breasts, as did his tongue and his mouth, and then when she didn’t realize it was going to happen, he entered her and the momentary sharp pain of girlhood slipping away into womanhood made her clutch him, and he kissed her as it happened. He kept kissing her as he moved within her, loving her, bringing her unimagined pleasure, until she came for him again. This time it was because he was her lover, and was deep inside of her, while their lips were sharing heat and breath and desire.

She sighed in exquisite ecstasy as it washed over her and her whole body stiffened beneath his. He paused for her, waiting a moment, and when it passed, she had learned passion. He continued to move himself inside of her, bringing her to the hilt of bliss, and as she was reaching another climax, he said into her ear, “I love you, Jillian, marry me. Marry me for love, not because we were told to, but because you want to be with me for the rest of your life, just as I want to be with you.”

She said yes, over and over again, yes. He made love to her for hours, until at last he could no longer hold himself back and he pushed himself as far into her as he could, and she felt his orgasm fill her with fire. She came again, and then they collapsed in love and exhaustion, and slept in each others arms.

Chapter7

Reed and Jillian were blissfully happy, and he had her back at her house by ten that evening, but neither one wanted to say goodbye. He opened her car door and helped her out, pulling her into a hug and kissing her neck and her mouth before she turned to walk into the house, but she didn’t get two steps before she stopped in her tracks and felt as though her heart was going to explode.

“Jillian…” he called her name.

Their eyes met as he walked toward her. “Wilson!” she said in shock and Reed’s hands closed firmly around her shoulders in protection.

“What on earth are you doing here?” she asked in confusion, pain searing through her heart at having to see him.

He walked toward her until he was just a few steps in front of her. “God, you look so beautiful. I’ve missed you more than you can imagine.” He sighed and looked behind her shoulder at Reed, then back down to her. Reed eyed the tall physically fit young black man before him, and he felt his heart pound against his chest in panic that this man might actually be able to take away the woman he was holding.

“I have to tell you something.” He said with a dejected voice. “I’m not proud of it. Far from it, but I just have to change it. I have to get you back. I can’t live without you, baby.”

“You
left me for another woman
!” Jillian cried out, pain and anger surging through her. “What do you mean, you can’t live without me? You chose to live without me!”

Wilson reached his hand toward her, and then pulled it back. “Well, that’s not exactly true,” he said quietly, then looked down at the ground. “I’ll tell you the truth. The truth is,” he looked back up into her eyes, “there is no other woman. There never was another woman. You were my only woman. You were the one I wanted to marry and spend my whole life with, but then one day I got this phone call; I thought it was you, see, because it was your phone number, but when I answered it, I found out that it was your mother on the phone.”

He turned and looked back at her house behind him, and then looked at her again. “Your mother said you had this great opportunity for a better life, that you had things you had to do that were bigger and better than me, and that I was holding you back and if I really loved you, I would tell you that I found another woman and tell you I wanted to break it off with you.

“She said that would be the real test of love, letting you go to move on with your life so I wasn’t holding you back. I didn’t want to hold you back from anything.

“I love you, baby, I always wanted to see you do good and have the best. So I told your mother that I loved you plenty, but how did she know that I wasn’t the best thing for you, and then she said she’d give me one hundred thousand dollars if I told you about the other woman and broke up with you like she wanted me to.

“Well, it was a lot of money, so I did it. I called you back up and I lied to you. I told you that there was another woman, but there never was. I lied to you to set you free,” he said, looking like he’d just delivered a heart wrenching poem.

Jillian slapped him straight across the face. Reed almost felt sorry for Wilson, having been on the receiving end of one of her slaps before. “You
lied
to me? You lied to me for money?”

“I’m sorry, baby. I don’t care about the money no more. That rich guy can have it back. I just want you.” Wilson nodded at Reed.

“What do you mean the rich guy? What are you talking about?” she asked, pulling herself away from Reed and looking at them both.

Wilson nodded at Reed, indicating him. “This is the guy, Reed, who your mother wants you to marry, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Yes,” Jillian answered coldly.

“Well, Reed and his dad Carter are the ones that came up with the money that your mother paid me off with. They was all working together to keep us apart and hook you up with him, and I guess it worked, if he’s standing in your yard hanging on you.”

Reed stepped into the conversation at that point. “I didn’t know anything about a payoff. Don’t drag my name into your mess. Whatever Carter and Kimiko did is between them, and I’m not involved.”

Wilson puffed his chest out defensively. “You calling me a liar? I know what you did. I know you gave the money to Jillian’s mother, she told me you did,
Reed
.”

Reed started to argue with him, but Jillian put her hands up in the air to stop them both. “You two both need to leave my house right now. I’m done talking to both of you. This is over. Now! Out!”

They both turned to look at her, each one thinking that she would let him stay, and she raised her voice to both of them. “Get out! Both of you!”

They both backed away from her, each one walking to his car and staring at her before getting into their cars and driving away. Jillian walked into the house and slammed the front door, which was the only American door in the house.

“Mother!” she yelled.

Kimiko appeared from her bedroom and had a look of sheer fury on her face, but when she saw the expression on Jillian’s face, she paused and turned her head to the side a little. “What is it?”

Jillian almost growled at her. “You paid my fiancé off with one hundred thousand dollars so I would be forced to marry Reed? You sacrificed my future and my happiness for your business?

“Do I mean anything to you at all? Anything? How dare you treat me like I’m a marketable product! I am your daughter! It should be my choice to marry whom I want to marry and my decision as to when I want to get married, just like you did with Daddy. 

“Don’t try to come talk to me until I’m ready to speak with you, because I have nothing to say to you!”

Jillian walked away from her mother and then stopped and turned to glare at her. “The wedding is off. I’m not marrying either of Carter’s sons and I’m not going to Japan to marry that old man. I’m not getting married. I’m closed for business!”

Chapter8

Jillian was beyond mere anger. Her heart was distraught at being lied to by her mother, by Wilson, the man she had intended to marry for love and her own first choice for a life mate, and both Carter and his son Reed.

She’d discovered that they had all been lying to her and she wasn’t speaking to any of them. She told her mother not to bother trying to talk to her;it was an act of tremendous disrespect, and she knew it, but she spoke her heart for once and because she had never spoken to her mother that way in her life, her mother had not said anything to her in return. Kimiko had given her the space that she had demanded and it had given her a little room to breathe and think.

She sorely wished that her father could have been home for her just then. He always seemed to know the best way to see her through her grief, but he was away in Japan working with her uncles and his trip had already been postponed.

He talked with her over the Internet, but he was not there to hold her and help her through her grief and pain. A day after she had found out, Wilson was back at her front door trying to talk to her, but she wouldn’t see him.

She refused to discuss anything with him, and he seemed determined not to give up on her. He began sending frequent notes to her, begging her to give him some time so that he could explain, but she would not relent. Reed did the same, sending her flowers and trying to call her. She was impenetrable. She would not respond to any of their endeavors.

Reed was beside himself with anxiety for many reasons. More than anything, the seed of love had just begun to bud and grow between them and suddenly it was ripped away. It caused an unfamiliar sensation in him; a pain in his heart that he had never known. He had loved many women physically, but he had never loved a single woman with his heart, and heartache was an entirely new experience for him.

He had no idea how to handle it, what to do to fix what had been broken in him and between them, or how to win her back and he most assuredly wanted her back. He needed her back. He began to realize that as he laid in his bed night after night, alone and longing for her, unable to sleep because thoughts, doubts, memories and second guesses plagued him. Her silence was deafening to him and it did nothing to help his worries.

He was hoping for help when he walked into his brother’s office the morning after, to seek some advice. He and Anderson were not exactly close, but he thought if anyone knew how to get over a broken heart, surely his brother would. He knew Anderson had lousy luck with women and must be well versed at recovering a bruised and tattered relationship. Reed sat down at Anderson’s desk and his brother looked up at him with an almost impatient look on his face.

“I’m very busy, Reed, what is it?” he asked in a quiet tone.

Reed leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. “I’m in some new territory and I wondered if you could help me out with it. I’m hoping you have some experience you could share with me.”

“What is it?” Anderson repeated.

“Jillian and I were doing very well, but I guess her mother bought off her ex-fiancé and she found out about it when the guy showed up last night to tell her all about it and try to win her back. She told him off, but the guy told her that I was part of it and Jillian told me off, believing him, and now I can’t get her to talk to me. I sent her flowers and I’ve tried to call her, but nothing is working. She won’t talk to me at all.” Reed was staring into his own nothing as he spoke, but as he finished he looked up to see that Anderson had suddenly given him his full attention.

Anderson leaned forward, his hand on his desk. “Reed, I’m so glad that you came to me with this. Explain to me how things were going with Jillian. Tell me the details. It will help me to know how best to handle this.”

Reed stretched and rested his back on the chair. “Well, we went out on a great date and we really patched up the awkwardness between us. She had been really upset about Las Vegas, but she and I talked and I did my best to explain that I was just playing and that I really want to be with her. She understood and I can’t believe it myself, but she believed me and we had an amazing time together. Now it’s ruined over a lie.

“I didn’t know anything about money that her mother gave to that guy she was already engaged to. I just know Carter told me to marry her or he was going to give the inheritance, the house, the business, all the assets, everything, to you. I couldn’t be kicked out. I made her my priority and I found out, when I did that, that she is an incredible lady. Now I am developing feelings for her.”

He looked right at his brother who was watching him like a hawk. “I have to tell you, Anderson, I think I’m falling in love with her. I really do. I’ve never felt like this before.”

Anderson was silent until Reed finished, and then he took a deep breath and stood up and walked to the bar in his office and poured them each a stiff drink.

He walked over to Reed and handed him one of them. “Here. Drink this.” Then he sat beside his brother and spoke to him. “What did she say to you when you saw her last?” he asked.

“She told me she didn’t want me to talk to her, she didn’t want to see me, and to leave her alone,” Reed replied glumly.

“Then, dear brother,” Anderson said, “listen to the woman. Give her the space and time she asked for. It’s the least you can do. She’s been overrun with emotions and confusion, she has been lied to and used. She’s  been told she had to marry someone she didn’t know and doesn’t like very well, and now, just as things have begun to shape up for her, the bottom has suddenly fallen out. She has been handed a truth that she has to figure out how to cope with.

“Don’t go after her right now. Don’t chase her and make it more difficult. She’s had so much to deal with. Just give her some time and space. It really is what she needs. Stop calling her, stop sending her things, just leave her alone and let her have some time. Give it a few weeks and then get in touch with her if you haven’t heard from her by then.

“My guess is that she will be in contact with you before too long. Her mother is fairly bent on her getting married and she won’t let her daughter sit on her hands too long. I’m sure she’ll be in touch with you soon. Until then, the best thing you can do is give her what she asked for. Give her time and space. Got that?”

Reed looked miserable. “Alright. I will. I’ll wait for her to get in touch with me.” He stood up, swallowed the remains of the whiskey in his glass and set the tumbler on Anderson’s desk, then clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Thanks for the advice, brother.” Then he strolled out of the room and sighed to himself.

Needs a separator

Jillian was sitting in her father’s dojo when a knock sounded at the door. It surprised her, because it was rare that an interruption came at that place; it was a place of meditation and spiritual and physical focus.

“Yes?” she asked.

Her mother responded. “Jillian, you have a guest.”

“Who is it?” she asked suspiciously.

In answer, the door slid open and she found herself looking at her mother and Anderson. He bowed low to her mother and let himself in. Kimiko smiled at him and nodded, then disappeared. He slid the screen closed behind him, then turned to look at Jillian.

“Hello.” He smiled and started walking toward her.

She stood up from her seat on the mat beneath her and greeted him with a hug. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him, nestling his face in close to her neck and ear. He kissed her cheek softly and held his lips there for a lingering moment before letting her go and looking down at her.

“I’ve heard about what happened with Reed and Wilson and I wanted to come and be some support and help to you if I can. You must be so upset. How awful for you to have found out what you did, especially when you did. How are you feeling about it?” An outpouring of sympathy was flushing over his face as he reached for her hands.

Jillian turned her head away from him. “It makes me sick. I am so angry about it, and so sad. All this time I believed Wilson when he told me he had found someone else to love but it wasn’t true. He said he’s loved no one but me the whole time and that my mother paid him off. I wanted to marry him. I wanted to love him the rest of my life, but now I am so confused and hurt, I don’t know who to believe or what to do,” she said as an angry tear fell down her face while she tried to hold her emotions in check.

Anderson slowly wiped the tear away from her cheek with his fingertip and, noticing a curtained area with dozens of thick pillows on it, motioned for her to sit on the deeply cushioned resting platform with him. Her father used it for naps sometimes, as it was quiet and peaceful in his dojo. He had created a meditation section at one end of his dojo and a curtained area with a small waterfall and the resting cushions at the other end of it. She walked over with Anderson to the area and as they entered it, Anderson reached over and closed the curtains behind them, then lowered himself to the cushioned platform and sat close to Jillian.

He lifted his hand to her cheek and began to stroke it gently. “Jillian,” he said softly, “Wilson couldn’t have really loved you. If he had, then no amount of money would ever have been enough to keep him away from you. I understand that it was one hundred grand. That’s not much money at all. Perhaps it seemed like it to him, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s just not much money.

“He traded your love for that pittance, and it was worth it to him. For him to come around now and say that he wants you and that he is ready to give the money back, well, that just shows that he may have realized an inkling of what he had in you when he did have you.”

He continued. “You are worth so much more than that. You are worth being loved, really and truly being loved for the rest of your life, by someone who wouldn’t trade anything at all for you. You are also worth more than being traded in marriage for a business deal, which is exactly what my brother is doing to get you.

He was threatened with being kicked out of our home, with losing his entire inheritance, the family business, which would go to him, and all the assets my father has. All of it was going to be taken away from him if he didn’t marry you. That’s the most important thing to him.” He paused for dramatic effect and Jillian felt her heart turn over in her chest. She turned to look at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“That can’t be true!” she gasped as the heartache in her was ripped open and fresh pain spilled out into her again.

“It’s true. I’m so sorry my beautiful girl.” Anderson wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him, holding her against him as tears began to fall down her cheeks again. He let her cry against his chest for a moment, and then he looked down at her face and said quietly, “I probably shouldn’t share this with you, I feel like I’m betraying my own flesh and blood… my own brother.… But I just can’t stand to see you hurting like you are, and you should know that…” He trailed off and looked away from her for a long moment.

She held her breath and said, “What?” but he kept his head turned. She reached her hand to his chin and turned his face toward her. “What? Please, tell me!” she begged, hoping that she wouldn’t regret asking. She wasn’t sure she could take any more pain.

He reached up to her hand on his cheek and placed his hand over it, holding it there. “I just can’t keep anything from you, my sweet Jillian, so I will betray my brother’s trust and tell you this. He was just in my office this morning telling me that he is desperate to get you back so that he can marry you and inherit everything and stay in the house.

“There. I’ve said it. I feel horrible for letting him down and speaking the truth to you, but all he’s interested in is the money and the business. That’s all that’s important to him. He told me that he managed to trick you into thinking that things were going really well between you two, that he made you believe he was falling for you. He even laughed about it.”

Jillian felt as though her heart was being ripped right out of her chest through her ribs.

“He laughed, my darling, and it made me so sick to think that he is using you just to get to the money and the business. How could anyone who has someone as beautiful and incredible as you even think of using you and hurting you?

“I’m so sorry to have to tell you this horrible truth. I’m so sorry. On top of everything else, but I just had to.”