Billionaire's Trust (Billionaire Erotic Romance: Never Never Man Series Book 5) (3 page)

As I spoke, Maddie’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “What are you trying to say, Grey?”

“I’m not trying to say anything. I’m telling you we should get married. And the sooner, the better.”

Maddie’s mouth dropped open as I finished speaking.

“What?” she replied. She looked at me as if I’d just killed a puppy. “Uh! You want to
marry me
? Since when, Grey? Why?”

This wasn’t exactly the reaction I expected. I’d asked exactly
zero
women to marry me in my life and I sure as shit didn’t picture a response like hers. Incredulous, I glared down at her.

“What do you mean why?” I asked. “What kind of question is that, Maddie?”

She shot to her feet. Waving her arms, she said, “Just like that? Out of nowhere? After all of this and now, all of a sudden, you want to marry me?”

She was starting to piss me off.

“Yeah,” I snapped. “What the hell is wrong with that?”

“Do you love me, Grey?” she fired back. Her tone had the ring of a dare to it. She crossed her arms at her chest as she completed her thought.

I grimaced at her. “Maddie, why are you acting like this? Don’t you want…”

“No!” she exclaimed, interrupting me. “Do. You. Love. Me? It’s a simple question, Grey.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. This goddamn woman. She wanted to say ‘yes’ and marry me. I knew it and she knew it. Why wouldn’t she? Funny how what you do is always more important in every situation in life except when it came to this right here. It wasn’t enough I promised to take care of her and the baby. I’m not sure how many more ways a man is supposed to show a woman what she means to him in this world.

“Maddie, it’s not that simple,” I groaned. I gestured towards her stomach. “I have an obligation here. This isn’t about you or me anymore.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ohhhh, I see. All right. So you are marrying me out of pity? Is that what you’re saying?”

“What? No! Jesus Christ, calm down would you?”

“I’m not upset,” she deadpanned. “I just want an answer to my question. I love you, Grey. You see? I have no problem at all admitting that to you.”

I didn’t get this grandstanding of hers. Instead of engaging it, I decided to make her understand my point, but before I could she continued.

“I’m not marrying you because you are the father of the baby, Grey. That’s not enough of a reason.”

I shook my head.

“Maddie, there’s more at play here than the baby. I’ve got obligations to my family.”

“What?” she snapped as she stepped in my direction. “What the hell does that mean? Obligations to your family? I’ve never met any of them! You aren’t even making any sense!”

Over the next few minutes I came clean with her about the whole situation with my grandfather’s will, the trust, all of it. If I couldn’t convince her to marry me for the sake of the goddamn kid, the only option I had left was to be upfront about everything and hope she’d see it from my perspective.

But she didn’t. Instead, she laughed at me. And it wasn’t a chuckle. She was goddamn amused.

“Grey!” Maddie said, as she clapped her hands together. “What makes you think that’s a better reason than our own child!?!”

My jaw flexed as she guffawed. Losing my patience, I started to reply, but she cut me off with a sharp demand.

“You need to leave, Grey,” she said, shaking her head.

I glared at her as she stood there closed off from me.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes,” she replied. “I don’t want to talk to you about this right now.”

As she finished speaking, she turned and walked towards the bathroom, closing the door behind her with a forceful slam.

GREY

With Maddie frustrating the living hell out of me, I decided to pay Katy an impromptu visit and see if I could get some insight from her. Things had improved between us after everything that happened with Maddie and the baby. I wouldn’t go so far as to say we were the best of goddamn friends or anything, but I think my actions demonstrated to her how much I cared for Maddie.

I could only I hope I was right.

Given the way she’d reacted to my proposal, I’d started to question whether or not Maddie and I belonged together at all. Shit, maybe I had it wrong. Sure, I had to keep my end of the bargain with my grandfather and I’d never let my child go without the proper care. But Maddie… I didn’t expect her to behave the way she had, rejecting me. Even so, I thought better of getting down and dirty with her about it instead deciding to see what Katy had to say.

Armando drove me to Katy’s office in Westlake just before she closed.

After getting out of the limousine, I walked to the front door of Katy’s office. Her travel agency took up the space at the end of the strip mall and because of its corner position, almost all of it was framed in glass. As I approached, it looked to me as if she was the only employee still there. A middle-aged woman sat in a chair directly across from Katy’s desk. A customer, I guessed. I grabbed the door handle and pulled it open and as I did, chatter from the women entered my awareness. They both stopped and looked at me as I walked inside. Katy arched a brow in my direction.

“I’ll be right with you, sir,” she said, pretending not to know me.

I nodded and took a seat. Considering all of the profane things she’d called me in recent months, ‘sir’ was a nice change of pace, even if it was for public consumption.

“Help yourself to some of coffee or soda while you wait,” she added.

Smiling as I sat, I nodded back at her. “Got any vodka?”

The woman in the chair turned her head nearly one hundred and eighty degrees as she looked towards me.

“Madam.” I nodded as her eyes locked on mine.

Katy grimaced in disgust. And before her customer could turn back in her direction she positioned her middle finger towards me in
the
universal symbol of disapproval.

“No, sir,” Katy deadpanned, as she glared at me with her digit fully extended. “But there is a bar at the other end of the shopping center. Perhaps they can be of some assistance?"

I chuckled as the woman turned her head back towards Katy. Maddie’s best friend lowered her non-verbal statement at the last instant.

“I’m fine, thank you,” I replied.

“Very good, then. I’ll be right with you.”

The women chatted on for another fifteen minutes or so until at last, Katy helped the woman put the finishing touches on what sounded like a cruise or some such. After seeing her customer out, Katy locked the front door to the office, drew the blinds and walked back towards me. The heels of her chunky wedges
clopped
along the linoleum floor as she neared.

“What are you doing here, Grey?”

With my hands in my lap, I looked up towards her.

“Guess I’m not getting that vodka after all, am I?”

She pursed her lips in displeasure. “No. Now, out with it. Why are you here?”

“What?” I replied. “Can’t I pay a visit to my good friend?"

As I spoke, Katy’s hair bounced from left-to-right as she shook her head. Glaring down at me through the short, brown strands, her freckled complexion gave her away. She’d already spoken to Maddie about what happened between us. Well, if nothing else I could save some time without getting into a whole back story with her.

“What did you expect her to say, Grey?”

“Yes?” I replied with a rising tone. “What the hell kind of question is that, Katy? Why wouldn’t she want to marry me?”

Katy didn’t respond but instead let out a deep exhale. She passed by me, taking a seat in a chair to my left. As she did, she swept her skirt under her rear and crossed her legs, turning her upper body towards mine.

“Grey,” she began. “You really
can’t
be this much of an idiot. Rich, successful, worldly? It’s not possible. You couldn’t have done a much worse job of this if you tried.”

Leaning away from her, I wrinkled my brow in disgust as she continued to chastise me.

“You cannot
demand
someone marry you based on some feelings of obligation you have.”

I shook my head. “I’m not following, Katy. This is a ‘no lose’ deal for Maddie. And the baby.”

“Grey, Jesus!” she said as she lifted both arms skyward. “Don’t you get it? This is not a ‘deal’. Okay? Can you just, for once in your life, not see everything in terms of winning and losing?”

Scowling, I sunk back into the chair. Katy’s expression conveyed sincerity and while she may have been a lot of things, disingenuous wasn’t one of them. I chewed the inside of my lip for moment or two as we looked at one another in silence. Overhead, the florescent lighting buzzed as I stared at her.

“All right,” I began. “Fine. I’m listening. Explain this to me."

Katy remained silent for several more moments. It was obvious she wasn’t sure how to begin.

“Let’s just get this over with, Katy.” I said, interrupting her self-imposed trance.

Katy nodded and flashed a curt smile of uncertainty to her lips before she started to speak.

“It’s like this, Grey,” she began. “Maddie doesn’t want to be married to you because you feel like it’s ‘the right thing to do’, and she certainly doesn’t want to be a pawn in your family drama. Marriage is about the love two people share. You do understand the difference don’t you?”

I shook my head. “Frankly, Katy, no I don’t. People get married all the goddamned time for ‘love’, and more than half wind up divorced anyway. I never said I didn’t care about her. I do. I care about Maddie in a deep way.”

“Mmm, hmm…” she replied. The tone in her utterance suggested I hadn’t done a good enough job of explaining myself. So, I continued to try and get my point across.

“I mean if she’s willing to be married to me if I tell her I love her, well, then that doesn’t change any of the other things that happen because of it. In other words, I’m still taking care of her and the baby, and she’s still helping me meet the condition of my grandfather’s will. It seems like a game of semantics to me.”

“That’s just it, Grey,” she said, as she reached across and wrapped her hand around my forearm. “It makes all the difference in the world.”

I scoffed. “So, what? So none of the other things matter? The fact that I’m
here
, willing to do what needs to be done to care for her and my child? That’s all a load of shit?”

Katy shook her head. “No, I never said it was, Grey. You’re doing the honorable thing. No one is disputing that at all. It’s just that, well, the way you’re going about it is wrong.”

We all make mistakes in life, fuck things up. That’s a goddamn part of living. But frankly, I didn’t appreciate being scolded or corrected by Maddie’s mouthpiece. Katy’s accusations were pushing me close to the edge of my tolerance for bullshit. But before I could reply and tell her what I thought of all her nonsense, she continued.

“If you
love her
, then do this the right way, Grey. Don’t make her feel like you’re doing her a favor for God’s sake. Do you have any idea how utterly unromantic something like that is?”

I thinned my lips as she finished speaking.

“Do you love Maddie, Grey? That’s all she wants to hear from you, if you do. She wants to know you feel the same way about her as she does about you.”

“What am I supposed to say to that, Katy?”

“It’s simple, Grey. Are you in love with Maddie or not?”

“It’s
not simple,
Katy. But, if you must know, actually I…”

As I started to reply, my phone vibrated inside the pocket of my coat. I reached inside and felt around for it, grabbing it as it buzzed in the palm of my hand. I pulled it out and noticed my mother’s number flash across on the tiny display in backlit bright blue lettering. There was only one reason she would have called. I nodded as I looked at it and then slid it back inside my coat pocket.

“Katy, I’ve got to be going.”

“Going?” she asked with a look of confusion on her face. “Who was that? Maddie?”

I shook my head as I readied myself to leave.