The Billionaire's Proposition (The Romero Brothers, Book 4) (18 page)

He was a wicked-in-bed kind of lover, so
smooth and sexy and always made her come to soaring heights. The thought of not
having him for too long brought disturbing quakes in her serenity. A wave of
doubt swept through her wondering how long he would remain committed to her.

“Good news. Since your announcement, you’ve
gained lot of favour in the local opinion polls.
In fact,
seventy percent.
That is incredible!”

“Good, but I’m not going to break out the
champagne just yet. Those polls can change in a heartbeat.”

“True.”

“So what else have you got for me?” he
said, leaning against her desk.

“Well, you have several interviews tomorrow
beginning with the local radio station and ending with the school. I’m going to
send out some messages on social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram-”

“Whoa, wait a minute. You sure we need to
do that?”

“Of course! Besides, I’ve already set up
your accounts. Oh, and don’t worry about your old Facebook account, I’ve
already deleted some of your ex-girlfriend’s compromising pictures of you at
the Christmas party”

“Oh?”

“I’m only teasing,” she giggled, trying to
lighten the mood. She knew that Carl had been tormented over what had happened
to her and her reaction to Eduardo’s death. She didn’t want him to feel that
she wasn’t coping with all that had been going on. The only saving grace was
that the international media had not captured the story and brought it mainstream.
The embarrassed Murumbian government was good at keeping things under wraps.

“I was going to get your approval, of
course.” Venus smiled sweetly.

He melted into a boyish grin that stirred
her very soul. What she wanted more than ever was to throw herself across the
desk and playfully rip off his shirt and make sweet, passionate, hot love to
him like they’d been doing each and every night. She could not get enough of
her sexy-as-sin spouse.

Carl pressed his lips to Venus’s sweet
lips. A knocking on her open door distracted them.

“I’m sorry, Carl,” Jules, his brother,
stepped inside, “but there’s a commotion outside. The media.”

“What?” Carl said, turning his attention to
Jules.

“News breaking story!” Jules looked part
peeved and part apologetic.

Venus immediately opened up her Internet
program on her laptop and typed away ferociously. “Oh, no,” she said, her heart
pumping hard and fast.

“What is it?” Carl said, glancing at her
screen.

“It’s all over the news. Everything!”

“Carl, I think it’s best we lay low right
now until we can come up with a statement,” Jules advised. “It’s up to you, but
if you want I can keep them out. Should I call security?”

“No. I can handle them,” he said defiantly.

Before he could say anything more, a
barrage of news reporters with TV cameras, microphones and notepads assailed
them.

“Carl, do you have any comment about the
latest allegations?” one reporter shouted out, pointing a tape recorder in his
hand at Carl.

“Carl, is it true that you paid Venus to be
your wife for a year so that you could feign being a family man?”

“Carl, is it true there’s a link between
you and a drug lord in Murumba? Did you have him executed, gang style?”

“There’s evidence that you’re paying a
woman to keep quiet about your affair? Clarissa Bougon. Do you have any
comment, Carl? Carl? Why have you been paying Clarissa large sums of money? To
keep quiet?”

“Carl, why are you cheating on your wife
with Clarissa?”

Anger raged through Carl’s blood as he escorted
Venus out and pushed his way through the crowd of journalists. “I have no
comment at this time.” His only concern was getting Venus away from them. He
shielded her as he made way to a quiet area in the back of the building and
closed the doors. He motioned to his brother that he would be right back prior
to that.

“Carl,” Venus said, trembling as they stood
alone in the dim lit storage area. She was clearly shaken up by this whole thing.
“You-
you’re
having an affair?” Her eyes widened,
horror and shock flashed
within
 
them
.

“Listen, Venus. I…I’m sorry I didn’t tell
you about Clarissa, but-”

“So it’s true then?”

“No. I’m not having an affair.”

Venus didn’t know what to think. Her mind
was in a daze. She didn’t know if she was coming or going. She didn’t even care
too much about them finding out that Carl tried to pay her to be his wife. But
the thought of him having an affair
?

“Venus, don’t go. Don’t leave me like this.
I can deal with anything right now. But I can’t cope with you walking out of my
life.”

The words reverberated inside her. She felt
a chill slide down her spine. She didn’t know what to think.

“But this thing we have is just a one-year
contract, remember?” she said to him hoping that he would change his mind. She
wanted to hear it from him that what they had would go longer.

But he said nothing. And her soul was
crushed.

“I…I have to go,” she said, feeling
violently ill. Venus felt her heart squeeze in her chest. She was suffocating. She
was going to pass out.

Carl went back into the campaign office to
face the hoard of media. The noise level shot up in the room and he hushed the
crowd. “Please. I will gladly answer your questions.
One at a
time.
Just a few questions.
That’s it. I have a
campaign to run.”

Jules gave him the thumbs-up from the side.
Carl was a Romero. They were not easily intimidated and he would face them
alone if he had to. Right now, he couldn’t care less how they wanted to make
him look. His mind was only focused on Venus.
The look in her
eyes.
The pain. Damn! He should have at least told her about Clarissa.
He didn’t want to tell anyone about Clarissa. That was supposed to be
his own
secret.
But now?
He would
have no choice but to let the world know. And let the chips fall where they
may.

If he lost the campaign based on this
scandal, so be it. But losing Venus would hurt him more!

Just then his eyes caught Clarissa. She
made her way over to him. “Please, Carl. Please tell them about us. It’s okay.
I want them to know. I really do.”

Carl said nothing. He turned his attention
to the waiting press.

“Carl, is it true that you paid Venus
Jackson to be your wife?” a reporter called out.

“No,” he answered coldly.

“No?”

“I’ll be honest here, because that’s the
type of guy I am. I fell in love with my assistant and I ended up marrying her.
End of story.
Yes, I was concerned about the idea that
voters may not be comfortable with a single young man running for mayor in this
town, but then things worked out differently. I will also note that I’m running
for office, not my family. And I would appreciate my wife and son being left
out of this from now on.” His words were firm and stern.

“So you did not pay her to be with you for
one year?”

“No one knows how long they will stay
married. But all I can say is that,” he swallowed, feeling his gut clench, “I
hope that Venus and I stay married forever. She means the world to me as every
wife should mean to her husband. Next question.”

“Is it true that you were paying a woman by
the name of Clarissa to keep quiet about your affair?”

“No.” His voice was sharp. He knew that day
when he’d slipped Clarissa that last check, after he’d flown in from Vegas that
he was followed. The old man who had entered the building before him, was a
spy, he’d learned later. Something to do with Eduardo’s connection having him
and Venus watched the whole time. Luckily, he noticed everything and had studied
the man’s facial features and memorized them down to the hairy mole at his
temple. Carl never took anything for chance. Not in his position.

Carl drew in a deep breath. Not caring what
the world thought of him. “The truth is, yes, I’ve been paying Ms. Bougon money
but not to keep quiet.”

“Then why?”

“As you know,” Carl commenced, the room now
silent, “growing up, my brothers and I didn’t have much. We lost our family
home on Chancery Lane. Then we moved into a low-income building. Well, we spent
many nights going to bed hungry. Not having enough. At Christmas, we used to
pretend we had money,” he said, trying not to get emotional. “Well, we made a
vow before our mother…died that no one in our household would ever go hungry
again or have to make our own presents or not have enough heat or essentials to
live.”

“Wow,” a voice sounded.

He also spotted Clarissa nodding in
approval.

“And we moved out of there, eventually. But
we lost mother and I wanted to keep that vow. It might seem stupid to a lot of
you but I wanted to keep my promise. That address where Ms. Bougon lives—that’s
the very apartment we’d occupied when we lived in that building. My brother Jules
and I always went back there, first at Christmastime to anonymously drop off
presents at the door for whoever lived there. Then we delivered cards and gift
cards not knowing still who was living there. That home brought a lot of
painful memories but also dreams and hopes. Then Ms. Bougon caught us one day
and we told her that we were keeping our promise to our mother. She was
struggling just as we were when we lived there. You see, that’s why as your
mayor, I will make sure that families don’t just have the bare minimum to
survive but enough to get a good start in life. Affordable daycare so they can
work.
Well-paying jobs so parents can take the best care of
their children and…no unfair tax hikes so they can afford to keep their homes.
Now, that’s all the time I have to answer questions. As you know, I have a
campaign to run. Thank you.”

With that, Carl turned and left as
reporters continued to hurl questions at him.

“Hey, that was good, bro,” Jules commended
him as he turned to head back to his office.

“Thanks,” he said half-heartedly. None of it
seemed to matter now. He was running on autopilot. Venus was gone. And there
was nothing he could do about it. Jules then turned back to deal with the
media.

Carl went back to his office and was
stunned to see Venus sitting in the chair in front of his desk with a notepad
in her hand.

“Venus,” he said quietly, stunned. “I
thought you’d left.”

She stood up and faced him. “Now that
wouldn’t be professional to just quit without giving you notice, would it?” she
murmured, her great big beautiful eyes fixed on his.
 
“Did you mean what you said, Carl?”

“That I thought you’d left?” he said
innocently, a boyish smirk on his face.

She threw back her head and laughed. She
dropped her notepad and pen on the table and reached over to hug him. “Oh,
Carl. You’re something else, you know? I don’t know why but my heart told me to
turn back and I’m glad I did. I heard your answers at that…press conference.”

“Hey,” he said, looking directly into her
eyes. He lifted up her chin, feeling a magical pulse between them. “I love you,
Venus Jackson or Nadya whatever. You make me so happy. You bring out the best
in me—even in my darkest moments. I can’t live without you. I don’t want
to spend the year with you. I want to spend forever with you.”

“Oh, Carl. I…I love you so much.”

“Will you stay married to me, Venus? None
of
this matters
, my campaign, my work. None of it
matters if we can’t be together. I don’t care if I lose this campaign, but I
can’t lose you, Venus. I love you too much. ”

“Oh, Carl, yes,” she said breathlessly.
“Yes. Forever. Till death do us
part.
I want to be
with you forever.”

He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her
passionately.

This would be the sweetest beginning to
their forever together.

Eight
months later…

The large-screen plasma TV on the wall of
the campaign headquarters was turned up on full volume. “Carl
Romero has been
elected as Mayberry
Hill’s fifty-fourth mayor, winning a staggering sixty-five percent of the vote
and leading in forty-one of the city's forty-three wards,” the reporter
announced.

The loud screams in the campaign room and the confetti raining from the
air and party favors popping lent themselves to a joyous occasion.

Venus hugged her husband as he prepared to give his victory speech. “I
want you here beside me, baby,” he said to her.

“Yes, of course,” Venus said, planting a huge kiss on his lips then
wiping her lipstick away. The entire Romero family was also present, including
his other brothers, Zack, Lucas, Dion, Troy and Alonso.