The Sweetest Kiss: A Billionaire Love Story (12 page)

H
ayley
and my father stood there speechless. Sure, it wasn’t what I was expecting but then again my whole life was full of twists and turns. It had never been smooth sailing.

“You want to explain yourself?” my father asked.

“Does it matter? You wouldn’t approve anyway,” I said.

“An interview is one thing, Ethan, but this is absurd. I will not have you drag the Wayland name through the mud.”

“No? But you will control who I see. Don’t think I don’t know about your little conversation with Hayley. The deal you offered her or the ones you offered previous women that I dated.”

He stiffened up, pursed his lips. “I haven’t a clue what you mean.”

“Oh drop the act.”

My father looked at Hayley, she just shook her head and blew out her cheeks.

“Every single person I show an interest in, you have to interfere. I’m a grown man, for god’s sake.”

He pointed his finger at me. “Your involvement in this business means I am invested in what you do and who you do it with.”

“And what? You get to decide who I do or don’t date or marry? I don’t bloody well think so. Stay out of my business.”

“You mean my business.”

I walked over to him. It was the first time in years that I had squared up to him. I respected my father, maybe a little too much. I was taught to always listen and heed the advice of those who knew more. For me that had always been my father. It wasn’t like he was stupid. He had built a billion-dollar empire. He was savvy with money and smart in business. But when it came to relationships he didn’t have a clue and that included the ones with his own family. Our mother had left him because of his need to always be right and always be working. You would think he would have learned his lesson from his past divorce. Nope.

Hayley said nothing, she just stared at me. Thankfully that was when James stepped in.

“Look, Mr. Wayland, this is great news. All we are doing is sharing it with the general public.”

“I don’t want it shared.”

“They have a right to know.”

“A right to know?” I could see the look in my father’s face go from angry to I’m about to lay down a serious ass whopping. “I pay a PR team a lot of money every month to ensure the details of what is happening in our lives are painted just right. I also have them working tirelessly to clean up the mess that your company and other tabloids have written about us. Now I agreed to the interview because you promised that I would be in control of what was going in it. But this, no, this is out of the question.”

“I don’t know what you’re worried about, it’s not even a real marriage.”

The words shot out of my mouth with very little thought to how they would be taken by Hayley. Her chin dropped. Even my father looked at Hayley to see her reaction.

“Even more reason not to publish it.”

James turned to me. “I thought you said this was legit? I can’t print this.”

“Oh please, you print falsehoods all the time.”

He nodded. “You make a good point. But still. Our readers demand some element of truth.”

“Yeah, Ethan. What was true?”

With that she walked out.

“Hayley.”

She didn’t return. I was about to go after her when my father stopped me.

“Son, let her go.”

“Get the hell out of my way. From now, I’m no longer working for you. You understand. I’m going out on my own.”

I charged after Hayley but she was gone. I scanned the office, ran down one of the corridors just in time to see the doors closing on the elevator.

“Hayley!”

She glanced at me, then the door closed. I ran to the elevator and tapped the buttons but it was too late. My stomach sank. As I strolled back to the boardroom I met my father coming in the opposite direction.

“Ethan, we need to talk.”

“I’m done talking.”

“At least tell me why you wanted to run that story?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You have always tried to keep us out of the press for fear of ruining your reputation. Every single person I have dated has had to be wealthy. Even then they weren’t good enough. For once I just wanted to show you that it didn’t matter. People wouldn’t care less. You are so caught up in your own press and thinking people are concerned, that you have lost sight that you are the only one who cares. No one gives a shit about what’s written in these magazines. I don’t and neither should you. I thought if you could see that maybe you would back off. Now, I’ve probably lost the one woman who I actually cared for.”

“Everything I have done is for my family. For you, Connor, Jace, and Darla.”

“Can’t you see you are losing your family? Your need to control us has forced us away. Why do you think we are trying to start our own businesses? We don’t want to be involved in yours. Why do you think we rarely show up and see you? Because we are tired of having you judge our lives or compare our successes to your own. For once I wish you would just have a good word to say about what we do instead of measuring it against what you’ve done.”

There was a short pause.

“I’m sorry, son.”

I nodded, trying to determine if he was being genuine. It was so hard to tell with him. One moment he would be apologizing and then the next telling us to get over it, grow up, or get a thick skin.

“Are you?” I asked. I shifted from one leg to the next. I noticed some of the people in the office were staring at me.

“What?” I said to one of them who was staring intently. The moment I said that they returned to their duties.

“Where are you going now?”

“To give them the story I want them to run.”

With that I walked away.

I
returned
to Hanna’s apartment. I wasn’t crying as some might have thought I would be. I was more shocked than anything else and disappointed. Why not tell me he was involved in trying to get the photo printed? My only anger was in being lied to. Sure the marriage had been rushed and it did seem a little strange, but so much about my interaction with Ethan felt real.

The passion, the kindness, and the conversation had flowed. Our time together was out of this world. So why ruin it by letting them print a story about a marriage that was fake? I looked at my ring. Was it really diamonds? I took it off and placed it into my purse. I would return it to the north end office first thing when I got back to the island.

None of his actions made sense.

Thankfully, Hanna had the day off from work. I sat with her and drank chamomile tea as we tried to piece together his reasons for doing this. Sure he might have wanted to get back at his father for being a control freak but going to this extent seemed a little extreme. Then again their family had never been ones for doing anything normal. Everything was extravagant. I just thought Ethan might have been different. Maybe he was just like his father.

“Are you not angry? I would be so pissed. Using me as some way of getting back at his father.”

“I’m not mad, I’m just confused by it all. I experienced a connection with him. Or at least I thought I did.” I took a sip of my drink and set it back on the table.

“Any man who would make a mockery of a marriage just so he could get back at his father isn’t worth it.”

“But that’s the thing, Hanna. It takes two to make it happen. It’s not like he forced me into going through the marriage vows there on the beach.”

“You wouldn’t have said no.”

“Of course I would. If I really didn’t want to marry someone I would have told them to go jump in the ocean.”

“But he knew you wouldn’t. I mean let’s face it. Who is going to turn down a billionaire? Seriously he had so much leverage in that situation. You didn’t stand a chance.”

“Maybe. However, I’m no pushover.”

“I’m not saying you are, hon. I’m just saying that this whole thing reeks of a PR move. What else is he getting out of this? Was he planning on getting back at an ex through this? I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.”

Hanna got up, went into the kitchen, and returned with some devilishly good cookies that we devoured in a matter of minutes. It was times like this that I would usually fall into a barrel of ice cream and find myself in a sugar coma. But I didn’t feel that way this time around. Maybe for the first time in my life I didn’t need a man. I wasn’t desperate to get his attention. He had showed up on my doorstep, not the other way around.

“Listen, I have a good idea, let’s just go out and have some fun like we used to. You know, long before all this.”

“Honestly, Hanna, I really am not in the mood for being around a lot of people.”

“You want to get something to drink, cuddle up, and watch a movie?”

“Yeah, as long as it’s not a sappy movie. I don’t think I can handle it right now. Let’s find a comedy.”

That evening Hanna and I watched three movies and for a while my mind was occupied with someone else other than Ethan Wayland. As I laid my head down to sleep that night I thought about what he was up to. Had he returned to the island? Was he arguing with his father or downing his sorrows with a bottle of bourbon? I didn’t hate him. But I also didn’t like to feel as though someone had pulled a prank on me. It was humiliating. What should have been special turned out to be a big joke.

T
he next morning
, I awoke to the sound of Hanna talking to someone. I glanced at my clock, it was a little after nine. I had slept in. It was Saturday. I laid my head back down and then heard the front door close. A few minutes later she came into the bedroom.

“Hey sleepyhead, thought you might want to see this.”

She tossed a magazine on top of me. Bleary-eyed I rubbed the sleep dust from my eyes and sat up. I was looking at the back of the magazine. There was some ad for a cologne. I flipped it over and my eyes opened wide.

There I was with Ethan Wayland, a photo of us getting married. However, the headline was different from what I thought it would say. It wasn’t bad. In fact, it was endearing.

B
illionaire Turns His Back
on Family to Marry for Love

“
W
hat does this mean
?” I asked.

“Well, it seems your prince charming is trying to make one hell of statement. Maybe you had him pegged wrong. Any man that would walk away from his family for a woman… well…”

“Is worth a second chance?”

I hopped out of bed, jumped into the shower, and started to get ready.

“Are you going back to the island?”

“Get James on the line.”

I felt as though I was on speed as I dashed around the apartment. By the time I was dressed, Hanna already had James on speakerphone.

“Is it true?” I asked.

“That guy of yours is either one stupid man or utterly crazy about you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You should have heard the argument he had with his father in this place after you left.”

“Where is he now?”

“Probably looking for you. I told him where Hanna lived.”

Right then there was a knock at the door. Hanna was the closest. She looked out the peephole, then turned back with a frown on her face.

“It’s Markus.”

O
kay
. We hadn’t exactly got married but that didn’t mean I didn’t love her. It was a dumb move on my part to set up a scenario of getting married but I just assumed she didn’t think it was real. I mean who the hell gets married within such a short time of meeting each other?

Very few would understand why I did it. I wanted to get back at my father for being so controlling. I wanted him to realize that it didn’t matter what showed up in magazines. We didn’t have to live our lives perfect, watching what we said or looking over our shoulder for paparazzi. It was exhausting to live that way.

After leaving the
Enquirer
I shot over to Hanna’s using the directions James had given me. He had warned me that Hayley was a feisty one and that she had one hell of a right hook on her. I gathered he had gone a couple of rounds with her. I liked that though. A woman who could stand up for herself, who wasn’t pushed along by every whim or request.

The closer I got to the apartment block, the more nervous I became. I really hadn’t thought it through what I was going to say. The article still made out that we were married. I didn’t change that because that’s what I wanted people to know. I was going to propose to her properly this time. Make it official with a large wedding. One that would make the other pale in comparison, well, that was if she was open to it. She looked so pissed when she left. I couldn’t blame her. What was she meant to think? I hadn’t told her I was going to New York or that I had spoken to Stephanie about the photo. Hell, I didn’t even think she was going to be interested in seeing the
Enquirer
. I was wrong. I had not only underestimated her, but I hadn’t considered what my father would say. Not that it mattered anymore.

I knew the consequences of my actions. It wasn’t like he could cut me off from an allowance. I was a billionaire for goodness’ sake! I had already made my money, turned a tidy profit, and could have launched out on my own a long time ago. Not that I had. But that wasn’t because I didn’t want to, I just never saw the necessity. It was easy money working for my father. I supervised the islands that he owned and money just kept pouring into my bank account. Now if I owned them, there would have been a lot more for me to do. Well, I could have got someone else to handle it but again, more work. I wasn’t prepared to do that. I wasn’t a slacker but I also wasn’t going to waste my life. My short life doing work that I didn’t enjoy. I had put in my time, worked hard, and was making a nice little profit working for my father.

That would all change now.

Very few people including family members disagreed with my father. It wasn’t that people were afraid of him. But he knew how to make life difficult for you if he wanted to. That’s why everyone sold. At least everyone except Hayley’s sister and Mrs. Arnet. But then again she did sell eventually.

I had my driver pull up outside the apartment block. It was a sketchy neighborhood in Brooklyn. The building looked dilapidated and worn out. It was the kind of place that I would have knocked down and rebuilt. When I stepped inside the smell wasn’t much better. It was like an animal had crawled under the stairs and decided to die there. Then of course there was the smell of piss lingering in the air and a guy asleep. I stepped over him trying not to wake him. Who knew if he was a drug addict. The whole place gave me the creeps.

I double-timed it up three flights of steps. When I reached the top I opened the door and was about to step into the corridor when I caught sight of Hayley kissing another man.

“What the heck?”

I pulled back immediately, closed the door, and waited there for a few seconds. I couldn’t blame her. But damn she bounced back quick from this. I slowly made my way back down the stairs. I stepped over the drunk at the bottom and exited. I glanced up at the apartment block one final time before slipping back into the car and pulling away.