The Billionaire and His Castaway(13)

“Why?” I growl bringing my hand up to fix her top. I can’t talk with her tits out, trying to entice me into taking her.

“You don’t even really like me,” she says, “The first time you saw me I thought you hated me. Then I ignored you, and that seemed to bother you more. I mean, I’ve seen it with my brothers when a woman gives them the cold shoulder. It’s all a game to see if they can get her. Then once they do, it’s done. That would break my heart. I’m not like that.”

“It’s not a game,” I tell her, my words hard. I dig my fingers into her hips in a possessive hold to show her that she’s not going anywhere. Ever.

She lets out a deep sigh. “Even if I try to tell myself I can be like that.” She leans back a little, but I don’t loosen my hold. “I thought I could come out here and try to find myself, maybe have a little fun.” She ducks her head. “Maybe have a one-night stand.”

Oh, I’ll give her one night, but it won’t be the last. It’s going to be every fucking night until I leave this earth, but if she wants to pretend it’s just one, I’ll let her. Come morning, she isn’t going anywhere out of my arm’s reach.

Maybe after I get her under me a few hundred times to cool these barbaric thoughts I’m having of her, I can give her more than an arm's length. Maybe two arms’ length.

“You’d have a one-night stand, but it can’t be with me?” I ask her, making her look up. “I’ve wanted you from the minute I laid eyes on you. I didn’t know what to do with all the emotions that hit me when I first saw you. First, I was fucking pissed because I thought you were there on a date. Then I was utterly fucking relieved when I found out it was just your brother.”

She studies me like she is trying to read if what I’m saying is true. So I give her more, needing her to understand. Maybe that’s all this is. A bunch of fucked-up misunderstandings. “I don’t date, and to be honest, I had no idea how to go about getting your attention. Apparently I’m fucking terrible at the whole thing, because you think I didn’t want you, then you thought it was a game. No, sweets, what you saw was me having no clue what I’m doing for the first time in my life, and again, for once in my life, failing.”

Her eyes go wide.

“I don’t believe that at all. You know, because I’m just ‘one of yours.’” She makes air quotes with her fingers, and I don’t know what she means.

“Sweets, I have no idea what you’re talking about. You are the only one. The only one I have or want.”

She rolls her eyes, and I can feel her slipping away from me, putting up that wall again, and I can’t let that happen. Won’t let that happen. Not when I’ve finally gotten this far. Can taste her lips on my mouth. I pull her into me.

“The bartender. He said, ‘I didn’t know she was one of yours.’” I see her eyes light up with jealousy. I fucking love it and hate it all at once. Love it because I know she cares, but hate it because I never want her to feel jealousy when it comes to us. There’s no reason to. She owns me.

“He meant my cousins. I have a lot of them. All girls, and I tell the staff to stay away from them. We had an incident once when someone broke little Libby’s heart and she cried about it for weeks. I wasn’t doing that shit ever again. So now there’s a don’t-fucking-touch-my-cousins rule.”

She shakes her head slightly in disbelief.

“But I saw you that night at the event. Women were all over you,” she accuses, like she’s just remembering and has one up on me. I shake my head.

“You’re right. I’m rich, and women often try to throw themselves at me. Maybe if I had a someone at my side, I wouldn’t have that problem. Maybe I should get married. Get a ring on my finger so they all know I’m not up for grabs. I think I know the perfect woman for the job.”

Her mouth falls open, and I again steal the moment to kiss her.





Chapter Seven





Madeline




I can’t stop myself from putting my arms around his neck and deepening the kiss. So many emotions and thoughts run through me, and I have no idea what to do with any of them. But what he said was nothing like I thought it would be. Even if he’s just teasing about the last part. No way could he really mean he wants to get married. We barely know each other.

When I finally pull away from him, I see that hooded look on his face again. I don’t know what it is, but when I see that raw desire for me on his face, it does something to me. Makes me feel like a woman for the first time in my life. Not just some little girl whos brothers have tried to shelter from the world. Maybe I am finding what I came out here to find. A little more of me. A part of me that I didn’t even know had been there all along is opening up. Or maybe it was waiting for Kenton. That is both exciting and scary all at once.