Billionaire Erotic Romance Boxed Set: 7 Steamy Full-Length Novels (96 page)

I came quickly, the feel of having sex on top of Victor brought about a new, pleasurable feeling that I had a hard time controlling. I moaned loudly as he thrust deeper inside me. My entire body was throbbing as Victor came quickly afterwards; he grabbed tighter onto my hips as he pushed his release into me as far as he could. I then collapsed next to him, resting my head near his as I pressed my body against him. I leaned close to his face and kissed him next to his mouth, as light as a feather. He gave me a somewhat distant smile before we both turned our heads to stare up at the glowing moon and stars that hung in the sky above us.

Later, we curled up in each other’s arms in the warmth and comfort of our bed. His arms were wrapped around me as I rested my head on his shoulder. My eyes were heavy as I felt a blissful sleep wash over me.

“Don’t press me about our relationship anymore until the end of the contract. Then we can renegotiate.”

My eyes snapped open. I was shocked and slightly hurt by his words. My first instinct was to move away from him, but his arms were heavy around me, trapping me on the bed. Where would I go, anyway? My head began to throb as I tried forcing my tears away. I was beginning to suspect that there was much more that I didn’t know about this man.
What are you trying to protect?
I asked him silently.
Are you trying to protect yourself? Why?

There was more to him than his cool demeanor and stylish good looks. Someone or something hurt him in his past, and I was determined to figure out how to get him past that pain. I closed my eyes and tried to find the sleep that had abandoned me. It turned out to be a restless night after all.

Chapter Eleven

Our last night in Paris came too quickly. We headed out to a fancy party that included some of the more elite people in society, or so I was told from Victor. From what I could gather, the party was part business, part pleasure, and a little bit of showing off.

“You’re going to be my trophy on my arm tonight,” he said as I stared in shock at the boxes of jewelry he handed to me. “So, I want you to look the best you’ve ever been for me. Pick out something to wear from there.”

There could be hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry in my arms and I was about to drop it all on the floor with shock! “Did you say...trophy?”

“You’re going to look amazing next to me, Dove. You’re going to look like you belong naturally at my side. Go ahead and start getting dressed.”

I was pleased with the fact that he thought I was ready enough to mingle with high and mighty business people like him, but I was also way too nervous about screwing up. The odds were that I would make at least one mistake that would leave me blushing for the rest of the night.

I looked down at the extravagant, emerald green silk dress I wore as well as the adornment of jewels on my arms and neck. Earlier that day, Victor had sent me to a hairdresser where she pulled my hair up into a fancy bun with a few curls framing my face. I had on more makeup than I’ve ever worn before, and I desperately hoped I wouldn’t get my red lipstick all over my face. Well, at least I look the part of a socialite. It was amusing to think that I was being used to display Victor’s wealth and status, since it would be unseemly for a man to be seen wearing as many jewels as I was dressed in.  I looked in the mirror, imagining him wearing my dress and jewelry. Much to his confusion, I practically doubled over on the floor with laughter from the thought of it.

There was still some tension left between us from a few nights before when I had broken down in tears, but I tried my best not to bring anything that happened that night back to attention. I figured that I would wait until we were back in California to go over the contract again with him. Maybe I would have a clearer mind by then. Maybe the romantic illusion of being in Paris clouded my better judgment of falling in love with a guy like Victor.

As we walked out of the hotel, I was beginning to feel a little bit more apprehensive. He made it clear to me that this was my “debut” at his side. If it went well then I would be expected to be at his side at social events more often.  If it ended up badly, well, I didn’t even want to think of how furious he would be if I embarrassed him in front of these important people.

The party was held at a chateau on the outskirts of Paris. There were already a ton of people there when we showed up; many of them lingered outside by a large fountain with a stone sculpture of the goddess Venus at the very top, pouring water out of the vase.

I stopped to admire it. “I knew you’d like that,” he said, his voice a harsh whisper. “But don’t act so slack-jawed at everything, like you’ve just walked out of some backroad country. Act like you belong here with everyone else.”

“I will,” I said, not sure whether or not to fall back to calling him “Sir” rather than “Victor”. At times I felt like he chose to forget our little moment of lovemaking that night.

As we began our path up the steps to the white, French home, an elderly gentleman with a much younger looking woman walked up to us, stopping us along the way. “Why Mr. Draper, it’s been a while! You’re looking more and more like your father each day!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Victor grit his teeth before turning towards the old man. Uh oh, this couldn’t be good. I watched in the background with interest. “Ian Monaghan!” Victor exclaimed, his voice sounding tight. “It’s been a while. How have you been?”

“Well, you know. It’s tough being so far away from home, especially when I’m stuck in the wettest, coldest part of the UK. Scotland is like hell frozen over. It’ll be good when I move my company to someplace warmer.”

The young woman hit the man playfully on the arm. “Mr. Monaghan, have you forgotten that I’m from Scotland?” she said teasingly.

“Nope, not at all,” Ian said, giving me a wink. I suddenly felt uncomfortable. “Who’s this lovely woman you got here, Draper?”

“This is Dove. She’s been an acquaintance of mine for a while now. Dove, this is Ian Monaghan, CEO of OceanBlue Airways.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I told the man politely. To my surprise, he reached out, took my hand and kissed the top of it lightly.

“The pleasure’s all mine,” he said. I jumped as two strong hands squeezed my shoulders. I felt Victor’s body looming just behind mine.

“Ian, you sleazebag,” the woman said, pulling him away from me. I let out a breath of relief as Victor’s grip on me lessened.

“It’s a bit cold out so we’re going to head in,” Victor said as he started to turn away from the peculiar couple. “Perhaps I’ll see you later on then.” His voice was strained.

Ian gave us a small salute as he and the woman continued up the steps to the house.

“Ugh,” Victor muttered to himself.

For a moment it seemed like he had forgotten I was still standing there. “Are you alright?” I asked hesitantly.

“I loathe that man. He used to work for my company while my father was still alive. He was one of the people who trained me when I first started working there. He would suck up to my father while at the same time belittling me in front of him in the hopes that my father would give him the company some day.” Victor clenched and unclenched his fists before finding my hand to hold. We started walking up the steps again. “Thankfully my father was smart enough to see through his deceit and ended up firing him. He now works for a sad airline company with terrible services located in the middle of nowhere. And now he’s got himself a gold digger too, it looks like.”

“Karma’s a bitch,” I said. I wasn’t sure where I heard those words before, but it seemed appropriate for the situation.

Victor surprised me by laughing. “Yeah, it is.” He squeezed my hand.

After mingling with a handful of people, whose names I had already forgotten, Victor pulled me into a corner. He looked quickly over my head and cursed over my breath. “What happened...?” I began to ask, but he cut me short.

“Could you get some champagne for the two of us, Dove?”

I opened my mouth to ask another question, but suddenly thought better of it. I was back to being his submissive. There wasn’t anywhere in the contract that told me I could question my Dominant. “Yes, Sir,” I said quietly.

I walked through a throng of people to get to the bar, and the entire time I was praying that none of them would want to stop me and ask questions. Too late. A middle aged man was idling around the bar, and seemed to welcome my presence as I walked up next to him. “May I have two glasses of champagne,” I asked the bartender shyly. Fortunately for me, the bartender spoke enough English to know what I requested. The middle aged man held his own glass of champagne; he leaned into my line of sight and gave me a small wave with the glass still in his hand.

“I haven’t seen you around here before,” he said to me jovially. I could tell the alcohol he was drinking was starting to get to his head. I began to look for my escape.

“Oh, uh... I’m with Victor Draper.”

The man’s eyebrows rose at the mention of Victor’s name. “Oh, I see. Victor has got himself a new one to carry around. Not so bad looking either.” Did he know I was still standing there listening to him, or did he think he was talking to himself? I made a move to walk away from him, but he put an arm out, stopping me. “What’s your name?”

“D-dove.” The bartender had already given me my drinks and I was now standing there awkwardly, not knowing how to end the conversation at all.

“Dove,” the man’s breath reeked of vodka as he leaned closer to me. “And what is it you do, Dove?”

What do I do?
I fuck Victor Draper, I wanted to tell him. That would at least make him stop talking. “I’m an artist. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to be taking these drinks back to Victor.” Before the drunken man got too close, I was able to shimmy around him. I quickly walked back through the crowd, not looking back, hoping that he didn’t have the nerve to follow me back towards Victor.

When I returned with the drinks, I glanced behind me, relieved to see I had not been followed. I turned back to Victor who was a little further down the room and noticed a woman standing next to him. She was very pretty, wearing a short, blood red dress that showed off her long, smooth legs. The color of her dress contrasted beautifully with her dark hair that draped like wet paint over her slim shoulders. She had her hand on Victor’s arm in a familiar gesture, as the two of them seemed to be deep in conversation. I stood a few steps away, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward and not really sure how to approach them, or if Victor even wanted me to.

After a few seconds, the woman noticed me. She walked over and took a glass of champagne from my hand. Did she think I was one of the servers? My face turned red, but I didn’t protest. Wordlessly, I handed the other glass to Victor. To my surprise, he wrapped an arm possessively around my waist and pulled me close to my side, forcing the woman to back up a bit to give us some room. “This is Annabel Harris,” he told me. “Annabel, this is Dove.”

“I’m very pleased to meet you,” I told Annabel, trying to keep my voice from sounding too wary. It was the first time since that night at the dinner party at Victor’s party that I saw another woman act familiar around Victor. I already wasn’t too fond of her.

The woman raised an eyebrow at me, assessing me from head to toe. Okay, so now I knew she didn’t like me either. Fantastic.

“Anyway,” she said, turning her body back towards Victor as though she was trying to leave me out of their conversation. She gave Victor a sly smile and completely ignored me.

“What was it you wanted to tell me, Annabel,” Victor’s voice was cautious.

“Oh, you’re going to hate me for this, Vic, but I thought I should warn you.”

Vic
? I grinded my teeth down hard.

“Warn me about what?” He sounded as though he were coaxing a small child. Perhaps he didn’t have any high standards for her either.

“I wanted to show you a certain someone who had just arrived a few minutes ago.” She pointed to a tall woman in another group on the other side of the room.  

Sure, she could’ve been pointing to any of those people talking in the group, but I knew it had to have been
her
. She was tall, and had light blonde hair that was braided and pinned around the crown of her head like a halo. She wore a shapeless pale cream dress that stopped just above her knees in a 1920s flapper style. She was absolutely, completely, and utterly a beautiful woman and the sight of her cherubic red lips and wide blue eyes was enough to make feel envious and awestruck. She looked like an actress from one of those black and white silent movies.

“Wow, she’s gorgeous,” I couldn’t keep myself from muttering.

“It’s been awhile, hasn’t it Victor.” Annabel couldn’t mask the glee from her voice.

When Victor turned to the direction the woman was pointing, his grip on me suddenly tightened. I had to hold back from yelping in pain. Victor cursed profusely under his breath. Before I could say anything he turned, steering me straight towards the exit. “We’re leaving.”

“Why?” I was practically stumbling down the stairs of the chateau to try to keep up with his pace.

“I don’t want to be in the same room as that woman.”

Curiosity got the better of me. I glanced back at the beautiful, tall woman who was gradually fading off in the distance behind us. “Who is she?” I asked.

“My ex-wife.”

Chapter Twelve

Victor guided me across the ballroom toward the entrance to the chateau in a flurry of quick steps, his hand steering at my lower back. All around us, small groups of well-dressed people were mingling, champagne flutes in hand. It was hard to miss her and impossible to ignore her. She stood above most of the room—she was nearly as tall as Victor in her heels—and her radiant blonde hair hovered over a perfect hourglass-shaped body. She wore an elegant cream dress with intricate bead work all around, and a beautiful blue pendant hung around her neck to top the outfit off. Every male gaze in the room converged on her presence.