Forever Ours (The Billionaire Next Door Book 8)

FOREVER OURS

(The Billionaire Next Door #8)

By Violette
Paradis

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©
2014 Violette
Paradis

This is a
work of fiction. Names, places, and characters are a product of the author’s
imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, places, or people is
entirely coincidental.

~Chapter
1~

As I lay in bed, Jason slipped his hands
around my waist, pulling himself behind me and holding me tight in his arms. I
closed my eyes and smiled, snuggling in closer to him.

This was everything.

“
Mmm
, I love
sleeping in,” Jason moaned. His chest vibrated against my back as he spoke. It
felt nice.

“Me too.”

Jason moved in tighter, keeping me locked in
his embrace.

“So,” I said, still keeping my eyes closed. “Do
you have any plans for New Years Eve? The big night is tomorrow.”

“Already?”

“This week whizzed by.”

“Hmm.”
Jason tightened his grip around me. “Well, if you’re up for it,
there’s a big outdoor party happening at the court near my mall. There’ll be
bands, DJs, food trucks – all sorts of things. It’s going to be the party of
the year.”

I raised my eyebrow.

“And I suspect you had something to do with
this?”

“Maybe.”

I let out a chuckle.

“Interested?” He asked.

“Maybe.”

Jason squeezed me tighter.

“Do you have to be at this event?” I asked.

“Not necessarily. The planners from the mall
are handling everything.”

“A big New Years
party.
That’s very cool, Jason Powers.”

“Is there anything
you
want to do
tomorrow night?” He nipped at my earlobe.

I smirked.
“Maybe.”

I could tell by the way he breathed and moved
against me that I amused him.
“Like?”

“I don’t know.” I did my best to sound coy.
“Maybe it’s a surprise.”

Jason kissed my neck, tickling me. “You have a
surprise for me?”

I laughed and let out a soft squeal. “That
tickles!” I squirmed away from Jason but his strong arm kept me in place. Jason
laughed as he attacked me with kisses up and down my neck.

“Jason!”

I tried to lock my legs in his and roll him
away, but he held me in place with one strong leg. Relief only came when his
phone rang, sounding off the tall ceiling of our bedroom.

Jason stopped and sighed.

I huffed. “It’s the 30th! Who could be
calling?”

“Malls, restaurants, websites – they’re all
open for business. This is the busiest time of the year. It’s a miracle I
haven’t been called more often.” Jason let go of me and crawled out of bed. He
was wearing a white undershirt and gray boxer briefs. Biting my lip, I watched
him walk across the room and pick up his phone. As he spoke, he turned away
from me, giving me the perfect view of his perfectly round, rock hard…

“Sophia?” Jason turned around.

I blinked.

“Hmm?”

“I have to go into the office real quick. I’m
going to hop in the shower.”

“Huh?”

“I have to go to work for a few hours.”

“Oh.” I shook myself back to the real world.
“Of course.”

Jason smiled and put his phone down before
walking towards me with a captivating smile and penetrating stare. I was
hypnotized, unable to look away – well… my eyes flashed down to the bulge below
his waist before looking back up into Jason’s brown eyes.

“I see you staring at me, Sophia Fletcher.” He
crawled over me, blocking out the light and making sure I couldn’t look
anywhere but up at his handsome face. “Don’t you know that it’s rude to stare?”
He smirked.

“Then I guess we’re both guilty of rudeness.”
I gave him a tight-lipped smile, resisting the urge to bite my lip.

Jason parted his lips and closed his eyes as
he leaned down over me. His lips touched my lips just as his body pushed down
against mine. A flood of relief poured through my body as his pressure pushed
me into the bed.

Deepening the kiss, Jason pushed against me,
allowing me to feel him stiffen against me. His fingers danced down my belly
and hips causing me to shiver with anticipation.

“Oh,” I breathed into his mouth. Pulling up
his shirt, I pushed my fingers into his soft skin.

Jason scratched his short nails down my bare
thigh, causing my body to tremble and pulse.

“Sophia,”
Jason whispered.

RING-RING-RING

There was the phone, going off again. Jason
stopped the endless kissing and slumped down against me, his head between my
breasts.

Jason’s work schedule always seemed to find a
way of cutting into ours.

“Why does this always happen?” He sighed.

I let out a short chuckle, running my hands
through his hair. My body was still pulsing with desire but I knew never to get
too excited when being intimate with Jason Powers. Sooner or later we’d be
interrupted.

Jason pushed himself up onto his elbows and
smiled at me, giving me one last kiss before getting up and walking to the
phone. As he walked away, he adjusted his boxer briefs which were having a hard
time holding in his
(ahem)
excitement. I watched, biting my lip again.
How my lip wasn’t bleeding, I wasn’t sure. Pulling the sheets up, I crossed my
legs against each other, exacerbating the pulsing sensation between.

As Jason made his way to the washroom to take
a shower, I crawled out of bed and slunk towards the dresser. Opening the
dresser drawer where I once saw a jewelry box destined for myself, I saw a
different jewelry box. I reached in and took it out.

My New Year’s gift to Jason
, I thought.

Unable to hide my smile, I tucked the box back
into the back of my drawer, hiding it just before Jason, naked and dripping
water, stepped out of the bathroom. He stood in the doorway, drying his hair
with a towel.

He smirked at me. “What is it?”

“What is what?”

“You’re smiling. I can tell when you’re hiding
something from me.”

I bit my lips. “It’s nothing.” I walked up to
him. “I was just thinking about how much I love you.”

He raised his eyebrow. “It’s nothing, but also
you were thinking about how much you love me?”

I nodded sheepishly.
Don’t give yourself
away, Sophia!

“Hmm.”
He stared at me with an incredulous expression on his face. Stepping
towards me, he took the towel in one hand and threw it to the side and pulled
me against his clean, naked body. His soft skin warmed me. I breathed in,
taking in the delicious scent of fresh spring soap. “I think you’re keeping something
from me.” A thrill traveled through my body.

I gave him a small smile. “It’s just a small
surprise.”

With his fingers tugging at the material of my
skirt, pulling my hips against his, Jason leaned in and kissed me. His lips,
soft from the steam of the shower, teased mine.

I savored the kiss with Jason, but in the back
of my mind I wondered whether he knew my secret. Jason pulled me in, deepening
our kiss and making sure I could taste him. His kiss and his clean, naked body
against mine caused me to forget all about my secret and the jewelry box hidden
in the back of the dresser drawer.

RING-RING-RING

RING-RING-RING

Jason pulled back. There was a frustrated and
bewildered look on his face. “I hate that phone!”

~Chapter 2~

After continually being interrupted, Jason finally
pulled away to tend to his work emergencies while I focused on my work. A
clinic across town needed my assistance and I headed over to check it out.
Afterward, I noticed I was near the Jacksonville
mall and decided to go inside. As I walked by Ellie’s dress shop I peeked in.

“So this is what you do all day,” I said.
Ellie was in the front of the store fitting a dress onto a mannequin. Two pins
hung out of her mouth. Her face lit up upon seeing me.

“Sophia!” Ellie managed to yell out without
dropping the pins. She pulled the pins from between her lips and stuck them
mercilessly into the mannequin before getting up and giving me a friendly hug.

“Hi Ellie.”
I hugged her back. “I figured I’d come by and see how you were doing.”
I handed her a brown paper bag.
“Pretzel?”

She smiled. “Oh honey, aren’t you sweet? But
with the way the holidays were and the dress I have to squeeze into for New
Years, I really shouldn’t.” Without saying another word, she grabbed the
pretzel out of my hand and took a big bite.

I giggled. “How have things been?” I looked
past her into her store where there were multiple women getting fitted for
dresses. Employees ran around picking dresses from racks and taking
measurements.

“It’s been busy as all
heck
.”

I giggled again.

“Any plans for tomorrow?”

“New Years?”
Her face went white and she stopped chewing for a second before a
light bulb turned on behind her eyes and she stuffed another piece of soft
pretzel into her mouth.
“The
courth
parthy
.”
Her words were muffled
from a full mouth of pretzel.

“The court party?”

“Yeah.”
Ellie swallowed. “It’s going to be really fun. There’ll be lots of
bands and food. Why? What are you guys thinking?”

“Well.” I hesitated. My eyes flashed up to
Ellie then back down.

“What are you thinking?”

I fiddled with the hem of my shirt. “I’ve been
thinking of doing something really romantic.”

“Like what?”

“Well.” I paused and looked at my friend, who
was staring at me like a hawk as she chewed on a piece of the soft pretzel. “I
think I might propose.”

“
What?”
She nearly choked.
“To who?”

I rolled my eyes. “Do I really have to answer
that?”

“But
why
?”

“Because I love him and I want to marry him.”

“But don’t you think
he
should do
that?” Her face was still pale.

Her question took me off guard. I assumed
Ellie would be all for a woman proposing to a man.

“Well,” I started. “Of course it’d be nice to
be proposed to, but I want to marry Jason. And I don’t think he’s going to
propose any time soon, so that’s why I have to do it.”

“And
why
would you propose if you don’t
think he wants to marry you?”

“No, it’s not that he doesn’t want to marry
me. Remember a while back when I found the box in Jason’s drawer and thought it
was a ring?”

Ellie nodded.

“Well, we had a discussion back then that we should
take things slow, and I think Jason took that as a sign that we shouldn’t get
married anytime soon. And it was true, I wasn’t ready to get married then, but
I’m ready now.”

“There’s your problem right there, hon.
It
wasn’t
a ring in the box. See? You don’t even know
if he wants to get married! Can’t you just tell him you’re ready and wait for
him to do it on his own time?”

My spirits sunk. Moments ago I seriously
thought Ellie would be supportive of me. “Why should I wait? I want to marry
him. I
want
to ask him.”

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Heat began bubbling in my blood. I furrowed my
brow.
“Why not?”

“It just doesn’t seem right for you two to get
engaged so soon.”

“How do you know what’s right for us?”

“I don’t! I’m just saying, as a friend, I
think you should
—
”

“Should what?
Hmm?
You can’t just tell me what I should do. This was never your decision,” I said,
my voice raised. “I wasn’t asking for your permission to propose to my
boyfriend.” I pulled away but Ellie grabbed my arm.

“Don’t go.”

I was breathing hard, my eyes were wide and my
lips were tight as I stared at her.

She had wide, pleading eyes. “Wait.”

I breathed slower and my chest opened up.

“Sophia, I love you, you know I do.” She
paused before continuing. “I don’t want to stop you from doing something you
want to do. I just don’t want you to do something you’ll regret
—
like miss a
proposal from Jason.”

“But I love him. I love him, and I want to be
with him.”

Finally Ellie let go of the tension she was
holding and she exhaled. A smile formed on her lips as she tilted her head to
the side. A dreamy look came over her.

“Wow. You two really are in love, aren’t you?”

I smiled and nodded.

Ellie smiled at me as if she finally saw the
light. “You know what? You do whatever you think is right, honey.” She exhaled
long and
slow
as she stared off, starry-eyed, into
nothingness. “You two are just so…
beautiful
.” She bit off another
mouthful of soft pretzel. “
Prethal
?” She offered me a
piece. I smiled and took it, eating the salty snack with pleasure. When she was
done chewing she looked at me. “Wow, Sophia. You’re getting engaged!”

The giddiness rose up from my belly.

“It seems like everyone’s growing up and
moving on with their lives.”

“It’s about that time.”

Ellie stared at me longingly. “Oh, Sophia!”
She pulled me in and hugged me. “I’m going to miss you.”

I laughed. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll still
live in Jacksonville
and I’ll still own the place next to yours.”

Ellie wiped away a tear.
“If
you say so.”

I smiled and held her hands in mine. “Trust
me, okay?”

Ellie nodded. She took in a deep breath and
looked me up and down.

“I know exactly what you should wear for the
big day. I had something else in mind when I thought you were going to marry
that old boyfriend of yours from college. What was his name?” She searched my
eyes as if searching for the past. “You remember that guy
— the one from
pre-med.”

“Luke Trevor?”

“That’s the one. I had something all planned
out. It was traditional and
lace,
and it was
freakin
’ gorgeous. But now that you’re marrying Jason
Powers we’ll need something more extravagant.”

“Wait, you thought I was going to marry Luke
Trevor?” Simply saying his name brought back a flood of memories that I hadn’t
entertained in years. Luke Trevor was in my early med classes when I originally
thought I wanted to become a doctor.

“Well, duh. He was smart, handsome, and on his
way to becoming a surgeon. I still don’t know what happened between you guys.”

I gave Ellie a stern look. “He slept in my dorm
every night for three years. We talked about our future constantly, but when it
came time to actually commit, he couldn’t.”

“
Oof
.” Ellie
furrowed her brow. “Didn’t he realize that sleeping in your bed for three years
was
committing?”

“Apparently not.” I let out a sharp sigh. “I
really liked Luke. I loved him too. But that was a whole lifetime ago.”

“When did it end?”

I shook my head. “Once I decided to become a
veterinarian Luke decided to run with a different crowd. Vets and doctors don’t
mix, apparently.”

“I guess not.”

“Luke never wanted to commit, but Jason
committed to me right away. He’s the one, Ellie. I know it.” I smiled, but I
could still taste Luke’s name on my tongue.

Ellie squealed and shook her hands, causing
the leftover salt from the pretzel to shake off onto the ground. She lunged
towards me and gave me a big hug.

“I’m going to get started on your dress right
away.” She pulled back. “I’m so excited!”

“Me too,” I said, feeling worms squirming
inside my stomach. “Me too.”