Queen: BBW Billionaire Menage Romance (Billionaire Brothers, II Book 3)
Read Queen: BBW Billionaire Menage Romance (Billionaire Brothers, II Book 3) Online
Authors: Meg Watson
Copyright: Meg Watson
Published: May, 2015
Publisher: Meg Watson
The right of Meg Watson to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Please note that this is a work of adult fiction and contains graphic descriptions of sexual activity, graphic language. It is intended for mature readers aged 18 and over only.
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Melita was as cold as ice. I tried to just stay in the small, enclosed parlor at the back of the bungalow and keep out of her way as she (hopefully) defrosted. But she seemed to just carry on fine without me. I could hear her and Tomas chatting over dinner, Tomas getting ready for daycare in the mornings, and their normal daily life, but I sure as hell wasn't invited into it.
I figured it would all blow over in a day or so, but then it didn't. It was like I didn't even exist to her. I hadn’t heard from the Jacks in a couple days, and I didn't exist to Carl anymore. I was completely unaffiliated.
Pretty much hated it.
I was busy planning, strategizing, and studying, so I was glad the Jacks were giving me a couple days to hunker down and get things done. How did they know I needed time? It was just one of their mysteries, but I assumed Owen was keeping tabs on me through his superpower and knew I needed a little space to make everything work out. In the back of my mind, I kept thanking him for that.
But Melita was going to come back to me — she had to. Running through more than a day without her voice in my ear was strange and awful. I didn’t know how much a part of my headspace she occupied until she shut me out. It was a lot, and the loneliness was unbearable. But she had to know I couldn’t live without her. She had to miss me too. So I just snuck around the house like a bashful poltergeist, keeping out of sight and out of her way until she changed her mind.
During the daytime while Tomas was at school, she stayed in her room. I could hear the floorboards creaking above my head every once in a while and sometimes I heard her creep into the kitchen for a snack. I would wait, my skin tingling and my ears pricked up, thinking that she was just about to tap on my closed door. But then her footsteps padded away and I could hear on the stairs going up.
Well, if she's not gonna talk to me then I shouldn't feel bad about not confessing that I un-grounded myself.
In the dim light of the curtained, tiny room, I stared at the screen of the shiny new Android notebook that I had bought refurbished from a small electronics store. It was small and lightweight, and I could even stow it in my purse if I had to. I figured it was a business expense, so when I whipped out my recently defrosted credit card to pay for it, I only felt the smallest twinge of guilt.
It was a smaller twinge of guilt then I had felt at that first auction, the one right after the phony Gucci handbag that I prevented her from buying. I had dragged Melita's laptop onto the afghan and just poked around looking for a bag that I could buy her to apologize. I knew I could find an authentic one. They’re out there and often pretty affordable if you get the right seller.
But within a few minutes I was back looking at collectibles and antiques, and then I was right back down the auction rabbit hole. Before we had even left for that sports bar in Evanston, I had already run up to half the credit limit on my card.
But it was all really, really good stuff. I swear it.
My cellphone buzzed at the bottom of my handbag and I glanced at it suspiciously. I had no idea how many missed calls and text messages were on there now, but it was a lot.
The new Bree doesn’t have to answer the phone just because it’s making a noise. Suck it.
I could have bought a cell phone, I knew, but I sort of liked being passive aggressively incognito for a while. I even toyed with the idea that I was really the kind of person who eschewed certain technological advances for obscure hipster reasons.
It didn't take long to realize that in fact I was
definitely
a cell phone person, even if I had to wait a little while more to get one of my own. Every time I heard a buzz, chirp, or tweet my palms got itchy. Eventually, I knew, I was going to give in.
But my mission was almost complete. Signing the lease agreement with the property manager had felt like an emotional root canal, but I did it. Getting my head around all the details and plans was a couple days of intense study, but I did that too. Often I imagined how I was going to explain it to Melita. She was going to be so proud of me.
I liked to picture all of the delivery trucks, all of the jetliners, and all of the customs agents involved in what I was putting together. They didn't even know that I had a plan. Actually, no one knew I had a plan, and it was not lost on me that that was a little bit of a safety net. If my plan failed, I could simply slink back into the darkness and nobody would know.
Well, nobody but the credit card company who was certainly going to come looking for their money at some point.
I scrolled through the listings under medieval tapestries yet again with a bored flick of my wrist. There was the usual list of imposters as well as acknowledged reproductions. I liked to chuckle at the ones that claimed to be originals even while using the same photograph from Wikipedia that every other fraudster was using.
As the screen scrolled upward, I sucked my breath between my teeth. My heart did a little flop toward the front of my chest.
Hold on… No way.
There is no way that's real.
I held my breath and waited with my finger hovering over the trackpad. You know that feeling where you want something to be true so much that you don't even want to click on the link? You'd rather just wait in suspense? Because once you know, you can't ever stop knowing, and maybe it's better to feel like that wish is actually possible?
Yeah. It was like that.
The first thing I did when I woke up was roll over and scribble my finger on the touchpad of my Android notebook to wake it up. The screen flickered to life and I clicked to open the email client. My eyes seemed to absorb the information all at once: three messages from the property manager and two from Jack, Owen in boldface.
Five email messages. Two from Owen. That made me blink a few times. I stared at the screen and debated which one to click on first. Why did seeing his name clench my stomach like that?
I heard Melita's footsteps on the stairs and then the sound of faster, lighter ones right behind her. It was Friday, and that meant the weekend was coming up. Tomorrow. That meant two whole days of Tomas being home, and me with nothing to do but hide in my stifling little room. I needed to handle this now, and really, I was just too fucking lonely to stand it anymore.
I opened the door slowly and crept out, perking up my ears. I listened hard to the activity at the front of the house. She was telling him to put on his shoes on two, three times in a row. Her voice stayed sweet though, the way it always did with him. She was a good mom and knowing that made my heart ache just a little. I had a whole list of things that I loved about her and it killed me that she would not let me tell her any of them.
I heard the front door open and Tomas hopping as he jumped over the threshold. Then I heard the scraping sound of her dragging her handbag off the small table. I took the opportunity and jogged down the short hallway toward her.
“Wait, Melita? Hold on please,” I said in a rush.
She glared at me as though she'd been waiting for me to come toward her. Just shot me a look like a lightning bolt,
bang
. I flinched and threw my hands up to surrender.
“Okay, okay, I know you’re so mad at me,” I started again. “But, honey, if you'll just talk to me, please.”
“You know what,” she said in a tight growl, "I don't think I need to talk to you at all right now. I need to get Tomas to daycare.”
“But it's been
days
,” I whined. “I need to talk to you about the gallery, right? Don’t you want to talk about your new job?”
She fisted her hand on her hip and cocked her head at me sarcastically.
“You know what, I think I will be seeking other opportunities.”
“Oh, come on, Melita —”
“Yeah,” she continued, “I think you and I could use a little time apart.”
I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself. This is not going at all the way that I imagined it the thousand times that I played it through my head.
“Melita, I am so sorry. You have to believe me… I just had to say something.”
“But why?” she sneered with her eyes narrowed. “Do you ever stop to ask yourself
why
you needed to say something? Was it because I finally had something that you didn't have? Was that it?”
I winced like she had slapped me. “No way! How can you even think that – Melita, he's
married
. Of course I had to say something!”
“Uh huh, yeah sure,” she spat. “Well for your information, he's not. He's decent and sweet and I am like all kinds of crazy for this guy.”
“Melita, no –”
“Yeah, I know you think you're so smart all the time, but this time you're just wrong. Accept it.”
But I saw the ring. I saw it, right? It was just for a second but I'm positive that I saw it…
“Sometimes you're not the brainiac that you think you are, Bree. I know this must come as a shock to you, since you were so
perceptive
about Carl and all… Since you are so
unfallible…
”
Infallible,
I corrected her silently, casting my eyes down.
I looked at the floor while she swayed her weight from hip to hip.
“I'm not kidding, Bree,” she continued. “I think some time apart would do you and me a lot of good. So why don’t you use that credit card that you’ve been sitting on all these years and find yourself an apartment? It seems like you got all your shit together now, so why don’t you just take it on the road?”
“Mel, there's so much I want to talk to you about, though…”
“Yeah,” she continued as though I hadn't said anything, “that sounds like the right thing to do. You've got all day, because I'm not going to be here. Tomas is going to Mama's house after daycare, and I am going out. Yes…
with Jay
. He makes me happy and you would think my best friend would care about that. Want to share that with me. But you don’t. So you could probably have all your crap packed back into your two stupid suitcases and be gone by the time I'm back.”
I looked up at her wordlessly. It felt like a barrier had slammed down between us and even though she was looking in my direction it was like she couldn't even see me at all. Finally she looped her handbag strap over her shoulder and just whirled around and left, slamming the door behind her.