The Billionaire's Hired Bride (BWWM Billionaire Romance Book 1) (7 page)

Chapter9

That night was one of their usual “stay in” style dates – a movie and hot chocolate, with Minnie in old, slightly-too-small PJs and James in a too-plush monogram robe. She wound up leaning against him as the movie neared its climax, the motion not in itself unusual, but it was the first time she’d really made physical contact since their return from Boston. James didn’t really react, though, and part of Minnie was glad that it seemed that that part of their relationship hadn’t changed.

Another part of her was a little disappointed for the same reason.

They sat and talked through the credits, as usual, but at the end, as the screen went black, Minnie felt and gave into the urge to give him a brief kiss on the cheek. It was at least easier to reach his face with hers while they were sitting. James looked a little surprised, but Minnie didn’t explain her action, instead just smiling and wishing him goodnight.

Her heart
was
racing after that, at least.

Minnie lay in bed that night, thinking about it, thinking about how comfortable she had been with James’ weight beside her in the hotel, wishing that she had the courage and self-knowledge to roll a little closer to him then. She had to remind herself – she hadn’t even known his feelings at the time. As far as she had known, that would have been just as likely to come to nothing as to produce any other result.

She reminded herself,
you barely know your own feelings. He said he would wait. There’s still more than two years.

For their next going-out date, about a week later, Minnie dressed a little fancier and showed a little more skin than she might have usually. She wore heels that bumped her up a little higher, did her make-up a little differently –

It didn’t give her all the confidence she needed, but it helped, a little, though the heels took a few practice laps around her room to get used to.

“I’m ready,” she tried telling the mirror in a confident tone, then sighed and slumped her shoulders. Maybe she wasn’t ready. But the only way to get there was to act on it.

The Italian restaurant wasn’t a super fancy place, by the standards of James’ budget, but it was well above Minnie’s previous cheap Chinese food dates. Those times seemed half a world away as they sat down, Minnie nervously smoothing out the tablecloth and noting the one or two faded spaghetti stains.

Nothing for it but to do it, right? She already knew he wouldn’t reject her; wasn’t that always supposed to be your biggest worry, during a confession like this? And yet here she was, hesitating as always, “two more years” being a mantra of procrastination that she had to overcome.

So when James set down the menu well before their waitress returned – she was surprised he’d even looked at it, when he almost always had the basil pesto just like she almost always had the lobster Alfredo – Minnie said, “It’s a good thing we never get spaghetti here, or we might have to do that movie thing where the couple kisses because of one really long noodle.”

As confessions went, not off to a great start. But James laughed a little and seemed to catch her meaning, replying, “So are you saying you wouldn’t just bite the end off?”

“Maybe I’d follow it,” Minnie whispered, cheeks turning well past pink, and thankfully she was spared from James’ immediate reply by the arrival of the waitress with two glasses of water and a notepad to jot down their orders.

When the woman left, James looked… Happy wasn’t quite the word. Like a piece of his world had fallen where he wanted it, but he was still surprised at the outcome. “So you came to a decision about your feelings, then?”

“Yes.” Minnie forced herself to nod, to look like she wasn’t as nervous about this as she was. “At least, I want to try. Making this fake relationship into something real.”

“And if it doesn’t work out?”

She had to remind herself that James was only being practical, that it was entirely possible that it wouldn’t work, in spite of all their efforts. “Then it doesn’t work. It’s not like I’m going to run off if we break up and tell everyone I know that you’re a horrible person.” He looked a little skeptical. Maybe that had actually happened to him; Minnie thought that most of the girls he would have dated would have left that sort of thing behind in high school. “Really. We’d still be friends. You can ask Avery, we dated once upon a time.”

That seemed to surprise him. “Really? He seems a little… active for you.”

Minnie could guess well enough what he meant. “That’s why we broke up, actually. It’s not that it was
bad
, it was just…” She trailed off, trying to put it into words – it was the first time since that break-up that she’d really talked to anyone much about why things hadn’t worked, sexually, between her and Avery. “He went too fast, too much. He wanted to explore some things I wasn’t comfortable with yet, so we agreed to break it off so he could find someone who would.”

“Have you had sex with anyone since then?”

It was only natural for him to be curious, Minnie reminded herself. She shook her head, then asked, “What about you? I don’t want to be too nosy, but I don’t actually
know
how many women you’ve slept with.”

She wasn’t at all sure she wanted to know, either, because she knew she would inevitably be measuring herself up to those other women if they did have sex. James looked thoughtful for a moment, having to count internally, which wasn’t much of a reassurance. “There’s six girls that I had fairly long relationships with, and some of them I kept having sex with after we broke up, for one reason or another. And then probably about the same number of one-night stands, at parties or the like.”

Twelve! He was just as bad as his reputation made him out to be, Minnie thought to herself. But no – she knew James well enough by now to know that he wouldn’t have gotten involved with anyone who wasn’t willing to be involved with him. The fact that he hadn’t put pressure on her even once was proof enough of that.

Even as she was thinking that, he continued, “And then I’ve had four relationships where we never had sex or did much of anything but date, five if you count this one.” The last comment was accompanied by a warm smile that made Minnie feel a little more at ease.

“I think it counts, at this point,” she commented, before taking a sip of her water. Not all of his relationships had been sexual – he must have meant what he said to Liz about using his hands. “What’s your, um,
appetite
like?”

He laughed. “Whatever you’re comfortable with. I take care of myself every four or five days, if that helps, though I certainly wouldn’t object to something a little more frequent.”

A little higher than her own drive, but that was only to be expected. Minnie thought she could adjust to it eventually, but that would definitely take time. Then again, they had… At least two years. That was a thought.

“And if it does work out,” she started, working that brief thought into a proper question, “Are we going to let it end in two years, or would you be willing to let me stay?”

“Of course!” James looked a little hurt that she would even imply otherwise. He paused, seeming to gather himself, then said, “I think that I could be happy supporting you and being with you for a long time, if not forever. But I don’t want you to feel like you need to stay with me to have that support, either.”

“I don’t,” Minnie reassured him. “Jesus, the deal gives me five hundred thousand dollars and I’m used to living off college student income. I can pay off my loans and still have a couple years before I even have to think about work.”

James’ shoulders relaxed a little. “Okay, good. There are plenty of people who’d stick around just for the money – I didn’t want you to be one of them.” There was enough emotion in his voice that Minnie was sure other girls had probably done so to him in the past.

(She certainly couldn’t
deny
that she liked the fancy gifts, too. It made it hard to wait for her birthday in November.)

“There’s still a lot of time before we have to worry about that,” Minnie reminded him gently, the same way she was trying to remind herself. No push, no pressure. “Let’s figure out the next two years, first.”

James nodded. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

At that point, their food arrived, and so any discussions were put on hold while Minnie relished the flavor of lobster and pasta. It seemed like the taste was even better than usual, perhaps because of her more relieved emotional state. As usual, there were enough leftovers that they both had to request boxes, and Minnie wound up adding a boxed slice of chocolate cheesecake to her order at the last moment.

On their way back to the car, James leaned over her, box of pasta still in hand, and kissed her gently on the lips. It started chaste, but soon Minnie was putting pressure against his mouth, tasting the last bit of his pasta on his lips as she pushed her tongue into his mouth. He returned the gesture eagerly, and she closed her eyes as he wrapped his free hand around her shoulders.

After breaking the kiss, they stood like that a while, both still grinning at each other. Minnie giggled, before sliding out from under James’ arm to open the car door. They drove home chatting as usual, but the kiss hung over them in a new, excited layer, both of them anticipating the next step.

*

The next step didn’t come for some time, because two days later, Minnie’s classes started up again, and soon she was back to working over a computer screen for several hours a day, and half of her conversations with James seemed to wind up being griping about the other people in her animation class who still hadn’t figured out how to do group work.

And so September passed by, and most of October, and a Halloween party where she and James were much more of a couple than at the parties they had been to over the summer, even going so far as to arrange matching costumes. They weren’t cheap costumes either, but actually tailored so that the leafy dryad dress Minnie wore was tailored to her measurements, and James’ cape was embroidered so that it looked like it was actually leaves sewn together.

After the party, Minnie let James help her out of the dress, and she could definitely feel his eyes looking her over when she was down to just her underwear and a strapless bra. Whatever he was thinking, though, he kept inside his head, and his hands to parts of her body that weren’t anything more than friendly.

“You
can
touch my boobs, you know,” she told him, laughing. “I’m not going to bite your hand off if you do.”

“Well,” he replied cheerfully as he took her up on the offer, stepping behind her to wrap one arm under hers and gently squeeze her breast under her bra, “My hands aren’t the only thing I would be worried about having you bite.”

That made her pout, folding her arms over where his hand was. “I’m not going to bite
anything
.”

“Even if I want you to?”

A blush rose to her cheeks. “Okay, maybe then,” Minnie conceded.

That moment was an accurate way to encapsulate how their relationship changed: slowly, and without too much fuss. They held hands in public more, kissed more (chastely and not so chastely), and Minnie’s preferred movie-watching seat slowly moved from sitting next to James to sprawling across his lap.

A few days before her birthday, James asked Minnie if she liked lingerie, which led to the awkward confession that she had never worn any, and the even more awkward trip out to see if there was any she particularly liked that he could surprise her with. Minnie soon came to the conclusion that she hated the almost electric red lace that covered so many of the bras and panties.

“I’m kind of surprised that you even thought to ask,” she said to James, as she put a fancy bra back on the rack. He laughed.

“Well, I learned a couple of girlfriends ago – don’t buy her underwear if you don’t know what she likes.” His sheepish grin told Minnie that that experience hadn’t ended well, even if it didn’t share any of the details. “I have a few other things for your birthday already, but I thought I might as well check.”

“I’m glad you did,” she said. “Even if I have no idea what half these things are called.”