As I made my way into the room, Lilly turned and noticed me. “Da da!” she cried, bouncing eagerly in Lizzy's lap. Lizzy turned to me and gave me the warmest smile. From her dimples, to the slight flush on her cheeks, to the love clearly visible in her eyes: I adored her, felt on top of the world when she aimed that smile at me.
“Hello, my beauties,” I sung, crossing the room and lifting Lilly up as she stretched her arms toward me for a hug. I pulled my daughter into my arms and nuzzled my face into the soft pile of golden-brown curls on top of her head, luxuriating in the scent of her. Lilly giggled. “I’m so glad I made it home for storytime.”
“Just barely,” Lizzy chided, still smiling up at me. “We just finished the hamster book...for the third time tonight.”
“‘Gain! ‘Gain!” Lilly shouted – she wanted to read the book again. Lizzy and me both laughed.
“Alright, alright, alright,” I conceded, “Daddy’ll read you another book. But not that damn hamster book again.”I could see a half-hearted scowl out of the corner of my eye from Lizzy for the swear word. “Let’s pick another book. Didn’t you get a new book from Auntie Angel yesterday?”
While I and Lilly perused the many picture books lining Lilly’s castle-shaped bookcase, Lizzy pulled the blanket from her lap and let it fall to the floor as she made her way to her feet. I turned to catch a glimpse as Lilly put the corner of a fat board book into her mouth.
I read Lilly stories for nearly an hour until Lizzy came back into Lilly’s room to insist that it was bedtime. We tucked our daughter in, and I admired Lilly’s half-asleep face and the perfect blend I saw there of our features: Lizzy’s precious dimples, my flirtatious brown eyes, the perfect blended caramel color of her baby soft skin. How could I have known, all those years of sleeping around, what I was missing? This was true love.
Once Lilly was fast asleep, we made our way to the master bedroom hand-in-hand. Lizzy laid back on the plush king-size bed and stretched. I came up behind her and began to rub the muscles of her shoulders in slow circles, which elicited from Lizzy a contented sigh.
“How was your day, babe?” I asked. “I missed you.”
Lizzy’s shoulders softened as she relaxed against me. “Sure you did,” she joked, closing her eyes and letting herself surrender to my practiced hands. “I’m sure you have hot girls hanging all over your arms at that club of yours. Why would you want to come home to this tired mama?”
I tsked, slowing my massaging hands and pressing just a bit harder when I found the knot in Lizzy's shoulders. “You’re worth ten million club hos,” I joked, but when Lizzy didn’t respond, I dropped my hands and came around to face her, looking her in the eye. “You know that, right?”
Lizzy looked at me and smiled, a little sadly. I could see the beginning of tears welling behind her gorgeous eyes, and I hoped they were happy tears. “Listen, Lizzy, for real,” I continued, cupping her flushed cheeks in my strong brown hands. “You’ve changed me from the core. I’ll never love another,” I said earnestly.
Lizzy couldn’t help but crack a smile. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes with her knuckles. “I know, I know. It’s just so hard to believe sometimes, how happy I am with you, that you aren’t going anywhere,” she said with a shrug.
I leaned my face toward Lizzy’s and looked deeply into her eyes. We stayed like that for a moment before our lips met. I kissed her as deeply then as I ever had. The kiss went on for what seemed like eons. When we finally pulled apart, Lizzy seemed flushed and ravenous like she wanted me to take her right then. But before she could pull me down on top of her, I reached around to the back pocket of my jeans.
“A present for you, to help ease all those nerves,” I joked, producing an envelope with three first-class plane tickets inside. “A family trip to Hawaii to relax by the beach. I figured we should get a vacation in before the next club opens. Plus, I hear they make the best virgin cocktails at this resort,” I winked.
Lizzy’s eyes watered again as she took the envelope. “Damon, really,” she said, still struggling with how much her man spoiled her. “I don’t need all this.”
“Yeah, babe,” I replied, removing the plane tickets from Lizzy’s hand and setting them on the bedside table. I gently laid Lizzy down on the bed. “But you deserve the whole world. I love you,” I crooned, climbing under the covers with her.
“I love you, too,” Lizzy replied, and I turned out the lights.
I hope you enjoyed The Billionaire’s Girlfriend! If you did, I would love if you could leave a review HERE to help other readers find it.
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Turn Your Page
The Billionaire’s Frenemy
A Small Town Billionaire Romance Series
1
Nick
By appearances alone, it looked like any other Friday evening. The boys and I were gathered in the expansive basement of our luxury office suite where we had a full bar, pool tables, gym equipment, desks, computers, and a projection screen for presentations. It was part bar, part boardroom, and part gym. Hell, we even had a hot tub in one corner.
We called it our Think Tank where we would go to blow off steam or brainstorm our newest ventures. Aside from our individual offices with their massive windows overlooking New York City, our basement hideaway was like a second home and had been for the past five years.
But no matter how it looked, it was not like an ordinary Friday night at all. Ben had rallied us together on that particular evening to talk big changes. He was proposing a full relocation of everything – our lives and our businesses. Holding his pitch in our Think Tank was probably not the best move on his part because looking around at everything made me that much more reluctant to even hear him out on this crazy idea about giving all this up to move away.
And yet...there I sat on the leather couch as he pulled up slides on the screen that outlined all the details of why moving to some city down south that I had never even heard of before was the most genius idea he ever had. I sat there, stroking my chin and listening carefully, while Ben raved about his big idea with that mad spark he always got when he was fired up about something new.
Cherry Falls, North Carolina used to be an unheard-of small town nestled on the edge of the mountains. But after a few celebrities had their mansions built in the quaint area and started drawing attention to all the little community had to offer, it was quickly becoming one of the top ten up and coming “it” cities in the country. And Ben was determined to plant us right smack dab in the middle of it by moving there now and buying up everything we could.
Damon was sprawled out on the couch adjacent to me, but it was anyone’s guess as to whether he was actually listening or not. He was swiping through his phone, likely through chicks on Tinder or whatever new designer suit or shoes he was buying that day. All while Joey lifted weights in the corner, stopping every so often to listen more carefully to a specific point or projected dollar amount.