Love Not Money: An Interracial BWWM Billionaire Romance Read online

  I tilt my head to give him better access. “You know I did.”

  “My father used to say, the reason we are here is to be the reason we are here. Otherwise, it is like we were never were.”

  I know why he is saying this. Standing here with him feels like the reason I am here. I turn to him and wrap my arms around his waist. I lay my head on his chest, thump, thump, thump. I hold him. He links his hands in the small of my back. He lays his cheek on the crown of my head. It feels so good simply to hold him, and to feel him against me, and to feel him with me.

  He kisses me. He just leans down and covers my lips with his. My thighs go up in flames. I love the way he kisses me. It is never about domination. It is always about exploration, conversation. I touch my tongue to his. I shape his lips. I breath his breath. I let him go and I undress. He sees what I am doing and he undresses, too. We stand face to face and naked. He reaches down and cups an arm under my knees. He lays me on the bed.

  I am propped up on my elbows looking down at Alisha Padgett. I accept that I may never know what Hannah Henry did with the money. The loss of it is not significant to my finances or my company. I simply did not want Ms. Henry to have the benefit of it. It would be empowering to have someone like Alisha Padgett on your side. Someone I can trust unconditionally the way I know Alisha can be trusted. Someone who was with me for me.

  I lean down and kiss her. I rub her clitoris between my fingers. She is wet, already, I slide one finger into her. Her hands are on me. She clasps my cock gently and runs her thumb over my crown. Any more of that and I will come. I slide down her body and cover her clit with my mouth, press my tongue against her bud, suck it. She practically lifts me off the bed with one buck of those dick-hardening hips. Even as she is cresting, I press my palms gently on her smooth inner thighs. I open her for me. She opens for me. I feed my cock into her. I watch it go in and then I watch her. I lean down and cover her mouth with mine, my tongue finding hers, loving hers as I slide in and out, my cock in and out of that tight volcano, my shaft up and down of that defiant nubbin. She is twitching, quivering around me, all along me. I cannot be slow. I want to be with her. I slide in and out of her, faster, faster, my hair against her clit, rubbing, pushing, stroking, squashing and she convulses around me, her heels digging into my butt. I am spurting into her, groaning, straining, empty. Full. I bury my face in her neck. Her skin is soft and curves around my face. I want to take her into my body so I will always feel the way she makes me feel. I have to be careful. She feels like an unexpected and undeserved gift.

  Chapter Eleven: Alisha

  I go home today. I have slept with him. I have let him into my body. His hand is on my breast even now, though he sleeps. I wish … I wish … But we have only been pretending.

  I flip over in the bed to face him. I was wrong. He is awake and watching me. His eyes are violet. His lashes are lush, yet not feminine. I wonder what he is thinking.

  “I would like to go to Kismet Town again before we leave,” I say. “I think it will give me some thoughts for a project I’m working on.”

  With the hand under me, he slides me to him. He covers my mouth with his as he rolls me to my back. His body is on me. He pushes my leg up with his knee and slides his shaft along my clitoris. My breath shudders out of me. He is hard. I am wet. He slides his cock into me. He is wet. I am hard. I wrap my legs around his hips. We come together.

  He drives today and we are like any other couple sightseeing on vacation. He tells me about the town planner he worked with to lay out the town and the financial institutions who operate the mortgage and loan plans for the resort staff’s housing and entrepreneurial ventures in the town. I pick his brain for elements that worked well and others that had to be adjusted or discarded. We spend the morning at the beach. The beach has about two hundred feet of sand between the Caribbean Sea and the road that circles the island. Houses, hotels, restaurants and businesses line the road across from the beach. But the beachside is only sand and surf and people.

  “I grew up on a lake,” I say as Nikos and I lay on towels on the sand. I am in a bikini and watching all that delicious dinner poofing up my belly more than I would like. Nikos does not seem to care, thank goodness. He lies on the sand propped up on one elbow. He draws circles in the puddle of water in my bellybutton. He rubs his palms across my skin. I tingle everywhere. He is beautiful. I am hot.

  “Lake Okeechobee,” he says and kisses my bellybutton.

  I nod. “It was my grandparents’ house. They had a family farm. They sold vegetables, fruit, eggs. They had a little petting zoo. A couple of goats. My grandma bred some plants, sold them. It was enough for a family to live on, frugally. You could feed yourself. My grandpa fished. I never knew my father.”

  Nikos looks up at me, his hand on my belly.

  “After my grandpa died, my mom and my grandma raised me out there. I loved it. You didn’t need a lot of money. But there were taxes on the house, permits for the farm, repairs. We didn’t stay one step ahead of the tax man. My mom’s problems with drugs started early. She didn’t want to live out there. But she couldn’t seem to make anything else work. It doesn’t matter why now. One day she was dead. Then my grandma died. I didn’t do well in foster care. I just wanted to go back to the farm. Then I met Hannah.”

  “So, the Okeechobee land is for a training facility?”

  “It will be part-training campus part-resort. People will learn a trade, learn how to live in the world, maintain stable housing. Hopefully in a way that they can sustain. Rich people have spas to revive themselves. I want a spa for the homeless.”

  “That’s where my money is going?”

  “You bet.”

  “I can put you in touch with the town planner who helped design Kismet. He works with communities all over the world.”

  “That would be great.”

  “Have you traveled much outside the U.S.?”

  “I spent a weekend in the Bahamas a few years ago,” I say. “That’s why I had my passport.”

  “Fernich?”

  “Maybe.” He does not care for that answer.

  We stop by Aunt Thea’s restaurant before we head to the airport. I like this moment. I am in a bikini halter and a sarong with only sand between my toes. Nikos is handsome hawt in swim trunks and sand. Aunt Thea fusses over us, plying us with Greek salads and rum punches. She gives me a big heartfelt hug as we leave for the airport. “Be good to each other,” she advises us both.

  “Cutter has electronically filed the voluntary dismissal,” Nikos says as the jet takes off and we head back to Palm Beach. “I’ve authorized the financial office to wire the funds to HomeU’s accounts.”

  I think in a strange way this weekend was Nikos’s way of processing his parents’ death. I think he said goodbye to Olivia and to his anger at Stavros.

  “HomeU thanks you.”

  “Although, there is one more thing,” he says.

  Goosebumps. Now that I have given him everything he asked for, I am powerless if he decides to change the rules. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, we may have done our jobs too well. Even Aunt Thea thinks we’re madly in love. She told me not to let you get away.”

  I look away from him. I am sorry that Aunt Thea has been deceived. I am afraid she will think differently about me when she learns the truth about this weekend.

  “I think many people who donated to HomeU in the past are ready to open their wallets again. But I think they would be confused if we announced we were parting ways right now.”

  “Oh.”

  “They may feel awkward donating when we’ve broken up. Especially because they’ve just come around after my mother’s death.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “People will be watching. They’ll be reading the society pages. After making such a big deal this weekend, it will be noticed if we suddenly go quiet. My guests may feel duped. That could hurt your chances at the donors. I think we may have to continue seeing each other f
or a few months.”

  “No.” The word is out before I have even finished the thought. But even after I can think, I do not change my mind. “I cannot do that.” I have lied to him. I am hiding three million dollars from him. I need to move that money to HomeU’s accounts to pay for the planning and construction for the Hannah Henry Haven at Lake Okeechobee. I cannot date him, be with him, sleep with him, and hide that lie and that money from him. It would take what was good about this weekend and leave only the sordidness. I do not want to admit that my heart might not withstand any more pretending.

  “I thought you enjoyed the weekend.” I can tell he is insulted and, perhaps, also a little angry.

  I could have said ‘no’ better. But I can still only say ‘no.’ “We have been lying to people about our feelings for each other. Lying to people about our relationship to each other.”

  “Look, I understand how you feel about lying. I don’t think we’re lying. We care about each other. We’re good together.”

  I just shake my head. I want to give in. I want more time. But I will regret it if I do. I will break my own heart. Spending more time with him will only make me love him more. I might even begin telling myself that there is a future for our relationship. But I have lied to him. I need him out of my life. It is time to bring that money home.

  He stands up. I can feel the frustration coming off him. “Fine. You need money for HomeU. I can do that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I can be even more generous than my father.”

  “Are you offering to pay me to be in some sort of sexual relationship with you?”

  “Some people call that marriage.”

  “Are you asking me to marry you?”

  He is silent.

  “I just want to go home,” I say. “There’s no point in talking about this anymore.”

  We are silent as the jet lands at the Palm Beach airport. Nikos tells the driver he will drive me home. The sky breaks on the drive home from the airport. Sideways rain and wind surge against the windows.

  “I did not mean to insult you,” he says at one point. But I just look out the window. He does not know it, of course. But he has offered me the same relationship Stavros had with Hannah. I have learned on this journey that I can hold on to my love and loyalty for Hannah even as I admit the error in some of her choices.

  I am out of the car almost before he turns off the ignition. He goes around to the trunk to get my carry-on as I walk to the front door. I stand on the porch and I hold my hand out to him. We shall shake hands and go our separate ways.

  “No fucking way,” he says as he drops the carry-on, lifts me up, and walks me into the house. His lips are on mine as he carries me to the table. He lays me on my back as he sweeps everything off the table with one hand. “You cannot deny there is something between us.”

  He is kissing me everywhere. I am kissing him back. This is the last time I will see him. He pushes aside the straps of my sundress. He covers my breasts with his mouth, first one and then other other. He breathes on them, and suckles my nipples. With one hand he pushes up my skirt and slides into my panties. He rubs my clitoris between his fingers. I want him on me. I want him inside me. I raise my leg, bending my knees, giving him access to all of me. He growls and moves his mouth from my breasts to my lips as I feel his cock spill out against my vagina. He thrusts his hard length against my mound. I wrap my legs around his waist, and he surges into me. All of me. All of him. Oh, Nikos. His tongue along the shape of my mouth and in my mouth. His cock stroking and surging into me. I dig my fingers into his hard, muscular back. I clasp his hard, tight ass. I keep him inside me. I am shuddering and keening and he is grunting as he pushes into me, again and again and again and I feel his scrotum tighten. My pussy walls contract. He stills. He shudders. I tremble. We come.

  We lie still for a moment. We catch our breaths. Then he steps backward. My skirt falls back in place. I sit up on the table. We are both a little uncomfortable. I can smell our sex in the air.

  He is not looking at me. “I’m sorry about the mess,” he says. Items are strewn all over the floor. I slide to my feet as he begins to gather the items from the floor. I watch almost in slow motion as he picks up the bank statement and puts it on the table. He turns away and then, mid-turn, he stops. He turns back and stares at the statement. He is wet from the rain. The water that drops to the paper is not a tear. It is raining. He picks up the bank statement and reads it.

  “What is this?” The question seems almost to be to himself.

  I answer him, anyway. “You know what it is.”

  “This is the money Hannah took from my father.”

  I nod. “Possibly.”

  “You said you did not know anything about that money.”

  “That may not have been the whole truth.”

  He closes his eyes. “You went on the weekend to get me to dismiss the lawsuit but also to lie to me about the money.”

  “If it became necessary, yes.”

  He opens his eyes and I see anger and contempt. “And I suppose you think I made it necessary.”

  “Tell the truth and lose everything to someone who already has everything. Tell the truth and kill the chance to change the lives of thousands of people who desperately need help. You filed a frivolous lawsuit. You manufactured evidence for the court. You would use that money to build resorts for the uber-rich. I will use it to save lives.”

  “You’re a liar. You said you didn’t want to continue pretending because you didn’t want to lie. But you’ve been lying all along. You didn’t want me, you wanted the money. You had no problem lying for that. Hell, I felt like a bad person because I was so unscrupulous and you were so honest.”

  I go into the bedroom and open the safe. I keep a copy of the sex contract there. When I return to the living room, he is almost at my front door.

  “Look at this,” I tell him.

  “We don’t have anything more to do with each other.”

  “Hannah and your father agreed that she would have sex with him for money. This is the contract. You’ll recognize your father’s handwriting. I don’t know why they did it. I don’t agree with what she did. She was worth so much more than that. But you were trying to destroy my company, Hannah, me, everything we believed in, everything we worked for.”

  “I thought you were so honest. And now I don’t believe anything that comes out of your mouth. By the time I am finished with you there will be no money left.”

  “And that is why I lied to you.”

  He turns away and walks out the door.

  Chapter Twelve: Alisha

  I cannot stop thinking about Nikos. It has been two weeks since I last saw him. I want to be with him. My foolish body will not stop yearning for him. So, I paint him and then I drive over the bridge to Palm Beach business office. The receptionist recognizes me but is confused about what to do.

  “I wonder if I might see Nikos,” I say.

  “I’m not sure he’s on the property,” she says. “Hold on a minute.” She picks up her cellphone and leaves the room. She comes back almost immediately and says, “Follow me.”

  She leads me through a courtyard and into a large office. Nikos sits behind the desk far, far away. The receptionist leads me into the office and then leaves immediately. Nikos taps at his computer and does not otherwise acknowledge me. I tear open the paper covering my Cubist rendering of me and Nikos. He glances at it and then looks back at his computer.

  “I love you.”

  I think the air in the room thickens but I think it may just be my imagination. Nothing changes about Nikos. He continues to focus on his computer screen.

  “That’s why I made this painting,” I say. “It is me and you. Hannah was my best friend and I loved her and I will always be loyal to her. I told you about the contract between Hannah and Stavros because I won’t run HomeU always looking over my shoulder about what’s going to come out about this contract or this money, always being fearful that
someone could destroy what we’re building. I loved Hannah but I have to run HomeU now.”

  “Oh. So, you’re not here to take me up on my offer?”

  He wants me to know he is indifferent. I came here for me as much as I came here for him. So, I will do what I came to do. “You were hurt and looking for someone to punish because your parents did not love you the way they should have. I know what that feels like. I am sorry that I used your grief to make you trust me and to make you believe me. But I felt I had to do that to save HomeU from you.”

  “So, it’s my fault you’re a liar.”

  “You were trying to destroy me. I did what was best for my company and the people who depend on me.”

  The door behind me opens. I turn to see Cutter walking in. He carries a briefcase in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other. He hands me the paper. It is a letter titled “Pre-Suit Notice of Intent to Sue.”

  “To be frank, Ms. Padgett,” Cutter says, “I advised Nikos strongly against dismissing the fraud lawsuit. I told him he would regret it. He does. This letter says that The Antoniadis Company intends to file a lawsuit against Hannah, HomeU and you for the return of three million dollars wrongfully taken from the company.”

  I will never like Cutter. “You know Hannah did not wrongfully take money from the company.”

  “I don’t know anything of the sort. Mr. Stavros was emotionally fragile after Olivia was diagnosed. He would have been in a delicate state of mind if and when he signed that contract. We believe The Antoniadis can withstand the publicity. Can HomeU? Can you? We are happy to discuss settlement if you agree to the return of the funds.”

  I turn away from Cutter. I look at Nikos. “I love you. I will defend against your lawsuit because I know what this money can do for my people.” I walk over and lay an invitation in an embossed envelope down on his desk. He glances at it but does not look at me. “In case you are interested in seeing what you are so determined to destroy.”