Billionaire Romance Boxed Set (9 Book Bundle) (76 page)

“That’s a good thing,
right?” said Sam. “The unexpected things are always the most
fun.”

“Oh, absolutely.” I
glanced at Daniel. He was beaming.

We walked inside then, slowly. I
had to drink everything in. This had honestly been the last thing I’d ever
expected - that he would remember what I said about wanting to go to the moon,
and that he’d make an attempt to fulfill my impossible childhood dream. How
much thought had he put into this? How much time had he spent? The money, I
knew, was nothing to him. He could have given me any lavish gift in the world,
any generic multi-million dollar vacation. But this was something else.

This was the sort of gift you
give to someone that you truly care about.

The training, Sam informed me,
wasn’t to start until tomorrow. Today, we’d just take a tour of the astronaut
hall of fame, taking in all the exhibits - the old space suits, the models, the
photographs. Sam told us about her personal experiences as we went.

“When I heard they were
doing another manned moon landing, I was one of the first to put my name
in,” she said. “A woman had never walked on the moon before. I
couldn’t resist the opportunity. Of course, every other female astronaut had
the same idea. But of all the names, they picked mine.” She took a deep
breath, her eyes distant for a moment. “I’ll never forget, as long as I
live, how it felt to put my foot down on that rock. Some people told me I was
crazy for even caring about it - just a pebble floating in space, nothing
really special about it. I can’t really explain why I wanted to go, but it was
the most breathtaking experience. To see the earth like that. The stars. To be
in space. It was my dream come true.”

Briefly, I wondered if I was
turning green.

“But enough about me!”
Sam said, suddenly. “Come on. Let’s show you the rest of the facility.
There are some pretty amazing things that don’t get shown on the regular tours,
but I’d be happy to take you there.”

With every step, I felt more and
more like I must be dreaming. What kind of fake husband would go to this kind
of trouble? There was an answer of course, in the back of my mind, quiet but
persistent; I had to shut it down. No, no, no. He pushed you away. He doesn’t
want you to get attached. He doesn’t have feelings for you; he just wants you
to be happy so you don’t try to get out of the deal.

We passed through the
touristy areas, and soon Sam was taking us through doors that said
“AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.” I held my breath as we stopped to look
at instrument panels and control rooms, while Sam rattled off things that only
halfway made sense to me.

When the tour was over, Sam
handed us each a schedule for the next few days, detailing what we’d be doing
for the next few days for our “astronaut training.” Reading over it
in the back of the cab on the way back to the hotel, I felt giddy. So maybe
this wasn’t quite what I would have imagined - but it really was the best of
all possible honeymoons.

Chapter Eleven

Somehow, in my absence, I’d
almost forgotten how beautiful our suite was. I was struck again as we walked
in and Daniel hit a switch, lighting up the chandelier in the center of the
room.

“This is really nice,”
I said, stupidly.

He smiled. “I’m glad you
think so.”

I stood in the center of the room
for a moment, hugging my arms across my chest. I needed to say something. I
needed to tell him what was running through my head, even if it didn’t make any
sense.

I needed him.

I couldn’t even look at the
massive bed, covered in overstuffed pillows, without imagining him pressing me
down into it.

“Daniel,” I said.

He turned to look at me. I didn’t
know what I was planning on saying, exactly, but every word that came to mind
just stuck in my throat. I swallowed and tried again, and to my absolute
mortification I realized tears were leaking out of the corners of my eyes. I
tried to look away, but he came over to me, swiftly, gently taking my face in
his hands and lifting it up towards his. I tried to smile, but it wavered.

“What’s wrong?” he
asked softly. “I mean…you know. Apart from the obvious.” He, too, was
trying to smile and not quite succeeding.

“Nothing,” I said, in a
voice thick from crying. Well, that was convincing.

“Really,” he said.
“Why don’t I believe you?”

I laughed a little, through my
tears. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m really sorry.”

“Please don’t
apologize.”

I shook my head. “Not for
that. I’m sorry for…letting things get too personal.” I sniffed. “You
know what I mean.”

“Please don’t apologize for
that, either,” he said. “I shouldn’t have…I never should have…”
He hesitated. “I’m sorry,” he finished, finally.

“Maybe neither one of us
really has anything to be sorry for,” I said.

“Maybe,” he said, with
a spark in his eye that made my fingertips tingle.

“It was stupid, right?”
I said, blinking the last of the tears away. “Saying we wouldn’t let
things get personal? Of course it’s going to get personal. It’s only natural.
There’s no harm in that, is there?” I cleared my throat. “I mean, as
long as we keep our heads on straight.”

“Can we?” He
looked…skeptical. And, at the very same time, he looked like he didn’t really
want to be.

I shrugged a little. “Does
it matter?”

He looked at me, his lips parted
just slightly. Like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t know how.

“Are you sure?” he
said, finally. “Are you…absolutely sure?”

I went up on tiptoes and pressed
my lips against his.

At that moment, it was like
something snapped inside of him. More so than when I’d kissed him before - now
I realized he’d been holding himself back even then. I could feel it in his
body pressed against mine, in his touch.

I realized he was moving,
propelling me backwards, until I felt myself pushed against the wall while his
mouth devoured mine. He let go of my face and grabbed my wrists, hard - almost
to the point of hurting - raising my arms up against the wall too, pinning my
hands above my head. I felt deliciously helpless. Something inside me, a heat
that had been growing since the first time I’d laid eyes on him, grew and grew.
My blood felt molten in my veins. If he didn’t touch something other than my
wrists soon, I was going to explode.

He pressed his knee between my
thighs.

I moaned, feeling myself swell
against the hard muscle of his leg. He finally let my wrists go. I grabbed him
by the shoulders, pulling him impossibly closer.

Just when I thought he couldn’t
kiss me any deeper, he found a way. When he finally pulled back, we were both
panting, and I thought back to the night in my empty apartment and I was
suddenly very afraid.

But he only smiled and took my
hand, pulling me into the bedroom.

He stopped at the foot of the bed
to kiss me again. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d just kissed someone for
such a long time - or maybe it had just been a few minutes, I couldn’t tell
anymore. The ticking of the grandfather clock in the dining room seemed, by
turns, to be going very very fast, and then very very slow.

When he finally stopped, again,
my lips felt bruised. Every breath seemed to short, like I’d never catch it and
completely fill my lungs again.

His mouth quirked up into a
half-smile.

“Relax,” he said.
“Breathe.”

Was it that obvious?

I tried, but it wasn’t easy. My
heart felt like it was trying to escape from my ribcage. Every part of my body
was tingling, aching for his touch. All I felt was urgency and need.

“I can’t,” I whimpered,
hating how pathetic I sounded.

“Yes, you can,” he
said, gently. “Focus on your desire. Be with it. And just breathe.”

I closed my eyes. Finally, I felt
myself begin to un-tense my muscles. I refocused on the throbbing feeling in my
core instead of trying to shrink away from its intensity. When I opened my eyes
again, I was finally able to take a long, deep breath.

“There you are,” Daniel
said, smiling, brushing his fingers against my flushed chest. “It’s very
important, in moments like this, to remember how to breathe.”

Just the light touch of his
fingertips on my skin was enough to make me part my lips and exhale with
pleasure. I’d never felt anything like this before. When he reached down and
raised my shirt up over my head, the mere slide of the fabric against my skin
was enough to make me shudder.

I’d never imagined it could feel
like this. I must have been a ball of tension and nerves every other time I’d
had sex, because this was unprecedented. I’d never realized. As simple as it
was, I’d never tried to just breathe before.

He seemed inordinately pleased
with himself, judging by the expression on his face. I almost wanted to laugh,
but at the same time, I didn’t.

“It’s deceptively simple, I
know,” he said. “You’ve never heard that before?”

“What? To just
breathe?” I gasped as he rested his hand on my breast, pressing against
the taut nipple. “No. I guess not.”

He brushed my hair behind my ear.
“Stick with me,” he said. “I’ll teach you all sorts of
things.”

“That’s very magnanimous of
you.”

“Oh,” he breathed,
inches away from my lips. “It’ll be my pleasure.”

He kissed me again, just a brush
of his mouth, strangely chaste. Then, he reached behind my back and unfastened
my bra. He pulled it off and tossed it aside.

His eyes raked over my body and I
almost felt it like a physical touch. Finally, his fingers settled on the
button of my shorts, and undid it.

They fell to the floor. I stepped
out of them, feeling strangely without shame, standing there in the middle of
an obscenely expensive hotel room in my panties.

“Don’t forget to
breathe,” he said, teasingly, kneeling down slowly on the carpet. I had to
concentrate, as his own hot breath tickled skin. It brushed across my lower
stomach, my hipbones, and lower -

His fingers slid under the fabric
of my panties and pulled them down, slowly.

His face was inches from my sex.
I was losing focus. Breathe. Just breathe.

He leaned closer and pressed a
hot, open-mouthed kiss on my hip.

I moaned a little. I knew exactly
what I wanted him to do, but at the same time, I was afraid if he really did
it, I’d scream, or collapse, or both. My knees already felt weak. When his
tongue flicked out and traced the crease between my thigh and my mound, mere
inches from where I most wanted it, I shivered and heard myself begging.

“Please,” I whispered.

He looked up at me and smiled.

“All you had to do was
ask.”

At the first lap of his tongue, I
pitched forward, grabbing his shoulder for support. He held on to my hips and
pulled back. “Shhh, shhh,” he said. “I’ve got you. Just
breathe.”

I kept leaning on him, taking
long, shuddering breaths like he’d told me to. When I was able to let go of his
shoulder and stand on my own again, he leaned in and continued his
ministrations.

This time I was able to keep my
balance, although every muscle in my body twitched and shivered at the
exquisite feeling of him. Because I was focusing so closely on not falling
over, the sensations somehow hit me more slowly, crawling through my nerves
instead of slamming into me, the way pleasure normally did. I was filled with a
delicious ache. I let my head fall back, my eyes closing as I let out a long,
shaky moan.

My fingers rested against the top
of his head, scratching lightly at his scalp. He hummed against my swollen
flesh. Rather than an ever-rising, unstoppable build towards climax, I was
feeling something different. Deeper. The feelings ebbed and flowed, but even
the ebbs made my toes curl into the carpet with pure bliss.

He picked up his pace, slightly,
which I hadn’t even realized I wanted; but as soon as he did, I moaned again,
rocking forward. But this time I kept my balance. I managed to keep my feet
flat on the floor, taking in the pleasure instead of letting it overcome me. I
felt like I was glowing from the inside.

When I came, it was something
that rose up from deep inside of me, stronger than anything I’d ever felt
before. But I never lost myself in it. I stood strong in it, like a sailor tied
to the mast of a ship, letting the feelings wash over me until I couldn’t hold
them all inside any longer.

Then, I screamed.

When he stood up, wiping his face
with one hand, I was still upright, somehow. Still standing. My legs ached, but
at the same time, I couldn’t remember ever feeling this good.

With a sudden movement, he picked
me up, bridal-style, and carried me over to the bed, dropping me on the
mattress with a devilish grin. I fell, laughing, in a heap.

“Now,” he said, looming
over me on the mattress, like I’d dreamed of so many times. “Wasn’t that a
good time?”

I nodded, biting my lip.
“Want me to return the favor?”

His eyebrow quirked. “What
do you think?”

I laughed, reaching down to cup
the straining hardness under his jeans. “Yes? No? Maybe?”

He rolled off of me and stretched
out on his back, giving me full access. As much as I wanted to undress him
slowly, to drink in every inch of him, I also felt compelled to focus on the
part of him that seemed to need my attention most urgently. I unzipped his
jeans and yanked them out of the way, dragging his underwear down with them. My
breath caught a little in my throat.

But at the same time, my mouth
was watering.

I leaned down and licked the
whole length of him, finally taking everything I could fit into my mouth and
caressing him with my tongue. He sighed and arched his back, his eyes
half-closing. I wondered if he’d imagined this. Of course he had. How many
times, I wondered? Was it his favorite fantasy? In his imagination, how did he
like me best?

I bobbed my head up and down,
trying to keep my eyes on his, watching every little twitch of every muscle in
his face. I didn’t want to miss a moment of this.

He warned me before it was over -
very gentlemanly - but I didn’t mind taking it all in. He was my husband, after
all.

We lay silently together for a
while after that, with nothing but the sound of each other’s heartbeats. I
didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t sure if it was wise to say anything at all. I
certainly didn’t plan to get back from the honeymoon and pretend this never
happened, but I had a sneaking suspicion he might expect me to. Or worse - he’d
want to be friends with benefits throughout the duration of our marriage, only
to end everything after the divorce?

Wait - was that a bad thing?

Wasn’t that exactly what I’d
expected, when I let myself give in to this? Okay, so maybe I’d wished we could
ever be a real couple. I was finally willing to admit that to myself. But I’d
known it was never going to happen. I’d gone into this understanding that the
best possible outcome involved the very thing I was now afraid of.

I could have Daniel for one year,
or I could have him for less. Those were the only possible options.

The knowledge of this weighed
heavily on my mind while we ate our room service dinner, quietly, in front of
the T.V. I wondered if Daniel was thinking similar thoughts - trying to figure
out how he was going to cut me loose without causing too much of a fuss.

No, that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t
fair, but it was all I could think.

I lay awake for a long time that
night. Even though I was far enough on my own side of the bed that I barely
knew he was there; but at the same time, I was acutely aware that he was really
inches away from me. I finally fell asleep after what felt like hours of
staring into the unfamiliar darkness of the room.

I felt groggy and discontented
the next morning, but I hoped that my first day of “astronaut
training” would at least be enough to keep my mind off of all the things I
didn’t want to think about.

When we first arrived, Sam
welcomed us with a breakfast of genuine astronaut rations - surprisingly edible
- and an overview of everything we’d be doing for the day. It started with
lighter activities like a mission briefing, fitting into jumpsuits, and our
“career assignments.” Apparently, “astronaut” wasn’t quite
the specific term I’d always assumed it to be. Within it, there was a wide
range of different skills and specialties. Mathematicians, scientists, engineer
- all of them pilots, but from such different walks of life I wondered if any
of them had started out wanting to be graphic designers. Maybe my wires had
gotten crossed somewhere. Maybe I should have been one of them.

Then I would have actually made
enough money on my own to make this whole thing unnecessary. Then I could have
actually done this for real, instead of just pretending.