Bargain Bride, Billionaire Groom Read online

  Bargain Bride, Billionaire Groom

  By

  Lelani Black

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents portrayed in this book are the work of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Bargain Bride, Billionaire Groom

  Copyright © 2012 by Lelani Black

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author, with the exception of quotes used in critical articles and/or reviews.

  Cover Art by Littlewar Productions

  First Published August 2012

  United States of America

  Littlemoon Press

  This author acknowledges the following trademarks and trademark owners mentioned or noted in this work of fiction:

  Starbucks, Starbucks U.S. Brands LLC

  HUMMER, General Motors

  Gulfstream, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation,

  General Dynamics

  Dedication

  To wonderful brothers

  To my brothers, Eduardo and Alex

  and

  To my husband Pete, for his outrageous wit, kisses, and endless support

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Chapter One

  Jiovanni Falcone powered the luxurious SUV around a rain-soaked switchback in the island road, inches away from scraping the mossy wall of lava rock on one side, while wet jungle shimmered on the other.

  As he sped past a waterfall, the scent of wild ginger flashed beneath his nose, stirring up painful memories that reeled through his mind and raked at his heartstrings. His hands jerked at the wheel, avoiding a ledge that would have plunged him into Maui’s coastal waves.

  Pay attention, Falcone, or you can forget about making it to Lani Kai in one piece!

  He eased up on the gas and relegated the beauty of Hana Highway’s famous one-lane bridges and tree tunnels to shrinking objects in his rear view mirror. While not in any rush to get to his destination, the sooner he carried out his duty, the sooner he could leave.

  Checking his speed at the familiar marker next to an opening in the trees—a large pothole pooled with rainwater—he swept the SUV into the turn and followed the road that curved around an orchard of coffee trees in robust bloom. White flowers cluttered the branches. Their jasmine-like fragrance drifted in the air like the honeybees that floated around their blooms.

  A handful of Halloween colored chickens ran for cover as the SUV approached a gravel driveway. It curved around a massive banyan tree and ended in front of the property’s plantation-style home, nestled on a bluff that looked out over the deep blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

  He pulled under the shade and shifted into Park. Before killing the engine, he lowered all the windows to make best use of the breeze sweeping up from the bay.

  Lani Kai. Heavenly Sea…

  Jio took a minute to study the house, sprawled out in a tropical surround of flowering trees and low-hanging foliage. Ginger-colored tiles now covered the entire roof, not just the east wing that had been built for newlyweds over two and a half years ago.

  Through the balusters of the lanai, sanded and stained a honeydew green, he noticed a little pink push-tricycle, toppled over on its side. A soft smile curved his lips.

  Sensing movement behind the windows, he lifted his gaze to see a tanned face peering back at him, and the friendly wave that followed set the tone of hospitality to come.

  A man wearing a red t-shirt, black board shorts and red rubber flip-flops stepped out onto the porch, climbed over the child’s security gate and raced down the stairs to greet him.

  “Hoy, Jio! E komo mai—welcome! Welcome! Good to see you, my man.” Delgado Carrera peered into the vehicle and whistled at the rental’s leather upholstery and wood accents.

  Jio stepped out of the SUV and shook his brother-in-law’s hand. “Things look good here, Gado. How are you?”

  “Couldn’t be better!” Gado’s surf-bronzed face beamed with pleasure to see him. “Do you have time to drop some lines in the water?”

  Jio shook his head. “Not today. Your sister and I have pressing business to discuss. You did say she’d be here?”

  “She is, but…” Gado shrugged and jerked his head in the direction of the bay.

  Jio stiffened. His heart plunged into his stomach. “She is out on the water?”

  Gado removed the small pair of binoculars he kept slung around his neck at all times and handed it over. “Of course! Check it out. We get some hairy waves here in the spring months, but no worries. Golden knows when to say when. She should be back any minute now, brah. Any second.”

  Jio raised the binoculars to his eyes and shot a skeptical glance across the panorama of ocean beyond the bay, to where chiseled bodies on surfboards jockeyed for rotation on breaking blue waves.

  His gaze honed in on a female wearing a daffodil yellow bikini whose skimpy triangles spilled to the brim with softly rounded curves, and then some. Astride a surfboard, she raised a hand and waved to a surfer who paddled by.

  When it looked like she was about to paddle her way to shore, something made her raise her hand to shield the sun from her eyes and look in their direction.

  He felt her stare struggle to shape him in the distance. Sucking in a breath, he fought his body’s answering tug. Using the binoculars to his advantage, his gaze trailed her long throat, moving lower to lush breasts tucked behind two flimsy pieces of fabric. Then lower still, to a gently curved stomach. He stopped at her thighs—sleek, tanned, spread apart and straddled atop her board.

  Jio’s breath stuttered inside his lungs. A sharp male reaction shut down the flow of air to his windpipe. His pulses raced. He couldn’t breathe.

  Shit. He needed air. Something.

  “Jio? You okay?”

  “She’s out there by herself? All alone?” Concern charged through Jio’s blood. He knew Golden was an avid surfer. He’d just never seen her that far out in the water. She looked vulnerable out there, floating above the waves.

  “Nah! She’s probably hanging with one of the local pros.”

  Jio’s anxiety soared. Was the local surf pro the man Golden spoke of in her e-mail? The man who would be her husband once he and Golden dissolved their marriage? He’d received her e-mail two weeks ago. Two weeks later, something deep inside of him was still reeling, but her happiness was all that mattered now.

  It was time for him to say ‘thank you, and good luck.’ So what if it all boiled down to another hour of torture, waiting for her to come off her board and get out of the water.

  “No worries, Jio. She’s in good hands—very experienced hands.”

  What the hell? Could this assurance be any more irritating than the last?

  “Are you staying a little longer this time, perhaps?” Gado asked, his dark eyes curious.

  “My jet leaves in eight hours.” Jio followed him around the side of the house, to a flight of stairs shaded in the tropical overgrowth that wound down to a sleepy little beach.

  “Ah. That gives Lily and Golden five hours with you before you have to trek back to the airport. Go on ahead then, and say hi to my sister. The baby is still asleep
, but we’ll see you two when you get back up here, yeah?”

  Jio nodded and took the steps leading to the crescent of gray-sand beach that sparkled down below.

  Chapter Two

  So, her husband decided to come.

  Golden squinted at him from her perch on the water. Jio’s gaze might have been hidden behind a pair of binoculars, but what he saw was magnified on his end. Everything would look bigger, including the small bouquet of stretch marks on her right hip.

  Her panic forced her body to react to the steely intensity of his stare, stalking her in the distance. She groaned at the surge of her dastardly nipples poking against her bikini tops.

  “Behave!” Golden muttered, aware that her nipples’ bad behavior had everything to do with her husband’s arrival, and nothing to do with island trade winds snuffling her skin.

  She squirmed on her surfboard, uncaring of the lipped edges that dug into her flesh. Right now? Her pulsing body needed to get used to the presence of the one-man wrecking machine that was her husband.

  He stood at a visible point on the bluff that crested above the bay. What she couldn’t see of him her mind filled in—angular features, shapely mouth with a curved bottom lip, muscle-hewn body, sinful blue eyes. Even from a distance, his broad shoulders and air of authority commanded her attention. Her lust.

  She should have deferred to good sense at that moment—what she had of it—and paddled her way to shore. Instead, heartbeats churning like the tide, she stretched tummy-side down on her board and paddled out to where aquamarine waters turned a gray-blue hue.

  She needed more time! Just ten more minutes to shore up the guts needed to face the unavoidable. And why didn’t he call to let her know he was coming? Agitated, her heart thrashed around in her chest and drowned out the squawk of seabirds soaring overhead.

  She paused to choose from several waves breaking over the channel. Someone called out her name. Glancing over at the group of surfers she’d joined earlier, she gave them a thumbs-up then paddled hard into a promising swell. Grabbing the rails of her board at chest level, she executed her pop-up with feline ease.

  Thrills flooded her veins as she surfed along the steep face of the unbroken wave. Once the crush of exhilaration and speed ebbed, a froth of whitewater broke up from the sea and propelled her towards shore—to a powerfully built man now waiting for her beneath the shade of a Royal Flame tree.

  There were other beachgoers sprawled out on the sand, but she had eyes for no one but her look-but-don’t-touch husband.

  He stepped into the tide, and as Golden hopped off the board to greet him, she kissed a mental goodbye to any hope of retreat. She’d have gladly backed up into deeper water, where she felt safer among eels. And sharks.

  She waded over to her husband instead, and took the hand he extended to her. Jio’s rock-blue gaze met hers and launched a spray of goose bumps along her arms. Mmm! A girl could lose herself admiring the slope of his cheekbones and his Roman blade of a nose. Long black eyelashes and the sexy curl of his lower lip softened the effect of a jawline so sharp it could almost cut stone.

  “Golden.” He lifted her hand and grazed sculpted lips across her knuckles. As she leaned down to tug the surfboard strap off her ankle, the tenor of his voice stirred through her senses like a hot cup of coffee on a drizzly day.

  Before her hand slipped from his, she felt the jagged look he raked across her ring finger. Absent was the sunflower-yellow diamond ring he’d given her, set in a gold band and channeled with rare purple diamonds.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t at the house to meet you, Jio,” she apologized, straightening. “I would have been there had I known you were coming.”

  Her words fluttered from her lips as her eyes soaked him in—all six-foot two inches of muscled real estate. She counted the unused buttonholes on the red, long-sleeved shirt he wore.

  One, two, three…four of those buttons had been tugged free to take advantage of trade winds while flaunting his cabled throat to her stare. Breezy and collected her husband might look, she warmed right up to the slice of tawny-brown skin and the sprinkle of chest hair that swirled up from inside his shirt.

  Her gaze coasted over the rest of him, skating down tailored trousers that he’d rolled up at the bottoms. Where was his jacket? He always traveled a step up from casual—always dressed for business, for the man was all about business.

  Although…the blue eyes studying her reminded her of someone who was out shopping. Checking out the goods. Not that it would be the first time his eyes nibbled her assets in that edgy way—like a man with sharpened hunger pangs. A man who craved more than a snack…

  “I left a message with your brother last week.”

  Color rushed to her cheeks. “He forgot to tell me!”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Is this a bad time?”

  “No, no. Not at all.” Seeing her board floating off, she turned and waded after it, glad for a distraction. She needed to pull herself together, but the ocean-cooled sands sifting through her toes didn’t even begin to soothe the heat her body was feeling.

  As she emerged from the water, her nipples sprang to the size of little raspberries and tingled like crazy. Just a teeny bit out of control, there.

  She sleeked her hair back and dragged her board closer to her so he wouldn’t see the little monsters doing their thing. “Just let me grab my towel and we’ll head on up to the house, okay?”

  “Take your time.”

  She walked to her towel lying on the grass, bent over and picked it up. Hurriedly, she pressed the towel against her hair, rubbed it over her shoulders, along the wet slopes of her breasts and down her bare stomach while struggling to keep the surfboard angled to block out his view. It didn’t work.

  The board bobbled in her grip.

  “Here, let me help you with that.” Jio eased her board from her and wrapped her hand firmly in his as he did so.

  She threw her towel over her shoulder. One demonic nipple could stay under cover, she mused, and hoped the other would calm down soon.

  Wrapping herself up in the towel like a mummy wasn’t an option. It would make it obvious that she was trying to hide a nipple or two, and God only knows Jio had seen her spread-eagled once before. What was a perky set of nipples between them?

  They strolled along the grass, in the direction of the cement steps tucked at the base of the incline.

  “You came earlier than expected,” she said, muddling through the pleasurably tart aroma of citrus and spearmint that clung to him. Her hand sank into the warmth of his. “I wasn’t expecting you here for another week or two.”

  “After I read your e-mail, I made changes to my schedule. I felt I should come sooner.” He released her hand and pinched off a sprig of star-shaped flowers from vines crawling around the rails that led to the steps.

  “I didn’t mean for you to jet out to the island just because of what I’d written, Jio.”

  He raised the snow-white blooms up to his nose and breathed their scent. “It’s business, darling. We have much to discuss, you and I.”

  She stared at him, confused. Not confused that he called her ‘darling.’ He called waitresses ‘darling.’ It was part of his Mr. Worldwide charm. But the sight of Jio Falcone smelling flowers tickled the back of her throat. He wasn’t the type to stop and smell the flowers.

  He held the blooms away from his nose. “What is it? Are you upset I came? You and Lily were due a visit.”

  “N-No.” She needed no reminder how she went through this torment every four months since the day his brother—his half-brother, Enzo—died, leaving her unmarried and pregnant. “If you call those eight hours that you are here a visit.”

  She and her toddler, Lily—they were like an eight-hour work day to Jio. Every four months, he’d show up at a certain time, then leave at a certain time. He stopped staying the night in the guest room over a year ago, too. So what he did when he drove from Lani Kai and arrived in Kahului, or Lahaina, in the late-night hours, who kn
ew?

  Considering the road to Hana was filled with scenic distractions, turns and hairy cliffside bends, she figured he must enjoy the drive each way.

  The trek to Lani Kai used to drive Enzo crazy, but he sure loved the destination—Golden’s bed. He’d always made it a point not to go anywhere for several days, and stay and help with the plantings, the harvests…any and everything. When he was in Lahaina, working in his restaurant, she in turn helped him there, and joined him at his townhome.

  “Precious time reserved for my little niece,” Jio was now saying. “For you, I’m extending my visit since we have things to go over.” He swept one side of her hair back with his forefinger and tucked the spray of flowers behind her ear.

  His touch shot thrills down her spine. She lowered her eyes to hide any tell-tale reaction in them. “Oh. Those things.”

  His hand cupped her chin and turned her face up to meet his gaze, its blueness even more electrifying when backlit by the Hawaiian sun. “Yes, those things. Did you get my care package last month?”

  “Yes, I did. And thank you so much for Lily’s little push-scooter, and my music box. You don’t have to buy me gifts, too.”

  He gave her the most beautiful things, like a colorful designer bag from France, or bottles of wine from his wine estate—one of them—in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany.

  The thought of buying him anything in exchange wrecked her nerves. When a man flew around the globe in a Gulfstream jet and owned custom homes around the world—soaps on a rope just wasn’t going to cut it.

  These days she always sent him on his travels with homemade pineapple and coconut crème jams. Or green papaya pickles. She’d even hand-stitched a Hawaiian quilt in a dramatic crimson and gray lava pattern. Her gifts might not have a designer label on them, but they were made with heart and given with care.

  ‘It’ll match your jet,’ she’d teased when she presented the quilt to him on his last visit out here. How nervous she’d felt. Would he think her handmade offerings a bit…provincial? Then she panicked, thinking maybe he’d have preferred a silk tie after all.