Bargain Bride, Billionaire Groom Read online

  Could it be true? Had she and Marcus not been intimate? He shook his head. One kiss, one taste of her and Marcus would have snatched her up and never let her go. Ah well. Too late. Now it was his sole mission to satisfy her needs. Her wishes. He’d give it all to her—except the one thing he couldn’t give.

  He gripped his towel and patted the beads of guilty sweat that broke out across his forehead. We can adopt children. Still, that wouldn’t excuse him. He should have told her the truth; that he couldn’t father a child to begin with.

  Let’s make a baby, darling.

  Wishful longing had driven him to utter the words. Wishful lying, you mean? his conscience breathed back.

  Hearing his cell phone buzz in the other room, he snatched the chance for a reprieve from his thoughts. He wrapped the towel around his waist and answered the call.

  “Good morning, Jio! It’s Naomi. How are you two getting along so far?”

  “I have no complaints,” he said with a happy grin. “And thank you for keeping Lily. It has been…magnificent.”

  Naomi laughed. “Magnificent, eh? Sounds promising. If it’s okay, Lily wants to say hello to you both.”

  A pair of arms wrapped around his waist. Soft lips pouted over his skin and kissed his shoulder. Jio bathed in his wife’s touch and her sweet affection thrust aside his earlier thoughts. His earlier guilt.

  “Hello, Lily. How are you, my angel?”

  “Hi, Poppa.”

  “Are you being a good girl?”

  “Yep! Fun wi’ uncle and ’Omi!”

  “I’m so jealous,” said Jio.

  “Lub you.”

  He smiled. “I love you, too. Here is your Mamma.” Jio handed Golden the phone.

  His wife yanked the towel off of him as she spun away, holding the phone to her ear to talk to her daughter. Smiling, he tugged his towel back from her and disappeared into the en suite with a shake of his head.

  Five minutes later, he poked his head out the bathroom door. “Golden, what do you think of me buying Lily a puppy for her third birthday?” She wasn’t there.

  He followed her voice out of the bedroom and stopped when he saw her standing in a corner of the great room. With her back to him, she gazed pensively out the windows, her cell phone clutched against her ear.

  She even held herself tense, and stiff—a sign that the person she was speaking softly to on the line was not her daughter.

  Jio picked up on her breathless voicing of Marcus Grayson’s name. He listened.

  “…Naomi said you’ve been trying to reach me, Marcus. I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. No, no…please. Don’t apologize. It’s okay. You seem to care for that woman very much, otherwise you wouldn’t have been kissing her like that…”

  Jio blinked, surprised.

  “No, there’s nothing more to talk about. Jio and I renewed our wedding vows. We decided to make us official. Yes, we’re staying married, Marcus.”

  Jio slipped quietly back into his bedroom. Their bedroom. Blood pounded like whitewater in his veins. So it was like that with Marcus. Another woman? What the very hell? He swore, and then laughed at the irony.

  They each got something out of this marriage. They’d needed each other for certain things. In marrying Golden, Jio gained a woman he’d long desired in his bed. And, he gained Lily as his heir—the only child he would ever, could ever have. As for Golden, she’d come to him when she found out Marcus wanted someone else…and he’d dropped right into her hands like ripe fruit.

  Well played, Golden, he thought as his own perceived triumph rang out a little hollow. By marrying his Maui beauty, his heart had just helped him make the biggest, best mistake of his life.

  ~~*~~

  “Marcus, are you still there?” Golden’s hand shook. She’d just broken the news of her renewal of vows with Jio.

  “I’m here,” Marcus sighed. “Can you be happy with him, Golden?”

  “Oh, yes. Very much so,” she told him truthfully. “And if you give your lovely friend a chance, I have a feeling that you’ll find something special there, too.”

  “You may be right,” he mused. “All the best to you then, in your marriage to Jio. I mean that. And I’ll always be here for you and Lily.”

  After they hung up, she wondered why she couldn’t have loved Marcus with the same fever that she loved Jio. Her eyes widened, and her heart skipped a happy beat. Well, how about that? She’d fallen in love—with her own husband!

  Smiling, she sought Jio out, tracing his captivating voice to his home office on the main floor. If she hadn’t come out to Starfire Ridge… The thought didn’t bear thinking about! She would have missed out on him. On this—the wonderful feeling of being a part of Jio’s life, inside and out of his bed.

  The thought that she’d be returning home to Maui soon cast a shadow on her heart’s revelations. She knew he wouldn’t be going back with her this time, and she wondered how their lives would mesh.

  He was at his desk, leaning back in his chair with his phone to his ear. Sweeping her arms around his neck, she planted a kiss on his cheek. He patted her hands and leaned forward to get a pen from its holder. Golden smiled and left him alone to go start breakfast.

  An hour later, the pancakes she’d cooked had cooled. While there was no sign of Jio taking a break, she heard him in the other room, still speaking animatedly in Italian. Doubtful she’d see him anytime soon, she placed the food in the fridge, picked up Lily’s toys and then made a phone call to her foreman.

  “I’ve got some bad news, boss lady. Another of Hawaii’s major pineapple growers is shutting down operations for a permanent move overseas—cheaper land, labor, and less cost of doing business. I’m already receiving calls from workers soon to be laid off.”

  “Keep all applications that come in, Keo. We’ve got the coffee harvest coming up. I have a feeling that Lani Kai orchards may be expanding operations as well.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We might be getting into the grape growing and wine-making business!”

  No sooner had she hung up with her foreman when her cell phone rang. It was Gado wanting to know if they could take Lily out on the bunny slopes for a bit. She had no problem with it as her brother was also a competent snowboarder.

  Naomi and Gado arrived within minutes to pick up Lily’s ski suit. They were in and out of the chalet, eager to hit the slopes. As Golden shut the door behind them, she glanced down the hall at the closed door to Jio’s office. He was still in the thick of a conference call. Suddenly an idea lit up inside her head.

  She ran out the door after her brother. “Wait!” she cried just as they were pulling away.

  The SUV Gado had rented screeched to a halt. He stuck his head out the window. “What is it?”

  “I want to go, too.”

  Her brother grinned. “What about Jio?”

  “He’s working.”

  Gado shook his head. “On his honeymoon?”

  Golden laughed. “Go easy on him. It’s not like he planned on getting hitched the other night—to me, of all people. Now, if I’m not out all day he won’t miss me,” she threw past her shoulder as she ran back inside the house to get her ski suit, and boots, on. Half an hour later, they were out on the bunny slopes with Lily.

  “Look at this—none of you can ski worth a damn. Even on the baby slopes!” Gado declared, disgusted.

  Golden laughed. “Lily can probably give us lessons. But if she’s like her uncle Jio—”

  “Jio’s her stepdad now,” Gado corrected.

  “Um, actually,” piped Naomi, “Jio is her legal if not her biological father since she was born while you two were married.”

  Golden smiled. “He is, isn’t he? Well, she’ll probably be as accomplished on the slopes as he is.”

  Her brother grinned. “But I’ll always be number one uncle in her heart.”

  Later that day, they put Lily back in toddler day care while the adults braved one of the beginner runs. Under Gado’s tutoring, G
olden gained more skill and confidence on the slopes. But while gliding at an easy pace down a beginner run, an inexperienced snowboarder crashed into her with enough force to send her flying off the ground and plowing into packed snow.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Doctor’s orders, Jio. No sex for a week.”

  He swore as he stared down at her. “You’ve got a small bruise forming here.” He stroked her right cheek, “A scrape on your jaw here—and is sex all you think I care about, hmm?”

  “Well, I think a lot about sex lately.” She teased him with her smile. “I ate it on the slopes pretty bad. I don’t know that I’m cut out for skiing.”

  “It wasn’t your fault that some inexperienced kid crashed in to you.”

  “I hope he’s okay.”

  “The boy is fine. I checked,” Jio said wryly. “Don’t look at me like that, Golden. Don’t put me on a pedestal,” he directed at the puppy-eyed look she gave him. “I don’t want a lawsuit on my hands with the kid. But if it makes you feel better, I’m picking up the tab for his medical bills and for the rest of his stay here. For him and his family.”

  She fought the urge to throw her arms around him, to tell him she loved him—his thoughtfulness and kindness. There were so many things he didn’t have to do, but did anyway. His past hadn’t scarred him from being a generous and caring man.

  “The doctor said you’d be sore for a week or so. Why didn’t you tell me you wanted to go skiing? I would have joined you.”

  “Jio, you’d have wanted to throw yourself off a cliff the whole time, having to school a beginner like me. Besides, you were working.” Supported by a pair of crutches, she pushed herself up off the hospital bed and practiced walking around with them. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  Jio followed her around the room. “What happened?”

  She told him, in her own words. He stopped her long enough to tip up her chin up and kiss her lips. “I’m glad you’re okay. Now,” he pulled out his smartphone, “what would you like for dinner? We’ll order take-away. What do you want—Thai? Indian? Name it.”

  “Roast beef, root vegetables, rolls. All smothered in brown gravy,” she suggested hopefully, feeling quite pampered. “Oh, and chocolate cake if they have it.”

  “Lucky for you, roast beef is served every night at the lodge. I’ll order a meal brought to the house, enough to include your brother and Naomi.”

  Golden shook her head. “I think they’ve had enough of me for the day. I also kept them here for hours before they decided to call you. I didn’t want you to worry.”

  “Actually, I called your brother looking for my family,” he scolded. “And where is our little one?”

  “They took Lily back to the lodge to get her fed, but I want her with us tonight.”

  “We’ll go pick her up on the way home, then,” said Jio.

  Home. Anywhere with him could feel like home, she thought happily. And they were already a family.

  That night he made her comfortable and cozy on a divan in the great room, covering her with a luxurious faux mink throw as a fire popped in the hearth. After placing a tray of juicy roast beef and potatoes in front of her, he spread out a blanket on the rug for Lily and himself to have a picnic of their own. Golden told him about the phone call to her plantation’s foreman.

  “I’ll hire myself out to you as a field hand, but my price is high,” he told her with a wicked smile. She laughed.

  Contentment filled her heart when Lily climbed onto his lap, tucked her thumb into her mouth and fell asleep, safe in the arms of her very own poppa.

  Later that night, after Jio put Lily to bed, he returned to the great room, a bottle of baby oil in hand, to where she waited for him. Ignoring doctor’s orders, he took all of Golden’s clothes off and made sweet love to her.

  He oiled her body up, down and all over, between her toes, the backs of her lower legs, all over her thighs, her stomach, her breasts… He paused every now and then to use his mouth to explore curves that caught his interest, namely all of them. Reaching the juncture of her thighs, he coupled her with his tongue in ways that brought her to lavish climaxes, even as he did without a climax of his own.

  Golden had taken two prescribed pain killers with her meal, and soon fell fast asleep to the feel of his lips covering her bruises with tender kisses as she clung to him, sighing with helpless, hopeless pleasure…

  ~~*~~

  After Gado and Naomi flew back to Maui, Golden and Lily stayed on in Starfire Ridge. Two weeks after her accident, she doggedly resumed ski lessons, and every day Lily grew closer and closer to her new poppa.

  As for the nights Golden spent in Jio’s arms…

  Five weeks into their vacation, days before she and Lily were due to return home to Maui, she noted her period was overdue. Harboring the potential of joyful news, she went in search of her husband to share it with.

  After arranging for the same caregiver who’d watched Lily during their renewal of vows ceremony to keep an eye on her for a few hours, she took one of Jio’s four-wheel drive vehicles down to the lodge and went looking for him.

  “He’s over at Bellewood,” said the manager who’d helped her locate him the first night she’d arrived at the lodge. “It’s the private residence that he’s just sold.”

  “Oh.” Jio had taken her up to the property a week ago to show her the place, but she couldn’t remember how to get there.

  “I’ll be happy to take you,” the manager offered.

  Golden left her vehicle at the lodge and rode up to the Bellewood chalet with him. As the SUV climbed snowy roads and snaked through an evergreen forest, she knew she would miss the wintry beauty of the Colorado Rockies. Her time here had been unforgettable, and she hoped that they could return soon.

  As the manager guided her through the foyer of the Bellewood chalet, a much larger version of Jio’s, she picked up the tenor of Jio’s voice coming from one of the expansive corridors smelling of freshly painted walls. The painters that were leaving for the day greeted them with a friendly wave.

  “I can take it from here. Thank you so much,” she assured the lodge manager. “This jaunt up the ridge must have taken you away from your normal duties.”

  “Not a problem, Mrs. Falcone. I know your husband will be delighted to see you here,” he told her, and left her to follow the direction of Jio’s voice.

  Voices she amended sharply, picking up a feminine lilt somewhere in between her husband’s lowered tones as his voice echoed off textured walls.

  “—am very glad that you agreed to see me, Jio,” a woman was saying. “It was an unfortunate misunderstanding that happened over Enzo’s littlest daughter, and I deeply regret my part in it.”

  Golden hesitated just outside another set of wide-open double doors.

  “But it looks like things have worked out well enough for you. You’ve decided to stay married to her…”

  “Yes, we are officially together now,” was Jio’s flat response.

  “Interesting. Does she know about—”

  “Don’t go there, Sylvana,” Jio rudely cut the woman off. “Mind your own business! There are some things my wife doesn’t need to know. But if and when the time comes, I’ll be the one to tell her. Say what you have to say, and go.”

  Sylvana? Golden’s feet propelled her forward, her ears feeding her brain bits of this conversation she probably shouldn’t have been a party to. What was Jio doing here with Prince Sebastiano’s lover?

  What don’t I need to know? Golden lingered, burning with curiosity.

  Had she been chased off by the fear of what the other woman would say next, she wouldn’t have seen the couple seated across from each other in what had to be the great-room, given its size.

  It was dim enough that she wasn’t seen right away, but it wasn’t so dark that she couldn’t see, and feel, the tension that coiled around them. Between them.

  They sat on metal chairs with a makeshift plywood table and buckets of paint separating the
m. While both of them were oblivious to her lurking in the shadows, no way did she miss the longing that flashed across the other woman’s face.

  Wow. I’ve probably worn that same look many a time when staring at my own husband. So that’s what wanting looks like. Golden knew right then that only a woman who’d once meant something to Jio, or known Jio’s body intimately, could wear such a look.

  “Oh fine, Jio. But you don’t have to snap at me,” said the woman. “We are still family.”

  “Lia is family,” Jio coldly emphasized. He snatched up his mobile tablet and a manila folder. “I merely tolerate you.” He stuffed a couple of 5x7 photographs in the folder.

  “There was a time I satisfied you!” Sylvana reminded him, a vicious sneer on her lips.

  Jio snorted. “Me and half of Italy.” He stood, finished with her. “We’re done here. I don’t want to keep my wife waiting.”

  Something, maybe it was a flash of the red ski cap Golden wore to tame her bed-head curls, made Jio turn and look over by the door where she was standing. His eyes widened and as she walked into the room, his cheeks flushed with discomfort while her heart grappled with the turmoil of what she’d just seen, and heard.

  The woman in the room was mother to one of Enzo’s girls. The woman in the room once satisfied Jio, too? Confused, Golden’s head pounded with a rush of temper. While she fumed and stewed, Jio’s worried gaze roamed her heated face.

  The other woman’s blue eyes had flared on seeing Golden in a clingy red sweater and hip-hugging, black cashmere travel pants whose hem was stuffed into a clunky pair of wool-lined boots. Golden dragged the ski cap off her head with a defiant sweep of her hand, and hid the tremble in her fingers by running them through her hair.

  “Hi, honey,” she greeted her husband.

  “Golden,” he said, and made stiff introductions. “This is Sylvana, Lia’s mamma. Sylvana, meet my wife Golden.”

  “Lily’s mamma,” said the other woman, her voice touched with irony.

  “It seems we are done here, Sylvana,” Jio repeated.

  “It would seem,” said the beautiful woman with long dark hair and brilliant eyes, staring at Golden with envy.