Bargain Bride, Billionaire Groom Read online

  The lyrics spoke of an island maiden waving good-bye to her chieftain warrior, watching as he and his army rowed their canoes to battle across the sea in a sweep of moonlight, never to return. The haunting melody ended to several beats of silence.

  Marcus clapped, stood and planted an appreciative kiss on her cheek. His hands stroked down her arms. Then he swooped in to lay a kiss her lips.

  “That was beautiful,” interrupted a softly accented voice from the shadows.

  Marcus’s grip on her elbows firmed. His smile turned into an irritated frown before he let her go. A breath of relief spooled from her lungs. Jio watching another man kiss her was so not at the top of her wish list!

  She stepped away from Marcus with an apologetic smile. Looking around for Lily, she found her cradled in Jio’s arms. He leaned against a pillar, his body etched by moonlight that streamed through the overhead beams. Rather than join Marcus, who’d sat at the forefront of the night’s entertainment, Jio chose to watch from his private corner.

  What breath remained in Golden’s body sped off into the night, caught off guard by Jio Falcone’s twilight. Her longing for him drifted into the space between them like the mist that swept into Maui’s upcountry meadows after a rainstorm. She couldn’t help it, or stop it.

  Jio pushed away from the pillar. Nestled in his arms, Lily lay dozy and content, her thumb tucked in her mouth.

  “Our little one is ready to fall asleep,” he murmured, handing Lily over.

  “Here, I’ll take her.” Gado placed his ukulele down on the chair next to him. He rose, took Lily and strolled off.

  Marcus glanced at the illuminated face on his smartphone and stood. “Honey, I hate to cut my time with you short, but something has come up.” His brows dipped irritably at whatever text he’d just received.

  Golden looked at him, concerned. “Anything I can help with?”

  He shook his head. “No. Not this time. Are you going to be okay here?”

  “Of course. May I call you tomorrow?”

  “I’d love that, but better make it midweek. My guest should be gone by then.” Marcus turned and shook Jio’s hand. “Good to meet you, Jio. Have a safe trip, wherever you’re headed.” He then turned to Golden, kissed her on the forehead, whispered ‘goodnight’ and was gone.

  “Was it something I said?” Jio gathered up the empty beer bottles.

  She frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “What could possibly tear your cattleman from your side on a night like this?”

  You, she thought. Marcus’s pride and honor wouldn’t allow him to linger like a jealous lover. “Well, for one thing, Marcus is a paniolo. It’s a weeknight, and he’s a working cowboy—”

  “Who happens to own the land next to yours.”

  “Jio, repeat after me: Marcus doesn’t want me for my land. The End. Hmph! I do have other things to offer, you know.”

  “No doubt.”

  She glowered at him. “Besides, he’s got a guest waiting for him at home.”

  “Who’s his guest?”

  She blinked and realized she’d never once asked Marcus that question. “I-I don’t know…” Oh, no! Why didn’t she care enough to ask Marcus who was staying over at his place?

  “Is the-uh, guestroom comfortable?” She scraped the leftover contents of the plates into plastic bags, not ready to dwell on the reasons for her thoughtlessness tonight. Namely the sculpted, beautiful stallion of a man helping her with clean up.

  “Of course it is. You always keep a lovely home, Golden. Why do you ask?”

  “Because you didn’t stay there the last time you were given that room,” she blurted. It was the first time she’d addressed that night, even if she didn’t refer to the Kiss.

  “Emotions that night were running high,” he murmured.

  “High and all over the place. I guess I was really missing him, like I’m sure you were, too.”

  “It wasn’t about Enzo that night.”

  She struggled to swallow, not wanting to look like a traitor to her beloved Enzo by agreeing. But…there was no denying. This past year she’d grown painfully aware of Enzo’s brother as being one desirable hunk of a man. No longer was he just Lily’s uncle.

  Jio had become aware, as well. His sexual interest in her simmered in his eyes—ready for an invite. He no longer hid it, and ooh—how she felt it…licking over her skin like a caress.

  “If you need anything, just let myself or-or Gado know,” she mumbled.

  He sighed. “I will do that. And thank you again for letting me share this lovely night with you. Should you ever want me to return the favor, come visit me sometime.”

  “Oh?” Considering he owned and rented out luxury villas in the Mediterranean, had a beautiful farmhouse in his Tuscan vineyards and a villa in the Dolomites, owned and rented out an executive home in east Oahu and a contemporary home in San Francisco with a view of the Golden Gate bridge, she wasn’t always sure how to find him. “Where?”

  “It all depends. Do you want to sprawl out on hot sands in Greece, or sip wine by a fire in a mountain chalet?”

  The words sprawl and wine captioned an animated slideshow in her mind; of hot, steamy, skin-on-skin action. Of a woman’s hands—presumably hers—caressing satin-gold skin—presumably his—whose muscles gleamed and flexed in wild firelight as she undulated, naked, beneath all that manly real estate.

  “With you?” she asked stupidly.

  He snorted. “No, with the gardener. Who do you think? Of course with me, but only if you want to. You just might enjoy what I have to offer.”

  No doubt, she thought as she watched him use the napkins to help cushion and stack her plates. Had she been handling the china, she’d have dropped a few more.

  She really didn’t know him on a deeper level. Well, other than the obvious—big-time property developer, owner of notable vineyards. That, and he had the Midas touch. Both he and his brother worked hard, invested their money in stocks and real estate and made lots of money through their efforts—but ask her what Jio’s favorite color was, and she’d draw a blank.

  “Everything okay?” Gado poked his head out of the back door to inquire.

  “Um, yes. Everything’s fine,” Golden replied.

  “Good, the little one is tucked in bed. She is out like a light and I am out of here. My lady calls,” Gado added, waving his cell phone at them as he walked over to shake Jio’s hand. “’Omi’s plane arrived safe and sound an hour ago, and I’m headed off to go pay her a visit. If I don’t see you before you leave, safe flight, eh? Don’t wait up,” he said to Golden, and left.

  This is not good, she fretted. Alone with Jio, her willpower was likely to go on the fritz. When he’d come out from taking items into the house, she’d go inside so that the starry sky wouldn’t put any emphasis on their togetherness. Or their aloneness. Or on the balmy wind flowing through the palms.

  “Shall we go inside and have some coffee? Or tea? We can um…discuss the divorce more comfortably where there’s light,” she finally suggested as she stepped back outside for the fourth time. Jio had just finished stacking chairs against the house and was on his way in.

  “Sure.”

  Turning to lead their way inside, her toe caught on something that let out a loud squeak. She reached down and removed the item from her foot. Turning, she pressed Lily’s shoe against Jio’s chest. “This is to punish you for buying her such annoying footwear.” Squack!

  “By God, it would drive me to drink!” Jio chuckled, then placed his hand over hers.

  She grew motionless at his touch, and held her breath. Would doing so prolong the contact? Jio had other ideas. Wanting action, he dragged her close…closer until she was nestled against the wall of his aromatic chest.

  Instead of pulling back, she leaned into him. Squeak! He took the shoe and tossed it into a nearby bush, and when she gazed up at his features, his eyes dark with want, she knew she was doomed.

  The island air wove its sensual magic around
them, simulating the night they’d kissed on the moonlit shore down below.

  Golden had a split second to snatch a breath before his mouth plundered hers in a kiss that whipped all sense out of head. His kiss demanded she feel the mastery of his tongue. She opened up to him. While her taste buds savored the honey ale he’d been sipping on, her growing intoxication had everything to do with the man bewitching her with his lips and enticing her with his tongue.

  Golden had been pulled under the sea once.

  She and Gado were out on the water. Still in her early days of understanding channels, currents and undertows, she’d made a bad choice and charged into a big brute of a wave.

  Leave it! her brother shouted. She’d ignored him and was knocked from her board and pulled under water in seconds. Tossed like a rag doll in a spin cycle, she couldn’t tell which way was up. No matter how hard she kicked, the surface escaped her reach.

  This was worse. Trapped in Jio’s heat, she didn’t want a rescue. Her will buckled happily under the demand of his kisses and the lush, mouth-watering suckles his lips were gifting on hers.

  Her body took control. Her nipples budded into his chest. Pleasure pulsed along her skin and lit up her insides like the lights on a Christmas tree. She could barely breathe! Instead of air, she wanted to spin in the enchantment that swept around her, and held her mesmerized in the curve of Jio’s arms. He made her want to take her clothes off. And his, too, for that matter.

  Her hands crept along his chest. If she didn’t peel his shirt apart and touch his skin in four seconds, she would explode, then incinerate into crunchy pieces of frustrated woman parts and it would all be his fault.

  He dragged his lips from hers. “Golden!” His fingers clamped around her wrists to stop her hands from diving inside his shirt. “Open this door to me and there’ll be no turning back.”

  No turning back. And here she was trying to dissolve their marriage—but she’d taken a dangerous detour! When he picked her up and carried her inside the house, she didn’t utter a peep. She didn’t try to stop him…

  That pulse throbbing in her neck had bothered him all night.

  Jio had watched its cadence all through the evening. Studied its changing beat. When he spoke to her, or moved close to her, it quickened. When Gado or Marcus spoke to her, it slowed to a normal rhythm. He’d longed to kiss that innocent pulse, ached to make it hop as a result of his touch.

  “Jio, the door.”

  With a gentle kick, he closed her bedroom door behind them. Moments later, as he lay her down on her bed, her throat and the pulse winging at its base invited his caress. With a low growl, he took up the invitation with his mouth and ran his tongue along her collarbone, nipping lightly at the taut skin.

  She smelled like a tropical sunset. A hint of smoke clung to her skin. The combination roused his senses, played with and teased them, and the stagger in her breath heightened his awareness of the sensual build-up roiling inside her.

  “Breathe, darling,” he urged, slipping the soft knit fabric of her dress down one shoulder.

  “Breathe?” she panted. “What’s that? I can’t even think when you’re near me!”

  He smiled, loving this admission. “I feel the same way.”

  “Really?” Her wine-laced breath brushed his cheek. She gazed at him with wonder.

  “Mm-hmm.” His heartbeats thundered as he gave in to the craving to take her mouth with his.

  Kissing her lips fed a yearning that turned into an addiction as her mouth melted beneath the probe of his lips. His cock thickened. His mouth might be feeding from her lips, but his body was hungry. Dying to bury himself inside her honeyed warmth…but he didn’t come here prepared for this.

  Shit. He was nowhere near prepared for this!

  Apparently, neither was she. Her eyes flew open. She wrenched her lips from his. “Jio, stop! It’s a bad time. I’m-I’m ovulating!”

  He groaned and reined his straining body in. Think, man, think! If she had condoms, if she was on the Pill, it could mean that she was enjoying sex. He shouldn’t be upset about that. It wasn’t as if he’d been living a monk’s existence, but he always wore a condom for protection—and he’d wear a condom to protect Golden.

  Yet he couldn’t ignore the rationale pounding in his head. If she were on the pill, there’d be no bad time…

  “I don’t have any condoms,” he rasped out the admission. “I wasn’t prepared for this to happen tonight. I wasn’t prepared for you.”

  Not that he’d need a condom to prevent a pregnancy, but his wound-up body steered him from blurting out a medical condition about his sperm count at the moment.

  A frustrated groan tumbled past her throat. She didn’t offer up any condoms. “My brother might have some in his bathroom,” she whispered, instead.

  Was it possible she wasn’t—hadn’t been—sexually active? He didn’t ask, even as her unpreparedness spelled out the obvious.

  Stop this now! And yet, he couldn’t. He’d wanted her in his arms for so long. How he’d dreamed of this since that night they’d kissed on the beach. Most likely even before then.

  Tonight he hadn’t been thinking with the brain above his belt, and look where it led. But there was no turning back. Not for her.

  She gazed up at him. Her lashes framed her desire—a sensual portrait he could lose himself in. Every dizzying thing he felt she laid bare to him with one hot look.

  He’d grieved alongside her for two and a half years. He’d treasured the blocks of time he spent with both her and Lily. Anything more wasn’t even a consideration. Hadn’t been a consideration, until that kiss.

  Proposing she bring Lily out to Starfire Ridge to join him hadn’t been on his agenda when he’d come out here to wish her the best. But once he realized nothing had been written in stone with regards to her and Marcus, he wanted to extend what was left of their connection. If she said ‘no’ then so be it. It was worth a try, because something in him changed tonight.

  He wanted her and Lily in his territory, away from the distraction of another man. Away from the shadow and memories of his beloved brother. Just…away.

  For what?

  His ability to think was fading fast, smothered in the hunger that he’d buried for what seemed like an eternity. Making love to her was the only appeasement his body wanted, but another realization hit him like a head-on collision with an army tank. Taking this woman would keep her from her dream of being a mother again.

  He burned so badly to have her, so what the hell was he doing striking up a conversation with his conscience? Why now?

  Idiot. She told you she wanted to divorce you and open up the field to date. To marry. To have more children. Why didn’t his arrogant self listen, and accept?

  Why should he?

  If she were in love with Marcus she wouldn’t have looked at him the way she’d looked at him tonight. She wouldn’t react to his kisses or his touch, with lust and fire and—well, he was in her bed for God’s sake! But there was no turning back.

  She might hate him tomorrow, but she needed him tonight.

  “Good to know,” he whispered. “Right now, just lay back and feel me, okay?”

  She nodded and wiggled her delectable body against his. “Ooh, yes. Please!”

  First, he needed to calm down. The way she palmed his head before dragging his mouth down to hers for a blazing kiss didn’t cool the fires raging through his veins. Nor did it calm the stiffening inside his pants, but taking time to pleasure her would give him a chance to savor her lips. To taste her essence, if she let him.

  He burned to explore his fascination of her on an intimate level. He needed to understand his attraction to a woman he shouldn’t feel attracted to. She’d been his brother’s lover, and given birth to his brother’s child.

  But you’re not here, Enzo. I am—and she wants me.

  Jio slid into the kiss. He slipped her dress down past her shoulders, past her waist and released her arms. A darling pair of breasts surged up. With
one lean finger he pulled down her bra cups to reveal nipples pouting up from the dusky halo surrounding them. He groaned and dragged his lips away from hers to suck one of her nipples.

  He couldn’t resist pulling her entire swath of areola and as much of the buoyant flesh surrounding it into the heat of his mouth. Sliding his hand up her thigh, he parted one sleek limb from the other while his mouth and tongue enjoyed suckling her nipples and gliding over the silky contours of her abundant, pink and honey flesh.

  He didn’t bother peeling down her panties, but slid his hand inside from the top. His cock bucked against the zip of his trousers, and when the tips of his fingers slid along her soaking excitement, Jio groaned.

  That he did this to her, made her wet for him, sent his pride soaring to the skies—even as his hardness strained against her thigh.

  “This is what you do to me, darling,” he whispered against her skin, then flicked his tongue out and lashed at her nipple, adoring the soft sounds she made, the feel of her fingers skimming through and gripping his hair…

  She squirmed beneath his hand, and he answered her sexy cue for him to ramp up the action by swirling his fingers deeper inside her panties, through her silky tuft of hair.

  “Very nice.” Her words slid over him like a velvet ribbon.

  Isolating her little sex-bud, Jio toyed with it, brushing over it gently with the tips of his fingers, flicking its fragile stem back and forth, back and forth…sliding his fingers all around it in an oval pattern, then over it in a sensual zigzag pattern.

  Her head dropped back. Earthy sounds lifted up from her throat.

  While his fingertips traced around her swollen clitoris, he lifted his head to gaze at her face, and ached with joy to see what making her feel good looked like. When he glided one finger inside her channel, she gasped. Her eyes widened with excitement as his finger penetrated her, slipping in deep.

  “Good so far, beautiful?”

  “Mmm, yes…so very good,” she murmured. Her lashes fluttered down. Her lips parted.

  When he dipped a second finger into her moistness, her sheathe clenched at his fingers, tightened around them. A choppy breath whittled past her lips and stroked the taut muscles in his neck.