Billion Dollar Love Read online

  “Three minutes ago, you said you weren’t.”

  “Did I? Oops. Busted. But if I said ‘yes, let’s,’ it might make me appear sluttish.”

  “We could be sluts together?” Sutter suggested without much hope of her agreement. She didn’t seem over-enamored with the thought of them together. He supposed he couldn’t blame her, but bugger it, he was. “Up to you.”

  “You know?” She tilted her head to one side, and touched her finger to his lips. He resisted the urge to draw it into his mouth. “I like that idea. I like it a lot.”

  “Then, after you.” He stood up and held his hand out.

  She took it and to his surprise tugged until they were almost touching.

  “This way.”

  ****

  It was all well and good acting brave, and pretending you did that sort of thing all the time, not so easy to carry it off. Halfway up the stairs, Enya stopped. “This is all new to me.”

  “You’re a virgin?”

  “What?” Did he sound horrified or amazed? It was difficult to tell. Enya wasn’t sure but added quickly, “Oh, no, but I usually know the person I’m about to have sex with. This ‘act, don’t think’, is so not me. Usually.”

  Sutter inclined his head. “I don’t make a habit of it, myself. Quick resume. I’m thirty-six, have a clean bill of health. Will use a condom, am as horny as hell and so bloody aroused by you, I’ll have to be careful I don’t embarrass myself and come like a randy schoolboy, before we’re both ready.”

  That seemed to cover all eventualities. “Yes, well,” Enya said shakily. “We can’t have that, can we? We’d make a right mess of the carpet.”

  Sutter roared with laughter, and his cock bobbed up and down under his robe as if in agreement. “True, so?”

  “We better move fast.” Enya took the last few stairs two at a time, conscious that Sutter was close behind, and she was acting out of character—again. Entrapment, strange engagements, and goings on were shoved to the back of her mind. They would still be there after sex. Her horniness and his hard-on would not, she hoped.

  She nudged the bedroom door open as Sutter lifted her off her feet and within three strides, dropped her none too gently onto the bed before he toed off his shoes, undid the belt of his robe, and straddled her legs.

  “I wanted to unwrap you like a present to be savored,” he rasped, huskily. “Enjoyed slowly. But fuck it, that will have to wait. My arousal can’t. Nor I hope can yours.” Sutter swept her borrowed gown aside, put his hand over her pussy, and looked her in the eyes. “More?”

  “Less talking, more action,” Enya managed to get out as Sutter stroked her pussy in slow circles. “I want you now.”

  He laughed. A deep and gravelly sound that made her skin tingle and her juices gather. “Never let it be said I disappointed a lady. Especially one I want so much I’m going to…” He inserted one finger inside her and gently but with deliberation began to stroke her channel.

  Enya saw stars. She arched up off the bed, not sure if she was begging for more of the same or demanding more of something else. “Su…”

  “Oh yes. Ready as I am.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead, moved his lips to hers, and inserted his tongue to mesh and play.

  It was hard to breathe, let alone have coherent thoughts. Why had she never felt like this before? Her skin was on fire, her nipples so hard they hurt, and her pussy? That throbbed in the nicest possible way.

  Could you come from a kiss? If he didn’t put his cock inside her there and then, Enya decided she might well find out.

  Slowly oh so slowly, Sutter moved his mouth, and body. “Need to cover up.” he fumbled in the pocket of his robe, and pulled out a foil packet. “As much as I’d like you to do this, I think maybe this time, I better.”

  This time?

  Oh my.

  It was only a matter of seconds before he edged his cock into her cunt. “I wish, hell, I wish I could make this last, but doubt it.” He began to move inside her as he used one hand for leverage and the other to play with her nipples.

  Enya had no desire for him to go slowly. She wanted, needed to come. She met him thrust for thrust. Their breathing was harsh and loud in the otherwise silent room.

  Sutter groaned. “Come now, love or…” He pinched her clit, thrust harder, and stiffened.

  She screamed. The sound of a woman who gave everything to the moment. Her body shuddered, and she saw stars as she flew.

  A second later he roared, “Yes!”

  If there was a time to hear “Simply the best” played, that was it.

  Chapter Four

  Did he have to move? Someone was pushing at his shoulder and playing a stupid sound over and over. Sutter opened one eye. “Waaa?”

  Enya flapped her hand in the direction of the bedside table. “Phone.”

  “Eh? Ah.” That identified the sound. “Gonna ignore it.” Thanking all the gods he’d got as far as disposing of the condom, and cleaning them both off before breaking one of his cardinal rules with regards to sleeping with a lover, Sutter rolled over and scooped Enya to move with him. “House phone is never a good sign. Few have the number. Hardly use it. Got better things to do at this moment.” He looked at the woman he held close to his side. What was it about her that affected him so? If he knew that, what would he do?

  He was sated.

  His cock disagreed. He was aroused, and ready to go again.

  Down, boy. Three, or is it four, rounds are enough for anyone. For now.

  Enya stirred. “It woke me up. I was having a lovely dream about making love and … ah.” She blushed.

  Sutter was enchanted. The rosy hue disappeared under the covers. How far did it go? Pity he couldn’t find out—or could he? He began to edge the sheet lower.

  At least I now know she’s a true redhead. Unless of course it was all a dye job, but somehow, he very much doubted it. Even on such a short, albeit in some ways in-depth acquaintance, he could tell she had no truck for such things. Plus, her eyebrows were red as well.

  “No dream?” His dick stroked the leg she had over him.

  She laughed. “There was a dream as well, I’m sure of it. Anyway. That phone, oh hell, it’s at it again. Who do you think it is?”

  “Probably my father, your father, or the press. None of whom we want to talk to until we decide our plan of action. Agreed?”

  Enya nodded. “Agreed. So what next?” She raised her eyebrows and licked her lips. “What do we do now?”

  Intentional or not, those two come hither actions had the desired effect. “This.” He ran one finger over her lips and reveled in the swift suction on it.

  Sutter rolled Enya onto her back. “And this?”

  Slowly, he handed a condom to her. “Would you?”

  “Oh, I so would.” Enya all but purred the words, as unhurriedly, excruciatingly sedately she opened the packet with her teeth and took the prophylactic out. “Now let me see.” The grin she gave him was downright wicked, as with even more long drawn out deliberation she unfurled the rubber over his twitching dick.

  Sutter poised himself above her, and waited to see if she agreed. She nodded, and a slow, sexy expression covered her face. “What a good start.” Enya lifted her body so his cock touched her cunt. “What’s next?’

  “This.” He plunged into her with little or no finesse. She matched him once more.

  Neither of them lasted very long.

  Sutter wasn’t bothered for himself. He’d come and come spectacularly, but had he short-changed Enya? He glanced down. Judging by the cat who’d got the cream expression on her face he hadn’t.

  “Sorry,” he said. “Couldn’t have slowed down if my life depended on it.”

  Enya grinned. “Not sorry, I felt as if mine did. Oh, sod it, pull the plug or something.” The phone had started again.

  With utmost reluctance, Sutter withdrew from her and stalked toward the bathroom. He pulled the landline out of the socket, glanced at his cell phone and swore out loud.
“Shit, seventy-two fucking messages.” This was a fuck up in more than one way. “We better do some fast thinking.”

  Enya swung out of bed and walked to where she’d dropped her handbag the night before. She fished out her phone. “Only thirty-five on mine. Hold on let me have a quick shufty to see who they’re from.” She screwed her eyes up. “Ha, my father in the main, and some I don’t recognize. One from a good mate saying, ‘w-t-f I do not believe it, but if I didn’t love you so much I could make a fortune selling some shite or another to the gossip rags’. I’ll ask her later, when she’s up and had coffee. Talking of which, I’ll make coffee, shall I? And have a think.”

  He needed to think as well. With his brain, not his gonads.

  ****

  “So, to recap. We are allegedly engaged, reasons unspecified.” Enya wiped coffee froth from her mouth. “For some reasons our parents think either it’s a good idea or it will piss us off or both. The good idea thing I’ll discount, because my sodding father would think it gave him less leverage over me. Unless he knows something disreputable about you?”

  “I think it’s just to piss us off and to take the heat off some deal or another they’re trying,” Sutter said. “I’ve said time and time again I won’t get engaged to anyone my parent thinks suitable. As in someone to go bat for him or bloody Dorene. His present wife. I’ve a cryptic message from someone I do trust, asking if it’s true my esteemed parent is going to be in charge of one of my businesses as it says in a non-gossip rag?”

  “Shoot, is he?”

  “Oh no.” Sutter shook his head emphatically. “Not in a million years. In fact, I told him in no uncertain terms yesterday he is no longer on my payroll in any way or form. He was getting a lot of money for doing nothing but screwing up. Or just screwing. Enough is enough. I’m not keeping him and his wife in stupid excessive luxury and letting them bleed me dry. As I told him. I also said I wasn’t getting engaged to the daughter of a friend of his to enable a business deal to go… Oh bloody hell. That’s it. We’re supposed to create a stink and then to solve the impasse or the fallout, pay out.”

  “That’s it.” Enya nodded. “I’m guessing that at some point, I’d get the sob story that without the deal going through, which it only would if we were married, I’d need to bail my father out, and for some weird reason he decided I’d agree.” She thought it over. “Or not? He thought if we were married something would work in his favor? Gah, I’m confusing myself. Daft, am I reading too much into all this?” She rolled her eyes. “It sounds like some far-fetched storyline you’d get in a one starred novel.”

  “Too implausible to be believable?”

  She nodded. “I’m guessing so. I’d also bet, except I don’t bet and you’d be crazy to bet against me on a certainty, that one of those phone calls will be of the ‘if you don’t do as I say by whenever this will all go to the press’ and blah-de-blah-de-blah. Which is as ridiculous as it sounds, because they’ve been to the press.” Enya got up. “Can I grab the shower?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Shower? Can I go in it first? Then I’ll do some more sleuthing.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Sutter smiled and nodded. “There’s got to be more to it all. Smokescreens to cover something else. Why are they pushing us to get engaged when they presumably both know we’d say no? What’s behind that? It’s stupid.”

  “Bad publicity?

  He shrugged. “My father knows I say there is no such thing as bad publicity, just bad ways of using it. I don’t care what people say about me as long as I get results. I won’t be taken for, or used by a fool, and will support those who need and deserve it. He didn’t, and doesn’t. He’s not suffering the results of what he did, poor unsuspecting employees are. I don’t give a flying fuck what the press say about it, or however much he bleats about family loyalty and so on. He didn’t show me any. Got to be more.”

  Enya patted his arm. “We’ll sort it. I’ve got the next few days off. I’ve finished nights, no won’t say doing what, and I’m all yours.” She hit her forehead in a dramatic manner as he roared with laughter. “That didn’t quite come out right.”

  “It did to me.”

  It would. She hummed to herself as she showered, and half wondered if he’d join her. She’d never had shower sex and wasn’t sure if it would be arousing or amusing. She wouldn’t mind finding out which sometime.

  Not just then though it seemed. Enya switched off the water, got out and toweled herself dry, whistling “Orinoco Flow” by her namesake as she did.

  The door to the shower room opened, and Sutter stuck his head around it. “Meant to ask if you fancied an omelet and … why are you whistling that?” His eyes narrowed. “How did you find out?

  Now she was confused. “Find out what?” She lifted her clothes from the hooks she’d moved them to, happy that they were clean and dry even if a bit wrinkled. Better than yesterday’s underwear. Now she wanted him to go away so she could dress. Somehow, now it felt embarrassing to get dressed in front of him. Strange when to be naked or getting undressed no longer fazed her.

  “My name.”

  “Sutter? Well, everyone knows it.” Sod embarrassment, Enya dropped the towel to her waist, ignored the gleam in his eyes, and put her bra on.

  “No, Ori … hold on, shit.”

  “You’re making as much sense as a two-year-old’s babble.” Enya shoved her arms into the sleeves of her blouse and buttoned it and kept the towel around her middle. Somehow, she didn’t think she could appear so blasé about dropping it and putting on her knickers and skirt. “I was named after Enya, and that’s my favorite song of hers. “‘Orinoco Flow’ and…” She stared at him. A dull red spread over his cheeks. “What’s your initial?”

  Sutter sighed. “O. And if you ever tell anyone what you think it stands for, I will personally strangle you with my bare hands. I am not named after a sodding Womble.” He mentioned one of the characters in an old, children’s TV show.

  Enya nodded. “If I was saddled with that word I’m not allowed to mention for a Christian name, I’d be the same. But I have to know. How the hell did your parents come up with something like that? What’s your middle name? Limpopo?”

  ****

  That made him laugh. “Thank God, no. It’s Albert after the town my grandfather was born in. Orinoco was my mama’s romantic nature, and the fact she loved South Africa and rivers especially. A bit of an unusual obsession, but each to their own. She loved the way the name flowed off the tongue evidently. Thankfully, she didn’t think Crocodile sounded as good. Or indeed Limpopo. So far, it’s been a well-kept secret. People tend to think it’s Oswald, which is bad enough, but better than Ori-bloody-noco.”

  “You have a point.” Explaining Enya could be hard enough. “Okay, Sutter, I’ll call you Oz.”

  “For that I won’t comment on the fact you really are red-haired. All over.”

  She blushed the color of said hair. “Bastard.”

  “One thing I ain’t, love. Right, I’ll away to make the coffee and put my thinking cap on.”

  Enya watched him go and then dashed after him. “I’ve had an idea.” Why the hell hadn’t it occurred to her earlier? “Any wills you’ve been in lately? Any unusual specifications? Any scenarios where your father might benefit if you did or didn’t do something?”

  He stopped mid-step and turned back to stare at her. “Say again?”

  “Romance novel plot again, but could be something. Has someone left you anything as long as you are or aren’t engaged or married by a certain time? When’s your next big birthday?”

  “What’s with the romance novel aspect?”

  Enya grinned. “My vice, I love ‘em. Erotic, hot or not, I’m a sap for a happy ending. Gives me hope that one day I’ll meet Mr. Right-for-me, and he knows I’m Mrs. Right-for-him and wham.”

  “Instalove?” Sutter shook his head. “Instalust, yes, but love? Never known it myself.”

  “Pity.” A great pity, she thought. There was something
between them, some frisson of emotion more than lust, she was certain. At any other time, she would have tried to explore what it was, see how it developed. But there and then? She tutted in a very theatrical way to show, or to make him think, she wasn’t serious. “And us an engaged couple as well.”

  Sutter laughed. “Terrible. We’ll have to pretend if need be.” The look he gave her … smoldering, intense … full of emotion and heat … made Enya’s toes curl.

  “Damn good acting,” she drawled. “Will we need it? And have you anything?”

  “I’ll be thirty-five next month,” Sutter said. “Not a biggie and nothing that I know of. My grandfather’s will spelled everything out. I got half; my father got half. No codicil nothing untoward there. Don’t know of anything else.”

  “I do. For me I mean,” Enya added. “If I’m married before I’m thirty, which is a couple of months away, I get some money from my Gran, my dad’s mum. If I don’t, he still gets to use half the interest until I’m thirty-five. Which is a nice sum each year. Supposed to be for my education, accommodation etcetera, but I’ve never seen even a quarter of it. He’s always got a reason why as well. Semi plausible if you don’t know him as well as I do. But I’d have thought he wanted to make sure I didn’t marry. Thirty-five. What is it with that age?”

  “Goodness knows. A sensible adult maybe?” Sutter rolled his eyes. “I was sensible at twenty, my father still isn’t at sixty-odd. Go figure.”

  “Go make the coffee. I’m gonna go searching.”

  And she’d bet half of the money her father never got around to spending on her, she’d discover what the scenario was all about.

  “Another thing to think about,” Sutter said slowly. “If it’s put about we’re engaged, and you are adamant we’re not it, then it could take a couple of months to sort it all out. During which time you’re unlikely to find your Mr. Right-for-you, and your father can breathe and spend your money for another five years.”

  “Yeah, I’d thought of that, but why you, specifically? Why does he want to piss you off?”