Marriage Of Convenience: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story (2 page)

Leila closed the
conference room door and smiled at those present. “Good
morning,” she said. “Let’s get to work.”

*****

Jonathon
Leary walked onto the plane and nodded at the hostess. She smiled at
him as she examined his ticket and then gestured toward the first
class cabin. She was a pretty thing, with the obligatory blond
tresses curling about her narrow shoulders that tapered to a small
waist and an attractive swell of hips. Her smile was professional yet
warm, Jonathon was sure he could convert that smile into a more
personal version, just for him. Maybe later though, right now he had
a hangover and he just wanted to put on his sleeping eye mask and
drop off. It was a relatively short flight to Atlanta but still, he’d
be grateful for the rest. He’d had a really late night last
night, partying with his friends but his mother said he had to attend
this charity event. She said it was important. They were auctioning
him off as a prize for the night; what with the fact that he
had
to be married within the next six months; mother thought it would be
a good opportunity to scope out some talent. He would be thirty years
old in six months and if he wasn’t married by then, the party
was over. Grandpa Movie Star was gonna take it all away.

Most days Jonathon was
tempted to let him; having his life dictated to him by some ornery
old man who felt entitled just because he was rich and famous was not
really what he felt he was put in this world for. And yeah, that old
man had paid for his expensive Harvard education and given him the
seed money to start his business…but still.

His
mother had told him he could do what he wanted, but they were talking
about three billion dollars here; was he going to forfeit that just
because it came with a coda that he must be married by thirty?
Nothing had been said about a necessity for him to be
faithful
to his marriage after all…or
even that it needed to last forever. He could find some nice girl,
get her to sign a pre-nup and keep her around for a year or three.
Inherit his money and keep it moving. It didn’t even have to be
tawdry or underhanded; who had the energy for that? No, he was sure
he could find someone he could stand to live with peacefully for
three years. The fact that he hadn’t found her yet didn’t
mean she didn’t exist. The kind of women he ran into in his
daily life tended toward bottle blonde, vacuous sharks or frumpy
weather beaten and bitter. All of whom would be happy to marry him
for his money he knew; he just couldn’t do that to himself.
Even for three billion dollars and counting. Jonathon sighed, trying
to shut his mind down so he could sleep but then he felt a presence
hovering over him swathed in floral perfume. He lifted his sleeping
mask to peer at whomever it was…the stewardess from the door.

“
Hey,”
he said in an inquiring sort of way.

“
Hi.
I’m sorry to disturb you but we’re about to land and you
need to fasten your seat belt,” she intoned softly. Jonathon
stared at her in shock; hadn’t he just sat down not ten minutes
ago? He peered at his watch and was surprised to see that almost two
hours had passed since he got on the plane.

“
Wow.
Time sure flies when you’re asleep,” he commented to the
flight attendant. She offered him an empty smile and a pointed glance
at his seat belt. Jonathon fastened it and then leaned back,
readjusting his sleep mask and closing his eyes. There was still time
for a nap.

*****

The foundation had sent
a driver to the airport in a black luxury SUV. Jonathon was grateful
but he also knew it was his grandfather’s way of ensuring he’d
arrived on time. It was insulting; Jonathon was a grown man. He could
travel to Atlanta and attend a charity event without supervision
thanks. Still, he got in the back seat and instructed the driver to
take him to the nearest coffee place if he would be so kind.

“
We
have a Starbucks if that’ll do yah,” the guy suggested
and Jonathon nodded his agreement. That was as good a place as any to
start.

*****

Leila needed to check
on her mother; she’d called twice that morning and her mother
hadn’t answered. But her schedule was full to overflowing so
she guessed she needed to wait for lunch time to make the dash across
town. She usually cycled to work because well, the environment, it
was cheaper and it was her only exercise; and she’d come to
realize it was a much faster means of getting around than sitting in
Atlanta traffic. She figured she’d need an hour to get home and
back, unless there was a problem in which case she’d have to
take the rest of the day off. With that in mind, she tried to get as
much done as possible during the morning hours. As soon as the clock
struck one pm though, she was out the door like a shot.

Lunchtime traffic was
crazy as expected but Leila had her trusty action bike and she wove
in and out of it like a pro. She was just passing Starbucks when it
happened; she swerved suddenly to avoid running into an unspecified
lump on the road and her tire bumped into the side of a huge black
SUV and the impact sent her careening into the side of another car.
Before she knew it, the world was spinning and she’d landed on
a hard surface with a huge thud. She stared, stupefied at the blue
expanse above her, unable to make sense of it. A face appeared above
her looking concerned. The lips were moving, possibly he was talking
to her.

“…
-you
alright?” she heard.

Her eyes settled on the
face, trying to make the world stop spinning by concentrating on one
thing. The man’s hands came down to run down her arms and his
face went from concerned to worried.

“
Miss?
Miss?” he kept saying. Leila wondered what it was he was
missing.

The
man shook her and that jolted her out of her reverie because it
hurt
.

“
Ouch!
Stop it!” she exclaimed in pain, trying to get away from him
and go back to staring at the blue expanse. The man stopped shaking
her and instead burrowed his hands beneath her body and lifted her
up.

“
What
are you…? Put me down!” she said trying to swat him
away. She lifted her arm and saw to her surprise that her sleeve was
reddened. She was bleeding.

“
What…?”
she said in disbelief.

“
I’m
taking you to the hospital miss,” the man said manhandling her
toward his vehicle.

“
What?
Wait, no..my bike!” she said.

“
I’ll
put it in the trunk,” the man replied.

“
Is
she okay?” another man asked standing beside the car.

“
She’s
bleeding,” the first man said.

“
I’m
not bleeding,” Leila protested.

“
She
speaks!” the second man said with an impudent grin. Leila
regarded him askance and then turned to the first man who seemed to
be the more responsible of the two.

“
Mister,
put me down,” she ordered him in the same voice she used to
direct her interns.

“
Ma’am,
you’re bleeding; you need to go to the hospital,” he
replied.

Leila was against this
plan. “You can’t make me go anywhere. I need to go home.
Now put me down,” she said again her voice higher with stress.

“
Okay,
okay, but your bike wheel is all twisted, won’t you at least
allow us to take you home?” the second impudent man said.

Leila peered down
through the arms of the man carrying her and saw her bike laying
forlorn and injured by the sidewalk. She made a small sound of
distress.

“
I’ll
pay for repairs of course,” the man carrying her said quickly,
seemingly afraid that she’d burst into tears or descend into
some other form of feminine display of emotion.

Leila said nothing,
just allowed herself to be placed in the back seat. She was beginning
to feel pain along her arm and at her right ankle so maybe the men
were right and she was injured. She didn’t see how taking a
ride from the two strangers who hit her was wise though. They were
very insistent however, so she decided to go with it but dug into her
pocket and extracted her phone. It seemed to have suffered no ill
effects in the accident so she took a picture of her erstwhile
rescuers and sent it to Sheila with a text telling her that if she
didn’t hear from her in two hours she was to take the photos to
the police.

“
Feel
better now?” man number two asked after watching her send the
text in amusement. She shot him a glare and ignored his remark,
looking down instead to inspect herself. There was a hole in the knee
of her black pants and her arm was definitely gashed if not actively
bleeding at the moment. Her foot looked fine but it was too early to
tell if the pain indicated a sprain or a break. She hoped it was
neither, please God, she had a fundraiser to arrange by the day after
tomorrow.

“
I’m
Jonathon Leary,” the man sitting beside her with the smug smile
said.

“
Leila
Masters,” she replied automatically not looking at him.

“
That’s
my driver Mathews, he’s the one who hit you and he’s very
sorry,” Jonathon said.

Leila glanced up and
then back down to her arm. Was it possible to get through this
journey without talking? She could feel the Jonathon dude’s
eyes on her and she squirmed uncomfortably. How to ask him to stop
staring without causing offense and/or showing fear?

“
We
don’t bite you know?” he said further startling her.

“
I’m
sure you don’t,” she replied with a fake smile.

Mathews turned around
to look at her, “Where can we take you?”

Leila gave them
directions to her house and Mathews nodded and turned around to start
the vehicle. He’d deposited her bike in the trunk as promised
and now he drew smoothly into the traffic. Jonathon sighed
theatrically, prompting Leila to look over at him. He gave her a wry
glance.

“
I
was really hoping to get some coffee at Starbucks,” he said
regretfully.

Leila almost smiled,
“Well I didn’t exactly stop you.”

“
Indeed,”
Jonathon agreed. “But we can’t exactly throw you under
our vehicle and then ask you to please wait while we get our coffee
fix of the day now can we?”

Leila shrugged, “I
don’t know. Can you?”

Jonathon laughed,
looking at her with renewed interest.

“
So
are you like, a professional biker?” he asked.

“
No.
I’m a lawyer,” Leila said looking him warningly in the
eye. Jonathon shuddered theatrically.

“
Oh
oh, are we in trouble or what?” he said waving his hands as if
he was afraid.

“
Well,
I’d watch out if I were you and be on my best behavior,”
Leila said tongue in cheek.

Jonathon laughed again,
“I definitely like you.”

“
Lucky
me,” Leila replied wryly.

“
Oh
you have no idea,” Jonathon said, his eyes full of mystery and
speculation.

Leila frowned at him
but he just stared impassively back. And then he smiled.

That was when Leila
knew she was in trouble.

They drew up on the
street outside Leila’s apartment block and Jonathon turned to
her. “Well, here we are. What floor do you live on?”

Leila looked at him
frowning as if puzzled, “I fail to see how that is any of your
business,” she said.

Jonathon laughed again.
“I just wondered if you might need help getting there. If for
example, your apartment building has no lift and you live on the top
floor.”

“
Well
that’s kind of you but I can manage,” Leila said as
Mathews opened the door for her. Jonathon opened his own door.

“
I’m
afraid I must insist,” he said.

Leila was getting
irritated. “Like I said, it's not necessary. Now if you would
just give me my bike-“

“
No
way. We have to get that repaired,” Jonathon interrupted. Leila
felt like she was being held hostage. She took a deep breath.

“
Okay
this has gone far enough. Would you just-“ she tried.

“
Ms.
Masters you are the one who seems not to understand. We have caused
you grievous injury by hitting you with our car. We’re not just
going to leave you unassisted. What if you collapse? There is no way
you’re in any condition to carry your bike anywhere anyway, so
I’m afraid you’re going to have to accept our help.”

Leila wanted to bite
somebody…really hard. “Fine,” she bit out and then
marched into the building. Or tried to anyway. Her ankle would not
hold her weight. Before she knew it, Mathews had swept her up in his
arms again.

“
Excuse
me…!” she tried to protest but nobody was listening.
Jonathon got the door open and Mathews carried her into the building
much to the amusement of passers by. Leila was mortified but what
could she do? She ground out her apartment number when asked and
tried to just bear the embarrassment stoically. If her mother was
okay, she was going to be so bemused. When they reached the door
Jonathon turned to her.

“
Shall
we ring the doorbell or do you have your keys or what?” he
asked.

She glared at him
reached into her jacket pocket and retrieved her keys. She hesitated
a moment, wondering whether to try and open the door herself but he
snatched them out of her hands and unlocked the door swinging it open
and gesturing at them to precede him. Leila wondered why she wasn’t
more afraid of having two strange men in her apartment with no one
but a sick mother around.