Regency Romance: The Rake's Fake Marriage (Historical Arranged Marriage Romance) (19th Century Victorian Romance) (28 page)

''All day,
everyday
?'' Janice asked, horrified.

''Do you want to keep your
job,
Janice?'' Janice nodded. ''Well, in that
case,
do what I ask you. You know I've been
very good
to you, you should try to remember that.''

*****

I need to pee, Janice thought. She got out of the car and went into the alleyway next to Wild Bill's. She'd managed to
pee
there
everyday
for the last three days without
being seen
.

Janice didn't see the man, but she felt the slap across her face. ''Why are you looking for me? Who are you? Tell me or by God I'll stick this piece of steel into you.''

Janice stood with her jeans halfway down her thighs and whimpered. It was indeed the same man that she'd seen with Britney. ''Sorry, but I'm not following you,'' she said as she rubbed the place he had slapped her. ''I just came in here to pee. If it's......''

''Who are you? Last time
I'm
asking?''

''Janice.''

''You've been sitting in your car for three days and asking about me in Wild Bills. Why?''

Keke had told Janice that the last thing you do is reveal you clients name.
In fact,
Keke had told her that you die before you do so. ''It's to do with Britney.''

''I don't know anybody called Britney.''

Janice assumed he was having an affair with Britney. “Yes, you do. I saw you together. I'm a friend of hers,'' she lied.

''You're one step away from being murdered so tell me the truth. Why are you following me?''

''I
told you
. I'm a friend of
hers,
and she
told me
about you. She wasn't sure she could trust
you,
so she asked me to keep an eye on you.''

He didn't want another victim on his hands, especially one that he would have to kill on the spur of the moment. She also looked like the kind of woman who would go away and keep quiet if he threatened her hard enough. ''Piss off and leave me alone. If I ever see you again, I will murder you in the most savage manner possible.'' He let go of her and walked away. Janice collapsed onto the ground and forgot she needed to pee.

*****

When Jessie saw Keke pull up outside the diner, she went to the table and took away the sugar. ''The usual Keke?''

''No, can you bring me a plate of ice cream and some chopped onions.''

''What?''

''Ice cream and a plate of chopped onions.'' I hope the father is the nice looking guy in the Ferrari, Jessie thought.

When Dan
arrived,
he was wearing an Armani suit and open white shirt. As he walked towards her, Keke cleared her throat nervously. Without saying anything, he handed her an envelope. She opened it and gasped. ''No Dan, not like this.'' She handed the paper back to him.

''Then how?'' he asked. She looked at him and noticed how weary he looked. She took his
hand,
but he pulled it away.

''When I called you and asked you to come and see me, I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things. First, Britney.'' What does it matter now, he thought.

''We have witnessed Britney meeting a man in a park downtown. Janice was following him. He caught her and shook her up quite badly. He's up to no good.'' Dan looked confused when Jessie arrived with the strange mixture of foods. ''We can't say whether it's an affair or not, but she met a man. I need a bit more time
to
get to the bottom of it, but I think
you, at least,
have a case for postponing the wedding until we find out more.''

''I have decided to go ahead with the marriage.''
It could have been so different, he thought.
When he sighed, Keke took hold of his hand again. Again he tried to pull back, but she held onto him desperately. ''What do you want, Keke?'' he said, almost angrily.

''I don't want a check for three million dollars, that's for sure. I understand when you came here, you came prepared to support me, but that's not the way I want it.''

''Jesus, how do you want it?'' he said no less angrily. ''It seems
to me
, you want it all your
own
way. You dumped me, now I'm offering you financial security for the rest of you
life
to look after you and the baby, and you throw it back at me. I don't understand.''

''Because I have made a terrible mistake,'' she said, tears in her eyes. ''I love you so
much,
and I am so sorry for what I did to you. I was hasty and didn't think it through properly. I just reacted on the spur of the moment to a problem that I've known before in my life. I have every faith in you, and I want you and me to bring our child up together, under the same roof, and in the same bed. ''Keke pulled him over the table and kissed him. ''What do you say?'' She looked at him as his expression changed. The tiredness in his face
went,
and the sparkle in his eyes returned.

''Do you know how hard it has been, thinking I would have to live my life without you. Without seeing my child every day?
Of course,
the answer is yes.''

Jessie watched as Dan stood up, walked to Keke's side of the table and got onto one knee. When she saw Keke nod, she broke out into applause.

*****

Britney got out of the car outside Jason's house. In her bag was ten kilos of the best cocaine money could buy.

''I warned you, if you talked, you would die instead of your fiancee. Those are my rules,'' Steve said as Britney appeared in the middle of the cross hairs of his
long-range
assassins rifle.

****

THE END

The Sexy Billionaire Daddy – A BWWM Pregnancy Billionaire Romance

1

Viola Turner couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was going to be late for work, but she couldn’t move from the doorway to her bedroom.
She
was in her small one bedroom apartment, half dressed. She wore
her
black skirt that was a part of her uniform, but the white shirt hung over her shoulder. Her toothbrush was in her mouth, and white foam leaked from the corner of her lips, contrasting with her dark chocolate colored skin. She had been multitasking when her boyfriend, Jerome, had decided to break up with her.

“Are you kidding me?” Viola asked.

Jerome was tall, but he was slumped down, sitting on the edge of her bed, looking at the floor. “No,” he said. “I wouldn’t joke.”

“You’re breaking up with me?”

“I just don’t think it’s going anywhere, Vi.”

“Don’t call me Vi. People who are breaking up with me don’t get to call me Vi. It’s Viola. Or Miss. Turner, for you. Yeah, Miss Turner is
fine
.”

Jerome sighed and stood up. He still didn’t look at her, he stared at the back of his hands instead, which
he
held up under his
chin,
as if he had never noticed them before.

“Look at me,” Viola said.

Jerome did.

“What happened?”

“It just isn’t working.”

“You aren’t working. I’ve been paying for everything while you keep screwing up job interviews.”

“I knew you’d bring that up,” Jerome said, sighing.

Viola rolled her eyes. “Just get out, I have to go to work.”

“Get out?” Jerome asked. “Where am I supposed to go?”

“You thought you would break up with me, and then stay here? Jerome, get real. Get your stuff packed up, be gone before I get off tonight.”

“Fine,” Jerome said, and Viola didn’t waste another second on the man. She turned and headed for the bathroom, so she could finish brushing her teeth.

Viola worked downtown, at a restaurant called Vine, which was very posh, and very expensive. Viola would have never been able to eat there if she didn’t work there. The clientele was some of the most powerful and richest men and women in New York, and it was
a rare
week that Viola didn’t serve a famous actor or musician.

She lived in Brooklyn, and caught the bus to Manhattan, leaving her apartment without a word to her now
ex-boyfriend
. On the
bus,
she
sat and seethed, trying to keep her anger in check, but failing to do so. As she neared
work,
she tried
not to think
of Jerome at all, but that was nearly impossible as well.

She and Jerome had been dating for almost two years, and she had begun to wonder if he was the man she would be spending the rest of her
life with
. When they had started dating he had been working at a good
job
and had been making much more than she did with her waitressing work. And then he had been laid off, and since then, nothing.

It was just before two when the bus pulled to a stop a block or so from Vine, and Viola climbed off and started walking. It was Saturday, and a few people were there as she walked in, having a late lunch, but it wouldn’t get busy until around seven or so. Most days of the week you couldn’t get in for dinner without a reservation, and you couldn’t get a reservation unless you had a certain
reputation
or enough money to grease the palms of the
maitre
d’s
and get yourself that reputation.

The restaurant was sparsely furnished, with small tables and delicate looking chairs, the
pain
on the wall a soft cream color. Viola walked through the front door and to the back, something that her boss hated, but not enough to deter her from doing so and walking all the way around the block to reach the alley
that
ran behind the restaurant, and led to the employee entrance.

“Come on Vi,” Stephen, her boss said.

“Sorry, Stevie,” Viola said with a smile. The old man was sitting on a stool in the small area that
lay
between the large state of the art kitchen and the dining room. He was short, with big ears and a bald head. He wore glasses as thick as any Viola had ever seen, and they made his eyes look gigantic.

“You’re late too,” Stephen said.

“I don’t drive the bus,” Viola
retorted
. She went to the far wall, where a few lockers sat, and stashed her purse in hers before shutting the door. Then she went and clocked in before heading to the dining room.

The first part of her day passed slowly, as she busied herself with the work wait staff so often did when there weren’t many customers. Vine was
a popular
spot, but it had a reputation for being cool, and
cool
people
simply
didn’t show up to anything until the Sun had fallen from the sky.

Finally,
the light outside indeed dimmed, and the dining room began filling up. Viola was offloading a few plates to one of her tables when she glanced at the door and smiled. There stood James Denning, one of her favorite customers. He was a bit older than her twenty-three, by a decade at least, and he always requested that she be his waitress whenever he came. She knew it was because he liked staring at her curvaceous body, but the man was friendly and funny, and he tipped
incredibly
well. She could deal with the
stares
and the flirting. Besides, he was rather attractive himself. He was white, with a strong jaw and sandy blonde hair
that
he always kept short, and it looked as though he got a haircut every couple of days.

James was the CEO of a company
that
owned and operated some of the most popular websites in the world. He always had his phone out, texting people, responding to emails, but when Viola would swing
by his table
to check on him he would set his phone
down,
and all of his attention would be on her. It embarrassed Viola a bit, but it excited her at the same time. She knew he wanted her. It was obvious, the way he would speak to her, the way he would flirt. His eyes traveled up and down her body, and he didn’t attempt to hide it. He was a powerful man, and she knew he
was used
to getting what he wanted. The fact that she had never accepted one of his invitations to go somewhere with him drove him wild, and she could tell.

Viola waited until he
was seated
, which of course he was without having to wait in line, and then she made her way over to his table. He was sitting with another man, an older man with silver hair and a pointed chin.

James looked
towards
the black woman and smiled.

“Vi,” he said. “I’m glad you’re working tonight.”

“I bet you are,” Violet said teasingly. She stood at the man’s elbow, and she watched as his eyes flashed downwards to her exposed thighs. He might as well have licked his
lips;
the desire on his face was unmistakable.

“This is Frank Geller,” James said, introducing the other man. Frank shook her hand.

“I own Meet a Lover dot com, and this swindler is trying to get me to part with it.”

Viola smiled and nodded. Rich people always loved talking about their
business;
it was as if they needed everyone to know exactly how and why they were rich. Still, they tipped her well, so she feigned interest.

The night wore
on,
and the restaurant continued to seat as many people as they could. James and Frank stayed for a long while, having a few drinks before they ordered food, and then taking their time and discussing business over steaming cups of coffee after they had eaten.

Near
ten,
they rose to leave, and Viola went
to the table
to get the check. James reached out as she did, and he took her hand in his.

“You alright tonight?” he asked her, looking into her eyes.

Viola nodded softly. She was looking at the man, really looking at him, and she realized just how handsome he was. She had never been with a white man before, but she certainly wouldn’t mind if he
were
her first. If he had any slight blemish on his looks, it was the fact that his nose looked just a bit crooked, but it
actually
suited him somewhat.

“My boyfriend broke up with me tonight,” Viola blurted
out
before she could stop herself.

“Well, I don’t know the guy, but I’m going to guess that he’s an idiot,” James said with an easy grin.

“He is,” Viola agreed, and she laughed, but she felt a stinging pain in her eyes as tears formed there.

“What time do you get off tonight?” James asked her, still holding her hand.

“Soon. Around midnight.”

“Perfect,” James said, nodding as though it made sense to her.

“Perfect for what?” she asked tentatively.

“I’ll pick you
up. W
e’ll go to The Ice Room.”

The Ice Room was a very popular, and very elite night club in New York. Tables cost fifteen thousand dollars to reserve, and that was before you even ordered a drink. Viola had never been there, and she didn’t think she ever would go.

“I can’t. I don’t have anything to wear,” Viola said.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll bring something when I pick you up.”

Viola opened her mouth to tell the man no, as she always did when he asked her out, but when she spoke another word came out instead.
“Okay,
” she said.

James grinned,
a wide
smile where his lips pulled apart and showed off his sparkling white teeth. “Great,” he said. “Out front, midnight, alright?”

“Okay,” Viola said, unsure of what she had just gotten
herself into
. James bent and pressed his lips to her cheeks, and then he turned and left with Frank. Viola watched him go.

2

It was ten after midnight when Viola finally left the restaurant, heading out with her
co-workers
through the front door, before Stephen turned and locked the door behind everyone. There was a long stretch limo parked in front of the restaurant, pulled to the curb.

“Who is that for?” a waitress named Mary asked.

“The President?” Joey, a cook, joked.

The back door of the limo opened, and James climbed out.

“Me,” Viola
murmured
, and then she stepped forward towards the limo.

“Shall we?” James asked, holding the door open for her, and Viola nodded, ducking her head and climbing into the expensive car.

“Do you always ride in one of these?” Viola asked as James settled himself behind her and shut the door. He laughed.

“Only when I’m trying to impress
a pretty
woman.”

“So all the time then?”

James laughed again. “You think you have me pegged, I know that, but I bet I end up surprising you,” he said to the younger black woman.

“This is
amazing
,” Viola said, looking around.

“Champagne?” James asked, and he pulled a bottle from an ice bucket and poured two glasses when she nodded yes. He held one out to her.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Oh, here, I picked this out for you,” James said, turning and grabbing
a nearby
bag, and holding it out to Viola. She took it and pulled out a slinky and sexy dress. “For the club,”

Viola took the dress and held it in front of her eyes. It was black and tiny, and wouldn’t leave much to the imagination. She was already wearing black heels, so that wouldn’t be a problem, but she had never worn a dress like that, despite being rather comfortable in her body.

She knew men found her attractive, and she worked hard to keep in shape. She went to the
gym,
she ate right. She was on the shorter side, but a lot of men preferred that. Her hips
were rounded
, her butt big,
but toned
. She had large breasts and kept her black hair short and straight, working hard against
its
natural state.

“Where’s the rest of it?” Viola joked.

James grinned. “You’ll look great.”

“Yeah yeah, look out the window while I change,” Viola said, and the older man did just that. She shimmied and shook our of her skirt and shirt, dealing with the awkwardness of changing in a car, though being in a limo certainly helped with space.
She
pulled the new dress over her head and realized her bra was showing, so she took that off. When she pulled the dress
down,
the material slid over her dark brown nipples, hardening them. She had kept an eye on James as she changed, seeing if he would peek, but surprisingly he didn’t. Viola was surprised to find she was a little disappointed by that.