Wild Billionaire Romance - Chapter 71: Chapter 71

JOSEF
I frowned as I stepped through the doorway to Meredith’s hospital room.
She’d woken up shortly after arriving and had sobbed uncontrollably until the doctor gave her a mild sedative. I wondered why she cried so hard for a stepfather she barely saw anymore by her own admission.
Nothing was making sense to me. Not her reactions. Not my feelings.
Nothing.
Awake now, but turned away from me, she looked so much like she had all those years ago. I took a moment to study her, committing this version of her to memory.
Still so petite. Too fragile for this world. So precious.
Her hair was spread out against the white pillow behind her head, and I clenched my fists to stop myself from reaching for it.
The color was so like the fire I’d seen in her eyes those precious few moments she’d been animated in that boardroom.
It might be sick, but I loved it when she told me off.
Whatever.
I knew what I was. I was a fucking monster. A big, scary guy who intimidated most people. But Meredith was never afraid of me. Not then and not now.
I fucking loved that. Loved her confidence and her courage.
I stood there for a moment, just taking her in. Her face looked too pale. She seemed tired. She’d been running herself ragged.
I now knew what she’d been up to. What she’d been doing for work, and with her life over the past fifteen years.
My best research team was on it. They’d started sending reports on what they’d learned about her as of thirty minutes ago. The updates were still coming in as they uncovered more.
It seemed Little Red wasn’t quite so spoiled these days.
She lived in a shitty little apartment and spent most of her time at St. Elizabeth’s Shelter for Women and Children in downtown Jersey City.
Of course, I had them running background checks on all the employees and inhabitants.
If Meredith was going to spend time at a place like that, I needed to make sure she was safe.
Call it a biological imperative. Every instinct I had demanded she be safe and secure.
There’s only one way to accomplish that, Josef. Tell her.
Closing my eyes to silence that Big Bad part of me, I exhaled softly, not wanting to interrupt her train of thought.
She looked like she was pretty deep in it, and I understood.
Hell.
I was in danger of drowning in the past myself.
I always knew the day would come when I would have my revenge. I just didn’t expect to feel so fucking concerned about the woman who’d given her virginity to me so wantonly one hot summer night, only to leave me the next day like so much garbage.
It made me angry that I still cared.
It made me fucking furious at myself for feeling that way, and at her for evoking those same feelings inside me.
The sounds of the sheets moving as she turned reached my ears. Meredith must have felt my heavy stare.
Good.
She turned towards me. And I held her stare.
I didn’t look away. Neither did she.
Stubborn thing. Gorgeous little firebrand.
I waited for her to blink those rust colored lashes of hers, holding my breath until her green irises flashed at me.
Meredith’s gaze flicked around the room as she tried to calm herself. I allowed her the time she needed, exhaling when she settled her gaze on me once again.
I guess you could say I wanted her attention.
“I suppose I should thank you,” she said, her voice hoarse.
“We’ve got a lot to discuss, Little Red, but I’m not sure thanks are necessary.”
“Don’t call me that,” she muttered, but I ignored her.
“Here,” I said, handing her a cup of ice water with a paper straw.
She frowned and removed the offending thing, choosing instead to drink directly from the cup.
Same as me.
I fucking hated paper straws. What was the point of them? The cup was still plastic, for fuck’s sake. And it tasted like you were drinking through cardboard.
“Discuss? Like what?” she asked, interrupting my wayward thoughts.
“Like our wedding.”
“What?” she gasped, choking on her second sip of water.
“Shit. Here,” I said, handing her a napkin.
“Your stepfather’s dying wish was for you to save his company. I’m offering you the chance to do that.”
I stood in front of the bed, breathing in her cocoa butter fragrance and trying not to fucking drool at the sight of her plump, pink lips parted as she tried to come up with an answer.
She was in a hospital bed, wearing a scratchy green gown. But she was still so fucking beautiful.
“So, what you're saying is I'm supposed to what? Marry you to save the company?” Meredith asked me.
“You said it,” I agreed.
“And then what?”
“Then what what?”
“I marry you, and then what?” Meredith asked, pursing her pretty pink lips.
The seemingly innocent action sent lightning bolts of lust right to my cock, and it was all I could do to remain passive.
“The what is this. You marry me, then I don't fucking sell your company off piece by piece, making thousands of your employees jobless.”
What the fuck did she need? A manual on how to be married to me?
Note to self: Find out if there is a guidebook on how to be married.
“Do I have to live with you?” she asked, eyebrows disappearing into her hairline.
I barely refrained from crossing my arms over my chest and settled on simply cocking my head to the side.
Meredith stirred.
She hated it when people looked at her like that. Like she was being obtuse.
Sometimes it was good to remember things. It helped me be prepared for moments like this.
Annoying my soon to be wife was simply a fucking bonus.
“Wives generally live with their husbands,” I replied.
“Fine. I suppose they do. But you don’t expect me to sleep in the same bed as you?” she asked, turning bright pink, and shocking the shit out of me.
“In fact, I do,” I answered, surprising myself.
Admittedly, I hadn’t thought through to that part.
But my dick had been half hard from the first second I’d walked into that conference room and saw her sitting there. Now that we were exchanging words, it was at full fucking mast.
“I expect a wife, Little Red. Not a trophy.”
“But why now? Why me?”
“I’m forty years old. It’s time,” I said.
“I can’t believe you would threaten all those people just to force me to marry you,” she said, but I just shrugged.
“I’m not threatening anyone. Franklin signed the contract. He knew what would happen. Now, do you want to save those jobs or not?”
The fact was, I had no real plans to fire anyone. But she didn’t know any of that.
And I wasn’t even considering making her share my bed as part of the agreement until she’d suggested it.
I mean, I was a bad guy, and I was definitely going to do something.
I just hadn’t worked out the what part until I saw her. Then I knew exactly what I wanted.
Meredith Gray. Always Meredith Gray.
Marrying her seemed the perfect answer. I could satisfy my perverse obsession with seducing her and bring my Little Red to her knees. Finally.
Hey, I might be a dick. But I was fucking owed.
This woman raked me over the coals. She killed whatever heart I used to have fifteen years ago.
I was marrying her for vengeance. Not for love. I could have sex with her without falling into old habits.
I just had to keep telling myself that.
And I was man enough to admit that despite everything this here felt right.
It was like a light switch had flicked on in my dark side of the world the second I decided to marry her. Even when I said it, I thought it was because I wanted her to suffer like I had.
Only as I stared at her in that hospital bed, looking so fucking lost and tired and fragile, I didn’t want her to suffer anymore.
I wanted to take care of her.
In fact, I was thinking maybe I just wanted her. Period.
“Tick Tock, Little Red. What will it be?”
I didn’t think it was possible for her to go paler, but she did.
Her mouth opened and closed, and I thought for sure she was going to tell me to go fuck myself.
Instead, she did something extraordinary.
Meredith Gray said yes.