Wild Billionaire Romance - Chapter 97: Chapter 97

JOSEF
“Good morning,” my sweet wife murmured as I kissed her temple gently.
Poor thing needed extra sleep.
I knew why. I caused her exhaustion. And the knowledge made my blood sing.
Last night, I’d been wild for her. My sexy Little Red had been just as hot for me.
I’d been nervous about her reaction to the way I’d handled the man from the party, but she didn’t seem concerned.
Not in the least.
The way she reciprocated my feelings with sensual overtures of her own was just a fucking bonus.
I leaned back and watched her pretty green irises, glassy with sleep, as she slowly blinked herself awake.
So beautiful.
I smiled and turned back to the tray I’d filled with pastries from the café down the block. I’d had one of my guys fetch my order and bring it up while I made her some coffee.
I made a mean pour over, using freshly ground and ethically harvested coffee grounds imported from South America.
My men were fast, eager to please me after last night’s blunder. They were none too happy that one of their own had caused such a mess last night.
I’d already sent word of my displeasure to each of the team leaders working for me at Sigma International.
I demanded a company-wide background check on every single employee that worked for me, Volkov Industries, Gray Corps, and St. Elizabeth’s going back ten years. And I wanted the reports as soon as possible.
Every single person who had even the slightest chance of coming into contact with my wife needed to be thoroughly vetted.
Darius, my top guy, had questioned the need for such drastic measures. But one glimpse of my face through the video call had shut him up.
That was good. I did not like being questioned.
Darius had good instincts. He was loyal. And he took commands well.
That was why he was my number one. He was the one I trusted to manage things while I was otherwise occupied.
As for Mario. The man who spent the most time around my Little Red.
He was the man I trusted with the personal safety of my wife.
I could not emphasize the importance of his role. So I made sure he understood.
I described in great detail what would happen should one hair on her precious head come to harm.
Mario believed me.
Then he thanked me for trusting him with the job.
Good man.
I gave him a fucking raise for having the balls to stand there while I spelled out the torture that would await anyone who tried to hurt her.
He’d only nodded. He did not break down, cry, or puke on the floor like one of his team had.
Fucking weak link.
I had no use for weakness in my firm and definitely not on my wife’s personal security team.
Mario fired him before I could. He’d been furious at the security breach last night, and I knew he was riding his team hard for the fuck up.
He’d already sent men to pick up the neighbor Destiny had invited to her party.
The one who’d sold his invitation.
That guy had one lousy night, I guaranteed it.
As for me, well, I had my wife back in our penthouse. Safe and sound. Exhausted from me keeping her up all night.
Perfect.
Everything was as it should be.
My life didn’t feel so dark anymore.
I wasn’t alone in the shadows, just a Big Bad Wolf hunting for something to fill the emptiness inside of me. Not now.
Now, I had what I’d been searching for the whole time. I had what I once lost.
I had her.
Meredith brought the sun with her.
She brought the color back. And she sated my hunger like no one else ever had.
“Good morning, Little Red,” I replied.
“Is that for me?” she asked, nodding at the tray.
“It’s for us, yeah. I thought we could share some breakfast in bed to start our day.”
“I’d like that. Um, bathroom first. Close your eyes,” she said, giggling as she hustled her naked ass out of bed.
“Not a chance, Wife. That’s mine to look at and enjoy,” I said, openly staring at every soft pale curve on her.
She giggled. And the sound sent joy singing through my soul.
Christ.
She was perfect. Meredith was like joy personified when she was happy.
Her brightness touched every part of my soul. Sometimes it felt so bright I had to squint, but I would never look away.
Fuck.
That she gave me even one second of her inner joy made me ache. I knew I didn’t deserve it.
I wasn’t like her.
I wasn’t sunshine.
I wasn’t good.
But the thing about sunshine was it cast shadow. So maybe that was why we belonged together.
You couldn’t have light without dark.
She was light, and I was dark.
But we belonged to each other.
Together, we were better.
She gave me so much. She gave a lot to everyone. The women and children she helped at the shelter. The easy smiles she gave Mario and his men.
She made the day brighter for so many people. I had to share her with the world. I knew that.
But I was greedy. I wanted all of her.
When I thought about what really happened all those years ago, all the time wasted, fuck, I got so mad.
I wanted to go back in time and kill Franklin myself. That piece of shit.
She was so strong, my wife. So brave.
To have gone through all that fucking shit. Having to deal with the trespasses of the only father she’d ever known alone.
Then, to take that painful experience and use it to help others?
That took a strength, a power, a self-discipline, and a heart I could only imagine.
Meredith amazed me.
I spent the whole night just holding her, going over everything she ever told me, wondering how she must have felt. Trying to put myself in her shoes, to see it from her perspective, was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.
Meredith had been eighteen, alone, and lost. Abandoned by me. Abused by Franklin. Made to feel alone, shameful, and unworthy.
I fucking hated myself for what I did to her. For not trusting her. And I hated that motherfucker.
What I hated most was that he’d died before I could deliver the end he truly deserved.
But I had to push my anger aside.
Today was not about that. Today was about starting our lives together. Our real lives.
As husband and wife.
As man and woman.
As Big Bad and Little Red, a darker part of me whispered.
When I saw Adrik and Marat with their wives clinging to them so openly, I’d been filled with envy. I wanted that for me.
But I had no idea how to seduce my wife into caring for me like that again. I really wanted her to love me.
Today, I was doubling down on my efforts. I didn’t just want Meredith to care for me.
I wanted her to fall for me. Like head over heels.
Because if there was one thing, one single thing I was finally man enough to admit now that I’d stopped and listened to her truth and faced how I’d feel if she left me, it was this.
I was completely in love with my wife.
Irrevocably. Interminably. Totally batshit fucking crazy in love.
I had never stopped loving her.
I would never stop loving her.
Meredith was my reason. She was my purpose.
Whether it was bullheadedness or sheer stupidity that took me so long to realize it, now that I had, I was going to do everything in my power to ensure she knew it.
“Oooh, that smells so good.”
Her breathy whisper reached me as she walked across the room, wearing one of the button-downs I must have left in the bathroom.
Fuck. Me.
She looked good dressed in my clothes. Even better without them.
I cleared my throat, waiting for her to sit in bed so I could settle the tray across her lap, opening the legs before I did that.
“Oh my god, is that a chocolate hazelnut croissant?” she asked, her green irises sparkling.
“Yeah,” I replied, wanting to high-five myself for knowing her weakness for chocolate hazelnut anything.
The fact this bakery got their cocoa from the same town in Switzerland where she got her body cream was just a bonus for me.
“Gimme gimme,” she said, giving a little wiggle that almost upended our coffees.
“Stay still or we’ll end up wearing this,” I chided, lifting the delectable pastry to her lips.
She tried to take it from me, but I pulled back. Meredith rolled her eyes playfully, but she opened her mouth.
This was a new obsession of mine.
I needed to feed her. In fact, I was all but consumed by the desire to do just that.
Just another one of those pesky biological imperatives that seemed to sprout like weeds where she was concerned.
“Open wide, little Red,” I said, and like at the party, my mind filled with images of me saying those exact words with her on her knees.
She must have had the same idea cause her gaze heated, and her breathing changed.
Mmm. We are definitely doing that later.
“You know, you don’t have to feed me,” she said shyly.
But I could tell from her pink cheeks and bright eyes that she liked it as much as I did.
“I know I don’t have to, but I want to.”
“Okay,” she said agreeably.
“So, I was thinking, Baby. There’s some stuff we need to cover,” I said, and she frowned as she chewed.
“Like what?” she said, covering her full mouth with her hand.
I grinned and tugged her hand down. She giggled more, and we made a little mess.
That was okay. Messes could be cleaned.
“Mm, delicious.”
I leaned forward, licking a dollop of chocolate from the corner of her lips and moaning as she turned at the last minute and kissed me.
For several minutes we ate cocoa dusted pastries filled with chocolate hazelnut ganache with sliced strawberries on top and freshly whipped cream.
In between bites, we took sips of delicious mocha lattes.
Chocolate.
Always chocolate.
I loved the stuff. It was because my girl always smelled of cocoa butter. And I loved her.
So fucking much.
“So, what do we need to talk about?” she asked after I fed her the last strawberry.
I was so goddamn hard, I thought my cock would bust through my boxers. Meredith sighed and patted her belly contentedly.
Fuck.
She was so sexy. All curves and pale skin. Her flaming hair tumbled around her shoulders like solid wildfire.
Jesus. Christ.
She was a vision. A goddess.
So full of life and color. So bright, she was blinding. Was this what they meant when they said love was blind?
I wondered.
In that moment, Meredith was all I could see. My heart squeezed painfully, and I knew I could never live without her again.
Luckily, I didn’t plan to.
“First, I need to apologize for everything⁠—”
“For what?”
“The way I did this. Making you marry me,” I murmured.
“You regret marrying me?” she asked, her voice shaky.
“No! Not at all, Baby. I regret I let you think I was marrying you for reasons that weren’t true. But when I saw you that day in the boardroom, I wanted revenge.”
“I know, and I don’t blame you. But it’s not something I enjoy thinking about,” she mumbled.
Sadness tainted her shining eyes, dimming the glow. I wanted to kick myself for doing that to her. But I was going to make it up to her.
Right fucking now.
“Wait. Hear me out. I was stupid. I was lying to myself.”
“Josef, you don’t have to explain,” she interrupted, but I shook my head.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Little Red. I do have to explain,” I said, and I ran my hand over my face.
Don’t fuck this up, I told myself.
“All I ever wanted was you. You that’s it. My whole fucking life, I had no one. Then I took that job and there you were,” I said, shaking my head when she looked like she was going to interrupt.
“You were too young for me. Too good for me. Way too fucking pretty for me,” I said, and she shook her head, tears clinging to her copper lashes.
The sun winked at us from the sky outside the tall windows in our bedroom.
The special tint was designed so the light was never too bright, but it still made my wife look like a goddess.
All shimmery and soft, the pure sunshine filtered through the room, landing on her.
Like the sun itself couldn’t stay away from her, either.
“What are you saying?” she whispered.
“I’m saying, let's start again. Me and you. Let’s forget the past. Forget the world. Let's start fresh. Let's build something together.”
“But there’s so much history between us, Josef. Some of it, I don’t want to forget,” she argued, and yeah, she was right.
“Maybe we don’t forget, then. Maybe we just forgive. Maybe we just build from here. Is that better?” I asked, needing her to say yes.
A sob escaped her lips, and my heart clenched. She gasped, cupping a hand over her mouth.
“Please, Baby,” I begged.
“We’re already married, right? But what are you really saying, Josef?”
“Fuck, you’re not going to make this easy, are you?” I asked, grinning when she smiled at me through the tears trekking down her face.
“Nope.”
“Good Girl. You shouldn’t. You should always demand more of me, and I will always give it to you,” I said, loving her more with each passing minute.
“I'm saying what I should've said 15 years ago. I am saying I love you and I want you and I will do anything to make this work. I want our marriage to be real. Not one of convenience, for the sake of Gray Corps, or some shady fucking prick’s perversion of our past.”
“You love me?” she whispered.
Why was she so surprised?
Of course, I loved her.
What sane man wouldn’t? She was perfect.
“Yeah. Yes. Of course, I love you,” I said, cupping her cheeks and kissing away her tears.
“Well, are you just gonna leave me hanging?”
“Oh, Josef, I love you, too. I never loved anyone but you,” she confessed, and her words were like a balm to my wounded heart, healing it almost immediately.
Fuck. Thank fuck. She loves me.
“Okay. Good. Now our real life begins.”
Crashing into my wife, I sealed my mouth to hers in a desperate kiss I couldn’t contain.
She welcomed me with open arms, and I reveled in it.
This was the first time we’d both admitted how we felt.
The first time we loved with abandon, and it was glorious.
It was everything.
Life altering.
Heart healing.
I tore my borrowed shirt from her sweet flesh and flipped her over onto her hands and knees.
I needed to taste her everywhere. To take ownership of my woman.
“Fuck, you’re dripping for me. Such a Good Girl, Wife. So pink and wet, soaked that little cunt just kissing your husband,” I told her, pushing her head down into the mattress as I settled behind her.
I grabbed her pale cheeks in my hands, spreading them wide. Meredith gasped, her hips flexing instinctively.
“Stay still, Little Red. Stay still so I can see what’s mine,” I growled, then I bent my head and slid the flat of my tongue over her tight little rosebud.
“Mmm, Baby. You taste so fucking good,” I told her, licking her from asshole to clit and back again.
“Josef! Husband!” she cried out with every swipe.
Now that I knew she’d never been touched by another man, I couldn’t wait to touch her everywhere. I wouldn’t fuck her ass yet. But I was going to finger it. And she was going to fucking love it.
“You ready for me, Wife? Is that cunt ready to be filled?”
“Yes, Husband. Please,” she begged.
“Good Girl,” I praised her, pressing through her slick folds.
And she was.
My very Good Girl.