Page 28 of Marrying a Billionaire

Desperate for a job to do, he brought the dishes to the sink. Just as he picked up the dish wand to wash them, Desiree appeared, grabbing it from him.

“What are you doing, Mr. Reed?” she asked, peering into the sink.

“Washing a dish.”

She tsked him and bumped him with her hip. “I don’t think so. I’d be out of a job if you learned how to do what I do.” She motioned for him to leave. “I’ll take over. You go relax or do push-ups. Or whatever it is that you wealthy types do.”

Reed parted his lips to protest, but she shot him a no-nonsense look so he backed off. As he walked out of the kitchen, he realized that he had twenty-five minutes of idle time. This was not good. With the way his mind was racing from thoughts of Lillian, he needed a distraction.

After ten minutes of aimlessly wandering around his house, Reed finally settled down on the living room couch, next to one of Lillian’s additions. A fluffy red pillow that tickled his arm every time he moved.

He tried to get comfortable, but the cushions on the couch had very little give to it. Probably because no one had sat on it since it was brought here six months ago. When he’d left the home that he and Hannah were going to share because he found out she’d cheated on him.

Clearing his throat, he leaned forward and grabbed a book off the coffee table in front of him. It was titled,Botched Taxidermy.Flipping it open, he glanced down at a picture of a fox whose eyeballs had been put in wrong. Instead of staring straight ahead, one was looking up while the other one looked down.

As he flipped through the book, the more ridiculous the mistakes were. He couldn’t help but laugh at the frog that had been dressed up to look like Kermit. When it got to the strange concoctions of animal parts, he shut the book. Those just might give him nightmares.

He set the book down on his coffee table and looked around. He was going to have to ask Lillian about the book and if he should be concerned that she’d decided to bring it into his house to use as a decoration.

Movement by the hallway caught his attention. He turned to see Lillian entering the living room wearing a full-length dress. It was white and embroidered with blue swirls. It had a beach feel to it when she walked. Her hair was pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck. She looked like a Greek goddess.

Suddenly, he had the desire to call Tristan, his pilot, and whisk her away on his jet to Greece where they’d lounge on the beach and watch the sun set over the ocean. But that might overwhelm her, so instead, he stood and did a sort-of half bow.

Feeling stupid that he couldn’t get his thoughts in order, he laughed off his response. “Sorry. Don’t know where that came from.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah.”

Desperate to move away from the strange feelings brewing in his chest, he steepled his fingers and brought them to his lips. Then he pointed toward the book he’d been thumbing through. “Botched Taxidermy?”

Her cheeks reddened as she approached. “Sorry about that. I think the shopkeeper was playing a joke on me. She told me that all the high-end socialites were buying it.” She rubbed her temple. “In hindsight, she might have been teasing me.”

He laughed as he approached her. “It’s okay.” He reached out and hovered his fingers inches from her arm. “I would have probably listened as well.”

Her gaze dropped to his hand and then she glanced up at him. “I thought I would enjoy shopping, but being there just proved to me how out of place I feel in stores like that.”

Reed studied her. “What happened?” Was there something she wasn’t telling him?

She held his gaze for a moment before she dropped it. “Never mind.” She turned and headed toward the door. “Ready to go?”

He followed after her. “Lillian, what happened?”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.”

Reaching out, he grabbed her elbow to stop her retreat. “Why won’t you tell me? Did someone treat you bad?”

She kept her gaze trained on his chest. Then she took a deep breath. “It started at Jezebels and continued to all the stores Cassie took me to. Everyone could see I wasn’t rich and treated me such.”

Anger built up in his chest. “What? Who?” He grabbed out his phone. There was no way his fiancée was going to be treated this way.

Lillian reached out and wrapped her fingers around the phone. “It’s okay. I’m sure it’s pretty normal. I don’t look like a billionaire. I’m a nobody. I would have probably tried to kick me out if I were them.”

He stared at her. How could she possibly believe any of what she had just said to him? She wasn’t a nobody. She was rapidly become a very big somebody to him. He reached out and placed his fingers under her chin and slowly raised her face until she was looking straight at him.

“You are not a nobody. I don’t ever want you to say that about yourself again.” He met her gaze with as much intensity as he could muster without scaring her. “If that ever happens again, you tell me. I will be down there as fast as I can to deal with the situation. You are going to be my wife, and nobody does that to my family.”

Her eyes widened as she stared at him. Then she blinked a few times. “Thanks,” she said.

Reed dropped his hand and nodded. “Now, let’s stop talking about this or I just might have to go down to those shops and give them a piece of my mind.”

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