Page 30 of Billionaire Romantic
She pauses, like she’s not sure she wants to tell me. But then she says, “You know, it’s funny, I’ve never really thought about it much because I’ve been busy with school or work, but I was actually thinking about that exact question on my way over here.”
“And what did you decide?”
The light pinkness of her cheeks as she smiles is driving me slightly insane at this point. She’s mind-numbingly lovely. “I can’t tell you that.”
“That’s not fair. I told you mine.”
“You’d laugh. It sounds weird, even to me.”
I top up her champagne. “I promise I won’t laugh.”
She gives me a lightly sassy look and—fucking hell—my obsession digs deeper.I love her face. I love the way her hair curls like it’s got a mind of its own. I love those little dimples like I’ve morphed into an obsessed madman. I love her lush mouth. “You promise?”
I set the bottle back into the ice bucket and place my hand over my heart. “I’m not going to laugh.”
She still won’t tell me.
“I can wait. Another thing about Noahs is that we’re patient,” I tell her. “And very persistent. We’ve got all night, Irish.”
There’s the smile. She relents a little. “Well…the thing is, I’ve got kind of a high-powered job. Which I’m grateful for. But to be honest, it isn’t really me at all.”
“It isn’t?”
“No.”
“Whatisyou, Lucky Irish?”
“All I really want to do is…” Eyeing me. “No. I can’t.”
“You said it yourself. Noahs are trustworthy, remember? Tell me. You have to now.”
Her blue eyes rove over my face, lightly spellbound. I’ve never wanted to kiss anyone with this kind of voracious need before in my life. I can’t help it. Slowly, I reach for her hand. Willing myself to take it as carefully as I’m capable of, I rub my thumb across her smooth palm.
Holy fuck. I’m touching her. She exists and she’s perfect.
Lucky watches my hand, now wrapped around hers, but she doesn’t pull away. “In a perfect world I’ll fall madly in love. I’ll become…enlightened about all the things that go along with falling in love. Things I haven’t experienced yet. And then one day—not today, obviously—but one day, what I really want is to have a family. I know it might sound old-fashioned, but I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with my own mother and I feel like I really missed out on that. I’ve missed her every single day. I still miss her every single day. I want to be able to spend all my time with my own babies. I want to have lots of them and just…bethere for them. Cook for them. Decorate a beautiful home for us. And dedicate my time to my family. I would love to do that.” She stops and a light blush warms her cheeks. “Crazy, right? Not exactly trendy in New York City.”
It’s a visceral reaction on a very deep, primal level. When she says the wordfamily, my heart sort of breaks and beats more heavily, more purposefully. At the mention of the wordbabies, my cock thickens hotly, almost painfully. I can’t explain any ofit, but her reply slays me. It’s ridiculously fast but all I can think about is thatI want it to be me. “That’s the best goddamn dream I’ve ever heard.”
14
“I can’t believeI just told you that.”
“I’m glad you did.”
He’s so damn easy to talk to. Something about his manly fascination is crazily alluring. He’s smart and perceptive and sotuned in, he feels like a long lost friend. A very masculine,hotbest friend who also happens to be a good listener who’s on exactly the same wavelength as me, like we’re tuned into the same celestial frequency. He’s so handsome it almost hurts to look at him directly. It’s like staring into the sun.
It’s a heady cocktail.
Not only that, but he’s holding my hand.
Like,reallyholding it. Weaving his fingers through mine. Playing with it lightly. Touching me with a kind of awe.
His hands are so big. So warm. Strong. Barely rough.
“My aspirations are very 50’s housewife,” I joke, feeling self-conscious that I’ve admitted to the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen that the thought of being barefoot and pregnant sounds downright dreamy to me. I mean, notnow,obviously. But I don’t want to wait forever, either. My mother had me when shewas twenty-three. Because of that, the thought of starting young always appealed to me.
I’ve never even unveiled this little morsel of truth to Grace. And now this stranger knows more about me than my best friend.
