Page 15 of Marked By the Billionaire
Penny
“Can you drop us off at my dorm?”
Wilder snaps his gaze back toward me with downturned brows. I gather he’s confused, and I don’t blame him. “What?”
“My dorm. It’s a little out of the way, but I think that’s where we should be tonight.”
“You want to take the girls back to your dorm room? You won’t have enough space for them to sleep.”
“It’ll be fine. I just…” I exhale loudly, my mind running a mile a minute. I have no idea what I was thinking taking on this weekend. I can’t entertain a man like Wilder. I don’t belong in his world, not even for the weekend. And after everything that just went down with my dad, I can’t take his money. “Sorry. I just think the girls need a good night’s sleep.”
He turns toward me, his voice low as he says, “And they’ll get that at the cabin. I don’t understand. We had an agreement.”
“I know we did.” I shrug, trying to keep my voice down. I don’t want the girls to hear anything about agreements or deals. “I made a mistake. I need to take the girls somewhere safe tonight and just relax. They’ve been through enough as it is.”
He nods and straightens his designer flannel. “Which is why you should come back to the cabin. There’s more than enough space.”
I glance toward him, part of me wanting to take him up on the offer. The girls would love a night in a fancy house. It might even take their minds off things for a while, but I don’t want them to know what I was doing there, and I don’t want to introduce random men into their lives.
“Look, I appreciate the offer but,” I lean into Wilder’s ear, “we’re complicating this. I’m here to fuck… to collect. Nothing more.”
“Pen,” Allie leans forward, her hand on my shoulder, “who is this guy?”
“Oh.” I realize now that I haven’t introduced Wilder at all. God, they’re probably worried sick and I’m up here reconfiguring how to make prostitution work. “Umm…”
“I’m your sister’s friend.” Wilder stretches his hand into the back seat and greets both the girls with what looks like a genuine smile, and I feel a little bad about what I said about fucking and collecting. Though it’s true that’s what we’re here for, the rest of this stuff is just… confusing. “We met at Fall-Fest. She taught me all about the finer goodness of cinnamon sugar donuts.”
Allie grins. “Did she show you the apple cider too? Rugged Mountain has the best apple cider in the world. I’d bet on it.” Her enthusiasm reminds me of my own, and I’m a little relieved that the girls seem no worse for the wear considering the night they’ve had.
Wilder grins as the truck takes another left turn. “She did, and I’d agree.”
“So why are you two hanging out so late?” Allie’s voice shifts into suspicion as Alexa stays quietly observing.
“Well,” Wilder continues, glancing toward me for a moment as though gauging permission to keep speaking, “we had such a good time at Fall-Fest that I invited your sister to see the cabin I rented for the weekend. It’s pretty crazy. I wasthinking,” he glances toward me again and I have a feeling I know where this is going, “if you guys wanted to, you can stay with me tonight. I’ll have much more room than the dorms.”
My chest tightens as Allie leans into my opposite ear. “Do we trust this guy?”
I glance toward Wilder, the man who’s paying me four million dollars to pretend to be his for the weekend, the man that bought my virginity, the man that made me come earlier, the man that had me screaming out Daddy, and I’m confused. That wasn’t me. That didn’t involve my family. Trusting a strange billionaire with my baby sisters is a lot different than trusting him with me.
That said, he’s not wrong. It’s technically against the rules to take guests back to the dorms, and security is a real pain in the ass about it. There’s a chance they won’t even be let inside, and it’s not like I have cash for a hotel room for the night. Plus, we’ll be safe with Wilder. I know that without a shadow of a doubt.
“We trust him,” I finally sigh. “He’s a good one.” I glance toward Wilder then back out into the dark night, wondering what I’ve just gotten myself into.
“Good. It’s settled then. You’ll all come to the cabin. I’ll text Reynolds now and ask him to ready two extra rooms. What do you girls like for snacks?”
“Oh,” Allie jumps up again. “I love everything. Candy mostly, the sour stuff.”
“No,” I glance back at her, “we’re not doing candy tonight, and we’re not bothering Reynolds this late.” I tug Wilder’s phone out of his hand. “The girls have had a long day. They need sleep and that’s all.”
“Tough cookie,” Wilder groans. “I’d have let you girls have whatever you want.”
“Is this guy rich or something? I mean, the truck is driving itself.” Alexa, my younger sister finally chimes in, her tone flat and unamused, though she sounds this way about most things.
“Rich is relative. I have a lot of money,” Wilder glances toward me again, “but I’m missing a few pretty important things.”
I have no idea what that means, but it makes my stomach do the flipping flopping thing that I can’t read into. The thing that makes this whole interaction confusing as hell. The thing that makes me want him. The thing that makes me want to run. The thing that reminds me how delusional this big, inked, muscular, very rich, very handsome, very protective, very kind man really is.
Chapter Eight
