Bedding the Billionaire

Sutton

You didn’t grow up the way I had around men and let some stranger put his hands on you. I was about to hand the fancy city slicker his ass when Mad Max flew across the room and held a fork to the handsome man’s neck.

Trust Max to attack with a kitchen utensil.

“Get your damn hand off of her,” Max snarled menacingly. “We don’t handle women that way.”

Because the man hadn’t let go of my arm, I was now bent at a rather strange angle. Nonetheless, I felt a surge of affection for Max. It meant a lot to me that he cared.

“I’ve got this, Max,” I said, but it was like I hadn’t even spoken.

Throughout this, the stranger didn’t even flinch despite the fact that the tines of the fork were pressed against his jugular.

“Charming,” the handsome stranger said in an even tone. “I assume this is a friend of yours?”

Max growled at him and shoved the fork harder against the stranger’s neck. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Alice and Reena staring on with wide eyes. The last thing I wanted was for this to escalate any further. I tried to nudge Max to the side with my foot, but he wasn’t about to move.

Couldn’t he see that I wasn’t in any danger? In what I hoped was a calm voice, I said, “This is Max. He’s going to put the fork down now.” That elicited a growl from Max, but I kept going. “He was a friend of my daddy’s back in the day.”

The stranger’s brow rose in surprise before a look of incredulity entered his eyes. “Somehow I doubt that to be true.”

A spark of anger lit inside of me.

“Look, I don’t know why this is any of your business. I don’t know you, and I certainly don’t owe you any explanations.” I yanked my wrist to free, and this time he let it go.

I could still feel the imprint of his fingers and rubbed my wrist absentmindedly. I wondered why it hadn’t bothered me more. Usually I wasn’t a fan of people touching me.

Besides Max, the last person to hug me was Ruth Ann when my mama passed away. She hugged me so tight and whispered that one day I would understand my mama better. I understand my mama just fine, I had thought to myself. Hell, I knew her a whole lot better than most. But I just smiled and nodded appreciatively at Ruth Ann. She meant well, and besides, Ruth Ann had known Mama before she got sick, before the men, and before the drugs.

Max growled at the stranger with such vicious intent that I started to wonder if he just might fork the man after all.

“Listen punk, just who the hell are you?”

Neither man was backing down.

“Is there a problem over here?” Gabriel rushed over to see what the fuss was all about. As soon as he saw me, a look of disgust crossed his face.

Bastard.

The stranger’s cool gray eyes stared into my own. My heart thudded wildly in my chest and I felt as if I had been running. It was the strangest response that I had ever had to a man. I took a hesitant step backward.

stranger spoke. His deep voice was clear and insistent. “Your father was Hollingsworth Sutton, III, renowned billionaire, owner of Sutton Enterprises, and my former boss. To my knowledge he never once rode a motorcycle. For the most part, he didn’t even drive himself. I don’t know what this Max has told you, but he was no

spoke, but Max paled and moved away from the

My voice sounded

way back, and my father had died in a blaze of glory, just like Max had told me all those years ago. Max had said that was the only reason my father wasn’t there to raise me himself. I knew that Max gave my mama money to help us survive. But that was a debt to my daddy. That’s what Max had said. It

the

voice was hollow, the accusation rang through the air. Max was one of

that.” Max’s gruff voice held

“Max, did you know my daddy?” I asked him point blank.

a sigh, almost as if weighing his words before he uttered, “No, Pumpkin.”

my stomach drop down past my toes.

relationship. When I found out about you, well, I tried to marry her. But you know what she was

slip into our trailer late at night. I didn’t realize that they were paying for sex until someone in the third grade happily filled me in. They told me my mama was nothing more than a prostitute, and

Mama wasn’t like that. She could be fun when she wasn’t high. We laughed and sang funny songs

“Yeah,” I whispered, “I knew what

get rid of him?” Max motioned toward the businessman who had been silent during this entire exchange, his eyes never leaving me.

I shook my head and answered in a low voice, “I want to hear

Gabriel puffed up, choosing now to exert his nonexistent authority, “Not now, you aren’t. You have a shift to work, Sutton. I am not paying you to sit on your ass.”

as he asked in a clipped tone, “How much is her time worth

Gabriel looked

she sits here at this table with me for that length of time, I will give you

eyes took

clip and peeled off three hundred-dollar bills and

a smirk. “I’d have done it for two hundred.”

have paid five. Now, if you will leave us? We will

for

folded my arms, not sure that I wanted to know whatever this man was so insistent

Unless you have the three hundred dollars to repay me, I

I didn’t have three hundred dollars. Hell, I wasn’t sure

Good. I liked that the was just as irritated

Williams,” he began. “I am the CEO of your

inappropriate, but who goes around telling people to call them

his face. “Because of certain legalities, I was forced to locate and apprise you of

kind,” I quipped sarcastically.

way he was rattling off information like a census bureau official. To piss him off, I deliberately called him by his first name, “Listen, Mark.”

bit off gruffly.

my back ramrod straight. “You need to work on your bedside manner. You cannot just walk into a girl’s life and rip it all to pieces. Shit, who tells someone that their daddy is dead and in the same breath insists that they call them Mr. Williams in the same statement? Why did you come anyway? If my father

existed until the very end. He was a good man.”

This time he had really pissed me off.

such a good man that he slept with a woman, impregnated her, and then left them both in poverty. Yep, you are right, he