Bedding the Billionaire

Sutton

Over breakfast, Mark glared at Martha like he wanted to knock her flat on her backside. It was endearing that he was so defensive of me. After all, we had only met the day before. That thought was completely lowering. How was it that it seemed I had known Mark for ages when, in actuality, it was merely twenty-four hours?

Am I making a mistake trusting this man?

When he had returned from his shower, he looked every bit of the impressive Wall Street mogul that he undoubtedly was. I had just finished brushing out my long dark hair after applying some light makeup.

He stared for a moment and I felt my cheeks heat before he said, “I shall arrange for us to fly home in a few hours. Would that be sufficient time for you to make arrangements?”

I felt a slight moment of panic. What did I really know about this man? “You want us to leave today? What about my job?”

“You are a wealthy young woman, Sutton. You don’t need to work for a bastard with tiny dick syndrome.”

That caused me to snort with laughter. Without a doubt, Gabriel had to have the tiniest dick around. “Mark, what about my friends? I will need to say goodbye and make some arrangements to be sure that Earl, Alice, and Reena are taken care of.”

His jaw ticked again. I wondered how irritating this all had been to him, coming to Otterville Falls and telling me personally about this inheritance. I know that this wasn’t anything like the life he left in New York.

“Listen to yourself, Sutton! Damn, do you take care of the entire town?”

I bristled at his statement. “No, just a few friends.”

“Fine,” Mark snapped. “If you wish to make arrangements for your friends, we could leave tomorrow. Will that be enough time?”

I knew it didn’t make any sense to him, but this was important to me. I didn’t live in a world of windfall inheritances. If I left this job and Mark Williams ended up being a scam, what was I left with? Nothing—that is what I would have.

am sorry. I don’t need to rush you. It’s only that there is so much to do and we only have thirty days. The longer we spend here, the less time you have to acclimate and

do I have to prove myself to?”

board of directors will vote on it, but the

said rang a bell for me. “The CEO of

He nodded

you?” I asked, feeling unsure.

blew out an exasperated breath. “I can’t in good conscience tell the board that you will be coming on unless I truly believe that you can handle the responsibilities. We have hundreds of employees that need their jobs as well as thousands

and devotion that he had for the business. I wondered how much of that was because of my father. Hollingsworth Sutton, a man that I never knew. I wondered what his story had been with my mother. Had he been one of her clients, or something more? There were so many questions about this new

I nodded slowly. “Okay, I can be ready as soon as possible. But I will need to do some things. This might not seem like anything to you, Mark. But there are people that depend on me here

nodded as well. “I can understand and respect

and took his hand in my own. “Shall we

until it reached his eyes. “Of course. Here is to a wonderful new

the word together seemed to linger after his last

forward and kissed the side of my cheek. “Thank you for allowing me to stay

nothing. Please don’t worry a moment about it. Let’s go

I began to mix up some pancakes. Earl chattered on about the Little League championships and Mark sat there looking like the one thing that didn’t belong at

in this batter, Sutton.

that she had on it. The woman was all piss and vinegar. Mama said that

calm I didn’t feel, I replied, “Martha, I used the same pancake recipe that you gave me ages ago. Do you want me to try something new?”

harrumphed, “It’s this syrup, I

he took the third pancake

in. Martha sat there with her usual sour expression, cutting her pancakes to bits. It didn’t matter how much she complained

Martha turned to Mark and asked, “are you going to shack up with this