Tempting the Billionaire Read online

  “I came here tonight looking for you,” he admitted.

  “Really?” she asked, acutely aware of how warm his hand was against her bared lower back.

  “And you wore this dress tonight for me, la tentadora. Right?”

  The temptress.

  Yes, her dress fit that bill.

  She looked away from him and licked the corner of her mouth. “In case you brought a date,” she confessed, arching her brow as she tilted her head to look up at him once again.

  He chuckled. It was deep and rich.

  “Your hand feels good rubbing my neck.”

  Ngozi lowered her hand to his back once more, not even realizing she had been stroking his nape with her fingertips. It felt natural showing affection toward him.

  He held her arm high in the air and slowly danced around her before pulling her back into his embrace and then spinning her out and reeling her back in to him. “You should smile more often, Ngozi Johns,” he said.

  “I haven’t had much to smile about in a really long time,” she admitted, surprised by her candor.

  “Me either,” Chance said. “So let’s have fun together. Nothing serious. No ties. Just fun.”

  Why does that sound so good to me?

  “Your caveat about not dating clients no longer fits, because you no longer represent me,” he reminded her.

  That’s true.

  “I don’t know, Chance,” she said, allowing herself to stroke his nape again.

  “Okay, think about it, but let me offer this?” he began, trailing his finger up her spine.

  Ngozi shivered and her nipples hardened as all of her pulse points throbbed—including the now-swollen bud nestled between the lips of her core. “What?” she whispered, her eyes falling to his soft mouth.

  “Let’s have fun tonight and worry about tomorrow when it comes.”

  Ngozi always put what was right before what she wanted. Always. With her parents. With her marriage. With her career.

  Sometimes being so damn perfect was so damn tiring.

  “I need it,” he moaned near her ear, his breath lightly breezing against the lobe.

  She feigned indignation. “Really, you’re playing the need card?”

  “You played it first. Remember?”

  “I haven’t been able to forget.”

  They shared a laugh that was all too knowing.

  “It was fun,” Ngozi acknowledged, her body trembling.

  “Damn right it was.”

  “Let’s go,” she said, stepping back from him.

  “We’re gone,” Chance agreed, grabbing her hand as they made a hasty retreat toward the door.

  * * *

  Ngozi sat up on the bed and ran her hand through her tousled hair as she looked down at Chance’s nude body sprawled out beside her. The contours of his body were defined by the silver moonlight through the open curtains of the hotel suite’s balcony doors. The soft buzz of his snores was thankfully muffled by the pillows over his head.

  He deserves his rest.

  She shook her head in wonder at his skill as she reached for her iPhone on the bedside table. She held the lightweight cover across the front of her body as she rose from the bed gently and stepped over her $3,000 gown carelessly left on the floor in their haste. As she made her way to the open balcony doors, she dialed her parents’ landline phone number, tapping the tip of her nail against the rose-gold sequin as it rang.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, Reeds,” she said, hating that she felt like a high schooler sneaking out for the night.

  I am a successful over-thirty-years-old attorney—

  “Is everything okay?” the house manager asked, his voice filled with concern.

  “Everything’s fine, Reeds. Everything okay there?” she asked, looking out at the moon shining down on the New York skyline.

  “Same as always. Your parents already turned in for the night.”

  “Thank God. I thought they would wait up for me.”

  “They asked me to do it,” Reeds admitted with a chuckle. “No one is roaming about this time of night but me and one of your father’s Cuban cigars.”

  “Enjoy your cigar and go to bed,” Ngozi said. “I’m staying in the city tonight.”

  “Okay. Be safe. Good night, Ngozi.”

  “Night,” she said softly, hating the relief she felt that she had dodged talking to either of her parents.

  “Should I be jealous?”

  Ngozi whirled, causing the blanket to twist around her legs as she eyed Chance rising from the bed to walk over to her. She ran her hand through her hair, failing to free it of the tangles created during their love play. “No,” she said, looking up at him as he stood before her, naked and beautiful in the moonlight. “Because this is only for the night. Remember?”

  “Give me the weekend,” Chance requested. “We can fly wherever you want in the world. Name it. It’s yours.”

  Ngozi shook her head, lightly touching her kiss-swollen lips with her fingertips. “I can’t.”

  He bent his strong legs and wrapped his arms around her waist to heft her up. She had to look down into his upturned face, and gave in to the urge to stroke his cheek. “Paris. Dubai. Italy,” he offered. “Ibiza, Antigua, French Riviera, Bora Bora...”

  Chance paused and smiled.

  “Your life is different from mine, huh?” she asked.

  He bent his head to press a kiss to her clavicle, then drew a circle there with his tongue.

  Ngozi let her head fall back, the ends of her weaved tresses tickling the small of her back. “I haven’t had a break in a long while,” she admitted with a sigh. “And I do carry my passport in my wallet.”

  Chance carried her over to lay her on the bed, and then grabbed the blanket to pull off her body and fling onto the floor.

  Feeling flirty, she rolled over onto her stomach and glanced back at him over her shoulder as she raised her buttocks. Her smile spread as he became erect before her eyes. He really is all kinds of perfection.

  Chance lightly held her ankles and slid her body across the bed until she was bent over it. He reached onto the bedside table for one of the dozen foil packets of condoms. She watched him roll the ribbed latex down his length before she closed her eyes and sighed in pleasure. The warmth of his body radiated as he knelt behind her and curved his body against hers as he licked a hot trail up her spine and then lightly bit her shoulder. And when he spread her open and guided every inch of his hardness inside her, she grimaced and clutched the sheet in her fist as her body tried to conform to the fit and hard feel of him.

  “Chance?” she said, looking back at him as he stroked inside her, slowly enough for her to take note of each inch as it went in and out of her.

  “Yeah, baby,” he said, looking down at the connection before tilting his head to the side to give her his attention.

  “Not so deep,” she said, closing her eyes. “I don’t need all of it. I’m good.”

  He chuckled a little as he pulled out some. “Better?” he asked, biting the side of his tongue.

  She relaxed her body with an eager nod.

  He slid his hand around her body and pressed his fingertips against her moist and swollen bud, gently stroking it as he thrust inside her.

  Ngozi’s eyes and mouth widened.

  “I thought making you come a couple times make up for it,” he said thickly.

  “A couple?” she asked with a lick of her lips.

  “Oh yes,” he stressed.

  “Oh my.”

  * * *

  She chose Italy.

  Chance eyed Ngozi standing there on the balcony of the sprawling villa he rented in Sorrento off the Amalfi Coast. Her arms were splayed as she gripped the railing of the private balcony off their palatial bedroom as she overlooked the gardens,
the grass-covered mountains and the nearby bluish-green waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Her hair was loose, and she wore a red strapless maxi dress that clung to her body when the wind blew.

  He found her so breathtaking that he paused his steps as his pulse raced and his heart pounded.

  She turned and smiled at him at the exact moment that the sunlight framed her from behind, bringing to mind dark chocolate lightly dusted with gold powder.

  Ngozi Johns was trouble.

  Forcing a smile, he continued over to her, handing her the goblet of white wine he carried. “A little fun isn’t so bad, right?” he asked, leaning back against the railing as he sipped from his snifter of tequila.

  “Yes, but too much is not for the best either,” she countered.

  “Here’s to balance,” he said, raising his snifter.

  “To balance,” she agreed, touching her glass to his.

  Chance looked beyond her to the downtown area of Sorrento in the far distance. “I still can’t believe you agreed to stay through Monday,” he said.

  “I can’t believe you made it worth the extra work I will have on Tuesday to catch up with my crazy workload,” Ngozi said, moving away from him to lie on one of the lounges.

  He watched her drape her hair over one shoulder before extending one leg and bending the other as she closed her eyes and let the sun toast her flawless skin a deeper shade of brown.

  From the moment they had arrived in Italy on his jet, they had squeezed in as much sightseeing, fine foods and fun as they could during the days, and fell into that heated abyss they created throughout the nights. They were scheduled to leave tomorrow afternoon, and for him it was a mixed blessing.

  He didn’t trust how she made him feel.

  The stain Helena had left on his life and his belief in his instincts was ever present.

  “Can I ask you something?” he called over to her, seeking refuge from his thoughts.

  Ngozi waved her bent leg back and forth as she looked over at him. “I’m a lawyer. Questions are my life,” she said.

  Chance took a sip of his drink, looking at her over the rim of the crystal as he closed the short distance between them to sit on the lounge beside her. “The first time, in my kitchen, why did you run away like that?” he asked. “We were both lying there caught up in a damn good moment, and it made you run?”

  She reached for her wine and took a deep sip as if stalling for time or gathering courage.

  He said nothing, patiently waiting for an answer to a question that had remained with him since the moment she fled.

  “In that damn good moment,” she began, not meeting his eyes, “I felt guilty that the first time I ever climaxed in my life was with someone other than my husband.”

  First time?

  “It felt like a betrayal,” she continued. “It felt like that damn good moment overshadowed my entire sex life with him. So, it was glorious and shocking and damn good and...hurtful.”

  “And now?” he asked, not really sure what to say.

  Ngozi leveled her eyes on him. “Still damn good,” she admitted with a smile, sliding her leg onto his lap.

  “Still hurtful?” Chance asked as he turned to straddle the lounge chair facing her. He ran his hands up the smooth expanse of her legs, from her ankles to the V at the top of her thighs.

  “I’m getting better with it,” she said softly, her chest rising and falling.

  He took note of her reaction to him and tossed the edge of her dress up around her hips, exposing her clean-shaven mound and her core to him. “And are you satisfied?” he asked, bending to bless each of her soft thighs with a kiss.

  He felt her tremble as she softly grunted in pleasure.

  “Each and every time,” Ngozi confessed, setting her wineglass down before she reached over to smooth one hand over the back of his head.

  “Then let me go for a perfect record,” he said, his words breezing against her core in the seconds before he suckled her clit into his mouth.

  * * *

  Ngozi descended the stairs from Chance’s jet, giving him a smile of thanks when he extended his hand to help her down off the last step. Hand in hand, they walked across the tarmac to the two black-on-black SUVs awaiting their arrival.

  The extended weekend was over.

  She could hardly believe the whirlwind of it. The shopping for clothes and undergarments, the long flight to Italy, the sightseeing, the delicacies, the lovemaking and so much more. It seemed like much longer than three days.

  It was over, just as they had agreed.

  At the first SUV, she turned and faced him. “Thank you for the escape. Thank you for giving me what I didn’t know I needed, Chance Castillo,” she said.

  “Same here.”

  His eyes dipped to her lips.

  She licked them.

  “Can we say goodbye to what we shared with a kiss?” he asked.

  She stepped toward him and rose up on the tip of her toes to cover his mouth with her own.

  He moaned as he wrapped a strong arm around her waist, picking her up to level their mouths as he deepened the kiss.

  With regret, and a few soft touches of their lips, Chance and Ngozi ended it, both stepping away.

  With one last look at him, she turned and allowed the driver to open the rear door so that she could climb onto the leather seat. With one last wave, she faced forward and was proud of herself for not looking back as the driver closed the door and drove the vehicle away.

  * * *

  Chance’s mansion was quiet and dimly lit. He found the setting necessary as he struggled with his thoughts. From the time he was a poor kid with wealthy classmates up until the moment he sold his app, he had always relied on his guts. That all changed when the woman he thought loved him revealed her betrayal.

  The last thing he wanted was another relationship. Another opportunity to be burned and betrayed. Embarrassed. Disrespected.

  But I miss her already. I miss Ngozi.

  He wasn’t ready to pretend that nothing had happened between them. With her, there had been no thoughts of Helena and the havoc she’d wrought on his life. With Ngozi, he had felt lighthearted again. He’d had fun.

  Security check. Front exterior gate.

  At his alarm system sending out an alert, Chance picked up the tablet on the sofa where he sat in the den. He checked the surveillance video. At the sight of the car sitting there, he squinted even as he tapped the screen to unlock the gate.

  Dropping the tablet back onto the couch, he rose and made his way across the expansive house to the grand foyer. He pulled one of the front double doors open and stood in the entrance as he watched her climb from her car and walk over to the front steps to look up at him.

  “I thought maybe for a little while longer, we could have some more fun together,” Ngozi said, climbing the steps to lightly trace the ridged grooves of his abdomen with her finger.

  Without a word, Chance captured her hand in his and turned to walk back inside his home with Ngozi close behind him.

  Chapter 6

  Two months later

  “Hello, Aliyah,” Ngozi cooed to her goddaughter as she held her in her arms where she sat on one of the chaise longues in her nursery.

  Alessandra sat in the other, smiling as she looked on at her friend and her baby daughter. “You ready for one of those?” she asked.

  Ngozi gave her a side-eye. “No, I am not,” she stressed, moments before she bent her head to press her face in the baby’s neck to inhale her scent.

  “Lies,” Alessandra drawled with a chuckle.

  Ngozi shrugged one shoulder before shifting the baby upward to rest against her belly. “Okay, maybe one day, but not now.”

  “And not Chance?”

  Ngozi frowned in confusion. “What about Chance?”

  “What
exactly is going on with you two?” Alessandra asked.

  A hot memory of her biting down into the softness of a pillow with her buttocks high in the air as he gripped her fleshy cheeks and stroked deep inside her from behind played in Ngozi’s mind.

  Her cheeks warmed and the bud between her legs throbbed to life.

  “Just fun. Nothing serious,” she said.

  But I miss him even right now.

  “I figured that when you two spent Thanksgiving and Christmas apart.”

  Truth? She had thought of him on both holidays, and their texting had not sufficed to slay her longing for him.

  “And there won’t be any kissing at midnight on New Year’s Eve either,” Ngozi said. “Neither one of us are looking for anything more than what we have, which is nice private fun to pass the time.”

  More truth? He had become a new normal in Ngozi’s life.

  Ding-ding.

  As a notification rang out, Ngozi picked up her iPhone from the lounge to read her text. She smiled as her heart raced. Chance.

  He’d spent the holidays with his mother and family in Cabrera.

  Chance: Coming home 2night. Can I see u?

  Yessss, she thought.

  “Pass the time until what?” Alessandra asked.

  “Huh?” Ngozi asked, pausing in answering his text with one of her own.

  Alessandra arched a brow and looked pointedly down at her friend’s iPhone. “You and Chance are passing the time until what?” she asked again.

  Ding-ding.

  “Until it’s not fun anymore,” Ngozi said as she opened his text.

  Chance: I can send a car.

  Aliyah began to stir and cry in her arms.

  “It’s time for her to eat,” Alessandra said, rising to walk across the large room to gather her baby in her arms.

  Ngozi rose with her phone in her hand and walked over to one of the bay windows. She paused at the sight of Alek’s mother, LuLu, talking to Alessandra’s longtime driver, Roje, in the rear garden. Her eyes widened when he pulled her body close to his by her waist, and she pressed her hands to his broad chest to resist him even as her head tilted back to look up at him.