The Renegade Billionaire: A Small Town Romance (Happiness Ever After Book 1)

“You’re taking me to Envy’s Edge?” I ask, more confused than anything. “I’m not really dressed to sit out and watch the stars.”

He peers over at me, drinking me in, and my entire body comes alive with pins and needles. “Do you trust me?”

Such a loaded question.

“Sure.” I aim for casual, but when I shrug, my shoulders refuse to unlock from my ears. “As much as I can trust anyone I’ve only known for a couple of months.”

I’m protecting my heart, but the truth is, I think I trust him as much as my best friends, and that has never happened before.

“Not anyone,” he clarifies before taking the final turn that will lead us to the top of Envy’s Edge. “Me. Trust me, Madison.”

His tone is low and sultry and so dang velvety—the most decadent of chocolates—the forbidden fruit. And when he uses that voice on me, I want nothing more than to please him.

Please. Him. Like, what? Is that really the reaction he provokes in me?

Red flags flash—warning me of what happens when I dive too deep—but it’s too late. I’m already in over my head with this man.

“I do trust you.” The words barely kiss the air, but when his dimples flash, I know he heard me.

I’m so focused on staring at his profile—the strong jaw and perfectly straight nose—that I don’t see what’s ahead of us until the glow of the lights illuminate the interior of the truck.

“What’s happening?” I ask.

Someone’s constructed a fancy white party tent in the spot where we parked last time. Fairy lights twinkle from its ceiling, but I can’t see what else is inside it. Sweat starts to trickle in very intimate areas, and it is not at all sexy.

“Tonight is all about you,” he repeats, and when I angle my body toward his, he squeezes my knee again. “And I had a little help.”

When his words register, I look out into what should be darkness, just as Elle, Savvy, and Cian slip out of the tent.

“Traitors,” I hiss in the direction of my friends. “They told you.”

“Only after many hundreds of text messages did your friends relent and give me clues as to what your perfect date would be.”

“And you made it happen?”

This is not the action of a man who’s leaving in a few months, but it’s all so confusing because of course he’s leaving. He has a life, and a company, and it’s all in California.

“I did.” He slides out of the truck, then turns to help me down.

It’s such a small gesture, but so sweet, and he’s not doing it because Pops told him to. He’s doing what he’s done since he rolled into town—putting me first.

“Mads,” Elle squeals, starts to move, then thinks better of it and waves me closer.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“She’d be better if she’d let me be the one crawling around in there on my hands and knees. Sweet Mother of Mercy, she’s trying to kill me, Mads. She is.” Cian always has an accent, but there are certain times when it’s so thick I struggle to understand him.

This is one of those times.

“Elle,” I scold. “You’re about to have a baby. You should’ve let someone else help.”

“I’m the interior decorator, and this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.” Elle groans. “I wasn’t about to pass it up no matter what Mr. I’m going to chain you to the bed until you have this kid so you don’t hurt yourself says.”

“And what were you doing?”

Savvy kisses my cheek, then whispers, “That’s for us to know, and you to find out.”

“But…”

“Go,” they all say. Cian’s the loudest, probably because he wants to get Elle home, and I don’t blame him.

A moment later, Cian’s headlights blind me momentarily, then they cut through the darkness and are gone.

“He’s going to be a really great dad.”

“I bet he will be,” Braxton says. “He’s been very patient with Grey and me, and I promise you, that’s no easy feat with what we’ve been working on.”

A gust of air flips up the back of my dress, and I lower my arms to keep it down. It’s much colder up here this time of year.

“Welcome to our first official date, Madison Ryan.” He holds out his arm. “May I escort you inside?”

“Inside? Inside the tent?”

“Actually, it’s called a miniature marquee tent, if you want to be specific, but yes.”

“Braxton, what did you do?” I ask, just before he pulls back a heavy-looking flap and I get my first glimpse at what can only be described as magical.

I tentatively enter the space that glows from the fairy lights, and I can’t decide where to look first. A small sofa I recognize from the third floor of the inn has been cleaned and is set against the back wall with a table in front of it holding a charcuterie board and two glasses of champagne.

In front of the coffee table is a large freestanding fireplace that must run on gas. It separates the sofa from the intimate dining table that’s directly in front of me. It’s set with the most beautiful peonies that make the entire space smell divine.

A tear slips free, and I quickly brush it away before turning my attention on Braxton.

“What did you do?” It’s amazing that my voice only wobbled a little.

“I’m giving us a first date we’ll never forget.” He’s calm, and his voice is soothing, but I sense him studying every reaction as though he’s afraid I’ll bolt at any second.

“But how?” I spin in a circle to really take it all in. Large crystal vases of peonies and white flowers I can’t name decorate the corners, while the light reflects rainbows from the crystal all over the wide-planked wooden floor.

“Well, I had to get a permit, which meant I had to ask Pops, who took me to see Moose, who introduced me to his brother-in-law, who was able to get me a permit on short notice.” He says it with a straight face, but I know he’s dying to laugh.

“That sounds about right. Small-town living and all.” I shrug playfully, all while trying to keep the well of emotion that’s bubbling in my chest from opening a dam I can’t control.

He pulls something from his pocket and taps it with his thumb. Cole Swindell plays quietly in the background.

“You said you were going to be my small town.”

A freaking dining table at Envy’s Edge inside a freaking miniature marquee tent. What is happening in my life?

“That was the song,” I tease.

“But I accepted.” He tosses what I know now to be a remote onto the dining table, never releasing my gaze as he stands before me. “Dinner won’t be here for about an hour and a half.”

“Someone else is coming up here?”

“Afraid to be seen with me?”

“What? Of course not. This is just… It’s…”

“Worth it, and it’s nothing less than you deserve.”

“But this is over the top, Braxton. Please tell me you know I don’t need all of this. I would’ve been happy with pub food over at the Firefly.”

He walks in a circle around me, then wraps his arms around my shoulders and steps into my space, plastering my back to his front—it’s my favorite place to be.

“That’s exactly why I did it. You didn’t expect anything from me, yet you give so much every day.”

“Braxton.” I attempt to pull away, but he holds me tighter. Just tight enough that I know he wants me to stay, but not so tight I couldn’t get away if I wanted to. “I don’t believe in tit for tat. If you did this because you felt you owed it, or Pops somehow guilted you into it…”

His entire body stiffens behind me, and I have my answer.

Dropping my chin to my chest, I allow my lashes to fall. “Pops talked you into this, didn’t he?”

I’m expecting him to rush an explanation, to say it’s not what it sounds like. What I’m not expecting are his lips on my neck, so when it happens, an indelicate moan slips through mine.

His tongue sneaks out to taste me, and my whole body sings for him. All the wants I never dared speak. All the needs that were never met. All the times I prayed that someone would just see me.

He’s every desire I’ve never allowed.

I didn’t think I deserved it.

But when he gently bites down on the tendon in the side of my neck, my knees buckle.

His arm bands around my waist, holding me up and pressing me more firmly into him, and another wanton moan crawls up my throat. His penis is hard, and it throbs through the fabric of our clothing.

If my butt were any form of actual measurement, I’d say he’s big—really big, and so dang thick.

“I’m trying to be a gentleman here, sunshine. So if you have any doubt that I want to be anywhere other than here with you, think again. I wake up craving your voice. I go to bed replaying every single interaction I was lucky enough to have with you.”

“But that doesn’t mean you want⁠—”

“What I want is you. All of you. Your mind, your heart, everything.”

My hips roll, pressing me against his groin. My self-awareness has taken a dive off the deep end and has no intention of returning.

“Do you know I dream about being inside your tight little pussy every night while you sleep one wall away from me?”

“Oh, God.”

Harry is my only other sexual partner, and he only ever grunted while rutting into me. This is…this is some next-level intimacy I’ve only ever read about.

“Pops didn’t make any of this happen. I did because I wanted to. I want to be here, with you. I want you, just as you are.” He steps forward, pushing my right leg to move with his because he doesn’t release me. I’m a rag doll moving at his whim, and it’s the most erotic thing I’ve ever experienced.

“Tell me, sunshine.” He walks us around the table to the sofa, somehow turning on the fireplace as we go by. “Do you ever just…let go?”

An open-mouth kiss lands on that spot between my neck and shoulder, eliciting a rush of goosebumps to erupt down my arms.

Oh, crap. What was his question?

“Or hand over the reins?”

Right, letting go. Well, right now, I’m not having any trouble letting go of my words.

His teeth nip my earlobe as my shins touch the sofa.

“Do you ever let anyone take care of you?” His words are murmured against my skin. The heat of his breath, mingling with the damp trail his tongue leaves, is turning my insides to jelly.

With strength I appreciate and grace I wish I had, he lifts me with the arm banded at my waist and manages to maneuver us in one fell swoop so he’s sitting on the sofa and I’m straddling him.

“O-oh.” I whimper as he settles me over him with his large, callused hands on my thighs.

My dress has ridden up high on my legs to allow the spread of my knees, and now I’m acutely aware of his penis pressing against my core.

Cupping my face with the gentlest of touches, he asks, “Is this okay?”

“Wow.” I glance down at where our bodies meet. “This is…this is way more intimate than at the dining table.”

“And why I’m asking if this is okay. I don’t have an agenda here, Madison. But I also desperately want you to know how much I want you, how much I value and treasure you. I don’t do things I don’t want to do. Period. Ever. Not anymore.”

My body responds to his words with a nudge of my hips against the zipper of his jeans. His gaze narrows. It darkens and demands so deliciously I do it again because I want to see my carnal needs reflected in him.

His long fingers press into my hip bones. Strong. Commanding. Marking. He jerks me forward while lifting his hips. We meet at our most intimate spots, and stars dance behind my eyes.

“Tell me you understand.”

“Understand what?” I gasp when he rocks me again, but this time he keeps up the motion. Back and forth, he drags me over his thickness, painfully, agonizingly slowly. God, it feels so good. So, so good.

“That I’m here, with you, because I want to be.”

“Yes,” I gasp when he thrusts up again. I don’t think dry humping has ever been this sexy.

“Do you feel how hard my cock is, Madison?” He holds me still, but my body desperately wants to gyrate, to move, to feel.

“I feel it.”

“Do you know that I only get this hard for you?”

My eyes roll, from his words but also the sensations that have my clit throbbing.

He sits forward and presses his lips right up against my ear. “I love when you roll your eyes in everyday life, sweetheart, it shows how strong you are. But if you roll your eyes in this situation again, I will spank you until you come.”

My core convulses as if it’s thrilled by the prospect of a grown freaking man tossing me over his lap, pulling down my panties, and spanking me to orgasm.

The first sparks of my release have panic worming its way into my mind.

Oh, God. I do like that idea.

His fingers squeeze into my sides one at a time, halting my movements, and I nearly cry out from the unfairness of it all.

“Your entire body shuddered at the idea of me spanking you.” He growls. “Do you enjoy that?” He’s gruff, and it takes me a moment to recognize the jealousy in his tone.

It does something messy to my heart. It’s all kinds of dumb to get excited by someone being jealous, but when it’s him and me, it’s the best sensation in the world.

“I—I don’t know.” My voice sounds foreign. I’m not sure I’m even speaking English anymore.

“You don’t know?” His habit of repeating my words is extremely annoying right now.

“Sex has never been all that…exciting before.”

He pulls back to stare at me, and the fire in his expression scorches my soul.

“What do you mean, exciting?”

Oh Lord, please don’t make me say it. “Can’t we just keep…” I attempt to move my hips, but he grips me harder, keeping me exactly where he wants me.

“My dirty talk turns you on, sunshine, but I want to hear your voice. I want to hear you. What do you mean it wasn’t exciting?”

I’ve googled this before, so I know you can’t actually die of embarrassment, but I’m one hundred percent sure I’m about to be the first case in the history of sex.

“Please,” I whimper.

He moves me achingly slowly, the friction more of a tease than building toward a release now.

“I’ll keep you moving as long as you keep talking.”

“Evil,” I moan. But heck yes, I’ll talk because I want this more than the Moravian sugar cake sitting on the corner of the coffee table.

I want him.

“Talk,” he commands, and the words bubble and burst in my head.

“I’ve only been with—with…”

“Him,” he growls.

“Yes. And…and he wasn’t really into⁠—”

He slams his hips up, giving me a moment of friction that steals my words.

“Into what, sweetheart? Keep talking.” One hand holds my neck from behind, his entire forearm pressing into my spine, while the other on my hip keeps the pace torturously slow.

“Foreplay. Positions. I don’t know,” I blurt in a rush. “It was always just missionary. He wasn’t adventurous. At least not with me.”

He bites down on my shoulder with that admission while simultaneously licking it better, and I drop my forehead to his chest.

“Madison.” Lifting my head is akin to staring directly at the sun, but I do it, and he blinds me with the compassion and need dancing in his irises. “I very much want to be adventurous with you.” He doesn’t break eye contact, and it makes his words much more intense. “I want to find out your body’s likes and your most secret fantasies. I want to explore and dive and fall into every inch of your body searching for your release.”

He finally blinks, and I swallow hard.

“And then I want to do it all over again.” A bead of sweat forms at his hairline, but it’s the only indication that he’s as sensitized to this situation as I am. “But if you’re not ready for that, in general or with me, we can drink those glasses of champagne and go back to the plan.”

“This wasn’t the plan?” I sound disappointed, and his dimples make an appearance.

Our bodies move against each other, needy and so freaking good.

“It honestly was not, but plans can always be changed. You’re in control here.”

Biting my lip, I count to five, mostly so I don’t pass out but also because I want to make sure I’m making this decision while I’m fully in control of my faculties.

Then I smile, and his chest stops moving—he’s literally holding his breath—for me.

“I’m ready.”

He moves my hips faster.

“Ready for what, sweetheart? Remember, I want to hear your words. I’m listening. I’ll always listen.”

His penis twitches in his pants, and my lashes drop to my cheeks. It’s the only way to focus.

“I’m ready to be adventurous. With you. I want that with you.”

The sound he emits at my declaration is more animal than human, and it makes me think he’s hanging on by a thread too.

Suddenly both of his hands are cupping my face, holding it only inches from his own.

“This is not exactly a private area, and this is not how I envisioned our first time.” His voice strains, and gravel roughens every word.

“You’ve thought about it?” The question tumbles from my lips as if I don’t quite believe him.

“Fuck me, sunshine. You have no idea how much I’ve thought about this, but as I said, we are technically in public.”

Again, my body shudders, and that darkness flashes amber and gold again—he felt it.

“That excites you.”

How does he read me so completely?

“You excite me.” It’s not a lie. I’m scared he could talk me into just about anything and I’d barely put up a fight.

He slides me down his thighs, losing the friction my body is begging for.

“What are you doing?” Holy crap, was that me? I sound almost hysterical.

“We need a moment to cool down and think about this. I don’t want you making a decision you’ll regret later.”

Is this guy for real? I’m literally on top of him, ready to strip naked and give him the piece of myself I hold onto most tightly, and he stops it? He stops us?

“I’m not turning you down, Madison.” His voice cuts through whatever Cole is singing in the background. “I’m simply asking you to be sure.” His Adam’s apple bobs. Is he nervous? “I can’t handle being someone you regret.”

The tension that filled my core relaxes into something much more meaningful. His words are what make this an easy decision, one I know I’ll never regret.

“I won’t regret you, Braxton. I want this, here, with you, away from the inn and our responsibilities. I want this to be about you and me.”

He slides me forward, and I moan in relief.

“It will always be about you and me. There’s simply no other way.”