Billionaire’s Quarry: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Boxed Set) by Michelle Love Page A

me to my car. His lips touch my cheek then his hand takes my chin and I look up at him.
    His mouth comes to mine and we kiss. Sweet, slow, with just the right amount of tongue. A good night kiss at seven in the evening, in a Denny’s parking lot, on a Saturday night.
    Man, I’m lame!

Chapter 2
    JUDE
    Fighting the urge to follow her out of the parking lot and back to her place, I watch Mercy drive away from me. She’s got a lot on her shoulders and isn’t willing to tell me a thing about it.
    I think I’m going to have to light a fire under that girl to get her to trust me. She seems set on taking things way too slow for me.
    My chest feels heavy for some reason. I guess it’s because this is the first time I’ve ever really felt disappointed in my thirty years. That’s a little hard to even wrap my head around.
    In thirty years I have always managed to get my way and this little lady shuts me down pretty damn easily. What’s happened to me?
    I’m not the guy who takes no for an answer!
    Yet, she’s made me do something I almost never do. She’s made me think about her and her feelings. She’s made me think that she’s got some things going on in her life that are pretty complex and hard to understand.
    I should probably just walk away from this thing. It would most likely be the smartest thing to do. Walk away and let her have all the space she wants. I know I should do that.
    Driving through the city to get out to the ranch, I notice the difference in the temperature. The streets keep the city hot and when you go down a little two lane road with thick, green grass on each side of the road and tall trees to give shade all day, it gets cooler.
    The nights out at the ranch are amazing. You can see more stars than you can in the city. You can smell cleaner air that invigorates you. I wanted to bring her out here so badly.
    I wanted to show her off to my family. I wanted them to see that I had brought home a real woman. Not a version of a woman made up of Botox and plastic surgeries. A real, flesh and blood, completely natural beauty.
    Instead, I’m coming home empty handed. I hate coming home with no prize!
    After parking my car, I go inside and find no one around. Though not unusual, it brings home the fact that I’ll most likely spend the entire evening alone, in my suite. I don’t like to be alone.
    Going to the kitchen, I find it void of anyone and I guess my parents gave the cooking staff the night off. Then I go back out to the garage and see everyone has left.
    So I pull out my phone and call my mother. She answers the phone with a laugh, “Jude, where are you? Did you forget?”
    I slap my forehead as I recall the date. It’s Mom and Dad’s anniversary party. “I did. Damn it! I’ll get dressed and be there as soon as I can. I’m sorry, Mom.”
    “Okay, sweetheart. We’ll be here all night. Bring a date if you want to,” she says then hangs up.
    Bring a date! I wonder if she’ll do that for me.
    Making another call, I hurry up the stairs to shower and change. My heart skips a beat when she answers, “Jude?”
    “Yes, it’s me, again. Look, I know you said you were swamped and all that but I have only one more choice if you turn me down and I sure don’t want to have to take her.”
    “What?” she asks. “What are you talking about?”
    “It’s my parents’ anniversary party tonight. I forgot all about it because I got myself all wrapped up in thinking about you and only you. Do you miss me?” I ask as I get to my bathroom and get out of my clothes then start the shower.
    “Jude, you’re silly,” she says with a laugh.
    In the background, I can hear someone saying something to her and she asks me to hold on a second. I listen hard to see if I can make out any of either of their words. The only thing I figure out for sure is she’s talking to another woman.
    Good, no man!
    “I’m back. So, your parents are having an anniversary then. That’s nice,” she says.
    “It’s a big