The Billionaire's Trust (His Submissive, Part Eleven) by Ava Claire

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    "You ready for this?"
    I should have been the one asking
him that because he didn't sound remotely ready for what was
waiting on the other side of the door.
    Jacob's usually authoritative voice
was unsteady. Nervous. The man had taken on squirrely investors,
paparazzi and Rachel Laraby like a Spartan charging into battle,
but he paused at the entrance to The Vineyard. He paid no mind to
the staff, perky and already springing to action as they pulled
open the heavy oak doors to the restaurant. He looked beyond them
warily, like he could already see his mother, smiling brightly as
she secretly plotted some way to break his heart all over
again.
    To the outside world he was the
picture of cool sophistication. His dark waves were tamed and
pushed back, highlighting his good genes. There was no missing his
signature, strong jaw, bright blue eyes and lips that would make
any woman's cheeks redden as she thought up ways to put them to
good use. His crisp, two-piece suit commanded attention and if it
wasn't for the staff providing a buffer, the paparazzi were more
than willing to oblige. Usually, he'd trade barbs since he knew
most of them by name, but not today.
    "If I didn't know better, I'd think
you were trying to chicken out," I said, my lips curling at the
sides. Comic relief--that’s what this situation
needs .
    He gave me a single look that would
have reduced anyone else to a bumbling mess, but I didn't even
blink until he dropped the hard ass routine and his mouth tilted
into a smirk.
    "Chicken out? No--there's just other
things I'd like to do..."
    I felt every single dot dot
dot as blue eyes worked their way around the curves of my body
before settling back on the weakening resolve in my eyes. I was
pretty sure I knew where the conversation was headed. Other things
he'd like to do...to me.
    And I wouldn't put up a fight. We'd
already spent most of the morning in some manner of undress and all
it took from him was a single look, heck, a single word and
I was quivering and wet.
    He roped a hand around my waist and
I didn't even have time to say a word before he gripped my
ass.
    The cameras went wild.
    My face was already on fire but I
didn't look up to nonverbally ask if he really wanted our picture
of the day to be one where he was copping a feel; we were both
nervous as hell about this meeting so I considered making another
joke or stepping it up a notch and really giving them something to
photograph, but my face fell when I saw his.
    His expression was a raw, exposed
nerve. One look into his sea-blue eyes and I learned it was much
more than jittery nervousness. He was like a man about to walk to
his execution.
    Jacob's apprehension was
understandable. It had only been a few days since Alicia pulled the
stick from her ass and handed over his grandmother's ring. After
awkwardly going our separate ways, we'd speculated how things would
change. His money was on Alicia acting like nothing happened,
stepping into our lives as if she hadn’t been adamantly against our
relationship. Mine was on her judging us from a distance. She was
worthy of sainthood since she deigned to give up the ring, and now
she would suffer in near silence until we learned our
lessons.
    Unfortunately, Jacob was
right.
    Not even twenty-four hours after the
apology a barrage of texts, calls, and emails bombarded us both. It
was like she was literally trying to make up for lost time. She was
always apologetic, but after finally letting it go to voicemail it
was obvious that she wasn’t going anywhere. When she’d suggested
meeting for lunch to talk about the wedding I said yes before Jacob
could get a word out, mostly because I figured it would be an hour
or so that I wasn’t staring at my cell, waiting for it to light up
with some new concept she wanted to share.
    Now that we were here, I entertained
thoughts of coming down with a spontaneous bug. Or maybe I could
use the paparazzi; there was always one that went too far and made
their subject