The Billionaire’s Unlikely Bride(2)
Author: Helen Cooper

“Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. Olivia will be there as well.” She made a face.

“Olivia?”

“Olivia Branford. Peter’s mom.”

“Oh.”

“I suppose Peter will be there as well.”

“Oh.”

“I guess if you guys hook up tonight you can always just go together tomorrow.”

“What?”

“Ha-ha, you should see your face Elle. Trust me you won’t be such a prude when you see what a hottie he is tonight.”

“Uh huh.” I smile at her. I was not a prude by any means but felt pretty confident that I wouldn’t be hooking up with Peter that night, hottie or not.

“Will Mark be there?” I ask.

“No, he’s out of town on business.” She pouts. “But that won’t stop us from having fun.”

“So is Olivia dating your dad?”

“Who knows?” She laughs. “They’re old friends but I’m sure she would love to snag him.”

“Oh ok.”

“Let’s go Elle.”

“Okay, okay.” I grab my handbag and we head out the door.

****************************

“Nice to meet you Elle,” Peter kissed my hand and Brittany grinned at me.

“I told you she was a beauty Peter.”

“That you did Brittany. I shall never doubt you again.” Peter turned towards her and gave her a hug, giving me time to study him. He was about 5”10, with dark hair and green eyes. He was devastatingly handsome and radiated money. I had to admit that Brittany had done me right here, there was nothing that I could see on the surface that was wrong with him.

“Would you like a drink Elle?” Peter offered politely. I was impressed, I was so used to guys that told me to go and get a drink expecting me to be their personal ATM.

“Rum and coke please.” I smiled at him and giggle along with Brittany as he walks to the bar.

“Isn’t he to die for?”

“Not really.”

“Elle!”

“Okay, okay, he’s hot. Good job.”

“Omg, what if we had a joint wedding?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here Brittany.” I haven’t told her about my plan to move to Los Angeles. She knows I want to be a screenwriter but I think that she thinks I want to be a wife and mother more because I’m a teacher.

“We should plan to have kids around the same time and then they can get married and we can be related.”

“Yeah, it would be nice to be related.” I smile at her wistfully.

“Here are your drinks ladies.” Peter passes me a drink and I thank him. Our fingers graze when I take it and we smile at each other.

“So Brittany tells me you’re from Iowa?”

“Yeah, Des Moines.”

“Cool.” He nods at me. I know he has nothing to say about Iowa. It’s funny. The rich crowd can always talk about a vacation in almost every country in the world but none of them ever had a word to say about Iowa.

“Yup. It was me and about a million corn fields.”

“Well, I like popcorn.”

“I like popcorn too.” I smiled at Peter. He was a lot nicer than most of Brittany’s other friends. I had never really been comfortable around most of them. They seemed more concerned with comparing new shoes and handbags than talking about anything substantive. And I certainly didn’t fit in, I didn’t know my Gucci from my Mossimo and had never owned a designer pair of jeans or shoes.

“We should get some soon.” Peter watched me as he spoke.

“Yes, we should.”

“Maybe we can grab a movie.”

“Maybe we can.”

“Omg, you two, I am going to scream already. Just plan a date already.” Brittany flapped her arms around as she screeched at us. Sometimes she reminded me of a teenager as opposed to a 25-year-old girl. I think it was because she was spoilt. She was my best friend and one of the best people I knew but she acted like a little kid sometimes. It was her dad’s fault. He always gave her everything she wanted. In fact, it was because of her that I had been able to live with her rent-free for soo long. I’m pretty sure that he didn’t really want that. Though, I wasn’t really sure. I’d only met Mr. Rosewood about 5 times and he’d never really paid much attention to me.

“Elle, will you go to a movie with me next week Friday.”

“Yes, I will. Thank you for asking Peter.” And then we all laughed.

“C’mon guys. Let’s go dance.” Brittany grabbed our arms and dragged us onto the dance floor. Laughing I followed her and we all started to dance. It didn’t take long for a tall man to grab her and they drifted off on the dance floor to bump and grind. The music playing was all top 40 R&B and I tried to keep up.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’m not the best dancer.”

“You seem like a good dancer to me.” Patrick grabbed me around the waist and proceeded to grind into me. I tried not to flinch away from him. I wasn’t really in the habit of dancing intimately with strangers, but I didn’t want him to think I was making a big deal of the way he was moving.

“You’re a really good dancer Elle.” He whispered into my ears. I felt his hands on my butt and nearly jumped. Somehow we had made it to the side of the dance floor and he had me pushed up against the wall as we were dancing.

“I wish you had a skirt on.” He grinned at me as he continued grinding into me. “I’d lift you up right now and then you could wrap your legs around me.” I tried not to look too shocked at his words. Maybe he thought I was turned on by his talk, I mean it’s not everyday a modern day Don Juan wants to be with you. I tried to ignore him and just smiled as I danced.  It was when he started nuzzling my neck that I knew I had to take a break.

“Sorry, I, uh, I need the bathroom.” I pushed him away and almost ran off the dance floor.

“Yeah, I need to take care of things too.” He grinned at me and followed me off of the dance floor. I nearly cringed but tried to keep my face calm. Maybe it was me. Maybe I was more of a prude than I thought. I hadn’t dated in over a year and because I didn’t believe in casual sex, I also hadn’t made love in that long either. While I didn’t know Peter well enough to know whether or not I could see him as a husband, maybe I should at least think about a casual relationship with him.

Chapter 2

We got home around 1am. We all were going to brunch at Brittany’s dad place the next day and knew we couldn’t show up with a hangover. I let Peter give me a long kiss as we said goodbye and had to put up with Brittany’s squealing all the way home.