The Billionaire's Forever by Ava Claire Read Free Book Online Page A

located in the center of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Lush green vegetation surrounded me, the smell of flowers and tropics creating a fragrance that I wanted to bottle and keep forever. It was a smell unlike anything I’d ever experienced. When a Mercedes eased up the runway and Jacob handed our pilot several crisp hundred dollar bills and the man barely flinched, the smell of something else hung in the air: money.
    Mustique was known for its exclusivity and as a vacation spot for the affluent. Curious, I’d pulled up the island’s website on the plane and besides two small boutique hotels that charged nearly one thousand dollars a night, the island boasted sprawling villas that cost as much as some Americans made in a year--for a week’s stay.
    There was nothing blatantly ostentatious about the Mercedes that picked us up plane side; I didn’t buckle myself in with a diamond encrusted seatbelt. But it was the fact that there was no one else on the strip besides the pilot and a few airport attendees that reminded me that this wouldn’t be my Mother’s Caribbean vacation. I felt like we had the whole island to ourselves.
    My life would never be the same. When most people wanted to escape they went on an overnight trip. When I said I wanted to escape, my fiancé put us on a plane and rushed us to the Caribbean.
    I was going to get my beach wedding.
    “Are you alright?” Jacob asked, picking up on my silence.
    “I’m on a private island in the Caribbean.” I gestured out the window at the first people I’d seen since we landed, an older couple with a market basket and expressions like they didn’t have a care in the world “It’s...” I stopped, my chest tightening.
    “A little overwhelming?” he finished for me, reading my nervousness despite the smile I wore, showing literally every tooth in my mouth. “It’s okay to be overwhelmed. Our reason for coming here...” He trailed off and I dropped the grin, suddenly very aware of the fact that I wasn’t too fond of him equating any other emotion other than excitement with our situation.
    A little bit of a hypocrite, huh Lay? “You’re nervous.”
    He pushed his shades up, like he was catching the mask before it fell away. “Nervous? Not exactly.” His eyes were shielded but I could see the nerve in his jaw ticking. “Maybe slightly. But not about making you my wife. I just want to make sure that the ceremony is...worthy of you. I want it to be something you remember for the rest of your life.” He paused as the phone in his hand dinged and his jaw tightened. “Fondly.”
    I put my hand over his before he answered it and gave the poor sap on the other end a piece of his mind. “Even if the driver pulled to the side of the road right now and we got married in the backseat, I’d love it. You moved heaven and earth to get me away from the city and the paparazzi--”
    “--and my mother?” he said with a chuckle.
    “Our mothers,” I clarified. Sure, if there was an Aggravation Olympics, Alicia would win hands down, but having Mom berate me and force my hand wasn’t much better. It was just another form of control.
    I pushed aside the bumble of nerves that occupied my stomach and looked straight at the one person that made it all worth it. “This is all I wanted, Jacob. You are all I wanted.”
    His smile deepened as he stroked my cheek. “I love you, Leila.”
    I scooted closer to him. “Love you too.” As soon as I closed my eyes I began making a mental checklist of all the things I didn’t have. Like a dress. Or anyone to do my hair. Or shoes. And what about--
    I stopped. Was this what wedding jitters felt like? It was hard to tell because I’d been questioning whether I belonged in Jacob’s world since he first asked me to be a part of it. And I wanted to be in his life. I wanted this to be something he remembered always; not the stress nor having to cuss out custom officials to make sure the marriage was official.
    Cut it out. I ordered