Page 33 of Chosen By a Billionaire (Rags to Romance #24)

The half-an-hour limo ride from Portland to Kennebunkport was a joyful one.

Harrison had one hand around her shoulder and his other hand held her hand.

And they were laughing and talking up a storm.

Even Vincent noticed a difference in them when they came out of the condo and entered through the back passenger door he held open.

The boss had his arm all the way around her waist, not just on her lower back, and he was smiling.

And not just a quick smirk either: He was smiling as if he was a kid again.

Vincent, knowing his boss and all those women he’d been with in the past, was in a state of shock.

He wondered what in the world did a chick like Jayda have between those legs!

Desmond, Harrison’s driver, was equally perplexed as he drove them to the Bainbridge compound.

Every time he took a peep through the rearview, the boss was still hugging her and kissing her hair and pulling her closer against him as if he couldn’t get enough of that biker.

And that was what Desmond remembered her as: the biker he splashed.

Now she was Harrison Bainbridge’s woman?

Her ? He’d seen Harrison with movie stars and supermodels and socialites galore.

It was all hush-hush. Not even his close colleagues knew anything about his dating life.

But to go from the top of the mountain to a valley girl like her (and he didn’t mean Malibu), was astonishing.

He was still reeling from the very thought of it.

But Jayda wasn’t reeling anymore. She was real- ing.

It was already sinking into her entire being that she was soon to be Mrs. Harrison Bainbridge the Fourth for real.

She didn’t have to pretend. She didn’t have to go along with anything anymore.

She still found it hard to believe, but she believed it.

If she was wrong, and this was all a ruse for Harrison to win over his father, she wasn’t at all sure if she could recover. She’d been duped by men before. That was nothing new to Jayda. But she’d never been in love like this before. This was different.

But as they turned and then began driving up a long, private road, she could feel Harrison’s body suddenly tense. She was just about to ask him if he was alright, but then they kept riding and a house suddenly came into view.

And Jayda was shocked. “Is this it?” she asked Harrison as she stared unblinkingly at what was in front of her.

Harrison knew it was going to be a shock to her system. He held her closer. “Yes. This is the Bainbridge estate.”

“Why it looks like a big, square palace. It looks like one of those big office buildings in New York. Like your office building. How many bedrooms are in that place?”

“Last I recall: fourteen or so.”

Jayda looked at Harrison with shock in her voice. “ Fourteen ? Who in their right mind needs fourteen bedrooms?”

Harrison laughed. “My parents apparently.”

“You were raised in this palace?”

“Yes I was.”

Jayda could only shake her head. And those nerves she thought were gone forever, because she was showing up as Harrison’s real fiancée, returned.

She thought his penthouse was another world.

She thought that was going to be hard to navigate.

But this palace? Harrison’s childhood home? How was she going to manage this?

As the limo came to a stop around the curved driveway that boasted other vehicles and limos, and as Vincent got out of the front passenger seat and stood at the back passenger door, Harrison could feel the tension in her body too.

He turned to her to reassure her. But when he looked into her worried eyes, his heart dropped.

And he regretted bringing her here. Once he knew she was the one for him, he should have sent her back to New York and dealt with his father alone. Why was he putting her through this?

But if she was going to become a Bainbridge, and she was, this was going to have to be her rite of passage. Because if she couldn’t handle his father and his brother, then this trip would be the end of any such future trips for Harrison. He would be done with his own family if they hurt Jayda.

“Just be yourself,” he said to her, “and you’ll be fine.”

“But I’ve got to convince your father--”

Harrison interrupted her. “No you don’t. That’s off the table. You don’t have to convince him of anything, you hear me? Nothing. And I’ll be offended if you try.”

“But what about BCT and Bainbridge Oil?”

“I’ll worry about all of that. If it works out, then fine. If it doesn’t, that’s fine too.” He rubbed the side of her smooth, flawless face. “As the future Mrs. Harrison Bainbridge, that isn’t your responsibility anymore.”

Although Jayda smiled, she knew it was even more her responsibility.

“We’re in this together, Harrison,” she said to him.

“And there’s no way these people are going to claim that you hooked up with me and then lost it all.

You aren’t losing a got damn thing. If it’s to be gotten, we’re getting it. ”

Harrison smiled. And then he laughed. Why was he so worried about her? He’d already seen how she could hold her own against the best of them. His father and brother were in a different league for sure, but so was Jayda. “Yes ma’am,” he said to her.

But after knocking on the window for Vincent to open the door, Harrison hesitated again. He was holding her hand, but not moving.

“What is it?” she asked him. Haven’t you told me enough , she wanted to add.

“It’s my brother,” Harrison said. “He can be vicious.”

“Why is so vicious?”

“Because he grew up that way. My father was that way and he thought being like my father would keep him in his good graces. And it has. But Felix, my brother, takes it too far. He loves pushing buttons. He loves getting you to lower yourself to his level. He wants you to lose it. He wants to have a clash of words with you because that’s his playground.

Nobody is going to outtalk Felix. So don’t say a word no matter how offensive he gets.

And believe me, he will be offensive. Viciously so. ”

“And your father’s the same way?”

“In his own way, yes, he is. Only father doesn’t use words. He’s never been a man of many words. But he’ll cut you off in a heartbeat. He won’t return your phone calls for nearly four years, and refuse to see you.”

Jayda stared at Harrison. “Which is what he did to you.”

Harrison nodded.“Right.”

“If you were raised by a man that vicious, why aren’t you vicious like your brother?”

“Oh I have my moments. Especially at work. I’m a hard-pounding, no-nonsense person in the way I run my businesses. But I’m not like them.”

Then Jayda smiled. “They not like us?”

Harrison loved that she could smile about it. Which made him smile. “No, darling. They aren’t like us.”

Then he exhaled, although she could still see that concern in his eyes. “Ready?”

She’d been nothing but ready ever since he put that ring on it. “I’m ready.”

And then they got out of the limo. And as soon as they did, Jayda’s nerves reignited.

She smoothed down her perfectly-fitted coral-colored dress that hugged her curves beautifully, while Harrison buttoned his suit.

“I look okay?” she asked him.

“You look wonderful. That dress fits you beautifully. Perfect choice.”

“That’s what I’ve always liked about you.”

“That I love your style of dress?”

“That you never tried to change my dress style, even before we got engaged. You never tried to buy me any expensive clothes to meet your family or make a high-class woman out of me.” She looked at him. “You just want me to be myself.”

“That’s absolutely right, Jayda. I fell in love with you, not with some image you can become. No matter what comes our way: Be yourself.”

She nodded. “Like I said, that’s all I know how to be.”

Then he held her hand and squeezed it as both of them, their nerves on edge for very different reasons, went inside the palace.