Her Kensington: A British Billionaire Romance (The Cocktail Girls Book 2) Read online

  “No, that’s not necessary. Home is fine.”

  “You’re going to have to let me buy you stuff eventually, you know?”

  I mumble my agreement but the second his hands land on my shoulders and he looks down into my eyes, I know I’ve made a mistake. “I married you last night because I want you by my side. I want to live a life with you, Summer, and that means you’re going to have to accept that my money comes with me. I’ve got more than enough to buy you a new wardrobe.”

  “I don’t want your money,” I whisper, feeling ridiculous that I’m making such a big deal out of this. I was brought up in a pretty poor family and taught that you work for every penny you have. Accepting anything from him, whether he’s worked for it or not, just doesn’t sit right with me. Wife or not.

  “Well, that’s just tough, because half of everything I have is now yours,” he says. “Now put that on and we’ll go and get you some clothes. You might as well pack a case while you’re there.”

  “A case? Why?”

  “We’re going on honeymoon.”

  “Honeymoon?”

  “Isn’t that what most people do after getting married?”

  “I guess, but most people don’t do it quite like this.”

  He shrugs. “Potato, potahto. It doesn’t matter how we did it, the fact is, we did, and we’re going to celebrate. I’m not ready to share you with anyone else yet.”

  I was kind of expecting to get on a plane back to London and be thrust into whatever kind of life he lives there, so the thought of spending a little alone time with him has excitement licking at my insides. I’ve already got enough to think about without worrying about imminently meeting my in-laws.

  After dragging my black dress over my head, I remember why I can’t find any underwear. The image of him ripping them off me in the entryway to this suite last night slams into me.

  “I love it when you blush.” I didn’t realize he was watching me from the doorway but his words only make my cheeks blaze more. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Did I marry you commando?”

  Harrison’s response is to burst out laughing. “No, beautiful. It might have been a shotgun Vegas wedding but we did have some class. Check the drawer behind you.”

  Turning away from him and pulling at the chrome handle, I suck in a breath when I stare down at the stunning ivory lace basque and thong set neatly folded in the drawer. “It’s beautiful,” I whisper. I’ve never worn anything like that before.

  “Only when it was on you.” His heat warms my back as his arms wrap around my waist. “You can fight with me all you want about how I spend my money, but the one thing you definitely get no say in is your underwear.”

  “Is that right?” I ask, spinning in his arms until I’m pressed up against his chest. “Got a thing for fancy lingerie have you, Mr. Abbot?”

  “I have a thing for you in fancy lingerie, Mrs. Abbot.” Goosebumps prick my skin at the use of my married name. Summer Abbot does have quite a good ring to it. “Now, less talk of you in lingerie please, or we’ll never get out of this room.”

  “Is that a bad thing?” I ask with a wink as I pull away from his arms.

  “It’s funny…I’m sure the girl I married was shy.” The playful smile on his face only lightens my mood.

  “That reminds me,” I say as I slip my feet into my shoes. “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-one.”

  “And a few.”

  “Cheeky.” Grabbing my hand he pulls me from the suite and into the elevator. He presses the button for the ground floor before backing me up against the wall.

  “Sooo?”

  Dropping his head to my neck, he kisses the sensitive skin below my ear. “Thirty-two,” he whispers, so quietly I don’t think he really wanted me to hear.

  “HOW OLD?!” I squeal, pushing at his shoulders so he has no choice but to pull back and look at me. I want to look shocked but the smile twitching at the corners of my lips gives me away. “Because I was thinking more like forty.”

  His chin drops open in shock. “You cheeky little—” whatever he was going to say is cut off when the elevator doors open and another couple walks in. He moves to stand next to me, and I don’t expect his fingers to trail up the inside of my thigh. My loud intake of breath ensures that the other couple looks over. I fight to keep the blush from my cheeks but I can’t, and the heat rises.

  When he finds my clit, he presses a finger against it, making me tremble with need. “I may be too old for you, but I’m not that old.”

  “I…I was…j…joking,” I stutter as he slowly starts to circle his finger against me.

  Thankfully, the elevator dings to announce our arrival. Harrison removes his hand as the other couple walks out. I breathe a sigh of relief because another few seconds and what he was doing to me would have been no secret.

  Harrison notices me glance over to the LBD as we walk past the entrance.

  “Did you want to go in? Collect anything, say goodbye to anyone?”

  I come to a stop and stare at the purple lights as my short time spent working in there flashes through my mind. I can’t say I really enjoyed my time there. It was…an experience. But suddenly leaving the way I am has my palms a little sweaty. This is not how I expected things to go. I had visions of having money sat in my bank account and a college acceptance letter in hand as I told Max to screw his sleazy job. My hands tremble with uncertainty, and I shake them out to try to push it away. “No, I really don’t want to.”

  “You were never meant for that place, beautiful. But thank god you were there because I may not have found you otherwise.” His words do sweeten my memories of my many long night shifts being leered at by drunk men a little.

  “I’m pretty sure I was always destined to crash into you one day.” He doesn’t respond but I can tell by his smile that he agrees with me.

  With one last look at the place I spent so many hours, I hold my head high and walk out the front of the hotel with my hand firmly where it should be—entwined with Harrison’s.

  Harrison

  “So where are we going?” Summer asks as I sit on her bed and watch her pack. In reality, she doesn’t need any of it. She thinks I was awake watching her sleep this morning, which is partly true, but mostly I was booking us the most luxurious honeymoon I could find. We have what looks like the most incredible private villa waiting for us. I’ve already organised for everything we’ll need for our week’s stay to be there. I’m just humouring Summer’s need for me not to spend money on her right now by allowing her to pack her own suitcase.

  “It’s a surprise.”

  She narrows her eyes at me in frustration. “Is it abroad?”

  “It is,” I confirm.

  “What if I don’t have a passport?”

  “You’re coming to London; I already know you have a passport.” I know all the details on it as well, seeing as Ireland came up trumps this morning when I needed them to book our flights. Sticking her tongue out at me, she turns back to her case. “Do that again and I’ll make it mine,” I warn, my trousers getting tight at the thought alone.

  “Oh yeah?” She puts her hands on her hips before doing it again. I’m off the bed in seconds and she lets out a little shriek as I force her into the wall.

  “I don’t joke, Summer,” I say before crashing our lips together. I kiss her until she’s panting, groaning for more. Then I step away. “Come on, we’re running out of time.” Rearranging myself as I walk off, I listen to her complain behind me about being a tease. I can’t help but smile. I can see she’s worried about what’s to come, but she doesn’t need to be. I have every intention of giving her everything she could need, providing a life she’s always dreamt of. I’m hoping this honeymoon will show her just how good things can be.

  Before returning to the hotel to grab the few things I have, I instruct the taxi driver to head to the chapel.

  Was getting married last night when I knew she was drunk wrong? Probably. But
the second the words fell from her mouth it was all I could think about—making her mine, giving her my name, ensuring she’d leave with me this time. I’d sworn off the possibility of doing all this again after the fall out from my last relationship, but there’s something about Summer. I’m incapable of staying away from her. Our time apart was hell for me. Knowing she’s now mine gives me more contentment than I think I’ve ever felt in my life. She’s the piece of me that’s been missing.

  I stand and watch, totally enthralled, as she spins around in the room where we said our vows to each other last night. She’s wearing the dress she wore the night we went out for dinner and she looks just as beautiful as she did in her wedding gown.

  “Maybe I should have worn my dress,” she says with a laugh as she walks up the aisle.

  “Too late, it’s getting shipped back to the UK.”

  “Now?” Her face drops.

  “Right now. It’ll be there for when we get back.” Her eyes flicker with something I can’t read, but she soon covers it with a smile.

  “Come on, let’s go eat—and then we’ve got a flight to catch.”

  “Are you really not going to tell me where we’re going?”

  “Nope. But I’m pretty sure you’re going to love it.”

  “I don’t doubt that.”

  I can see all the questions building up behind Summer’s eyes every time she looks at me and the dread in my stomach only increases as I think about having to tell her the truth about my life. I should have told her before I allowed our relationship to get this far, but my fear that it would scare her off was too high. Not that I really think a couple of wedding bands will be enough to keep her when she does find out. I just wish I knew how to tell her that I have a past that will inevitably affect our future.

  “I probably should have mentioned that I’ve never flown before,” Summer whispers as I walk her into the business lounge at McCarran International. Her excitement from finding out we’re going to be spending a week in Greece has started depleting as her nerves grow.

  “You’ve never flown?”

  “No. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up so we didn’t really have holidays. I only have a passport because I’ve always dreamt of going to Europe one day.”

  My heart hurts for her that she hasn’t experienced this before. I know I’ve lived a privileged life thanks to our family business, and I’m grateful for everything I’ve had. Excitement tingles in my stomach as I think about all the things I get to experience for the first time with Summer, all the things I can introduce her to.

  “What’s that smile for?” she asks as I pull her over to the floor to ceiling windows and drop down onto the giant leather sofa.

  “Just thinking about everything I have to show you.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “I know you’re not interested in my money, but that doesn’t mean your life’s not about to change.”

  She nods, deep in thought, before focusing her attention out of the window. “They’re much bigger in real life. How do they stay in the sky?” she asks, changing the subject.

  “No idea,” I answer honestly, turning to her. One glance and it’s clear she’s more apprehensive about her first flight and her future than she’s trying to let on.

  “Summer, are you scared?”

  “No. No, of course not.”

  “Really?” My lips twitch up in a smile at the look on her face.

  “I’ve just never been up that high before.”

  “I promise to keep you safe,” I say, leaning over and running my nose along the shell of her ear. “I’ve got so many ideas about how I could distract you.”

  The sound of her quiet moan makes my cock twitch. We’ve got a long flight ahead of us. I really don’t need to be getting ideas about the Mile High Club.

  3

  Summer

  My heart’s in my throat and my body forced back into my seat as the plane races down the runway.

  “Holy shit.” Harrison grabs on to my sweaty hand and squeezes tight. I can feel him looking at me but I can’t open my eyes. I’ve never really thought about whether I’d like flying or not; it wasn’t like I saw a possibility of it happening any time in my future, but as I sit here I can’t help praying that we’re not going to die before we’ve lived any of our married life together.

  “Summer…beautiful.” His voice breaks through my panic at the same time his fingers brush my cheek. “It’s okay, we’re up now. You can relax.”

  Slowly, I blow out a breath and prize my eyes open. The first thing I see is Harrison’s smiling face looking back at me. I instantly feel my muscles relax and I slouch back into the seat.

  “See, it wasn’t that bad, was it?”

  “I guess.”

  Knowing we’re stuck here for the foreseeable future, it’s the perfect time to question Harrison. He might think I’ve put everything behind me with our impending honeymoon, but that’s far from the truth. The pain of his sudden disappearance is still simmering just under the surface and the fear that he’s going to do it again is there as well. He might be my husband now, but I still don’t know him, and I’m about to embark on a life in a totally new place with people I don’t know. He’s the only thing I’m going to have, and I deserve the truth.

  As I turn to look at him, he must be able to see what’s about to come because his smile falters the longer we stare at each other. The last few times I’ve tried bringing something up about the past two weeks, he’s managed to change the subject. But not this time. There’s no escape and I need to know everything before we embark on our honeymoon. Honeymoon. The word feels so weird. I can’t quite get the fact that I’m a wife and I have a husband to settle in my head, it probably doesn’t help that I only have vague memories of our actual wedding. Going to the chapel helped but there are still big chunks of the night missing.

  “Why did you leave?”

  “Work,” he mutters, but casts his eyes away. It’s the same excuse he’s given since he reappeared last night and I’m not buying it.

  “Bullshit,” I snap, harsher than I intended. I don’t think he was expecting it either if his sudden movement and wide eyes are anything to go by.

  “What?”

  “Don’t ‘what’ me. You know as well as I do that you didn’t go back for a work thing. You just disappeared, Harrison, leaving only a written apology behind. You didn’t even call. You just left like what we had meant nothing.” The anger I’ve been holding back since the moment I saw him in the suite at the hotel starts to burn at my insides. “You abandoned me with no warning,” I seethe, trying desperately to keep my volume down so everyone else in first class doesn’t end up with a front row seat to our first argument.

  My chest heaves as I try to keep it together but when I look up and see the darkness in his eyes I almost feel sorry for him. Whatever it was clearly was important to him. He left me without a word and with no contact until he turned back up again—it was something serious, so why won’t he tell me? I’m his goddamn wife.

  Our eye contact holds until he drags his gaze away and looks down at his lap. “I’ve got some family shit going on.”

  “Right?”

  “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

  “In case you forgot, you married me last night, Harrison.” I lift my hand and wave my ring around in front of his face. “I’m your family now, too. Don’t you think I deserve to know whatever it was that was so important that you left without even telling me? I’m about to move across the world and become a part of your life.”

  “Yes but—”

  “But what? I may not remember much of last night but this isn’t some big joke to me, Harrison. I didn’t agree to all this, this honeymoon, this marriage, just because I fancied a holiday and a fresh start. I’m uprooting my entire life to be with you. I’m sacrificing everything I’ve worked for. But I want this. I want us. Do you?”

  He shifts in his seat until he’s facing me and he looks up a second before he
speaks. “Of course I do. I love you, Summer.”

  “Then tell me. Whatever it is, I can deal with it. We can deal with it.”

  I watch as he lets out a breath, trying to find his words. “I have a past.”

  “Right! Who doesn’t? You’re over ten years older than me, Harrison. I didn’t expect you not to have a life before me. How you’re not already married with a handful of kids is beyond me.”

  “I was…” He once again looks away, and I watch the muscles in his neck work as he swallows. “I was married.” Raising an eyebrow, I wait for him to continue. When he does speak his voice is quiet and unsure. “My ex is…my ex is…interesting.”

  “Okay.” Hesitation is written all over his face. “It’s okay, you can tell me. Just…start from the beginning.”

  That seems to be the right thing to say because I watch his face relax as he once again grabs my hand.

  “That I can do. We’ve known each other since school…” He goes on to explain a pretty traditional high school sweetheart story with his best and oldest friend, and if he wasn’t talking about his past, I would find some of his tales quite cute. “She was my everything,” he admits. The pain on his face is clear and my heart aches for him. I’ve never met this woman but that look alone makes me want to hurt her. “She was kind, caring, everything I thought I wanted. But as the years went on she…changed.”

  “Changed how?”

  “She…turned into a psycho-bitch. I think it was the money. She grew up in a similar financial situation to me, her dad’s a successful investment banker, but she met some awful money-grabbing friends and she just spiralled. Everything became about what others thought. It was inevitable, I guess, but eventually, I wasn’t enough either. I knew something was going on but I never expected to find out she’d been cheating.” I suck in a breath.

  “Did you know him?” I ask, almost expecting him to say it was his best friend or something.

  “No. I knew of him, though. It hit me hard. I’m not ashamed to admit that I lost myself for quite a while. But time’s a healer and it wasn’t all that long before I could see I was better off.” I nod, because if she’s even half as bad as he’s making out, then he’s definitely better off without her.