The Billionaire’s Big Bold Wish: An Older Billionaire/Younger BBW Romance (The Billionaires’ Club)
The Billionaire’s Big Bold Wish: Chapter 1

‘What happened?’ I growl, jogging down the steps of my private jet and out onto the tarmac at a private airstrip on the outskirts of Cheyenne. We touched down just in time. Clouds move rapidly across the overcast sky, threatening torrential rain. Most other air traffic is already being rerouted around the storm. That wouldn’t have stopped me from landing.

My nineteen-year-old niece is missing.

Not a fucking thing on this earth would have kept my pilot from obeying my command to get me here. Ainsley hasn’t been anywhere without security since she was a little girl. Keeping her safe has been my responsibility since she was seven.

It’s one I take seriously.

She lost her parents because of me. I’ll be damned if I let someone take her life too.

‘Miss Foster was visiting Miss Cooper,’ Travis Jessup, my head of security says, his jaw clenched tight as he falls into step beside me. ‘Van, Everett, and Willis waited outside as previously instructed. An hour into the visit, Willis rapped on the door to check on her. Miss Cooper claimed Miss Foster was in the bathroom. At the next check in, she still hadn’t materialized. He made entry to check the residence, but Miss Foster was nowhere to be found. Miss Cooper finally admitted that Miss Foster snuck out the back shortly after arriving.’

‘How the fuck did she get past the three of them?’

‘Ah, I believe Miss Foster climbed the back wall of the estate grounds,’ he says and then coughs. He’s no more thrilled about Ainsley running off than I am. He’s known her since she was in pigtails. ‘Miss Cooper had her car waiting on the other side.’

‘Milan,’ I growl, though I’m not surprised she had a hand in this. Milan Cooper goes out of her way to piss me off, just because she knows I’ll let her get away with it. She’s the only one. No one else is stupid enough to cross me.

I know what people say about me. They think I’m cold, merciless, demanding…a real bastard. They’re half right. I’m the monster other monsters fear. The one they wish they could become. I may have gone legitimate over a decade ago, but blood doesn’t wash clean just because you don a thousand-dollar suit. Expensive fabric stains too…and there aren’t many crimes I didn’t commit back then. My hands are still red with the blood of my brother and his wife, who were gunned down in vengeance because of me.

My soul was black long before Milan was born. That doesn’t stop her from pushing every button I’ve got. She thinks she’s a lion. I know better. She’s a harmless kitten. She may scratch and hiss and claw, but underneath all that attitude, she’s soft. She fights like hell to hide it, but I see it. I see her.

She’s an innocent little princess…and I’m the fucked-up beast who jerks off to thoughts of her every night. She’s nineteen-years-old, my niece’s best friend. And I want to alternately tie her to my bed and spank her pretty ass until she’s begging for mercy and lay the entire world at her feet.

My little princess needs a daddy to rein her in before she goes too far and gets herself hurt.

I wish like hell I could be that man. She’s been my obsession since I first laid eyes on her. And she has no idea just how deep that obsession runs. The men who follow her every move just to keep me from losing my mind with worry for her. The cameras that watch her. The pictures I have of her. The tattoos. No, she doesn’t know those things. She would have ripped my balls off long ago if she knew.

Since the day Ainsley brought her home for the first time, she’s been alone. She lives in a mansion with memories of the mom who died when she was a baby and the useless shell of the man her death left behind. Her father neglects the hell out of her. The only reason I haven’t killed the bastard for it is because I know it would break Milan’s heart. She still loves him even though he doesn’t deserve it.

Her house is the one place in this entire city where Ainsley’s security guards aren’t allowed to follow. I expect them to wait outside because the thought of any of them inside Milan’s space pisses me off. Clearly, I fucked up when I made that rule. Because my niece is now missing. And Milan helped her escape.

I intend to find out why. Ainsley never asks for anything, never wants for anything. I can’t even begin to fathom what prompted her to run off. If it’s a boy, I may kill him. Ainsley is…different. Innocent. She saw what happened to her parents the day they were murdered. The only reason she escaped the same fate is because her mom hid her in a closet. When I found her, she was terrified. She didn’t speak for months. She didn’t sleep either. Every night for a year, she woke up screaming the walls down.

I spent every single night sleeping in a chair outside her bedroom door. Her nightmares were my burden to carry, not hers. Julian tried to warn me that we were going too far, but I didn’t listen. Wade Carruthers had mineral deposits on his land, and I wanted them. So I took his ranch and bankrupted him. I didn’t care that he had a long history of violence. I didn’t care that he didn’t want to sell. I didn’t care about anything other than getting what I wanted.

Ainsley is the one who paid the price. My need to succeed at all costs never should have touched her. Instead, it slaughtered her family. Wade shot her parents in cold blood before turning the gun on himself. Ainsley lost everything because of me.

I’ll live with the guilt for the rest of my life. I made a vow that it would never happen again, that she would be safe. If anything happens to her, I will tear this city apart brick by brick.

‘That’s not all,’ Travis warns me.

I bite back a curse, not in the mood for more bad news.

‘Miss Cooper pitched a fit when we tried to question her,’ he says. ‘She gave Willis a black eye and busted his lip.’

‘Did he touch her?’ I growl, my blood pressure shooting even higher.

‘He would never strike a woman,’ Travis says, his voice firm.

‘Did he put his fucking hands on her?’ I ask, clenching my hands into fists to keep from putting one around Travis’s throat to choke my answer out of him. If Willis touched her, there will be hell to pay. No one puts their hands on Milan. No one looks at her. No one even thinks about her.

‘Ah, he put her in cuffs,’ Travis says, looking uneasy. He knows exactly who I am and what I’m capable of doing. I may not have dropped a body in twelve years, but the man I was back then isn’t dead.  I fight every day to keep him at bay. ‘It was the only way to settle her down. She was trying to escape out of a bedroom window.’

I growl a curse, fighting to contain the fury his announcement sends pumping through me. ‘If she has his cuffs on when we get there, we’re going to have a problem,’ I warn him, stalking toward the limo. He knows the rules. So does Willis. Those rules are the only reason I allow them near Milan and my niece, though for vastly different reasons.

Milan Cooper is mine. I just don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do about it. Since she turned eighteen a year ago, I’ve taken to spending most of my time elsewhere to avoid her. It’s easier than dealing with the guilt I feel every time she gets my dick hard. There are a thousand reasons I can’t have her. But not a single one of them makes me want her any less.

I’m a bastard for even thinking about the shit I do. When St. Peter tallies up my sins, falling in love with Milan will be at the top of the list. I have no illusions about that. It doesn’t change anything either. I keep telling myself I need to let her find someone who deserves her, as if saying it often enough will make it true.

It won’t.

I’ll burn at the devil’s right hand before I let anyone else claim her. I won’t utter a single complaint, either. An eternity of torment for a lifetime with Milan? It’ll be worth every second.

She desperately needs a daddy…and I’m done pretending it won’t be me.

‘Let’s go,’ I bark at Travis, sliding into the limo.

‘Justice, you asshole!’

A stiletto sails through the air, slamming into the door right beside my head.

‘I’ll wait out here,’ Travis mutters.

I grunt in acknowledgment, my eyes already locked on Milan, who is standing in the middle of her bedroom, hands on her wide hips and fire in her eyes. Her tits heave in her blue dress. The thing is far too short and tight for her to be wearing around Van, Everett, and Willis. Every one of her curves is on display. Her blonde hair is pulled back from her face, her cheeks blazing with heat. She’s not embarrassed though. Those baby blues damn near fire lightning bolts at me. She’s mad as hell. And beautiful enough to drop to me to my knees.

I stare at her like a dying man at salvation, greedily eating up the sight of her. Breathing in that sweet vanilla and cinnamon scent that’s uniquely her. It’s been two months since I last set eyes on her in person. Every single day felt like hell. But for her sake, I tried.

Milan has no idea how tempting she is or how depraved and desperate I am. I’ve never wanted a woman to call me daddy before. I never wanted to feed one with my own hand, spank her ass when she misbehaves, or fuck her raw when she’s a good girl. It’s been years since I last touched a woman. They throw themselves at me everywhere I go. It comes with the territory. Not one of them has ever tempted me the way this little princess does.

The day I met her, she looked up at me and I saw part of myself staring back. She’s as broken as I am, as lonely. She’s been neglected and ignored for so long; I don’t think she even realizes how much it still hurts her. She doesn’t let anyone except Ainsley close to her. She doesn’t cry. She doesn’t complain. She just…survives.

I’ve been doing the same thing for the last twelve years. Surviving. Living a half-life. Burying myself in work to keep myself alive and forget what I did to deserve death. My soul iced over about the time I found Julian and Marissa’s bodies. It turned to permafrost when I found Ainsley hiding in that fucking closet.

It stayed that way until the day I met Milan. Those blue eyes burned right through the ice to the man underneath, made me feel something for the first time in a long time. She saw me, perhaps better than anyone else ever has. And I saw her. Not the fierce little lion, but the lonely little lamb.

She’s been pissed at me and running scared ever since. She challenges me because she hates that I see what no one else does, that I know her like no one else does. I terrify her, not my reputation but me.

I want to put her on my lap and hold her more than I want my next breath. But I know damn well, if I tried, she’d set me on fire and watch me burn. She pretends she hates me, but we both know the only thing she hates about me is that she isn’t mine. The things she wants from me frighten her. The way she feels about me frustrates her.

She’s never had someone to love and protect her, someone to guide her. I make her want those things and being that vulnerable scares the hell out of her. She fights me because it’s the only way she knows how to protect herself.

But I’m not the only one who’s been fighting a losing battle. She has too.

She’s a hell of a lot stronger than I am. I don’t know exactly when I fell in love with her. I resisted even thinking about it for a long time. But I gave up fighting the truth a year ago and let my obsession run free. I’ve just been waiting…for her to cave. For me to snap.

I’m not surprised I’m the one to crack first. Like I said, she’s stronger than I am.

I’ve made a point never to step foot in her bedroom. I didn’t need to confirm that her room is cute and girly so I could imagine claiming her in her pretty pink bed. It’s too late to stop that particular fantasy now. My dick is pressed tight against my fly, my balls heavy. I want to bend her over her bed and eat her until she’s screaming for mercy.

Please, daddy. I’m sorry. I’ll be good.

But I didn’t come here to punish her. I came here to claim her…and I don’t ever lose.

‘Milan,’ I murmur, closing her door behind me.

‘You can’t hold me hostage in my own house, Justice,’ she growls, still pissed. ‘I want my phone back, and I want you and your men to leave.’

‘You helped Ainsley run off.’

She opens her mouth to deny it and then snaps it closed again. One thing Milan doesn’t do is lie. She’d rather have the cold, hard truth than a comforting lie any day. I know that’s because she’s been lied to and let down for most of her life. She refuses to do the same to anyone else.

‘Where’d she go, Milan?’ I ask, pacing toward her.

She backs up two steps before she realizes what she’s doing. As soon as she does, her chin comes up and she locks her knees. I almost smile at her show of bravery. Almost.

‘You know she shouldn’t be out there on her own.’

‘And whose fault is that?’ she demands, crossing her arms. She doesn’t do it quickly enough to hide how hard her nipples are for me. ‘You’ve kept her locked up like a prisoner her entire life. If she shouldn’t be out there on her own, it’s your fault.’

‘Where is she?’ I push away the flicker of guilt, stamping down on it hard. Ainsley has never been a prisoner. She had everything she could have ever wanted or needed. I may not have let her run wild, but she never went without anything.

Except her parents, whispers that damning little voice in the back of my mind.

Milan shrugs, refusing to answer my question. I don’t miss the way she rubs at her wrist though.

Fuck.

‘Let me see it,’ I say, my voice soft. I hold my hand out, waiting for her to obey.

Of course, she doesn’t. Anyone else would have jumped to give me what I want. Not Milan. She defies me like always, simply because she knows she can. And like always, that defiance makes my dick rock hard.

‘It’s fine,’ she mutters.

‘Milan, let me see it.’

‘I said it’s fine.’

I quirk a brow.

She huffs out an annoyed breath and holds her arm out. As soon as I wrap my fingers around her hand, an electric jolt shoots straight to my cock. Her skin is silk. Mine is leather. I may wear expensive suits and have expensive tastes, but I work right alongside my men on the ranches when I visit. It’s backbreaking work. Precisely the kind that gives me something to focus on other than the little blonde currently scowling daggers at me.

She squirms as if she feels the same electric charge, pressing her thighs together. She tries to play it off, pretend I don’t affect her. We both know she’s full of shit. She had feelings for me long before she should have. Hell, she still shouldn’t. I will never be good enough for her…yet that doesn’t change a goddamn thing for either of us. I’m not sure which of us hates that knowledge more. Me? Her? Definitely her.

Loving her may be wrong, but it’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done.

Her wrist is red where the cuffs rubbed against it. It’s a superficial injury, but the fact that she was injured at all has my blood boiling. Willis never should have touched her. I don’t care if he was simply putting cuffs on her. I don’t care if she clawed his eyes out. He should have stood and let it happen. Those are the rules.

You don’t touch my niece. You don’t touch Milan. Ever.

‘Is Willis okay?’ she asks, guilt in her voice.

‘Don’t.’

‘Don’t what?’ She blinks her long lashes at me.

‘He touched you.’

‘I punched him in the face,’ she says, shrugging. ‘And bit him.’

‘You bit him?’

‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’ She bites her plump bottom lip, peeking at me through her lashes. The guilt in those baby blues matches the guilt in her voice. There’s a little touch of defiance lurking in them too. ‘I also kneed him in the balls.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ I mutter and then I chuckle. Why am I not surprised she kicked his ass? She’s a little firecracker when something sets her off…and nothing pisses her off quite like someone telling her what to do. Obedience means giving up control and giving up control makes her vulnerable. Milan would rather set the world on fire than let anyone see that vulnerability.

We’re exactly the same in that regard.

‘I’m not telling you where she went,’ she says, watching me intently. The pulse in her throat flutters, letting me know she isn’t as collected as she wants me to believe. She’s upset. With me? With Willis? ‘You can torture me or kill me or whatever it is you plan to do, but I won’t tell you.’

I stare at her, shocked. Not about her commitment to keeping my niece’s secret. I know damn well she means every word. I could lock her in a dungeon and try to torture the truth out of her and she wouldn’t say a word beyond fuck off. Her loyalty to my niece is absolute, unshakable. Ainsley means the world to her. She wouldn’t betray that bond no matter what. So no, her loyalty doesn’t surprise me. It’s the fact that she thinks I came here to hurt her.

She could slice me open and pull my organs out one by one and I wouldn’t raise a hand against her. She could tear my world apart piece by piece and I wouldn’t say a word about it. Neither would my men. My loyalty to her is that absolute. I’m not going to hurt her to get my answers.

Never, princess. Not fucking ever.

‘You think I’d hurt you?’

‘She’s your niece. You may be an idiot, but I know you love her.’

‘I wouldn’t hurt you, Milan.’

She snorts.

‘Look at me,’ I demand, my voice firm.

She lifts her gaze to mine again, glaring at me.

‘No one is going to hurt you,’ I vow. Ainsley isn’t the only one I’d rip this city apart to avenge. So is Milan. If anything were to happen to her, it would destroy me. The only thing that keeps me going some days is the knowledge that she exists in this world.

‘I…’ She stares at me for a long, silent moment. For a split second, her mask slips. I see the vulnerability she tries so hard to hide, the confusion, and longing. I see her, exactly as she is. Powerfully beautiful and beautifully broken. She sees me too; I know she does.

That’s right, baby girl. You know who I am to you. You know what you want from me.

‘Milan,’ I murmur, lifting my hand to touch her face.

Just that quick, her walls snap back into place.

She jerks backward, out of my reach. Her hand falls from mine, landing against her thigh with a smack. Her expression reorders itself, every hint of vulnerability wiped clean. She shuts me out with a muffled gasp. I want to gnash my teeth and snarl like the beast I am. I was losing with her before I ever even knew we were playing. And I’ve been losing ever since.

How do you convince an angel to fall in love with the devil?

I don’t have the first fucking clue.

She said I couldn’t keep her hostage in her own home. She’s right. I can’t. But that doesn’t mean I can’t keep her locked up in mine until she admits defeat. And with her heart as the prize, I won’t be fighting fair. If love is a battlefield, daddy just declared war.

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