Australian Affairs: Taken: Taken Over by the Billionaire / An Unlikely Bride for the Billionaire / Hired by the Brooding Billionaire

‘But…but…’ Catherine stammered, not looking too certain about Jess’s offer.

Jess smiled reassuringly. ‘You don’t have to worry. I’m a very experienced dressmaker. It was my profession before I went into marketing,’ she added, backing up Ben’s little white lie. ‘I made this jacket myself, you know, and I think it’s a pretty good design.’

‘You can say that again!’ Catherine exclaimed. ‘I’ve been envying it ever since you arrived.’

‘Me too,’ Leanne gushed. ‘Floral jackets are very in this spring.’

‘But tell me something, Jess,’ Catherine said, looking puzzled. ‘Do you always travel around with your sewing machine?’

Jess realised immediately she could hardly say that, until fate had stepped in and changed everything, she’d been going to do some sewing whilst she was stuck in a motel room for most of the weekend.

‘Lord, no,’ she said, laughing. ‘I simply forgot to take it out of the car after I did some sewing at a girlfriend’s place last weekend. How lucky is that?’ As little white lies went, it wasn’t too bad, except that it made Jess realise she didn’t have girlfriends the way Catherine did. When she’d left Sydney to come live on the Central Coast she’d drifted away from all the female friends she’d made at school. She did see a couple of them occasionally but they weren’t in her life on a regular basis. In truth, she didn’t actually have any female friends now that Colin had debunked, her recent social life having been more his mates and their girlfriends.

Jess had never thought of herself as being lonely before. She did have a large family, but suddenly she envied Catherine her girlfriends.

Still, she didn’t entertain her negative feelings for long, vowing instead to do something about her lack of girlfriends once she got back home. Maybe she would join a gym. Or a sports club of some kind. She’d been good at basketball at school, her above-average height giving her an advantage. Yes, she’d join a basketball club. For females only. Jess suspected that after Ben went back to America she would want a spell away from male company for a while.

Her heart lurched at this last thought but she steadfastly ignored it.

‘How about I drive Ben back to Andy’s place?’ she suggested. ‘Then come back and get stuck into the dress? It could take a couple of hours. I don’t want to rush things. I want to get it right.’

Catherine beamed at her. ‘Jess, you are a life saver! You must stay here for dinner,’ Catherine added. ‘Then afterwards we can have a little hen party of our own. I mean, there’s no point in your returning to Andy’s place. He and Ben are going out on the town in Mudgee tonight. A few of their mates from uni are staying at a motel there, so they’re having a big get-together. I did tell Andy not to stay out too late or do anything seriously stupid, but you know Aussie men when they get a few beers into them. Ben might sound like an American these days, but he’s an Aussie boy through and through.’

Jess didn’t agree with Catherine on that score. Ben was nothing like any Aussie boy she’d ever met.

‘At least the wedding’s not till four-thirty,’ Catherine added. ‘So they have time to recover.’

‘Where is the wedding, Catherine?’ Jess asked.

‘We’re having it outside in Mum’s rose garden, with a celebrant officiating. And the reception will be in a marquee set up on the back lawn. It’s due to go up first thing in the morning. Once that’s done, the wedding planner and her lot will swoop in and set everything else up.’

‘You booked a wedding planner?’ Jess said, surprised. She would want to plan her own wedding right down to the last detail.

‘Gosh, yes. I knew it would be a nightmare if I did it. Mum would want to help, but the poor love gets in a flap over the least little thing. The lady I hired has been fantastic. She’s arranged everything, right down to the cars and the flowers. She even took me down to Sydney and helped me choose the dresses. Not that it’s a large wedding. Only about a hundred guests. This business with Krissie and her dress is the first hiccup there’s been.’

‘Is the weather forecast good for tomorrow?’ Jess asked, worried that Murphy’s Law might raise its ugly head again at the last minute. She was beginning to be a serious believer.

‘Perfect. Warm, with no rain in sight. Okay, let’s get ourselves downstairs and I’ll reassure Mum whilst you drop Ben back at Andy’s. But don’t be away too long,’ she added, flashing Jess a knowing smile. ‘No hanky panky, now. Keep that till after the wedding.’

CHAPTER TEN (#u0806079a-4a07-5d02-afbb-911d27f8d79b)

‘ARE YOU SURE you can do this, Jess?’ Ben said as Jess sped down the driveway. ‘I mean, altering a dress can’t be the same as making one from scratch.’

‘It won’t be any trouble. Gran did a lot of alterations and I used to help her. I earned my first pocket money that way.’

‘You are full of surprises, aren’t you?’ he said, smiling over at her. ‘A good person to have around, I would imagine. I dare say you can cook as well.’

Jess shrugged. ‘I’m not bad. Mum’s better, though. Can you cook? Or is that a silly question?’

‘Not at all. I think all men should be able to cook a bit, especially ones who live alone. I can make a mean omelette, and my mushroom risotto has received several compliments.’

Jess laughed. ‘I dare say it has.’ She could imagine Amber gushing over every single thing he did. She could hear her now: Oh, Ben, darling, you are so clever. And talented. And handsome. And rich.

No, no, Amber wouldn’t actually say that last bit. She would not be as obvious as Leanne. Or as envious. Because Amber would have money of her own. Jess was sure of it.

His sideways glance was sharp. ‘Do I detect some sarcasm in that remark?’

Her returning glance was brilliantly po-faced. Or so she thought.

‘Not at all.’

He chuckled. ‘You little liar, you. You enjoy taking the Mickey out of me.’

‘That’s a very Aussie saying. Maybe you’re not as American as you sound.’

‘What’s wrong with being American?’

‘Absolutely nothing.’ It was his being a filthyrich American that was the problem.

‘You’re not going to sleep the night at Catherine’s place, are you?’ he asked abruptly.

Jess frowned at this question. ‘I wasn’t planning to, but what difference would it make if I did? You’re going out and from what I gather you’ll be home very late.’

‘I just want you to be there in the morning. I want to have breakfast with you and talk to you some more.’

‘Okay,’ she agreed. ‘But do try to be quiet when you get in. I’m going to be tired after doing that dress. I don’t want to be woken by drunken revellers.’

‘I have no intention of getting drunk tonight,’ he surprised her by saying. ‘I don’t want to be hung-over tomorrow, thank you very much. I have plans for tomorrow night which require me to be fit and well.’

‘Oh,’ she said, and for the first time in her life Jess blushed. But it wasn’t the blush of embarrassment, it was the blush of heat. Sexual heat.

‘Don’t miss Andy’s place,’ he said.

‘What? Oh, God, I forgot where I was for a moment.’ She glanced in the rear-view mirror as she braked sharply before turning into Andy’s driveway.

‘Thinking of tomorrow night?’ he asked in a low, oh, so sexy voice.

Jess refused to act rattled by him, even though she was. ‘But of course,’ she said, her cool tone a total contrast to the inferno raging inside her.

Ben should not have been surprised by her bald honesty. Jess didn’t play games. But Ben had games very much in mind for tomorrow night. He didn’t want sex with her to be over quickly. He wanted to savour it. To savour her. He also wanted the love-making to last and last and last.

‘How many lovers have you had, Jess?’

‘Not as many as you’ve had, I’ll bet,’ she countered, thinking he had a hide to ask her that. ‘Now, could we stop talking about sex?’ She reefed the car to a ragged halt. ‘You sit here whilst I go get Andy, and I’ll explain things, then find out where this guest cottage is. And, before you object, you’re not fooling me by pretending you can get in and out of your seat without some pain in your shoulder because I know differently. So just be a good boy and sit still for a while.’

She didn’t give him a chance to come back with some witty riposte because she was off in a flash, running up the side steps of the house, leaving Ben to ponder just how good a boy he was going to be tonight. And he wasn’t talking about at the stag party.

The temptation to come home early was acute. He could easily make some excuse pertaining to his car accident—claim a crippling headache from the concussion, or an appallingly painful shoulder. It was sore, but nothing to write home about.