The Bad Billionaire's Seven Kiss Negotiation

Chapter 4

Caris sat across from Killian in the diner with the largest piece of coconut cream pie she’d ever seen set between them and steaming cups of tea in front of them. The diner was surprisingly busy for the middle of the night, but it was mostly truckers, sitting on their own. The server appeared to know Killian and she had left them all alone after depositing their order.

She stuck her fork into the edge of the whipped cream and lifted it up eying it curiously, “my mother would have a conniption.”

“She lives rent free up there, doesn’t she?” Killian asked as he rolled up his sleeves and rested his elbows on the table.

The movement felt intimate, relaxed and Caris admitted, very masculine as she noted the hair peppering his forearms and the strong muscles flexing as he reached for his fork.

“My relationship with my mother is complex.” She shrugged. “I was a means to an end for her and it didn’t pay off the way she hoped. The thing is, she was hoping to have a mini-me. A tiny little cute baby doll version of her. Instead, I was born with flaming red hair, a virtual copy of my grandmother with what apparently is the brain power of my biological father. I had my father’s brains, my grandmother’s spunk, and my mother’s desire for a better life. I was a year old when she left me with my grandmother. The story goes she was frustrated I had a vocabulary of ten or fifteen words at a year old but refused to say mama, she just put me in my grandmother’s arms and disappeared for six months.”

“How did your grandmother feel about being left with an infant?” He took a huge bite of the pie and then covered his mouth with his hand.

“They butted heads all the time. My grandmother encouraged me to be free spirited and to question everything.” She swirled her fork in the air and put on her best Irish accent, “Caris, my girl, you’ll never a plow a field by turning it over in your mind.”

Killian laughed and Caris grinned in response.

“You do a great Irish accent.”

“If you’re lucky enough to be Irish, you’re lucky enough,” she winked at him smartly. “My grandmother had a thousand of them and when she passed away, I started writing down in a journal all the things she used to say to me.”

“She sounds like a lovely woman.”

“She was amazing. I worked very hard because she used to drill it in my head to not ever rely on someone else to make my happiness.”

“Your mom mentioned she died from a heart attack due to her diabetes?” Killian asked as Caris put a mouthful of pie into her mouth

“That’s the lie they tell themselves to ease their guilt,” she said harshly. At his widened eyes she shrugged. “My mom left me with my Nan from the time I was one until I was seven. Then she met Garth. Garth expected me to be this dutiful child, exceedingly grateful for saving me from poverty and putting me in pretty dresses. I wasn’t allowed to speak unless spoken to. They had me on a strict diet. They limited my visitation with my Nan. Then I embarrassed Garth and I got shipped back to Nan’s. When Maris was a year old, Mom was finding it hard playing mom. She finally had her mini-me but she wasn’t allowed to do with Maris what she wanted because Garth was so controlling. She decided I’d be a great help to her, but I was nine. It took six months again for Garth to get tired of me talking back or questioning before he sent me off to boarding school. Imagine, sending a child to a school an hour away but forcing her to stay there overnight.”

“Wait,” Killian’s teacup paused mid-air at her words before he slowly lowered it. “You stayed overnight at school? You didn’t go home every day?”

“Nope. I went home for Christmas the first three years and then after the third Christmas I went to friends’ houses. Garth always had the big gala, and I was an embarrassment. Anyway, my grandmother was upset. She begged them to let her take me back. Garth said the entire reason I was the way I was, spoiled and headstrong, was because of her and not only did he refuse to let me go back to her, but he also banned her from visiting me. She wasn’t even allowed to see me at school. They cut us off completely.”

“Why?”

“Like I said, he thought she was the reason I am who I am. Anyway, my best friend Analise told her mom about me crying all the time and missing my Nan. Analise’s mom located Nan. She then asked Garth for permission to take me off campus once a week for dinner in order to bond more with the girls. Analise’s family are all oil barons and stupidly wealthy and he seized the opportunity. Every Thursday night, Nan and I would meet at Analise’s and have cuddles and talk but then she would go home alone for the week. Her heart was broken and even at ten I knew it. She died before I even turned eleven. A neighbor found her in her rose garden. When I bought my house, I went and dug up every single one of her rose bushes and planted them in my yard.” She wiped a tear off her cheek at the memory. “She died from a broken heart from being separated from the one person she loved more than anything in the world. My mother knows it deep down but she’s so far up Garth’s ass she believes everything he says.”

“Why are they like this with you?” his tone was quiet.

She shrugged, “the worst thing is, they really believe everything they do is for my good. Fat camp when I was fifteen, good for me. Leaving me alone in school was to teach me independence and to show me the value of respecting my family, supposedly good for me. My mother’s constant criticism is because she genuinely believes I should not work as hard as I do, and I would be much better served to be a housewife.”

“I’m terribly sorry you went through all of this, Caris. I had no idea. I really believed until this evening you were home every evening like I was. I thought you really were doing things just to spite your parents.”

“Nope. I do the things I do because my grandmother taught me my soul isn’t for sale.”

“Why so fixated on your weight?” Killian asked seriously as he looked her over. “You look good.”

She gave a half-bow, “thank you kind sir. I feel good. Well ninety-nine percent of the time I feel good. Most time mom’s comments are water off a duck’s back. Sometimes they sting. One year, back when I was not as accepting of my body as I am now, I had dieted really hard. Got down to a size ten. Mom and Garth had stopped by the school to pay tuition or something and Mom’s response to my weight loss, after not seeing me for a month was ‘is that all’” she lifted a forkful of pie to her lips and sighed. “I realized then my weight was her problem, not mine. I stopped measuring my worth by her standards before I left high school.”

“Good for you.”

“What about you? Your dad passed when you were sixteen. It must have been rough.”

He nodded quietly, “I don’t talk about it much. My Dad worked a lot of hours. My mom would get angry and tell him all the things he was missing, and he’d say he was doing all of it for me. To ensure I wouldn’t have to work as hard as he did. Now I’m sure I work more hours than he ever did. He died in a car accident on his way to the airport to acquire some other company. Heart attack while driving and flipped the car. He might have survived the heart attack if it weren’t for rolling the car eight times.” He sighed, “his diet was bad, and he lived off fast food, his weight was up, he never exercised, and he worked too much and knew he wasn’t healthy. I work too much but I exercise. I eat right,” he grinned at the pie, “everything in moderation, right?”

“Right,” she grinned back.

“Anyway, I’m trying not to repeat his mistakes while making sure I live up to the legacy of the man he was and the company he built.” He stared at her across the table, “Caris, I really cannot emphasize enough how much I appreciate what you’re doing. I promise to be a damn good husband to you. I won’t take you for granted.”

She stared at a fleck of graham crust which had fallen off the plate onto the table and considered his words, “you’re really expecting this to be a real marriage?”

“Yes, I am.” He nudged her under the table, “I don’t expect us to be hopping straight into bed but Caris, we’re both attractive people and living under the same roof and intimately acquainted with each other, I expect we will have a real and true marriage.”

“This morning you looked at me like you’d rather sleep with a rabid dog. I’m sure you barely noticed I’ve existed as a woman before today.”

“Caris, you are a gorgeous beautiful articulate woman. I’d have to be dead not to notice you. I have been aware of you for a very long time. It’s simply hard to pay you a compliment when you’re always ready to rip my jugular out.”

She chuckled, “I’ll give you that.”

“You don’t like me because you equate me with Garth, but I need you to understand I’m not Garth. Yes, I respect and love him like my godfather, but we aren’t the same people. I’m my own man.”

She nodded at his words

He grinned suddenly, “you mentioned earlier the annual Christmas Gala.”

She gave him a small, “yes.”

“The dress you wore last year was spectacular. You were channeling Jessica Rabbit in every delicious way possible.” He licked the tines of his fork as he held her gaze seriously. “I bet if I went to your wardrobe, I could pick the dress out.”

“My mother was so angry over the dress I got uninvited to Christmas. She actually stated she and Garth was repulsed by my dress and he did not want me anywhere near Maris.”

“I was not disgusted by the dress,” he grinned widely as he finished the last of his tea and then glanced at his watch. “We should head back I think.”

She nodded and stood up and didn’t balk when he kept his hand on her low back all the way to the car.

In the car they started the hour-long ride back to her home and she giggled when he turned the radio on, and country music filled the air.

“No, not country music,” she groaned and mocked his music choice.

“You don’t like country music?” he acted horrified as he sang along to the song, clearly knowing every single word.

“Every song is about cheating, dogs or beer.”

He laughed, “what do you listen to?”

“Everything except country music.” She taunted him, admitting she liked the wide smile on his face.

“Well, when we are living together, I will wear headphones, but it won’t drown out the sound of me singing along.”

Her smile quickly faded, “where will we live?”

“I’ve been in my condo ten years and still haven’t really decorated it. Yours has the roses your grandmother grew. I think your place makes more sense. You should be where her roses are.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Caris, I mean it. I’m grateful to you. I will do whatever it takes to make this work. I’m hopeful in time we can be friends and maybe even love each other. I want to make this work. I want this to work.”

She nodded as she considered his words. “I’ll try Killian. I’m not as optimistic as you are but I’ll try.”

“It’s all I ask,” he reached out and threaded his fingers through hers and rested her hand on his lap. “Thank you for coming out with me. It felt weird to call dinner our first date when we had your parents chaperoning and your mother tossing insults better than the chef tossed the salads.” He smiled as she laughed at his commentary.

They made quiet chitchat on the drive back to Caris’ home and she felt comfortable and relaxed as the car ground to a halt in her driveway. Killian had proven to be articulate and not nearly as boring as he’d been in other social situations, she’d been around him in. When he wasn’t purely focused on work, he was easy to chat with and had a decent sense of humour.

She waited for him to open her door at his insistence and then smiled when he walked her to the front door, holding her fingers loosely in his.

“Thank you again for agreeing to come out with me. I really did have a great time.” Killian’s blue eyes stared into hers.

“Thank you for asking me. I admit I was feeling a bit off and I’m feeling somewhat better about it. Not thrilled but better.”

“Maybe in a month from now, you’ll be thrilled,” he reached up and tucked a curl behind her ear. “You really are beautiful. Your smile is something else.”

“Flirt,” she teased him.

“Maybe.” He tilted his head as he studied her, “may I kiss you goodnight?”

She nodded and her eyes fluttered closed as his lips touched hers for what felt to be a fraction of a second. Her eyes were barely opened when she heard him whisper goodnight and then stepped down and walked quickly to his car.

She made her way into the house pressing her fingers to her lips and locked the door behind her. The kiss was fleeting at best, and she considered she’d had more enthusiastic kisses from her neighbor’s dog. As she climbed the stairs to bed, she wondered why he’d even bothered. The thought kept her awake most of the night.