My Billionaire

My Billionaire

By Stephanie Monte

Published by Stephanie Monte at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Stephanie Monte

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return toSmashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chapter 1

I met someone when I was fourteen years old. It wasn’t love at first sight. This man was fifty-four years old at the time. Love was the furthest thing from my mind although I thought he was a nice old man, grandpa-like. I was more interested in teen boys who were slightly older than me, like sixteen, definitely not fifty-four. That has the ew factor written all over it. This is actually a love story and as a fourteen year old clueless young girl, I had no idea the impact this meeting would have on my entire life. I would have some idea by the time I turned twenty-one.

This man was extremely wealthy. A billionaire. It wasn’t unusual that he was with much younger women in their twenties. That’s not what drew me to him. Believe me. I truly would not sleep with some old fart just because he had money. But this man was not an old fart by any means. It was definitely his charms that suckered me in.

No other way to describe it except for love. True love. He was the one I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. He was the one I wanted to go to bed with at night, wake up next to in the morning, spend the day with, and do it all over again the next day. Everything was perfect and fun when you were with him. Never boring but full of surprises. Love is all there is he once told me. Didn’t believe it at first but I came to realize how true that statement is.

Did I happen to mention there is forty years difference between us? Yes forty years. Age doesn’t matter when you are in love, right? Tell that to my family, friends, and the rest of the world who’s watching. When I first met Harry, I just thought he was an old man. When I saw him a second time and realized who he actually was, I thought he was still old, but distinguished and rich. When I finally actually had a conversation with him after all these years when I was in college, I was instantly drawn to him. He was so damn charming and sophisticated and nice and smart and rich and a celebrity how could you not like him? He was the whole package one would say. This man made my heart flutter.

It all started when I was fourteen years old. I was in the Netherlands with my friend Mara. She was fifteen. She was originally from Holland but lived in the Detroit area with her parents and we became good friends at school. Her family had relocated to Detroit due to her father’s executive job in the auto industry. Mara went back to Holland every summer when school was out so the year I turned fourteen, I joined her. I couldn’t believe my parents let me go but I sold them on the worldly experience once-in-a-lifetime thing. Plus we stayed with her grandmother for the summer. How much trouble could we get in? Apparently as I found out…a lot. You could drink and smoke there and could take off traveling on a train with no adult supervision whatsoever. This wasn’t Europe for me. This was Heaven. Once we arrived and ended up at Oma’s house (Dutch for Grandma), my life had gone in a completely different direction. I was so innocent prior to this trip. Or I like to believe I was. We would hang out with the same group of boys every night at the local pub drinking, playing darts, flirting. I was fourteen for goodness sakes! As long as we came home by curfew, we were fine. There were a few times we snuck out in the middle of the night to continue hanging out with the boys. We would walk out the balcony off our room on the second floor and climb down the trellis. I didn’t think people actually did this but believe me they do and we got away with it the few times we did it. Mara and I then traveled by ourselves around the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany for about three weeks visiting family members along the way.

We were first going to visit Oma’s friend Aunt Margot who lived in Amsterdam. Mara always called her Aunt Margot since she was so close to the family but she wasn’t a blood relative. Mara said she was really cool and she was actually royalty or something. Apparently she ended up marrying a guy from England who was a Duke or an Earl or something. So I guess that makes you royalty, right? Mara said she was a Duchess but no one ever called her Duchess. She just called her Aunt Margot. Anyway, I guess her husband died many years ago and she couldn’t wait for us to visit her. It was just a few hours by train to get to Amsterdam. From the train station we took a taxi to Aunt Margot’s home. It was a beautiful tall brownstone. It was huge. We walked up to the door and Aunt Margot greeted us with many hugs and kisses. She spoke perfect English which was great for me. From there, we were off to dinner after a quick clothing change. She took us to a five star restaurant that was so dimly lit I had major problems even seeing the menu let alone reading it. It was in Dutch of course. Aunt Margot’s old friend was meeting us at the restaurant. He was from England and was in town for a few days on business.

Harry! she shouted running up to him kissing him on both cheeks. We walked up too.

The maître d’ was right there pulling out our chairs and putting the napkins on our laps. I had been to some fancy restaurants before but this was probably the fanciest. Men were actually dressed in tuxedos. Tuxedos! And the women were all dressed so elegant. I felt so underdressed in my purple sundress from JC Penney with a plain white cardigan and white sandals with a one inch heel.

Harry this is Mara and Sydney. They just got in about an hour ago. Girls, this is Harry Crittendon.

Aw…Margot told me about you two. It is very nice to meet you both. He shook both of our hands.

Thank you, Mara and I said at the same time. I wanted so much to say ‘jinx buy me a Coke’ but I don’t think it would have been the appropriate place. I showed restraint.

Harry was an older gentleman. He was one of those men in a tuxedo.

So are you girls enjoying your visit here from the States?

Yeah I said. I mean yes, thank you, trying to control my manners. Mara and I looked over the menu while Aunt Margot and Harry caught up on things. There were no prices on the menu. How strange I thought. I asked Mara for help translating the menu. We ended up ordering the same thing; garden salad with ranch dressing, a chicken breast drenched in a white cheese sauce, a baked potato with butter, and a coke to drink.

Harry and Margot continued their conversation while Mara and I talked about the boys we had been hanging out with. We were mostly giggling about them and how much we liked them. The food finally came. I really chowed my food. I was so hungry. They said the dressing was ranch but it definitely didn’t taste like the ranch I was used to. Oh well I was really too hungry to care.

Boy you girls were hungry! Harry commented looking at our empty plates. We were both kind of embarrassed at how much and how quick we ate. It was time to go. We said good-bye to Harry and jumped in a cab. Good dinner but probably not worth the price. Oh well. I didn’t have to pay for it. I just wanted to go to bed. I was so tired. That was the extent of the first time I met Harry. Not too thrilling, eh? We went on to check out Amsterdam the next day visiting all the attractions. And then we continued on with our train trip. I had a great eye-opening summer that I will never forget. Harry was just a small blip of my trip, not really anyone that mattered.

Chapter 2

Ok people, last minute…wrap it up quickly. Finish up your sentence. Ok…ok…put your pencils…down. Time’s up people, my annoying professor yelled. I hated how he always called us ‘people’. I looked around the room. Half the class was still there. Ok maybe I will do ok with a curve. It looked like other people didn’t finish either. I had two questions left. Two out of a hundred. I could deal with that. I better get a passing grade otherwise my parents would kill me...but if I do end up failing…oh well! Who cares? I would be in Europe by the time I got my report card. A summer in Europe with my friends! We had all turned twenty-one a few months back. As of today I had just finished my junior year of college. I haven’t been back to Europe since that summer when I was fourteen. This time I was going to London and Paris for three weeks. We were backpacking so I guess we could go all over but Kim and I wanted to go to London and Laura and Kelsey wanted to go to Paris so those are the two main cities we intended to visit! We would be staying in hostels. This should be interesting!

Kelsey was my best friend. She was a little wild but a great person. She would do anything for you, including jumping off a bridge naked, but that’s another story. Kim and Laura were best friends. Kim was usually more uptight than the rest of us and she always liked things to be planned out. She played it safe. She was definitely not spontaneous. I always considered her the smart one in the bunch. She was the mother of the group. The responsible one. Laura was just a sweetheart and very easygoing. She never said anything bad about anyone. Me? Well I always thought I was mixture of all three personalities. I was not necessarily a brainiac and I could be ditzy sometimes but I was street smart. I could be a real bitch when I got mad or tired but all in all I thought I was nice person. I was definitely loyal to my friends. I liked having fun and I also knew when too much was too much. As for guys? I am not going to lie...I slept around but hey, I used protection. I was in college. That’s part of the experience, right? I wouldn’t call myself a whore but I liked casual sex. I never got all the emotions involved. If a guy wanted to see me again and go on another date, great. But I was never going to cry over a guy to no matter how much I liked him. Well, at least I wouldn’t let him know that I cried over him. I always felt there was a lot of power in controlling your emotions over a guy. I learned that pretty quickly. If you acted like you didn’t give a shit, they would always come back for more. And I was fine with that. I never felt used because I was looking for same thing… just temporary fun and pleasure. With being busy with school and hanging out with my friends, I hated being tied down to one guy and having to invest so much time. Who wants a guy interfering in your life? I liked to do what I wanted when I wanted so the late night hookups were just fine with me after dancing at the bar with my friends.

Back to our backpack trip to Europe. How the hell was I going to fit ten pairs of shoes in my backpack? I wondered this as I was walking back to my apartment after taking my last final exam. Party time! I shouted busting into my apartment. I am done! I am officially done with school for the summer!

Kelsey poked her head out of the kitchen. Let’s get drunk! We need to celebrate. Tomorrow night we fly to London! She handed me a beer.

What’s going on tonight? I asked.

Well we can always go to Rick’s or the Back Door. The Fiji’s are having a party too!

Ok let’s start out at the frat party, I decided. Free beer. And then move onto Rick’s if there is no action going on! Let me get ready and then we can meet up with Laura and Kim for a bite to eat.

Sounds good to me! The cheaper the better! yelled Kelsey as she turned up her Ipod full blast and started dancing around. She was just as excited as I was. Let the night begin.

This party is kind of lame, I said to my Phi Gamma Delta frat friend Mark as I was looking around checking out potential prospects for my last hurrah at college before the best summer ever.

You just need to drink some more, Syd! He laughed handing me a bottle of vodka.

I think you’re right! I took a swig of vodka and then downed my beer. Time for beer number three. I walked over to the keg and waited in line. Where the heck was everybody? Kelsey was probably hooking up with her on again – off again man Joel. But where were Laura and Kim?

Hey you! Kim jumped in line in front of me.

Hey where were you guys? You left me with annoyingly drunk Mark!

Sorry we were waiting for twenty minutes to use the bathroom and we finally said fuck it and peed in the back yard bushes. There’s no line outside!

You guys want to take off to the bar? I asked.

NO! yelled Laura, I’m getting free drinks here…I want to spend my money at a British pub not a crappy college bar! You just want hook up with Brandon one last time before we leave, don’t ya?

No, I said. I was lying of course. Brandon was a regular at Rick’s and I would run into him every time I was there and nine out of ten times, we would go home together. We weren’t dating but we definitely always hooked up. I guess you could describe him as my bed buddy for the last year.

Why don’t you just hook up with Carson or annoyingly drunk Mark? Yes I have previously hooked up with two different Fijis on more than a few different occasions. They are frat brothers. I shuddered to think that they have talked about me but come on…these are frat guys we are talking about… they always talked about their lays. I just tried not to think about them comparing notes.

Hell no! I said. They were both mistakes.

Well you keep on making the same mistake over and over again! Kim laughed.

You bitch! I laughed and jokingly shoved her.

At least I’m not a whore! Kim laughed. She shoved me back.

Alright you two Kelsey jumped in. We all just laughed. How could you get pissed off at the truth? We filled up our beers. Let’s make a toast…to all the fun we will have Europe. And what happens in Europe…

Stays in Europe! we all shouted.

The sun was shining through my flimsy curtains. Oh, I was so hung over! Huge headache! What time was it? I looked at the clock. Ten-thirty. Alright, I have to get up. I had so much to do before we leave for Europe tonight.

I started pushing Brandon. Come on you have to go. He turned over.

Good morning to you too, he snarled.

I’m sorry but it is ten-thirty. I have tons of stuff to do before I take off tonight.

Are you going to miss me? he asked.

Possibly, I smiled. I will miss this. I grabbed between his legs.

Hey! Hey! Lay off the jewels! I am sure you will find a replacement while you are on vacation.

What kind of girl do you think I am? I smirked.

A naughty one! He said as he jumped on top of me.

No! I can’t. I have to get up and you have to go! I laughed.

Oh come on…one more time. He started kissing my neck.

Oh all right! I started kissing him back. Knowing you I’m sure it will be quick anyways, I joked.

Chapter 3

We were about ready to land at Heathrow. The pilot welcomed us to London with the weather report. My backpack was huge. I had to check the damn pack it was so big.

I kept wondering how the hell was I going to carry this thing around on my back for hours at a time?

Well girls, are we ready to have some fun? I asked over the aisle at Kim, Laura, and Kelsey. Somehow I got stuck sitting next to the smelly old couple on the plane.

Hell yeah! Kelsey says. Let’s go find the nearest pub and sample the local flavor!

I think we should check into the hostel first, Kim said. She was always the mom out of the group...looking out for us…making the safest decisions. She definitely needed to loosen up on this trip.

I think we need to find Kim a cute English boy! I said teasingly.

And a pint! Laura chimed in.

No. I don’t need a man to have fun! I plan on having fun with you guys, Kim said.

That didn’t come out right Kim, or are you turning lesbian for the trip? I teased. Kim just rolled her eyes. I think she was dreading what kind of trouble her friends would get into.

Laura joked, You are going to be awfully lonely then when we are all busy getting it on with hot dudes with accents.

We finally found the hostel after walking several blocks from where the cab dropped us off. The hostel was not too thrilling. It was full of boring Americans like us. We cleaned ourselves up and went looking for the nearest pub.

I can’t wait to start meeting European boys! I said as I was downing my first pint of the day nestled in a corner booth of a very crowded pub. It was early afternoon and already the crowd was pretty thick. Oh. That guy is really hot! I pointed over by the bar. Kim, Laura and Kelsey checked him out and agreed.

Didn’t you meet a boy when you were in Europe last time? Laura asked me.

Yeah. His name was Jan… and he was so cute! He was an older boy you know. He was sixteen and I was fourteen.

Didn’t you two write each other? Kelsey asked.

Yes. I was so in love with him! We wrote each other for about two years and then we just stopped. It just got old I guess. And then my friend Mara who I went to Europe with in the first place moved away to Japan with her family so there was no way I was going back there again. I always wondered what happened to him. He is probably a famous Dutch singer now or maybe he is a fat slob that lives in his mom’s basement. It could have gone either way, I smiled.

Oh what could have been? Kim teased. Hey that cute guy has some cute friends. Look they just showed up! We all just stared in that direction and smiled. Kelsey stood up to go talk to them. She always had the balls. I knew we were going to have a good night and we did.

The next day we walked around London soaking in all sites. The Cathedral, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, it seemed like we saw everything that day. I was exhausted and needed to sit down. We walked by a newsstand and Laura stopped to pick up a British Vogue. We flipped through the tabloid mags.

Hey! I know that man! I shouted pointing to this page in the tabloids. It was Harry Crittendon with a much younger blonde hottie at some black-tie charity event.

How do you know Lord Harry Crittendon? Kelsey asked as she was reading the snippet of an article for the picture.

I had dinner with him once when I was in Amsterdam that summer. He’s friends with a friend of Mara’s family, Aunt Margot. She was a duchess, you know.

He isn’t bad-looking for an old dude, Kelsey remarked eyeing him up and down in the picture.

Yeah, he was really nice but it looks like he does enjoy the younger women…she looks like she is in her twenties!

How old is he? Laura asked.

Uh...it says right here…sixty-one and she is ….twenty-seven! That is crazy! I shouted.

No…that is just gross, said Kim.

It says here… ‘wealthy billionaire’…did you know he was that rich? Kelsey asked me.

NO, I had no idea! Wow! I was shocked. I actually had dinner with a billionaire.

You should have asked him for some money, Kelsey joked.

Well, I can say I once had dinner with a billionaire. And it will never happen again. I put the magazine back on the rack. Are we ready to move on, ladies?

Certainly, said Laura as she paid for her Vogue. We all started walking down the street. I still couldn’t get over how rich Lord Crittendon was. I had no idea.

Two nights later, we were walking down the street heading for a late dinner and we saw a huge crowd in front of a giant building. It looked like a museum. There were photographers, limos, barricades…We all wondered what the hell is going on?

We decided to get a closer look. Prince Charles is due to arrive any minute now! a woman squealed in the crowd. I started making my way further into the crowd grabbing onto Kim, Kelsey, and Laura.

Come on. We gotta get closer! We squeezed in. I grew up as Prince William and Prince Harry were also growing up and they were always in the magazines along with their mother the late Princess Diana. Especially being from America where we have no royalty, it makes royalty that more fascinating to me. A limo pulled up. The crowd started shouting…flashbulbs went off everywhere. How exciting! An older couple got out. No idea who they were. Apparently the crowd didn’t either or they just didn’t care because the noise died down. The old people waved to the crowd and then entered the building. Three more limos quickly pulled up. More people who we didn’t know got out and walked up the stairs to the entrance. The crowd seemed to recognize some of them but my friends and I had no clue.

This is getting boring Sydney, Kelsey complained.

Alright, we’ll leave in a few minutes. Just hold on. I said.

Another car pulled up. The crowd yelled. Another couple got out of a limo. It was Prince Charles and Camilla. Wow! She didn’t look that bad in person! And he was looking pretty good too! We all looked at each other and squealed! I couldn’t believe we were actually seeing Prince Charles and Camilla. The crowd was screaming. They were waving at the crowd and smiling. The camera flashes were crazy! They finally walked up all those stairs to the entrance and the crowd then started to disperse. We all just looked at each other and smiled with glee. My mom was going to freak out when I tell her who we saw! We were all still standing there when another car pulled up. A blonde came out and Lord Harry Crittendon came out the other side, walked around, and grabbed her arm. People started to scream again for him as well. Or was it her? I had no idea who she was and just an inkling about him.

No way, you guys! I said. I couldn’t believe it. We were just talking about him the other day.

Too weird, said Laura.

Harry! Harry! Kelsey shouted and ducked. I looked at her and then looked over at the Crittendon guy.

What is she doing? Harry! she shouted again and then ducked behind the much taller Kim. Harry looked in our direction. I was so embarrassed and tried to hide behind Laura.

Thank god he just kept moving and finally entered the venue.

What are you doing Kelsey? I screamed. I slapped her shoulder.

What? The guy is rich. Maybe if he recognized you he will buy us something?

What? That is the stupidest thing I ever heard! He has no idea who the hell I am!

I’m starving! Let’s get out of here! yelled Kim as she started walking away. We needed to enjoy our last night in London so we quickly moved on.

Chapter 4

It was so beautiful! Sunny and warm! Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees…but this backpack was killing me! After a few days travelling on a train including the famous Chunnel we had finally arrived in Paris. We had stopped in