Billionaire BWWM Romance 1: The Billionaire's Arranged Marriage by Cj Howard Page A

hand beside his, looking at the comparison between the two of them. Matching skin. Matching people. Her team.
     
    “Baby girl, I am leaving early in the morning.” Her dad looked at her with sorrowful eyes.
     
    She sat up and looked at him in surprise. “Leaving? Where are you going?”
     
    “Your uncles in Japan need me there to help them with the business for a little while, so I’m going to go give them a hand,” he admitted to her.
     
    She shook her head in denial. “No! Daddy don’t leave me here! Take me with you!”
     
    “I’m sorry, my girl, but this is a long trip and you need to stay here at home.” He patted her back. “I’ll call you and check in on you. I promise,” he said with a half smile.
     
    Jillian was back to being miserable. “How long will you be gone?” she asked in a whisper.
     
    “A month,” he answered quietly.
     
    She lowered her head sadly and laid it against his shoulder. “I’m going to miss you so much, Daddy.” Her voice wavered.
     
    “I’m going to miss you, too, baby girl.”
     
     
     
     

Chapter4
     
    Reed walked into the dining room the morning after his disaster date and his father didn’t even bother to greet him with a ‘good morning’.
     
    “How did it go last night?” Carter asked immediately.
     
    Reed sagged down into his seat and picked up his coffee cup. “It was terrible.”
     
    Carter’s gaze hardened. “What do you mean it was terrible? What happened?”
     
    “She’s a snob and a goody-two shoes. It was a rotten night.” Reed stabbed at his breakfast with his fork.
     
    Carter leaned toward his son and glared at him. “Please tell me you didn’t try to make a move on that girl. She’s a conservative girl from a traditional Japanese family and she isn’t like one of your little play things. She’s a lady. What did you do to her?” Carter demanded.
     
    Reed grew defensive. “Nothing! Carter, nothing happened. I just don’t like her.”
     
    Carter drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, son, that’s too bad.”
     
    “Why is that?” Reed asked as suspicion built in his mind.
     
    “Because you’re going to ask her to marry you.”
     
    Reed almost jumped out of his chair. “ What?! ” he shouted.
     
    Carter looked at him with an unwavering gaze. “You are going to ask that girl to marry you, immediately. If you don’t ask her to marry you, I’m going to give the company to your younger brother and you are going to be disinherited. You will lose your car. You will be kicked out of this house permanently. You will have no money whatsoever to go and make a new life. You will be barred from ever returning, and you will not have any place in my life again.”
     
    Reed was too stunned to speak.
     
    Carter continued. “You have driven me too far, Reed. You are an embarrassment to this family and to the company that I have worked so hard all of my life to build. You go through women and money like they are running water. You have done nothing to improve your life or yourself, and you have no future ahead of you.
     
    “I refuse to continue to contribute to your lifestyle or the impending demise of my home, this family’s reputation or my company because you have chosen to be a careless playboy. This is your one and only chance, and you know I am dead serious about this. You marry that girl and make a solid responsible life for yourself or you are out of here. I want an engagement ring on her hand within the week.”
     
    Reed stared at his father. He knew Carter was deadly serious. He also remembered quite vividly, the sting of the slap she had planted on his cheek the night before and her insistence that she never wanted to see him again.
     
    “I’m not so sure that Jillian likes me very much. What if I got engaged to another girl?” Reed offered weakly, trying to compromise with his father.
     
    Carter held his gaze on his son. “You will marry Jillian. It’s your problem and your fault if she