Marriage Of Convenience: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story by Cher Etan, BWWM Club Page A

proposed and Leila lowered herself into the
chair and crossed her legs. Jonathon couldn’t help it; he had
to look. She was wearing a nineteen fifties style A-line dress that
ended just below her knees so her gams were on display. His eyes
darted quickly to her face, hoping she hadn’t noticed his
momentary lapse in manners but no such luck. Judging by the
unwavering glare she was directing at him, she had noticed. And now
she probably thought this was some tacky sex for money deal.
    “ My
father died on September 11 th .
He was a fireman,” he blurted. He was gratified to see that
he’d surprised her though she said nothing.
    “ You
ever think there must have been other people who died on that day. I
mean people who weren’t at the twin towers. Isn’t that a
strange thought?”
    Leila’s eyebrows
went up and her lips pursed but she still didn’t say anything.
    “ Anyway.
He was a fireman and he and my mother were ecstatically,
embarrassingly happy. They were the kind of parents who held hands
when they came for my varsity games and kissed each other while
waiting to go in for parent teacher conferences. I found it
mortifying at the time,” Jonathon smiled ruefully. “I’d
give anything to give her back her husband now.”
    Leila continued to
watch him.
    “ Anyway,
my parents, they were just average joes you know? I mean I knew I had
an insanely rich grandfather, he sent me some out of this world
Christmas and birthday presents after all; but he wasn’t…we
weren’t…my father, he looked after us. We were just an
average family,” he said.
    “ Why
are you telling me this?” she asked.
    Jonathon sighed in
relief; he hadn’t been sure she was really listening. “I
need to give you some background. You need to know where I’m
coming from.”
    “ Why?”
she asked.
    “ I’ll
come to that. Can I tell it my way?”
    Leila gave a one
shouldered shrug.
    “ Okay
good. Well anyway, there was nothing different that day when we got
up. Dad kissed me on the cheek like usual and I wiped away his
imprint with the same irritation I’d adopted since I was
twelve. I regret that…” Jonathon looked up at her from
his contemplation of the patterns on the rug. “I regret that
every day. Why did I wipe it away? It was the last touch I would feel
from my dad.”
    “ Better
than if he punched you in the face,” Leila said unexpectedly.
    Jonathon laughed, “Yeah
I guess so. Anyway, the first we knew there was a problem was when my
dad called my mother to make sure we were nowhere near downtown. He
said there had been some sort of attack and they were on their way to
the scene. He told us to stay inside…”
    “ The
baby sitter ran out on us that day. I was actually with my mother
when the call came in. Sitting at the back of the station, writing a
practice essay. She left me with the station captain while she went
to the site. He was frantic, trying to direct all the teams. I felt
his urgency, but I didn’t think it was anything out of the
ordinary. I just sat there, doing my essay.”
    “ You’re
lucky. We were glued to the news channels, trying to find out what
happened. Mama was freaking out. It wasn’t until two men came
to our door the next morning that she actually broke down though.
After that, it was just her and me. For a while there…I
thought it would be just me pretty soon. She was messed up. I called
my grandfather and asked for his help.” Jonathon was looking at
her as he said this and she couldn’t help the softening in her
eyes. Clearly she’d been wrong about his not going through life
knowing about problems.
    “ Well
anyway, that’s how James Maitland came to be in our lives full
time. I still lived with my mother though, and she clung to me really
tight after that. We’re still very close. It's important you
understand that.”
    “ Why?”
Leila asked startling Jonathon. Somehow he thought she’d
already agreed to his proposal.
    “ I’ll
get to that. Anyway, when James had his