His Willing Wife

By Sam Crescent

Luca Winters has worked hard to be the self-made billionaire that he is today. Left in the foster system as a child, he knows there is no one out there that will ever want him. He doesn’t care. Life has made him hard, tough, resilient. When Tillie Goodwin walks into his office, pleading with him not to tear apart her family’s company, he knows there is only one thing he wants from the brown-eyed temptress, and that is for her to be his wife.

Everyone has a price, and he didn’t expect Tillie to give up her freedom to help others—but she does.

He never expected her to be a virgin.

Tillie is curious about her new husband. Yes, he appears cruel, cold, and calculating, but little by little, she sees someone who needs to be loved. Their marriage hasn’t exactly gotten off to a great start, but that doesn’t mean they can't have a great one they both try.

Could she have it all with her grumpy billionaire, or will someone with a grudge against Luca take it all away from her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evernight
• Release date: May 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9780369505231

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Published by EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ® at Smashwords

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2024 Sam Crescent

ISBN: 978-0-3695-0523-1

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Editor: Lisa Petrocelli

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

HIS WILLING WIFE

Sam Crescent

Copyright © 2024

Chapter One

Luca Winters stared down at the image playing out before him on his cell phone. It wasn’t some kind of top-rate television show, nor was it any kind of porn. The video playing was of his wife.

His wife.

Those two words were still quite impossible to roll off the tongue, but they did. He’d never intended to have a wife, but when he saw an opportunity in taking over the Goodwin Empire, he’d decided to throw Tillie Goodwin into the deal. The youngest daughter, who had completely taken him by surprise. The Goodwin empire had been in trouble for nearly five years. He’d watched the gradual fall, until they had almost declared bankruptcy. Luca had his eye on the company for much longer than it had been failing. He’d waited for the right opportunity to strike. For three months, he sat in meetings with his lawyers and their lawyers, trying to negotiate terms, on how best to finally make the company his.

He’d just been about to close the deal, after working through it with her father, brother, and even her uncle, and then he’d gotten a visit just before signing day. Tillie had arrived in his office. Over the years he’d seen pictures of the young woman, but most of them had been blurry. She’d tried to stay out of the public eye, and seeing as her brother considered himself a Lothario, the media lapped up his shenanigans like it was the bread that fed them.

As for Tillie, she lived a quiet life, and for the most part he didn’t have a clue what she did behind the scenes, but she had come to him, pleading. Not for herself, like he had expected, or asking for more money. No, she had asked him to consider what he did with the company he purchased.

At first, he was shocked to finally meet the Goodwin daughter. The fact she pleaded for the workers, not for herself or her family, told him she cared for the workers.

"I have researched what you do and I know you … like to tear up companies, dismantle what you don’t want, discard what is draining money, but I want to remind you that none of this comes without consequences. There are hardworking people who have done an amazing job for Goodwin and they deserve to be treated as such. All I ask, no, all I beg, is you consider their livelihoods first."

It had been a long time since he’d seen anyone so considerate of others. Tillie wasn’t what he expected. He’d known plenty of heiresses and hadn’t been impressed with most of them. Tillie wasn’t selfish like them.

She’d asked him nicely and then fought the case, and he’d been so completely lost in her argument he’d simply not said anything.

Once she realized there was nothing more she could do, she got to her feet, about ready to leave, and then it got interesting.

"Tell me, Miss Goodwin, just how far are you willing to go for your workers?" he asked.

"I’m not sure I follow."

"It’s simple, really. If you want me to consider keeping your father’s empire without making too many changes, then I’m going to need something in return."

"What do you want?"

"How about you become mine?"

"What?"

"Marry me, obey me, serve me, and I will make sure there is not a single good worker who loses their job. I’m not going to keep bad workers or lazy workers, but decent, hardworking people can stay. The others, I’ll cut them loose, but in return I get you, one hundred percent."

This meeting had taken place three months ago. They had married two weeks ago, and on their wedding night, Tillie had served him another surprise—she’d been a virgin. Her family had been thrilled, if not a little taken aback by the sudden announcement of their upcoming marriage.

The sudden change in the relationship had come with a few … problems of their own. The first one simply being that negotiations had to change tactic. He owned the Goodwin empire, but her father and brother still remained in positions. Rather than making any decisions, they consulted him and he made the final ones. So far, it had worked, but it had only been three months, and it took awhile for some changes to be accepted. He wasn’t sure if her father or brother were happy, but he knew her uncle wasn’t.

Luca had discovered the uncle’s area in the business was draining money faster than it was making, and it had something to do with his technological approach. After much discussion and multiple presentations, it had been agreed his budget would be removed, the staff placed elsewhere, and the uncle let go. He’d so far been the only loss of staff, and from what Luca could see, the biggest cause of the whole company’s problems.

Now, his other little problem was his rather confusing wife. Well, Tillie wasn’t confusing. She was the same Tillie, only now she belonged to him, and, well, he didn’t know what to do with a wife. After finding out she was a virgin, he’d kept his distance.

He only allowed himself to look at her on the security cameras he had placed around his home.

Tillie was once again in the kitchen. It was late, a little after seven, but there she was, hair pinned back, apron on, and cooking or baking something. From the information he’d gathered from her brother and father, Tillie was a homemaker. She didn’t like the limelight or the cameras. She had a rather scary interaction with the press, and since that day, she had steered clear of them. He didn’t know exactly what it was that caused her fear, but he could imagine to a young person—which is what she’d been at the time—it could be rather frightening.

Luca didn’t understand her. He didn’t have a clue what made her tick, and how on earth did a twenty-five-year-old woman remain a damn virgin? Their wedding night had been a disaster, and he’d given her a break, allowed her to get used to the idea of being married to him.

He’d kept his distance, but his needs were starting to reignite. From the moment he had seen Tillie, he’d felt this overwhelming attraction to her that he couldn’t deny. The camera angle was all wrong, but he knew hidden behind that counter was a body he craved. Full, ripe tits with nice, large nipples, and they were more than a handful; he knew because he’d tested the weight of them himself. She did have a small waist, which flared out to wide hips, full thighs, and a curvy ass. One designed to constantly have his hand touching it. She’d pulled her long brown hair back into a messy bun to keep it out of the way. Behind the apron, he saw one of the many white V-neck shirts he knew she owned.

Tillie wore anything and everything. He’d seen her in jeans, pants, sweats, skirts, dresses, and she didn’t have a problem wearing the same things either. Again, he didn’t understand his wife.

Running a hand down his face, he had meant to be cruel when he offered her a marriage contract, but instead she’d taken the deal and now he had no choice but to follow through. There was so much that could be saved at her father’s company.

Luca watched as she dolloped mounds of what appeared to be cookie dough onto baking sheets.

What the fuck had this woman done to him? He’d never been so obsessed with a woman before in his life. They were a means to an end, and yet here he was, getting no work done, and instead watching a woman through the security cameras he’d set up when he married her.

****

The scent of chocolate chip cookies never failed to make Tillie feel comforted. The whole process of preparing, making, and then baking, filled her with a warmth so deep it was like being back in her grandmother’s kitchen all over again.

Unlike Andrew, her brother, who was more interested in the family business, Tillie had gravitated toward her grandmother. She hadn’t been close to her mother, who’d wanted to do the whole beauty pageant thing that Tillie never wanted to attend. It had taken her grandparents and father pulling rank over her mother to stop her from going.

She should have known it would cause some trouble with her mother, though, and since then, they’d never been close. Not even on her wedding day. Her mother had said how proud she was, and she’d smiled and done all the cheering and looking the doting mother, but Tillie had known it was an act. All she wished was that her grandmother had been there.

Her grandmother on her father’s side had told her many times that she’d not been welcome in the Goodwin family. Coming