Writing Our Song:A Billionaire Romance

Chapter 18


2 years later…

For some reason I couldn’t shake the nerves. It was irrational, Jeremy had seen the best and worst of me already. There was no reason for this to be embarrassing.


I sneaked a glance up at the face of the man holding my hand and then concentrated on spotting the right row to walk along again. Jeremy showed only the faintest hints of the nervousness I was feeling. Somehow that buoyed me, the fact that he wasn’t just humoring me. It was serious for him too.

When we came to where we should turn in, I stopped and squeezed his hand, he came to a halt a step after me and turned towards me. I gulped and took in a deep breath that puffed out my cheeks when I let it out.

“Can you wait here a minute?” I asked.

“Sure.”

I raised myself up on the tips of my toes and tilted my head to the right, giving him a light kiss on the lips as he leaned down. When we parted he held my gaze for a moment, almost mesmerizing me. As usual.

“I love how you look at me,” I said.

“I love how you look,” Jeremy said with a smile. “Wave me over when you’re ready, I’ll be right here.”

With one last squeeze, I let his hand go and walked along the grass until I came to my dad’s grave. It was a beautiful day and the sun shone down on the cemetery from an almost completely clear sky. It was a fitting weather for what I had come to say.

“Hi, Dad. I can’t believe it’s been seven years since… well, you know. I can still remember your laugh, your smile, your smell. Sometimes when things get tough I can hear you saying ‘sack up, sunshine’ or something else perfectly inappropriate and I fight my way through.”

Behind me, without a sound, I could sense Jeremy standing there, my steady rock to stand on, and I smiled before continuing.

“Things aren’t so bad anymore though. You know how I told you I had met someone? His name is Jeremy and… I’m not alone anymore, Dad. I’ve been surrounded by people since you died, but for the first time I’m really not alone. I’m… I’m… in love! I feel like I could write a song and sing again! And… uh…”

I held out my left hand, palm down and bent at the wrist, showing off the diamond set into a gold band on my ring finger.

“I’m getting married!” I whispered, as if keeping a secret from all the other cemetery residents. “He asked me to marry him, and I said yes. So… I wanted you to meet him. Please don’t pull out your shotgun.”

I turned and waved at Jeremy, who walked over, put his arm around my shoulder and looked down at the grave. The nerves returned as I looked from the ground to Jeremy and back again.

“Dad… this is Jeremy.” I said quietly.

“I wish I could have met you properly, Mr. Hampton, asked for your blessing. You brought a great person into the world, my favorite person. I love your daughter with everything I’ve got.”

Relief washed over me and I rested my head against Jeremy’s chest for a while before we sat on the ground and just talked and laughed for the better part of an hour. Time flew by and it was soon time to leave so we could head back home.

“Bye Dad, I’ll be back soon,” I said.

Jeremy gave a close-lipped smile and took my hand to help me up before we walked away. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him watching me and looked up at him self-consciously.

“What? Do I have spinach stuck in my teeth?”

“Yes, but it’s not that.”

“What then?”

“Nothing. Just… I love you, wife.”

“Did I miss something? Getting a bit ahead of yourself, aren’t you?”

“I just like the way it sounds,” he said.

“So do I, actually… and I love you too, husband.”

My not-quite-husband pulled me close and we left the cemetery together. I knew that by mid-evening we’d be back at Jeremy’s place in L.A. It still felt like his house but because Jeremy lived there with me it was my home too, a place where I was meant to be and full of as much love as I could have ever imagined.

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Remember Our Song: A Billionaire Romance

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Remember Our Song: A Billionaire Romance (Chapter 1)


A regular holiday is hard to organize when your husband is Jeremy Holt. He never sought out fame, it was just inextricably linked to fortune, which Jeremy had in abundance. He founded his first company at the tender age of sixteen, which he sold in his early twenties for a couple hundred thousand dollars. With that money he formed his second company, which ended up selling for a couple hundred million.

Things only went up from there and, as I brought my eyes up and to the left from my white-knuckled grip on my armrests, I felt his innate confidence flow into me like we had some kind of magic link. He had that way about him, in the business world he dominated every meeting and negotiation he went into, making people nervous, confident or pliable as he wished, and finding solutions to problems that others didn’t think of. ‘Playing the game’ he called it, and he was a world champion.

Looking at him, you would have thought that he’d been born flying a helicopter. Although that would have made for a somewhat difficult birth, it would have explained the self-assured pressing of buttons, flicking of switches and the authoritative responses to air traffic control, or whatever the Greeks called their version of it.

I still felt like I was living in a fairy tale sometimes, my whole life was in a downward spiral when I met him. I honestly think he saved me from myself, that’s why he was my J-man, my own personal super hero. After a rocky start, one thing led to another and before I knew it we were married.

I wouldn’t have said being the wife of a billionaire was hard in any traditional sense of the word, but it definitely presented some challenges. Take this holiday for instance. When I was growing up I never dreamed that I’d ever have to deal with paparazzi, but now they were a semi-regular intrusion in my life. We’d had to travel the world by plane, train, automobile and now private helicopter, send out fake itineraries, fake flight plans, fake hotel bookings and wear huge sunglasses at every port, airport and public place we touched down in.

All that was just to get this far, to have something resembling a regular holiday. We were almost there though, the Greek island of Agistri was only a twenty minute helicopter flight from Piraeus, and it was in sight now. Jeremy glanced over at me and flashed a big grin, I couldn’t help but smile back. Despite the fact that we were in the final stage of our run from the media, he had chosen to keep his ninety-nine cent 1980s style mirror-finish sunglasses on. All they needed was a reflection of a mountain range in them to complete the look and it would have been perfect.

The sunglasses, purchased at a gas station by Jeremy’s driver, Stan, all the way back in L.A, chose that precise moment to have one of the lenses fall out. Somehow he managed to keep a straight face while I doubled over laughing.

“What?” he asked.

“You going to keep on wearing those sunglasses now, or what?”

“I think I’m going to wear them even more now that I only have to worry about fifty percent of the scratches on the lenses that I used to.”

“Convenient! And if we get one of those days were one minute it’s sunny and the next it’s cloudy, you can just open one eye and close the other. Alternate depending on the weather!”

“What I lose in depth perception, I’ll make up for in style!”

His serious face finally cracked and we shared some belly-aching laughter as Agistri loomed ever closer. We were going to land in the back yard of some villager, one of the few open spaces big enough to attempt it. It hadn’t been easy to organize, just like everything else on the holiday, but after some compulsory grumbling, the man in question had accepted a payment for the inconvenience and his silence about expecting anybody at all in a helicopter.

After we landed, it was going to be a different kind of vacation than any we’d ever taken together. No luxury suites at five-and-above star hotels, no drivers, no room service, nothing but us and whatever amenities were available in Skala, the main population center with all of several hundred people. Odds were that the thousand or so Greeks who lived on the island had no idea who we were, Jeremy’s quasi-celebrity status only went so far, we were going to be hiding in plain sight, doing normal things together.

In a matter of seconds the sea seemed to lose it’s beautiful blue color as we flew over it, paling until it was almost as clear as any spring water I’d ever drank, revealing the white sand under the surface, and then we were over Agistri. Jeremy had been shown on the map exactly where to go and headed there as if he had landed in this person’s back yard a million times, discarding the broken sunglasses to concentrate.

My nerves returned as the helicopter approached the land, I wasn’t the happiest flier at the best of times and this was the first time Jeremy had managed to convince me to get into a helicopter since he’d received his license. It was just a short hop, he said. It’s a calm time of year, he said. I still wished we’d taken the boat across, but had to admit that it wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined. If only those pine trees weren’t so close!

Pine trees or not, we touched down without incident and I waited as Jeremy flicked switches with the steadily lowering drone of the rotors in the background. Finally he took off the headset and unbuckled himself, standing up and reaching behind his seat to pass me my backpack before picking up his own.

“C’mon Bumble-Bea, let’s get walking. I feel the need to maybe splash out a couple of dollars on some sunglasses. Get me some of that high-grade plastic all the high-society folks back home are talkin’ about.”

“Euros,” I said, blushing at his use of the nickname.

“Euros, Pesos, whatever. There’s not a cloud in the sky, so I want a pair with two functional lenses.”

“Isn’t this guy going to meet us, complain about the helicopter in his yard?”

“I thought so, but it doesn’t really matter. It was all arranged, we’re here within fifteen minutes of when we said we would be. Let’s just go,” Jeremy said and opened the door. “Step out carefully, don’t jump.”

I looked up warily as I lowered myself to the ground. The blades were still spinning lazily, almost silent compared to the roar when they were at full speed. The ominous ‘whoosh’ sound they made every time one passed by was as if they were reminding me that they could be plenty nasty if they wanted to. I crouched comically low until I was well out of their reach.


I turned to see Jeremy stride behind me, walking confidently tall, squinting in the sunshine.

“Skala’s this way,” he said giving me a friendly pat on the ass as he took the lead.

The walk to Skala was a pleasant one. We saw no vehicles on the roads unless you count the single bicycle pedalled resolutely by an old Greek man with skin like leather as if he’d been riding that bike for a year in the hot sun. Most of the little houses we walked past had wide open doors, letting us get a peek at the mostly earthy colored décor, with occasional splashes of bright blues or yellows.

The side of the road frequently had some kind of fruit-bearing tree and I paused by one for a closer look.

“Any idea what these are?” I asked, plucking one.

“It’s a fig,” he said. “Never had one?”

“Nope. Are they good?”

“There’s worse things you could eat.”

Jeremy took the fig from my hand and bit into the skin, pulling it back to reveal what I thought looked like a gooey mess of little seeds. He tore it into two pieces, handed me one and popped the other part into his mouth. I did the same, chewing tentatively before swallowing and wrinkling my nose.

“Cross it off the bucket list, don’t think I’ll bother with that again.”

The houses became somewhat more densely packed as we neared Skala, still nothing like back home of course, and we saw a small general store, something that looked like an Italian restaurant, and even a bakery with the smell of wonderful fresh bread wafting out enticingly.

The first motor vehicle we’d seen in motion on the small island drove past with a cheerful ‘beep, beep’, it was a golf cart towing several trailers behind it like a small trackless train. The trailers had plenty of seats, but only about three of them were occupied by relaxed looking tourists who had had enough of walking.

To be honest, I couldn’t blame them. The sky was without even a hint of cloud and the sun beat down upon us non-stop, I could feel my clothes sticking to me and couldn’t wait to have a dip in the ocean. Jeremy held out his hand and I took it, we walked the rest of the way shoulder to shoulder, each of our knuckles occasionally brushing against the other’s thighs as we stepped.

The place we were staying was literally right on the beach, as in the road in front had a healthy dusting of sand blown in by the wind. It took a supreme effort of willpower to not just run, giggling like a madman, straight into the water, it looked so beautiful, clear and refreshing.

In front of the main block of rooms was a pool and a bar that was called ‘Oasis’ if the beach umbrellas over all the tables were to be believed. I had to wonder how much use the pool saw, with the ocean only about ten seconds run away, but it did look lovely, the cool blue water surrounded by tiles in various shades of pale red. We walked past it, with a wistful glance, towards the reception, which was marked with a sign handwritten on white cardboard.

Jeremy slid the glass door to the side and we walked into a tiny office with a hopelessly outmatched little desk fan on top of the counter shifting the warm air around a little bit. Nobody was sitting in the chair behind said counter, but there was an open door on the back wall, through which I could hear the sound of a television. Little tassels had been attached to the protective cage around the blades and I had what I thought was a flash of genius.

“Hey, why don’t they have a protective cage around the propellers on a helicopter?”

Jeremy gave me a quizzical look before grinning and bunching up his fists next to his cheeks like an excited schoolboy.

“Wow! I’ll get the engineers right on it!”

“Well, why not!”

Jeremy held his hands out to either side twinkling his fingers like he was in a Broadway musical.

“Hey, maybe we could get a military contract! We could add in the tassels free of charge! Imagine that, the gunships would look so pretty!”

“I’m seriou…”

Jeremy pulled me in for a hug, planting a million quick kisses on my neck. The short stubble on his face soon had me giggling from the tickling and I had to struggle to fight him off before he finally stopped and I just rested my head on his chest, surrounded by his embrace. I turned my head to the other side to see a young girl of about sixteen leaning against the doorframe in the back wall, smiling at us.

“Hello, checking in?”

“Yes, we’ve got a reservation under the name ‘Lewis’, that’s L-E-W-I-S,” Jeremy said, giving the pseudonym we’d used for the booking.

“One moment.”

The girl sat in the chair behind the counter, moved the computer mouse around until the screen turned on and then entered a password and keyed in the name we’d given.

“Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, seven days?”

“That’s us.”

“Excellent, I see you paid everything in advance, thank you very much. Here are your keys, you’re in room nine, it’s on the first floor just up those steps over there.”

The girl pointed back out the sliding glass door to a staircase that rose up over the swimming pool before continuing with her welcome-spiel.

“The bar is open from eight in the morning until one in the morning, but the music is turned down at ten so as to not disturb your sleep. You’re welcome to use the pool any time you like, of course. The reception is open from eight to eight every day if you need anything.”

“The website said you had internet access, is that correct?” Jeremy asked.

“Yes, wireless access,” the girl pointed at a router sitting on the window sill. “Everybody staying here who wants the internet has to go through that, so it can run a bit slow sometimes.”

“No problem, we’re not here to work,” I shot Jeremy a warning glare.

The girl tore a map off a pad of pre-printed maps and wrote something on it.

“This is the name of the wireless connection and the password, we change it a couple of times a week, so just ask if you suddenly find it doesn’t work anymore. The map is the extremely-local area, so you know where the various restaurants and shops are. Some of the businesses around here have advertised some discounts around the map, make your money go a bit further.”

Jeremy and I put on our best Hollywood smiles and thanked her before heading back into the sunshine, which seemed even brighter after a few minutes in the comparatively dark reception.

Heading up the stairs I looked out over the swimming pool towards the beach, admiring the view. Directly in front of our accommodation there were several sun-loungers set up near huge umbrellas made from dried grasses or palm fronds, or something.

To the left, along the coast a little bit and behind a small hill was a huge beautiful church. I had to wonder if it could fit the entire population of the island all at once, it was the most imposing structure I’d spotted since landing. It blazed a pristine white in the bright sunshine, topped with sky-blue domes, one over the bell tower and a larger one over what I assumed was the main hall.

Jeremy walked past doors until he arrived at number nine and unlocked it. Pushing the door open he then stood aside and made a dramatic gesture.

“Ladies first,” he said.

“Thank you, kind sir.”

Upon entering the room, I saw that there was a combined shower and toilet room immediately to the right, the entire floor tiled and subtly sloping towards a drain. Directly ahead after about ten feet were three steps down into the bedroom, with a sliding glass door on the wall furthest from the front door opening on to a small private balcony. The balcony overlooked precisely nothing but a chain link fence and some scraggly trees, which were themselves set on the rear boundary of some set of stores that fronted on to a different street.


I dumped my backpack on the ground unceremoniously and rubbed at my shoulders, hoping that the heaviest thing I had to carry for the next seven days was a ludicrously girly fruity drink with a small umbrella in it. Jeremy leaned his pack carefully against the wall, he had a few gadgets in there that would probably not withstand being slammed on the unforgiving tiles as well as my bikinis would.

Stepping up behind me I felt his strong hands push mine away and take over the shoulder-rubbing duties. I let my arms drop to my sides and closed my eyes, leaning back against him as the weariness of all the travelling it took to get this far seemed to finally catch up with me.

Jeremy’s hands slid from my shoulders, down the length of my arms, the very tips of his fingers just brushing the sides of my breasts, bringing a playful smile to my face. Lower they roamed until he wrapped his arms around my midriff, partially supporting my weight, and gave me a loving kiss on the neck.

I turned in his arms to face him and pulled my top off over my head suggestively, leaving just my simple bra to cover the nakedness of my upper body.

“Do you know what I’m thinking?” I asked.

Jeremy smiled and leaned in to kiss me on the lips, but stopped an inch or two short and pulled back, a suspicious look on his face.

“It’s swimming, isn’t it? You’re thinking about swimming?”

“That’s right, J-man, but maybe later on you can have your way with this damsel in distress.”

“You sure?”

My God I wanted him right there and then, my heart and body argued relentlessly with my mind… but I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the location too. I was going to be with him my whole life, but probably would never come back to this tiny island as long as I lived.

“Yeah…”

“OK then.”

With one last squeeze, he let me go and went to his back pack to find his swimming trunks. I knew I’d be paying later, in the best possible way, for making him wait. The thought of it almost made me pull him towards the bed, but instead I searched through my backpack to find a bikini to wear. My heart was fluttering with excitement, I loved how even after being with him for six years he could still make me feel like I had butterflies in my stomach.

“Love you, babe,” I said.

Jeremy stood with his swimming trunks in his hand and began to get changed.

“Love you too, Bea. Thanks again for talking me into this holiday, I never really considered the possibility of just going to a nice place where nobody knew me. It’s quite a relief, actually.”

I finally tracked down a matching top and bottom and changed into them while Jeremy retrieved some beach towels from the bathroom. When he came back he was also carrying two set of snorkeling masks and flippers.

“Hey, we haven’t been snorkeling in a while, want to?”

“Yeah!”

Jeremy handed me my mask and fins as we walked out the door, then locked it and tucked the keys away inside a Velcro-sealed pocket on the inside of his swimming trunks. We passed the pool again and I saw three of the women sitting in the shade at various tables in the Oasis bar glance over and then do a double take at the sight of my husband.

Even without the expensive suits and Italian sports cars, he was quite eye-catching. Wearing nothing but his swimming trunks, his perfect six-pack abs were on full display. I turned my head and had to admit he looked like a Greek God making a triumphant return to the modern world. Without the huge bushy beard, though.

I skipped across the road, the tar seal nigh-on incinerating my feet, finally getting out of the fire and into the frying pan when I stepped into the almost-as-hot sand. I took a few more paces before throwing my towel down and hopping on to it, so as to give myself a safe platform to put the mask and fins on from.

“Did you see those women checking you out?” Jeremy asked, standing on his own towel.

“Shut up.”

With my mask and fins securely attached I proceeded walking backwards in the direction of the ocean, as I had been taught how to do back when I first snorkeled. Jeremy walked forwards, taking big comical waddling steps to avoid the fins catching on the ground and tripping him up.

The water first lapped around my ankles and then splashed around my legs until I let myself collapse backwards and rolled over to face the bottom, blowing any water out of the breathing tube that had managed to get in and kicking to propel myself into even deeper waters. I had been expecting it to be cold, but the water was lukewarm, like a bath that had been poured an hour ago and forgotten about.

The water was as clear as any ocean I had ever swam in and as the ocean washed away the sweat and dust of our travels, I felt invigorated. A few fish, though less than I had expected, swam lazily here and there, seeming to give us a cursory glance before determining that there was no possible way we could swim fast enough to catch them and just carrying on their fishy business.

At last, the holiday had really begun, just Jeremy, me, and the fish!