Billionaire Wedding: Brooklyn's Baby (Interracial Billionaire Wedding Romance) ( Contemporary Taboo Alpha Male Wedding Romance) Read online

  Yury pulled off. She tried to wrap her head around what had just taken place, but she could not quite figure out what Kerry’s end game was. Was this a weird form of flirtation? Surely not, she thought, but she could not shake the feeling. It surprisingly did not take them long to get to the restaurant. She looked out the window and was embarrassed to see that they were just at a small mom-and-pop diner in Brooklyn. She looked down at her dress and silently thanked God that Lillian had delivered something that would not stand out too much in this low-end diner. She smiled, realizing that Lillian had intentionally picked out something that would be nice enough for formal dining but also not too elegant to make her look foolish if Kerry decided to take her somewhere low key. “Thank God,” she muttered, not at all eager to run into another embarrassing clothing mishap like she had with her suit. Yury hurried around the car to open the door for her. “Thank you,” she said to him.

  “No, no, thank you!” he smiled.

  She headed inside the diner. She had been there plenty of times before. It was a 1950s American style diner owned by an Israeli family that had only been in the States for a generation or two. The people who worked there were friendly. She spotted Kerry in the back of the diner and he waved her over.

  Mercedes came and sat across from him at the small, round table. “Sorry, I was in the mood for a hamburger,” he admitted to her. “And I couldn’t think of a better place.”

  Mercedes laughed at him. “I guess I did not expect someone…like you…to appreciate an old style diner like this.”

  “Like me?” Kerry asked as he opened up his briefcase to fetch the paperwork.

  A waitress came over, smiling ear to ear. “Hey Kerry, you want your usual?” she asked.

  “I think so,” he said with a smile.

  The same waitress smiled at Mercedes. “How about for you?” the server than paused for a moment, “Hey! I know you. You worked on my father’s car last year. You were so sweet, you gave him deal on his tires after he ran them flat. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Mercedes said and then quickly placed her order. The waitress scurried off, returning briefly with their drinks, and then disappeared behind the counter. “You have a usual here?”

  Kerry smiled, lying the paperwork down on the table. “I’ve been here a few times.”

  “Seems like more than just a few,” she said.

  He laughed. “Okay, you caught me. I have a serious weakness for fattening and greasy foods. Try not to judge me too much. The owner, he’s a nice man. The first time I came in here we got to talking. I stayed here for hours chatting with him about him coming here from Israel and starting up this little business. The family here is nice, and the food is good.”

  Mercedes found herself laughing in spite of herself. Before she could say anything, the server placed two milkshakes in front of them. She looked at Kerry curiously. “You ordered us milkshakes?” she asked.

  “You struck me as a strawberry milkshake person. How wrong was I?” he asked.

  She smiled. “Dead on, actually.” She sipped on the strawberry milkshake. It was one of the best strawberry milkshakes she had ever had. This meeting was starting to feel almost like a date; Kerry was surprisingly charming when he was not frustrated. “You want to go ahead and get that out of the way?” she pointed to the paperwork.

  “Let’s do. Last thing I want is to get hamburger grease on this.” He passed the paperwork off to her. She read through it; he pointed out a few places for her sign and answered any questions she had. He seemed surprised that she had any questions at all, but he did his best to be direct. Once everything was signed, he put away the paperwork in his briefcase. “I’m very excited about this project. I think you’re going to enjoy working for Brian O’Brian.”

  “So who is Brian O’Brian, anyways?” she asked.

  He laughed at her, “No one. Just a terrible name for a company named after my family.”

  She laughed, “So no Brian’s in the O’Brian family, then?”

  “Thankfully, no.” he smirked. “But that does sound like something my aunt would have done if, rest her soul, she had ever had children. She was funny like that.”

  Mercedes was surprised at how easy it was becoming to talk to Kerry. They came from entirely different, it seemed, yet they both liked to dip their fries in their milkshakes like everyone else. They spoke more about the project once the food arrived. She tried her best not to make a mess while eating her burger. Kerry, on more than one occasion, embarrassed himself by getting ketchup on the side of his face. “Sorry, sorry,” he would say and quickly wipe his food away and Mercedes would laugh. It was hard to believe that this was the same man she had met at the construction site. This version of Kerry was very pleasant and she found herself blushing on occasion when he spoke, but she was always very quick to shake the girlish feelings away. This was job and that was all. She would not allow herself to become distracted just because her boss had pretty eyes and a pearly white smile. She hated how she kept having to remind herself that this was not a date. There was just something about Kerry O’Brian that had suddenly struck her fancy.

  During dinner, Mercedes asked about his secretary, Lillian Harris. Her curiosity about the faceless woman was starting to get the better of her. “What about her?” Kerry asked, not sure what Mercedes’ fascination was.

  “Honestly?” Mercedes blushed. “She is the one who sent me that suit. She had a letter attached to it, telling me to wear it to our meeting this morning.”

  Kerry shrugged. “That’s a little odd. I did not tell her to do that. I only asked that she handle settling your debt with the landlord for me. And that’s a lot of extra work to go get a suit for someone who is just a temp.”

  “A temp?” Mercedes questioned.

  “Yes,” Kerry said, “She’s staying with us until the end of the year when Julie, another of my secretaries, gets back from maternity leave.”

  “So Miss Harris is not on vacation?” Mercedes asked.

  “No?” Kerry looked at her curiously, “She was gone today. She called in sick after leaving your apartment last night. What made you think she was on vacation?”

  Mercedes felt that she was about to get the woman in trouble, so she simply shrugged Kerry’s question off. “I’m not sure why I thought that.” She decided not to mention the dress to Kerry. This woman was being kind to her, so she did not want her to get in trouble for ditching work. The inconsistencies between Miss Harris’ claims in the letter and what Kerry was telling her only furthered Mercedes’ curiosity.

  “If it means anything to you, Miss Harris’ husband owns another Construction business- his is just outside of the city, though. He and I are contracting for a merger right now,” Kerry explained, “She’s not a particularly good secretary - it’s obvious she’s never worked a day in her life, but she does her best. During a meeting with her and her husband I mentioned one of my secretaries being out on maternity leave and me having a hard time finding a good replacement. She acted as though she had done that type of work before and offered to fill in. I think it was an attempt at brown-nosing me on her husband’s behalf. She’s an interesting character to say the least. I really don’t know what to think about the woman. It is honestly pretty odd having another CEO’s wife play secretary in my office building.”

  Mercedes chuckled. “What a strange woman.”

  When dinner was finished the two of them headed outside. Kerry offered to drive her home himself, but Mercedes quickly turned down the offer. “I think I’ll just have Yury drive me home. Why did you hire him for your driver by the way?”

  Kerry shrugged. “I needed a new driver, and you said you liked him so I considered that a recommendation.”

  Mercedes felt that there was something more to Kerry’s casual reasoning, but she did not bother him about it. Yury pulled up, happily greeting them both and opening the door for Mercedes. “I’ll see you Monday, n” Kerry told her as Yury was closing the door. Yury pulled the car out of
the lot, humming to himself as he drove. He was quietly playing some Russian music through his radio.

  “Monday,” she said under her breath, hardly able to imagine what the following week would bring her.

  ***

  Mercedes was surprised at how incredibly nervous she was as she headed towards the construction site in Queens. Yury was, of course, her driver. “You going make excellent foreman,” he told her, although she was certain he was not sure what a foreman was. “You do good, Miss Mercado.” He tried to reassure her and she smiled, starting to enjoy listening to Yury’s blaring foreign music he liked to play when he drove her. He was already becoming very comfortable around her. She had learned a little bit about his wife since they had first met. She worked a waitress in a local diner. He claimed she knew English far better than he did because she had learned it in school very young.

  “Thanks, Yury,” she said. Today she wore a pair of snug blue jeans and midriffs. It was a comfortable enough attire to wear all day on site. At last, the vehicle pulled up at the desired location. Upon exiting, she gazed out at the barren scape of dirt patches that would eventually house a small skyscraper. “I hope I can do this,” she uttered nervously, feeling as though her boots were glued to the sidewalk. A part of her was wondering if she had bit off a bit more than she could chew.

  “Goodbye, Miss Mercado! Good luck your first day.” Yury sang before climbing back into the company vehicle.

  Mercedes crossed onto the property, taking in her surroundings before addressing any of her workmen. To the left were a number of campers set up; these would be her on-cite office suits. Straight ahead was the construction zone, a large patch of dirt. Most of the materials were scattered about in a somewhat orderly fashion. The men, all dressed in jeans, t-shirts, and hardhats, had found some seats near the piling of scraps. Most of them were enjoying their morning coffee, all far too distracted in conversation to have noticed her arrival. The ring leader of the group seemed to be the large, burly looking man who was standing upright and telling some sort of story about some girl he had gotten with over the weekend. Mercedes rolled her eyes, but she was used to this kind of talk. As a female mechanic, she had spent most of her life surrounded by burly men who enjoyed locker-room like tales. This would not be so different as far of the types of brutes she would be dealing with.

  Before dealing with the men, she headed to inspect the trailers. She entered inside and was rather pleased to discover that they were air conditioned. There was a couch and television set up as well a well-stocked fridge and to her left was a separate office space for her specifically; the door read Foreman’s Office. She entered the office area and threw her purse and paperwork down. There was a large, cushioned chair in one corner and a desk set-up in the other. “Not bad,” she said. This was certainly more than she had expected. Deciding she had wasted enough time exploring, Mercedes exited the camper and headed towards the group of construction workers to get them started on their first assignments.

  As she came closer, unnoticed by the men, she was able to eavesdrop on their conversation after realizing she had become the topic at hand. “So has anyone seen what this chick supposedly looks like?” one man asked.

  “I don’t know. I think she’s a Mexican or something,” said another.

  The burly gang-leader snarled a bit. “Some MIT bitch who never graduated. I dare her to try to tell me what to do. She must have slept around to get this job.” The man was not pleased at all with the choice in foreman.

  “Easy, Al.” said the first man, “You know old Kerry isn’t like that.”

  The gang-leader, whose name was evidently Al, snorted, “Every guy’s like that. I’m not putting up with this crap. It’s bad enough he’s brought some immigrant broad on board, but this one’s not even qualified from what I hear.” Al was fuming. “I shouldn’t have to put up with this kind of crap at a company like this. I’ve been working here for years. I won’t listen to a word-”

  Mercedes loudly cleared her throat; the men embarrassingly all stood upright, acknowledging that they had been caught in conversation against her. “Immigrant broad, huh? Is that you think, you sack of shit?”

  Her language surprised the men, but Al did not seem the least bit embarrassed compared to the rest of them. He was not going to back down, it seemed. “Do you even know anything about construction, sweetie?” he mocked. He had stood upright and had rolled his eyes at her while the others had backed down and embarrassingly looked away.

  “I wouldn’t have gotten the job otherwise, dip-shit,” she said, “And let’s go ahead and get everything out on the table right now. I’m in charge, not you.”

  “We’ll see,” Al huffed and poked out his chest.

  Mercedes came right up to him and poked a finger into his puffed-out chest. “Are you and I going to have a problem?”

  Al gritted his teeth, “I’m not listening to some hussy-”

  Mercedes held her palm up to his face and took a sudden step forward. She did not have to touch him, but the man was a bit surprised by her movement and took an abrupt step back, tripping on a misplaced pipe and landing flat on his rear. The other men laughed loudly and uncontrollably at Al’s stumble. “Shut the hell up!” her voice roared and the laughter subsided, “You’re my bitch here, big man,” she said down at Al. “And you can either learn to roll with it or you can pack up your things and get lost because I won’t put up with any sexist, racist bull on your part here.” She then held out a hand to Al to help him stand. “Do we understand each other?”

  She waited, hoping that Al had bought the tough-boss act. He reached out his hand and she helped him stand. Mercedes felt relieved, but she tried not to show it. “All right,” Al said and straightened himself up. “Someone get the lady a hardhat.”

  Mercedes fought to keep from grinning. Al smiled at her, noticing her struggle. “All of you need to know,” she said strongly, “that if you do right by me; I’ll do right by you. Let’s make this a pleasurable experience, shall we? Let’s get to work, gentlemen,” she said confidently and began to assign the day’s duties. To the men’s surprise, Mercedes had studied well who she would be dealing with and assigned each man to his strongest skill-set without even having to ask them. She knew who she was dealing with and had done her research well. The men were impressed as Mercedes got them ahead of schedule on the very first day at the new build site.

  When the day finally came to a close, the men (even Al) all happily bid their farewells to their new boss. Mercedes looked out at the construction site, quite pleased at how far along they had already gotten on the first day. She locked up and headed for the gate where she spotted Kerry O’Brian standing on the sidewalk, smiling. “Well, well, well,” he teased as she approached him. “I cannot believe you got this group working together so well.”

  She frowned, “You set me up, didn’t you?” she had read right through his smile. “You sick bastard. You knew this was a rotten group, didn’t you? You set me up!” She berated him generously for the ruse; he had intentionally given her a difficult group of men to work with. It was no wonder he had already had to fire the first foreman.

  “They’re good workers,” Kerry said, his arms crossed. “But yeah, I did a little, I suppose. This group is a handful, so I needed someone to lead them who was a handful themselves.”

  Mercedes turned up her nose. “Are you saying I’m just like those apes?”

  He stepped towards her and put his hand on his hips; he tried to be sly about it, but she saw him look her up and down when he said, “Believe me, Mercedes, I can tell that you are all woman.”

  There was a part of her that still could not tell whether or not she liked this Kerry person. He had a special way of offending her and making her feel complimented all at once. “Oh?” she hissed slightly. It had been a fairy rough first day, and it appeared as though he had expected it to be as such and had offered her little warning. She wondered if it was some sort of revenge scheme for embarrassing him during their
first encounter, but she could not be sure.

  Kerry smiled, “I’m glad it went well. Let’s celebrate. I’ll take you to lunch tomorrow?”

  “Sure,” Mercedes said quickly, far too quickly for her taste. She was a surprised at herself.

  “Excellent!” he said. “Would you care for me to drive you home tonight?”

  “No thank you,” Mercedes said, far too annoyed with Kerry to even consider taking him up on his offer. “I think I’ll just have Yury take me.” She pointed out into the street where the Brian O’Brian Enterprises company van was parked. “Looks like he’s already waiting.”

  “You have a good evening, Mercedes,” he said, still smiling like he always did.

  She nodded approvingly and forced herself to say, “Same to you, Kerry.”

  ***

  Mercedes found herself smiling when Kerry opened the door for her into the quaint little restaurant in Queens that he had chosen for lunch. It was a nice place that hosted entertainment on the weekends; it was certainly a step up from the little diner they had gone to. One day, she thought jokingly, maybe I’ll work my way up to him taking me to one of those five star restaurants. The floors were red carpets, and there were curtains draped over the windows. The low lighting and cheap-looking chandeliers gave off a romantic vibe. While it was not a high-end restaurant, it was still a lot classier than anything she had ever stepped foot in before. There was even a few pieces of artwork hanging on some of the walls to add to the overall effect.