Page 93 of Billionaire Devil

The last five weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. Colton and I met with Eleanor Jaeger and her team the Monday after we got back to New York and I started working for them the following Monday.

Colton and I both negotiated the terms of my job and also the collaboration RL offered. I’m working one day a week in their design offices, two days a week in my own studio on our collab line—where two of their teammembers will join me—and one day a week on my own business.

My husband insisted I take Fridays off. He doesn’t want me overworking, he said, especially in my condition.

We’ve hired a business manager to run my business, as well as sixty-four other new employees, including fifty dressmakers. With the new sewing machines and several other machines we purchased, the new team should be able to handle the production of all the new garments being made. Two experienced design coordinators will oversee the production to make sure it runs smoothly.

Twelve administrative staff will handle the orders, the billing, the marketing, the social media and so on. We thought about outsourcing some of the production work overseas, where labor costs can be a lot less expensive, but Colton’s idea was that we could start by keeping everything in house as long as we can keep up with it, and that we’ll see how it goes and revisit that option in six months. I agreed.

I work mainly on creating new designs, but at the end of each day I get reports about every detail of the business, which is growing quickly. It really is a dream.

Colton and I met with his—our—lawyers and accountants to make sure the business plans and legal contracts are in place. He put a mind-boggling thirty million dollars into the company and legally owns five percent. Which means I own ninety-five percent. Of course we had a lot of discussion over this and I thought he should have a bigger share,but he said all the creative ideas are mine and, in the end, he got his way.

And it doesn’t really matter. We’re co-owners of everything now, including his six properties, which I didn’t even know about until he suggested we go to Italy for our honeymoon, where he owns a hotel. Aside from the apartment in New York, he also owns a ranch in Austin, a villa on St. John—where he keeps his yacht—the hotel on the Amalfi coast, a house in Miami and a house in the Hamptons.

I couldn’t believe that. I mean, Icould, I was just…amazed that every single one of those places sound like dreams coming true.

My Instagram blew up and I now have over five million followers. Our new company made a profit of one million dollars in the past month, if you include all the orders we’re in the process of filling.

What is this life?

Even more incredibly,Voguedid a feature article on me, wearing the wedding dress I designed and which I’m wearing tonight. It’ll go to press next week—withmeon its cover.

The media seems to have gone into a frenzy over the fact that I somehow managed to get Colton Maddox to marry me.Many girls have tried and failed but according to one insider Maddox is “gaga” over his stunning new bride,said one article Sloane insisted on showing me.

Of course my marriage has a lot to do with my newfound success, but the clothes themselves are also gettingrave reviews. I’m getting a lot of press as “the” young new designer on the scene who “everyone in the know” wants to wear.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself.

As it turned out, the two pills I missed in Aspen were all it took. I bought a pregnancy test when we got back to New York and Colton and I watched together as those two blue lines didn’t even hesitate. They glowed there together like they wereverysure of themselves. To me it seemed sudden and not at all what I was expecting to be doing at this point in my life, but my husband was so overjoyed about it he immediately took me to bed and insisted on “breeding” me for an entire weekend. I told him I was already “bred” but that didn’t seem to slow him down.

In my life, I’ve become so used to feeling alone and afraid and overwhelmed, the thought of having a baby at first seemed like a scary one. But I’m not alone now. I have my gorgeous, perfect, exasperating, fun, sexy, generous, loving rock of a husband. There’s nothing Colton wouldn’t do for me, which he proves to me every single day. I don’t have to be scared anymore.

Colton’s manly—and extreme—excitement over becoming a father has slowly allowed my new reality to sink in.

We’re having a baby.

Will it be a little boy with dark hair and silver eyes like mine? Or a girl, with blue eyes like her daddy’s?

For a while, I was viewing the whole scenario from thepoint of view of my past life, and so it took me some time to get used to the idea and to realize that this baby’s life is going to be charmed and magical.Not lonely or full of the fear of being abandoned or left behind.The little family we’re creating is so beautiful it makes me cry (I’ve been an emotional mess since I got pregnant).

Now, the love and protection I feel for this little thing growing inside me isfierce. Already, I love it with a passion I’ve never experienced before. It’s a part of me. And it’s a part of him, the beautiful love of my life. All the best of us combined and thriving with its little beating heart. The emotions are vast and life-changing.

Colton takes my hand. “Are you ready?” he asks, his voice deep and low.I love his voice.His thick hair. I love his face and his wide shoulders and the way he fills out his tux. Most of all, I love how strong and sure his grip is and the steadiness of his love. I love that he believes in me. I love that he’s fixed me.

I nod, squeezing his hand. “I love you,” I whisper.

He kisses me. “Love you more, Sunshine girl. You’re my life.” Then he taps a spoon against a glass of champagne sitting on a high table. Once he has their attention, he says, “I want to thank you all for coming and helping us celebrate our second wedding. We have some news to share with you all. Turns out I knocked up my wife in Vegas.” All our friends and family exclaim and cheer.

“Is there something in the water around here?” Noah says, which leads to more cheering and attempting to coaxinformation about whether he’ll be adding to the gene pool any time soon.

The music starts up and Colton and I have our first dance, something we didn’t get in Vegas. After the first dance, everyone joins in and we have the most beautiful night.

I didn’t know a person couldbethis happy.

It’s late nowand all our wedding guests have gone home. Colton carries me to the elevator. We get to our bedroom suite and he sets me next to the bed and starts unzipping my dress.

He hands me an envelope. “One more wedding present.”

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