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Meaningless Kiss
By simonexsays
Summary: “Get married. Have a kid or two. Then, and only then, can you have the company.” Weston Billings never thought it would come down to this. But he’s going to do whatever is necessary to take what’s rightfully his. Even if it does mean knocking up a random stranger and marrying her...
PROLOGUE
Shaken, Not Stirred
Victor Billings knew he had it all. He had a successful business that had been in his family for generations, a beautiful wife, a great son who had blessed him with a lovely daughter-in-law plus two gorgeous grandchildren, and a daughter who was soon to be married to a thriving businessman. Oh, and then there was his other son, but Victor hardly felt that one should be mentioned. Too bad his wife had a little problem with that.
“Victor, I don’t see why you’re so set on letting Liam take over the company,” Bronwyn Billings, Victor’s adoring wife, nagged as she sipped her martini. It was only noon and she was already on her third one of the day. “He’s still in college for goodness sake! This is too much responsibility for a boy his age. Why not let Weston take over? He is the oldest after all.”
“Liam is perfectly capable of taking over the company once I step down,” he countered, taking the martini from his wife’s hand and finishing it off for her. He set the empty glass down on the expensive grand piano as he paced back and forth in the sitting room of their family home. “If he can handle college, a wife, and twins, he’s barely even going to think that running the company will be much more to handle. Besides, Weston’s too busy partying his life away to even want the company.”
Weston Billings was the son that Victor always tried to avoid mentioning when it came to who was going to take over the company when he stepped down from his position of president in exactly one year from the current day. It was true Weston was his oldest son, and it was a family tradition that the eldest son took over the business once their father stepped down. That’s how it had been for the past four generations, but Victor was keen on changing that. There was no way his frat boy of a son was going to take over his highly respected company. He’d truly rather give it to one of the maids than Weston.
“Oh, that is such a lie and you know it,” Bronwyn attested as she rose gracefully from her seat and smoothed out the wrinkles in her tasteful crème colored power suit. “Weston is perfectly capable of running the business! Sure, his personal life is quite, ah, busy, for lack of better words, but I’m sure if you gave him a chance to prove to you that he can do this job, he’ll change his ways in an instant.”
Victor turned his back to his wife and poured another martini, but this time it was all for him. “I highly doubt that,” he mumbled, bringing the glass to his lips and taking a sip.
“I heard that,” his wife snapped from behind him.
Suddenly she was beside him, and the glass that was in his hands just instants before was now clutched in her blood red talons. Victor watched with a frown as she downed his drink and slammed the empty glass down on the piano.
“You are such a hypocrite,” she scolded, narrowing her eyes at him. “You were just the same way when you were Weston’s age. Don’t you remember, Victor?”
Victor, in fact, did remember. To be perfectly honest, he had been exactly like his oldest son back in those days. He would go out drinking with his Yale buddies frequently and would wake up with one -- or sometimes two or three -- random women in his bed the next morning. Things continued like that until he saw the error of his ways, which occurred when his own father sat him down and gave him an ultimatum; either keep up with the partying and be disowned or finish college and become the new president of the company when daddy dearest stepped down.
The thought of being disowned was enough to make Victor clean up his act; the Billings name meant way too much to him to even consider losing it. He had somehow managed to graduate from college and the day afterwards he was granted with a job at his family’s company. Not before long he found himself at the top with his father patting him on the back for doing such a great job.
Victor had considered doing the same thing to his eldest son, but he had a feeling it would never work. There was no way he could disown his son, he loved the boy too much and always would. But there was no way he was going to let him take over his precious company either.
“I am not a hypocrite,” he retorted, scowling at his wife. “I just don’t trust Weston with the company that I’ve worked so hard on building up since I took control thirty years ago. Knowing him he’d probably gamble all our stocks away and we’d end up losing the whole thing.”
“Weston would never do that,” she denied, shaking her head slightly. “We’ve taught him better than to do something that stupid.” She paused for a second as if to think about something. “Why don’t we do what your father did to you? Give him an ultimatum or something.”
Victor groaned softly and ran a hand through his graying hair. “I had a feeling you would suggest that. But I’m sure it would never work. It’s not like we could ever threaten to disown him, seeing as we’d never do it and even he knows that.”
“Well, we don’t have to threaten him with the same thing your father did...” she mused, a slight smile coming to her normally tight mouth. “I’m sure we could come up with something much, much better.”
It was in that moment that Victor figured out that his wife was right. They could definitely come up with something better.
CHAPTER ONE
The Hug of Death
It was always the morning after when Weston Billings regretted that he had gotten so drunk the night before that he barely remembered anything. It didn’t help that he was also cursed with the hangover from hell, a little something to remind him of at least one thing he had done that night, which was drink waaay too much.
Currently he was sitting on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands, eyes shut tight, and stomach bubbling every time he moved ever so slightly. Each time he felt like this he always swore to himself that he’d never drink again, but he always ended up going out the next night with a bunch of his buddies and repeating what he said he’d never do again. There was no use in telling himself that he would never do it again, seeing as he just went ahead and did it anyway.
A soft knock on the door drew him out of his thoughts of self pity and he raised his head slowly as he possibly could so it wouldn’t explode.
“Come in,” he croaked, rubbing his temples and opening his bone-dry jade eyes.
The door opened slightly and one of the maids stuck her head in. “Mister Billings? Your presence is requested by the pool in five minutes. Your parents would like to speak to you about something.”
Weston groaned softly and closed his eyes once more. This couldn’t be good. Whenever his ‘presence was requested’ it usually meant he was about to get a lecture about his status as a notorious party boy. He’d had enough of those to last him a lifetime.
“Tell them I’m busy,” he instructed, rising carefully from the bed to avoid a bad case of vertigo. “Whatever they have to say can wait.”
“Actually,” she started carefully, looking slightly nervous, “your father said it was necessary that you attend. Both your brother and your sister are downstairs. It seems very important.”
Weston rolled his eyes and instantly regretted it when a sharp shooting pain blazed through his head. He cringed slightly before responding, “Tell them I’ll join them shortly.”
He knew it must have been extremely important if both his ass kissing brother and his trophy wife sister were both back home at the Billings Manor, a place they had both moved out of as soon as they possibly could. Weston, however, had yet to leave the nest, mainly because he didn’t see the point. What was the purpose of moving out of a house that would probably end up as his anyway once his parents kicked the bucket? Nope, he was staying as long as he possibly could.
Weston shooed the maid out of his room and preceded to get dressed. Since it was only his family he was going to be around, he decided to just throw on jeans and a tee shirt. Sure, he’d probably be the odd one out since everyone else had a taste for expensive suits, but he honestly didn’t give a flying fuck.
Ten minutes later he strolled out into the backyard and spotted his parents, his brother and his annoyingly perfect wife, as well as his sister and the tight ass guy she was soon to be married too. It was times like these when Weston really wondered if these people were really his family.
“I heard I was needed out here,” he drawled as a greeting. He moved closer to the circle of patio furniture his family members were seated on, but made sure not to get too close. He didn’t want to catch whatever disease that caused them to be so stiff and uptight.
His sister, Grace, was the first to greet him, which was something he hadn’t exactly wanted to happen. She was known for her killer hugs. Literally. She could hug a grown man so tightly that their neck broke.
“Wessy!” she squealed, hauling herself off of her lounge chair and scurrying over to him. The next thing he knew, her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck and his oxygen supply was getting dangerously low. “I haven’t seen you in ages!”
Weston detached himself from her death grip easily and flashed her a half smile. “I saw you three days ago, Grace. It hasn’t been that long.”
“Well it felt like it!” she giggled, her natural perkiness taking over.
It was as if she had just chugged five gallons of coffee or something. In a way he would have preferred that, seeing as it would have worn off after a little while. The bad thing was that she was like this all the damn time.
“Come sit with us!”
Grace grabbed his hand and dragged him into the circle of chairs, pushing him down into one in between her and Liam, his younger brother. Weston nodded slightly to him as a greeting and Liam nodded back; no words needed to be exchanged between the two of them. They probably would have ended up as insults anyway, seeing as the Billings boys were definitely not the best of friends.
Weston looked over at his parents who were seated directly across from him, their posture impeccable compared to his slouched position.
“Someone care to fill me in about this lovely family meeting?” he questioned, running a hand through his luxuriously thick golden hair. “The quicker we get this over with, the better. I’ve got some more sleeping to do.”
His father, Victor, ignored that last part and stood to address his family. “Well, as you all know, I’m going to be retiring next year.” His hunter green eyes scanned over his children, assessing them all. “And the time has come for me to make a decision about who will be taking my place as president.”
Weston perked up at this. He had been waiting for ages to hear who the old fart was going to appoint as his successor. It was one of those unsaid things that Victor was going to choose his eldest son to become president, but as of lately Weston had been sort of doubting that was going to happen.
When he and his brother were compared, Liam was usually granted the title of the perfect son. He was going to school at Georgetown University, had a job pretty high up on the company’s ladder, was married to a hot blonde who unfortunately had a stick stuck up her ass, and had two adorable little brats that he got to play daddy with. That was definitely perfection when it came to Victor’s standards. Weston, however, knew he was the exact opposite. Sure, he had graduated from Yale just last year and was employed by Billings Inc., but when it came to his personal life, things just weren’t perfect. He went out partying whenever he possibly could and the thought of settling down with one woman for the rest of his life was a terrifying prospect. And kids? He made sure to use a condom every time he slept with a woman, just so he wouldn’t have to be stuck with a brat of his own. It was those things that made him really wonder if he would be getting the job as president next year.
“As you all know, for the past four generations the company has been passed down to the eldest son of the current president.” Victor shot a pointed look at Weston. “However, I believe that might be changing in the near future.”
Weston had known this was coming, but he was still shocked by this anyway. “Are you trying to tell me that you’re going to be giving the company to Liam?” he asked in disbelief, looking over at his younger brother with disgust. “It’s tradition that the oldest gets the company after their father steps down. You can’t break that, father. I’ve been waiting for this my entire life.”
It really was true that he had been waiting for this for a very long time. Ever since he was five when his father had given him a tour of the Billings Inc offices and told him that the whole place would be his one day, to be exact. Weston had been so excited to hear that, and since that day he had been waiting until he would actually control it.
“What I think father’s trying to say is that you’re not capable of taking over the company,” Liam pointed out, his tone haughty and his stupid nose up in the air. “And I would have to agree with that. Your method when it comes to living is something that wouldn’t represent the company well. No one wants to have a president who goes out partying every weekend.”
Weston wanted to punch his face in so badly for having the nerve to say that. “I don’t think anyone would want to have a president who’s a bona fide ass kisser either.”
Liam frowned at this and opened his mouth to retort, but Victor raised a hand silencing them both.
“I don’t want you two fighting today,” Victor announced, his voice firm. “That happens every time I put you both in the same area.” He blew out a sigh and put his softened gaze onto Weston. “But Liam is partially right. Your actions represent the company when you’re the president, and I don’t want your partying ways to represent this company. It should be presented as a family company, not a company of bachelors who like to get laid every other night. And how will anyone believe that it’s a family company if you take over and don’t even have a family of your own?”
Weston’s gaze narrowed. “What are you trying to say, father?”
Victor let out a heavy sigh and continued to stare tiredly at his oldest son. “Get married. Have a kid or two. Then, and only then, can you have the company. If you don’t settle down and change your ways within the next year, I’m letting Liam take over.”
While Weston stared at his father, absolutely shocked, Liam let out a bark of laughter.
“Looks like I’ll be the one taking over Billings Inc then.” He laughed once more, taunting his older brother. “There’s no way in the world you’ll be able to change. I’d even bet on that.”
Weston, still resisting the urge to bash in his brother’s face, turned to face him. “How much do you want to bet?”
Liam smirked smugly at him. “I’ll bet you a hundred grand that you can’t do it.”
Weston merely smirked right back at him. “You’re on, little brother... you’re on.”