The Billionaire Affair

by Parker, Ali

  The old party boy in me wanted to invite her out again, then back to my penthouse to fuck away the day. But I had my father looking over my shoulder now. I had to be smarter.

  “Have a good night, Steph. I’ll see you tomorrow. Seven again?” I said when I dropped her off outside her building, just like I had on Friday. Christ, trying to be a good guy sucked. I didn’t even try to talk my way into her apartment, or her bed.

  I might’ve been imagining things, but I could’ve sworn she looked almost disappointed. She hid it quickly if it hadn’t even been there at all. Smiling a little wider than what seemed natural, she opened her door and got out of the car before I could move to get the door for her.

  “Bye Jeremiah. Seven’s fine.” She was gone a second later, briskly crossing the sidewalk to get into her building.

  A sense of disappointment bloomed in my own chest, but I wouldn’t allow it to fester. I had drinks with the guys to look forward to. Tanner, Bart, and Shawn were a much safer bet for me tonight than hanging around anywhere near Steph.

  Chapter 34

  STEPHANIE

  "The most miserable job in the world has to be being a take-out delivery guy when it's raining out," Tiana said, carrying containers of Chinese food into our living room. "I gave him a good tip, but I doubt it makes up for having to be the person to bring everyone else food when the weather is like this."

  Having a super confusing boss was no picnic either, but I nodded my agreement. "It almost makes me feel bad for ordering in."

  Tiana's eyes slid to our window and the sheets of rain pouring down outside. "Not bad enough to go out there right now."

  "Definitely not." As if to drive my point home, a flash of lightning split the sky and raced away in branches of blue-white light. The wind picked up, howling between the buildings as the rain lashed against our windows. I shuddered, grateful to be inside on my couch with a warm blanket.

  I pulled the blanket up over my chest and reached out to take the carton of food Tiana held out to me. "It's your turn to pick the movie."

  Opening the white container, I breathed in the tangy smell of my sweet-and-sour chicken and tossed the TV remote at Tiana. Then I reached over to grab my chopsticks from the coffee table. "Make it a good one."

  She dropped down on the couch and picked up the remote, scrolling through our options as she popped the top of her own food. "You look like you're in need of good comedy. Wanna tell me why?"

  I shook my head and shoveled some chicken into my mouth. Tiana waited impatiently for me to stop chewing before she abandoned her attempts at scrolling, crossed her legs on the couch and turned to face me. "You've had this mopey look on your face since you got home, like someone kicked your puppy or clubbed a baby seal right in front of you."

  "I'm not mopey," I said. Tiana saw right through me. She lifted a brow and gave me a look that said she wasn't buying it as she took a bite of her pork chop suey. I swallowed a few more bites of my own before adding, "I'm being serious. I'm not moping, I'm just… disappointed, maybe?"

  "Disappointed about what? Did something happen at work?"

  I nodded, then stopped and started shaking my head. "Not at work, exactly. After. When Jeremiah brought me home."

  She sighed and stabbed her food with chopsticks. "What did he do now?"

  "Nothing," I said. "That's kind of the problem. I wasn't expecting him to make a move or anything. I mean I know we still work together, but I had fun with him the other night, and I was hoping he did too."

  Angling her head to the side, she narrowed eyes and searched mine before they widened again. "I was going to ask why you didn't think he had fun too, but I don’t think I have to. You were hoping it was going to become a regular thing, him asking you out?"

  "He didn't ask me out. It wasn't a date, it was just…" I trailed off, not really knowing who I was trying to fool by denying it. Tiana knew me better than I knew myself sometimes. "Okay, yes. I was hoping he would ask me out again and that this time it wouldn't just feel like a date but actually be a date. Is that a crime?"

  "I don't think it's a crime, but it is a potential problem. Or maybe it isn't. He's the boss. It's not like you can get fired for getting involved with him if the feeling is mutual."

  My thoughts drifted to Jannie and how her inappropriate feelings toward him spelled the end of the line for her, but somehow, I didn't think this was the same. "Except for that one lapse of judgment in his office, we've kept our distance at work. Well, actually, we've kept our physical distance everywhere. I don't think I'm in danger of getting fired."

  "So what's the problem?" She finished her food and put her empty take-out container down, then reached for a small pink toolkit she kept all her nail polish in. She went to fetch it just before the food arrived and seemed to be back on mission mani-pedi now that she was done eating. "I know falling in love with your boss is frowned upon but—"

  "I'm not falling in love with him," I interrupted emphatically.

  Tiana rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she dug around in her toolkit and plucked out a bottle of cotton candy pink polish. "Are you seriously going to tell me you haven't developed feelings for him?"

  I stared at her, knowing it was pointless to lie but also not really knowing what the truth was. "Fine, I might be developing feelings for him, but nobody said anything about love."

  Squinting her eyes at me, she pursed her lips and sighed, a smile starting to form on her mouth. "Well, I guess it would be easy to feel something for a tall, dark and handsome billionaire."

  "Yeah, I guess so," I said, trying to make sense of the feelings raging around inside me. Jeremiah made me feel so many things I'd never felt before, not least of which was a healthy dose of confusion.

  The intense attraction between us hadn't faded like I might have expected it to. In fact, it only seemed to be growing. Whenever I was with him, it was like there was a string tied to my belly button urging me to get closer to him. To stay close to him. Like the other end of the string was tied to him.

  A couple of weeks ago, I would have easily been able to convince myself that the other side of the string was tied to nothing but his dick. That I needed to get laid and that what I was feeling was purely carnal because, as Tiana reminded me, he was after all a tall dark and handsome billionaire.

  As I'd gotten to know him though, I knew there was so much more to him than that. Unfortunately, it also meant I felt so much more for him than that.

  Tiana held up the bottle of pink nail polish and reached for my foot, pulling it into her lap. "People underestimate the power and confidence a fresh coat of polish can give a girl. So while you sit there wallowing in your thoughts, I'm going to make sure you have some extra confidence walking into that office tomorrow."

  "Thanks." I smiled, willing to take whatever extra confidence and bounce in my step she could give me. "Do you think the polish might also be able to find out if he feels the same way about me?"

  She laughed under her breath as she started applying the base coat. "I don't need the polish to tell me that. No man, no wait, no boss is going to go so far out of his way as Jeremiah is going for you if he didn't feel anything."

  "What he feels is responsible for my safety since the Jannie incident. I don't think it necessarily means he feels anything more for me than that just because he's driving me home."

  "The man is driving to the opposite end of the city from where his office is every morning and every night, and you don't think that means that he feels anything more than responsible?"

  I shrugged, but it didn't stop the seed of hope she planted from burrowing itself deeply in my chest. "I wouldn't know. He did mention there were a lot of expectations on him to become a better boss and businessman, maybe this is part of that."

  Tiana lifted her eyes to mine, disbelief seeping out of her every pore. "You don't really believe that, do you? If that was what it was about, he could have just asked the security company to accompany you. Think about it, if it was only about employee
safety he would have to rent a bus to drive everyone to work and back."

  "Jannie didn't attack everyone," I said, although I knew I was on the losing side of this argument. "Only me. But maybe you're right. I just don't know with him."

  "I know," Tiana said confidently, setting down the nail polish to admire her handiwork. "The man is crushing on you just as hard as you’re crushing on him."

  "It feels like more than a crush, actually." I thought about how we were with each other, how I shared things with him about my family I hadn't been so honest about with anyone else and how he returned the favor by telling me about Jack and his dad. When I told him about Jannie, there had also been real worry and concern for my well-being in his gorgeous eyes.

  "What do you mean by more than a crush?" Tiana asked, motioning for me to put my feet up on the coffee table while the polish dried and started applying it to her own toes. "I thought you just said you weren't falling in love with him."

  She was right. I did say that. It was way too soon for anything even remotely that serious. And I wasn't falling in love with my boss, that would be crazy. A tried and tested recipe for disaster.

  Lifting my shoulders and letting them drop, I waved the question off. "Nothing. I don't know why I said that. It probably is just a crush that I'll get over after the first month of working for him."

  It sure didn't feel like just a crush, but any alternative was too big and too soon for me to even be thinking about. Tiana didn't look convinced, but she let it go and tossed the remote back to me. "You choose the next movie. I think you need to get out of your head more than I do."

  Chapter 35

  JEREMIAH

  Picking Stephanie up at her apartment was starting to feel like a new morning ritual. And strangely, I didn't mind it. I felt quite the opposite about it, actually. I enjoyed it.

  It had only been a couple of days, but a part of me—in the very back of my mind—was already plotting how I could make our carpool days last longer. The obvious answer was reneging on my promise to make sure she could afford a car sooner rather than later if she worked hard, but even I knew that it would be wrong on too many levels.

  I would have to come up with something better. Luckily, I still had some time to work something out. Pulling up to her curb, I turned down the music blaring from my speakers and smiled when I saw she was standing against her building, already waiting for me.

  Just like every other morning, I took the opportunity when she walked to my car to properly look at her before I had to spend the rest of the day pretending not to really notice her. This morning, since it was still cool out from the rain we'd been having for a couple of days, she was wearing a black turtleneck that perfectly showcased her smooth, pale skin and made her eyes seem brighter.

  Her shapely legs were encased in formfitting black pants, which she'd paired with black leather high-heeled boots and a black jacket. Long hair pulled up into a twist at the back of her neck, I could see rose gold earrings shimmering in her ears. Matching jewelry hung from her neck and wrists.

  I was getting pretty good at keeping my brain from diving straight into the gutter whenever I saw her, but this morning I was unsuccessful. She looked beautiful, like some kind of badass angel. That I would like nothing more than to corrupt.

  On the verge of falling into a dirty daydream involving her keeping on those boots but wearing nothing else as I bent her over my desk, I snapped back to reality when she opened the passenger door. "Good morning, boss."

  "Hey, Steph. You have a good evening?" I asked her this most mornings, trying to suss out if she was dating other men. Not other, I reminded myself. Just men.

  She'd told me that she didn't have a boyfriend and that she wasn’t seeing anyone, but with a girl who looked like her…

  Jealousy reared its head like a dragon in my chest, perching itself right on the edge as it waited for her answer. She smiled and shrugged casually, holding up a Thermos I hadn't noticed before. "It was fine. Nothing too exciting. Here, I brought you some coffee."

  "Thanks." As soon as I popped the lid off the Thermos, my car was filled with the delicious scent of hazelnut, vanilla, and coffee. I brought the mug to my nose and breathed in deeply. "What is this?"

  Buckling her seat belt, she turned to face me. Excitement lit up her eyes, the color just like the Caribbean on a clear day. And I fucking loved the Caribbean. "It's just something I'm trying out. I know how much you like hazelnut in your coffee, but the vanilla gives it something extra I thought you might like."

  My heart did this weird clenching thing that made me wonder if I needed to call Dr. Adams, Dad's cardiologist. "It smells incredible."

  "Wait until you taste it." She sighed dreamily. "It's like liquid heaven."

  Putting it to the test, I damn near moaned when the sweet, nutty bitterness of the drink hit my tongue. "You're right, it's like an angel pissed on my tongue."

  She hit me playfully on the shoulder, her cheeks heating. "You have such a way with words."

  "Regular wordsmith," I said joking, finally pulling away from the curb and merging with the early morning traffic. "But seriously, that stuff's amazing."

  "But wait, there's more," she announced, putting on the false enthusiasm on an infomercial host.

  I gave her a sideways glance, seeing her digging around in her big black purse. "More?"

  She nodded proudly, pulling out a container with some kind of powder-covered cookies in it. "My roommate was trying out her mom's recipe for Kourabiedes. They’re Greek."

  "Kooraby what?"

  Stephanie giggled, smiling understandingly. "It took me a while to pronounce it properly too. It's korah-be-eh-thez.”

  “And those would be?” I asked, feeling like I should know this. I’d spent a couple of weeks traveling around Greece with Tanner when we were younger. Granted, I was driving now and couldn’t really look closely at Steph’s baked goods, but they only looked a little familiar.

  “They’re like a Greek walnut sugar cookie,” she said. “I helped Tiana make them last night, so I got to bring a few with me. At least this way, I get to make sure you eat something before we get to the office. Yesterday, you said you had to run out of the house before you could have breakfast.”

  I’d already eaten this morning, but I didn’t tell her that. The clenching thing in my heart happened again, tighter this time. “Those look great. I can’t wait to try one.”

  “Yeah, well.” She ran her hand across the gleaming wood on my dashboard. “You might want to wait until we get to the office. I don’t think you want to try those in your precious car.”

  “She is a beauty, isn’t she?” I asked, trying to get rid of the knot of emotion lodging in my throat. I hadn’t had someone take care of me like this before, bringing me coffee with specific thought about what I might like in it, snagging me cookies I might like with it just in case I hadn’t eaten, and then, caring about not getting crumbs and powder all over my car.

  I couldn’t deny that I liked it. A lot. I also liked that she brought me coffee and not some kind of tea supposed to cleanse your gut and granola instead of cookies or whatever else. Stephanie was real. She didn’t try to fit the Barbie mold so many girls I’d been with before did.

  Not that I was with her, with her. I pushed the thought away and focused on Steph.

  “I don’t know much about cars, but this one sure is pretty,” she said.

  “Pretty?” I scoffed. “That’s like describing the Eiffel Tower as a landmark.”

  “It is a landmark.” Steph laughed.

  “No, it’s one of the landmarks in Paris.”

  She pressed a finger to the side of her mouth, thinking. “So you’re saying this is one of the cars?”

  “Exactly,” I said. “She’s not just pretty, she’s magnificent.”

  I thought about adding “just like you,” but then I realized how totally cheesy it would sound and decided against it. Instead, I gave her the fast facts on the car supporting why I felt about it the
way I did, surprised when she listened with rapt attention and started asking questions about it when I was done.

  Finally, we moved away from the topic of cars and onto Paris, where Steph had never visited but was dying to go. Cars were a safe topic. Paris? Not so much.

  In my mind’s eye, I could see myself taking Stephanie there. Walking along the Seine and visiting Montmartre, which I was sure she would love. After the sightseeing, we would go back to our hotel, and I would fuck her until the sun rose and it was time to head out again.

  “Jeremiah?” Stephanie asked, breaking into my thoughts. “Are you coming?”

  I wish.

  I blinked, realizing we were at the office. Stephanie was already half-way out of the car, looking at me over her shoulder. I wasn’t ready to let her go yet, but there was always the drive back to her place later. “Sure. Yeah. Just thinking about a project I’d like to take on.”

  She smiled, walking across the parking lot to call the elevator while I grabbed my stuff and locked the car. “We’ve only just gotten to the office and already you’re making plans to take on more work. Do me a favor and slow down, okay? You’re doing great on the mall project. No need to add more.”

  There was a need to add more, but I didn’t tell her that wasn’t the kind of project I was really thinking about. It was more wondering how I was going to convince her to go to Paris with me than figuring how to increase my capacity to take on more projects right now.

  But that would have to wait. When we got up to our floor, my father was waiting in my office. He didn’t have to say a word for me to realize it hadn’t gone unnoticed that Steph and I arrived together. Fuck.

  His brown eyes flicked from mine to hers, then he stood up from the couch he’d been waiting on and motioned me into my own fucking office. Steph gave me a sympathetic smile when I went to follow him. I winked at her, determined not to let her see how much it bothered me to see him looking so disapprovingly at her. “See you later.”