Line: Alpha Billionaire Romance

by Colleen Charles

  She’d probably say ‘I told you so’ and I’d damn well let her.

  I couldn’t wait to get back to her apartment, wrap her in my arms and do unspeakable things to her again. Shit that made her toes curl and her pussy gush with moisture.

  I had to tell her now. I dialed her number and listened to the rings. One, two, three and nothing. She didn’t answer her damn phone.

  “Seriously, Allegra?” I asked, then chuckled. Not even non-communication could get me down right now.

  I tried calling again but got the same result. That was weird. I’d left her at home and she had her cell. Maybe Kelly had come over or something. I scratched the base of my neck and shifted my weight from one foot to the other.

  I had to talk to my father.

  I didn’t need his money, but I did need him to understand that Faith was to blame. That I’d been right all along. He’d been wrong for once in his perfect fucking life.

  Donovan Moreno wasn’t infallible.

  I dialed again, this time to my father. His phone rang the standard number of times before he answered. Always two rings before I got through to Dad. Had to be a business strategy, a technique he’d picked up in a Bill Gates seminar.

  “Donovan Moreno.”

  The same tone and greeting too, even though he’d seen it was me dialing.

  “Hi, Dad, it’s Gabe.” I ran my knuckles along the countertop, brushing against the coolness. Hopefully, it would seep into my fucking soul and stop me from losing it on the elder Moreno.

  “What do you want? I’m in the middle of something.”

  “Did you hear from Faith?”

  “No. I did not hear from Faith. I told you, I’m busy.” My father gave an exasperated sigh. He hated talking to me now as much as he had when I was a kid. Maybe this was a waste of time.

  “Faith called me with the results of the paternity test. I’m not the father.”

  Donovan was silent for a long time. “I see.”

  “So you understand why I won’t be marrying her then.” I looked out of my window at the blanket of white, the slush surrounding the dumpster pushed up against the wall of the building opposite.

  “I told you, boy, I’m in the middle of something.” He hung up, cutting through the final word.

  “Boy?” I asked, crunching the phone in my fist. “Boy?!”

  Why couldn’t he accept what I had to say? Fuck it, I’d spent a lifetime, a literal damn lifetime trying to live up to the imaginary child he’d wanted instead of me. The perfect, good-looking, football-playing, MBA graduating, financier he’d yearned for each night in the downy comfort of his lonely bed. Probably jerking himself off to today’s issue of The Wall Street Journal.

  He was in the middle of something? Well, so was I.

  I shoved my cell into my pocket and stormed to the door, rage channeling through my chest and replacing the joy I’d felt. He would listen to me. And if he didn’t want to speak to me on the phone, that left one option.

  Dad was in a meeting, probably not at the house, but I’d go there and wait for him to return. Or I’d track him the fuck down and interrupt him.

  The man had to take me seriously.

  I paused briefly, thinking it over. Was this scene even worth my time? Would I get any closure from it? Maybe not, but it sure as hell would make me feel better. I snatched my keys from the side table and stormed downstairs, slamming the front door behind me.

  Fuck it, he might not be worth the time, but getting rid of this constant sense of inadequacy was. I had to prove I was better than his image of me. My father had pushed me around, crossed the line too many times to count.

  This wasn’t for Donovan Moreno. This was for Allegra.

  And this was for me.

  Chapter 47

  Gabe

  I pulled up outside the house and clicked the button on my remote. The gates opened and I drove up the driveway, determination squashing any nerves I might’ve had about seeing my father.

  Fuck him. He’d pushed my buttons too often and this was the result. Dismissing me and my thoughts and feelings at every turn. Well, let him just try and dismiss me now.

  I parked behind his Maserati and got out of my car. I didn’t think about the difference between them. Dad was flashy, I wasn’t. Hell, even if I’d had his billions I wouldn’t have bought the yellow beast sitting out in the snow. Like some damn metal big bird on four wheels.

  That was weird. Definitely not Donovan Moreno’s style to leave his car out, even if the drive was clear of slush. He rarely even drove that car in February. It cost a quarter of a million and he didn’t like the thought of one rock chip marring its perfect canary paint.

  He must’ve just gotten home. Or rushed home. So much for his important meeting. The deal he just happened to be in the middle of so he couldn’t even acknowledge that his little Faith was a lying sack of shit. Hell, I still remembered how every year he’d get her multiple presents of jewelry and clothes from ‘Uncle Donovan.’ Called her the daughter he’d never had but always wanted. I wondered how he liked his little girl now.

  I clapped my hands together and marched up the stairs to the front door. I tried the handle and it was open, so I didn’t even need to bother with my key. Normally, Alicia, my dad’s housekeeper, would have heard me in the drive and opened the door for me with her beautiful smile in greeting. She was probably vacuuming or doing laundry, although I didn’t hear any household sounds in the background. Silence. Dead silence. Not even my dad’s voice raised in anger with some business colleagues as he tried to get his way. I let myself in and shut the door with a click. The white marble floors were spotless, a weird mirror of the landscape outside.

  “Dad?” I called out. My voice echoed to the chandelier overhead and I glanced up. A pretentious display of cut crystal, dripping with beads and candle-shaped globes of Swarovski. On the days Alicia polished the Italian marble floors, you could see the light’s reflection throughout the entire foyer.

  Maybe he wasn’t home after all. I walked through to the study, where he’d most likely go the minute he got home. Work, work, work, that was my dad. He’d certainly never let off when I was a kid.

  I opened the dark wood door, my palm hot on the bronze handle and strolled into the room. The rich scent of leather folded me into the study. I made for the massive sofa he’d stuck against the wall, beneath the aquarium filled with exotic fish.

  I froze.

  What the fuck?

  My dad was on the sofa, and he wasn’t alone. A woman was in his arms. Her long red hair streamed down her naked back as she pumped herself up and down on my dad’s cock. I didn’t even have to see her front. I’d know that hair anywhere. I stood there for seconds that seemed like hours as a fog overtook my senses.

  What?

  A moan escaped her lips as my dad brought his hands up to cup her swollen breasts.

  “Donovan… God, that feels spectacular. Don’t stop. Please.”

  I hissed in a breath. Louder. Louder. Louder.

  Until finally she glanced over her shoulder, but her eyes were closed. “Get out, Alicia, can’t you see Mr. Moreno and I are busy?”

  I found my voice.

  “What the actual fuck is going on here?”

  They sprang apart, Faith clutching her belly and my dad buttoning his dress pants.

  “Are you serious?” I asked and laughter, sick and wet, bubbled in my throat. “Are you serious?”

  “It’s not what you think,” Faith started, but my father held up his hand and gestured for her to be silent.

  “It’s too late for that now,” he said to her, then turned back to me, eyebrows drawn into a straight line. “Yes, Faith and I are together. We have been for some time now.”

  “Jesus H. Christ.” This was a shock to the system. Did it matter that Faith had found someone else? No. It didn’t matter for shit. But my father? My own fucking father?

  “I told you I was in the middle of something,” he said, rising and shielding my ex-gir
lfriend from view.

  Or trying to. She peered around him, clasping a black chiffon blouse tight to her pregnant form.

  Pregnant form. No fucking way.

  “The baby isn’t mine,” I said stupidly.

  “You mentioned that,” Donovan replied. “And yes, you mentioned you’re not going to marry Faith either. You understand I don’t have a problem with that anymore, obviously.” He struck a pose of confidence, shoulders pulled wide, chin elevated. The businessman look. It was a fucking ruse.

  “The baby,” I said, blinking at Faith.

  She shied away from my gaze the minute I said it. That was enough confirmation for me.

  “The baby is yours.” I pointed at my father. “That baby is yours. You sick motherfucker.”

  “Now, now, let’s not jump to conclusions.” Donovan raised his palms in surrender, but I wasn’t done yet.

  “You tried to make me marry her. You tried to make me the father of… of… my own brother!” I grasped handfuls of my hair, then released it and pumped my fists downwards at my sides. “Why?”

  “I… Gabe, this might seem like a betrayal, but—” Donovan Moreno stammered. He actually fucking stammered. My father, the picture of calm and collected was unsettled.

  “You didn’t want anyone to find out what you’d done.” I clicked my fingers at the dawning of truth. “If this gets out it will ruin you, so you used me. You used your own son to get ahead. Because if anybody found out about this they would think you’re a sick fucking pervert knocking up the woman you used to view as your own daughter.”

  “I did what I had to do,” Donovan snapped. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect the firm.”

  Faith stumbled to her feet and grasped his forearm. She rested her head against his shoulder and met my gaze. “I know this might seem like a shock now, but it’s true. I love him and he loves me. I guess we’ve always loved each other.”

  “Neither one of you two sick fucks even understands the meaning of the word love. What does Faith’s dad think about this? Please don’t tell me he’s okay with it.” I glanced around the room for good measure. “That he’s going to pop out of the nearest closet and join you.”

  “Now, Gabe…”

  I stood in front of my father and grabbed the fronts of his dress shirt. He didn’t even try to stop me. But I didn’t really want to hit him. I just wanted to shake some damn sense into him.

  “You would’ve had me stuck in a loveless marriage, raising a child that wasn’t even mine so you could protect your business, and keep her close?”

  Seeing them together wasn’t a problem. It was the fact that my own father had so little concern for me. I was a tool to be used, not a worthy human being, not his child. Fuck that.

  Faith had acted like a lunatic because of what? She wanted a package deal? Dad and son in the same house, so she could choose which bed to sleep in for the night. God, that was revolting. My stomach rolled over.

  Donovan — I couldn’t bring myself to think of him as Dad — moved towards me, leaving Faith behind.

  “It’s very important to me that you don’t talk to anyone about this. We didn’t mean to hurt you, Gabe. You have to understand the position this has put me in.”

  “Put you in?!” I tried to summon an image of him from when I was a kid. A good memory to redeem him, but there wasn’t one. None of them compared to this betrayal. Nothing could change how far he’d fallen. “Who are you? Who the hell are you?”

  “I’m your father.”

  “You’re dead to me,” I replied calmly. “Both of you.”

  The anger I’d held inside, the bitter twisting of my guts and balls was now gone. I couldn’t possibly need this man’s approval when he was scum. They didn’t deserve my time.

  I turned to walk out the door, but Donovan’s hand shot out and grabbed hold of my coat sleeve.

  “Wait, Gabe, just wait a second.”

  I stopped in my tracks, turning cold eyes on him. Not hatred, but disdain. A deep disregard for everything my father was.

  “Faith is due soon and I want you to be part of the family. I need—”

  “I don’t care what you need,” I replied.

  “Just hear him out,” Faith said from behind. Donovan waved her to be quiet again and Faith showed her displeasure by tossing that red mane. If George found out about this, he’d lose his shit.

  “You understand if this got out it would ruin me. It would destroy our family.”

  “You’re not my family,” I said. “Not anymore.”

  “It would take away that child’s future.” Donovan gestured to Faith’s belly. “Could you really do that? You’re not that kind of man. That’s not how I raised you. Regardless of how you feel about us, this is your brother. Your flesh and blood.”

  “You didn’t raise me. A string of nannies did.” There was no end to his manipulations. “Goodbye,” I said, walking to the door.

  “Gabe, please,” he called out. “Please, I’ll pay you. You can inherit everything. I’ll give you money. Just don’t sell me out now.”

  I stopped at the door to the study and looked back over my shoulder at them. Broken people. Assholes.

  “Keep your fucking money.”

  Chapter 48

  Ally

  The kitchen was my favorite place to be. Maybe that was a little fifties housewife, but so what? I loved creating, coming up with new recipes for cupcakes done a different way. Someday, I might even wear my frilly pink apron for Gabe while I whipped him up a batch of Dark Decadence. With nothing else underneath.

  This week’s creation was the perfect way to get Gabe and Faith and the cluster fuck of crazy off my mind.

  “Have you got an idea for the name?” Kelly asked, stealing a scoop of pink frosting from the bowl. It was good to see her again. Having her in the bakery was refreshing; like I had a sister to talk to.

  “I’m not sure. Something sexy. Sultry Strawberry?” I asked, mixing the batter, then bringing out a cupcake pan. I brought out the plain white cupcake wrappers and opened the bag.

  I always used plain white for test batches, and with the bakery closed for the evening, this was the best time to get imaginative.

  “Hmm,” Kelly said, tapping her strawberry tipped finger against her lips. “I like that, but what about… Strawberry Seductress?”

  “Yeah, that is better,” I replied, nodding, then laying the wrappers in their respective holes. Gabe popped into my head every few minutes, which made it nearly impossible to concentrate.

  “I wish you’d come over for Valentine’s dinner,” Kelly said, with a sly smile. Oh, she knew all right. I had no idea how my best friend did it, but she always had the dirt.

  “I was busy.”

  “Oh?” Kelly asked, feigning innocent and widening her eyes. “Busy with what?”

  “Don’t make me smack you,” I scolded, raising my wooden, batter-coated spoon. I began pouring the mix into the wrappers. “Gabe came over.”

  “I’m shocked.” Kelly wiggled her eyebrows. “And I’m happy.”

  “What?” The last I’d told Kelly, I’d been furious with Gabe because of the engagement thing. Had she forgotten my utter humiliation on the steps of Donovan Moreno’s mansion?

  I shuddered at the recollection.

  “I figured there would be an explanation for what happened.” Kelly wiggled her butt, swaying her hips in a mini-salsa dance of indecision. “Look, Gabe Moreno is special, Ally, even Pat thinks so. He told me Gabe is clearly head over heels for you.”

  “Yeah, but the engagement.” It was off now, I had to keep reminding myself of that. Keep telling myself that nothing else would go wrong. It felt like tempting fate to think that.

  “Faith is a lecherous little princess, Ally. I didn’t believe the engagement and I’m sure there’s an explanation for it. Am I right?” Kelly tried to dip her finger in the rapidly emptying bowl and I slapped it away.

  “Yes, you’re right. But—”

  Kelly’s ph
one trilled and she whipped it out of her handbag, along with a handful of tampons and a few tissues. She pulled a face and answered. “Hey honey, what’s up?”

  I put the bowl down and helped repack her handbag while she chatted with Pat. She hung up a few seconds later.

  “I’ve got to go. Pat’s put something unspeakable down the coffee grinder.” She shook her head and accepted her tote with a nod of thanks. “I’ll be back over later if you’re still busy.”

  “That would be great,” I replied. “Have fun!”

  “Yeah, right,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Men these days, God.” She stomped out of the kitchen and into the bakery proper. The bell tinkled and the door slammed.

  Pat and the coffee grinder had been waging war against one another since Kelly bought it. We joked about it every now and again because it was the only thing they argued about. If you called light quips arguments.

  I finished spooning the cupcake mixture and popped them into the oven with a smile of satisfaction. Strawberry Seductress was cute. I liked the idea of calling out that we needed more Seductresses in the bakery. Tess would love that one and she just might volunteer. She’d even been flirty with Hank the plumber when he’d been by last week to seal up a leaky pipe.

  I set the timer and turned to start the dishes.

  The bell out front tinkled again.

  “Back so soon?” I called. “Thank God, I worried Pat had lost a finger to the beast this time.”

  “Hello, Ally, you’re looking good enough to eat.”

  I spun on the spot and met Matthew’s sleazy gaze. This guy just didn’t know when to give up. Both his eyes were still black and blue from the beating in the dive bar.

  “What are you doing here? I think I made it clear I don’t want anything to do with you.”

  “You’re alone,” he said, glancing at the staircase in the corner, spying for Gabe. “Where’s lover boy? With his other slut?”

  This guy was such a fucking idiot. “You can’t seriously think I’ll ever be with you after what happened. You’re not that crazy, right? Matthew, tell me you’re not that crazy, because if you are, I’ll have to call your brethren.”