LOVING LEX: A Billionaire Romance (NIGHT OF THE KINGS SERIES Book 6)

by Shayne Ford

  He smiles at me and motions me to take a seat.

  “Mr. Blackmore,” I mumble, blinking fast.

  My lips start trembling.

  “Dahlia Fox,” he says, grinning charmingly.

  He extends his hand to me.

  We shake hands before he shrugs out of his suit jacket and drapes it over his chair. My eyes dip and root to his green tie as he gets settled in his seat.

  Crisp and bright, his white shirt sets off his complexion and dark hair.

  He slides my resume in front of him, his eyes scanning the information for a moment.

  “Karen told me you may be interested in our overseas position.”

  “Yes,” I say softly. “I had no idea it was with you,” I mutter sincerely.

  The European hotel chain bears his name, but not the one in San Francisco.

  “It’s a branch of our core business,” he says, giving me the answer before I have the chance to ask the question.

  “Where is the job located?” I ask.

  He flicks his eyes to me.

  “London. Would that be a problem?”

  I shake my head, not looking very professional.

  “No,” I say with an assertive voice.

  “Good.”

  “What makes you consider me for this job?” I ask.

  He smiles. Obviously, I’m interviewing him more than he interviews me.

  He plops the piece of paper on the desk.

  “I’ll be honest with you. The position I’m considering you for has just become available. The woman who worked for me got married and moved to Paris. We haven’t had the chance to work with a recruitment agency yet. The fact that you worked with Alexander Harrington weighs heavily in making my decision. That kind of experience is invaluable.”

  A secret smile narrows his eyes.

  “What made you leave?” he asks.

  And that’s the question I have feared the most. Sweat trickles down my neck.

  “I have an adventurous spirit,” I say, attempting to make a joke.

  He reads my eyes for a moment. I smile. The same way I grinned on the terrace of that London hotel.

  “Okay. I guess you had your reasons,” he says, and the heat of a blush crawls up my face.

  He garners more information from my expression than my words, yet he doesn’t seem to care.

  “Okay, Dahlia,” he says with a different voice. “I know you spent almost half a day with us. Karen wanted to hire you anyway. Before I even had the chance to learn about you. You’re a perfect fit for my company. The job is yours. You’ll work directly with me. You don’t have to give me an answer right away, but I need one fairly soon. Go home and think about it. I expect to hear from you by five o’clock tomorrow afternoon. If you accept my offer, you should be ready to leave by the end of the week. If you need more time just let me know. As far as I’m concerned the sooner you relocate, the better.”

  He strides around the desk, shakes my hand and gives me another smile.

  Nervous, I push out of the chair, say goodbye to him and vanish out the door.

  6

  DAHLIA

  As I get closer to my place, I get that strange feeling again. That someone is watching me. This unusual sensation has been with me on and off for almost a week now.

  If I remember correctly the first time I noticed it, was last Friday, when that black car crawled past me.

  I look up and down the street.

  Very few cars drive by this time of day. The traffic gets crazier around five o’clock when people start coming back from work or in the early evening when they go out to the restaurants and bars.

  This is not exactly a family-centered neighborhood. The residents are mostly people who enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city, the proximity of good places to eat and the packed bars where they can grab a drink. It’s artsy kids, young professionals, and the perpetually free-spirited people.

  I glance down the street again. There’s nothing suspicious I can spot.

  The sidewalks are steamy from the summer heat. The blinds are pulled down on the store’s windows.

  I push inside the building, walk the stairs to the second floor and unlock the door to my apartment. This is my friend’s place.

  A college student, she’s on vacation right now. She gladly offered me the place to stay. If I accept this new job, I wouldn’t need to worry about finding a place to live.

  Ten minutes later, I walk out of the shower wearing soft sweatpants and a cotton top. I dry off my hair with a towel when I hear a soft knocking on the door.

  I freeze. I haven’t heard the intercom. Why?

  There’s no doorman in the building, and the main door is always locked.

  I stride to the door. It doesn’t even have a peephole.

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s me.”

  The voice I know so well streams through my body, frosting my blood. I toss the towel on a chair and slowly open the door.

  He wears jeans and a T-shirt, his face wearing an expression I’ve never seen before.

  He looks different. Or maybe it’s the fact that I’ve never seen him dressed like that.

  My heart tumbles in my chest as I take in his handsome face and azure eyes.

  I could melt into a puddle.

  “Lex?”

  My voice is faint, filled with disbelief.

  His gaze dips for a moment, distracted by the flimsy top molding on my mounds, and also by the puckered nipples, and yet he doesn’t seem to scan much of anything.

  “May I come in?” he asks the very moment our eyes meet again.

  “Sure.”

  I slide the door wide open. He walks in.

  He glances around the room, taking in the crazy colors. Red-orange walls, dark purple rugs, and cream upholstery.

  Again, without focusing much on anything in particular.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask, curious.

  He pivots to me, his hands dipped into his pockets, his eyes shadowed by a secret thought.

  He looks at me for a moment, and I sense him cold and distant.

  I show him to the couch.

  Reluctantly, he lowers himself on the edge of the sofa.

  “You want something to drink?”

  He clicks his tongue.

  “Okay. I’ll get something for myself if you don’t mind,” I mutter and swivel to the small kitchen if nothing else to use the few moments to get a grip on myself.

  With trembling hands, I set a pot of fresh coffee. I wait next to the kitchen counter, deeply breathing a few times, trying to slow down my racing heart.

  Furtively, I steal a glance in his direction. He leans back in his seat, his arm extended on top of the couch, his eye trained on the trees outside.

  I fill a mug, bring the cup of coffee to the table, and slide into an armchair across from him.

  He shifts his eyes to me as I lean forward, wrap my fingers around the cup and bring it to my lips.

  He tosses his car keys on the table and sinks into the couch again. His eyes don’t leave mine.

  The same cold sensation I’ve picked up on before flows through me. The warm man is gone.

  “Why did you have to leave?” he asks dryly.

  I tear the cup away from my lips.

  “I didn’t leave because of you,” I say, barely concealing the tremor of my voice.

  “I’m not five, Dahlia,” he says, the color of his eyes shifting from blue to gray. “One thing is to wreck my car, and quite the other to turn your life upside down for something so stupid.”

  A wave of heat pours over my face, eating at my skin.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mutter.

  He huffs softly, shakes his head, and swings his eyes to the window again. His hand goes through his dark blonde hair, the slow motion arresting my attention.

  “You can’t expect me to read your mind, Dahlia. I thought you were smarter than that. You can talk to me. Before you go out there and put
yourself in harm’s way to prove something. You’re not a kid.”

  “That’s not what it was.”

  His gaze whips right at me.

  “Then what was it?”

  The anger in his voice scrapes my ears.

  “I didn’t want to wreck your car. All I wanted was to get out of James Sexton's place as fast as I could.”

  A bitter smile tugs at his lips.

  “And all of that because I danced with Rain Morgan.”

  My mouth pulls shut.

  He studies me for a few moments, and then a sad chuckle falls from his lips. His fingers thread through his hair again as he slowly sways his head side to side and curves his lips into a twisted grin.

  “It wasn’t only that,” I say.

  “No?” His voice drips with sarcasm. “What else was it?”

  “Her sister stood next to me on that terrace as I was watching you two dancing.”

  His eyes turn stormy before he shifts his gaze away from me.

  We share a moment of silence.

  “What did she say?” he asks with a frosted voice and looks at me again.

  “It’s not what she said,” I mutter.

  He cocks an eyebrow.

  “It’s what she confirmed to me,” I rush to clarify.

  He crosses his arms over his chest, his pecs straining against his T-shirt.

  “And what was that?”

  “You are in love with that woman,” I say, my gaze steady on his eyes.

  No emotion shows on his face.

  “Is that what she said?” he asks with a flat voice.

  “No. It’s what I saw and felt in my heart. You didn’t care to share this little secret of yours with me. It would’ve saved me a great deal of trouble, not to mention heartache.”

  He stays silent, and I grow angry.

  “You know what? If you came all this way to chide me, I really don’t have time for this,” I say rising to my feet.

  He doesn’t move.

  “Sit down,” he barks, his eyes blasting a storm at me.

  I slide back into the armchair. He keeps his eyes on me, and my skin starts to burn.

  “What you felt that night doesn’t mean a damn thing,” he says after a few moments.

  A sharp pain spears through my chest. I don’t know what hurts more. The fact that he admits it or the fact that he thinks he can shatter the memory of that evening with a few words.

  “How can you say it doesn’t mean anything when the only reason you couldn’t let me close to you was that woman?”

  “I let you close.”

  I tip my head to the side, a sad smile pushing to my lips.

  “You let me close enough so I can get hooked on you, but you never let me all the way. You made me curious and anxious to know what lies in your heart, yet you made sure I never got to see it or feel it fully.”

  “It had nothing to do with Rain.”

  The sound of her name on his lips makes me sick to my stomach.

  “Really?” I sneer. “Wasn’t she one of the questions you had to find an answer for?”

  “No, she wasn’t.”

  “Just because you say so?”

  “It’s the truth.”

  I feel a lump forming in my neck and tears welling up in my eyes.

  “When I said that I wasn’t thinking about her,” he says.

  “Hmm... What was it then?”

  “The answers I was looking for had to do with you and me.”

  “It couldn’t possibly be me. You already knew I fell for you.”

  He shifts his gaze down.

  “It had to do with you. You weren’t sure if you wanted me or not,” I say.

  “That’s not it.”

  “What is it then?”

  He looks away, the question obviously set to remain unanswered.

  My eyes start getting blurry with tears. He shifts his gaze back to me right in time to catch me running my fingers under my eyes.

  “What you saw that night in James Sexton’s house has absolutely no relevance,” he says with a stern voice.

  I breathe out a sad chuckle.

  “You can’t simply erase it because it doesn’t suit you, Lex.”

  “I can’t tell you something different than the truth,” he says, his lip trembling with irritation.

  We lock eyes.

  His gaze sweeps my cheeks as the first tears drop.

  “You slept with that woman,” I say with a broken voice, and his face turns white. “All of you,” I add, and a muscle starts ticking in his jaw.

  We clash eyes for a moment.

  “It’s all in the past,” he says, his teeth clenching.

  “But not the way you feel for her. That’s very much in the present,” I say, brushing off a few more tears.

  He averts his eyes for a moment.

  “It’s a reflection of what it once was,” he says. “And that’s why it doesn’t mean anything.”

  A few moments of silence pass by. I look down at my hands, his stare burning my face.

  “Well, maybe it doesn’t mean anything to you–– I have no way of knowing anyway, but it certainly means a lot to me. And that’s exactly why I left.”

  I flick my gaze up. He shifts his position and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

  He ponders a few moments over something before he starts to speak again.

  “I’m not in love with Rain,” he says, staring vacantly at the table. “And I don’t think I ever was. If anything, I was probably infatuated with her. I’ve never been in love with a woman. Truly in love her, and gave my heart to her. But I liked Rain a lot. I still do, and yet...”

  He raises his eyes.

  “What I like about her is something that I universally cherish in a woman, yet I rarely find it,” he says.

  Pain courses through me.

  He lifts his gaze and locks my eyes.

  “But I found it in you.”

  I slowly shake my head.

  “No, no... Please don’t say that.”

  “It’s the truth,” he says deadpan. “Whether you like it or not.”

  “I’m not her.”

  His lips curl into a smile.

  “Not by far... That’s what makes you special,” he says sincerely, a soft smile gleaming in his eyes.

  My chest tightens, my fingers dancing nervously in my lap.

  “Why do you have to say that to me, Lex?”

  My voice is shaky like my hands.

  “Because you are.”

  “And yet, you weren’t sure...”

  His gaze dips back to the table.

  “That’s not what it was. I told you I needed time to figure things out. It wasn’t because of Rain. It’s how I felt. I didn’t want to let you close to me as long as I wasn’t sure I could give you a stable ground.”

  He looks at me, and I feel my heart crumbling.

  “I know you fell for me. I knew it the first time you let me touch you. And it wasn’t only your infatuation with me. I could feel your heart beating for me. I didn’t want to be the one who crushed that heart. There were many things I didn’t know then. Some I still don’t. That’s why I said that.”

  A few silent moments slip by.

  “So why are you here now, Lex?”

  The ghost of a smile tilts his lips.

  “I don’t want you to go away because of me.”

  I swing my gaze away and look out the window, unable to face his piercing eyes.

  “Well... It’s too late for that now,” I say.

  “Why?”

  His voice streams surprise and disbelief. I flick my eyes back to him.

  He looks baffled. And hurt. I feel his pain as if it’s mine.

  “I can no longer be close to you.”

  Questions stream in his eyes, yet not one of them makes it to his lips.

  “I thought I could have this under control,” I say. “I foolishly believed I could get a grip on myself and contain my attraction for you, without getting bur
nt. I stupidly hoped I could just enjoy the ride. Right there, you can tell I didn’t know much about how these things work,” I say and smile softly. “The truth is, I can no longer be anywhere near you, Lex. Even if what you said it’s true. Even if you truly believe I mean something to you, I’m in this thing way too deep not to hurt myself like crazy when I’m getting close to you. I can no longer protect myself. Or control my emotions. Right now, everything hurts. If you pull away from me, I get a hole in my heart. If you come close to me, I get burned by your fire. It’s all the same to me. Whether you’re cold as ice or sweltering hot. Whether you pull a wall up or let me delve into you. No matter what you do, it hurts. Stealing cars and frantically driving them on empty roads is not like me. I’ve never experienced that kind of turmoil in my entire life, not even close to what I felt that night. It scared me, but at the same time, it taught me something. My breakdown wasn’t that much about that woman as it was about me getting lost in you,” I say, a tear rolling off my lashes and sliding down my cheek.

  I run my fingers over my face as he watches me in silence.

  “And you are not an easy man to love, Lex. I think you already know that. And I feel stupid for falling for you. We had fun... Yes, we had,” I say, wiping away more tears. “But that only made things worse. And in the end, it did break my heart. I didn’t know it would feel like that... I just didn’t know. And I’m not saying it’s your fault. You are the way you are. But see... To me, you’re like the wind. Sometimes soft and caressing. Other times blowing so hard you break my wings...” I say, my eyes filling with tears again. “That’s why I left. And that’s why I can’t come back. ”

  7

  A few weeks later

  LEX

  “Lex Harrington is here, Sir.”

  “I got it,” I say, motioning to Lynn who releases the intercom button and slides back into her chair.

  A couple of strides put me to James’ door.

  I walk in, his gaze swinging up from his phone.

  He sits behind his desk, his eyes following me as I sink into one of the leather armchairs across from him.

  The glass wall behind him ushers in the view of the Casino. As always the area swarms with people and cars.

  “How’s life in the office?” I ask.

  He smiles.

  “Not bad. How was your trip?”