By
Alexa Brookes
Chapter 1
As Ann rolled over in bed, she felt the warmth from Justin’s body radiating off of him. Scooching closer to him, she wrapped her arm around his waist and closed her eyes, hoping to fall back asleep before her alarm went off.
Before she was able to catch any more shut eye, her alarm shattered the silence that the night had brought. Groaning as she turned over, Ann did her best not to wake Justin as she crawled out of bed. Before she slipped into her slippers to walk to go get coffee, she felt Justin’s hand wrap around her wrist.
“No, don’t go,” he whispered, gently pulling her closer to him.
“I’m so sorry, but I have to. I have to get up and go to work; it will be the third time I’ve missed this week.”
Gently pulling her arm away from Justin, she felt a bit of sadness as she walked away from the bed. She hated having to leave him and she hated to watch the sad look form across his face as she left for the day. There were sometimes where he reminded her of a puppy that had a bit of separation anxiety, but she couldn’t help but love it.
Ann walked into the bathroom and turned the shower on, making sure that the hot water knob was maxed out. Looking in the mirror, she took a quick little spin as her eyes glanced over her entire body. While she felt very comfortable with Justin, she sure didn’t want to lose her body. She knew that some girls just gave up on themselves when they got into a relationship and she didn’t want to be one of those girls.
Happy with her analysis, she opened up her shower door and was greeted with a face full of steam. Reaching her hand out to feel the temperature of the hot water, she felt a hand slide across her waist. Justin bent down a smidge and began to nuzzle his face into Ann’s neck.
“Hey, you,” Ann whispered as a smile spread across her face. She reached her hand behind her to run her fingers through Justin’s hair. “What are you doing up so early?
“I figured I would come in and join you,” he replied, kissing Ann on the neck. Turning around, Ann smiled and pulled Justin into the shower. Pushing Ann against the wall, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled himself in close to her body.
“No, but really, what are you doing up so early?” Ann asked, with a serious look on her face.
“These past few weeks, you have been working your ass off. I figured the least I could do was provide you with some stress relief.” Justin explained, while adjusting the temperature of the water.
“So, I just want you to close your eyes and relax.”
Spinning Ann around so her back faced him, Justin lathered Ann’s hair with shampoo and began to wash her hair for her, giving her a scalp massage. Ann let out a sigh of contentment as Justin’s strong hands worked his way down towards her shoulders.
“I really appreciate you doing this. It feels really nice.” Ann whispered to Justin, trying not to fall asleep to his relaxing touch.
“It’s no problem at all. I hate seeing you so stressed out and I would do anything to help relive you of that stress.”
As he whispered his reply in Ann’s ear, Justin began to kiss Ann’s neck. Ann turned around to face Justin, wrapping her arms around his neck. Placing her forehead on his nose, she stood in silence, enjoying the feeling of being in Justin’s grasp. Spinning Ann back around again, Justin reached for the shower head and began to rinse Ann’s hair; Ann couldn’t help the smile that was forming on her face. It was so nice to be treated like a princess and it felt even better to actually feel like she was Justin’s princess.
“This was really nice, Justin. I really appreciate it and I can’t thank you enough. I just hope I’m not late to work!” Ann confessed, as she did her best to rush out of the shower to get dressed for work. Before she was able to completely step out of the shower, Justin grabbed her arm. With his fierce eyes, Justin stared into Ann’s soul, pulling her close to him.
“Please don’t forget that I love you and I want nothing more than for you to be happy.”
With Justin’s statement, Ann couldn’t help herself from feeling a great ball of passion building inside of her stomach. Justin and Ann had been dating for nearly half a year. Through the six months that they had spent together, they had experienced numerous happy moments together. In the memories they had created together, very few of these memories were filled with anger or fighting. The two of them had been very happy together, especially with Justin working under Ann’s charity.
Justin felt like he owed his entire happiness to Ann; she had not only provided him with a dream job of his, but had also inspired him to become a better person. He found himself giving more to people and feeling more confident in himself, doing his best to better himself every day. Ann had inspired him to lead a wonderful life and Justin felt like he could never explain that to Ann.
With a towel wrapped around his waist, Justin stood in the doorway of Ann’s bathroom as he watched her get dressed. Every day, he continued to fall in love with her beauty. He found her the most beautiful when she didn’t think she was being watched; she didn’t have a wall up around herself when she thought she was by herself.
Ann walked towards her vanity, Justin smiled at the face that she was making as she put on mascara. Turning around, Ann gave Justin one last smile before heading towards her car. He gave her the cheesiest smile that he could muster and watched Ann walk away. Walking towards the other side of Ann’s bedroom, Justin looked outside from her bedroom window to watch Ann get into her car and drive away.
Minutes after Ann was gone, Justin began to feel a longing in his chest for the warmth of Ann’s body. He missed her dearly, but couldn’t wait for her to get home and tell him a story of an adventure that had occurred during her day. Walking back to his dresser, Justin threw on a shirt and began to prepare for his work day.
Chapter 2
Pulling her car into the parking lot of her favorite coffee shop, Ann threw her head back into her car seat and let out a sigh of frustration. Recently, she found herself hating going into work; there were always too many businesses offering to buy up her business. Every time, she gave them the same answer, but every time, companies always came back with a second or even third offer. Her job used to be something that she truly enjoyed completing, as she did so many tasks in order to expand her business; she used to be in touch with all of her employees. Recently, she’s just been hiding in her office, doing her best to shorten the list of the offers she was receiving. By the end of her work day, she found herself to be completely worn and in an anti-social mood.
Stepping out of her car, Ann slammed her car door shut and began to walk into the coffee shop. Finding herself to grow even more tense by the long line ahead of her, Ann pulled out her cell phone and began to go through the long list of texts that she had received over the weekend. Ann opened up a picture message she had received from Jen; it was a picture of Jen vacationing in Hawaii. Ann smiled as she noticed how incredibly happy Jen looked.
“She deserves it. She’s been through hell this past year.” Ann muttered to herself. Looking up at the line that was in front of her, she realized that the line had not moved at all. In the front of the line, there was a woman persistent that the cup of coffee that she ordered wasn’t what she ordered. Before she even thought about the actions she was taking, Ann pushed her way to the front of the line.
“Excuse me, but there are at least twenty other people in line. Either move to the back of the line and stop bitching about your fucking cup of coffee or leave. I don’t want to hear your prissy bullshit anymore and neither do any of these people.” Ann fumed. The woman’s face drew a complete surprise and even Ann found herself to be in complete shock about what just came out of her mouth. While she was completely surprised, she also found that standing up for herself felt really good; it had been a long time since she had done something like this.
“Who do you think you’re talking to? I’ll have you-“
“Are you deaf? I said move. I don’t want to hear you bitch any
more.” Ann interrupted the woman. Glaring at Ann, the woman snatched up her purse and stomped out of the store.
Turning to smile at the cashier, whose face was completely aghast, Ann placed an order for a cappuccino and a bagel.
With her order in hand, Ann began to walk out to her car and began to think about the interaction that she had had with the woman standing in line. It was the first time in months that she had stood up for herself. Why had it taken so long for her to speak out? While she had been incredibly stressed these last few months, it sure as hell didn’t give her the right to lose herself. Locking herself in her car, Ann leaned her head back and blew on her hot coffee. Shaking her head, she began to drive herself to work, not looking forward to the amount of shit she was going to have to deal with that day.
Pulling into her parking spot, Ann got out of her car and threw her trash away. As she turned around to walk into the building, a large man had walked into Ann.
“Excuse me, but you stepped on my feet.” Ann grumbled, hoping that her day would quickly get better.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry. Please excuse me,” the man offered a cheesy smile to provide an apology and quickly pushed Ann out of the way to walk around her. As the man walked away, Ann couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the arrogance the man presented himself with. Feeling her phone buzz in her back pocket, Ann pulled out her phone and saw a message.
“I hope you’re having a good day. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since you’ve left. ILY.” Read the text from Justin. A warm feeling spread across Ann’s body as she read the text and a smile began to form on her face. She really loved the way that Justin treated her; it was as if her money didn’t matter at all to him.
A few minutes later, Ann had walked into her office and began to unpack her bag, setting all of the contents that she needed for the day in a very organized line. A knock on the door startled Ann from her peaceful state of mind.
“Yes? Please come in.” Ann spoke out, praying that it wasn’t news about a potential buyer coming to offer a sales pitch.
“Good morning, Ann. I would hate to both to tell you this because it seems like you’re already in a bad mood. There’s a potential buyer here who would like to have a conference with you. If you want, I can tell him off for you.”
“No, thank you though, Melina. I’ll take care of him myself. Is he in the conference room?”
Melina, Ann’s personal assistant, shook her head in acknowledgment. Giving Ann a quick smile as a greeting, Melina quietly shut the door and left Ann to her own devices.
“I have no idea what the fuck I’m going to say to this guy. I’ve had enough to today’s shit and it isn’t even noon yet.”
Shoving back some loose strands of hair that had fallen out of her bun, Ann pulled on her blazer to straighten it out and marched herself over to the conference room. As she opened the door, she found herself to be completely flabbergasted; it was the man who had walked into not even ten minutes ago. Clearing her throat, Ann stepped into the room and gave a polite smile to the man.
“Oh, bloody hell. You’re the woman I ran into this morning! My business gave me a picture of yours, but I thought you would be taller. Anyways, no big deal, am I right? It’s not like anybody got hurt. Please, sit down. Let’s get down to business! My name is Donnie.”
The more that Ann listened to the large man speak, the more she wanted to punch him in the throat. Why was he inviting her to sit down at her business? Her name was on the lease of the building and she owned everything inside of it. Hell, she could probably even own Donnie’s ass if she lifted up her skirt a bit higher.
“Hello, Donnie,” Ann replied through gritted teeth. “Welcome to my company. While I do appreciate you taking time out of your day to come send an offer to my company, I’m afraid- “
“Let me stop you there, sweet cheeks. While you may think that I’m representing any other plain ass company, you are sadly mistaken. You see here, little miss, my company is offering triple of what your company is worth. In a few years, online dating is going to be out of style. Why send yourself into massive debt when you can get yourself out now? If you accept, I’ll even throw in a date with me tonight; I’ll buy you a drink,” Donnie spoke, throwing in a wink at the end of his statement.
The more that Donnie rambled on, the more Ann began to grow furious. The one thing that she hated the most was cocky men and this man was bathed in cockiness. Donnie opened his mouth to begin speaking again, but Ann raised her hand in order to silence him.
“I never once put my company up for sale. You look like a complete fool offering to buy out my company with triple the money that it’s worth. I’ll make the money that you’re offering me in a week; it’s more money than you’ll ever see in your life time. And going out on a date with you is the last thing I’ll ever do. Leave my office before I call security.” Ann growled at Donnie.
He opened his mouth to begin speaking again and Ann reached for her phone to call security. Donnie adjusted his belt after standing up and began to walk towards the door. Before exiting the room, Donnie turned around and glared at Ann.
“Fuck you, bitch.” Donnie hissed as he exited the room.
“As if I haven’t heard that one before.” Ann rolled her eyes and laid her head down on the conference table. Ann heard the door open behind her and prayed that it wasn’t Donnie coming back in for another round of verbal assault. Turning around, Ann faced a nervous looking Melina.
“Are you okay, Ann? I heard shouting and I heard what the man said to you before he left. I wasn’t sure if you were okay so I came in to check on you.”
Giving Melina a meek smile, Ann nodded her head and patted Melina’s hand.
“Just another asshole company and another asshole representative trying to buy us out. If I were ever to quit, I’d hand this company over to you or somebody else I trust to run it. Not that I see that ever happening any time soon, but that’s what I would do, instead of selling us out.”
Melina nodded her head in acceptance and hugged Ann.
“It’s going to be okay, I promise. One of these days, these companies will lose interest in us and move on to someone else. Until then, you’re just going to have to ride it out.” Managing a bleak smile, Melina left the room and closed the door behind her.
Ann set her head down on the table again and began to contemplate if she truly thought that all of the trouble she was going through was worth it. She was beginning to lose business partners, because all of the business partners she had created relationships with were offering to buy out her company. With her rude turn downs, Ann’s unlimited business partners had become very limited.
Walking back to her office, Ann plopped herself down at her desk and picked up a picture frame that held a picture of her and Justin in it. Thinking back to the time when the photo was taken, Ann began to smile; Justin had taken her to a park that had a beautiful water fall. Justin had picked her up and thrown her into the water fall. Ann nearly touched the bottom of the floor of the river, but she came up smiling. Sighing, Ann thought about how she wishes she could spend more time with Justin. She understood that they were both young, but she felt like she had spent her entire teenage years to get to the point where she was today; she didn’t want to waste her entire life just working. Knowing that she had enough money to have an early retirement that could support two people lavishly, Ann began to truly think about the comment that she said to Melina earlier. Could she leave everything that she’s worked for her entire life behind? Could she truly leave everything, this whole business, in the hands of someone else and completely walk away?
Shrugging her shoulders, she did her best to put her doubtful thoughts to the back of her mind as she turned around to look at the beautiful view her office window provided her with. A knock on her door interrupted her train of thought; turning around, she was once gain greeted by Melina’s face, who was bringing her news of another company interested in purchasing her business. As Ann walked down the hall toward
s the conference room, she couldn’t help but wish she was back at home.
By the time that the work day had ended, Ann felt completely exhausted. Walking back to her car, Ann got into her vehicle and rested her head against her steering wheel. Doing her best not to cry, Ann let out a frustrated sigh; a knock on her window interrupted her train of thought. Silently cursing in her head, she peered out of her window to look at the individual who had broken Ann’s train of thought.
Ann turned her car on and opened her window.
“Yes?” Ann asked the stranger as she stuck her head out her car window.
“Do you have any spare change you could lend to a hungry man?”
Turning her back towards the stranger, Ann opened up the console that she had in her car that held all of her spare change. Seeing that the console was empty, she opened up her purse to check her wallet to see if there was any spare change in there. Finding that her wallet was completely empty of cash too, Ann turned back to the stranger.
“I’m so terribly sorry, but I don’t have any spare change for you. However, if you step aside, I can give you some money from the ATM over there,” Ann explained, pointing to an ATM across the street.
The stranger nodded his head and Ann got out of the car. Giving the stranger a polite smile, she wondered to herself why the man was dressed in head to toe in a cloak; it wasn’t even a cool night and she felt strange about how she couldn’t see the man’s face. Turning her back to the stranger, she walked over to the ATM that was sitting on the corner of the street. As she entered in her pin code, she deducted three hundred dollars from her bank account. As she turned back around to face the stranger, she found herself to be staring down the barrel of a gun.
Chapter 3
“Give me the money.” The man spoke, in a grizzly voice. Handing over the money to the man, Ann did her best to stay calm.
“Turn around.” The man demanded again; as he continued speaking, Ann did her best to focus on the voice of the man. She knew that she had recognized it from somewhere, but she wasn’t exactly sure where she had heard it from before.
He Loves Secrets (Complete Box Set Parts 1-3) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Page 4
