The Big Billionaire

by Lexi Aurora

  “Um, Tyler?”

  “Tyler?” Charles Evans barked, his brow furrowing in his signature “I’m about to chew somebody’s ass out” look. “You don’t think that’s a little bit informal for your boss, sweetheart? He’s Mr. Evans to you, miss.”

  “Oh! I’m… I’m sorry, it’s just that—”

  “Just that what? You don’t argue with the boss, hon. That’s something you would already know if my son had done the job he was supposed to.”

  “It’s what I told her to call me,” Tyler said loudly, bound and determined to outtalk his larger-than-life dad. “So she’s doing exactly what I told her to. Problem solved. What is it, Rosie?”

  “Thank you, sir,” Rosie answered, obviously grateful for his intervention but also too rattled to call him by his first name any longer. “I just wanted to let you know that you’ve got another visitor.”

  “Well, tell whoever it is to either go away or wait until I’m through. I’m busy and unfortunately can’t say when we’re going to be through in here.”

  “No, Rosie,” his dad spoke up, a smug look rising up on his face the looks of which Tyler didn’t care for one bit, “that won’t be necessary. Show her back, please. We’ll wait.”

  The intercom clicked off, and Tyler thought he could actually see in his mind’s eye the look of total relief on Rosie’s face over the fact that her part in this uncomfortable interaction would soon be through. Tyler looked to Charles Evans for some kind of explanation. All he got for his efforts was more smugness, noting that something about it was maybe a little cruel as well as just controlling. He wanted to ask him what the hell was going on, what he thought he was doing, but he thought it was the kind of thing that would give his crotchety dad a sense of satisfaction, and there was no way he was going to give him that. Instead, he watched the door, waiting to see who was there to meet with him and why his dad seemed so goddamned happy about it. He didn’t know what he expected, but when he saw who pushed open the double doors to his office, he was most definitely taken aback.

  The first thing he noticed about her was her legs. Her tight pencil skirt ended at an acceptably modest distance above her knees, but that didn’t stop Tyler from being able to see that she had the kind of legs rarely seen outside of the models of Sports Illustrated. And he should know, too—he’d been with more than one top model in his day, had certainly been with enough women to know how rare it was to see one with a body like this chick was sporting. And it didn’t stop at the legs, either. They were topped by a perfect pair of hips that tapered off to a small waist and a set off tits he would have loved to bury his face in. When he got to her face, he was both impressed and maybe a little bit embarrassed. Her skin was a creamy white, the kind of color that made her look completely unspoiled by the elements around her. Her eyes were a fiery, watchful green, and her hair, although pinned up in a respectable updo, was a mass of red curls he would have paid money to see cascading around her naked shoulders. Tyler had seen a lot of naked women in his life, had never suffered from a shortage of easy fucks, but rarely had he been as immediately drawn to one as he was to this girl. The embarrassment came when he saw the look in her eyes as she saw all of these thoughts travel through his mind. He had a pretty good idea she could tell everything he was thinking, and from the look of her, she was far from impressed. She actually looked at him like she thought he was distasteful, like he was a bad smell or a foul taste she couldn’t quite manage to get out of her mouth. He’d never even met the woman and she already hated him, and to make matters worse, his dad looked thrilled to see it. He actually let out a chuckle, something Tyler couldn’t remember hearing come out of him before, and stepped forward to shake her hand.

  “Miss Banks,” he spoke warmly, something that would have been confusing all on its own but was doubly so because his dad knew the hot girl’s name. “Right on time. I like that in an employee.”

  “Employee?” Tyler asked sharply, feeling his first hint of distaste to match that of this Miss Banks character. “She’s your employee?”

  “That she is.”

  “Fine, great. Then why don’t you take her somewhere else and have a meeting with her? Have your meeting somewhere that isn’t my office.”

  “You know, I would, except this is a meeting that pertains to you.”

  “Awesome. Care to tell me how?”

  “She’s the answer to the little problem you’ve created. The fucking PR nightmare.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “PR is her thing. Isn’t that right, Miss Banks?”

  “That’s correct,” she answered, her eyes flitting uncertainly from Charles to Tyler and then back to Charles again. “But I think I may be a bit confused. You haven’t mentioned yet what it is you’ve hired me for…”

  “This. This is what I’ve hired you for. My numbskull of a son has gone and gotten himself plastered all over the covers of every smutty gossip rag there is. Every housewife who waits in line for her groceries gets to read about what an asshole he is. They get to read about his contentious divorce with that nightmare slut of a wife, Camilla. I’m sure you’ve seen it. You have, haven’t you?”

  “I suppose so, but I still don’t see—”

  “Tyler is your job. He’s your only job. You’re not only to keep him from getting himself into another scandal, but also to help him rehabilitate this squandered reputation of his.”

  “Oh! Oh, goodness, I had no idea it was going to be that kind of thing. I’m not sure—”

  “That you’re qualified? Bullshit. I called up each of your former professors personally. Each of them said you were the smartest student they had ever had. In terms of how difficult the job is going to be, believe me, I’m aware. Why else would I be paying you more than triple what you would get anywhere else? All I need to know is if you’re up to the job. Go ahead and tell me right now if you aren’t, because I’m not trying to waste my time. If you can’t do it, I’ll go and find somebody else who can.”

  “I can do it,” she answered immediately, never once looking at Tyler as she spoke. “You don’t have to worry about that. I’ve never come up against a task I couldn’t master, and this one will be no different.”

  It was right then, right at that moment, that Tyler knew he was going to do whatever he could to make sure that wasn’t true. It may have been petty, but hey, he had never claimed to be anything else, and talking over him like he was a child was the best way in the universe to piss him right the hell off.

  Chapter Four

  “Are you sure this is a good idea? I don’t think this is a good idea. In fact, I’m pretty much positive this isn’t a good idea.”

  Keira could tell Tyler wasn’t listening to her—had known he wouldn’t be before the words came out of her mouth—but she couldn’t help speaking them all the same. Being the voice of reason was something she was so used to it was almost like breathing, and that meant it wasn’t a habit easily abandoned. Lord knew that if it were, she would have done it by now. She had been the one exclusively in charge of the shitshow that was Tyler Evans, and his PR for almost a month now, and it had been anything but easy. On the few occasions when Christie had dared to ask her about her new position, Keira had lamented her fate, sure that Tyler was being as intentionally petulant as he could possibly manage. He did the kind of things she would imagine a preteen boy doing when he found out his dad was getting remarried when he wanted the two of them to remain a duo of dudes. He sent her on errands in the office that weren’t actually possible to complete and played pranks on her whatever chance he got. He vacillated between being surly with her and telling stupid jokes that were obviously meant to offend her as much as he possibly could. The only thing she could come up with that was working in her favor was that he hadn’t done anything else silly enough to land him in the news, which was what she was being paid for. It didn’t feel like a whole lot, but given the circumstances, she had been willing to take it—and to actually be grateful for it, too.

 
All of that had been true, that was, until tonight, and she was rapidly realizing that tonight was the first real test of the abilities she had resolutely promised Charles Evans she had. Because despite all of his shenanigans, in her last month of service Tyler had yet to try and have one of his famous—or rather, infamous depending on who you talked to—nights out on the town. It had surprised her, and initially felt like a trick of some sort, but as the days had turned into weeks, she had actually allowed herself to believe that maybe Tyler cared more about mending his reputation than he’d let on. She had allowed herself to hope that he would help her make that happen, that there might be more to him than the spoiled silver-spoon kid she had pegged him to be. She had let herself hope these things, and she had been wrong. It seemed as if a month was all he was willing to give her by way of reprieve because on this fourth Friday night, he was going out to one of the most popular, difficult to get into clubs in the city, and when she’d insisted that he not go, he’d only laughed. It wasn’t even a mean laugh, nothing she could point at and call him a prick and be done with it. It was the kind of laugh that said hers was a cute attempt, but that it wouldn’t make any difference at all in the end. The two of them had argued about it for what felt like forever when he finally laid it all out on the line for her: either she could come with him so that she could stop worrying so much about it, or she could just go home and have herself a heart attack over the things he might or might not be doing. Option A or option B—those were the only two choices she was going to get. She had chosen option A, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. She didn't. She felt terribly out of place, exactly the same way she’d always felt in high school and to a large extent in college when everyone around her had been partying it up and she’d been too focused on her work to do anything other than study. She felt like a fish out of water, and she knew it was painfully obvious.

  “Keira,” Tyler answered her patiently, shouting in order to be heard over the pulsing crowd of the fanciest club Keira had ever seen. “Stop it, okay? It’s a good idea. Everything doesn’t have to be so serious all of the time. It’s Friday night, and we’re out to have a good time, just like almost everyone else our age. It’s a good idea. Now take this, okay?”

  “What is it?” she asked doubtfully, fully aware that accepting the impossibly large drink Tyler was handing her was a bad idea but doing it anyway.

  “It’s called a drink, Keira. There’s no trick to it. It’s not like I drugged it or anything.”

  “I didn’t say you did!” She protested just a little bit too loudly, realizing that she was sounding shrill and out of control, so she took a long, deep sip of the cocktail Tyler had just handed her in order to direct her own attention elsewhere. “I wouldn’t say that.”

  “You don’t really have to, do you?”

  “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

  “What do you think it means, Keira? You act like I’m some asshole toddler you have to put up with day in and day out. If you think you’re being subtle about your hatred for me, I’ve got news for you. You’re not.”

  Keira opened her mouth to give some kind of retort and then promptly shut it again. As it turned out, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say to that. Truth be told, she kind of had treated him like a child, and she’d definitely acted like she couldn’t stand him. She’d really believed that was true, too, except that looking at him now, she couldn’t quite remember why. She took another large sip of her drink, a drink that was quickly going to her head with how infrequently she chose to imbibe, and realized that she had no idea what she thought of Tyler Evans. She’d been sure she understood everything about him a month ago when this strangest of all jobs had begun, but now? Now she didn’t have a clue.

  “What’s that look? I say something else you think is awful?”

  “No, actually, not this time.”

  “Interesting,” he answered, his voice warming up considerably as he turned toward her, moving in close enough that she could smell the woodsy scent of his cologne. “What, then?”

  “I was just wondering why you’re always so freaking difficult. You’re being nice to me now like you actually like me some, and I don’t get it. When we’re at work together, you treat me like shit.”

  “Me? Are you kidding me? You’re like the fucking ice queen, Keira! I’ve never met somebody as cold and condescending as you are, not a man or a woman. You walked into my office hating me on the very first day. Try and tell me differently.”

  “I can’t. You’re right.”

  “See? There you go. My dad made sure you thought the things he wanted you to think.”

  “It had nothing to do with that, actually.”

  “Then what?”

  “You, Tyler. Just you. You were enough. Everything I ever read about you, everything I ever saw. You just seemed so… spoiled. You’re a silver-spoon kid, the kind of guy who’s always had everything handed to you. It’s hard to feel sorry for a guy like that.”

  “And what are you? Just another stuck-up bitch who thinks she’s smarter than everyone?”

  “Jesus, Tyler, you asked me.”

  “I know I did. My point is we could both easily assume we know all about the other one. That doesn’t make it true, and it doesn’t make it smart. Have you ever considered the idea of us just getting to know each other without all of the bullshit? Just to get to know each other for real?”

  Keira looked at Tyler closely, her head already swimming with the alcohol flowing through her veins. Part of her, the sensible part, was screaming at her not to listen, to not let him charm her the way he charmed everyone else. There was another part of her, though—and this part was large enough that it would undoubtedly have scared her had she not already been pretty well buzzed—that wanted to take him up on the offer. All of the characteristics she’d already decided she didn’t like aside, there was something about Tyler that drew her in, something she wanted more of. She likened it to a person putting her whole hand on an open flame in order to know once and for all if she would get burned. Never in her life had she been the kind of girl to do that and yet, as if it were a person completely separate from the version of herself she knew, she found herself delivering the last answer in the world she would have expected from herself.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay? Are you kidding me?”

  “No,” she answered quickly, looking down at her now-empty drink to avoid looking Tyler in the eyes. “Why, were you hoping I would tell you to shove it or something?”

  “No, definitely not. I was hoping for the opposite, very much so. I just didn’t expect it. Perhaps you aren’t as predictable as I’ve pegged you.”

  “That may be true, but don’t get too excited, mister. This is just us getting to know each other. Just getting to know each other, and that’s as far as it goes.”

  She should have known better. She should have known that the line she’d just spoken basically summed up the last words of every well-meaning, trying to be serious girl the whole world over.

  Chapter Five

  “This is insane! This is totally insane—you know that, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know what it is. I just know that I want it. I want you.”

  Tyler’s head was reeling, and it wasn’t only from the alcohol he’d consumed at the club. His head was spinning from how quickly everything had changed, how quickly it was still changing. He’d wanted Keira from the very first moment he’d seen her, wanted to have her in his bed, but a month of working with her had taught him that she wasn’t the kind of girl he could just whisk into his bed and then whisk right back out again. After Camilla, he’d been sure that was the only thing he was interested in. One-night stands had been the wheelhouse he’d been living in, and anyone who would require any more work than that was somebody he had no time for whatsoever. He was so sure of this that when he’d found himself inviting Keira to come out with him earlier in the day, he’d been half-tempted to punch himself in the face and remind hims
elf of who he was dealing with here. It wasn’t another one of the hot chicks he’d distracted himself with ever since he and Camilla had so acrimoniously split—her getting caught by the paparazzi, sharing the bed of some half-rate, wannabe rapper, and him screwing as many people as he could to make the divorce feel final. No, Keira wasn’t like those girls because she didn’t look at him and automatically think he was amazing. This meant that she was work, something he was trying very hard to avoid, and therefore should have been off his radar. So he’d been totally at a loss when he’d told her to come with him while he let off some steam. Looking back, he was pretty sure it had been nothing more than a dare, a dare he was super surprised to have her take him up on. And speaking of surprise, things had only gotten more surprising as the night wore on. Much to his surprise, and he was sure to Keira’s surprise as well, he actually liked her. He liked her, and the more he realized that, the more he wanted her. By the time they had left the club, he had wanted her so badly that he couldn’t not kiss her, couldn’t help kissing her despite being sure she would probably beat the shit out of him for his trouble. When she hadn’t, he’d taken it one step further, asking her if she wanted to join him at his loft for a nightcap. Miraculously she had said yes to that one, too, and after one thing led to another, he now found himself sprawled out on his leather couch, his hands plunged in Keira’s perfect red curls and her sweet taste filling his mouth completely. It was only when Keira pulled back to inform him how insane what they were doing was that he even stopped to consider it. And even then he knew nothing short of a nuclear disaster would stop him from going as far as Keira was willing.