Billionaires Runaway Bride (A Standalone British Billionaire Romance Novel)

by Claire Adams

  Chapter Eight

  Brandon

  “You slept with her, didn’t you?” Josh said before he had made it past my front door.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “That blonde sugar baby from the website. You slept with her. I could read into that text you sent me.”

  It was impossible to keep anything from him, and I didn’t know why I even tried. He didn’t have a life of his own and seemed to live vicariously through me. I’d much rather just move on with what we were doing for the day and not talk about Delilah at all, but that wasn’t likely to happen.

  “First of all, I don’t think she’s one of those sugar baby girls like you think she is. Secondly, she’s a really nice girl and I’m not going to talk about what I may or may not have done with her,” I said. “I’m a gentleman.”

  “I can’t blame you. I’d have taken a trip on that sugar rush, too. How much money does she want for her allowance each month? Maybe I can afford to have a girl like that by my side, too?”

  Josh was really good at stock investing, but not all that great at listening. I understood where he was coming from with the idea that Delilah would be a girl looking for a rich boyfriend to mooch off of, but that wasn’t her – I knew it. I knew from the time we’d spent together that she wasn’t that sort of woman.

  “Are we going to work on the futures trading market or are you just going to keep talking about my sex life?”

  “Is that an actual question?” Josh said as he pulled up to my computer. “Because I’d much rather talk about your sexy girl than the futures market. I think you have an idealist view of this market. It’s not nearly as much fun as you think it is.”

  “Just show me the basics, and we can go from there. I like to make my own decisions about things. I’d much rather know about it and choose not to invest, than not know what’s going on at all.”

  My computer was set up with three monitors so I could watch the financial news, look at stocks, and have financial graphs all going at the same time. Josh had helped me get the set up organized and working; it made me look the part, even if I hadn’t figured out all the details of day trading yet.

  “Have you been trading without me here?” Josh asked as a red flag popped up on my account when we logged in. “You know you shouldn’t be doing that. There are a lot of rules, especially since you just sold your company.”

  “Yeah, but nothing too crazy,” I said. “I’ve been sticking to the stocks we talked about and the rules for trading.”

  “Something’s wrong. It looks like your account might have been flagged by someone outside of the trading platform. We better not do any investing until I get this figured out.”

  “They think I’m doing illegal trading?” I asked, a little nervous at the assumption.

  “Not necessarily,” he said. “You could have just had a really good investing day and they flagged you. I’ve had my account flagged before, and it was removed the next day. Sometimes it’s for a silly infraction, like not taking enough time between trades and they think you have some software program attached to your account. Let’s just give trading a rest for a couple of days.”

  “I haven’t done anything illegal,” I protested. “Really, I’ve stuck to the stocks we researched – and only those. I know there are a lot of companies I can’t invest in right now.”

  “It’s not always about that. Between the trading platform and the dozens of federal agencies out there, it’s better to just give them a day or two to clear the flag,” he said.

  “Should we call someone?”

  “No, they will contact you if they have concerns or questions. Instead, tell me about this hot piece of ass you went out with.”

  “She was hot, but not in the traditional way,” I said. “She was sweet and had a raunchy sense of humor. Within five minutes of meeting me, she was making a joke about women creaming themselves when I’m around. It was really funny.”

  “Sounds like my kind of woman.”

  I went on to tell him a little bit about Delilah, without going into too many details. It wasn’t necessary to tell him about her past and her loss; I felt like she had told me that in confidence, and I didn’t want to tell Josh just yet.

  Although, it was clear that all those things from her past had made her into the person she was now. Delilah was much more put-together than the women I typically ended up going out with. It had been a refreshing change of pace for me.

  “She’s a single mom, and I think she said her son is six. No, five, he’s five and his name is Connor.”

  “Have you ever dated a woman with a kid before?”

  I had to laugh. The idea that I would have dated a woman with a kid was preposterous.

  In fact, up until I found out that Delilah had a son, I would have vehemently denied ever being willing to go out with a woman who had a child. It just seemed way too hard for me to deal with. I still had to deal with the loss of my son; I didn’t think I could handle a woman having a kid.

  Yet, I hadn’t even thought about ending our date when Del told me she was a mother. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind at all because I was enjoying my time with her so much.

  “No, I’ve never even thought about dating a woman with a kid. It always seemed a little too close to home for me. Plus, I’m not really the dating type, and I wouldn’t want to hurt someone who had that type of home life.”

  “Are you sure this girl isn’t looking for a free ride?” Josh asked as concern crossed his face. “Let me play the devil’s advocate here for a second. Let’s say she looked you up and found out about your son. She plays off of her attractiveness and makes up having a son to play off of your sadness. Soon she has her claws in you and your paying for her rent and buying her a Mercedes.”

  “Oh, now you’re being a little dramatic,” I said. “I’m not going to be paying her rent or buying her a car. She has a job and drove a very reasonable vehicle to meet me for our date.”

  “What kind of car?”

  “I don’t know…an Infinity, I think.”

  “Brandon, how can a single mom in Los Angeles afford a car like that? What does she do for work? I think you’re not seeing the big picture here. This girl sure seems like she’s looking for a sugar daddy.”

  I was excited to answer this because Del’s job was pretty damn impressive to me. There weren’t that many women who worked in technology, and I really thought it would impress Josh enough that he would back off his criticisms of her.

  “She’s in computers. Helps with websites and coding and stuff. It sounded like a really interesting job, and I think she seems like she likes it a lot.”

  “Oh, man. Seriously, you are totally getting played here!” He burst into laughter. “A girl that hot is not working on computers.”

  “Okay, enough, Josh. I like her. I’m not going to let her steal all my money. Let’s just leave it alone,” I said as I started to get frustrated with him.

  “Sorry, dude, I just smell something fishy going on, and I can’t put my finger on it. Just be careful around her. You know those professionals are really good at their jobs. I’ve heard they can practically convince a guy it’s his idea to give her his money.”

  “And, you think I’m dumb enough to fall for it?”

  Josh paused and looked up in the air as if he was thinking about if I was dumb enough. “I’m not sure,” he joked.

  “I’ll keep my eyes out. Now what am I supposed to do with my trading account? I’m already bored to death; can’t I at least trade regular stocks?”

  “I wouldn’t advise it. Even regular trades could get blocked or you could end up doing something stupid while they are watching. Let’s just go over the rules again; I want to make sure you understand everything,” Josh said.

  “I know, I know, I can’t trade stocks for my old company. I can’t trade stocks for my close friend’s companies. I can’t buy more than ten thousand shares at a time. What else?” I said as I became more and more frustrated.
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  “These rules are for your own wellbeing. They aren’t technically illegal, but you can get yourself into a full investigation, have your accounts frozen, and be unable to access your money; it’s serious, Brandon.”

  I knew he was just trying to help me out, but I honestly hadn’t been trading enough to get on the radar of any big agencies. My trading account was probably less than some teenagers who were investing. I only made small trades and had been listening to all the advice Josh gave me. I’d been researching stocks before purchases, keeping my stocks until the first signs of a down turn, then selling. There wasn’t anything exciting going on in my trading account.

  “I understand.”

  “I’m going to head out for the day. Let me know if you notice the red flag disappear from your account and don’t start trading again until I’ve come and looked things over.”

  “You do know I’m the boss here, right?” I asked.

  “You do know I know what I’m doing and you don’t, right? Try spending your day doing something fun. You’re rich, remember? You get to go do fun stuff all day if you want to.”

  He did have me on that one. Josh was very knowledgeable with all the trading information I’d asked him about. He clearly was very passionate about his day trading, and I knew I needed to listen to his advice. I wasn’t going to risk having all my bank accounts frozen. Even a rich man could get himself into a heap of trouble if he didn’t have access to his money.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” I said. “Don’t let being smarter than me in the stock world get to your head, though. I’m a quick learner, and I’ll be snowing you in these investments in no time.”

  “All right. I’ll check back with you tomorrow before I come over. I don’t want to come all the way over here if we can’t trade.”

  “See you tomorrow. I’m sure it will be just fine.”

  As Josh left, I quickly checked my phone to see if there were any messages from Del. I had asked her how her day was going earlier, but she hadn’t responded yet. Soon, I found myself looking over her online profile and then quickly getting out of it again. I didn’t want her to see that I was digitally stalking her like a lovesick puppy and knowing that she worked at the website made me hyper aware of the skills she might have to know who was looking at her page.

  I went back to my trading platform and watched the stocks of the day. There was a lot of movement, and I found myself keying in on one particular stock as it moved up a little and then back a few points. It looked like it was gearing up for a nice spike before the end of the day, and I wanted to get in on it.

  Just before one o’clock, I threw in an order for as many shares as I could buy with the available funds in my account. Sure enough, I watched as the stock took off and started one of the best climbs I had seen in a really long time.

  First it was up to $12.03, then suddenly it was $13.49, and by the time I sold off my shares, it was well over $18.00 per share. It was my best buy all on my own and I wanted to call up Josh to tell him all about it, but I held back. I wasn’t supposed to have been trading and I knew he would get angry.

  As I sat in my guilt-ridden happiness, I hoped I hadn’t just made more of a mess for myself. The trades had been one hundred percent legal, though, and I knew it. There was no reason for my account to be flagged, unless it was some sort of random issue.

  I watched my computer monitor steadily as I waited for some sort of sign that I had been watched.

  In life, I wasn’t much of a rule breaker. Sure, I liked to push the general rules if they didn’t fit with what I was doing with my business, but I never straight out committed crimes. In general, I was a very law-abiding citizen and probably a little tame in the risks I took with my life.

  It made me nervous that my trading account had been flagged. I hadn’t ever dealt with a real investigation into my life, either financially or legally, and I really wanted to keep it that way.

  After a good thirty minutes of no action on my account, I finally clicked out of it and tried to find something else to keep myself busy as I waited for Del to message me back.

  There was plenty for me to do; I certainly wasn’t all that hard up for work. I was working on a new business deal with some of my old partners and we were actively looking for new companies to invest in. I also had a lot to do around my house. I’d spent so many years working that I hadn’t put any effort into decorating the place to show who I was. I was hoping to make it more livable and less like a bachelor pad.

  Delilah: I’m doing good. How’s your day?

  She texted me. I could have gone into all the crazy flagging that was going on with my account, but all I wanted to do was talk to her. Instead of texting her back, I just dialed her number. It was a bold and spontaneous move that I hoped would come across that way to her.

  “What kind of maniac responds to a text by calling someone?” she laughed into the phone as she answered.

  “Sorry, I just thought if you were available, I’d much rather hear your voice than just look at your words on the screen,” I said.

  “Aww, you’re forgiven. My day is going all right. We seemed to have a hacker in our online system, though. Well, not sure it’s a hacker yet, but the work I did last week has totally reverted and my code needs to be re-written.”

  She certainly sounded like a computer woman who knew what she was talking about. I wished Josh was there to hear her talk about her job. It would have put him at ease with all his conspiracy sugar baby talk.

  “I’m not sure I understood all of that, but I hope your day gets better.”

  “It’s all right. I mean, it’s not like it’s my personal account. At least at the end of the day I get to go home. But I really hate when it looks like I suck at my job. I’m already the only woman in my IT department,” she said. “Oh, crap, I need to run. Get online and I’ll message you there; it looks like I’m working then.”

  “Okay,” I laughed as she hung up quickly.

  My adrenaline surged at the idea that she wanted to talk to me even though she was at work and might get in trouble for it. I quickly logging into my Dating the Rich account and pulled up the instant messaging to talk to her. She wasn’t there yet and I waited, and waited, and waited.

  Talking to Delilah felt weirdly perfect to me. When she finally came online, I couldn’t help but get excited that I’d have a few moments to sneak a conversation in with her while she was at work.

  Chapter Nine

  Delilah

  “So, what did you do to the system this time?” Robert said as he hovered over my desk.

  “Like I said in my message to you, I didn’t do it. I actually had the error fixed last week and my changes have been removed. I think it’s possible someone has hacked into the account, but I’m not sure.”

  It was so frustrating to talk with Robert about what was going on. He was, by far, the most useless person at our company. He didn’t really do anything. His whole job was to supervise other people while they did their jobs. I didn’t even know what skills the guy actually had. He certainly was good at delegating work and not helping with anything.

  He was also good at making me feel like crap and like I wasn’t doing my job well enough.

  The way he talked to me, it was as if he thought I was just pretending to know about computers and didn’t really know how to do my job. He didn’t seem to think a woman could do much and often made rude comments about any number of the women in the company. It was surprising that he had lasted so long at our organization because most of the people in charge didn’t seem to share his belief that women weren’t capable.

  “Or, it’s possible you don’t know what you’re doing and you messed up?” he asked and then stood there waiting for me to agree with him.

  There was no way I could have removed all my own work and I knew it, but I also had learned that arguing with Robert was very counterproductive for me actually getting my work done. He had the strange ability of twisting everything around and making me feel like mayb
e I had done something wrong.

  I could have explained to him what work I had actually completed, and if he had been a halfway decent manager, he might have asked that of me. But instead, he just stood there waiting for me to tell him he was right and that I had totally messed up my own work. It was ridiculous, and I wasn’t about to give in to him. I wasn’t going to let him think that I had messed everything up when I knew I hadn’t.

  “It’s possible there is another reason for the errors,” I said. “We have a lot of old code in here and some of it might be interacting poorly with the new code. I’ll go back through it line by line and see what I can find.”

  “You’re the one who crashed her computer and had to get a new one last week, right?” he asked.

  “Yes, but that wasn’t because of something I did. It just crashed and wouldn’t turn back on,” I protested, although I was starting to see where he was coming from on thinking I had something to do with the errors. “This is the new computer, and it’s working great, I really appreciate you making it happen so quickly so I could keep up with my job tasks.”

  My attempt to praise him went unnoticed as he just huffed and tried to figure out what it was he was supposed to do with my information regarding the possible hacking. I really didn’t know if it was hacking, but there was a bigger error than I thought I was capable of fixing and I needed help. He was my supervisor and seemed so worried with what I was doing with my time, I’d hoped he would actually try and help fix the problem.

  “Do you know it’s a hacker?” he asked.

  “No, I don’t. I could have Tom come sit with me and go over what’s going on. Is that all right with you?”

  “Tom’s on vacation,” he said. “I’ll call the computer guy who brought that computer in for you. He knows a lot.”

  “But it’s not actually a computer issue, Robert; it’s an internal server issue that-”

  “Okay, you’re welcome. He’s a high-level consultant. I’m sure he will be able to figure out what you’ve done. Hell, maybe if he’s really good, I’ll even hire him.”