Shopping for a Billionaire 4

by Julia Kent

  Shopping for a Billionaire 4

  by Julia Kent

  A confusing fight, a garbage-covered car, and a mom who shares her past as a “stripper” all drive Shannon to the edge of madness. When her big shot at mystery shopping luxury properties leads to another crazy toilet incident, it’s Declan to the rescue...but can they take the “plunge”? The Shopping series from New York Times bestselling author Julia Kent reaches its conclusion with heart, heat, and hilarity.

  Part 4 of a 4-part series.

  Copyright © 2014 by Julia Kent

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

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  Chapter One

  Declan’s text says:

  We’ll talk

  “That’s it?” I gasp, Amanda closing her eyes slowly, as if someone reached over with fingertips and shut them, like on a corpse. It is apt; it feels like someone just died. I’m supposed to hop in the shower and get ready for work, but how do you do that when your entire life is imploding?

  “He answered, at least.” She reaches in behind the shower curtain and turns on the water for me. A part of me feels infantilized. I can turn on my own damn water. I don’t need help. I know how to use a shower.

  Another part of me is helpless and racked with a kind of cryogenic emotional freeze that renders me useless. She leaves the room and gently points to the phone.

  “Answer back.”

  The door shuts like her eyelids did just a moment ago, though Chuckles manages to slip in through the inch-sized crack as Amanda leaves. Didn’t cats accompany the pharaohs in ancient times as they were laid to rest in their burial crypts?

  Something’s dying right now, and as he snuggles up against my ankles without meowing, his presence calm and serene, I feel a deep disturbance inside. Chuckles is being nice to me?

  This is bad.

  Tremors fill my fingers as I pick up my phone and stare at his sparse text. Two words. I get two measly words? No replies until now, no acknowledgement of the cyber-mess that has made real life an emotional land mine for me.

  Just… We’ll talk.

  I type back:

  Okay. See you soon.

  I hit Send with fingers vibrating so much they could be used as a sex toy prototype.

  By the time I finish going through the motions and cleaning my hair and body, he’s had plenty of opportunity to answer.

  Nope. No text.

  I’m all cried out and numb now, wondering how we could go from talking about finding each other and enjoying so much together to this coldness, this arctic freeze that doesn’t even have an explanation. Not even a pseudo-explanation. We’re dancing on broken glass and denying that it hurts. Ignoring the river of blood that lubricates the pain. Only maybe I’m the one feeling all the pain. Perhaps this is nothing to him. A blip. I’m someone he used to sleep with and all that’s left is the final “It’s not you…” conversation where he walks away and I disintegrate into a thousand shards of glass.

  That he walks all over with bloody feet.

  It’s not that I really think he’s that cold. In fact, the opposite: the man I have gotten to know over the past month isn’t the man who is doing this right now. Two different men. Or—two different sides of the same man? Why do I have this long history of being surprised when people show a different side of themselves?

  You would think I’d stop being so naïve, so childlike, being shocked when someone changes. I guess it’s because I don’t change. I am who I am (whoever that is…) and I’m what Josh calls a WYSIWYG—What You See Is What You Get. No hidden subtext.

  Maybe, though, for Declan I’m a WYSINWYW—What You See Is Not What You Want.

  I need to pull him aside and call it all out, to say what isn’t being said. How do you do that when you don’t even know what the other person is thinking? I’m no mind reader. I definitely don’t want to be one, either, because eww. Can you imagine how quickly you’d learn how perverted everyone in the world really is?

  And how judgmental?

  I get plenty of perversion and judgment from my mom, thanks. I don’t need more. If I get to have a superpower, mind-reading isn’t what I want. I’d prefer a clitoris inside my vagina, thankyouverymuch.

  Now that’s a superpower.

  Yet when I ask Declan what’s going on, I get we’ll talk? The sudden sub-zero temperature change from him is starting to look like the North Atlantic current being shut down.

  Men. Can’t live with them, can’t shove an EpiPen in their groin and keep them.

  “You ready?” Amanda calls out as I towel off my hair.

  “You’re still here?”

  “I figured I’d drive you to the meeting.”

  “Because you think I can’t drive?”

  “Because I think this is going to be hard.”

  I stew over that one for a second, wondering why everyone thinks I’m a fragile porcelain doll. Then I realize I am. Right now, at least.

  “Okay,” I call out. “But we’re taking your car. If I’m about to be dumped, it won’t be while driving the Turdmobile.”

  “A girl’s gotta have standards,” she shouts back with a laugh.

  * * *

  It’s an icehouse in here.

  And the air conditioning isn’t even on.

  Unfortunately, Declan never responded to my text message, and he was also not anywhere near the hallway where I lingered like a seventh grader hoping to bump into her crush outside the band room instrument storage closet.

  (What? Like you never did that…)

  The players are the same, but the game has changed. James and Andrew sit on one side of the table, a glass of water in front of a third, empty chair. Amanda, Greg, and I are on the other side. No tension; James and Greg are in cordial conversation when Amanda and I join them. Greg came first to settle some details, and now the entire show begins.

  Without Declan.

  Andrew’s giving me inscrutable looks. I seriously cannot tell whether he knows about the Jessica Asshat Coffin mess, and if he does, what he thinks. He looks like a slightly darker version of Declan, with the same bone structure, a jaw that can go hard and resolute with anger or firmness as well as it can go soft and sweet with a smile.

  But they’re both impassive when it comes to expressing emotion in a business setting, and I suspect Andrew’s like his dad in that respect as well. James just looks kind of dismayed with the world all the time. Like everyone is going to disappoint him anyhow, so why bother?

  As if I said that aloud, the elder McCormick cuts his eyes my way and gives me a long look. His eyes narrow to triangles, so much like Declan’s that I feel that strange tightness in my chest. Not anaphylactic shock, but something close to it. I think it’s the feeling of having my organs removed from my body by my own stupidity.

  Starting with my heart.

  James calls the meeting to order. Amanda and I share frantic looks meant to convey one singular question:

  Did I sleep with a billionaire in a limo only to have it all ruined by pretending to be gay and running into my ex’s mother, who turned to a social media whore in an attempt to reclaim her son’s balls?

  And the answer:

  Pretty much. />
  Time machines are soooooo underrated. If I had one and was given one chance to go back in time and fix anything I wanted, I would go back to the moment Greg announced those gay prejudice credit union shops and say no.

  (Yes, I know I’m supposed to say I’d go back in time and kill Hitler or stop the burning of Joan d’Arc, but I’m kind of shallow right now.)

  No time machine. No giant sinkhole to swallow me up. Not even a psychotic cat who can pee on James’ foot and give me a reason to escape. Only—

  Declan.

  He walks into the meeting and gives everyone a gracious smile with frozen eyes so cold you could use them in a camp cooler for a long weekend and still have cold beer.

  “I apologize for being late. I was detained.”

  “You make it sound like you had no choice, son,” James says with a low chuckle. Andrew and Declan share a look that reminds me of Amanda and me, minus the lip biting and grimaces.

  “It felt like it,” Declan growls.

  James leans back, clearly in the catbird seat, and it’s dick-waving time now. “If you’re going to run the entire marketing department for an international corporation, you have to accept that some cultures handle the standard business lunch quite differently.” He shoots Greg a knowing wink.

  Greg winks back like a drag queen with a stuck eyelash. “Quite differently.” He’s trying to fit in, and I know that, but my sympathy lies with the women whose faces are pressed flat against the corporate glass ceiling, with a stripper’s pastie-covered nipples smashed on the other side of the glass as we all try to pretend there’s nothing to see here, folks.

  “Is this ‘business lunch’ an issue that all marketing professionals need to deal with?” I keep my voice as even as possible, but even I detect the officiousness in it. Amanda gives me a sharp look, while Greg rubs his mouth like there’s something in there. His foot, maybe.

  Declan’s in the middle of pulling files from his briefcase, but as my voice fills the air he moves more slowly, lips twitching. Aha. I nailed it. I’m not jealous—whatever “standard business lunch” and “some cultures” are code for doesn’t matter. I’m imagining strippers as a side dish along with sixteen-ounce medium-rare tenderloins and the dripping butter sauce for their lobster being poured over augmented breasts on a stage.

  James and Declan share a long look. Declan gives a nudge of his head, in deference or—perhaps—to allow the old man to make a fool of himself.

  Either way, it’s about to get real.

  And it just got a lot colder in here.

  “I would say that all vice presidents of marketing who work with a variety of international clients will eventually be taken on a more…salacious expedition at least once or twice in a career.” James’ cocky smile looks like a caricature of Declan’s. “The higher you fly, the greater the lengths you go to please a client and close the deal.”

  Greg looks a bit sick. I’m his closer. What does this mean? Do I need to cultivate a taste for pole dancing?

  “What about a female vice president? Would she be expected to attend a…” I bite my words off carefully and spit them out in slow, snappy chunks. “…sa-la-cious ‘standard business lunch’ experience, which, I assume, means hookers and blow.”

  Andrew is taking a drink of water and does a spit take like something out of a Jimmy Fallon clip. Most of the water in his mouth lands on Amanda’s cleavage across the table, which makes her jump to her feet.

  It is so much easier to take on the client’s asshattery than to deal with the subtext in the room, and James is giving me fabulous fodder for my self-righteous streak. Way easier than dealing with that tight-chest feeling about losing Declan, who has managed to avoid eye contact with me.

  “I hardly think you’re in a position to comment on salacity and business relations, Ms. Jacoby.” James’ eyes are those of a hawk, coming in for the kill. “How was that helicopter ride, son?” He doesn’t look at Declan. His eyes are entirely on me.

  I have a choice as all the oxygen in the room disappears, along with any hope of a relationship with Declan, or of an ongoing career for me in the bigger Boston corporations. I can back off and go home and cry and eat pint after pint of ice cream and suck down Hot ’n Sour soup like it’s about to be banned like Sriracha sauce, or I can stand up to the big bad CEO who decided I’m an ant and his words are a magnifying glass in a nice patch of sunlight.

  “Dad.” One word. Declan’s single word is a nuclear bomb. The heat coming from Declan’s anger can keep a small village in Greenland warm for the winter.

  “Oh, please, Dec. The driver and the pilot told me. It’s not as if she’s really the lesbian that people on that Twiterlicious thing are saying.”

  Andrew’s wiping his face with a handkerchief and offers one to Amanda while giving her a speculative look that I’d normally pay way more attention to, but I’m in the middle of soul death, so I’m kind of distracted. Where’s my Mom with a good butt plug story about now? I’d even welcome Agnes and Corrine’s nonagenarian cat fights.

  “Good play, Ms. Jacoby.” He leans forward on the table. “I know from Declan’s glowing descriptions of you that you’re about as gay as I am poor. That tells me you held on to your assumed identity quite thoroughly so that you could perform the function assigned to you by the client.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Declan’s voice could cut diamonds.

  “It means she’s the perfect candidate for corporate espionage.”

  Chapter Two

  Greg’s turn to do a spit take. “Is that business guru speak for mystery shopping these days?”

  James laughs. How can the man laugh when he’s managed to alienate and/or piss off every person in the room except for Andrew, who appears to be trying to decide whether to be alienated, pissed off, or to ogle Amanda’s low-ish-cut silk blouse?

  For the record, his penis appears to win.

  Family trait.

  Wait a minute. James knows I slept with Declan in the limo and in the helicopter, and what the hell, let’s throw in the lighthouse part, too. He knows about the credit union mystery shop and me and Amanda. He knows about Jessica’s Twittergate mess. What the hell doesn’t this man know?

  “No, Greg. Corporate espionage means I’d like for Ms. Jacoby to be assigned to evaluate The Fort—”

  Amanda’s sharp intake of horrified breath makes Andrew perk up as her chest lifts.

  “—and also Le Chateau.”

  Now she shrieks. It’s a fairly professional-sounding shriek, but still. “Le Chateau is your competitor! Why would she mystery shop—oh…” She closes down to neutral as fast as she ramped up to livid. It’s impressive, and I’d appreciate it more if Declan weren’t shredding my heart.

  Scribbling furiously, her next words come out like machine gun bullets. “By having the same person evaluate both high-end properties, you get an even sense of the failings and mastery in each.”

  “Indeed. And we need someone who can hold their cover,” James says with a cordial tone that makes me question my sanity. Wasn’t he just being an asshole? How am I supposed to keep track of the villain in here if he keeps changing his personality?

  “I held my cover,” Amanda mutters. Greg gives her a dirty look. Amanda gives him double back. He blanches.

  “Yes, you did,” James notes. “And after Shannon successfully finishes both properties, you can be the next evaluator in three months’ time. Your own mastery did not go unnoticed.”

  “But you’re not really gay, right?” Andrew blurts out, his eyes on Amanda’s breasts.

  Awkward.

  James rolls his eyes. “My sons need to retake their sexual harassment training, I see.”

  “It’s not sexual harassment,” Declan and I say in unison.

  Oh, thank God. He understands. He understands! I close my eyes and inhale slowly, then open them to give him a big, friendly, warm, loving grin.

  He stares back with green ice cubes.

  Uh.

&n
bsp; “The mess is unconventional, I’ll admit,” James adds, pushing contracts to Greg. “But Ms. Jacoby isn’t a known entity in the circles we inhabit—”

  Translation: I’m a nobody, so he doesn’t have to worry that I’ll be recognized at a competitor’s luxury property even though Jessica has been tweeting about me to all the cyberspace rubberneckers in Boston.

  “—and I trust the evaluations will give us valuable insight into gaining a competitive edge.”

  “In other words, you’re giving me more responsibility, and expanding the contract with Consolidated Evalu-shop?” I ask, and this time it’s my eyes that are on Declan while asking James the question.

  “Yes,” Declan answers me. Not James. “You’re very good at living a double life and are quick on your feet when it comes to lying.” He cuts his eyes away. “That will suit you well in business.”

  No. No no no no no.

  Amanda pivots and coughs, the strain getting to her. Andrew’s eyes ping between me, Declan, her chest, and his dad. Greg just looks constipated, eyebrows bunched like a caterpillar in heat as he reviews contracts that have been read so many times they might as well be the Bible.

  “And,” James adds, stuffing folders into his briefcase, clearly done, “how’s business?”

  The spear aimed from an icy stretch of glacier that is his heart right now hits its target with pinpoint precision. That’s what Jessica tweeted to Declan.

  “May I speak with you in the hallway?” I hiss at him, grabbing his forearm. He turns into a marble statue, though emotion flickers in his eyes. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows, and his stiff muscles radiate mixed signals.

  “If you wish.” He shakes off my hand, though not with an angry movement. More with a cold precision that somehow is worse.

  “We’ll finish negotiations,” James says, eyes twinkling, as if he’s accomplished something. “And it’s good to see you walking around, Ms. Jacoby. Last I heard from Declan, you were bed bound.”

  Another sex joke? Are you kidding me? My tongue loosens in my mouth, ready to lash him, when even the venerable James McCormick has the decency to turn red with embarrassment and backtrack.