by J. S. Scott
J. S. Scott
Billionaire Undone
Copyright © 2014 by J. S. Scott
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The story is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual person’s living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copy Editing by Roroblu’s Mum
Proof Editing by Faith Williams – Atwater Group
Cover by Cali MacKay – Covers by Cali
ISBN: 978-1-939962-48-5 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-939962-47-8 (E-Book)
This book is for all my wonderful readers who wanted to know who Travis really is behind his cool mask and his sarcasm. This story is for you. There’s always been so much more to him than you might think. I hope he surprises you all. Thank you for your support and enthusiasm. You’ll never know how much it means to me.
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
Shit! I’m late. I’m late.
Alison Caldwell nearly tripped on her high heels as she vaulted up the steps of her newly purchased home, desperate to get to her second job on time. The evening before, she and her fiancé, Rick, had spent the first night in their new home celebrating, and she’d forgotten to take her clothes for her second job with her when she’d left this morning.
Thank God she was almost done with her crazy schedule, her life finally totally on track because Rick had just graduated from dental school and was set to start his first job at an already thriving practice.
“I can do this for just a little while longer,” she whispered to herself, putting her key into the door of the two-story home, a house she had financed herself because Rick’s credit wasn’t great, and even though she had been helping him through school for the last five years, he still had some significant student loans.
Her heels slipped again as she hit the foyer, the smooth stone tile making her shoes skid. Damn heels! If she didn’t have to wear the stupid things to feel taller next to her billionaire boss from Hell, her feet wouldn’t ache as badly as they did right now.
Ally yanked the offending footwear from her feet in the foyer, and climbed the carpeted stairs quickly, unbuttoning her conservative blouse and the back of her skirt as she went, to save time.
This was the way her life had been for the last few years, since she’d taken an extra job to help get Rick through school. But it would pay off. She knew it would. Her life plan was exactly the way it should be, her and Rick’s small wedding being only a little more than a month away. They rarely saw each other because of her schedule, but she knew the sacrifice would pay off. They’d needed more income, and she had provided it, even though working two jobs was nearly killing her. Very shortly, she’d have her chance to go back to school and finish her MBA. That was the plan, the agreement they’d made when it was apparent that she and Rick couldn’t both go to school at the same time. It had made sense, putting her degree off first. Rick would make more money than she could right out of school, and her job at Harrison Corporation paid well for a woman who hadn’t actually finished her MBA. Unfortunately, keeping her position there came with a price; she actually had to work for Travis Harrison.
Releasing her hair from the confining clip as she went down the hallway to the master bedroom, Ally tried to put Travis out of her mind. They’d argued during the day, and he had fired her…yet again. Not that she took that threat seriously anymore. Travis Harrison fired her on a daily basis, and then proceeded to pile a bunch of work on her to complete the next day. But that part of her day was over, and she needed to get to Sully’s Oasis, her evening job. And she was already late, and Travis was irritating as hell every single day. It wasn’t like that was anything new, or something that was going to change anytime soon.
As Ally approached the bedroom door, she heard voices—one male voice she recognized very well, and a female voice that she didn’t. She a heard a passionate groan from Rick, a sound she’d never heard before, and a responding husky female moan. The door wasn’t completely closed, and she nudged her foot against the wood, swinging the door wide open.
There, in the middle of the brand new king-sized bed that she and Rick had slept on for the first time just the night before, was her fiancé. His head was thrown back in passionate abandon, a look of ecstasy on his face that she’d never seen before. The woman, naked and on her hands and knees in front of him, moaned again, the couple oblivious of her presence. Obviously, Rick hadn’t planned on her coming back to the house before she went to her second job. She usually didn’t, going straight from Harrison to Sully’s.
Ally stared in morbid fascination, watching as the man she’d been involved with and had trusted for the last five years, killed her devotion with every thrust of his hips, every slap of his groin against the woman’s bare ass. And as every bit of her love for him drained away, so came the realization that even after five years, this Rick was a complete stranger.
Who was this man, and what had happened to her solemn, quiet fiancé who made love to her infrequently because he was always too tired? She hadn’t gotten much more than a peck on the cheek from him for the last two years. And even when they’d actually had a sex life, it wasn’t one with this kind of furious frenzy that appeared to transform him into a man she had never known.
She’d always made excuses for the reasons why their relationship wasn’t great. It was just that they were both working so hard, and things would change once they’d gotten through this difficult portion of their lives.
I never knew him.
Ally walked forward in a daze, tearing her eyes from the sight on the bed, crossing the room to pick up the jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers that she wore for her job at Sully’s.
“Ally,” Rick gasped heavily, finally noticing she was in the room.
Ally held up her hand. “Don’t mind me. I just need my clothes to go to work to support you while you’re screwing another woman. Do proceed. I’ve heard coitus interruptus is terribly uncomfortable.” And she should know. How many times had Rick either stopped or left her unfulfilled back when they’d actually had sex? More times than she could count, but she’d always made excuses for his actions before. After seeing the sight she’d just observed, she knew what an idiot she’d been. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted sex; he just hadn’t wanted it with her.
Ally didn’t look in Rick’s direction again. She didn’t want to see him or the slender beauty he’d just been screwing. Her clothing in hand, Ally walked out the bedroom door, closing it behind her. Tearing off her conservative daytime attire as fast as she possibly could, she yanked on her bar attire, gathered her dirty clothes and dropped them in the second bathroom hamper on her way to the stairs, her sneakers in her hand.
“Ally, wait.”
Ignoring Rick’s voice as he shot out of the bedroom, she quickly pulled on the comfortable canvas shoes in the foyer.
“You can’t just leave like this. I can explain,” Rick yelled desperately from upstairs, hanging over the railing.
Like t
here was really any reasonable explanation for what she’d just witnessed? Raising her voice just loud enough to be heard, she answered, “Get out. I want you gone by the time I get home from work. If you aren’t, I’ll call the police.”
“We’ve been together for five years. That has to count for something,” Rick appealed.
It did count for a lot, and none of it pleasant. Ally had worked her ass off every day, and had missed her chance to finish college because of those five torturous years spent working to make sure Rick had a career. She’d made a plan, stuck to every single thing she vowed to do so she and Rick could have the perfect life together. She’d always told herself if she could just hold things together while he was in school, she would have her chance. And now, that carefully planned outline had been erased like it had never happened, leaving her nowhere. Just years of empty space.
Ally didn’t respond, nor did she look up at the man to whom she’d given five long years of her life. He didn’t deserve it.
I have to keep moving. I’ll survive.
Exiting the house, she closed the door behind her. She was in her car and on her way to Sully’s before she could see Rick come bursting out the front door in only a hastily donned pair of jeans, cursing because she was already gone.
Ally arrived at Sully’s ten minutes late for work, but she did her job, no one even suspecting that her entire world had just tumbled down around her, her plans for her future gone.
When she arrived back home, exhausted, Rick was gone. She dragged her tired body to one of the extra bedrooms, her body and mind completely drained. Ally knew if she stopped for even a moment to think about what had happened, she’d lose it entirely, and that wasn’t something she could afford to do right now.
Blanking her mind, pushing all thoughts of the past aside, she let her worn-out body succumb to a mind-numbing sleep.
One Month Later
Ally Caldwell never needed to actually see her boss, Travis Harrison, to know he was making his way to his office. He was like a force of nature that everyone shied away from, the whole upper floor of the luxurious high-rise Harrison building going from a buzz of activity to absolute silence whenever Travis the Tyrant entered the top floor from the elevator, every employee freezing like a deer in the headlights until he passed, each one breathing a sigh of relief as he moved by them without acknowledging their presence. Nobody wanted to be singled out by Travis Harrison, because it usually meant trouble.
Ally sighed, beleaguered. Most days, she thrived on doing verbal battle with one of the most obnoxious men on the planet. But today just wasn’t one of those days. Since her world had collapsed last month, she didn’t have the energy or the desire to do battle with Travis anymore, but she did it anyway, just because he could be such an asshole.
Pushing her glasses back onto her face and turning back to her computer, she murmured to herself:
“Five…
“Four…
“Three…
“Two…
“One…”
“Coffee, Alison,” Travis’s booming voice demanded right on time as he strode through the automatic doors to his spacious private office, walking purposefully into the reception area without even looking at her.
Ally rolled her eyes. In the four years that she’d worked for Travis, she hadn’t fetched him coffee for the last three years, but he never stopped trying. “I’d love some, Mr. Harrison,” she replied, not looking up from her computer screen. “Cream only, please,” she reminded him politely, like she did every single working day. Some days he cursed her; other days he would grudgingly get his own coffee but wouldn’t say a word. Ally wondered which way it would go today.
Travis hesitated at the door to his private office, turning around to glare at her. “Four damn years, and I still can’t get a cup of coffee in my own office?” he complained obstinately.
Ally swiveled in her chair and folded her hands on her desk. “Of course you can,” she answered reasonably. “I made a pot this morning.” She gestured to the small kitchen behind her. “And I only stopped fetching for you like an obedient dog three years ago.”
Maybe if you’d thanked me just once, I’d still be doing it. Jackass!
Travis straightened his already pristine tie as he moved across the room, entering the kitchen without another word. Ally cringed as she heard the slamming of glass on glass as Travis poured coffee. Really, maybe she shouldn’t have stopped getting his coffee for him years ago; his awkward skills in the kitchen had cost Harrison a lot of money in glassware replacements. But she’d made a stand, refusing to do his bidding like a personal servant because that was exactly how he’d treated her. She worked her butt off to do good work for Travis Harrison as a secretary and assistant, hoping that maybe she could use her work experience at Harrison to go back for her MBA, but she drew the line at doing everything he demanded now. Ally had learned a long time ago that if she gave in to Travis just a little, he’d push her to the limit, continue to treat her like a personal servant. And she had way too many other responsibilities now at Harrison, and more important duties than fetching his damn coffee. So she’d stopped fetching for him altogether unless it was related to business and not a personal need, rather than drive herself crazy trying to please him. There was no pleasing Travis Harrison, and the words “please” and “thank you” simply didn’t exist in his vocabulary, even when dealing with his peers. Just the fact that she still had her job was testament to her value here at Harrison Corporation, which she supposed was the only validation she was ever going to receive. She may not have applied to an MBA program, but she’d learned enough in her undergrad work to know exactly how to make herself nearly indispensable to Travis, and she’d done it in a year. And the moment she realized just how valuable she was as an employee, she’d stopped taking a lot of his crap.
Travis exited the kitchen, slamming a mug on her desk as he passed. “You can add your own damn cream,” he said abruptly, moving toward his personal office with his own coffee as he added, “I’ll need—”
“Your schedule for the day is on your computer, along with the information you requested yesterday,” she finished for him.
“And I have a meeting—”
“With Jason Sutherland? I know. It’s already on your schedule. He called me.” He’s a considerate billionaire. Ally smiled as she picked up her mug of coffee and the two packets of creamer Travis had left on her desk. He’d even added a stir stick. Obviously he was playing nice today…for now. Lately, he’d been doing that more and more often. Not to say that he was exactly pleasant. Today, he was obviously in a mellow mood, which meant he was merely hard to get along with. No doubt, he’d eventually show his “bastard” side. He always did.
“Sutherland called you?” Travis asked irritably.
“This morning before you got in.” Ally looked directly at Travis, something that was harder to do when both of them were standing. He was so tall, she was usually staring at his massive chest and shoulders, and she wore the highest heels she could tolerate to bring her up a little taller. Any advantage she could get when dealing with him was another weapon in her arsenal.
His appearance was impeccable and flawless as usual. Travis’s twin, Kade, liked to tease Travis about his dark, boring suits, but nobody could fill out a designer suit quite the way Travis Harrison did. Sure, the immaculate clothing he wore was always dark, just like him. But the dark gray suit he was wearing today fit to perfection, accentuating broad shoulders and covering what Ally already knew—from seeing him in more casual attire or without his suit jacket—was a majorly ripped physique. He didn’t have one single raven-colored hair out of place, and his dark, chocolate eyes were way too sharp for her comfort.
“Mr. Sutherland thought it would be nice if I knew about the meeting you two set up since I do your daily schedule. I thought it was very thoughtful of him to contact me,” Ally replied sweetly, her real purpose of the comment to point out how considerate Travis wasn’t.
Al
ly knew about Jason Sutherland, but had never met the investment icon billionaire in person. He’d been very kind on the phone, and had told her he’d contacted Travis directly because he was interested in donating and handling the investments for the new charity Travis was starting for women who were victims of domestic abuse. Travis’s friend, Simon Hudson, had spoken of the charity to his college buddy, Grady, a well-known philanthropist from the wealthy East Coast Sinclair family. Grady had come on board, and had mentioned the charity to his childhood friend—Jason—who for some reason, had taken an interest in the project and wanted to be part of the new foundation.
“Show him in as soon as he gets here.” Travis turned and entered his office, closing the door behind him.
“Yes, sir,” she muttered irritably at the closed door of Travis’s office, throwing the best military salute she could in his general direction mockingly, knowing very well that the gesture irritated the hell out of her boss. It felt good to do something that annoyed him, even if he wasn’t there to see it.
Ally shook the two packets of creamer, opened them, and dumped them into her coffee with a thoughtful look, lost in her own thoughts as she twirled the stir stick in the hot liquid.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like Travis. Well…not exactly. Like was too tepid of a word for Travis Harrison; he inspired strong emotions in his employees, everything from terror to admiration. Never really a likable man, Travis maintained a deliberate distance from everyone, so Ally did everything she could to shake him out of his self-contained shell, which vexed the hell out of him. Sometimes, she preferred his anger to his icy indifference. Travis was too serious, too somber, and completely humorless. Maybe she shouldn’t perturb him so often, but it was difficult not to want to take a peek at the man who lived beneath his hardened exterior. So far, all she’d gotten was his outrage for the last three years. She’d spent the first year as his employee just grateful for a job, wanting to please him so she could keep the fantastic salary he was paying her, and possibly use the job experience some day to apply for an MBA program. Within a year, she knew he’d never fire her because he needed her too much, although he’d never admit it. After that, she’d made it her mission to get a rise out of Travis Harrison, anything that would take the haunted look from his eyes that she noticed occasionally, though he wasn’t even aware that it was there.
