Billionaire's Virgin - A Standalone Romance (An Alpha Billionaire Virgin Romance)

by Joey Bush

  She looked tired, as though she hadn’t slept, and I knew I probably didn’t look much better. “I really can’t believe any of this,” she said sadly. “I just listened to your message. It’s so awful.”

  “It is,” I said, “but there’s actually something else that I need to talk to you about.” I pulled the printed out pages from my purse and held them out to her. “You know that I trust you, Kelly, and that I don’t really pay much attention to the bookkeeping end of things because you’ve always handled it. So I’m really hoping that you can explain to me what those withdrawals there are. The highlighted ones.”

  She took the pages from me and scanned them, the expression on her face not really changing. She’d have some sort of explanation for me. I knew she would.

  “Those are mine,” she said finally, handing the papers back.

  “Yes, I know they are, but for what? Why are you taking money directly out of the business account like that?”

  She pursed her lips. “Why are you looking at the account in the first place?”

  “Why? Because it’s partially mine? Because we own this business together? I’d say any of those reasons are good ones.”

  She rubbed her hand over her mouth and let out an exhale. “I know, Isla. And I’m not trying to hide anything from you, either, I swear. I thought I’d be able to put the money back in before you noticed.”

  “The only reason I noticed is because I went online to check our statement to make sure we could pay Tim. Because our insurance isn’t going to cover it.”

  “Yes, I know, you don’t have to keep reminding me. This whole thing is completely fucked.”

  “It was fucked before I found out you’ve basically been embezzling money. Now it’s . . . I don’t know what it is. What have you been using the money for?”

  “Wes needed it,” she said quietly.

  “What?!” I didn’t bother keeping my voice down. “Wes? Some guy you’ve been dating for a few months? Are you kidding me?”

  “He’s going to pay me back and I’m going to put the money back into the account!” Kelly snapped.

  “I can’t believe this,” I said. “I can’t believe that you would be so stupid as to do something like that to begin with. You’re stealing money from our business, Kelly! That money isn’t for you to lend to some guy you barely know!”

  “It’s not like he’s just going to pull a fast one on me!” she shouted back. She spun on her heel and disappeared down the hall, then came back and threw something at me. It was a wad of cash, and the bills burst out of her hand and then fluttered down to the floor. “See? He just gave me that yesterday.”

  “That is so not point! Our business account is not the personal checking account for your boyfriend!”

  “I’m sorry! I fucked up, okay? I’m really sorry. If I’d had any clue that this shit with the flooding was going to happen and that we’d need that money, there’s no way I would’ve lent it to him. But how was I supposed to know?”

  “You weren’t. It’s one of those things that no one could actually know beforehand, and that’s why you need to have money on hand for when these unexpected things do happen! And now we don’t and we’re screwed. I can’t talk to you right now, Kelly. I have to go.”

  I turned and left, leaving the money there on the floor. She could pick it up and deposit it into our account; I wasn’t going to.

  I went home. I was tempted to stop by the grocery store first and buy everything I could fit into a cart, but I resisted the urge and instead changed into my running outfit and went out for a run. I pushed myself hard enough that my lungs were burning and my legs felt like they were going to give out, but I knew what was waiting on the other side of that. If you can push through that resistance, you get that high that you can only get through exercise, and I needed that right now more than anything.

  I took a long shower when I got home, and after I dried off, I figured I’d eat a salad and hope there was a good movie on TV. Something I could just zone out to.

  But as I stood at the counter chopping vegetables, my mind kept spinning. What was I going to do now? Everything that I’d worked so hard for had basically just gone to shit. My business partner was stealing from the business. Fitness Universe was supposedly going to be opening up one of its mega locations less than five miles from us. I’d always held the belief that if you worked hard at something, if you really gave it your all, it would work out, because that’s just how it was supposed to go. That made sense, that was fair. What I was realizing, though, was that nothing was fucking fair. Because if life were actually fair, this whole past week wouldn’t have even happened, starting off with that asshole Brian fucking Shannon and me having to walk in and see it.

  I could be a good sport about all of this. I could try to put on a brave face and say that I’d soldier on, no matter what. I thought about all the encouraging sorts of things that I’d say to people at the gym, people who were struggling, who felt like they couldn’t run another step on the treadmill, or make it through the end of a spin class. I’d have all sorts of positive encouragement to throw their way, yet I was having a difficult time mustering anything for myself.

  I sat on the couch with my salad and ended up watching a nature documentary. It was about the animals on the African Serengeti, and there was a worse-than-normal drought. For those animals, their only focus was finding water in their dry, dusty environment. It seemed a hopeless task, and many of them died from dehydration, vultures picking over the carcasses that lay rotting under the hot sun. Maybe it should’ve made me feel a little better about everything—at least I wasn’t a dying animal on the plains of Africa—but really, it just seemed to confirm that life could really just be complete and utter shit.

  7.

  Levi

  I’d just gotten back from Privilege’s Monday nights No Xcuses and was thinking about maybe trying to get a little sleep when the phone rang. And by phone, I mean the landline that had originally been in the villa that we’d decided to keep because Alfie was horrible about remembering to charge his cell phone. I almost let it keep ringing, but then, at the last second, decided to pick it up. It could lead to something interesting. The last time I’d answered this phone on a whim, it had been a wrong number, but the caller had turned out to be the lovely Sonja, who I met up with later that day for a beach-side rendez-vous. I was tired, yes, but I certainly had enough left in me for another rendez-vous with a gorgeous woman if that’s what this was going to lead to.

  “Hello?”

  “Levi, is that you?” a male voice demanded.

  “It’s me,” I said uncertainly, my brain frantically trying to place the voice. It’s hard to tell voices over the phone in the first place, but I certainly knew this one.

  “It’s Cal.”

  My jaw dropped. How the ever-loving fuck did Cal get this number? I didn’t think they even knew about this place. But it was too late to hang up or to start saying no hablo ingles over and over again. I swallowed.

  “Uh . . . hey there, Cal” I said. “Sure wasn’t expecting a call from you. How’d you get this number?”

  “I tried calling your cell phone, probably a dozen times, but you didn’t pick up.”

  “I left it at home; I didn’t have it on me. If I did, I certainly would’ve picked up if I’d known you were calling, Cal. What’s up?”

  “What’s up is that I have some very bad news, Levi. Your father dead. He had a massive heart attack right before he left the office today. He was dead by the time the EMTs arrived; there was nothing anyone could do. I’m sorry.”

  I could suddenly hear a high-pitched trill in my ears. “What?” I said.

  “You heard me. Your father is dead. And you need to make arrangements to get on the next plane out of there and get back here to New York.”

  “Is this a joke? I just called him the other night.”

  “And did you speak to him?”

  “No, he didn’t answer the phone, so I left him a voicemail. This
is a joke, right? Dad’s just pissed at me that I came out here when he said he didn’t want me to and now you’re trying to get me to come back. And I’ll rush back there and once I walk in the door, there’ll be Dad, right? Right, Cal?”

  Cal sighed. “No, Levi. This is not a joke. And your father is not going to be here when you get back, because he’s dead. Should I say it again, just so you can get it through your head? I wouldn’t joke about something like this; you should know that. Now, I don’t think I need to tell you again to either call Anders and see if he’s available or to buy yourself a plane ticket and fly commercial. Call me when you’re back in New York.”

  “Okay,” I said, but he’d already hung up.

  I hung up the phone and just stood there, replaying the conversation. My dad was dead? No fucking way. My dad wasn’t that old. He was in good health. Yeah, he might’ve had stress to deal with, but everyone did, right? And it didn’t kill us.

  But I knew it wasn’t a joke.

  A few minutes or a few hours might’ve passed; I wasn’t sure. I just stood there, the words Dad is dead? playing on repeat. It didn’t seem possible.

  I called Alfie. “Hey, man,” I said. “Listen, I’m not going to be able to meet up later. I’ve got to get back to New York.”

  “Huh?” Alfie said. “Where are you going? You just got here.”

  “I know. My dad is dead,” I said. “I just found out. I have to go back to New York.”

  “Aw, shit man, so sorry. I’d give you a hug if I was there in person. Really terrible news, mate. Is there anything I can do?”

  “No, it’s cool, bro. I’ll be in touch.”

  After I got off the phone with him, I called Anders. He was in Vermont with his wife; his daughter was about to give birth to their first grandchild.

  “I just got the news about your father,” he said. “I’m really sorry, Levi. Listen, I can leave now and drive back to New York—”

  “No, no,” I said. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll just fly commercial back.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, of course. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

  “If you’re sure,” he said, in such a way that made it sound as though he weren’t sure. Which I didn’t know how to take. Was he implying he didn’t think I could fly on a regular flight like anyone else? That was bullshit. After I got off the phone with him, I went online and bought myself a ticket back, flying coach, a middle seat toward the back of the plane.

  8.

  Isla

  In terms of business, I was fucked; that was the simple, succinct way of putting it.

  Even if Wes paid back all the money he’d “borrowed” from the business account tomorrow, we’d only just have to enough to pay Tim and take care of getting the gym back ready to open. We wouldn’t be able to cover salaries or the mortgage and utilities. And in the long-term, there was no way we could compete with Fitness Universe, anyway.

  “So the only option is to close,” I told Sophie. I was sitting in the chair at the salon she worked at, getting a trim. I didn’t really need a haircut, but I wanted to talk to her in person and she had a client cancel at the last minute so she told me to come and take her spot.

  “The whole thing really sucks.” She ran the comb through my damp hair and made a few snips with her scissors. “I’m really surprised about Kelly. Well, wait, maybe not. She was always a little too boy crazy, so of course she’d do something like that for a fuck stick like Wes.”

  “Sophie.” I looked around, but the chairs closest to me were empty, and the only other person in the salon was sitting under one of the big domed hair dryers.

  “What?” Sophie said. She looked at me in the mirror. “You know I’m right.”

  Sophie, Kelly, and I had all grown up here in Bel-Air. We met in kindergarten, and remained friends throughout middle school and high school, even when I moved away sophomore year to live with my mom’s new husband. I’d lucked out with them; they were popular and beautiful and were definitely part of the “in” crowd at school, but they were also my two best friends, and I knew I could count on them for anything. Well, except for not draining the bank account because of a hot new boyfriend, apparently.

  “So here I am, twenty-eight and basically unemployed,” I said. “At least my hair will look good.”

  “Your hair is going to look more than good. And if you’re really going to close . . . I don’t know, maybe you could work at Fitness Universe.”

  “Do you really think I’d want to work at a place like that?”

  Sophie shrugged. “You might? You won’t know if you don’t give it a chance.”

  I scowled. “Okay, Mom.”

  “Hey, I’m just trying to make you feel better. And you really might not mind it. You’d still be able to help people stay healthy and get in shape, which I know is important. It might be nice to just be an employee, too. You won’t have all that added responsibility that comes with owning a business.”

  “I guess I’m just not cut out of that sort of thing. I mean, if I were, wouldn’t I have made certain all my bases were covered? Wouldn’t I have had flood insurance? Wouldn’t I have called the plumber the second I noticed something wasn’t right in the bathroom?”

  “Don’t beat yourself up over things that have already happened, Isla.”

  I watched my reflection in the mirror. I knew she was right and I couldn’t change the past, but that didn’t make it any easier of a pill to swallow.

  After I left Sophie’s, I went home. I was getting changed into my clothes to go for a nice long run when the phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, but I picked it up anyway. “Hello?”

  “Is this Isla Lucas?”

  “Yes,” I said. I didn’t recognize the voice, but he sounded rather serious, whoever it was. “Who’s this?”

  “My name’s Daniel Frederickson; I’m Alex Bassett’s attorney.”

  “Alex?” I said. Why was my stepfather’s—I mean, ex-stepfather’s—attorney calling me? “Is everything all right?”

  “Alex was your stepfather, correct?”

  “He and my mom were married, but they got divorced. It was a while ago. But yeah, he was my stepfather.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to have to be the one to inform you of this, but Alex passed away on Monday.”

  “Oh no,” I said. There was a sinking feeling in my chest. It had been a while since I’d last talked to Alex, maybe six months or so, but we’d still kept in touch all these years, even after he and Mom had gone their separate ways. “What happened?”

  “Heart attack. He was under a lot of stress.”

  “I’m sure he was. Well, thank you for calling to let me know. I’d like to go to the funeral.”

  “Yes, I assumed. The funeral will be held at St. Ignatius Loyola on Saturday. Since you’ll be in the area, would you be able to come by my office for a brief meeting?”

  “A meeting?” I said. “Is that really necessary?”

  “Yes. There’s a few things I’d like to go over with you, concerning Alex’s living trust.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t know anything about that,” I said. “Like I said, Alex used to be my stepfather, but he’s not anymore. And besides, he never talked to me about that sort of stuff, anyway. I’m not even sure what a living trust is, to be totally honest.”

  “Would you be able to meet on Friday afternoon?”

  “Um, sure, I guess,” I said. What day was it? Wednesday?

  “Great. We’re on 5th and W 44th Street. Does two o’clock work?”

  “Okay,” I said, even though my head was spinning. What was he talking about? Why was I going to a meeting with him?

  “All right then, Ms. Lucas, I look forward to our meeting. Goodbye.”

  And then the line went dead.

  I stood there for a moment, just staring at the phone. Everything seemed to be happening too quickly for my brain to process. Alex was dead? I took a deep breath and called my mom.

  “I have some ba
d news,” I said when she answered.

  “Brian broke up with you?” she said immediately.

  “What? No! Well, yes, but that’s not the bad news. And actually, no, he didn’t break up with me—I broke up with him.”

  “Why? When? What happened? He was such a nice—”

  “Mom! That’s not why I’m calling! That has nothing to do with the bad news. Alex is dead.”

  “Alex?”

  “Yes, Alex Bassett, your ex-husband. Remember him?”

  “Of course,” Mom snapped. “I was the one married to him, after all.” She took a deep breath. “What happened?”

  “He had a heart attack.”

  “Who told you? Did Levi call you?”

  “No,” I said. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d talked to Levi, which was just fine in my book. I’d been overweight as a teenager and he’d taken special delight in making fun of me whenever he got the chance. “Alex’s lawyer called.”

  “His lawyer?” I could hear the suspicion in Mom’s voice. “Why was his lawyer calling you?”

  “I don’t know. To tell me, I guess? I told him that I wanted to go to the funeral, which is this Saturday. But he said that he wanted me to meet with him at his office on Friday afternoon. Something about a living trust.”

  “Hmm.” Mom was quiet for a minute. “I don’t know if I like the sound of all this, Isla. Why would Alex’s lawyer want to go over something with you about that? Unless of course he left you something. Which I suppose wouldn’t surprise me.”

  “I doubt he left me anything,” I said. “Why would he? I’m sure there’s plenty of other people he could have left things to.”

  “I can’t think of another reason why you’d need to go have a meeting with his lawyer.” Mom took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “I guess you’re just going to have to go to this meeting to find out.”

  9.

  Levi

  “Aside from BCM, which your father has left to you,” Daniel said, “he had about three billion dollars in additional assets, in the form of stocks, bonds, equity securities, rental properties, land, and cash. He’s left two billion of it to you.”