The Billionaire Boss Collection

by Penny Ward

  I take some tissue from the roll and blow my nose, reality still trying to sink in, "What if he's a she?"

  "All the better." He takes some tissue and does the same, "She'll be like you."

  I allow myself to smile, but sigh audibly, and I'm not sure why. The emotion flying around inside me is almost oppressive, but not unwelcome, "Wow, this is…"

  "Okay, look," he presses a finger to my lips. "I meant to do this later on today. Tonight actually, in front of all your friends. Good people should share in such an event. But hey, we're in the bathroom and the room smells of vomit, but who cares." He inhales, positively glowing, "It's not a problem and—"

  I move his finger from my lips, "What are you talking about, Caleb? My head's already in a spin, I can't…I'm not sure what's going on here."

  Is this baby brain?

  "I'm not trying to confuse you." He wipes my hair from a tear and sweat sodden face. "Don't you get it? I'm trying to propose."

  "Propose what?" Oh, he's…Almost swallowing my tongue, I blurt, "Freaking yikes!"

  Nervously, he pulls out a small box from his back pocket and my heart takes up residence in the back of my throat.

  "This was my mother's engagement ring from my father. If it doesn't fit, we can get it altered for you—if you'll do me the honor of becoming my wife, that is."

  The ring is a platinum single solitaire surrounded by tiny white freshwater pearls. He slides it on my finger and although it's a fraction too big, it's perfect otherwise. "I don't know what to say."

  "Oh?" His forehead forms the deepest frown I think I've ever seen, and the outer edges of his eyes droop. "So you don't—?"

  "No, of course…but were you going to do this anyway, before the baby news? Were you going to ask me to…?"

  "Marry me? Yes, as long as I didn't wimp out again, like last time."

  "Last time?"

  "Intended to do it in Paris last month, was so much more romantic than this, but I was scared you'd say no. I mean, you're so young."

  Why didn't I realize?

  "Ha, how ironic…"

  "Ironic?"

  My emotions steady at seeing such vulnerability in his dark blue stare. Resting my hand on my tummy over his, I say, "Because it's almost certainly where this little guy was conceived."

  We remember how little time we spent cruising the sites, and the long sweaty afternoons in our hotel room.

  Bliss.

  "Oh yeah," he grins, looking at our hands overlapping on my stomach. "Please give me your answer…the ring is perfect on you, you're perfect for me, the timing is perfect in a weird kind of way—marry me, Emma."

  Last year I longed to be his lover.

  Now I'm going to be his wife, and the mother to his child.

  If he were anyone else, I'd run screaming into the night.

  But this is Caleb.

  My throat swells, I wrap my arms around his shoulders, about to make two major life decisions as easily as I might decide what relish to slather on my burger.

  "Because you can't be too young to live the life you choose, or the life fated for you, I say yes to both. I love you, and our family, Caleb. "

  He carries me from the restroom, outside to our guests, kissing me and laughing intermittently on the way.

  While he announces our news to our intimate party of close friends and family, I let my head fall back, inhale a great gulp of air, and gaze into the deep blue sky.

  There, miles up ahead, I imagine a family of birds gliding through life, perfectly synchronized, weightless and free.

  The End

  The Assistant

  By

  Emily Cooper

  THE ASSISTANT

  Beau Donovan exercises control in nothing; he is impulsive, filled with desire and driven by lust… until the day that Harper Clark falls into his office; full of shy, innocent looks.

  Unlike any woman he has known before, Harper seems to see right through him - past the sporting talent, the rock-hard abs and the penthouse lifestyle to Beau’s cold, lonely heart.

  Will Harper’s delicate touch open him up… or force him to run away forever?

  Chapter One

  “Oh, wow.”

  Harper’s mouth dropped open as she flicked through the old magazine in the doctor’s office. Her eyes landed on an underwear ad of half-naked sports star, Beau Donovan.

  “Hmmm…” moaned the woman on the seat next to her. “I could run my tongue up those rock hard abs any day of the week.”

  “Oh no, I wasn’t… I mean… I didn’t…” Harper flushed with embarrassment.

  “No need to be embarrassed, honey,” the woman smiled. “We can all appreciate greatness.”

  Filled with complete embarrassment in the busy waiting room, Harper quickly closed the magazine and placed it on the table in front of her. The woman next to her picked up the magazine, flicked to the advertisement featuring the large package of Beau Donovan, and started making moaning sounds.

  “Hmmm…” the woman moaned. “Yes please.”

  Harper’s cheeks blushed with redness. After at least two minutes of deep moaning, the woman placed the magazine back on the table, much to Harper’s relief.

  Harper could have quietly stared at the picture for hours, and she could have done with the enjoyment, but to avoid any further unwanted embarrassment, she didn’t pick the magazine back up.

  Things had changed lately for Harper and life was becoming more stressful by the day, but New York City was always in a hurry to change someone's life.

  Whether they were drawn to the city by the lure of fame and fortune or the temptation of the cultural explosion that was rocking the city and bringing new trends into existence by the hour, there was something for everyone from business and trade to the big screen and the top restaurants in the world.

  They say if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.

  Eight years ago, Harper Clark had moved to The Big Apple to pursue a career in financial advising with one of the top firms in the nation and had found herself in a growing economic boom that afforded her the kind of life she had always imagined for herself and her boyfriend and hopefully soon-to-be husband.

  But things tend to change quickly here.

  Really quickly.

  The markets changed overnight and instantly people lost their jobs and money just as quickly as they had earned it.

  Harper wondered what that said about them. If the saying is ‘If you can make it in New York City you can make it anywhere,’ and you flop, did that mean you were considered a failure?

  To live here you had to be tough and have a thick skin and the ability to bounce back when things didn't go the way they were anticipated to. Harper wasn't sure how much bounce she had left after so many things fell out from under her.

  Harper stared out the window behind her, looking out to the expanse of the city, wondering how her life had taken such a turn and ended up the mess that it currently was. There were so many things that had changed over the last few months and none of them seemed to be for the better.

  She crossed her legs and rested her head on the cool glass watching the cars and taxis go by on the busy street, wishing she had somewhere to be other than sitting in the cramped little doctor’s waiting room. She was there because she was having a lot of trouble sleeping at night. Her brain couldn’t switch off and let her sleep peacefully.

  Harper was determined to get her life back in order and keep a positive outlook on things. She refused to let a few turns of bad luck and a few bad choices ruin everything.

  If things could go south in a hurry, they could turn around the same, right?

  She was newly single, had her own apartment and a lot of free time on her hands to venture out into the world and find her passion.

  She wondered if the stock market was where she belonged.

  Maybe something else would come up and she would find that she liked that better than working on the trading floor. She had some time to figure it all ou
t, though not as much time as she would have liked and been comfortable with.

  The truth was that her boyfriend of the last two years had dumped her and left her high and dry.

  He took her credit cards and decided to go on a spending spree before heading out of the country to Mexico with his new girlfriend who he had proposed to with a ring he had bought with Harper's money.

  To further add insult to injury, he had chosen her birthday as the ideal time to drop that bomb on her.

  She was forced to move into a small one-bedroom apartment in a ‘up and coming’ neighborhood. Which meant that it was a slum that the city was trying to revamp before they completely lost it to poverty.

  They were building new apartments and tearing down a lot of the abandoned buildings in the area in an effort to clean it up.

  It wasn't the best area and it certainly wasn't the kind of place she had grown accustomed to living on the Upper East Side where people took care of their lawns and children played in their yards and everyone looked out for each other.

  She wasn't even sure who her neighbors were here.

  Nobody had introduced themselves and it seemed like most of them never left their apartments. Harper wondered if any of them even worked. Not that she was contributing much to society at this point.

  As for having a lot of free time, she only had free time because she had lost her job shortly after moving into the new apartment.

  The company she had worked for since moving to the city had needed to enforce cutbacks to keep their doors open and one of the positions they eliminated was hers.

  She thought a few years of paper pushing and number crunching were going to give her an exemption from the cuts but that wasn't the way the cards fell.

  Harper could have sulked about the whole situation but she decided it wasn't worth it to be negative. It wouldn't get her anywhere and it would only upset her more.

  Things could only get better from here.

  Mostly because that was the only option left.

  Chapter Two

  Harper had landed an interview with the Warrior's soccer team as a financial advisor and accountant. She hadn't done accounting beyond her internship when she left Ohio State University but she was sure the team accounts wouldn't be difficult to follow when she was used to handling dozens of accounts on a daily basis.

  She hoped when they interviewed her they wouldn't ask if she liked the team.

  Harper had never been much of a sports fan and she honestly couldn't remember the last time she had ever watched a soccer game or even a partial game for that matter and she wasn't confident that she could fake her way through it with someone who actually knew what they were talking about.

  She pulled up in the parking lot and drove down the aisle looking for a spot that didn't have a reserved sign on it.

  Harper parked her car next to a spot reserved for Beau Donovan.

  The name sounded halfway familiar, like she may have seen something about him at some point.

  Thinking about it she remembered that he was the party boy of the team, fantastic player with a long history of bringing the team to victory but he had been in trouble over the years with drinking and women.

  Harper gave serious thought about moving her car but one glance at her watch told her she was running close to late as usual and didn’t have time to be worried about which of the pretty party boys she was parked next to.

  When she entered the building, there was an attractive young blonde woman at the front desk who asked if she had an appointment with someone.

  She looked friendly and smiled at her.

  “Yes, I have an appointment with a Mr. Edwards,” Harper told her, smiling back.

  “Thank you. You can have a seat and I'll let him know that you're here,” the receptionist said and picked up the phone.

  Harper looked around the building.

  It was obvious that it had once been a very nice place but that years of hard use and the lack of money to fix it up had let it drift into a state of minor disrepair.

  The carpets had stains and were getting threadbare in the high traffic areas.

  It might have been blue a decade or so ago.

  Everything was clean even though it wasn't in the best shape. The place looked comfortably well worn in and it smelled like a combination of cologne and industrial floor cleaning solution.

  “Miss? Mr. Edwards will see you now,” the receptionist smiled with beautiful teeth. She led Harper down the hallway to a room where an old man with balding hair was waiting for her.

  “Welcome, Miss Clark. I'm Roger Edwards, owner of the Warriors. It's a pleasure to meet you.” The man offered her a seat in one of the leather chairs in front of his desk.

  “Thank you, sir,” Harper sat down on the overstuffed chair and pulled her resume out of her briefcase and handed it to him.

  They went over her resume and he asked her questions about her financial history and her educational background. He was also a Buckeye alumni and Harper had a feeling school bloodlines were a strong pull with this man.

  “Can you please describe a time when you had a positive impact on an organization?” Mr. Edwards asked.

  “Yes, I…”

  Knock. Knock.

  There was a heavy knock on the door as Harper began to detail her reply.

  Turning to look at the man, Harper’s breath was taken away.

  She couldn’t finish the rest of her sentence.

  “Hey, Mr. Edwards, Johnny wants to know if there is anything else you need him to do to get ready for the trip on Saturday.”

  A tall man in his mid thirties came in looking like he had just walked off a Sports Illustrated shoot with his chiseled body and gorgeously manly face. Clearly full of confidence, he didn’t care that he had just interrupted a job interview.

  Harper couldn’t take her eyes off him – she had never seen someone so beautiful, confident and styled.

  The man had thick and luscious dark brown hair that waved in the thin layer of gel he applied to it. His strong face had the hint of stubble that had already grown back after he shaved this morning. He had muscles on top of his muscles and a stunningly broad chest.

  He looked every bit the athlete he was.

  Dressed beautifully in a well-fitting and stylish suit, he looked irresistible.

  Harper resisted the urge to brush her hands over his chest – deciding that wouldn’t be the best look in a job interview.

  The man smiled over at Harper and she felt the heat rise into her cheeks when her eyes met his. He definitely had the kind of charm that a woman would fall for.

  “Not now, Donovan. Can't you see I'm conducting an important interview right now?” Mr. Edwards stood.

  “New assistant?” the man asked with raised eyebrows.

  “Financial advisor and accountant,” Harper smiled.

  “Team assistant,” Beau winked.

  Shaking his head, Mr. Edwards shooed him out of the door, before closing it. Then, thinking about something, he opened it and stuck his head out and told the man to check with the travel agency about the hotel reservations.

  “I'm sorry about that. It's always busy around here,” Mr. Edwards shook his head and took his seat behind his desk again.

  He sat down in his office chair and looked over her resume again, flipping through the pages and chewing on his bottom lip.

  The way he was going over her resume made her nervous.

  Harper knew she had good references, a wonderful work history and impressive recommendations, but the way he was inspecting the details of her career and life made her feel like there was something she was missing out on.

  “If you think you can put up with an office full of guys like that…” he pointed with is thumb to the door indicating where the handsome guy had vanished “…then you can start Monday morning.”

  “Really?” Harper asked in surprise.

  Mr. Edwards nodded.

  “Oh! Thank you, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, M
r. Edwards,” Harper was ready to sing.

  He stood and shook her hand, “Monday morning at eight o’clock. The receptionist will tell you where to go.”

  Harper walked out of the office floating on clouds.

  In a daze, she came around one of the hallway corners and ran straight into a solid chest.

  “Oh,” she yelped as her hands went onto the chest, “Sorry.”

  “Well, hello. If you wanted to touch my chest you could have just asked. Someone pretty as you, I'd let you touch anything you wanted,” the man winked with a smile.

  “Sorry,” Harper said again.

  “Your hands are still on my chest,” he grinned.

  “Oh! Sorry,” Harper blushed, letting out an awkward, forced laugh.

  The man was hot but completely arrogant.

  “Beau,” he held out his large, strong hand.

  “Harper,” she replied as his hand engulfed hers.

  “That was you in the interview, wasn’t it?”

  “Um… yes.”

  “So did you get the job?” Beau asked Harper as she made her way around him in the hall.

  She couldn't help the smile that spread over her face.

  “I did,” she told him.

  “Good. I'll be looking forward to seeing much more of you,” his smile would have erased all of the memories of his arrogance if she had let it.

  She couldn't keep herself from being just a little bit charmed by the guy. His charisma was overflowing and his personality lit up the room.

  He would be the life of the party anywhere he went.

  Her body was working against her mind when it came to the warning signs and red flags of this guy.

  She could tell he was no good.

  He was trouble – no doubt about it.

  And she could tell he wasn't her type… but she’d be damned if she didn't want to kiss him and find her way down those beautiful lines of his body.

  “Lovely to meet you, Harper. It’s always good to have more pretty girls around here. I'll see you around.”