The Billionaire Boss Collection

by Penny Ward

  “Hey, Max. Finished up for the day?” I ask with a warm smile.

  “Hell yes!” he exclaims, fixing the strap of his suitcase bag so it balances on his shoulder better. “Bring on the weekend!”

  Max’s eyes are the same shape as Lucas’s but are a lighter brown. More Hazel like.

  And also, like Lucas, Max is quite attractive. A Hartz family trait, no doubt.

  “Amen to that,” I chuckle and then notice the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wrapped present he’s holding in his right hand. “Oh, I completely forgot. It’s Brady’s birthday today, huh? He turned five right?”

  Max nods and peers down at the present. “Yep. His favorite is Raphael so I got him this toy with Raphael on some bike with missiles that fire out or something like that.”

  “Cool, I’m sure he’ll love it. I know I would, and I’m a chick.”

  Max laughs and nudges my arm with the present. “I can order you one for your birthday if you like?”

  “Ha ha. Thanks, but why buy me one when I can just come over and play with Brady’s sometime?!”

  “Hmm, that’s true. You should drop in soon, though. I know Sarah and little Charlotte would love to see you. Sarah’s sick of all the plastic housewives she’s forced to mingle with at the charity events she hosts. She misses you.”

  “Aw, I miss her too. But at least, I’ll see her on Sunday. I take it you, her and the kids are coming to the engagement party?”

  “No, we’re having a kid free night. So it will just be Sarah and me. Gotta love babysitters!”

  I give an agreeable chuckle and then decide to make a timely exit. He’s a family man; he should already be at home with the kids. “Well, see you then, Max.”

  Stepping around him, I gait towards the photocopying room.

  “Oh, Anna. One more thing,” Max calls out after me. He makes up the rest of the steps between us and lowers his voice. “A woman came in a few minutes ago. She said she’s an old friend of Lucas’s and just happened to be in town, so she thought she’d swing by. I told her to wait by reception until you came and showed her through.”

  Creasing my forehead, I bite the inside of my cheek. An old friend? Not likely.

  Lucas doesn’t have female friends. He has lovers.

  “Oh, right. Thanks, Max. I’ll take care of it.”

  After Max walks away, I try to push some unsavory thoughts of Lucas and this unknown woman out of my head.

  Maybe she’s just a business associate? Or better yet, an actual friend?

  It’s a possibility, right?

  Right??

  Chapter 16

  Lucas

  When I hear a sharp rap on my office door, I figure it’s just Anna and don’t bother to look up.

  I wait for her to come and stand by the chair so I can fondle that sweet pussy of hers again and then maybe steal her away for another quickie in the stationary room before we head out to Masa.

  But the moment I get a whiff of that perfume – strong, exotic, cheap – I know it’s not Anna.

  As soon as I lift my head up and my lock eyes with her, her husky voice sounds through the office.

  “Well hello there, Mr. Big Apple,” Monique says, staring down at me with that classic sultry smile.

  The only thought running through my mind is what the hell she is doing in New York?!

  Anna going to flip her lid if she finds out.

  Keeping my voice casual and witty, I rise from my chair. “Monique. What do I owe such a pleasure?”

  She gives a wry laugh and comes around the desk to stand by me, her face inches away from mine. “I was in the neighborhood. Thought I’d stop by and see if you… needed anything.”

  Just what I was dreading: she’s here because she wants to pick up where we left off. But why?

  I’m the head of a billion-dollar company and she’s just a prostitute. What could she possibly think was going to happen? That I was going to drop my trousers, right here, right now, and let her blow me all the way this time?

  And then the cogs start rotating…

  Oh, hell no.

  She doesn’t…

  She couldn’t… have a thing for me?

  “I’ve thought a lot about our last encounter in Vegas,” she continues, “and I’ve decided to throw you a pro-bono, Lucas.”

  She says my name in a spicy tone that most men would wilt over.

  But I can’t.

  I won’t.

  I’m in love with Anna.

  Love. Shit, Lucas. Now there’s a word you thought you’d never use.

  “Monique, as much as I’ve enjoyed our times together, I’m with someone,” I say, my voice soft but blunt.

  Something in those fire blue eyes flickers for a moment, but then burns out.

  “You know I don’t care about any ‘attachments.’ And right now, I want you, Lucas,” she states with bite and pushes me down onto the chair, hard.

  She has strength I’ll give her that.

  Before I even have a chance to get up, she climbs on top of me, wrapping her legs around the chair, trapping me in place.

  “Monique, this can’t happen. Get off me,” I say with authority but she just laughs and rips open my shirt, the buttons popping all over the desk.

  Fuck. If Anna sees this, I’m in the doghouse and potentially for good this time.

  But it’s too late.

  I look over Monique’s shoulder and see her standing in the door. Pale as a ghost.

  “Anna. This is not how it looks. I swear, she just-” I begin to say, but Anna cuts me off.

  “You really haven’t changed at all, huh Lucas? You just can’t help yourself,” she snarls, hurt in her eyes.

  Shit.

  I’m going to lose her if I don’t convince her that I’m telling the truth.

  With all the strength I can muster, I grip Monique’s thighs and ply her off me, forcing her to stand.

  Shoving her to the side, I stride up to Anna and try to take her face in mine, but she slaps my hands away.

  “Don’t touch me!” she snaps, retreating back a few steps.

  “Anna, please,” I beg. “Monique just came in here and jumped on me. It wasn’t-”

  “Oh, please,” Anna hisses, shaking her head. “This has you written all over it. I knew she couldn’t have been an old friend. You don’t do friends.”

  “Anna, I need you to listen to-”

  “Did Vegas mean nothing to you,” she interrupts again. “That night you came back and we… ‘bonded.’ Was it real? Or have you changed your mind again?”

  Just as I go to tell her that of course it was real and that I meant everything I said that night, Monique gets in before me. “And was your little ‘bonding’ session before or after I sucked his cock?”

  What little color was left on Anna’s face drains away. I watch her heart break in her watery eyes and quivering lips.

  I’ve lost her. Just like that, we’ve split apart as quick as we’d come back together.

  When she turns and flees the room, I do what any guy in love would do. I run after her.

  But then I remember how fast she was on the track team back in high school. She’s at the elevator within seconds and just as I reach it, the steel, silver doors close in my face.

  I press the button frantically but she’s gone, rushing down the floors, getting further and further away from me. Even if I took the fire exit stairs two at a time, I wouldn’t make it. She’d have already jumped into a cab and sped on out of here.

  Punching the wall by the elevator, I skin my knuckles and look at the hole I’ve made. It’s big. There are a few specks of blood around the edge, making it obvious that someone has gone full-throttle on it.

  With a hefty sigh, I sit down on a nearby chair and scold myself for not telling that bitch Monique to get the hell out of my office the moment she walked in.

  What have I done?

  How could I have been so fucking stupid?

  Anna probably won’t ever forgive me for this,
but I’ll be damned if I don’t fight for her.

  She’s my future.

  The only one I want.

  I can feel it in my very core: Anna Fitzgerald is ‘The One.’

  Chapter 17

  Anna

  On the subway, everything is blurry - the carriage, the people, and even my own hands in my lap.

  I barely hear the person sitting next to me when they ask, “Are you all right, honey?”

  Wiping my eyes, I turn to the dark-skinned lady who offers me a gentle smile. “I’m okay, thank you,” I tell her, but, of course, it’s a lie.

  I’m far from being okay. I’m hurt, confused, mortified and, worst of all, ashamed of myself for thinking that Lucas had changed.

  Playboy billionaires don’t ever change.

  Not even the ones you knew before they inherited their parent’s money.

  Even if some deep part of him loves me, it’s obvious he can’t keep his dick in his pants.

  Back in Vegas, he’d gone to see his “old friend” – a fucking prostitute who not only has stellar looks, an A-grade body, and tits that even Dolly Parton would raise an eyebrow at, but who also sucked him off.

  And right before he came back to the penthouse, declared his feelings, and then screwed me into blissful oblivion.

  I mean is that messed up or what?!

  When the carriage stops at my platform in Brooklyn, I give a weak smile to the woman and hurry off.

  I just want to get home, change into my sweatpants and run until my body can’t take it anymore. There’s nothing like a good, long sprint to ease a problem in your life. Even if the relief only lasts an hour or so.

  Once I’ve finished power walking down the street and Dad’s house looms ahead, I jog the rest of the way. His blue Ford isn’t in the driveway. Good. He wouldn’t want to see his daughter like this. Not again. Not after how I was when that asshole, Jake, went from being Superman to bloody Lex Luthor.

  Up in my bedroom, I quickly get changed and slip on my black Asics sneakers. The same color as Lucas’s heart. The prick.

  But just as I bound down the stairs and make for the front door, it unlocks and opens.

  Oh, man. Excellent timing. Not.

  “Anna!” Dad says, pushing the door wide. His arms are packed full of groceries and I can only just see his head. Abigail Hartz stands right behind him, unknowingly demonstrating just how much her son’s smile resembles her own.

  “I thought you said you were going out tonight?” Dad adds. “With that gentleman friend of yours?”

  Keeping a level head, I look from Dad then Abigail then back to Dad again. “Yeah, um, something came up. So we decided to give it a miss,” I say, trying to sound sincere. “I was just on my way out for a run.”

  Dad nods, appearing to believe my story and walks past me in the direction of the kitchen.

  “Hello, Anna.” Abigail’s grin widens as she paces in after him. “I’m glad we caught you actually. There’s something your father and I have been meaning to ask you. Do you think you could spare a minute?”

  Even if I were the most horrible person in the world, I’d have a hard time letting Abigail down. She’s just so polite and unpretentious. Unlike someone else I know.

  This whole situation is weird. Here I am, speaking with my new secret boyfriend’s mom, only I don’t think I can call him my boyfriend anymore. Not after what I’ve just witnessed.

  So I guess she’s my ex-boyfriend’s mom now?

  Oh, and she’s also going to be my stepmom in just over a month.

  Just when I thought all the mind-fucking had gone on a sabbatical, it comes back early, and with a vengeance.

  “Um, sure,” I say with a reluctant shrug of my shoulders and follow her into the kitchen.

  I help Dad and her unpack the bags before he ushers us out on the back patio for some homemade lemonade. Even though it’s after six o’clock, it’s still hot out, at least, seventy-eight degrees.

  Taking a gulp of my ice-cold drink, I peer over at the happy couple giving each other “goo goo” eyes. “So what did you want to ask me?”

  Abigail sucks in a breath – quite an odd thing for an otherwise confident woman to do – and leans across the table. “We were wondering if you could do a speech at the engagement party. Lucas is doing one for us and well, we thought it’d be lovely if you did one too.”

  Lucas. Just hearing his name rubs me up the wrong way. I feel the lump rising in my throat but fight it. Not here, not now, Anna.

  “Oh, really? Are you sure? I mean I’m not great at the whole public talking thing,” I reply, giving a sheepish smile.

  In all honesty, I don’t want to do it. But it’s not because I’m not happy for them. I just don’t like the idea of Lucas staring at me the whole time.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Dad pitches in, holding his glass of lemonade up to his lips. “The fact that you’re willing to write something and read it out is all that matters to us.”

  Well, that doesn’t give me much of a choice, does it?

  It looks like all eyes will be on Lucas and I come Sunday afternoon. The engagement party is being held at my old boss’s (Sam Hartz) penthouse on West 56th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

  Apparently it’s worth a whopping one hundred million green ones, so I’d be lying my little ass off if I said I wasn’t a little interested in checking it out.

  “Okay, if that’s what you both want. I’ll do it,” I tell them, carving out my best fake smile to cover the cloud of depression still floating over me.

  After I down the rest of my lemonade, I leave the lovebirds to it and go for a run around the neighborhood.

  Within minutes, I feel better.

  What happened at the office today – seeing Lucas with that damn redhead – is becoming less tender to think about the faster I push myself.

  And once I break out into a full-on sprint, I’m almost completely numb.

  If only I could keep on running.

  Forever.

  Chapter 18

  Lucas

  Waiting for Anna to walk in is nail-biting agony. If she’d just give me a couple of minutes to explain everything before she tosses what we have out the window.

  And then if she still doesn’t want to pursue a relationship… fair enough. Never being able to touch her again and stare into those misty, gray eyes would shatter me, but at least, I could live with knowing that I tried.

  “So Lucas, how have your first few weeks being the director of the company been?” Uncle Sam asks, standing beside me at his home bar. He orders a whiskey on the rocks from the bartender, the same choice of poison as me.

  “Productive,” I say with firmness. “The Vegas warehouse has been secured and should open within six months.” Raising my glass, I drain the amber liquid and tilt it across the bar for a refill.

  “Splendid. I knew you’d make me proud, Lucas. Jack would be proud too.”

  Hearing my dad’s name creates a pang in my stomach. There’s an emptiness there that I know won’t ever be filled. But that’s life. People die, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.

  My only regret is that Dad never got to see me give up the playboy thing. He left this world thinking that his son was nothing but an ungrateful little shit.

  Uncle Sam gives me a solid pat on the shoulder and then leaves the bar to mingle with his guests.

  Taking my glass with me, I go and admire the view from one of the 360-degree terraces that encircle this floor. It truly is remarkable – a canvas of shadowed skyscrapers and Central Park, under a sunset sky streaked with orange and purples hues.

  New York sure knows how to show off her beauty.

  Just as I finish downing my third whiskey in less than an hour, I hear the applause ring out inside. The soon-to-be bride and groom have arrived, and if I’m not mistaken Anna too.

  Depositing my glass on a table inside, I look for her in the crowd. But she’s nowhere to be seen. Surely she must have come with Mom and Fra
nk?

  “Ah, darling. There you are,” Mom says, walking up to me and planting a kiss on my cheek. “Sorry, we’re late. We had a flat tire. Can you believe it?”

  Even though I’m listening, my eyes are still searching for Anna.

  “Now, Frank and I are going to circulate around the guests for the next fifteen minutes and then we’ll have the first speech. Anna is doing it.”

  My gaze returns to her immediately. “Anna?”

  “Yes, we asked her to do one. Yours will be straight after hers, of course. You did bring it, didn’t you?”

  I pat my pocket and sprout a reassuring grin. “It’s here, Mom. Don’t start panicking.”

  She gives a little scoff and then squeezes my arm. “Very well. Now, I better start thanking people for coming. Fifteen minutes, remember?”

  “Yes, Mom,” I say with a broad, cheesy smile and then take my leave. I have fifteen minutes to find Anna and sort things out.

  After about five minutes of searching the entire floor, the one place I stupidly didn’t bother to look was the exact place I’d been the moment she arrived. The terrace.

  I watch her for a minute before I go out. Talk about beauty witnessing beauty. Her flowing dark auburn haired silhouette and the backdrop of Manhattan are a perfect couple.

  She looks like she belongs here, and she does.

  In a few months, this penthouse will be mine. Uncle Sam has decided on a sea change, in Maine. He wants to write a book about his memoirs – The Peaks and Pitfalls of a Billionaire.

  Good on him I guess. He gets some well-earned R & R and I get his company and triplex apartment.

  It’s a win-win all round.

  I was hoping Anna would share this all with me, but now… that’s almost a hopeless cause.

  “It’s pretty spectacular, isn’t it,” I say with care, closing the door to the terrace behind me.

  Anna doesn’t flinch or turn around. She just keeps staring out at the blinking lights of the city.