Investigated Billionaire - The Complete Series Box Set (An Alpha Billionaire Romance)

by Claire Adams

  “Ms. Roberts, what is the formula for standard deviation?” I heard a voice come from a distance. It sounded a little like my name…

  Oh shit. I was transported back into a classroom full of college students and a frustrated-looking teacher staring down at me. “Ms. Roberts, are you still with us?”

  “Yes, sorry!” I snapped out. “The formula for standard deviation...”

  I knew this. I did. Why couldn’t I remember it right that second though? I needed to stop thinking about Zayden and that night in class. I was never unable to answer a question.

  “Ms. Roberts,” the teacher said. “I would really appreciate it if you paid some attention in class. Nobody wants to be here, even I don’t want to be here to try and explain statistics to disengaged students. But it’s my job, and you could make my job a lot easier by feigning some interest. The unintentional side effect would be some good grades. Do you know what those look like?”

  I nodded, feeling humiliated. If only he knew that I was a straight-A student. A teacher had never berated me in my life before this. I really needed to get my shit together. “I’m sorry. I am just having a rough day. It won’t happen again.”

  “Good, because your mid-term exam for this class is tomorrow,” he said, now addressing the whole class.

  Phew. Mid-term. I’d ace that and everything would be okay again. No more thinking about sex in class though. What was even happening to me? I was going to kill Zayden Sinclair when he returned from New York. He was beginning to interfere with my everyday life.

  Chapter 2

  Zayden

  Did she have to be in class? I hated not having the view of her ass from my office. All I had to look at was old Mrs. Brian, who seemed to think frowning at every customer that walked in was company policy.

  I picked up my phone to call Aria, wondering if I could demand that she become present at work instantly, but she probably wouldn’t answer her phone in class. Grunting, I thought about how much fun we were going to have when I took her home tonight. I had made some plans, all right.

  We hadn’t quite had the chance to do it after that night in the office. First I had to rush off to New York, and when I got back, there was a whole pile of work waiting for me to return to, and countless annoying meetings. At least I had found a way to make work interesting the day I had returned from New York. I thought back to that morning, when Aria had seen me walk into the office from her teller’s booth and was visibly struggling not to run to me. She didn’t want to tarnish her reputation and worsen mine. Thank god she was clever. So I had to devise a plan to get her to come into my office. And keep her there.

  I called her phone.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Roberts,” I grinned at her from the distance. “How are you doing, today?”

  “Better now,” she grinned back. “For no particular reason, though.”

  “There seems to be a steady number of reinforcements for your tasks at the teller’s booth over there. There’s Mrs. Brian, and the new kid should be arriving. Do you think you could make yourself available for some executive-level assistance?”

  “What did you have in mind?” She winked at me. It was so damn sexy.

  “What I really have in mind is bending you over my desk and making you come over and over again.” I watched her flush. It was so satisfying. “Since it’s the middle of the day, however, and we have a lot of company, I will settle for you coming into my office and sorting through my filing cabinet.”

  She looked taken aback, but said, “Oh yeah, sure, anything you want. You’re the boss.”

  “I’m not finished,” I added with a wink. She wasn’t the only one who could do that. “I want you to sort through my filing cabinet, but first I want you to go to the bathroom and take your panties off, so that I get a nice view of your ass and pussy when you’re filing.”

  She gasped. “Are you serious?”

  “I don’t joke about pussy, Aria. Go take your panties off. Now.” And then I hung up. Watching her from a distance, I could tell she was equally as frustrated as she was aroused, and my cock was already throbbing hard from that conversation.

  She walked into my office a few moments later and I said: “Where are they?”

  “What?” She looked confused.

  “Your panties.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “In my purse. Why does it matter?”

  I pulled my top desk drawer out and said, “Place them there. So you can’t cheat in case I step out of my desk.”

  “You’re being ridiculous,” she whispered, sounding more frustrated than aroused now.

  “Panties. Now.” I stared at her with a stern face until she gave up and stormed to place them where I had asked. “Anything else? Do you want me to strip naked so everyone in the office can have a nice show, too?”

  She was angrier than I had realized. “Just calm down,” I said, gently. “I thought you’d find it sexy.”

  “I do and it’s annoying. I don’t want to find it sexy. I was looking forward to your return from New York, and wanted to ask you about your trip, and tell you about my progress on the Econ paper, and so much more. But as soon as you walked in, all I could think about was the other night.”

  She paused for a second as though very nervous about what was to come next, then added, “All I could think about was the other night, and how much I wanted to repeat it. Right now.”

  “Aria,” I gasped, getting super hard. “We can book a hotel room around the corner and—”

  “No,” she said quickly. “This is exactly what I am talking about. I would love to accompany you to a hotel room and have you do me as you please. It pisses me off though that you do this while I’m at work. I need these hours. I need to be able to work while at work.”

  “I’ll pay you double to take the day off.”

  “Stop saying that, it’s disrespectful. I want to earn the money I make.”

  “I didn’t mean to offend you… I just figured, you want it, I want it, there seems to be no logical reason that either of us should be clothed right now.”

  “But there is,” she sighed. “It’s called my job. And yours!”

  “Meh,” I said shrugging. “I own the company, that’s hardly a job.”

  “After work,” she snapped. “After everyone leaves, we can hang around in your office and do whatever it is that you want to do.”

  “You make it sound like such a chore. How flattering,” I snapped back. “And despite that charming proposition, I’ll have to decline in favor of a sausage fest. Board meeting tonight.”

  “We don’t have to be at each other’s throats like this you know,” she said, sighing deeply.

  “Well, the fucking sexual tension in the room is making us act this way.”

  “Yeah, it’s something like that,” she said, staring at her feet.

  “Not to change the subject but I got you something,” I said, producing a tiny box from inside my suit pocket.

  “What is it?” She looked nervous.

  “Not a ring, obviously,” I said, handing her a box.

  “Oh really? I was so convinced that it was a ring, and that one steamy night with me had made you decide you wanted me for the rest of your life. Cause that’s how things work,” she laughed, opening the box and gasped when the contents were revealed.

  “These are beautiful,” she exclaimed, examining the diamond Liberty locket I had gotten her. “Is this a real diamond?”

  “Two carat. Not much, but since you had never been to New York before, I thought I’d bring a piece of it back to you.”

  I was playing this smooth.

  She laughed. “Yeah, just two carat, no big deal. It’s not like that’s more than any valuable item I have ever owned. Seriously, though, it’s beautiful. But I can’t accept it. You need to stop buying me expensive presents.”

  “It was nothing,” I said. It was just a couple of thousand dollars and that wasn’t much to me. “Just take it, Aria. Otherwise it’s just going to be thrown away.�
��

  “I can’t. I don’t feel comfortable taking gifts from my boss.” She sighed.

  “I’m not just your boss.”

  “I know.” Her eyes widened. “That’s not what I meant to imply. You’re…” She started fidgeting with the pendant in her hand and flushed to match the color of her red shirt. “You’re... I think of you as… as…” It was like someone asked her to name every state in the U.S. alphabetically in descending order. “A friend,” she finished after a lot of struggle.

  “Ah, so you let all your friends do what I did to you the other night?” I tried to look severe, although I was laughing inside at her struggle to speak.

  “No! Of course not! You know that I had never – that I was a –“ She caught my eyes and realized I was just teasing her. “I’m going to kill you.”

  “Great, then you can keep the pendant as memorabilia for when you miss me after my death.”

  She grunted. “I feel bad, though!”

  “If you really think of me as a friend, then please, take this small present from your friend.”

  “Fine,” she finally said. “But one condition: no more presents, no more spending a single penny outside of our contract on me. Promise?”

  “I promise,” I smiled. “Now start shelving and let me enjoy the view.”

  “That’s okay. I’ve got to get back to work. Enjoy my underwear,” she said, laughing as she waltzed out of my office.

  She was just as good as I was at this game.

  Chapter 3

  Aria

  I was walking out of class, disgruntled again from the second encounter in a row with my Statistics professor. It was beginning to be an every class thing. Then I heard someone call my name.

  Dick.

  “Excuse me?” a blond guy of medium build said.

  I may have said Dick out loud. “That’s your name, isn’t it?”

  “It’s Rick. But thanks,” my ex-boyfriend grinned. “I’ve been meaning to run into you, Aria.”

  “Oh, that’s neat. You don’t even have any classes in the Econ and Finance building. I suppose this is a ‘run-in’ and not a stalking attempt. Go away, dick,” I said, walking on.

  He ran after me. “Listen, I tried calling you a bunch of times.”

  I turned around and snapped, “Right. And me completely not answering any of those gazillion phone calls over the last few months did not give you the slightest hint that I want nothing to do with you?”

  “It did, but I am still here, doesn’t that say something?”

  “Yes, it says it’s really late and I have to get out of here. You’re just a dirty scumbag who cheated on me on our anniversary and is now stalking me outside of evening class.”

  “You never even gave me a chance to explain!” He was shouting now.

  “Explain! What the hell is there to explain, Dick? I saw everything that needed to be seen. Do I care about your made-up sob story where you were doing a dying girl a favor or any kind of other bullshit that you can come up with? No.”

  “But you still care about me! Or you wouldn’t be this angry,” he had the nerve to say.

  I could almost slap him that moment and tried to ease my trembling fingers. “I cared about you once. You know that. But you hurt me, Ricky. It took me a very long time to recover from that. Of course I’m still angry for what you did to me! But that in no way indicates any remaining feelings for you. I have really truly moved on, and I suggest you do the same. Though let’s be honest, you kind of already had before we even broke up.”

  He sighed. “I am really, really sorry, Aria. I am not going to stand here and give you a long and twisted version of a lie you aren’t going to believe. I fucked up, plain and simple. I don’t have some grandiose reasoning behind it; I was just a stupid kid thinking with everything other than my head. And Sally – the girl you found me with – had been going after me for months and I just lost control.”

  “I’m sorry for you and your inability to keep it in your pants, but I am not sure how this is supposed to make anything better.”

  “It’s not. None of it is supposed to make it any better. All I wanted to say was that I am truly sorry. I don’t think I’ve ever been more sorry about anything in my life. And I would have to be really stupid to think you’d ever give me another chance. I know I don’t deserve one, and you deserve better.”

  “Yeah? Then why are you still here?”

  “Because I love you.” He shrugged. “I have never loved anyone before or after you. You were the most inspiring person in my life, never letting me down, always supporting me through the hardest of times. And I let all that go, for what?” He shook his head.

  “But I don’t love you anymore,” I said softly.

  A frown fell across his face. “I know,” he said after a few moments. “I know that. Maybe we can still… I don’t know… be friends?”

  “Why? What does that accomplish?”

  “I get to be around the most amazing girl I have ever met, and have her in my life in some capacity, even though I will know for sure that it’s never ever going to be more than that.”

  I sighed. “Never ever.”

  “Ever?” He was breaking out a tiny smile.

  “Never!” I said more loudly.

  “Friends?” He gave me his hand and I took it reluctantly.

  “Friends. But I have to go now. Lots to do tonight, need to drop by home and then go to the bank—”

  Shouldn’t have said that last part cause he raised his eyebrows questioningly. “Why are you going to the bank this late?”

  “I forgot my…” I saw my phone prodding out of my bag. “Phone…charger! I forgot my phone charger there!”

  Phew. That was a close one. I needed to be more careful about disclosing my whereabouts, especially when it concerned my super-secret rendezvous with the owner and CEO of a giant bank chain.

  “But I’ll see you later?” Rick was still talking as I started storming off before I could say too much more.

  “Sure,” I said without even looking back and dashed out of there as fast as I could.

  I heard him say, 'I’ll hold you to that.”

  Great, now I had unintentionally agreed to hang out with him. Oh well, it couldn’t be that bad. I was far too invested in Zayden to be won over by Dick-Rick’s attempts to get me back. And it really sounded like he needed a friend, so whatever, I could handle an afternoon coffee or something. I’d deal with him when I dealt with him. Right now, I had to rush home, change into sexier clothes, and go see Zayden. I couldn’t wait.

  ---

  Stacey was waiting for me in the living room when I got home. We hadn’t really talked since our last fight, regarding her helping Zayden. We said hello here and there when we ran into each other in the kitchen, but mostly communicated via Nick, who was getting increasingly frustrated with what he called our girlish ways.

  “Hi,” she said awkwardly as soon as I walked in through the front door.

  “Hi,” I said back, not looking at her. Stacey and I hadn’t fought in a long time, so I wasn’t quite sure how to approach the situation now. There was also the tiny inconvenience of timing: I was supposed to meet Zayden almost ten minutes ago. Which I couldn’t tell her because I had yet to tell her about my sexcapades, for the fear of the inevitable I-told-you-so.

  “I’m sorry,” we both said in unison. And then I just wanted to hug her and have my best friend back and tell her about the amazing things that had happened to me. I didn’t even care about the I-told-you-so anymore, I had missed her too much. I jumped on the couch next to her and hugged her against her will. Stacey wasn’t a touchy-feely person, but over the years started secretly enjoying being forced into a hug by me. She’d never admit it, though.

  “You were right,” were the first words that came out of my mouth. “You were absolutely, one-hundred percent right. Zayden makes me happy. Thank you for seeing it before I did Stace.”

  “No no no,” she said, shaking her head. “I mean, I am gl
ad you think so and are happy now, but I shouldn’t have went behind your back like that, solely based on what I thought was best for you.”

  “Come on, Stace, let’s be honest, when have you been wrong about what’s best for me?”

  “Never,” she said and grinned. “But that’s not the point.”

  “It is though. You were right about Ricky-Dick and you were right about Zayden.”

  After a few moments of gathering courage, I said, “There is something I have to tell you about Zayden.”

  She immediately jumped upright upon hearing that her eyes widened to the size of walnuts. “Aria Roberts, you didn’t!”

  “I haven’t even told you what it is that I am talking about!” I exclaimed, even though by now we both knew that nothing needed to be said.

  “What? When? How? Where? Tell me everything,” she shrieked.

  “Can I give you a quick summary? I kind of have plans to go see him.” I checked my watch. “Like fifteen minutes ago.”

  She gasped. “So you’ve been doing it this whole time?”

  “No, no no, only once. In his office. Last week. Maybe tonight.” I started thinking back to that night and hugged my own knees. “It was amazing! He was…incredible. If that is what real sex feels like, I am surprised people ever get out of their houses.” I surveyed her from top to bottom. “Like, I am surprised you’re out here with me and not jumping Nick’s bones right now.”

  She laughed. “Oh you poor, child. I hate to be the one to ruin Christmas, but it’s not always perfect and amazing and wonderful. Especially not the first time, not for most girls, anyway. You got lucky. Zayden must’ve known what he was doing.”

  I was still hiding the fact that I lost virginity to a random guy after Rick broke up with me. She’d never let me live it down if she knew.

  “Are you saying Nick doesn’t?” I teased.

  “Of course he does. I mean, we are great and everything and I love him. It’s not perfect every single time though. And after dating for as long as we have, it kind of gets old a little bit.”