The Taming of the Billionaire

by Jessica Clare

  Maybe so. She’d have felt better if he’d called her up directly and said, Wanna go out? Then again, she’d have probably laughed in his face and hung up the phone, convinced it was a prank.

  Damn it, now Bianca had her talking as if this were a done deal and he was interested in Edie. “I’m still not convinced he likes me.”

  “You should wear this new lipstick I got,” Bianca said. “We have similar skin tones so it’ll probably look good on you, too. And wear a dress.”

  “Not wearing a dress,” Edie said.

  But . . . she might wear the lipstick. Maybe. She leaned down and scooped up Sleepy so he could drink the milk left in her cereal bowl.

  Chapter Four

  When Edie showed up on Magnus’s doorstep that afternoon, he was surprised.

  Not that she was alone; he knew Levi and Bianca had set up time to go out on a date right after Edie was dropped off. That wasn’t it. It was that she looked . . . different. Her shiny, shoulder-length brown hair was full of the same careless waves as before, her bangs swept off to one side. She was wearing a T-shirt under another blazer, jeans, and sneakers. Very casual.

  But her mouth—that sensual, pouty, heavenly mouth that had been in his dreams last night—was a bright, startling red that was just begging to be kissed.

  He couldn’t stop staring at it. With just that little bit of color, Edie’s features had changed from mediocre to utterly sensual. Her upper lip, god. He kept picturing it skimming along his dick, brushing against his lips. It was a mouth made for dick sucking, his buddies would say. And then Magnus would have punched them in the face for saying that about his girl.

  Except Edie wasn’t his girl. She was the damn cat lady.

  “Hi. Thanks for coming back,” Magnus said, opening the door to let her in.

  She limped into his house. “You asked for a consultant, right? Here I am.” She spread her arms and dropped them, and her cheeks colored a bright red for no reason whatsoever. She was . . . blushing? Why?

  He scratched his head. “You okay?”

  “Yep! Yep. Fine. Why do you ask?” Definitely blushing.

  “No reason.”

  She gave him a small smile and nodded, crossing her arms over her chest and glancing around. “So . . . where’s your brother today? I didn’t get to see him last time.”

  Shit. “Him? Oh. He’s out meeting with uh, consultants. For our latest project.” Yeah, right. Levi never met with consultants. They always wanted to know numbers and deadlines, and all Levi would do was give them concepts and sketch pictures of his ideas and daydream about story ideas. Magnus was the guy with the details, but Edie wouldn’t know that. Time to distract her. He gestured at the house. “You want to look around before we head up to see Cujo?”

  To his surprise, she smiled, showing perfect white teeth, and that sinful mouth seemed to draw all his attention. “Sure. You have a weird house. I admit I’m curious to see the rest of it.”

  He gave a joking little bow. “Then allow me to show you around.” He took a step backward and gestured at their surroundings. “This is the foyer.”

  She chuckled, the sound husky. It seemed to rasp right over his dick, asking for attention. “I knew that part.” She glanced around and shoved her hands into her jeans pockets, as if a little uncomfortable. “If you don’t mind me saying, your place looks a bit like a warehouse.”

  “That was actually the look we were going for.”

  “Really?” Edie seemed surprised.

  “Yeah, really,” he said, and was impressed she picked up on it. “This place was apparently built in the twenties, and some big, famous modern artist bought it in the nineties and completely gutted the place. I think it was originally five floors but he had the second floor removed so the ceilings could be higher.” He pointed up. “You can see a lot of the structure from the original floor is still in place, but the beams are bare now.”

  “Huh,” she said, sounding impressed.

  “He also took out the walls to everything he could, because he wanted it to be open space, like a warehouse. I think it was supposed to be a play on modern life and how we live at work or something.” Magnus shrugged. “That’s why the kitchen is right open to the living room and the stairs are all the way at the very back of the floor.”

  “It’s very . . . odd?” she said as they walked toward the kitchen area. “I don’t know that it feels all that welcoming. I don’t mean that to sound rude. I mean, the place is fascinating, but not really—”

  “Much like a home? Yeah. I thought the same thing when I saw it.”

  She gave him a funny look, that smile still curving her mouth. “Then why buy it?”

  “Two things—location and price.”

  Edie nodded thoughtfully, running her long fingers along the granite soda-shop countertop of the kitchen “table.” “It is a good location.”

  “Walking distance to all the important parts of New York,” he agreed.

  “So you got it cheap?”

  “Oh, hell no. It was ridiculously expensive.” He lifted his fingers and made a quote. “Because it was ‘art.’”

  She laughed again, shaking her head. “You wanted it to be expensive?”

  “It was right after we sold Warrior Shop.”

  Her brows drew together and she gave him a little headshake, indicating she didn’t understand.

  “Warrior Shop? The game?” He couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard of it. They were all over the Internet. Hell, there were pages and pages of memes devoted to their game. “‘Take an axe to it’? ‘Axe to grind’? The game with the big plastic swords? Haven’t you seen the shirts?”

  “I . . . guess I wasn’t paying attention. So it’s a game?”

  He snorted, a little pissed that she didn’t know just how big a deal Warrior Shop was. “Biggest online game in years. A computer company bought it for two billion dollars.”

  Her eyes got as big as saucers. “Two . . . billion dollars? For a game you made?”

  “Yep,” he said proudly. He was still damn proud of that little game. “Levi and I made it ourselves. Levi had the concepts, but I did all the muscle work. At first we tried to sell it to a few places. I’d been told all over town two years before that it was too basic. Too simple, wouldn’t make any money. We put it online, and it got popular. Then we sold movie rights. Then merchandising rights. Next thing I know, we’re seeing Warrior Shop T-shirts on street corners and backpacks. That’s when the big companies came calling. So I decided that when we sold it, I’d buy the most expensive place smack dab in NYC that I could find.”

  She tapped a finger on the countertop. “And this was it?”

  “This was it,” he agreed.

  “Couldn’t you have spent a little less and got someplace a little cozier?” she asked, still grinning with that beautiful red mouth of hers.

  “I could have, but that wouldn’t have proved my point nearly as well,” Magnus said, smiling back at her. “You want to see the other floors?”

  “I do,” she agreed, then gestured. “So this floor is the foyer, the living room, the kitchen, and I guess that wide open area with the pool table is the dining area?”

  “That’s it. Second floor is bedrooms, third floor is the entertainment room and the workout room, and the fourth floor is our offices.”

  “Sounds intriguing. Let’s go.”

  He paused as she limped past him. “It . . . it’s not going to bother your leg, is it?”

  She flashed him an annoyed look. “I’m not going to break. Do you have an elevator?”

  “Well, no—”

  “Then I’m going up the stairs, aren’t I?”

  She sure did get prickly when he asked about her knee. “I could always carry you,” he offered, mostly because he wanted to see her bristle.

  She shot him the finger and kept walking, whi
ch made him laugh.

  He showed her the fourth floor first, so they could get all the stair climbing out of the way in one swoop. She seemed interested in his office, admiring the view of the street and sidewalk below. She examined his desk and the neatness of his side of the room, and then gave him a knowing look at Levi’s messy side of the office. She gazed at the Warrior Shop posters framed on the walls and studied his idea board for The World, which right now was a wall covered with several historical world maps from different time periods, and concept art and ideas for different countries and peoples. She was less interested in the third floor, with the rec room full of movies, a projection screen and stadium seating, and the workout equipment on the other side of the floor. The second floor was their final stop, and he paused in front of his shut door. “I’ve kept Cujo in here since you were last here. She’s starting to come out a little, but she’s still skittish.”

  Edie nodded. “That’s normal for a frightened cat. Have you tried petting her? How is she reacting to you?”

  He rubbed his scalp. “Eh, we sort of ignore each other for the most part. Kind of like two cranky roommates.”

  She gave him a chiding look before opening the door.

  Magnus followed Edie inside, wondering if she was going to comment on the changes he’d made. Three cat trees of various sizes were scattered around the large room, and cardboard-box “houses” had been set up in strategic corners, each one lined with a soft blanket. In the far corner of the room were the food and water bowls, and in the opposite corner, the litter.

  Edie made a pleased noise in her throat and glanced back at him. “I see you did most of your homework. Most.”

  “Most? Are you kidding?” He gestured at his room. “This looks like cat heaven to me.”

  She chuckled again and slipped her shoes off as she entered his room, which always made him think of intimate things. “No, I’m sorry. You don’t get a gold star just yet. Especially not if I had to come back already.”

  “Huh?” He was distracted by those small, bare feet on his floor.

  “To help you with your cat?” She gave him a chiding look.

  Oh, right. “It’s not that I can’t handle her,” he commented, taking off his own shoes. “It’s that I want to get a professional opinion. I can pay for the best, after all.”

  She just gave him a thoughtful look and peeked into one of the cardboard boxes.

  Three boxes later, they were able to locate Cujo, who was lying on the scarf Edie had left there a few days ago. She sat near the box and began to make soft clucking noises, scratching her jeans to indicate she wanted to pet the cat. After a few moments, Cujo yawned, stretched, and came out to investigate.

  “Well, that’s a good sign,” Edie said, her voice in that low, soothing tone he was starting to associate with his cat. “Maybe you don’t need me after all.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Magnus said, since he had to keep her here and keep her distracted long enough for Levi to woo Bianca. “I’ve been sitting with her a little over the last day, but she’s still pretty skittish.” He’d been unable to convince Levi to work, so he’d retreated to his room to burn off some of his anger on his treadmill, and had instead sat down on the floor with his laptop and tried to work on a few problem files on his own. The cat had come out to investigate him, but they were still on uneasy terms.

  Even now, Cujo was rubbing her head against Edie’s hand, begging for petting. He snorted. “Traitor.”

  Edie just flashed him a grin, and that grin blew his socks off. Why was he so fascinated by this woman? She certainly wasn’t dressing to excite him. She wasn’t impressed by his house or his game, and half the time when they talked, they bickered. But there was something about her that filled him with . . . lust. Yeah, that was it. Pure, unadulterated lust. Because if Edie was this fiery outside of bed, he had to wonder what she’d be like inside it. She’d probably be demanding and bitch the entire time he went down on her, one pushy hand pressing on the back of his head while he licked her pussy and—

  Fuck, he had to stop thinking like that. Magnus rubbed a palm over his forehead.

  “Headache?”

  Wrong head. “Something like that.”

  She rubbed Cujo’s head for a bit longer, and the cat began to rub up against her leg, happy as a clam. Edie’s expression was utterly peaceful as she picked up the cat and put it in her lap. “She’s used to people,” she commented when the cat immediately curled up in her lap. “Maybe it’s just you she doesn’t like.”

  “Ha-ha,” he said sarcastically.

  “Cat’s got high standards,” she teased.

  Yep. She would definitely be pushy in bed. He liked that.

  Her hands moved over the cat’s back, then stroked down her sides. She paused, and then began to move her hands over the cat’s belly even as it hissed and scratched at her, then ran away.

  “Way to go. She clearly doesn’t like that.”

  “No, she didn’t,” Edie said thoughtfully. “And it’s definitely a she, so you’ll need a new name.” She got up from the floor, awkward and avoiding use of one leg.

  He was so distracted by watching her movements that he didn’t catch what she was saying. “New name? Why?”

  “Because she’s female,” Edie said, limping back toward him. “And pregnant.”

  His eyes widened in horror. “You’re shitting me.”

  “I’m not. My guess is that because she’s a Savannah cat, which is a pretty rare breed, she probably belonged to a breeder once. I’m thinking she was in heat, got out, and the owners couldn’t find her. You could always put up flyers to see if someone’s going to claim her. But I’m guessing that her kittens will be part alley cat, so that will have to be dealt with.” She tilted her head up at him. “Do I need to give you the spay-and-neuter pep talk?”

  “Isn’t it a little late for that?”

  She rolled her eyes. “After the fact, dummy. After she’s had the kittens, have her spayed.”

  “Right.” Shit. What was he going to do with kittens? He barely knew what to do with a cat. He was lucky Jenna had showed up to feed the damn thing. The urge to choke Levi was growing by the minute. He thought one cat was bad. Now he was about to have more.

  Edie looked up at him expectantly. “Other than that, continue to give her places to nest and hide. If she’s pregnant, she’s definitely going to need lots of hiding spots. More boxes, more blankets. You want to make her feel comfortable here. Keep her in your room, secure, until she has the kittens, or else you might find them in unexpected places.”

  “Mmm.”

  She moved toward him, her limp pronounced as she crossed the floor. Then, she stood in front of him and put her hands on her hips. “So, you want to tell me what this is about?”

  “About?” He noticed that when he gazed down at her, she just barely reached his chin.

  “Yes. You have a new cat you know nothing about, so you hire me. And while I’ve run into my share of horrible cats, this one isn’t. Has she crapped on your bed again?”

  “Once.” And not after he’d gotten her litter.

  “I’d ask if she was clawing up your furniture, but there’s nothing for her to claw. Which reminds me, you should probably get her a scratching post.” She tilted her head at him again. “So I guess that just makes me wonder why you want me here, Mr. Sullivan?”

  Magnus stared down at her. She was perceptive, he’d give her that. It was on the tip of his tongue to blurt out that Levi wanted to fuck Bianca, and that was why they were going through this whole song and dance. That Levi wouldn’t work until he got what he wanted, and so Magnus was stuck as well. Because a very big, very prestigious business deal was hanging on the line and his flake of a brother wouldn’t budge until he got his nut off.

  But he didn’t say any of that. Instead, he said, “Go out with me.”

 
She looked shocked. “Are you serious?”

  All right, that wounded his ego a bit. Usually when he asked a girl out, they were pleased. He wasn’t fucking hideous and he had money. He sure didn’t warrant that level of disbelief. “What’s so terrible about that?”

  “You don’t even like me!”

  He liked parts of her. He liked it when she smiled, and he liked that she was clever. He liked that she was unafraid. And he really, really liked that bright red mouth of hers. Clearly it was time to do the hard press. “Sure I do. We just started off on the wrong foot.”

  “You mean like when I caught you all mocking my friend and her choices of bridesmaids?”

  “You mean the part where I said she’d have a cat lady in the mix? Huh.” He pretended to scratch his chin thoughtfully. “I wonder where I got that idea.”

  “Oh, fuck off,” she said, but she was smiling.

  “Let me share something with you, my little cat lady. Guys that get together? Talk shit about three things: sports, games, and chicks. None of it should be taken as gospel.” He thought for a moment, then added, “Except the sports.” After another moment, he added, “And maybe the gaming. But not the shit about the chicks. That’s just guys talking crap to other guys.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t believe you. This is a setup, isn’t it?”

  It was, but he didn’t want her to know that. “It’s not a setup,” he lied. “I like you. I do.” When she remained skeptical, he said, “If I didn’t like you, would I do this?”

  And he leaned forward, put his hands on the sides of her face, and pressed his mouth to those full, red lips.

  She stiffened underneath him, clearly surprised. Hell, that made two of them. Magnus hadn’t expected to kiss her. But when she’d pursed that pretty mouth in a sarcastic expression, he felt determined to prove her wrong. To show her that yes, he could like someone like her, and here was what he had to offer.

  So he kissed her.