Billionaire's Kiss

by Sloan Storm

  “The hell with you, Grey,” she fired back. “You’re just upset because this is something I’m doing that you cannot control.”

  She laughed as she finished speaking. As if the notion gave her utter satisfaction, she cackled in my ear with joy. I balled up my free hand until my knuckles whitened.

  Her voice turned harsh as she continued. “I am doing this. We will just have to figure out something else for your grandiose expansion plans, because I refuse to back down. Do I make myself clear, Grey?”

  I clenched my jaw so tight, I thought I might shatter my molars.

  Mustering every ounce of self-control I could, I replied, “This is your last warning, Maddie. Do not cross me on this or…”

  “No!” she yelled, interrupting me. “This is your last warning, Grey. Stop. Telling. Me. What. To. Do. Now, goodbye!”

  Flabbergasted, I pulled the receiver away from my ear. Pursing my lips, I exhaled and placed the phone back down in the cradle.

  Looks like it’s time for another trip to the coast.

  MADDIE

  I felt liberated, if only in a spiritual sense.

  Difficult though it was, telling Grey what he could do with all his boorish behavior made me feel incredible, almost invincible. Of course, I realized there would be ramifications for my outburst. But now that I had the acting role, at least I had some leverage. He didn’t bother to call me back after I hung up on him, which, uh, was a good thing because the conversation was going nowhere.

  Grey was stuck and he knew it.

  He couldn’t fire me for two reasons. The first, and most obvious, was that I owned the company and the second was one of his own making. The plan we’d discussed for expansion involved a huge portion of my time, which would now be taken up by the movie role. Plain and simple, Grey would have to learn to work with me if he wanted to get his way. And for once, I had the upper hand.

  It was just before six o’clock in the evening as I sat in my office going over the terms of the contract Trevor gave me for the part. As I read, the setting sun cast a glow across the entirety of my office, filling it with a burnt orange hue.

  The agreement clearly favored the studio in terms of my upfront payment, which wasn’t great, and points, of which there were zero for me. Points are an extra percentage of the picture’s earnings actors and actresses get paid and are reserved for major stars. Translated, that meant… not me.

  I had to start somewhere, but I was so thrilled to be working, uh, I almost would have done the damn thing for free. And now sitting here reading the contract made the whole thing seem so much more real. It was actually happening and I couldn’t believe it. Just goes to show what’s possible when you never give up on your dreams. I couldn’t wait to be on the set, acting in a lead role and doing all of it without Grey Sinclair’s help.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt such pride in myself, if ever.

  As I neared the end of the document, the intercom on my phone blared to life.

  “Miss Olsen,” Carmen began.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s Mister Trevor Billings for you.”

  “Um, okay?” I said with a rising tone. “Thank you, Carmen.”

  Ugh, I forgot about the date we discussed.

  Before I picked up the line, I prepared myself to fend off his advances. I’d mulled it over since we last spoke and decided I wasn’t ready to rekindle things just yet. That said, until this contract was in place and I was on the sound stage in front of the cameras, there was no sense in having Trevor believe otherwise.

  I pressed the flashing red button and answered.

  “Hey. What’s up?”

  “What’s up?” Trevor began, his voice laced with panic. “What’s up!? I’ll tell you what’s up. The movie is fucking canceled, that’s what.”

  My focus shifted in an instant. Dropping the agreement in favor of Trevor’s urgent tone, I replied, “What? Canceled? How? Why?”

  He scoffed.

  “Shit, I wish I knew! But I do know one thing for certain and that’s within an hour of telling the execs I’d made a choice for the picture, they canceled the project. Christ, I’m lucky to still have a goddamn job at this point!”

  My mouth went dry. My stomach clenched as I listened to Trevor rant on the other end of the line. How could any of this possibly be happening?

  “Trevor! Wait, please!” I stammered. Rolling my chair away as I stood from it, I continued, “Why would you almost get fired? I don’t understand. I thought you told me you were the one making the casting decisions. Do you know anything else? Anything at all?”

  “No,” he replied, as his tone shifted from panic to anger. “Look, I shouldn’t even be calling you right now Maddie. This whole thing has blown up in my face.”

  As he spoke, I rounded the corner of my desk. My stride quickened as Trevor’s warning grew direr.

  “Uh, so what? So that’s it?” I said, as I stopped and crossed my free arm over my midsection while talking to him with the phone in the other hand.

  “Yes. And even if it does start back up, you won’t be in it.”

  “Me?” I replied. “What does any of this have to do with me?”

  “I gotta go, Maddie. And oh yeah, about me wanting to see you again. That’s off.”

  I opened my mouth to say something in response, but before I could, Trevor hung up on me. Afterward, my arm straightened as my hand fell away from my ear. Without thinking, I released my grip on the phone and the receiver bounced on the marble floor before the recoil from the handset tugged it back towards the desk.

  Feeling lightheaded, I reached for the edge of the desk and grabbed hold of it as I made my way back around towards my chair. I reached it, collapsed in a heap and propped my head up on my elbows after placing them on the desk. I attempted to make some sense, any at all, of what had just taken place.

  As I lay there contemplating the end of my ultra-short-lived leading role, an even worse thought occurred to me. Ugh, all those things I’d said to Grey. Taken together, they were the equivalent of telling him to take everything we’d built and shove it.

  What the hell was I thinking?

  Jesus.

  I picked up the phone and called the only person I could talk to about this-- Katy. Even though she didn’t approve of my acting, she’d at least be a sympathetic ear for me. I needed that more than anything right now. As the phone rang, I propped myself up on my left elbow. My mind raced through any scenario I could conjure up to deal with Grey once he arrived. Hell, knowing him, he was probably already on his way.

  “Katy Brown.”

  “Katy,” I exhaled in relief as she answered. “I need to talk to you. Tonight. Can you come to my apartment?”

  “Yeah, sure… Maddie, what’s wrong? You sound terrible.”

  “I don’t want to get into it over the phone. Just come over as soon as you can.”

  “Okay,” Katy began. “I’m on another call but the instant I hang up, I’m on the way. I’ll be over within the hour.”

  MADDIE

  Prior to Katy’s arrival a little past eight o’clock, I’d opened a bottle of wine and downed a good glass and a half before she got there. It was enough to take the edge off. The fuzzy warmth of the booze slowed me down enough to at least recount the entire story to her, but not so much that I’d forgotten any key parts.

  While I spoke, Katy held her wine by the bowl and took large gulps as she listened to me. That was strange. Katy wasn’t much of a drinker, so the behavior caught me a bit off guard. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same thing about the first words out of her mouth when I finished.

  Placing her empty glass down on the table, Katy wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and said, “Maddie what were you thinking? God, I warned you about this! Why didn’t you listen?”

  I hugged my knees close to my chest as I sat across from her. Surprised and stunned by her question, I exhaled and replied, “Katy, please not right now. Please. I just really need you to
be my friend. You can tell me what an idiot I am later and…”

  “No!” Katy exclaimed as she interrupted me. “You… you don’t understand. This is bad. And not just for you.”

  The booze must have hit me too hard, because I wasn’t prepared for this reaction from her. Shaking my head, I replied, “Katy, what do you mean? I’m the only one in deep with Grey here.”

  Without a word, my brown haired, freckle-faced friend shook her head back and forth in slow disagreement.

  “No, no you’re not. I’m in it with you. In fact, I’m way worse off than you. At least you and Grey are intimate. I have no buffer, whatsoever.”

  I dropped my head back until my neck was at a near right angle. Looking up towards the ceiling, I groaned, “Katy, what are you talking about? Why on Earth would you be in trouble with Grey?”

  “Because he said he would stop sending me business if I…”

  I snapped my head back up. Katy looked away as I did.

  “If you what, Katy?”

  Katy continued to look away and even started to get up. “Got any more wine?”

  “No,” I began. “Don’t you dare get up from this couch. Katy, I’ll tell you right now, I am not in the mood. If there’s something I need to know, you should tell me.”

  Wordless, Katy ignored my warning for the moment, stood from the couch and walked over to the sliding glass doors. Without turning back to face me, she blurted out, “Grey is the one who stopped the movie, Maddie. It was Grey.”

  I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Katy that is ridiculous. Grey isn’t in the business, he’s a damn investor. How in the hell would he… be…”

  The realization dawned upon me before I could complete my thought. Around the same time, Katy turned around and began to walk in my direction.

  I stood from the couch. Disbelief and confusion clouded my thoughts.

  “No, no. No. It can’t be,” I said, as Katy approached and tried to embrace me.

  “No!” I shouted. “Don’t come near me. You… knew about this? For how long?”

  Katy winced and shrugged at the same time.

  “Jesus Katy! You are supposed to be my best friend!”

  “Maddie, I am!”

  “Bullshit! You’re probably here spying for Grey right now!”

  “No I am not, goddamn it! Quit accusing me of things that aren’t true.”

  Pressure filled my head as I tried to form a single thought. Fed up with the whole conversation, I waved Katy off and said, “I’d like you to go, please. Just leave. I need to be alone.”

  “Maddie, don’t do this.”

  “Katy, I’m trying to stay calm. Now, please go.”

  “What about Grey?”

  “What about him?”

  “Well, if he finds out I’m here, he’s gonna fire me. You won’t tell him will you?”

  “Good! I hope he does fire you, Katy! I’d say you damn well deserve it at this point. Then maybe, for once, you’ll see what it’s like dealing with that man!”

  As I screamed at her, Katy looked past my right shoulder. Her eyes widened.

  “I’m here now. Deal with me.”

  The sound of his voice caused an instant and uncontrollable force to rise up inside of me. My hands moistened as they curled into fists. Before I turned back to face him, I nodded at Katy.

  “Get out.”

  Katy lowered her eyes. As she passed by me, I made a slow turn until I came face-to-face with Grey. My vision blurred with moisture as I considered the first words I’d say. We stood in silence for several moments until he began to step in my direction. Then the words I needed came out with ease.

  “I hate you, Grey,” I said, without a single blink. My exterior was as stone as I spoke, while his mere presence shattered my heart into a thousand pieces. “I want you to leave and never come back.”

  He froze in place as the words tumbled from my lips.

  “Maddie. It was for your own good.”

  Still numbed by the depth of his cruelty, I shook my head back and forth in a deliberate manner and repeated myself.

  “I hate you, Grey. I want you to leave and never come back.”

  His face softened as my utterances registered in his consciousness. Yet still, he lingered. Grey reached towards me and tried to touch me with his fingertips. I lost it and lifted my hands in horror, recoiling from his touch. Screaming as loud as I could, I repeated myself once more, only this time I walked towards him with my hands in tight fists ready to strike if it came to it.

  “I hate you, Grey! I want you to leave and never come back!”

  I screamed it again and then a fifth time. With each successive demand, he moved further and further away until his back was to the front door.

  Closing my eyes, I shouted one last warning.

  “Just fucking get out, Grey! Get out! Get out!!!”

  As I finished, he left and as he did, I slammed the door behind him.

  Spinning in place, I pressed my back against the door and rested there, listless, until the tears I’d fought back at last began to spill. As they ran down my cheeks, I turned my ear to the door and listened until his footsteps disappeared down the hall and out of my life, forever.

  GREY

  The best thing about vodka is that you can drink it any time of the day or night.

  It goes with anything. Especially misery. And orange juice. Oh, and Bloody Mary mix.

  Speaking of that.

  “Bartender.” I said, while I rattled the ice in my glass before placing it down lacquered wood surface.

  As he approached, he nodded and said, “Same sir?”

  I nodded in return as he took the glass and walked away.

  Swiveling in my stool, I scanned the periphery of the hotel bar and adjoining lobby. I glanced down at my watch. Three minutes past noon. It had been a few days since Maddie’s meltdown and I hadn’t heard a peep from her.

  The problem was, neither had anyone else. She never checked in at the office, which put me in the unenviable position of stepping in for her, while at the same time trying to explain why I, her goddamn partner, had no clue where she was.

  To make matters worse, her supposed best friend Katy also hadn’t heard a word. Of course, after a couple of days, we followed all the standard protocols like filing a missing persons report, checking hospitals and morgues and so forth.

  Anyway, we’d all come up empty and so here I sat, waiting for Katy.

  And even though we were about as unlikely a pair of allies as you’d find, we did have one thing in common — finding Maddie.

  “Bloody Mary, sir,” The bartender said, as he placed my third drink in front of me. With any luck it would go down just as smooth as the first two.

  I took a pull on it just as Katy appeared in the lobby. A spicy mix of pepper and tabasco warmed my throat as she approached.

  “Greyson,” she said, as she walked up. Before she moved to take a seat, she tilted her head at me in suspicion. “This is about Maddie, right? I mean, this is not about our disagreement.”

  Although I was less than thrilled by her lack of discretion when it came to talking to Maddie, I really had no choice but to drop it if I expected any help from her. Like it or not, that’s the way things stood.

  Instead, I shook my head and replied, “You have nothing to be worried about. I won’t fire you.”

  “Well, that’s not what you said on the phone.”

  I shrugged. With my drink glass still in my hand, I waved her comment off.

  “We all say things, don’t we?”

  “Huh?” she said, as she leaned away from me. “Are you drunk?”

  I ignored her comment, accurate observation thought it was. A few seconds later, she sat on the stool next to me. As she moved up close to the bar, the stool groaned against the floor.

  “What’ll ya have?” the bartender said, as she finished positioning herself.

  She glanced my direction. “What are you drinking?”

  “Bloody Mary.”


  Katy nodded and turned her attention back to the bartender. “Same. Except make mine a double. And no rail. Top shelf.”

  I scoffed.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You realize of course that all vodka is the same?” I began. “It doesn’t matter what the bottle looks like or how many Central European country flags you slap on it, vodka is vodka is vodka.”

  Katy winced at me. “Is that true or are you just messing with me?”

  “Yes.”

  Without turning her direction I noticed her shaking her head. I didn’t get enough of a look to see if a smile accompanied it or not. It didn’t matter. While the bartender mixed her overpriced drink, I wasted no time in getting right down to it.

  “Where is Maddie, Katy?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Greyson, you are really a fucking jerk. Do you know that? How is it that you invite me here to talk about my best friend and, presumably, have me tell you where she is, when your strategy for extracting this information is to insult me and call me a liar?”

  I exhaled and placed my half-empty glass back down on the table. The bartender was on me almost right away for another round, but I waved him off. This conversation was too important to conduct with any more liquor in my system than I already had.

  I nodded. “I apologize. That wasn’t my intent. Let’s try again.”

  Katy folded her hands on the bar in front of her and nodded.

  “Okay.”

  I licked the salted, spicy tomato from my lips and turned my head to the right.

  “You don’t trust me, do you?”

  She shook her head. “No, that’s where you’re wrong, actually. I do trust you. I just don’t like you very much.”

  “Hmm,” I muttered. I gotta admit, her goddamn answer surprised me. Liquor-assisted, I decided to slide further down the rabbit hole with her.

  “What makes you think I want to hurt Maddie?”

  Again, she shook that little brown bob of hers.

  “I’m not saying you want to, Greyson. I just don’t think it’s in your genetic makeup not to hurt women, even if on accident.”