Runaway_A Billionaire Romance

by Ellie Danes

  I was also feeling pretty tipsy; the wine we'd had at the restaurant had been really strong, and I wasn't used to drinking. After my last experience of being drunk, last week, I had said to myself that I wasn't going to drink again for quite some time... yet here I was, tipsy again! Oh, well, it wasn't such a bad thing, I guess... I might have been too nervous to kiss Colin without the confidence boost the alcohol offered me.

  “So, uh, what would you like to do now?” he asked as we exited the park. “Shall I drop you off at your place?”

  A flood of cold panic washed over me. This was a man who was obviously very wealthy, a man whose financial and social standing was miles above my own, and I don't think he quite understood how vast the gulf between us was in those areas – but if he dropped me off where I lived, he sure as hell would know. I didn't want to ruin this by having that happen, by having him find out the truth about my life. But I couldn't tell him that I wouldn't get in a car with him either – that would just seem rude and would destroy the trust and rapport he and I had built up during this date. So, there was only one other option available to me.

  “How about we go to your place for a while,” I said. “Not that I'm suggesting anything is going to happen, because it's not,” I added hastily. “I just don't want to go home yet, and I don't want to go to a bar or a club or anything like that.”

  He nodded and smiled. “Of course. Come on, let's go to my car.”

  We walked a little up the street, and then turned a corner and I saw a gorgeous black sports car parked there. Colin took out a remote and pressed a button, and the car's lights flashed.

  “That's your car?” I asked, my jaw hanging open with surprise.

  “One of them, yes,” he replied with a grin.

  He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for me. I stepped in and looked around with wonder; I had never been in a car this luxurious before. I enjoyed every minute of the drive, even though part of me felt very, very out of place traveling in a vehicle like this.

  We pulled into the parking garage of a massive, opulent skyscraper, and Colin had his own private parking area, where a bunch of other luxury vehicles parked there. We got out and headed to an elevator where a scanner scanned Colin's face and eyes before opening the door.

  “This is my own private elevator,” he said with a smile. “It goes straight up into my penthouse.”

  I got in, and again felt overwhelmed; the inside of the elevator was kitted out with gold fittings and a marble floor. We headed up to the top floor, the fortieth floor, and when the doors opened I was again blown away by the opulence of it all. There was a large entrance hall, subtly lit with directional lighting, the floor gleaming polished marble and the subtly-colored walls hung with gorgeous works of modern art and stunning black and white photographs. Here and there were a few sculptures as well, and at the end of it a floor-to-ceiling glass wall looked out over the Manhattan skyline.

  “It's... it's absolutely breathtaking,” I murmured.

  “Not a bad view, eh?” he joked. “Come through to my living room.” He took my hand and gently led me through to his living room – well, a room that to him may have been just a living room, but was larger than two average-sized apartments put together. One wall was painted white, and Colin got out a remote control and pressed a button, and then a projector filled the white wall with a welcome screen, and it was pretty much the size of a small cinema screen.

  “Would you like to watch a movie?” he asked.

  “Uh, sure, yeah,” I said.

  “Have a seat,” he said, patting a spot on a luxurious white Italian leather sofa. “And a drink? I have a well-stocked bar.”

  “Um, just a little more wine, thanks.”

  “Of course. You know how to pick a film from Netflix, right?”

  I nodded.

  “Put on whatever you want. I'll go make some drinks.”

  I scrolled through the list of movies and saw Dirty Dancing, a favorite of mine.

  “Is Dirty Dancing all right?” I called out.

  “Sure!”

  I put the movie on, and then Colin came out with the drinks. He handed me a glass of wine and took a seat next to me.

  “What are you drinking?” I asked.

  “Eighteen-year-old single malt on the rocks,” he said. “My favorite.”

  We started watching the movie, and as much as the wine helped mellow me out and the movie helped to distract me, it was hard to not feel totally overwhelmed by all of this. Still, when Colin slipped his arm around me, I snuggled up closer to him and felt a lot better. At this point, I was feeling drunk; the wine had been pretty strong. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer, and it felt as if we were going to kiss again – and that was the last thing I remembered.

  * * * * *

  I woke up and for a few minutes I was in a total panic, as I had no idea where I was. I was in a large bed, still dressed in my red cocktail dress, although my shoes had been removed and placed next to the bed. I soon remembered that I was in Colin's place. I guess I had fallen asleep on the sofa, and he must have put me in this bed, which didn't seem to be his; it was obvious that nobody else had slept in the bed but me.

  There was a glass of water next to the bed, and I downed it, as I was quite parched. There was also a bathroom attached to the room, so I went in and freshened up quickly.

  I put my shoes on, got my bag from next to the living room sofa and crept out of the apartment. I didn't know if he was up, if he had gone out, or if he was still asleep... But I was feeling so overwhelmed by all of this, and now that there was no more alcohol in me to calm me down, I didn't know if I could handle this. It was just too much.

  I managed to sneak out of his place, only to be met, face to face, with the doorman. “Good day, Ma’am,” he said as he tipped his cap. “Shall I call you a cab or will Mr. West be joining you?”

  I immediately stopped in my tracks, wondering how the doorman knew who I was with. I hadn’t remembered passing him or even seeing him as we came in earlier. “No, just me, and I’ll be fine walking, thank you,” I said as I quick made it to the door, beating him to opening it.

  I stepped out on to the sidewalk and took a deep breath, closing my eyes. As I opened them my heart sank. Across the street from me, was the same scary tattooed man. He smiled at me and started walking toward me. With fear pulsing its cold ice through my veins, I hurried and pushed through a crowd, managing to get down into a subway station. I got onto a train as the doors closed and saw him watching me from the platform as the train pulled away.

  CHAPTER 10

  Colin

  I got up, feeling refreshed form a good night's sleep, and had a quick shower to freshen up before breakfast, which I assumed Skye and I would have together. After drying myself off and getting dressed into some casual clothes, I went over and knocked on her door.

  “Skye? Are you up?”

  There was no reply, so I knocked again, a little louder this time.

  “Skye? It's me, Colin.”

  I didn't hear anything, so I opened the door and looked inside. The bed had been made – hastily, it would seem – and Skye had left. Fair enough; maybe she felt a little embarrassed about having passed out. I would call her later and talk to her.

  Smiling with contentment, I headed over to my kitchen and fixed myself a healthy and delicious breakfast to start my Saturday.

  * * * * *

  I put the phone down, feeling very frustrated. This had been the seventh or eighth time that I had tried calling her phone, but every time I dialed her it went straight to voicemail. Was she really busy? Was there a problem with her phone? Or was the issue that she just didn't want to talk to me? If it was the latter, I really couldn't understand why. We’d had such a lovely time last night, and I had no doubt that she was into me, and I was quite sure that she hadn't been faking any of what she had said or how she had acted with me. So, what was the issue?

  I realized that I hadn't even thought o
f the most obvious place to look for her: Facebook. I went to my laptop and typed in her name, but couldn't find her in the search results. Hmm. Well, I knew that one could use a phone number to look for someone's profile, so I decided to try that. I typed her number in the search bar, and sure enough, a profile came up and the picture was definitely her. The name, however, was Skye Dancer. Fair enough, I guess she didn't want to use her real name for whatever reason, maybe privacy concerns or something. I tried to look at her profile, but it seemed that she had all her privacy settings on the highest level, so there was pretty much nothing to see.

  I sent her a friend request and settled down on the sofa to watch a movie while I waited for her to accept – which she surely would, right? I put on one of my favorite war films, Platoon, so that I wouldn't be too distracted by the feeling of waiting. Still, I kept checking my phone every few minutes to see if the notification had arrived. It hadn't.

  By the time the movie had finished, I was feeling frustrated. Why was she avoiding me? What was going on here?

  I Googled her name, hoping to find some sort of other social media platform on which she was active, or just anything really. There was nothing. I then logged into one of the property networks I used for work, which would be able to tell me if she was listed as a tenant or property owner anywhere in Manhattan.

  Again, there was nothing. This girl was impossible to find!

  “Come on, Skye,” I whispered as I dialed her phone once more. “Pick up, please pick up.”

  Once more though, the call simply went straight to voicemail.

  All right, all right... the dance academy. They would know.

  I dialed their number, but was greeted with a message that informed me that they would be closed until Monday. Great.

  Still, I had one more shot – I knew that m PA Carly was on pretty friendly terms with most of the staff at the dance place. Hopefully she had at least one of their personal numbers. I called her.

  “Hi, Colin,” she said as she answered. “How's it going? Please don't tell me you're gonna ask me to work today...”

  “No, nothing like that. But I do have a favor to ask.”

  “All right, shoot.”

  “This is gonna sound weird, but how close are you with the staff at the Hanover School of Dance?”

  “Um, well I guess I'm kinda friends with Bianca, who teaches Anna. Why?”

  “Would you be able to call her and find out how I can find a girl who just started working there? Her name is Skye. I don't need her phone number, I just need to know where I can find her.”

  “Um, all right, but what should I tell her it's about? What is it about, Colin?”

  “Just say that I'm a, um, a relative of hers.”

  “Are you?”

  I chuckled awkwardly. “Um, no. Look, I'll tell you about it at work, all right? Just please do this for me.”

  “Okay, okay, I'll do what I can. Chat later, Colin.”

  I cut off the call and waited in suspense. Five minutes later, she called back, and I answered the call right away.

  “Hey, Colin,” she said, and from her tone I could tell that she was smiling on the other end of the line. “I've got something for you.”

  “Excellent! Thank you, Carly! What did you find out?”

  “This Skye girl works at a place called La Casa. It's a Mediterranean restaurant downtown. She apparently does a lot of shifts there, so you should have a good chance of finding her there.”

  “Thank you so much! I owe you one.”

  “And I won't forget that, Colin! Ha-ha. Have a good weekend.”

  “You, too. Say hi to Anna for me. Bye!”

  Excellent... I now had a lead, and I planned to follow up on it immediately.

  CHAPTER 11

  Skye

  When I got back to the shelter, I was a mess. Between feeling overwhelmed about what had happened with Colin and myself, and how vast the gulf was between my social and financial standing and his, and being followed by the scary tattooed guy yet again, I was feeling like I needed to get away from it all.

  I had a shower and got dressed and put my red cocktail dress, the only item of formal or semi-formal attire I owned, back in my locker, along with the rest of my meager collection of possessions. Then I got out a novel and found a quiet spot in the church grounds and just lost myself in it for a few hours.

  That was a good way to recharge, and I felt a little better after doing that. I couldn't get Colin off my mind, though; the connection between him and myself had been extraordinary, and I couldn't say that I had ever felt anything like it with anyone else. The kiss had been magical as well, and I kept on replaying it in my mind.

  But despite how intensely I was attracted to Colin, it was hard to get over the fact that he was a multimillionaire, and I was... well, I was just a step above a homeless person, really. If he found out the truth about my life and my past, I couldn't imagine he would ever want to see me again... but how could I spend all my time with him living a lie and trying to put on an illusion, faking that I was someone I clearly wasn't? Ugh... it was all such a mess, such a terrible mess.

  I checked the time on the church clock, seeing as I was still too scared to turn on my phone. I just didn't know what to say to Colin yet. It was almost time for me to leave for my shift at La Casa, so I sighed, went and got my waitressing uniform out of my locker and got changed, and then left.

  After a long, crowded ride on public transport, I arrived fifteen minutes early. Thankfully, Tessa was working today, so I had someone I could kill the time with. Naturally, she wanted to know all about how my date with Colin had gone.

  “It was... well, it was a pretty amazing date,” I admitted, because truthfully, it really had been. “But I... I just felt so incredibly out of place.”

  “Like how?”

  “Well, the restaurant we went to, Dorsia—”

  “Oh, man, that is one swanky place!” she exclaimed.

  “Yeah – and everyone there was dressed in designer fashion, and there was me with my thrift store dress. I'd never heard of about ninety percent of the items on the menu, and the tiny portions of food were ridiculously priced – I think the bill came to over a thousand dollars!”

  “Jeez,” she exclaimed, smiling and shaking her head. “If I had to add up all the dates I've been on this year, I still don't think it'd be more than a thousand! I'm guessing he paid?”

  “Thankfully, yes. And then we took a walk in the park... I felt so much more comfortable doing that and didn't feel like all those rich peoples' eyes were on me, judging me. We kissed—”

  “No! Seriously?!”

  I laughed. “Seriously. And it was amazing. He's a brilliant kisser.”

  “Ooh, and then, and then?”

  “We went back to his place.”

  Her jaw dropped with shock. “Did you... did you, you know! Did you guys do it?!”

  I laughed and shook my head. “No... but part of me wanted to. He's a very attractive man and very charming. But he was a total gentleman as well. Didn't try pull any moves, didn't make me uncomfortable or suggest anything at all. It was really nice.”

  “That's great, Skye. So, when's the next date?” she asked eagerly.

  “Ha-ha. I don't know... I haven't even turned on my phone yet.”

  “What?! Why not?!”

  “Well... I just don't know what to say to him.”

  Just then, another voice interrupted our conversation – the manager, Eric, a short, balding middle-aged man with a sharp temper.

  “Hey, you two! Your shift started two minutes ago! Get inside and start serving the clients, come on move, move!”

  “We'll chat later,” said Tessa with a smile as we hurried inside.

  LATER

  I was on my ten-minute break, just chilling in the kitchen, when Tessa walked in. She looked kind of worried.

  “Hey, Tess, what's up?” I asked.

  “Someone called asking if you worked here and when your shifts were. They w
ouldn't say who they were.”

  “And did you tell them?” I asked as dread starting creeping through my veins.

  “I didn't answer, and you know I wouldn't have said anything – but that new girl answered and told whoever it was everything.”

  My heart sank, and I began to feel fear flooding through my system.

  “Do you have any idea what this is about?” she asked.

  I nodded. “I think so. Some creepy guy has been following me. He looks like a gangster or ex-con or something – he's heavily-tattooed and has a lot of fight scars. I don't know who he is or what he wants... And I sure as hell don't want him to find out any more about me than he already knows.”

  She shook her head. “That sounds terrible, Skye. Dammit, I wish I could've taken that call instead of that stupid newbie.”

  “It's not her fault,” I said with a sigh. “She didn't know any better.”

  “Well, it was dumb to just give out information like that,” she said. “Anyway, now you know, so just keep your eyes open – and let me know if you need anything or see anything, okay? My boyfriend has a gun, and I can get him to come pick you up after work.”

  “Thanks, Tess,” I said and gave her a quick hug before we both got back to work.

  Things were starting to get more and more scary... How long would it be before this man, whoever he was, managed to corner me? And what would I do then? I tried to force these terrifying thoughts from my mind as I got back to work.

  CHAPTER 12

  Colin

  I had picked out the biggest, brightest, most colorful bouquet of flowers that the florist had, and now I was standing with it and waiting outside La Casa, the place Skye worked as a waitress. It was a small, simple-looking place, and most of the clients seemed to be middle-class, or maybe upper working class. It was around four in the afternoon, and it was a beautiful sunny day. I appreciated the bright blue sky above, and the smiles on the faces of the people who were walking along the sidewalk. Even though it seemed as if Skye had been ignoring me, I remained hopeful about her feelings for me, because it really hadn't seemed like she had been faking anything at all.