ROMANCE: The French Billionaire (A Dark New Adult Billionaire Romance) (Billionaire Romance,Contemporary Romance,Untamed Billionaire,Short Stories)

by Cartwright, Lisa

  “It’s okay,” Xander said, calming down now. “We can always deal with it later. Right now, I just want to make sure you’re okay. I doubled back here after Jayden left last night, because I was so worried about you.”

  “Speaking of, how did you get my address?” Mia asked. She was starting to get concerned about the fact that Xander and Jayden had both been in her apartment all night. What if they had found evidence of her secret identity, or her deal with Lillian?

  “Oh, I called one of the HR people at Will Golden,” Xander said casually. “I figured they would have it. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No, not at all,” Mia said. For now, her cover seemed safely intact. She looked around the apartment. Everything seemed to be in order. None of her mail, or her computer for her detective business, had been disrupted.

  “Hey,” Xander said, tenderly grabbing her hand. “I have an idea. What if we go out of town again? I think you really need to rest after all of the excitement and stress you’ve had over the past few days. We can go back to Southampton, do it right this time.”

  “Are you sure we can take that much time off of work? We already skipped out early the other day.”

  “I’m the boss,” Xander said with an arrogant grin. “I can do whatever I want. And Jayden’s not going to expect you to be up to doing secretarial work, after the night that you had.”

  “Well, I guess you’d better call your limo, then,” Mia said, with a wink.

  Xander and Mia spent the day on Xander’s private island again, relaxing on the beach with some sandwiches they had picked up on their way out of the city. They were really enjoying each other’s company, joking around and making each other laugh. But there was one problem. Jayden kept texting Mia, trying to check up on her.

  After the fifth text message, Xander grabbed her phone away, tackling her in the process. “That’s it, I’m taking this!” he said, as they playfully rolled around in the sand. “You’re all mine today.”

  “No, Xander, he’s just trying to be nice,” Mia said. “I’m not going to answer him or anything.”

  “No, see, this is payback for not breaking up with him,” Xander said sarcastically. “No breakup, no phone.” He winked at her, but he still took her phone and went into the house, hiding it in his locked briefcase.

  “Now, where were we?” he said when he came back out, finding Mia lying on the beach, eyes closed, wearing a bikini that showed off her perfectly toned stomach. He laid down next to her, and leaned over, kissing her deeply. He then pulled her on top of him, and slowly reached up to untie the strings of her bikini.

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea to do this outside?” Mia said to him. “We’re sure there’s no one else on this island, right?

  “It’s just you and me, babe,” he replied. “My family bought this island a few generations ago, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one that still comes here. We’re totally safe.”

  They continue to make out, and Mia started grinding her hips against his. She could feel him starting to develop an erection, and reached down to slowly remove his swim trunks. She took off her bikini bottoms and moved him inside of her, slowly and deliberately.

  “Damn it, Sarah,” Xander said in a low moan. “That feels incredible.”

  She slowly started to ride him, picking up speed as she went along. Although she had been worried, Mia loved the adrenaline rush of having sex outside, where anyone could have seen them. They climaxed at the same time, and she slowly rolled off of him, lying next to him in the sand again. She leaned over and kissed his neck sensually.

  After a few minutes, Mia fell asleep. Xander carried her into the beach house and set her down on the bed in the master bedroom, and then joined her for a nap.

  After a few hours, Xander was awakened by the pinging noise of Mia’s phone receiving a text message. Thinking that it was Jayden, sending another one of his “caring” texts, he grabbed Mia’s phone out of his briefcase.

  After looking at the number for a minute, he realized that it was Lillian texting Mia! How do they know each other?

  Hey love, how’s our little plan going? Looked like you were doing a great job when I saw you the other day! Keep it up!

  Xander was instantly confused, and terrified. What plan!? Panicked, he started looking through the rest of her phone. He found out that her name was Mia, not Sarah, and that she was a private detective. It seemed that Lillian had hired her to look into Xander’s suspicious activity when they were still dating, and then when they broke up, she hired her to get revenge on him by seducing and then dumping him. Although, she hadn’t dumped him yet, which meant that clearly something was going wrong, because she’d had plenty of opportunity to.

  Xander was absolutely furious. Why would these women do this to him!? Sure, he’d cheated a few times, and he knew it was wrong, but he didn’t think he deserved this sort of elaborate punishment. Shaking, he put Mia’s phone back in her bag, and tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up. It was time to go home.

  Xander was extremely quiet on the ride home, to the point where Mia was starting to get worried. She thought they’d had a wonderful little afternoon getaway. After all, what was more romantic than sex on the beach?

  “Xander, what’s wrong?” she asked. “You’re awfully quiet.”

  Xander’s face was stone cold. “Oh, I don’t know, Mia,” he said acidly. “Maybe, it has something to with the fact that you’ve been plotting revenge against me with my ex-girlfriend the entire time I’ve known you?”

  Mia’s heart practically stopped beating. He knew.

  “H-how… when?” she stuttered.

  “I saw a text from Lillian on your phone. I was obviously confused by that, so I did a little digging. Did you really think you were just going to be able to hide this from me forever? Even if you didn’t go through with Lillian’s plan, I still was going to find out about it eventually. Was this whole thing a lie, Mia?”

  “No!” she yelled, in tears. “It may have started off as something I was just doing for Lillian, but it’s certainly much more than that now. I was going to tell Lillian the plan was off and give her money back. I just haven’t had the time yet, what with everything that’s been going on at work.”

  “I don’t really want to hear your excuses right now,” Xander said. “You know what, actually, I’m just going to have the driver drop you off here. You can find your own way home.”

  ***

  Chapter 9

  Mia was still standing at a bus stop in outer Brooklyn, crying, when Jayden pulled up in his car.

  “Sarah? What are you doing here?” he said, bewildered.

  Mia was crying so hard, she couldn’t get the words out. “It’s.. it’s a long story.”

  “Well, why don’t you get in the car, and I’ll take you home, okay? What are you even doing out here, anyway?”

  “I just had something I had to do… I really don’t want to talk about it right now.”

  “You know what?” Jayden asked. “Why don’t I take you to see the fireworks on Coney Island tonight.”

  “Okay,” Mia said, too exhausted to protest.

  Later that evening, Mia and Jayden were sitting on the beach, watching the fireworks and eating cotton candy. Jayden had his arm around her, and even though Mia felt extremely guilty for everything that had happened, she was actually having a pleasant time. But then, Jayden leaned in to kiss her, and she decided she couldn’t lie to him anymore either.

  “Jayden, I can’t do this. I have something to tell you. Please don’t hate me. I never meant to do you any harm.”

  She told him the entire story, from Lillian hiring her to investigate Xander, to Robert Jackson blackmailing her, and everything that had happened in between. Although Jayden seemed a little put off at first, he was eventually sympathetic to her story.

  “I’m not coming back to work,” Mia said. “I just got in way over my head. I never meant to hurt anyone, I swear. I was never going to go through with the revenge pl
an. And I do like you a lot, Jayden. You’re a really great guy. I’m just sorry we met under these circumstances.”

  “I understand, Mia. I’m really sorry you got caught in the middle of all of our drama. I’m disappointed, but I wish you luck with everything. “

  “I hope all this stuff with Robert Jackson works out. He’s one scary guy.”

  “He sure is. Why don’t I drive you home now?”

  Mia cried in the car the entire way home. She was so upset about the way everything had happened. She truly loved Xander, and she had hurt him terribly. Even though he wasn’t always the best guy, she knew she wanted to be with him, and now that would never happen.

  She sat down to send an email to Lillian. She informed her that she would be quitting the job and refunding her money, and that Xander had found out the truth about everything. She left out the part about her and Xander actually falling in love. She wanted to keep that between them.

  She pressed send and then went to bed for the night. She cried herself to sleep, and slept fretfully until she was awakened around one in the morning by a loud, forceful knock at the door. She went to go answer it, and found an unidentified man standing there. Before she could ask him who he was, he grabbed her, covered her mouth, and put a black bag over her head. She felt like she was drowning. She couldn’t breathe at all. She tried to scream but didn’t have any air in her lungs. So, eventually she passed out into her kidnapper’s arms.

  Mia woke up in a vacant and run-down warehouse, tied to a chair. The man who had taken her was there, keeping an eye on her.

  “Who are you?” she screamed. “What is this!? Why did you take me!?” She started to cry again.

  She didn’t think she had ever cried so much in her life, and wondered if her body would ever run out of tears.

  “I work for Robert Jackson,” the man said. “He will be here any minute. He wants to speak with you.”

  Robert entered the warehouse a few minutes later, wearing his usual expensive suit and tie. Mia wondered what time it was . Was it still the middle of the night? Or had the day started? Where were Xander and Jayden, were they at work right now? They were probably her only hope of getting out of here alive. Although, given the information they had found out last night, she wasn’t sure either of them would actually want to save her.

  “I’m sending a picture of you to Xander.” Robert said, pulling out his camera phone. “If he doesn’t sign the contract in the next four hours, you will die. Simple as that.”

  “Xander won’t care,” Mia said. “We had a huge fight last night. He wants me out of his life completely.”

  “I don’t believe that,” Robert said. “You have a hold over him, and Jayden too. This will work. I’m sure they will be banging down the doors of this place as fast as they can get their limos over here.”

  Mia shook her head. She was sure she was going to die. “You weren’t there last night!” she screamed. “You don’t know how angry he was!” And with that, she closed her eyes and waited to die.

  ***

  After waiting for over three hours, Mia decided that there had to be something she could do to escape. She started messing with the knots in the rope that was holding her to the chair. Luckily, she realized that one of the threads was loose. She kept picking at it when her captors weren’t looking at her. She was pretty sure if she could just undo the knot, she could run faster than Robert and his guard. After all, she’d been an athlete in college, and neither of them looked like they were in great shape.

  After half an hour of undoing the knot, it finally came loose. Mia ran as fast as she possibly could, heading for the door to the warehouse. Robert and his guard started shouting. Just as she opened the door, she felt a searing pain in her right shoulder blade. Robert had shot her. She managed to make it out of the warehouse and into an alley a few blocks away, but at that point she was bleeding so heavily she couldn’t go on. She had to hide. Robert would be coming for her.

  She turned around at the sound of sirens passing. Xander’s limo stopped behind three police cars. He had come to her rescue! He saw him jumped out of the car and rushed towards her direction.

  “Mia!” Xander said as he picked her up in his arms. He looked agitated and apprehensive. Mia was starting to feel woozy due to the amount of blood she was losing. She tried to reach and hold him, but she passed out, once again just before he could utter a word.

  ***

  Epilogue

  A few days later, Mia woke up in the hospital. Her best friend Lily was there with Xander, looking over her bedside.

  “What happened?” Mia groaned. “How long has it been?”

  “You escaped Robert and his guard, but you were shot,” Xander said.

  “Oh. Oh, that’s right. God, what an insane week,” Mia said, tearfully. She was actually referring about her whole affair with Xander, and not this particular incident. Then, she turned to both of them with teary eyes.

  “I’m really glad to see you both here,” she stated.

  Lily leaned over and gave Mia’s hand a quick squeeze.

  “I’m glad you’re alright,” she said, thoughtfully. “I’m going to give you two some privacy,” she added and walked out of the room.

  Mia looked up at Xander, unable to comprehend what’s on his mind. So much had happened between them at this point that she didn’t know where to start.

  “I’m sorry,” they both said at the same time, and then both laughed.

  “Mia, will you give me another chance?” Xander said, holding her hands. “I was too quick to judge you before. I want to hear your side of the story. Because the truth is, I’m in love with you, and nothing is going to change that for me.”

  “Xander,” Mia said, sobbing in an instant. “I should have told you the whole truth earlier. I was never going to go through with Lillian’s revenge plan, because once I actually met you, I realized that I was falling in love with you too.”

  “I know,” Xander whispered. “I can feel how you’re sincerely in love with me every time we were together. I was so dumb to actually doubt you, baby,” he admitted.

  Mia finally burst into tears. “You have no idea how you made me glad for this,” she said. From now on, you don’t have to worry about Jayden. And I already broke up with him that night. I told him everything, and there are no hard feelings.”

  “Yeah, I heard about that,” he replied, a trace of triumph was evident on his face. He leaned over and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. “Well, I guess now we can start over together,” he added happily.

  “I-I think so,” Mia answered, kissing him back.

  “Oh, God! I swear I love you, Mia,” he uttered, holding her completely.

  “I love you, too, Mr. Will,” she said, as Xander wiped the tears in her eyes.

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

  Lisa Cartwright is an author passionate about writing books, predominantly Romantic Fiction. Aspiring to become a best selling author and captivate the mindset of the reader the themes and plots displayed throughout the book always aim to enthrall.

  Cartwright lives in Australia and when not writing enjoys doing what most Aussies love to do including the outdoors such as surfing, camping and fishing, but in colder months enjoys skiing. She enjoys spending time with her husband and children Downunder.

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