Utterly Yours
Book Two
An Alpha Billionaire Romance
By
Alexa Brookes
Copyright © 2016 Alexa Brookes
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
Table of Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
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Chapter 1
Nathaniel Lynch trudged onward, dragging his feet towards the exit where he had parked his rental car. He had been in Troy, New York –his hometown, for about a week now building up his reputation. Now a self-made multi-billionaire, he was looking to give back to his community. While he now called California home, he always was fond of Troy. True, the only real reason he was building a shelter was to attempt to relieve his broken reputation as a playboy womanizer, but he had honestly enjoyed the past week giving back. Plus, it was a nice break from all the madness of being a CEO.
His shelter had opened up one week ago, and on opening day he had spotted a beautiful woman in rags that had for whatever reason transfixed him. There was a sense of familiarity about her that he had been unable to ignore, and he had been trying to find her all week in his spare time. She had yet to return to the shelter, so he had been exploring Frear Park where the woman known only as “Ace” supposedly spent a lot of her time. Nathaniel had just finished walking a majority of the park all through the night, having lost track of time. His tired eyes felt heavy, and he loathed the thought of all of the meetings that he had to attend to that day –both over the phone with his company back home in California as well as a few meetings with volunteers for the shelter to ensure that it would stay running smoothly during his absence.
“Did I really just walk through the fucking park all night?” he asked himself out loud as he noticed the sun coming up over the horizon. He spotted the park gate in the distance; it was then that the long night of walking finally brought forth a resolution; up ahead, just between him and the exit, was woman lying on a bench. With the sun rising, she rose, and she rubbed her tired eyes. On top of her head was a green, knitted hat that Nathaniel had come to recognize. Nathaniel smiled as the only name he currently knew her by left his mouth, “Ace.”
The woman jolted upright, still rubbing her tired eyes. He scorned himself silently –had she really been sleeping right in front of the park exit this entire time? He shook his head, realizing he had probably entered the park before she had, and he had simply missed her entering. She looked at him. “I’m sorry, I’ll leave,” she said, assuming he was there to kick her out now that morning had arrived.
“No, don’t leave,” Nathaniel said as he approached her.
She smiled and pointed at his t-shirt. “Hey,” she said, “You’re one of the volunteers at that new shelter.” She grinned. “Thank you.”
“Um…” Nathaniel grinned back at her. He had spent all week looking for her, and now he didn’t know what to say. “You’re welcome.”
She stood up and brushed herself off. “What are you doing in the park so early in the morning?”
“Looking for you,” he said.
She eyed him cautiously. “Why?”
“Um…” Nathaniel was at a loss. It wasn’t like he was going to tell her he had been obsessively fantasizing about her for a week. “Well, you see, um…” he bit his tongue. What was he supposed to say? He couldn’t believe he had not thought this through more.
“You look familiar to me,” she said.
“Yes!” he said quickly, unsure as to why he was so nervous. “That’s why I was looking for you. I felt like I knew you when I first saw you.”
“So you came to the park this early in the morning just to look for me?” she questioned.
“Yes,” he said, deciding not to tell her he had walked all through the night. “My name’s Nathaniel-” he went to put out his hand for a shake, really just hoping to come off as friendly and not creepy at this point.
“Nathaniel?” she questioned. “Nathaniel Lynch?”
He assumed she had heard his name because of his company. “Yeah,” he said, but before he could confirm that he was indeed the Lynch of Lynch Industries, she laughed loudly.
“Oh my gosh! Nathaniel Lynch? Nate?” she asked.
He raised a brow. “Yeah, that’s me.” No one called him Nate anymore.
She pointed a finger at her chest. “Lillian Thompson, you dipshit.”
Nathaniel’s jaw dropped. Lillian Thompson? As in the Lillian Thompson who lived next door to him that he used to push on the swings at recess? The girl he would walk to the bus stop with every morning until his family uprooted him to California? “Lillian?” He had known that she had felt familiar to him, but he certainly did not think the woman had been an old childhood friend of his and Adam’s.
She put out her arms and gave him a hug, but almost instantly she pulled back as though she was embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said and covered her face slightly. “You must think I’m a complete idiot.”
“You’re not the one roaming around a park just because you thought you might know someone,” Nathaniel said with a slight smile.
“No, but I am the idiot who sleeps here every night,” she said. “And I should really go before I get thrown out again. The golf course opens soon.”
“They can’t throw you out. It’s a public park,” Nathaniel said.
“They do anyways,” she said and started towards the exit –visibly embarrassed by her current situation.
Nathaniel followed her. “Lillian, I kind of have somewhere to be today, but I have to ask you…. Would you mind having dinner with me tonight?”
She turned around and stared at him. “You want to have dinner with me?”
“I really would. I mean, I would love to catch up. Please?” he asked, putting on a charming smile.
She hesitated. “I don’t know, Nate…”
“Come on, let me buy you dinner,” Nathaniel said again.
It seemed that she could not help but to smile back. “Okay, Nate,” she said. “I’ll be here”
“I’ll come by and pick you up at six,” he said confidently before they went their separate ways.
Nathaniel climbed into his rental car and headed back to the hotel where he was renting the presidential suite. He planned to text his assistant, Tony, and let him know that he would be sleeping in that morning. He had a lot to get done that day, and if he was going to have dinner with Lillian he certainly needed to try to get some rest before greeting the day after spending all night walking around a park. He grinned ear to ear. He could hardly believe that after a week of searching he had finally discovered the identity of his mystery woman, and it was Lillian Thompson! Lillian –an old friend from his life before everything changed. Before his father struck out on a new business adventure and moved him across the continent to California. Before his father was killed in a hit and run. Before he himself start
ed his own business venture and became a self-made billionaire. He paused. Lillian didn’t know about any of that. She had no idea he was rich, that he was the one who owned the shelter, or that he and their old friend Adam had become billionaires overnight. Oh, I am going to have fun with this, he thought as he was finally arriving back at the hotel. For now, though, he just needed some sleep.
Chapter 2
“So basically he spent the money on the shelter is what it comes down to,” Tony, Nathaniel’s assistant, said as the two of them enjoyed a light lunch after a long morning. Nathaniel had slept in, but he had gotten up earlier than expected to do some volunteering at the shelter. Tony was rambling on about the thirty thousand that had gone missing from Nathaniel’s bank account; Tony had found out for Nathaniel that Adam, Nathaniel’s business partner, had withdrawn some funds for the shelter.
Nathaniel was not paying much attention as Tony showed him an itemized list of what Adam had spent the money on. Truthfully, if Adam had taken out thirty thousand, he was sure Adam had a good reason, so he wasn’t sure why Tony was spending so much time trying to show him exactly where the money had been spent. “Yeah, yeah, okay, it’s all good, Tony,” Nathaniel said, waving the tablet out of his face so that he could enjoy his lunch.
“You’re really distracted,” Tony said. “What’s up?”
Nathaniel grinned at his young assistant. “I found her.”
“The chick with the knitted hat?” Tony asked. “I told you that you were just going to the park at the wrong time.”
“Yeah, thanks for that. I’d probably still be spending my afternoons searching for her if it wasn’t for you,” Nathaniel said while taking a bite of his turkey sub.
“So who was she? Did you figure it out?” Tony asked.
“Yup. An old classmate of mine,” Nathaniel explained.
“Wow. I wonder what happened to her that got her coming to a soup kitchen?” Tony wondered aloud the question that had been haunting Nathaniel all day.
“I don’t know, but I suspect that I’ll find out eventually. I’m taking her to dinner tonight,” Nathaniel said.
Tony raised a brow. He leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table. “I bet a woman in her situation isn’t going to know what to do with a Nathaniel Lynch style date, huh?”
Nathaniel laughed. “I’m not doing anything crazy. Just a simple dinner –probably at a local diner or something.”
“A local diner?” Tony questioned. “You are taking a woman to a diner for a date?”
“It’s not really a date,” Nathaniel said.
“Nathaniel, you have taken me on fancier dates than that,” Tony said. “What are you up to?”
“Okay, I’ll give,” Nathaniel said, chuckling slightly. “She doesn’t know I’m the owner of the shelter. She thinks I’m just one of the volunteers there. I thought it would be fun to kind of play along.”
“Oh, damn it, Nathaniel, don’t do that,” Tony scorned. “She’s going to get pissed.”
Nathaniel huffed. “Why? It’s not like I’m lying. I just am not going to flaunt my money around just yet. She remembers the old Nate who used to chase her around on the playground as kids. I wouldn’t mind reliving some of my more innocent years for a bit. Plus, I’ve gotten kind of rusty. It’d be nice to see if I can charm a woman without taking her on the private jet.”
Tony shook his head. “I am advising against it.”
“Well you’re my assistant, not my advisor,” Nathaniel said. He leaned back in his seat. “Besides, women love me. I’m sure Lillian’s no different. I just want to see where the little charades will take me, and when she realizes she is crazy about me I’ll let her in on the truth –I mean, if she likes me broke, she’ll be head of heels for me when I’m rich, right?”
“You’re a moron,” Tony said under his breath, but Nathaniel waved him off.
“Tonight is going to be a good night,” Nathaniel said.
“Hey, genius,” Tony teased, “if you’re planning on keeping your little secret from her, if you get laid tonight, where exactly do you plan on doing the deed? She’ll piece it together when she sees you’re staying in the presidential suite, and it’s not like she has a place you can go back to. And before you even ask, there is no way in hell I’m letting you go fuck happy in the bed I’m sleeping in –so, no, you cannot borrow my hotel room.”
“You mean the hotel room that I am paying for?” Nathaniel swayed his finger back and forth. “Tisk, tisk, Tony. Remember who owns who around here. If I want to bring a woman to your hotel room, I’ll fucking do it.”
“Fuck you,” Tony said.
“Relax, I’m only joking,” Nathaniel said. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, all right?”
“You’re not getting laid anyways,” Tony said. “Without your money, you’re just a pretty face.”
“But I am a pretty face,” Nathaniel said, laughing. He had a rather unusual relationship with his assistant. All of his previous assistances had been quite timid and would never have joked around with him or cussed at him the way Tony did. Truthfully, Nathaniel didn’t mind. He liked having another friend around other than Adam who was always trying to get him wasted. Tony was at least a half decent influence since it was his job to make sure Nathaniel looked good in the public eye.
They finished their lunch and headed back to the shelter where Nathaniel spent an hour or so volunteering before having to go to a back room for a conference call. Another couple of hours passed by, and before he knew it the shelter was closing for the night. He smiled. It was time for his date with Lillian.
Chapter 3
Nathaniel pulled up to the park just as the sun was setting. It had been a long day between volunteering at the shelter and the ongoing list of meetings. He could hardly believe his own excitement as he pulled into a parking lot and exited his vehicle. Lillian had been a bit more than a childhood friend. Every man knows this feeling –the moment when you realize your female friend isn’t just one of the guys. That loss of innocence you experience when, as a young child, you look at a girl as just that –a girl, and not just a playmate. Lillian had been that girl for Nathaniel when he had been a boy; he would get butterflies in his stomach every time they would walk together to the bus stop. It had rapidly been on its way to becoming a distant memory, but then all of a sudden his childhood first love just popped up in his life. He wasn’t sure if it was some sort of sign, or if this was just going to be an evening of catching up with a person from his past who had once lovingly refereed to him as dipshit every time they would meet –but he was excited nonetheless.
He headed to the park entrance where he spotted Lillian seated on the same bench he had found her earlier that same morning. He frowned at the thought that she slept there every night. The shelter could only provide beds for so many people, and it seemed that Lillian had gotten the short end of the stick yet again. “Evening,” Nathaniel called out as he approached the bench.
She smiled, and he was glad to see her smile. “Hey, Nate,” she said.
“Lillian,” he said, returning her smile. He had dressed fairly modestly: a nice button up and a dark pair of blue jeans. Normally on a date he would always wear a suit, but he didn’t want to give away his secret just yet. Besides, he was not exactly taking her somewhere that was suit worthy. “Ready for our date?” he asked.
She laughed as she stood. “Oh, so it’s a date now?”
“I was hoping so,” he said and hooked his arm in hers.
He opened the passenger’s side door for her, and she chuckled slightly as she climbed inside. “Who knew Nate Lynch would turn out to be such a gentleman?” she said when he sat down in the driver’s seat.
“Well, what can I say, California was good to me,” he said.
“That’s right –California! I have been trying to remember all day where your family moved to. How was the west coast?” she asked.
“Pretty nice. A lot of beaches out that way,” he said as he pulled the car out o
f the parking lot.
They didn’t go far, and they had plenty to talk about during the brief amount of time spent in the car together. He avoided asking her about living on the street, not wanting to put her in an awkward position. They mostly talked about their childhood and all of the ridiculous trouble the two of them and Adam had gotten into together. The awkward elephant in the room was certainly her current living situation, and the topic of conversation was ignored.
They pulled up in front of a small diner, and Lillian cringed. “We should go somewhere else,” she said quickly.
“What? Didn’t you love this place when you were a kid?” Nathaniel questioned.
She laughed. “That’s right. Our moms would take us here almost every Saturday in the summer. Yeah, I did. It’s just that I’m not exactly welcomed here.”
“What do you mean?” Nathaniel questioned.
“I mean they’re not exactly friendly towards people like me,” she said, her face turning red. “I came here once to buy a burger, and they threw me out and told me to go take a shower.”
“Are you serious?” Nathaniel frowned.
“Corporate places like this are normally like that,” she said. “I have better luck with… mom and pop kind of places, you know?”
“Damn, Lillian, I’m sorry,” Nathaniel pulled the car out of the parking lot. “If they’ve treated you like shit just because of the way you’re dressed, I won’t eat there either.”
“Well, I am wearing the same clothes I’ve been wearing for the past couple of months,” she said wearily. The conversation was clearly drifting somewhere that made Lillian uncomfortable.
“Where would you like to eat then?” Nathaniel asked. “Anywhere you want.”
She thought for a moment and then pointed down a road. “There is another diner down the street from here; they’re usually really nice there.”
“All right, we’ll go there then,” he said and pulled down the road. They entered into the diner, and Nathaniel was not so oblivious that he did not notice the patrons staring. Did she really look that bad? He looked her up and down, trying to do so without being noticed, and he deduced that it was fairly evident she was homeless by her dirty face and tattered clothes –but she still looked lovely to him.
Utterly Yours (Book Two) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Page 1
