Dropping The Ball: A New Year’s Billionaire Romance

by Weston Parker

  Her eyes sparkled in the early evening light when she glanced up at me. “I might be new, but I think both of us fell in love at first sight.”

  There was a pause between us after she said it. A moment during which I wanted nothing more than to cup her cheeks, slide my hand around to the nape of her neck, and lower my lips to hers.

  I knew she was talking about love at first sight between her and Max, but the words hung in that way they seemed to when they meant something more. She shivered and her eyes darted away from mine as she wrapped her hands around her biceps.

  “I’m going to go take a shower,” she said. “One of the closets in your room hides a built-in TV cabinet. If you need anything else, just let me know.”

  “Thanks.” I wouldn’t be setting foot anywhere near her room no matter what I needed, though.

  If that was her way of saying goodnight, I’d see her in the morning even if I lost half my limbs before then. The only thing that would make me go in there was if there was a security threat. Other than that, I was taking my own advice and steering clear.

  It couldn’t be that difficult, right?

  Chapter 10

  RYLEE

  Living with that man and keeping my hands to myself was going to be far more challenging than I’d anticipated. When we’d met, there had been other people in the vicinity and it’d been in a conference room.

  A sterile, professional space where anyone could barge in at any time.

  My home was not like that. Having him here felt more intimate, the chemistry I felt between us so palpable I got goosebumps when I just looked at him for too long.

  Good lord, he’s the hottest man I’ve ever seen. My skin still felt tingly when I stepped into the shower, even though I’d left him almost ten minutes ago.

  The rules might say no touching or inappropriate behavior of any kind, but if we kept having such charged moments as we’d had up on that roof, that was going to be almost impossible. I didn’t know for sure, but I had a strong suspicion that he’d wanted to kiss me as much I’d wanted him to.

  The way he’d looked at me had also made him seem even more familiar than he had before. It was like I’d seen him look at me exactly like that, with heat and something very close to longing in his eyes, a hundred times before. Yet I’d only seen him once before today.

  So freaking weird.

  It was bugging the hell out of me, but I was also still dealing with the aftereffects of having been so close to him and seeing him looking at me that way. Like he wanted to peel my pants off and take me right there on the frozen ground.

  Another shudder passed through me. My shower was nice and hot. I wasn’t shivering because I was cold, nor had that caused the shiver upstairs. I hadn’t even known it was really possible before, but I was sure discovering it was real now. A person could be so turned on that their muscles wound so tightly that they actually moved.

  A shudder. A shiver. I don’t know the exact right word for it, but it’s happening to me right now.

  Between my legs, I was slicker than ever and physically aching. And all he did was look at me.

  If he ever touched me, I would probably do something really embarrassing. I didn’t know what yet, but it was not normal to be right on the edge of a freaking orgasm just by having someone’s gaze on me.

  The more I thought about it, the more worked up I got. Those smoldering eyes, his full lips, and his strong jawline in the fading sunlight were burned into my brain for good.

  God, how long has it been since I’ve had a proper orgasm? I couldn’t even remember. With all the stress of the last few months, deciding whether it was the right time to start performing again, the battery of tests I’d gone through, and then choosing the right role, getting off had been the last thing on my mind.

  Almost without a conscious thought having formed to do it, I soaped up my hands and ran them across my nipples. They’d been hard already, but they prepared to cut glass when I touched them. A low moan fell from my lips, and I pinched them shut.

  How embarrassing would it be if he somehow heard me? It was unlikely, but he was in my house. Anything was possible. He could come to my room to ask something, or maybe he’d strip down and—

  Snap out of it. Your life may not be a romance novel, but it sure as hell isn’t a porno either. Unfortunately.

  Even more unfortunately, now that I’d had the thought of him stripping and joining me, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It wasn’t all that difficult to imagine what he might look like naked. His clothes fit him so well that I already knew his body was carved from rock-hard muscle.

  It wasn’t such a leap to picture a guy his size as well-endowed, and in my head, he knew exactly what to do with it. My thighs trembled when I trailed one hand lower, dipping it between them to rub myself where I was aching to have him touch me.

  His hands would be so much bigger and rougher than mine, but I ignored that fun fact for the moment. When I brushed a finger over my clit with the lightest of touches, I moaned again and let my forehead fall forward against the warm tiles.

  There was a shower seat installed in here, and though I’d never used it before, I realized it could be a lot more useful than I’d thought of before.

  A naughty thrill ran through me. Am I really doing this?

  Heck, yeah, I was. Just because it’d been a while didn’t mean the sexually confident woman who lived inside me had taken her things and gone in search of more active playgrounds—maybe she’d just been on a break too.

  As I sat down on the warm bench, I extended my legs before spreading them and leaned with my head against the shower wall. Steam filled the cubicle, making it feel a little more sultry and maybe even a little more protected. Even if Carter did burst in here for some reason, he still wouldn’t immediately see what I was up to.

  Not that it would be a terrible thing if he sees. Mortifying, unless of course he decided to join me. Using that thought as my starting point, I was soon biting back moans as pleasure coursed through me.

  When I was done, I finally got around to doing what I’d come in here to do. Once my hair was washed and my skin was scrubbed, I climbed out, dried off, and put on my pajamas. It was still early, but I was ready to turn in.

  If only my life was half as exciting as the tabloid rumors make it out to be.

  Before I got into bed, I remembered that I hadn’t brought a water glass with me. I grabbed my robe from the hook on my wall and cracked my bedroom door open to check if the coast was clear.

  After what I’d just done to thoughts of him, I would probably turn the color of a beet if I ran into Carter right now. I made it all the way to the kitchen and filled a glass from the faucet until I found out that I’d been one hundred percent correct.

  I turned to find him walking into the kitchen, and my face burst into flames. It was so bad that I almost dumped the glass of water over my own head.

  “It’s not even cold enough,” I muttered out loud before I could stop myself.

  Ah, shit. My very own ‘I carried a watermelon’ moment. I’d always wondered what it would feel like to have a moment like that, and now I knew. Lucky me.

  Carter frowned but didn’t say anything while I scrambled to think of a way to salvage the situation. “Sorry, I was wondering about something.”

  “Anything I can help with?” he offered, leaning with his shoulder against the door and looking every bit the yummy bodyguard he was in a fitted black T-shirt.

  “Not unless you want to talk about whether certain outfits I own are appropriate for this weather.” What? Why did I say that? I don’t even really care about clothes, and I know how to dress myself warmly enough.

  Desperately needing some measure of control over my mouth back, I focused on him instead. “Can I help you find something in here?”

  “I actually just came to make something to eat.” He lifted a plastic container he was holding and I just hadn’t seen. “I thought you’d already gone to bed. Otherwise, I would’ve waited
.”

  Shame and guilt smacked me upside the head. “I’m so sorry. I ate on my way home this afternoon. I didn’t even think about offering to make you something earlier. Can I fix you a sandwich?”

  “I have some leftovers,” he said.

  “I’ll fix you a sandwich anyway. I went to the market this morning, so there’s lots of awesome stuff to put on it.” I spun around and opened the fridge, extracting just about everything that one could put on bread.

  A low groan echoed in the kitchen when he saw some of the ingredients I’d unpacked. “Do you honestly keep smoked salmon and wild rocket in your fridge?”

  “Not usually, but I might have gone a little crazy with shopping for your visit.”

  He slid the plastic container into the fridge and smiled at me. “Thank you. I’m starving. All that looks amazing.”

  While he pointed out stuff he really liked, I started cutting into the fresh Panini I’d bought. I ended up making him three sandwiches in an attempt overcompensate for my awkwardness and stupidity over not having thought about making him something to eat.

  Carter sat down on a stool after getting himself a glass of water. “You doing okay?”

  “I’m fine. You?” I didn’t know what the etiquette was here. I’d done some research and I knew that becoming what was known as a “buddy-guard” wasn’t great in their profession, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be friendly at all. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.” He held my gaze steadily, seeming relaxed but alert all at the same time.

  What’s it like being that way all the time?

  “You’ve obviously done this before,” I said. “Moving in with a perfect stranger, I mean.”

  He nodded, waiting patiently for me to continue. “Is it weird for you to have to leave your house to live with someone you don’t know?”

  “It’s not weird. It just… is. Kind of like how I imagine going up onstage is for you. I don’t think I’d be able to perform in front of so many people night after night, but you obviously don’t think that’s weird. This is the same for me.”

  I turned over what he’d said in my head. “Do you get a choice about the clients you do this kind of job for?”

  “You mean did I choose you?” His eyes softened and he smiled in a way that made my stomach clench. “I get assigned clients, but I can say no as long as there’s an actual reason. I can’t just turn down a job because I want to have a beer and binge-watch a TV show, but no one forced me to be here.”

  “That’s good to know.” I sliced through a tomato, placing it on the bread carefully so there wasn’t any overlap. No one liked tomato sogginess in their sandwiches. “Is it worth it?”

  “Leaving my house for a job?” he asked with that same smile still on his face. It was surprisingly fond for someone who’d known me for little over a day. “It can be challenging sometimes, and it’s not my favorite thing to do, but yes, it’s worth it.”

  “Is that why you do it?” I asked, sliding the first sandwich over to him. He pulled the plate closer before looking up at me again.

  “It ties into why I started, sure. I like being there for people who need me.”

  Something warm stirred inside me again. “For such a big guy, you’re surprisingly soft and forthcoming.”

  He chuckled quietly into the dimly lit room. Only the ambient lighting under the cabinets was on. Maybe that was why it was so much easier to make a comment that I’d usually have kept to myself.

  “I’ve never been accused of either of those things before, but thanks, I guess?” He picked up the sandwich. “This looks great, by the way. Thanks for stocking up and for saving me from the gluggy pasta I cooked last night.”

  “How did you manage to make pasta gluggy?” I wasn’t the best cook, but even I could chuck a handful of raw noodles into a pot and pull them out before anything too bad happened.

  Carter chuckled again, and the rich sound coated my insides in comfort like it was an old, favorite coat I’d just rediscovered. “Max needed to go out for a walk, so I might have left my food in the microwave without resetting the timer.”

  I winced. “You’re lucky it didn’t explode.”

  “It was set for fifteen minutes. If you saw what the pasta and the bowl looked like when I got back, you might not have agreed to let me move in here.”

  I laughed. “Should we just agree right now that I should operate the microwave?”

  Our eyes locked, and suddenly, the moment didn’t seem so light anymore. He was giving me the look. The one that said he really wanted to kiss me right now, and I was pretty sure I was giving it right back to him.

  I jerked my gaze away from his to finish his last sandwich before turning away to wash my hands. “I need to go to bed.”

  The stool barely made a sound when he stood up too. “Yeah. I should go with you.” My eyes widened before he rushed to finish his sentence. “To my room. Not your room, obviously.”

  “Of course.” I giggled.

  Giggled. I didn’t giggle. I thought I’d outgrown giggling. But with him around? Jeez. I was turning into a habitual giggler.

  We’d gone from comfortable chatting to awkwardness again in ten seconds flat. I swore I even saw the faintest streaks of red when I nearly bumped into him at the door.

  “Good night, Rylee,” he said, suddenly seeming stiff again.

  I sighed internally. Things had been going so well. I’d even really started believing that having him living with me wouldn’t be weird. If this kept happening though, it was going to be more than weird. It was going to be torture on my ovaries and my freaking battery expenses.

  “Good night, Carter. I’ll see you in the morning. I hope you sleep well.” I already knew I wouldn’t be.

  Maybe I should look into getting him that new lock installed on his door. We were only on day one, and I was already starting to wonder what he’d say if I climbed him like a jungle gym. What the hell would I be thinking about by day ten?

  It probably wasn’t going to be pretty, and I was pretty sure it would be very, very much against the rules.

  Chapter 11

  CARTER

  Living with Rylee was going to kill me. The weekend had been very low key, and we’d hardly left her penthouse.

  I hadn’t even seen that much of her after Friday night, but I was already going out of my mind. Just knowing that she was around occupied my mind day and night, wondering what she was doing and whether she was avoiding me after the extreme fucking awkwardness between us my first night here.

  When we’d run into each other after, our exchanges had been friendly but brief. Although it’d only been one full day, Sunday had been a welcome reprieve. I took Max for a long walk and went to fetch my bike.

  Bart and I had met for a beer in my room when I got back to Rylee’s, and we discussed some of the other jobs he’d pulled me off of so I could be with her. She’d popped in to say goodbye, and when I’d gone down to the kitchen later, there was a plate of food waiting for me but no Rylee.

  Since I hadn’t been on this assignment for very long, I didn’t know whether it was out of the ordinary for her to spend so much time on her own, but I had a feeling she was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that I was here. Her questions about whether it was weird for me clued me into the fact that she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the arrangement—even if it’d happened at her request.

  I’d decided to give her until this morning before I approached her about it. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on her, but since it was Monday, we needed to figure this shit out before we could get out there to do our jobs.

  While I waited to see if she would come to me, I scoped out the house and finished setting up a few more cameras. The building security was good, but she had next to nothing in her home. The lock on her front door wouldn’t help very much if someone managed to make it into the building.

  As I was wrapping up the installation in the TV room, Rylee finally made her appearance. S
he walked in wearing a winter get-up, looking like heaven in a powder-blue jacket, a scarf wrapped loosely around her neck, and her hair loose to frame her face.

  I smiled. “Good morning. I’m almost done installing the cameras Bart told you about. Want me to walk you through where they are?”

  “In a minute.” She shifted on her feet, her eyes intent on mine before she came all the way into the room. “I wanted to talk to you about how we’re going to do this.”

  “Okay. Shoot. What’s on our agenda for the day?”

  “A few things, but I wasn’t just talking about that.” She looked down at her hands before I saw her shoulders squaring as she lifted her ice-blue gaze back to mine. “How much have you been told about my comeback?”

  “Not too much. All I know is that it’s happening and that you wanted to hire someone confidentially because the information isn’t public yet.”

  She nodded slowly, some of her discomfort visibly melting away. “One of things that’s been worrying me about having you around is that it’ll be pretty obvious to anyone who’s paying attention that I suddenly have a guard.”

  “Which will alert them to the fact that something’s changed,” I concluded.

  “Exactly.” She grinned, and suddenly, I could see why she was such a star. Since we’d been reintroduced, she’d had a certain nervousness about her. It was like it’d suppressed that natural presence of hers, but whatever she’d decided seemed to have eased her worries. “I’ve been struggling with finding a way to avoid fueling the rumor fires since I agreed to hiring someone.”

  “You have a plan?” I couldn’t deny that I was curious.

  All of this had happened so fast that we hadn’t had much time to work out the logistics. It’d occurred to me that people might find it odd if she suddenly had a guard, but I figured her team would simply say she’d received a threat.

  “I think I do, but we need to discuss it before I can put into motion,” she said. “Maybe you should just pretend to be my boyfriend. I really don’t want anyone to know that you’re my guard. It would give away my plans to be involved in something again, and I don’t want that yet. Plus, the whole initial marketing campaign for the production has been built around mystery and suspense. The big reveal is set and has been advertised for New Year’s Eve.”