Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (52 page)

“Did you get a chance to talk to Wil-”

“Come into my office,” I repeated and hung
up.

The nervous look on her face as she
tentatively walked towards my office worried me a bit. What if she didn’t take
the deal? What else could she do, though? I had made it all but impossible for
her to get a loan at this bank, and could repeat the process for every other
bank within a thousand mile radius.

She would have to take the deal.

As she stepped into the office my eyes
were fixated on her skirt. I could offer to give her 60,000 dollars upfront in
exchange for letting me throw her against the glass window, lift that tight
skirt of hers, pull down her panties and fuck her. But that would be no fun.
When I finally felt the sweet warmth of her pussy, it would be because she
asked, because she couldn’t resist me. Nobody was allowed to resist me when I
decided I wanted them. That is what made Aria seem so fascinating, and making
her decide all on her own that she was wrong to ever resist me was going to be
the best part.

“Sit down, Aria,” I ordered.

When she did, the hem of her skirt lifted
a few inches upwards, revealing her toned, smooth thighs. I felt myself
tightening in my pants.

“So did you talk to Wilson?” she asked
again, looking ready to burst into another round of tears.

“I did and it’s not good news. Well, it’s
not the particular piece of good news you were hoping to receive.”

The tears began to fall onto her cheeks. I
would have to get her to stop doing that.

“So I’m not getting the loan?”

“You are just too young with too many
responsibilities,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic. “I’m sorry.”

The crying was in full swing now, her
makeup all smeared. Should I wait a little to make my proposition? I decided
against it. Knowing she felt helpless right now made it significantly more
likely that she would accept.

“Thank you for trying,” she said, starting
to get up.

“Wait! Did I say I was done?” I said more
harshly than I had intended. “Sit back down.”

“But you said that-”

“The bank cannot give you a loan right
now, but that does not mean you there aren’t other ways you can make that
money.”

Her eyes widened. “No!”

“You haven’t even heard me out yet.”

She was shaking her head vigorously. “I
can’t sleep with you for money. That’s wrong. And illegal.” She looked
horrified and softly added: “And I’m a virgin.”

Oh fuck. I hadn’t considered that a
possibility at all. A girl so attractive should have caught every guy’s
attention, which meant she was a virgin by choice. Did I really want to go
through with this? Regular girls could be troublesome to get rid of, but
virgins were on a whole other level. But I wasn’t paying her to sleep with me.
The document in front of me mentioned nothing about sexual favors – though I
had assumed that would naturally be the outcome sooner or later, and that she
would initiate it. This changed things. But those damn thighs and that damn
skirt and most importantly, that goddamn restraint of hers.

“That’s not what I was going to propose,”
I said, making the decision to go forward with the plan. “But glad to know you
hold me to such excellent standards.”

That got a laugh out of her. “What? You’re
really going to sit there and act surprised that that’s what I assumed after
relentlessly hitting on me? Even the note on your bouquet said you were
counting down the days until you supposedly convinced me to sleep with you.”

“That is not inaccurate.” Why was she so
bold? It was endearing and it pissed me off. “But hitting on you and paying you
to get naked are two completely different things, I would say.”

I leaned back in my chair with confidence.

“Are they to you?” She looked genuinely
surprised.

“You’re really flattering me here with
your allegations to my character.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to do that. But
you do have quite the reputation.”

“Huh.” I raised my eyebrows. “Tell me
about this reputation that I have.”

“Well, the three tellers that were let go
last month, all of them had this thing in common, you see,” she winked. The
girl actually had the nerve to wink at me. “Well they had two things in common
actually. An apparently mind-blowing night with you, and the ability to tell
tales about it.”

“This is different, Aria.”

“I’m sure they all thought so too,” she
snapped.

“I never made the proposition that I am
going to make to you. Never had to, really. Trust me when I say that this
really, truly is different.”

“Yeah, cause you’re like in love with me
because of the conversations I have with our customers regarding my future as
your wife.” She was laughing hysterically now.

She used the word love. That was a
trigger.

“Look, Aria, I don’t want to mislead you.
I don’t do relationships or romance or any of that bullshit. This is honestly
100 percent about me wanting to take your clothes off and have my fucking way
with you.”

Her face erupted into flames and I could
swear I saw her shiver as she started to speak. “I-”

“No, let me finish,” I stopped her. “There
is no question that I want your body and hope that you will willingly give that
to me at some point. But I am not offering to buy your body. Even I am not that
much of a scumbag, despite this reputation I seem to have accumulated around
here. I don’t need to buy your body when there is plenty of ass that I could
get with the snap of my fingers.”

“Then what are you offering?” She looked
utterly confused.

“I am offering to buy your time.”

“What?” She looked like I had just said
that I was flying out to Mars tomorrow.

I moved the rose to the side and handed
her a copy of the document I had drafted.

“This is my offer: I will pay off your
mother’s hospital bills in six installments, one for every month you spend
dating me.”

Her mouth was open. “What do you mean
dating you?”

“What the hell do you think it means? A
guy and a girl dress up and go places together. Dinners, movies, parties, whatever
they like. At the end of the night there is usually some kissing and usually
something more.”

She rolled her eyes. Damn. She was ballsy
with her own boss. “Thanks for the pop-culture lesson, but I am aware of how
dating works. I may have even experienced it in practice here and there.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her acting
feisty.

“Then does that sound like something
you’re interested in?” Things were starting to look positive on that front.

“Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”

What? Fuck no. Why would there be a legal
document in your hand if that was what I was asking? I thought she was smarter
than that.

“Not exactly,” I said with caution. My
next words would make or break the deal. “I am asking you to go on dates with
me whenever I ask and spend time with me on my schedule for the next six
months. You know what I wish to accomplish in that time, but that is not a
requirement in this deal. If at no point in those six months you feel like you
want to sleep with me, then hey, I tried, and we part ways. If you do, then I
get what I wanted. In either case you get what you need, which is money to pay
for your mother’s surgery. It’s a win-win for you any way you look at it, but
quite the risk for me because there is no guarantee that I will get what I
want. A risk I am willing to take.”

I also needed a date for upcoming events I
had to attend to keep the businessman’s wives occupied while I tried to secure
important deals. She didn’t need to know that. She looked at me and the
document back and forth a few times, her mouth agape. She finally burst out
laughing.

“You’re joking. Is it April first?” She
looked behind her as though expecting to find an answer there. “Are there
cameras around here? I’m being pranked.”

“No, you’re being fucking ridiculous,” I
said, slamming my fist on the desk.

“But- but this is too damn easy to be
true! You’re saying you will pay 60,000 dollars for me to get pretty and go out
on dates with you, with no obligation for me to provide any sexual favors.” She
scanned the documents again. “I mean, there has to be a loophole somewhere.
Some clause where it says I have to let you tie me up in a dungeon and-”

“Seriously, Aria, a little respect would
be nice. You have already made it clear what you think of me, and you’re not
that far off, but there is no need to constantly stab me with your scathing
opinions. I’m still your boss.”
 

“I’ll have to have my lawyer take a look
at this,” she said laughing. I was not amused. “See, that’s funny, because I
don’t have a lawyer. Us regular people in regular people land don’t have
lawyers or butlers or-”

“Do you want me to hire you a counsel
before you sign anything?”

She rolled her eyes. “Humor, Mr.
Sinclair.”

“Zayden. There is a clause in there about
calling me that,” I said, pointing to the contract.

Her laughs got hysterical. “There is a
clause? So what, if I don’t call you by your first name you take money off my
contract?”

I furrowed my brows. “I wouldn’t do that.
But I’d like it if you called me Zayden.”

“Only if you add a clause that says you
need to work on your sense of humor.”

“Yeah, we can make that work.” Her eyes
were twinkling. “Oh. You are being facetious. Very meta.”

I laughed and then I realized that she was
agreeing to the contract.

“So you are accepting!” A kind of excitement
I hadn’t experienced in a long time started to bubble up.

“I have two conditions.” My lips started
twitching again but she added: “Real ones.”

“Oh. Go on.”

“First, the money will be a loan, not a
gift. I don’t feel comfortable taking your money just for spending time with
you.” She noticed my smirk and added, “I guarantee you this won’t end in me
sleeping with you, so you are not going to get what you want. It’s not fair on
you, in any case.”

“We will see about that,” I said, the
smirk still on my face.

“We won’t. I already know the outcome of
this Zayden.” She was at least calling me by my name already. “Hypothetically,
though, if I were to sleep with you, I would be especially uncomfortable taking
money from you. That would kind of make me a prostitute.”

“I never intended to make you feel like-”

“It doesn’t matter, since I will not
actually be sleeping with you. It’s a loan, which I will pay you back in
monthly installments, with a 10% interest after I graduate from college.”

Her words combined with the fiercely
confident look on her face made her all the more attractive. “I refuse to take
interest, but sure, if it makes you feel better about the whole thing, after
you have spent a few years working a real job you can start paying me back. I
won’t hold you to it though. I have plenty of money.”

“You will have to, it will be in the
contract. And 5%, starting a month after I graduate.”

“Zero percent interest, but you can start
the payments six months after graduation. And I’ll put it in the contract. Final
offer.”

She sighed. “Okay, fine.”

“What’s your other clause?”

She opened her mouth and closed it a few
times, as though unsure if she should speak her next words. “You cannot be
physically involved with any other woman during these six months.”

Wait, what?

“That’s fucking ridiculous. I don’t think
I can do that. Especially since you keep stressing on just how much I am not
going to be sleeping with you either.”

She shrugged. “If we are going to be
dating, in public, I cannot be okay with the idea of you going home at the end
of a date to entertain some other woman while thinking of me the whole time.”

“It’s cute you assume I’d be thinking of
you.”

“You have obviously never been on a date
with me.”

“It’s not going to happen, Aria. Anything
else?”

“I know that seems somewhat unfair but-”
She was screwing the corner of her mouth, looking like she really did feel bad
about what she was asking. “But I have been cheated on before and it was one of
the worst feelings in the world. I know it wouldn’t be cheating in this case,
since we aren’t going to be in a relationship, per say. But if I know you have
been sleeping around, it will be difficult for me to spend time with you
without some kind of resentment. I do appreciate you offering to help me out
and I don’t want to feel resentful towards you. You obviously don’t deserve
that. So if this is too much to ask, we don’t have to make the deal at all and
I will still be grateful for your offer.”

I hated the fact that, even with 60,000
dollars in my hands, the ball was in her court and I was the one playing by her
rules, yet it made her all the more fascinating, the challenge more exciting.
Backing out now would be accepting defeat and Zayden Sinclair did not do
defeat. I would make Aria Roberts beg to join me in my bed, if that was the
last thing I ever did. Agreeing to her terms would definitely not mean six
months of celibacy, since I was going to have her in no time.