Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (76 page)

I opened the fridge and looked around for
a suitable beverage to offer her. She had said she liked beer, so I had gotten
her some Belgian Ale, but perhaps she would want wine since she was dressed all
seductive. It suited the role she was currently playing.

“
Beer is fine,
” she said, noticing my hesitation.
“Thanks, I didn’t even think you kept any in your place!”

“
I don
’t.” I shrugged. “But since you were coming over–”

“Thank you Zayden.”

“And I did something else you might
appreciate,” I said removing the steaks from the fridge. “I marinated the steak
in curry powder. Thought it would give you your kick.”

The look on her face right now was worth
all the curry powders in the whole world. She looked absolutely delighted, like
she couldn’t believe that someone would do that for her.

“What?” I grinned.

“When was the last time you cooked?”

“
I don
’t remember,” I said honestly. “I never have to and
don’t have the time anyway. My chef does an excellent job without my
interference.”

“Then why are you cooking – or grilling I
guess – now?”

“Because, Aria…” I spoke like I was
explaining two plus two equals four to a very difficult infant. “I really like
you.”

Her cheeks blushed so hard upon hearing
those words that they almost matched her lipstick. “I... I really like you
too.”

I raised my eyebrows quizzically. “Really?
I never quite got that from you, based on the fact that you were trying to
break the contract only a month ago, so that you could get as far away from me
as physically possible.”

“It wasn’t like that,” she said, the joy
from before beginning to wane from her face. “You know what it was about. I
have never answered to anyone in my life before, Zayden, not even my parents.
So I just don’t have a way to deal with somebody trying to control me other
than cut them off.”

“Did it ever occur to you–” I cut myself
off mid-sentence, realizing what a waste it would be to get into this right
now. “Never mind, let’s not dwell on this now. Let’
s go outside.
”

I offered her my hand – and she struggled
before deciding to take it – and escorted her towards the balcony. “Close your
eyes,” I said on the way there. “
And
no cheating, Aria. I
’ll know if you cheat and if you do your
mother’s bill might not get paid.”

She stopped walking and looked at me with
a slight hint of annoyance mixed with amusement. “Is that what it is going to
be from now on? ‘Oh Aria, breathe at rhythmic intervals of .05 seconds, or your
mother’s bill might not get paid!’”

“Just close your eyes. Trust me, you will
like this!”

After a brief moment she finally did and I
reached for her hand again. When we were at the balcony, I said, “Now open.”

She gasped loudly; I was sure all the
neighbors in a five-mile radius could hear. “What – what did you – why?” Her
eyes were starting to tear up.

I had the whole balcony decorated with
heart-shaped red balloons and scented candles, and in the middle was a table
with her favorite bottle of champagne and two chairs underneath a crystal
chandelier. It was like Valentine’s Day had thrown up all over the balcony. We
were facing the view of the mountain with a beautiful lake on its foothills.
The scene was as romantic as it could get, and Aria’s tears and inability to
form a complete coherent sentence was what convinced me that I had done it. I
had won.

“You did all of this for me? By yourself?”
she asked when she could finally speak properly again.

“Do you see anyone else here?” I lied and
shrugged. I had thought of it, so I did have some say.

“Oh Zayden!” she said and threw herself at
me, almost knocking out the steaks I was holding in my left hand. I tried to
carefully place them by the grill, but it was difficult to move because Aria
was holding on to me tightly. After I finally managed to place them away, I
drew her closer for a proper embrace and stroked her hair. “Do you really like
it that much?” I said grinning, very pleased with myself.

“You just want to hear me say it, don’t
you?” she mumbled against my chest. “Yes, Zayden. I like it that much. This is
hands down the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me. Or anyone I
know. Not even Nick for Stacey.”

“Great, I have outdone a nerdy little kid,
I should be proud of myself.”

“Shut up, I am in the middle of a very
special hug with a very special guy, let me enjoy this,” she mumbled.

We stood there holding each other for a
long time.

---

“This is delicious!” Aria closed her eyes,
devouring the steak. It was satisfying to watch her enjoy something I created.
“
I don
’t
know why people haven’t been putting curry on their steaks since the beginning
of time.”

“I think we can use this moment to firmly
establish the fact that I am a genius.”
I smiled.

She giggled. “You’re running a
multi-billion dollar corporation at such a young age, and running it so well at
that, and of all things, a steak recipe is what makes you declare you’re
genius?”

“Priorities.” I shrugged. “And I am not
all that. I was handed everything, I didn’t earn it really. Born with a silver
spoon and all.”

“But you had the skills to handle what was
given to you. Oh god, Zayden, is this modesty? You are capable of such a
thing?” She made an expression of complete shock.

“Very funny. In any case, you will be way
ahead of me by the time you’re my age. You are really bright, Aria. I don’t
know if anyone has ever told you this.”

“Nope, never heard it before.” She winked.

“Have you thought about what you want to
do after you finish college?” I found myself asking.

She shrugged. “I am studying to be a loan officer
so that is what I plan on doing I guess.”

“Would you want to come work for me
instead?”

“Newsflash, I already do,” she chuckled.

“No, not something trivial like that.” I
waved my hand dismissively, but upon seeing the change in her expression, I added,
“I mean… not like there is anything wrong with working as a teller while you
are getting your degree. Again, it’s more than I did when I was your age. But I
am thinking more like finding a suitable long-term position for you in my
bank.”

“There is a lot of time left between now
and in the long-term,” she said slowly, as though weighing every single word
before speaking it out loud. “You may not even want to, you know.” She
shrugged.

“
I don
’t know. What are you talking about?”

“I am assuming that when this contract is
over, you would like to move on to newer and hotter women for more exciting
adventures.”

It took a lot to spit those words out.

“That’s a big assumption. Do you really
think this is all,” I gestured around the balcony décor, “just about the
contract?”

“What is it, then?” she challenged.

“That is for us to figure out as we go
along,” I said looking away from her. Not once had I actually thought beyond
the contract; I assumed that Aria was just going to be around forever. Now that
the thought crossed my mind, I felt a weird sort of a gloom and didn’t want to
dwell on it too much.

“Speaking of the contract, since we are
finally on the subject, what is going on with that?”

“That is for us to figure out as we go
along too.” I smirked and had to duck because she tossed a grape towards me in
mock-anger. “Come on, let’s go inside, it is starting to get chilly,” I said to
change the subject. Plus my restraint wasn’t going to last very much longer,
and unless Aria was okay with my neighbors potentially seeing me rip her
clothes off, which I highly doubted, we had to at least make it indoors soon
enough.

Chapter 9

Aria

We got up to head inside and my phone
buzzed. It was a text from my mother. The payment on her hospital bill had been
made this morning. An immense relief spread through my body, as though I hadn’t
even realized just how tense I had been this whole time. It was technically the
last day to do it, so the whole time I had been here, I was somewhat antsy,
even though I did not want Zayden to notice, and did a good job of that I
suppose. But I could relax now and truly enjoy his company. The payment was
made. I had nothing else to worry about. For now.

“Zayden.” I stopped in my tracks. “Why
didn’t you tell me?” I asked looking from my text to his face and back.

“Because I knew you would find out soon
enough,” he said shrugging. He knew exactly what I was talking about. “But I
wanted you worry about it for a bit.”

“That is really messed up, you know,” I
couldn’t help saying, but right after, I felt uncomfortable, like I was being
ungrateful. “I didn’t mean to say it like that. Thank you for paying the bill
is what I meant to say.” I reached out to hug him but he backed off this time.
“Is everything okay?” I looked at him concerned.

“Yeah, I think so, but let’s talk about
this inside. In my bedroom,” he said with a completely straight face.

“Sure,” I said cheerfully. “To the bedroom
then, to ‘talk’,” I said playfully air-quoting the word.

“No, Aria, we really will be talking in
there. At first anyway,” he added with the hint of a smile. It didn’t make any
sense. He had already made the payment and I was here ready – and in all
honesty yearning – to take my clothes off for him, but he wanted to talk?

When we got to his bedroom, I immediately
picked the office chair across from his desk to sit on, deliberately avoiding
looking at the enormous bed right in the middle of the room. I had never seen a
bed quite that size. It had to be bigger than a king size. Did they even make
those? He probably had it custom-made for his benefit. He was probably best
friends with the president of IKEA or something.

Trying not to think about how it would
feel to roll around naked in that bed, I looked at Zayden sincerely. “So, what
did you want to talk about?”

“The contract. You noticed how this
payment was made late? As late as possible, in fact?”

“Nope,” I said trying to be teasing. “I hadn’t
noticed at all. Was it late, then?”

“No, Aria, really, listen to me. I know
how difficult it was for you to be constantly anxious about the payment and to
not know whether I would actually pull through. You don’t ever want to
experience that agony, do you?”

“Of course not.” I sighed, giving in to
his mood. “But where are you going with this?”

His deep blue eyes gazed at me with so
much intensity that I thought it would tear right through me. “You tried to get
out of the contract at the beginning of the month. Don’t do it again.”

My heart started thumping fast because of
the stern look on his face. “I’m – I’m sorry,” was all I could manage to say.

“You should be. You thought you would just
cut me out and not face any consequences!” he exclaimed. “Like somehow you were
just going to walk into all that money and never have to worry about it again.”

“I didn’t think any of those things,” I
said, starting to get a little frustrated myself. “I was just upset, Zayden,
because of how controlling you were being! And like I already told you, that is
just not something I am programmed to deal with.”

“So at the hint of the slightest bit of
trouble, you run? How can I trust that you won’t just randomly decide you
dislike something else I do or say and try to bail again? Only to want to come
running back when you realize you had no other options?”

“How can I trust that you don’t have any
more wives up your sleeve?” I asked cheekily and before he could answer,
quickly added, “The answer is there is no reason for me to do so, but I do. I
trust you because that’s how trust works, with or without evidence.”

“This was your punishment for breaking the
rules, Aria. I hope you don’t do it again.”

“My punishment?” I spat. “You need to stop
patronizing me. Why can’t we just be equals, Zayden? Is it because I am a
woman?”

“It’s because I am holding sixty thousand
dollars over your head,” he said in a tone that made me shiver. “Not to
mention, employ you – something I plan to continue to do into the far future,
as I mentioned earlier. So as the slightest bit of a courtesy or gratitude or
whatever it is that you feel, do me the favor of letting me act however I
fucking want.”

“So you don’t care that how you act may
hurt me?” I challenged him further.

“That is not what I said,” he said and
sighed. “I never said I wouldn’t make an attempt to change some of my ways, but
simply that you stop quitting every time something bothers you.”

“Fair enough.” I shrugged, beginning to
feel drained.

It was a contract after all.