Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (83 page)

“It’s just that,” Stacey, who had finally
managed to catch a breath, spoke. “What are the odds you know? Very, very low.
But then, you’re not going to believe,” she started laughing again. “I can’t,
Nick, you tell her.”

“Well, after you and Zayden had gotten
over your last set of – uh – complications, Stacey and I were talking about it
– we were glad!” he added immediately upon seeing the expression on my face,
which wasn’t exactly that of glee. “We are always happy to see you happy, Aria,
you know this. But Stacey and I were talking about how, well, theatrical this
whole thing between you and him has been. So full of twists and turns and
popcorn worthy. He’s a handsome billionaire and your boss. How often does stuff
like this happen in real life?”

“I don’t understand why any of it is funny
yet,” I said, still annoyed. “Enlighten me?”

“Okay, okay.” Nick sighed. “So Stacey and
I were talking about it and she jokingly said ‘what’s next, we find out that
Aria’s dad banked with South National before he went bankrupt?’ and we just
laughed about it.”

“That is eerie,” I said with my mouth
hanging open, and then burst out laughing myself. If this hadn’t been so
utterly bizarre, perhaps I would have been really pissed. “My goodness, Stacey,
you should become a fortune teller!”

“No,” she gasped. “It’s not like I was
predicting this or would ever wish for something like this to happen to you.
The reason I had even said it was because it seemed so absurdly far-fetched to
be true.”

“It is. Too absurdly far-fetched to be
true. And yet it’s true. If this wasn’t all happening to me, I wouldn’t believe
it could happen to anyone in real life.”

“Are you okay though, Aria?” Stacey now
looked serious, as though only just registering the full implications of what I
had told them. “What are you going to do?”

“I am going to pay him back.” I shrugged.
“Eventually.”

“Oh god, Aria. This is ridiculous! You
shouldn’t have to. You’re not the one that lost him all that money!”

“He knows that. He is just angry right now
and you can’t exactly blame him. I did for a bit but then I put myself in his
shoes and it kind of makes sense why he is so frustrated, with the money he is
paying for my mom and everything.”

“You are so mature about this, Aria,”
Stacey said in amazement and looked at Nick. “If you ever made me pay you five
hundred thousand dollars for something I didn’t do, I would dump your ass.”

“That is never going to be a problem since
I doubt either one of us will have that kind of money any time soon. And if we
do in the far, far future, it won’t matter cause it will be both our money
since we’ll be marri—” he immediately stopped talking. His cheeks flushed hard.
I turned to look at Stacey, who seemed to be about ready to pass out.

“So you guys ready for when I invite
Zayden over for pizza?” I asked brightly, trying to change the subject and
making a mental note to ask Nick if a proposal was coming up. It was essential
that I helped him pick out a ring that Stacey would like or else she would
never forgive me for not fulfilling my best friend duties.

Neither of them answered for a while, but
Nick finally broke the silence. “I actually really am. Let’s see what the big
deal about the dude is anyway!”

“You will soon enough.” I sighed, relieved
that the awkward moment had passed. “For now I have to go to his house. He is
helping me with my paper after much cajoling. He thinks he has made a career
out of helping me out.” I rolled my eyes and walked towards my bedroom to
gather my stuff. I was glad to be able to leave the two of them alone.

Chapter
7

Zayden

I was informed that Aria was waiting in my
living room when I was still speaking to my mother on the phone, exasperated.

“Yes, I am fine,” I said for the
thousandth time. “Of course I was hurt by what happened with Gina mom, but I’m
trying hard to move on. If you keep calling me every day to remind me of this,
I won’t get past it.”

“I’m sorry, Zay. I don’t mean to upset you
further. I just, I worry about you sometimes,” she said, sounding dismayed.
“And quite honestly, I am always just looking for an excuse to talk to you.”

I swore silently and clutched my palms
tight. How long was this going to go on? When it was over, I also had Aria to
deal with. While I was looking forward to seeing her – certain parts of her
especially so – the last time we had been in each other’s company had not
exactly been pleasant. I wasn’t very keen on picking up from there.

A sentimental speech from my mother was
the worst possible preamble to the evening. It went on for another ten minutes
before I could excuse myself, claiming an essential business contact was
waiting for me outside. I did not dare mention Aria. My mother was not ready to
hear that I had managed to fall for a young employee just yet. Not that she
could complain at this point since she was convinced she had ruined the last
woman in my life. Grinning at that thought, I finally stepped outside to find
Aria sitting alone, cross-legged, on the sofa, wearing a bright blue and
extremely low-cut dress and reading a magazine. The effect on me was
instantaneous and I wondered why I hadn’t chosen to wear more comfortable pants
knowing Aria would be showing up. There wouldn’t be enough room for all of me
that got excited upon seeing her shimmering legs. I swallowed, ignoring the odd
yet now familiar desire to lift up her skirt and devour her with my mouth. I
simply coughed lightly to announce my presence.

She looked up at me innocently. “Hi,” she
said and smiled brightly. “Thanks for agreeing to help me out with my paper.
Especially under the given circumstances. Are you still feeling…unpleasant?”

I hardly caught on to what she was saying,
as I was still mentally salivating at the thought of whatever was underneath
her skirt.

“Zayden,” she whispered, looking at me
pleased. “You’re ogling.”

“Am I now?” I asked in a barely audible
whisper. “Sorry,” I said, not feeling sorry at all, rather wishing that I could
take her clothes off with my eyes. I didn’t see how any work was going to get
done unless I took care of my raging erection first. I suspected Aria had a
different order of events in mind. I blinked hard in order to shake off
whatever was boiling inside me. I tried looking to the side of her and said,
“Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I was asking if you were still…I don’t
know… upset with me?”

“Aria, I was never upset with you, you
understand that?” I sighed and sat as far away from her on the sofa as I could.

She snorted. “Right. You weren’t. And you
sure as hell didn’t go completely batshit on me in your office earlier either.
Or scowl at me until I promised to give you five hundred thousand dollars. That
was all my imagination.”

And there we were. No matter how hard I
had hoped that we would just simply ignore what had happened earlier, I knew
Aria far too well to even momentarily consider she would just give me an easy
pass for offending her so deeply. How else was I supposed to react to what I
had heard?

“I was upset. Wouldn’t you be if you had
overheard the conversation and you were in my place?” I demanded.

“Of course I would’ve. Your reaction was
natural at first. I didn’t even blame you for storming out like that, did I?
The only difference is, I would have given you a chance to tell me and explain
yourself had we switched places. But I understand that you work differently
than I do and that’s okay. It’s all okay, really Zayden. I am not upset with
you and I will gladly pay you that money back. It’s good business practice,
something I wish to employ myself going further in my career. So really, there
was no reason to have been so hot-headed earlier and—”

“Can I fuck you?” I cut her off without
thinking about what I was saying, unable to pay attention any longer. She
stopped her sentence looking taken aback, opened her mouth and the closed it
again. “Sorry.” I grinned, though I wasn’t sorry at all, and she wouldn’t be
either after I was done with her. “It’s just that dress…it’s really bothering
me…I just want to take it off over your head and fuck you right here.”

She blinked tightly as her cheeks flushed.
Clearly, my words were having the right impact on her and her whole body was
screaming for me to take her. But when she opened her eyes a few minutes later
and heaved a deep sigh, her words were not what I had expected them to be.

“As much as the thought of you coming over
here and you know…I have a deadline, remember?”

“Do you think either of us are equipped to
use our brains right now without the…you know?” I asked in a very low voice and
winked. I walked slowly over to her and leaned next to her. I whispered across
her ear, touching it slightly with my lower lip, “Do you really want to do
homework right now?”

She swallowed hard and I could see the
back of her neck shivering, as I casually ran my fingers over her dress around
her mound, ignoring the throbbing in my own veins. Suddenly, she jerked
upright, startling me into reality.

“Zayden!” She looked at me with her eyes
twinkling. “My paper is due tomorrow! I came here because I need help.”

I grunted like someone had just taken away
a piece of my favorite candy right when I was about to eat it. “What do I even
get out of this?”

“I’ll make you a deal,” she said and
removed her dress from over her head, revealing matching black lace underwear.
I began touching her, but she used her hand to gesture me to stop. “I need five
major bullet points for advocating fair trade as an alternative to free trade
in developing countries. I already have a few written down here,” she said,
producing a notepad from her purse that was lying on the couch. “They are not
all solid and need to be perfected. I need your help particularly with
researching live examples and case studies to back up every point. And we
certainly need to add more main ideas because not all of mine are strong
enough, which is also where you come in.”

The way she was speaking with so much
confidence and well, command, made me momentarily forget about my sexual
desires and look at her in complete awe. I had never gotten used to this aspect
of being with Aria. She liked to take charge. I had never been one to take
orders from anybody, let alone a twenty-year-old girl. But when she got that
spark in her eyes and decided how things were simply going to go her way, no
questions asked, I was at once exasperated and convinced that there was no
woman better suited for me in the whole world.

I perused her bullet points, which seemed
to me to be solid. Instead of interrupting her passionate instructions, I chose
to smile and nod along. It seemed to be an appropriate response, considering
she looked pleased.

“Now, on to where your reward lies in all
of this,” she said, putting a hand on her right hip and pointing another
towards my general direction. “Here is the deal. Every bullet point leads you
one step further to getting to have you know what with me.” She grinned,
looking mightily pleased with herself. “This is how it will go. For the first
bullet point perfected, I take off the rest of my clothes for your ogling
pleasures.”

“I’m not sure that will help my, uh,
situation.” I pointed towards my crotch. “Hurt it, rather, and make it harder
for me to concentrate on your bullet point.”

“Not if you want to finish the whole game.
You have to force yourself to concentrate or you lose. For the second bullet
point, I’ll sit on top of the table and let you watch me make myself come.”

Just hearing her say those words made my
dick go out of control. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to actually
experience it. “You’re making this so hard.”

“Pun intended?” She grinned. “Hard, yes,
but fun?”

I sighed loudly. “Yes. Fun. In an
extremely torturous kind of a way. Go on.”

“Third bullet point and you will receive
the best blow job of your life. Plus, you can come all over my face.”

“If you keep talking like that,” I said,
desire now driving me to the point of insanity. “Then I’ll have to forget all
about your homework and take you right now.”

“That’s the idea, for you to want to do
that!” she exclaimed charmingly. “That’s the challenge. If you can come up with
great ideas under this kind of pressure – and I’m sure you can – then you will
be rewarded. Because at the fourth bullet point, you can, ahem, recharge
yourself, by going down on me.”

“That’s what I have wanted to do since I
saw you in this living room. I can’t wait to taste you…”

Unconsciously, I was lightly rubbing my
shaft, my brain unable to register much that was going on around me. She was
right, controlling this was going to make it fun. I had to find a way to snap
out of it long enough for my brain to work, one great idea at a time.

“You know what happens at the final bullet
point. You can…how do you say it…oh yeah…fuck my brains out. Long and hard. But
only if you make it through all five bullet points.”

“What about your case studies and
examples?” I asked, trying to conceal the effect she had on me by mentioning me
fucking her brains out. If she was set on playing this game, I had to be set on
winning. After all that I had accomplished in my life, keeping my cool for
another hour or so and generating some good ideas while my whole body refused
my brain’s attempt to function should not be that hard.