The Virgin and the Billionaires: The Complete Series (21 page)

“Do you want to take a shower before bed?” he asked, gently
tugging at Dana’s towel.

Dana felt the towel about to drop. She clung to it for a
moment, but when she saw William’s hungry eyes, she dropped it to the ground.
She watched William’s eyes widen. A big grin stretched across his face.

“Beautiful,” he declared. “Just beautiful.”

Dana couldn’t recall being called beautiful by anyone
before. ‘Hot’, yes. ‘Sexy’, yes. But never ‘beautiful’.
 
She walked toward William.

“Gorgeous,” she beamed, looking him up and down.

They both drew their eyes upward until they met.

“Shower?” William repeated.

“Sure,” Dana answered.

William took Dana’s hand and led her toward the shower,
where they sat together under a line of showerheads and bathed in steam,
intermittently sharing a passionate kiss and pressing their hot, wet bodies
together.

Refreshed and exhausted, Dana and William huddled together
under the covers of William’s plush, soft bed and feel asleep in each other’s
arms.

***

Dana woke up with the sunrise the next morning. She kissed
William, who was still sleeping, on the forehead before she headed back out to
her car and made the long drive back to her apartment to change before she had
to be back at the SoCal Style office.

She threw herself together as quickly as she could. She
couldn’t wipe the smirk off of her face; she was so glowing with happiness.

But before she had the chance to leave her apartment, Dana’s
phone buzzed and vibrated.

A blocked number. She knew exactly who it was. Her stomach
sank. The rosy glow in her cheeks turned a pallid white. She took a deep breath
and answered.

“We need to talk. After work. Come to my office.” Alexander
did not sound happy.

“Okay,” Dana replied with a shaky voice.

Alexander hung up. Dana knew something was going on, but she
didn’t want to indulge her worst suspicions.

Dana tried to keep her spirits up during the day by
remembering that she had just gotten a raise, but it wasn’t working very well.
She was perpetually distracted and all of her shots were shaky or blurred. At
one point, Amy and Emily felt they had to comment on Dana’s appearance.

“You look green, literally,” Emily fretted. “Are you okay?”

Dana, lost in her head, didn’t hear her.

“Dana!” Amy yelled from across the studio.

Dana snapped out of it, startled. She almost dropped her
camera when she turned in Amy’s direction.

“Are you alright?” Amy asked. “You look sick. Your face is
all green.”

“I’m fine,” Dana lied. She continued to ignore the interns
as she tried and failed to get into a good work mindset. The day slipped by and
little got done.

She was grateful and incredibly anxious when five o’clock
rolled around. She and her car crawled over to Alexander’s Downtown office in
the thick rush hour traffic.

Dana felt suffocated. The heavy smog hanging low in the sky
didn’t help this feeling, brought on by the anxiety she’d been feeling all day.
It was moments like these, fraught with emotion and stuck moving at a snail’s
pace in the LA gridlock, that Dana questioned whether leaving the peace, quiet,
and relative boredom of her hometown had really been the right decision.

Slowly, the skyline loomed larger in the distance. Dana
inched toward her block and spent another 15 minutes looking for a parking spot
in the garage of Alexander’s building. The cars spilling out in an unending
stream made it difficult to move against the flow of traffic, let alone turn in
to a parking spot.

I just can’t get a
break today,
Dana thought.

Her parking spot secured, Dana headed toward the building’s
elevator. A nauseating sense of déjà vu overcame her as she shot up the height
of the building and was let out in the lobby of the Price-Levy Investments
offices. The lights were familiarly dim, the floor familiarly empty.

Dana heard Alexander’s familiar voice call to her from his
office. As she walked by the boardroom, she remembered running out on Alexander
the first time they had hooked up. She remembered meeting William at their
shoot, and having put him at the back of her mind without another thought
because she was so enraptured by Alexander’s charms.

Dana stepped into Alexander’s office and turned to close the
door.

“Don’t bother. There’s nobody here,” Alexander interrupted
from behind his desk.

Dana laid down her bag and sat down on the other side of
Alexander. He came around the desk and sat in the chair next to hers. He sighed
deeply as he sat back, not looking at Dana. She didn’t feel intimidated by him
anymore, and it seemed like Alexander was aware of this.

Seeing him face to face, Dana was even more certain that
Alexander was about to confirm her worst suspicions.

He sat in silence for a moment. He reached for the glass of
scotch he had left on the other side of his desk. He swished it around in the
cup. He took a big sip before finally speaking.

“Of all the people that you could have chosen, you chose to
fool around with my business partner.” Alexander paused. “Not only my best
friend, but my business partner.” He shook his head, almost imperceptibly.

“It’s not like I planned it or anything –“ Dana
countered.

“It doesn’t matter,” Alexander interrupted.

“You never told me I couldn’t!” she exclaimed. She wasn’t
going to let Alexander exert his dominance over her when she knew she was
right.

Alexander paused, knowing what Dana said was true.

“But it never occurred to you that it might be a bad idea?”

Dana wanted to tell Alexander that it had indeed occurred to
her, and had nearly kept her awake at night, but she thought it best to not
answer.

Alexander took another sip of his drink and set it down on
the desk with a loud ‘clank’.

“It is – in part – my fault,” he admitted. “I
never told you not to; you’re right. But for William to go around behind my
back like that, it’s just – wow.” He looked at Dana, his eyes meeting
hers for the first time since she’d come in.

“I’m sorry. I’m thinking out loud. I don’t know what to make
of the situation.”

“That’s okay,” Dana replied. “I don’t either, really.” She
chuckled, exasperated.

Alexander was beginning to lose his cool. Dana could tell
that he was working hard to restrain himself.

“William
knew
, and
he did it anyway,” he revealed.

Dana gasped.

“
WHAT
?” she cried.
“Who told him?”

Alexander hung his head and leaned on his desk. “It was
probably Jessica, our secretary. You know her, I believe.”

Dana’s mouth nearly fell open.

“Yes. How the hell did
she
know?”

“I sure as hell didn’t tell her,” Alexander said. “But she
knows me well enough to get suspicious about things like that. She is my
secretary, you know. She sees my schedule and makes my dinner reservations.
That’s her job.”

“No shit it’s her job,” Dana blurted, getting testy. “You
didn’t think to do that for yourself when I was involved? For your own
discretion? Out of respect for me, maybe?”

“I didn’t think she would care!” He shouted, extending his
arms in exasperation.

Dana tried to calm herself down for a moment. She stood up
and paced around the office, breathing deeply.

“Why would she
want
to tell William that we were sleeping together? What reason could she possibly
have?” Dana’s heart was racing.

Alexander was silent. Dana shot her eyes at him.

“I…I…”

“’I’ What?” Dana probed.

“I probably shouldn’t tell you that.”

Dana rolled her eyes. “Well, now you have to tell me.”

Alexander sighed and sat in his desk chair. “She probably
did it to stick a wedge between us.”

“Why? Why would she want to? Does she have a
crush
on you or something?” Dana was
trying very hard not to raise her voice, but wasn’t doing very well.

Alexander hesitated and hesitated. It was clear that his
penchant to be honest was not suiting him at that moment.

“Jessica and I have been sleeping together for a long time,”
he finally blurted. “Since before you and I ever did.”

Dana had a brief flashback to the fantasy she had had of the
two of them having rough sex in the restaurant bathroom. That quickly subsided
and transformed into shock and rage. Jessica had reached out to her as a
friend, but she had lied to Dana. She wasn’t trying to be her friend at all.
Dana was only glad that she had never gotten too close to her, and at that
moment she knew that she never wanted to see Jessica again. At the very least,
she didn’t want to be her friend.

And then there was Alexander. As if it needed to be any
clearer, here it finally was: evidence of where his priorities truly lie. He
had been honest with Dana about his lack of desire for a relationship. She
couldn’t fault him for that. She felt safe assuming he was telling the truth
about having been with Jessica longer than he had been with her. It made sense.
She couldn’t fault him for choosing to sleep with both of them. Why, then, did
she feel so deceived and confused? Why were they having such a heated argument?

“Alexander,” Dana finally said.

“Yes?” He looked at her.

“Why are we fighting like this? Clearly, neither of us has
really done anything wrong.”

Alexander nodded in agreement. He planted his face in his
hands, rubbing it vigorously and sighing. He lifted his head and looked Dana in
the eye.

“I think that both of us have allowed our feelings to get
more involved in this situation than either of us wanted.”

Dana’s stomach sank. “I think you’re right.” She sat back
down across from Alexander, who moved to the seat next to her. Together they
sat for a moment in another of the many pregnant silences that punctuated their
conversation.

“I let myself get attached to the idea that your loyalty to
our agreement meant something more,” Alexander confessed. “But on a more
personal note, it’s rare that I meet somebody who I feel can really ‘hang’ with
me. You’re one of those people, Dana. So I confess that I liked the idea of you
being around a lot.”

Dana sighed. “And I had a lot of thoughts that seem –“
she laughed at herself. “ Incredibly naïve looking back. Like the idea that
because we got more comfortable with each other as we went along, that actually
meant that we were developing feelings for each other.”

Alexander chuckled uncomfortably. He took another swig of
scotch, then turned and looked at Dana in the eyes.

“Maybe we’re both just trying to admit that we developed
feelings for each other. Strip away the complicated analyses and that’s what it
boils down to.”

Dana was silent. She knew Alexander was right. It was
strange to hear it from his lips, though. She didn’t want to tell Alexander,
but now she wasn’t so sure of those feelings, especially after her incredible
night with William. She simply felt more at ease with him. She felt more
respected and more appreciated. William was kinder, gentler, and simple in his
motives. She liked Alexander – she admired his intelligence, his work
ethic, his incredible good looks and swagger that combined into a demeanor that
was irresistibly sexy – but felt now that he was too cold and distant.

Alexander interrupted her thoughts.

“I’m afraid that I can’t act on those feelings,” his voice
sounded heavy with emotion in a way Dana had never heard from him before. He
looked Dana in the eyes again. “I’m married to my work. I don’t have the time
or the energy.”

“That’s okay,” Dana replied, not wanting to rub her
preference for William in his face. “I understand, and I wouldn’t want to
demand that of you.”

Alexander smiled. “You know me well enough to know, I see.”
He continued to look at Dana, fleeting glimpses of emotion filling his eyes. He
rested his hand on Dana’s. Though she let him, she couldn’t stop thinking about
Alexander and Jessica. Why would she ever settle for an ‘arrangement’ with
someone who would never stop seeing other women when she had someone who wanted
her without any of the strings that ironically came with ‘no strings attached’?

“I guess this is it for us, then,” she said. “There’s no way
we can keep going. It’s turned into something completely different.”

Alexander nodded. “I’m strangely sad. But I won’t bug you
with that. I’ll miss you, Dana.” He squeezed her hand.

A sad smile spread across Dana’s face. “I’ll miss you too.”
But
this is the right thing to do.

She stood up. Alexander followed her. They shared a quick
embrace.

“Thanks for the company,” Alexander whispered.

“Thanks for
everything
,”
Dana replied.
Even the bittersweet
things.
“You taught me so much
.
”
She let go of Alexander and grabbed her purse off the floor. She was just about
to walk out the door.

“Wait, Dana.”

She turned around.

“Do you want to screw around one last time before you go?”

She thought about it for a moment, tempted.

“No, thanks. You could always ask Jessica.” She turned her
back toward Alexander and walked out of his office, not intending to return.

“Goodbye,” she whispered as she turned the corner.

***

Dana needed to clear her head. She had gotten into her car
and driven toward the Pacific Coast Highway, but instead of heading north
toward Malibu, she had headed south toward Santa Monica and parked her car at
the Santa Monica Pier.

Feelings of uncertainty had overwhelmed her during her
drive. It still wasn’t clear why William had pulled Dana away from Alexander
when he knew that they were sleeping together. She figured that he had either
done it out of spite, jealousy, or a sense of competition; or that he had
swooped in early to steal Dana away from him. She didn’t know enough to be sure
either way.