ALL THAT HE WANTS (Volume 1 The Billionaire's Seduction) (39 page)

BOOK: ALL THAT HE WANTS (Volume 1 The Billionaire's Seduction)
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Thirty seconds later when he pulled away, he smiled and peered into my eyes.


Damn
I’m glad you got in the car.”

I laughed, laid my head down on his chest, and whispered, “So am I.”

8

We eventually got up and made our way to the bathroom, where we took a long, sensuous shower together, rubbing soap (and our hands) all over each other’s bodies.

Once we got out, I saw a tiny digital clock on the bathroom counter.

It was seven o’clock in the evening.

“Oh my God, I have to call Anh,” I said in a panic.

The last my roommate had heard, I was heading home after being fired. She had probably gotten back to the apartment, found it empty, and wondered if I’d nodded off on the freeway and gotten in a car wreck.

For the second time in four days, I was worrying my best friend sick.

“You have your phone, or do you need mine?” Connor asked as he toweled his hair dry.

I watched below his waist as the movement made his manhood swing back and forth. “Um… yeah…”

He saw what I was looking at. “Focus,” he teased.

“On this?” I asked as I reached out and caressed his limp shaft – after which it wasn’t quite so limp anymore.

“Ah,” he groaned, and leaned down and kissed me. Then he pulled away. “And don’t do that, or you won’t be able to call her for another half an hour.”

“That long, huh?”

“Well… two minutes, at least.”

I grinned and headed out to the bedroom with a towel wrapped around me.

Anh answered on the first ring.

“Lily?!”

“I’m sorry, I should have called, I’m sorry – ”

“Are you alright?!”

“I’m fine.”

“Where are you?!”

“Uh… Vegas?” I said with a wince.

A pause on the other end.

Then my roommate’s inner ‘mom’ kicked in.

“You thought it was a good idea to go to Las Vegas after everything that happened this morning?! And on, like, two hours of sleep?! And you didn’t let me KNOW?!”

“Well… Connor was driving, so…”

Another pause.

Then my roommate’s inner fan girl busted out.

“OH MY GOD, LILY!”
she squealed happily.
“DID HE – DID YOU – ”

“He showed up in the parking garage and said he was sorry, and asked me to get in the car with him.”

“And you got in?”

“Well…
yeah,
” I said, like,
Duh
.

She paused.

“Did… uh… you change your mind about his offer from last night?”

“What off– oh, no, GOD no –
NO.
He was just so sweet and amazing, and… and I couldn’t help myself…”

“Okay, good – so he’s not paying you, that’s good.”

I winced again.

Tell her later, or tell her now?

Might as well rip the band-aid off fast.

“Um… actually… he’d already deposited $50,000 in my account,” I admitted.

“WHAT?!”

“He said it was a gift, no strings attached, if I didn’t get in the car I could keep it anyway, and I didn’t want it, but he said to donate it if I didn’t want it,” I said hurriedly.

“…uhhh… okay…”

I could hear the doubt in her voice.

“I got in because I wanted to get in, Anh,” I said forcefully.

“…and the fact that you had just gotten fired had nothing to do with it?”

“No. I mean, no, it didn’t have anything to do with it.”

I was starting to get annoyed. Half because she was harshing my buzz – and half because she was picking at some half-buried doubts of my own.

“…okay,”
she relented.
“Just as long as you’re happy. You ARE happy, right?”

I thought back to my conversation with Connor in the car.

And the last 45 minutes.

“Absolutely.”

“Okay, then,”
Anh said, as though that settled it.

Then she paused again.


…50,000 dollars? Are you serious?”

“Yeah…” I said nervously, chewing at my lip.

“Jeez, Lily, you must be something ELSE in bed.”

“Anh!” I laughed, shocked that my roommate would even think such a thing.

“I wish some gorgeous guy would pay ME fifty grand for my poonanny.”

“OH MY GOD, you did NOT just say that!” I howled, caught between shocked laughter and righteous indignation.

“Oh, and way to go on negotiating for a higher – ”

“IT WAS A GIFT!”

“Uh huh… yeah, you’ll notice he’s not giving ME $50,000, though…”

“Anh – ”

“I’m just kidding. You know that.”

“I know,” I said, though I was a little nervous.

As Dr. Sheldon Cooper, my favorite TV nerd of all time, said once on
The Big Bang Theory:
‘It’s funny because it’s
true.’

But I pushed that out of my mind.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet…”

“Yeah, well, don’t put it all on black.”

“Oh
hell
no. And I think I can cover rent this month,” I teased.

“You think?”

“Maybe take you out for a deluxe spa day, my treat.”

“Ohhhh – NOW you’re talking.”

There was a pause, and her voice suddenly became serious.

“Lily?”

“Yeah?”

“…be careful, okay?”

“I will,” I promised.

“When are you coming back?”

“I don’t know. It could be a couple of days, or… longer, maybe.”

“Wow… well, just take care of yourself.”

“I will. You too.”

“I’m not the one in Sin City with a guy who thinks I bonk so good he’s putting fifty G’s in my bank account.”

“Anh!” I half-laughed, half-shouted.

“Have fun,”
she said sweetly.
“Make sure you give him his money’s worth.”

I shouted at her in playful outrage for a couple more seconds, and then we said our final goodbyes.

9

Dinner was amazing.

Hell, the whole
evening
was amazing.

It all started off as Connor got dressed and I was putting on my makeup.

“Where do you want to eat?” he asked as he buttoned up an expensive blue shirt. “I’m starving.”

“I don’t know anywhere in Vegas.”

“You’ve never been here before?”

“Oh, I’ve been… once. I just don’t think you want to eat at the $8.99 prime rib buffet.”

“So let’s splurge and go for the $12.99 one down the street.”

“What’s funny is, to you, that’s a joke. To me just a week ago, that was extravagant.”

“We’ll save it for another night. I’ve got something in mind, but we’ll need to go shopping beforehand.”

“For what?”

“For you.”

I suddenly felt incredibly self-conscious as I stood there in my bra and panties in front of the mirror. I looked over at my rumpled clothes still lying on the bedroom floor. “I… do I have to get new clothes to go out to eat?”

“No, but it’ll be fun.”

“Maybe we should just order in…”

“Oh no. We’re going out.”

“But if you’re starving – ”

“Room service is sending up a small snack. I’ll be fine.”

“But – ”

“Get dressed,” he commanded. “We’re going out. That’s final.”

10

The small snack turned out to be a bottle of white wine, some amazing cheese and fruit, and a bunch of light-as-air crackers.

Connor made a phone call as Johnny and I had a bite to eat. The wine was amazing – a light chardonnay with hints of pear and vanilla. But Johnny wouldn’t take a sip, no matter how much I tempted him.

“I’m on duty, Lily.”

“It’s just a glass.”

“No.”

“Half a glass? A fourth of a glass?”

“You’re a bad influence, you know that?”

I pulled back, suddenly feeling that I was being cruel. “Just on you, or on Connor, too?”

Johnny laughed. “No, I’d say you’re actually a
good
influence on him.”

I felt a little bit better after that.

Connor came back into the room groaning.

“Did you call Steven?” Johnny asked.

Steven was supposedly Connor’s other assistant... or the assistant to Sebastian, I forget which. I’d only heard him mentioned briefly before, when Sebastian was going off on a mini-tirade about how wonderful he was.

Just to be clear, that was Sebastian going off on a mini-tirade about how wonderful
Sebastian
was. Not Steven. Steven was third-class all the way in comparison to Sebastian.

According to Sebastian, anyway.

“He couldn’t get me the reservation I wanted,” Connor said.

I drew my head back in mock horror. “Oh no! Whatever shall we do?!”

Connor gave me a dirty look, but I refused to be cowed.

“I guess it’s the $12.99 buffet,” I shrugged with an
Oh well!
smile.

Connor kept the dirty look going. “I don’t think so.”

Johnny frowned. “Didn’t Steven just drop your name?”

“Yeah, isn’t that the magic word?” I asked saucily.

“Apparently not. Although ‘Connor Brooks’ seems to work pretty well on some people,” he smirked.

“Agh – you! – ” I yelled and threw a cracker at him.

He dodged it and laughed, then looked at Johnny. “Dare I…?”

“Dare you what?” I asked, a little fearful of retaliation for the cracker.

Like tickling, say.

Although
some
tickling might be nice…

“Just appeal to his need to be important to you. You do that, he’s putty in your hands,” Johnny advised.

Sebastian.

They were going to call Connor’s regular assistant.

“Oh, come onnnn!” I protested. “The poor guy’s on vacation 24 hours, and already you’re bugging him? Jeez, let’s just go eat somewhere else.”

Johnny grinned, then looked at Connor. “When I go on vacation and you want to call
me,
do me a favor and listen to her.”

“That’ll never happen, since you’re never
going
on vacation,” Connor said, then seemed to reconsider. “Maybe I shouldn’t call him.”

I folded my arms. “Finally, some common decency.”

Johnny looked over at me. “Lily, trust me when I say this: the only thing Sebastian likes more than reminding people they can’t get along without him… is hearing
them
say that they can’t get along without him.”

Connor pointed at Johnny like
You win
and dialed the phone.

“You’re both jerks, you know that?” I huffed.

“But you’re about to benefit,” Connor said, “and without having to sacrifice your righteous indignation.”

“I’ll take the $12.99 buffet instead.”

“We can drop you off on our way, if you want…”

I flipped Connor off, which he found hilarious.

Then Sebastian’s over-the-top voice erupted from the speakerphone.

“Oh my God, I knew it – has everything fallen apart ALREADY?”

Johnny looked over at me like
See?

“I go away for one day, and – what is it? Are you stranded somewhere? Did someone have the audacity to cancel a meeting? Did that little floozy run out on you?”

“HELLO!” I shouted at the phone. “I’m standing right here!”

“Ohhhh, of course you didn’t run out. Silly me, the gravy train’s still running…”

“Sebastian,” Connor warned.

I snorted in mock outrage. “And to think, I tried to get them not to disturb your vacation!”

I wasn’t really angry. Sebastian was outrageous, but he said things in such a ridiculous voice that it was hard to get worked up over them.

But I
was
determined to get in my digs.

“When the whole world’s gone to hell, you don’t NOT call the President of the United States just because he’s on vacation.”

“Oh, you’re the President now?” Johnny asked, amused.

“I thought you were more like the butler,” I said.

Johnny and Connor both went “OHHHHHH!” at that one.

“At least I’m not the call girl.”

Connor’s face twisted in anger. He was about to throw a fit, but I beat him to the punch.

“You
bitch,
” I laughed.

“And don’t you forget it, honey,”
Sebastian said, followed by three loud, sharp noises over the speakerphone:

Click! Click! Click!

I sighed. “That was in a Z formation, wasn’t it.”

“YES   IT   WAS. So, now that the butler and the call girl have finished their repartee, what can I do for you gentlemen?”

“First, you can be nice to Lily,” Connor snapped.

“That WAS me being nice to Lily.”

“That’s the sad thing, unfortunately,” Connor grumbled, but I just grinned.

“How’s your vacation so far?” Johnny asked.

“Lovely, until you interrupted it, thank you for asking. Javier’s a dream.”

Javier was the hairdresser in Los Angeles Sebastian had flown out to see. On very short notice. Without much warning.

I guess it hadn’t been a problem.

“But you didn’t call to ask about that, so what disaster shall I fix for you?”

“I can’t get a table at Robuchon’s,” Connor said.

“Yes, and the world is about to end,” I added.

Connor glared at me.

Then Sebastian spoke – with unbridled glee, I might add.

“Whaaat?!…  STEVEN couldn’t get one for you?”

Johnny elbowed me lightly in the ribs and arched his eyebrows like,
See? See?!

Connor sighed. “No, he couldn’t. I like him, but Steven is… insufficiently forceful, I’m afraid.”

“Or insufficiently bitchy,” Johnny muttered.

“I heard that, Kato.”

“Was that racist?” Johnny asked good-naturedly.

“Depends – does it make me the Green Hornet?” Connor asked.

“If you mean the clueless white boy who gets all the credit while Bruce Lee does all the work, then yes, that would be you.”

BOOK: ALL THAT HE WANTS (Volume 1 The Billionaire's Seduction)
10.81Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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