Billionaire Romance Boxed Set (9 Book Bundle) (113 page)

“Jessika,” he said. “Seriously,
what’s wrong with you? You wanted to get a book and now you’re pulling me
away from the book store. You were only in there for like three
minutes.”

“I’ll tell you in the car. Where is
it? We need to hurry. We can’t…” I looked over my
shoulder just in time to see two people exiting the book store: Solomon and
Beatrice.

A corner, somewhere, we needed to hide. I rushed
to the right and pulled Jeremy into an alleyway. The greasy, stale air in
the side street smothered me and I wanted to choke, but I carried on.

“I really don’t understand,” Jeremy
said. He refused to move any further, holding his ground.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Beatrice and Solomon
walking past the end of the alleyway. Beatrice tilted her head slightly,
looking just barely at me and Jeremy.

Fuck! An excuse, we needed an excuse to be in
the middle of an alley, to evade her scrutiny. I jumped into action and
grabbed Jeremy’s face in my hands, twisting us both to hide the majority of our
features. I pulled him into an awkward kiss, shoving him against the
wall.

Beatrice scoffed, sounding repulsed. Then the
telltale sign of her departure, her heels tapping past the alleyway entrance.

Jeremy gasped, astounded. When I was sure
Beatrice and Solomon were gone, I let him go, which worked out well because he
pushed me away at about the same time.

“I’m flattered and all,” he said.

“Don’t be,” I said. “It was a
ruse.”

“Right. Like some spy stuff, huh?
Detective movies? You on the run from the law or something?”

“No. I’ll explain it in the car.
Where did you park? Can we get there this way?” I peered down
the alleyway, reluctant to go back to the main street.

“Yeah,” he said. “I guess.”

“Alright. Let’s go.”

A million thoughts flipped through my mind as Jeremy
led me back to the car. At first I was elated, overjoyed at the fact that
Beatrice didn’t like Asher in the least. That feeling soon faded,
though. I was happy, but did I have a right to be? Asher
remained—or tried to remain—loyal to Beatrice, and so it didn’t matter what
exactly she did to him, but how he felt towards her. Which I assumed
would change if her plans were… if they were what? I wasn’t quite sure,
since I didn’t know anything about her plans in the first place.

Though it sounded like her and Solomon were doing
something more, too. An affair? Definitely a possibility, but even
that seemed difficult to prove.

And then it dawned on me, as sure as that. I
couldn’t actually prove anything. I didn’t have a recording of anything
they said, and I didn’t have any real credibility as far as anyone taking my
word for it, either. If I came right out and accused Solomon and Beatrice
of some kind of treachery, they could deny it. And then what? Well,
if they had actual plans, they’d delay them, I imagined. Possibly doing
something about me, too. I briefly imagined a mafia style murder
situation, but I doubted that would actually happen.

Still, no matter what, I needed to figure out how I
should approach this.

“We’re almost there,” Jeremy said.

I decided I needed to tell Jeremy, at the very
least. He might know what to do, or he might think I was insane. I
really hoped it was the first one.

His Absolute Impulse

*

“So, this is your apartment?” Jeremy asked
me.

I tossed my keys on the kitchen counter and looked
around. Sure, it was nothing compared to the Landseer estate, but I liked
it. The living room, kitchen, and dining area were actually all one combined
room, separated by a countertop. I sectioned off the living room and my
circle dining table with a couch to elude to the existence of separate rooms,
but it wasn’t that great. It worked, and sometimes I had people over for
dinner, but I kind of wished I had an actual dining room.

Still, the place looked nice enough. I kept it
clean and my furniture was only a few years old. I never watched TV, but
I had an older CRT TV in a rustic looking entertainment center against the wall
for when guests came over. Granted, I didn’t have cable(since I never
used it), but Redbox or my DVD collection solved most problems there.

I used to think all of this was good up until Jeremy
peered around my apartment with a funny look on his face.

“What?” I asked. “Yes, this is my
apartment.”

“It’s kind of small,” he said.

“I live by myself. I don’t need a big
place.”

“Is there another room? Is this
it?” He stepped past the “dining area” and into the
“living room.”

“My bedroom, then the bathroom. I can’t…
I mean, I know that Asher’s place is nicer, but it’s hard for someone like me
to afford more than this. I think it’s…”

“Oh,” he said, frowning. “No,
no. I didn’t mean it like that. I guess… well, I only have a room
of my own at Asher’s, anyways, so I don’t know what I’m going on about.
It’s a nice place, though. Looks cozy. Not a ton of room to move
around, but I guess that’s what going out is for, right?”

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks.”

“So,” he said, sitting at the table.
“What was that before? Why did you run me out of the
bookstore? You were so excited to go in, and then…”

“Yeah…” I trailed off, remembering
it. Maybe I shouldn’t tell him. Except I felt like I really needed
to tell someone. It was definitely them, Asher’s wife, Beatrice, and his director
of public relations, Solomon Royce. I’d inadvertently happened upon them
at my favorite independent bookstore, which was odd enough, but after
overhearing their conversation it became even stranger. I didn’t even
know what to think about it. Maybe I was going crazy or something.
That seemed like a more logical explanation than the truth.

“Do you want cookies?” I asked.
“With milk, of course.”

“Sure,” Jeremy said. “Yeah, why
not? Sounds nice.”

I poured us both a glass of milk and dug through my
cupboards for a box of Russian tea cookies while thinking about what to tell
him. How should I start? With the beginning, I supposed, except it
sounded weird. Oh, yes, I just overheard, and…

I handed Jeremy his glass of milk, sat alongside him
at the table, and put the box of cookies between us.

“These are cookies?” he asked, plucking one
of the confection sugar-covered balls from the box. “Huh.”

“Some people call them cakes, but they’re harder
like cookies. I don’t really care what they are, but they’re
delicious.”

He nibbled on one, then lifted his brow.
“Huh.” Dunking it into his milk, he plopped the rest of it in
his mouth and chewed.

“Right, so…” I looked at the box of
cookies and considered stuffing one in my mouth to waste time while I chewed
it. “Alright, listen. I know what I’m about to say won’t make
any sense, but I swear it’s true. I saw Beatrice and Solomon in the
bookstore. I overheard them talking.”

Jeremy nearly choked on a mouthful of milk. He
coughed and spluttered and I gasped and yelled at him to raise his hands in the
air.

When he seemed alright again, he said, “That’s
strange. Are you sure about… I mean… I’m not saying I don’t believe
you, but I can’t imagine why either of them would be there.”

“I don’t really know why they were there,
either,” I said.

“Fair enough. So, let’s say they were
there. What did you hear?”

I explained it to him. I didn’t know the exact
specifics, but it sounded like something involving an affair, an attempt to
ruin Landseer Enterprises, and then Beatrice’s inevitable divorce from
Asher. I knew it sounded insane, but I really needed to tell someone.

Jeremy stared at me long and hard. “Maybe
we need to take you to a doctor besides the in vitro specialist,” he said.

“This isn’t a time for jokes!” I
grabbed a cookie from the box and chomped on it hard, crushing it into
pieces. “I wouldn’t just say this, alright?” Powdered
sugar sputtered from my mouth to the table. I glowered and finished
eating my cookie, then added, “I don’t know why they were there, either,
but I know it happened. You don’t have to believe me. I swear I’m
not trying to pull anything. I just… I don’t know what to do, you
know? Do I do anything? Do I just ignore it? If I tell Asher,
he’d just look at me funny and get mad, don’t you think? I wouldn’t blame
him if he did.”

Jeremy took a drink of his milk, wiped his lips with
the cuff of his sleeve, and sighed. “Look, first off, Asher wouldn’t
look at you funny or get mad. He probably wouldn’t believe you, but he’s
a nice guy, so he’d at least listen. The problem is that right after he’d
talk to Beatrice about it. And, if what you said happened, then she’d
obviously lie to him. So we can’t do that.”

“Does this mean you believe me?” I asked.

“I don’t not believe you,” he said.
“Let’s leave it at that. I wouldn’t be surprised if Beatrice was
planning something like this, but I don’t know you that well, either. I
like you, don’t get me wrong, and you seem nice, but…”

“No, no, I understand. Thanks for listening
and not yelling at me. I really appreciate it.”

“What we have to do,” he said, “is
figure out what exactly is going on. With evidence, preferably. If
that’s even possible, I have no idea. You have to understand and agree
that maybe you misheard, too. Also, maybe it was someone else entirely in
that room. People that sounded similar, or with the same names,
right? It happens.”

“No.” I shook my head.
“When, um, when I kissed you in the alley, you remember? It was
because I saw Beatrice and Solomon walking past. I didn’t want them to
realize it was us.”

“I just figured I was irresistibly
attractive,” he said, smirking. “I guess your reason makes more
sense, though. You and I totally wouldn’t work out together.
Sorry. I wish I’d seen them, though. It’d make this easier.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry about
that. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Eh, it’s fine. I got a kiss from a
beautiful woman out of it, so who am I to complain?”

I hit him in the shoulder and pursed my lips.
“Shut up.”

“I was giving you a compliment!”

“Right. Sure. Whatever.” I
stood up, grabbing a cookie for good measure. “I have to call my
mother to tell her what’s going on, but after can you help me pack some things
and maybe we can think of something? Maybe it’s nothing, but it’s good to
have a plan, right?”

“Yeah,” Jeremy said. He smiled at me
and gave me a thumbs up. “Don’t worry. Asher’s a tough
guy. Everything will work out in the end. He didn’t get rich from
dumb luck or anything. He knows what’s up.”

I smiled. Yes, he must. Asher was kind and
nice and interesting and fun, maybe a little domineering, but he was other
things, too. He had business savvy, of course, and knew how to navigate
the corporate world with ease. One thing really bothered me, though.

“Solomon Royce has done good work for me, though
I don’t understand his methods exactly,” Asher had said.
“Always away doing this or that, sparking interest in company holdings,
doing press releases, that kind of thing. I couldn’t manage any of it for
the life of me, so I’m glad to have him, but sometimes it’s confusing since I
don’t understand most of what his reports are about.”

Maybe I was worrying over nothing, but it seemed like
Solomon could easily pull something if he wanted. If he slipped it into a
report, disguised it so that Asher wouldn’t even bother to notice, then it
could be disastrous. Asher said he trusted Solomon and that the director
of public relations had done good work for him in the past, so why would he
suddenly stop trusting him? If Solomon wanted to sabotage Landseer
enterprises through faulty reporting, Asher probably wouldn’t even bother to
double check and try to understand the PR reports until it was too late.

I walked to my bedroom contemplating that.
Falling onto my bed, I snatched the cordless phone from my nightstand and
dialed my mother’s number.

…

“Jessika,” my mother said. “I’ve
tried calling you. Where have you been? What are you doing home
this early. Shouldn’t you be working?”

“Mom,” I said. “Yes, about
that. There’s… well, I found a job. It’s um, maybe more
permanent.”

“Oh?”

Right. A job. That’s how I’d spin
it. “So I met a man,” I said, figuring I should start with
that.

“You’re not moving to Las Vegas or something, are
you honey? I don’t care how attractive he is, if he says you can make it
far as a stripper he’s just trying to use you.”

“Ugh! Are you serious? No, I’m not
moving to Las Vegas and I’m not becoming a stripper.”

“You were a really good dancer. You could
probably do it if you wanted to. Have you looked into that? I’ve
heard those girls are really nice and you can make a lot of money.”

“Mom, I’m not going to be a stripper. You
need to be attractive for that.”

I could almost see my mom shaking her head on the
other side of the phone. “No, that’s not true. They have um…
waffleface?”

“Butterface,” I corrected.

“Oh! Yes, that’s it. Not that you are
one, but if you’ve got nice breasts then it doesn’t matter. I’m your
mother, so I know these things, and I bet men would definitely like your breasts.
Just don’t become one of those crackwhores, alright? Promise me
that.”

“Mom. Listen, please. I’m not even
becoming a stripper. This isn’t about that. I met a man and he’s
rich, alright, and…”

“Oh, so he’s like a sweetdaddy. That sounds
nice.”

“Sugardaddy,” I corrected. “And,
no. Um. So, he has a wife, right?”

“Are you having an affair with a married man,
Jessika?”

I blushed. Oh God, my mother already knew about
my indiscretions with Asher and I hadn’t even told her. “Would you
let me finish?” I said. Better to change the subject, really.

“Alright. So you met a man and he’s rich
and he has a wife. I can’t see where this is going if you aren’t having
an affair with him.”

I ignored the last part. “They want
children, but his wife… she can’t. There’s problems, right? So he
asked me if I’d consider doing, um…”

“Oh. I read about that in the paper.
There was an ad looking for women to donate eggs. That’s really
nice. So you’re doing that? That’s probably better than being a
stripper, honey. I don’t think you could handle taking your clothes off
in a room full of men.”

“Yeah,” I said, blinking twice,
frowning. This was going easier than I thought. “Yeah, so I’ll
do that. I’d be a surrogate, too. His wife, she doesn’t really want
to carry the baby to term, either. Um… it’s about a year long, nine
months and everything and… maybe I’ll be a nanny after, you know?
Because I’ve always wanted to try and get more into book stuff. I’d
really like to see if I can do it. This way, if I’m living there and
helping out, I’ll have a little more free time.”

“Just don’t let his wife catch you having an
affair with him, alright? I don’t want to read about you in the
tabloids.”

“Mom! We’re not having an affair!
I… we just watched a movie once, and I slept in his guest home.
It’s…”

“Oh, no, don’t tell me about the affair. I
don’t want reporters hounding me if you get caught. I’d rather know
nothing so they can’t get information out of me.” My mother laughed
when I groaned. “So who’s this man? What’s his name?”

“Asher,” I said. “Asher
Landseer. He owns Landseer Enterprises.”

“Oo~oh,” my mother said. “An
older man. Close, though. I just saw an article on him. He’s
one of the richest men under thirty. Twenty-eight to be exact.
That’s good. Dating an older man is usually best since I find the
maturity levels mix better.”

“I’m twenty-four. He’s not that much
older. Also, we aren’t dating.”

“No, no, of course not. But when you start
dating and having your affair, I’ll approve.”

“I’m hanging up now. I’m done with this
conversation.”

My mom laughed. “I’m glad you’re doing
well, Jessika. So you’re going to stay at Asher’s place? That’s
nice. Is there a phone there? I want to be able to call you.
Also, I need to talk to him, you tell him that. I don’t care that he’s
rich, but if my daughter is staying at someone’s house and doing this egg thing
for him and his wife, I want to know who they are.”