BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: “Sign It Now” Series Book 1 (Billionaire Bad Boy Alpha Male Romance) (Contemporary New Adult Romance Short Stories) (3 page)

Brad.

Had he been in her apartment?

No, that was absurd. What was she saying? He was a jerk, but she did not peg him for a breaking and entering type. He was not a damn cat burglar. He was just a pompous asshole. What reason would he have for breaking into her place anyway? Was he a stalker? Was he secretly in love with her? Was that why he was giving her so much crap all the time? He secretly adored her and wished that she was his?

Sophia laughed to herself at the mere thought of it. The whole idea was creepy and just ridiculous. She was exhausted. A good night’s sleep was in order for her. Maybe she could let the work go for a bit. She needed some rest, obviously if she was thinking some crazy thoughts like that.

Why was she so hung up on Brad?

“I am not hung up,” Sophia answered herself.

But then why could she not get the man out of her mind? He was everything that she hated to see in a man, and he did nothing but humiliate her and make her feel bad about herself. She could not let him get into her head like that. He was torturing her at work and now he was torturing her even when he wasn’t there. He had her imagining that he was breaking into her place, for God’s sake.

Was Carrie right? Was she crushing on the enemy? Sophia hated to admit it to herself, but it would not be the first time. She found herself wondering why bad boys always did it to her. There was something that she found irresistible. But she did not feel that way about Brad. She would not let herself. The man was beyond being a bad boy; he was just a rotten human being who probably had no soul. She had to remember that and try to tolerate him and keep him away from her as much as possible. That was all. She could do that. She was sure of it.

Sophia awoke to the phone ringing beside her bedside table. She had set an alarm which was actually due to go off in ten minutes, ironically. But who the hell was calling her at this hour? It was a quarter till seven in the morning.

Sophia looked at her phone but the caller ID did not have a name with it. It was no one she knew because everyone she knew was in her contacts. She decided to let it go and try to salvage the next ten minutes of sleep for herself before her real alarm went off.

She was just drifting off again when her phone rang once more. She groaned and grabbed it off the night stand. It was the same unknown number. Sophia answered angrily prepared to yell at some telemarketer asshole who did not know it was against the law to call before nine.

“Hello?” Sophia said.

“Hey, Sophia,” a familiar voice said.

“Yea? Who is—“

“It’s Brad Thorpe. Hey, I hate calling you this early but I wanted to catch you before you left. Me and the other investors have decided that we have to hold an emergency meeting today at ten and we need to make sure you can make it.”

“What? An emergency meeting? What is going on?”

“Well, we need to speak with you in person. I can’t really go into it over the phone.”

“I really don’t think I can make it. I have a million things going—“

“I don’t think you heard me. There is a meeting today at ten. We will see you there,” Brad said forcefully and a little angry. “And by the way, I hope the sun doesn’t blind you.”

“Wait—“Sophia started to speak, but the line went dead.

Sophia sat there for a few minutes in shock watching the time change to six fifty-five and her alarm started to go off. She turned it off in frustration reenacting the phone call in her mind and the angry way that Brad had spoken to her. What was he talking about an emergency meeting? What was going on that they could not tell her over the phone?

Sophia hopped in the shower and got ready, but the phone call kept replaying over in her head on a continuous loop no matter how hard she tried to forget it all. There was something creepy about it and she just could not put her finger on what it was.

Brad had started off the call being very polite and business like. He almost sounded professional and then when she had asked a few simple questions the asshole turned into a jerk and began to boss her around. If he had talked to her that way in person she probably would not have been able to restrain herself and she would have slapped the taste out of his mouth.

I hope the sun doesn’t blind you
.

That was the last thing that Brad had said to her. Why was it sticking with her, echoing in her mind? It sounded so familiar, but she could not put her finger on where she had heard that before. What did it mean? Was it just some coincidence from something she had heard someone say years ago, but now she was just recalling it? That was probably it. The phone call was still messing with her; it was such a weird and crappy way to wake up in the morning. She was at least glad the meeting was early so she could get it out of the damn way. She was going to have to rearrange her whole day though. Just the very thought of this made her very tired and she wanted to retreat back under the covers with her book and lay in bed all day.

The book.
Hope the sun doesn’t blind you
.

Sophia finished drying off and ran to the other room to grab the book that she was reading.

She hoped the sun did not blind her eyes.

That was the last line of the last chapter she had just read.

That was so strange. Brad could not have known this. That had to be the creepiest coincidence of all time, but she was not convinced that rich hot shot Brad Thorpe had broken into her place. That was too far-fetched, even for him. But how had he known to say that? Was it just a weird thing that he said? Or was he really that creepy that he would break into her apartment just to move a book to another table to see if she would notice?

What the hell was going on with her? Sophia tried to let it all go, but the world felt like it was crashing down on her. She just needed three cups of coffee and a workout and she would feel better. Sophia had always felt that keeping to a strict routine was the best way to fight stress and to stay fit and healthy. She tried to eat right as often as she could and her daily workouts were something that she had found to help keep her focused and sane in this crazy life she had chosen.

Two hours later Sophia was at the United office building which housed the offices of The Wrecking Crew. She had finished her workout and her breakfast and was feeling a lot better about everything. She had even convinced herself that there was no way in hell that Brad Thorpe had invaded her privacy and broken into her apartment to move a book around.

And she had convinced herself that whatever was the reasoning and the thoughts behind this emergency meeting that she was going to be ready to take it all on head first and be fine with it. She had prepared herself for the most boring and most idiotic meeting she may have ever attended. Sophia was starting to realize just how weird and insane these investors really were. She wondered if it was just because they made their living as high priced, slow return, professional gamblers. That was the way she liked to think of it. They were investing their money—usually millions of dollars—into something that
might
work. Now they were all great business people in their own right, but they had to be a bit nervous about the job they had chosen. Sophia would have been a nervous wreck if a big portion of her livelihood consisted of gambling her money on other people’s dreams.

But Sophia tried not to think about any of that right now. She had an hour to kill after she finished up her morning routine and she had told her secretary to push her other obligations to the afternoon. She knew that she was going to end up working into the night, but she was prepared to do what it took. At least she was going to get some quiet time to maybe get some work done now.

She had found an empty office and whipped out her laptop to send out some emails and to follow up on a few other avenues of her recent marketplace reports. She was just getting comfortable and settling into a routine when Brad walked into the office.

He had the same smug expression he wore constantly. She was starting to think that it was ingrained in his facial muscles and he was incapable of looking another way. It was still sexy, though. She scolded herself for thinking such things.

“Hey, I actually called you here. There is no meeting,” Brad said.

“What? What are you talking about? I rearranged my whole morning for this,” Sophia said as she started packing up her stuff.

“They are pulling out. The investors—they have decided to pull out of funding your company.”

Sophia felt like someone had just punched her in the stomach.

“Did you do this? You bastard! You know what—screw all of you. I don’t need this shit anymore!”

Sophia grabbed her things and bolted past Brad, bypassing the elevator, running down the stairs.

“Sophia! Wait!”

She could hear him yelling at her from the stairwell. He was following her. What the hell did he want? Was her life just some game for him to play with?

Sophie ran out of the stairwell and through the doors outside. The rain was pouring hard, blowing sheets soaking her in minutes. She didn’t care. She just wanted to get as far away from him as possible.

“Sophia! Wait!” Brad yelled.

She glanced behind her briefly and saw he was getting closer to her. She had to run faster. She paused a second to take off her shoes, letting her feet get soaked as they pounded the hard pavement. She did not care. As far as she could see there were no cabs anywhere. Why? Was that just some other cruel joke on her?

Suddenly Brad’s hands were around her waist.

“No! Don’t touch me! You get away!” Sophia yelled, but she could not deny that his touch felt great.

Suddenly their eyes locked. There was something magnetic in Brad’s gaze. The way his sparkling eyes drew her in as if she was watching several colors spin around and around. She could feel her will being sucked dry and she wanted to kiss him so badly right then. Why was he so damn irresistible? Why did she feel this way? The man had tortured her since the moment he met her and used her emotions for his own amusement. How dare he continue to do this!

She felt her body moving closer to his and her lips warming to the idea of being kissed and embraced by his. He was moving closer to her…almost there. She wanted to just give in. It would have been so easy right then to just surrender to it all...

NO!

Sophia pulled away.

She saw a taxi and quickly waived it down. She got into the cab and did not even glance at Brad as the car took off.

She could not believe what had just happened. What was this man doing to her? She let the tears roll down her face.

Sophia awakened bright and early the next day. She felt better than she had in a long time for some reason and she decided to go for a jog. The rain had dissipated and the sun was shining brightly outside of her window.

As she opened her apartment door she saw the note taped to her door. She knew who it was from instantly. It was accompanied by a box at her feet. She grabbed them both and took them inside. The note was a dinner invitation to Agoros, one of the best restaurants in town. And the box held an expensive diamond necklace. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and she wanted nothing more than to wrap it around her neck, but she placed it back in the box angrily. It was just more of Brad’s stupid games.

She closed the door and went for a nice, long run. It felt great to be outdoors and to let the stress melt from her body.

That night Sophia came home to a pleasant, but disturbing surprise. It had been a productive day with several of her meetings going well, and she had even had time for a nice lunch with some potential new investors.

She dropped everything on her kitchen table and walked into the bedroom to change.

Sophia almost fainted. Her entire bedroom was engulfed in roses. She could not believe it. The room smelled amazing. It was like something out of a romance novel. She had never seen such a thing in real life before. Her heart was pounding in her chest like mad as she knelt down in the roses, letting them wash around her.

Then she saw the envelope on her bed. She grabbed it up, opened it, and became insanely angry instantly. It was from Brad. It was a contract offering the funding that she needed for her business and signed by just him. This was beyond pathetic.

The next morning Sophia stormed into Brad’s office ignoring his secretary’s pleas and threats to call security.

Sophia tore up the funding agreement in his face and dropped them on the desk.

“I don’t want your damn money!” Sophia said before turning around and storming back out of his office.

Twenty minutes later at her local coffee shop she was still shaking with anger.

Sophia entered her apartment thankful to be done with such a long day. She had hardly thought about Brad at all since she had stormed into his office. She had made her point and she doubted that he cared if she accepted his offer or not. He was just that damn arrogant.

When she caught his handsome face popping into her head she quickly dismissed it and kept her mind focused on her work. She was busy getting things moving forward with her business and with gaining the support of new investors. It was not easy, since The Crew had passed on her, but it was not impossible. In fact Sophia felt more determined than ever to make sure that she succeeded just so she could rub it in their faces.

Especially Brad.

She wanted that bastard to squirm when he saw how successful she was. She had caught herself fantasizing about it once or twice that day. She would find some way to make sure that he knew that she was going to be a success with or without his help. He would know that he and the investors had missed out on a small fortune by the time she was done. It was a sweet thought and she relished it.

Sophia almost dropped everything she was carrying when she turned on the light and saw Brad sitting in the chair in her living room having a whiskey on the rocks.

Sofia was shocked, disgusted, and yet not surprised at all. She knew that he had broken into her place on at least one occasion. But this was the final straw. Didn’t he get it through his thick skull that they were done? Was he unable to comprehend when someone was rejecting him? Was there some sort of brain damage that this pig suffered from that rendered him literally incapable of understanding how he hurt other people?