Courted (How Not To Be Seduced By Billionaires: Book 2) (13 page)

            Behind me, I felt Constantijin suddenly tense, as if he had sensed my blushes and didn’t like it.

            Oh, shit.

            Realizing that Drake was waiting for me to answer, I stammered, “I…was working overtime for, uhh, Mr. Kastein. He wanted me t-to provide the latest work schedules of the cast for the potential TV adaptation of
Hana Kimi
for U.S.”

            In the periphery of my eye, I saw Constantijin finally turn around. When I saw him about to curve his arm around my waist, I panicked and moved away before he could reach me.

            Drake blinked when I was suddenly several feet away from all of them and just a short distance away from the reception area. “Are you in a hurry to go home?”

            Trying to ignore the daggers shooting from Constantijin’s eyes, I said, “Umm, yes.” I opened my mouth to say goodbye, but Drake beat me to speaking.

            “Let me drive you home then. I know you just take the bus but at this time of the night – even independent girls like you need to take more care.” By the time I managed to close my gaping mouth, my mind whirling at the unexpected turn of events, Drake had already reached my side and taking my bag from me.

            “B-but…”

            “I’ll worry about you endlessly if I let you go home alone tonight,” Drake murmured.

            Oh, oh, shit.

            Constantijin wasn’t just glaring daggers at me now. He was literally trying to kill me with his glare, and I knew that it was just going to get worse.

            Drake was talking to one of his colleague, leaving last-minute instructions for the minutes of their meeting. A chorus of goodnights followed and then Drake was saying, “You, too, sir. Good night, Mr. Kastein.”

            My phone vibrated inside my bag and I hastily fumbled for it, knowing who it was.

If you fucking dare leave with that boy…

            Oh, oh, oh, shit!

            Didn’t he know I had no choice but to fucking leave with this boy – I mean, man? It was too soon for us to go public. It was just too soon, with the wounds he left in my heart too raw, and the memories of the times he had turned me down and pushed me away too fresh.

            The elevator’s arrival chime snatched me out of my reverie. By the time I recovered my senses, Drake was already inside the elevator, holding the open button. “Yanna?”

            I stepped inside.

            The last thing I saw was Constantijin’s cold and impassive face before the elevator’s doors closed on us. With the others already walking past Constantijin, their backs to us, I allowed myself to plead with him with my eyes.
A week,
I tried to communicate with him mentally.

            But Constantijin only stared, not a flicker of expression on his face to tell me I had reached him. When the elevator’s doors finally closed shut, I felt like it was permanently keeping us apart this time.

            “Are you all right, Yanna?” Drake asked beside me.

           
No. I was not. I just had the best moments of my life a while ago and now I was having my worst.

           
Was it going to be like this between Constantijin and me time and time again? Did it always have to be a battle between the two of us?

            Forcing myself to smile at Drake, I lied, “I’m okay. Just tired.” Almost unconsciously, I found myself texting Constantijin.

           
A week,
I typed.
You promised me a week of just keeping things between the two of us, and that seven-day period started tonight
.

            But he didn’t reply, even though I waited till the very next morning for even the smallest sign that there was still something worth waiting for.

Lesson #9

Billionaires don’t lick their wounds when they are hurt.

They get even.

“Are you seeing this?”
I shrieked at Daria and Alyx, who I was videoconferencing on my iPad, as I pointed towards the TV.

            Alyx laughed so loudly I was tempted to flick her face on the screen. “You’re such a kid. You’re actually jumping!”

            “I can’t help it!” I was so mad I wished the floor under my feet could turn into the hard, tone,
sluttish
body of a guy named Constantijin Kastein.

            “He was
courting
me and now he’s out with another girl! On TV!” Glaring at the screen, I hissed, “
Man-whore
.”

           
Daria was grinning. Tall with short curly hair and sparkling gray eyes, she was the most outspoken in our little group. She was also dangerously impulsive, but Alyx and I hoped marriage could curb that somewhat.

            “You should gatecrash the event, show him who’s the boss,” she suggested.

            Or not.

            “Get real. I can’t gatecrash his dad’s fundraiser.”

            “You know, I think she’s right,” Alyx intruded as she pushed a wide hair band up her boyishly cut hair. As she started slapping cream on her face – one of her hundreds of rituals before going to sleep – Alyx added, “He can’t do this every time you two quarrel or have a misunderstanding.”

            I shook my head. Just the thought of gatecrashing – and putting myself out there for Constantijin to humiliate – had me hyperventilating.

            Daria bent forward, her eyes narrowing. “Yanna, I can see you panicking from here.”

            If that was true, then she had better eyesight than Clark Kent since Daria had her iPad positioned somewhat far away from her. I could practically see the entire bed she was seated cross-legged on, which was so enormous it could probably fit an entire football squad.

            From Daria’s side of the screen, I heard something popping in the background, followed by the clink of glass and then the Greek-accented tone of Daria’s tycoon hubby. “Why is Yanna panicking?” Nik asked as he came into view, wearing an unbuttoned white polo shirt and jeans. Tall, dark, gorgeous and an alpha male to the core, he used to be the world’s greatest jerk. Even
I
hated him, and it took a lot for me to say the H-word. A misunderstanding had caused Nik to mistake Daria for a gold-digging nymphomaniac and he had treated her like shit. Thankfully, true love – and a good dose of truth - had reformed him, and there was no doubting that when you looked at how Nik acted around his wife these days.

            Taking a seat next to Daria on their bed, Nik handed her a glass of champagne and pressed a kiss on her forehead.

            For a moment, I had to close my eyes, not wanting my friends to see how totally envious I suddenly felt about the closeness between the months-old married couple.

            I made myself look at them when Nik spoke again. “Hi, Alyx, Yanna.”

            Alyx flashed him a thumbs-up sign. “Hey, Nik. So how many is it for today?”

            Daria groaned, Nik grinned, and I frowned in complete confusion. “How many what?”

            “Seven,” Nik answered, his grin widening.

            Daria groaned again.

            “Seven what?” I demanded.

            Alyx said patiently, “Seven orgasms for Daria today.”

            This time, I joined Daria with the groaning. “Really, Alyx? You really had to ask him that?”

            “I was just curious! Daria used to hate---”

            “Oh, look, Constantijin’s date is totally raping him on TV!” Daria burst out.

            We all looked, and even though I hoped it was just her way of changing the subject – it
wasn’t.

           
My chest hurt more and more as I continued watching Constantijin’s date – surprise, surprise, yet
another
blonde bimbo – grind her lips on his. Those lips were mine! Or at least they had been a few days ago. More seconds passed, and the camera continued to focus on their liplock.

Seriously, when had lifestyle shows become an extension of Playboy Channel? Couldn’t they see that her hand was just inches away from grasping his---

            In a smooth move, Constantijin had forced his date to release him the same time he subtly slapped her hand away.

            “Slut,” I growled.

            “Who?” Alyx asked innocently as she rubbed more cream on her forehead. Her face was now 25% flesh, 75% blue goo. “Constantijin or his date?”

            “Both!”

            “Yanna, stop jumping. You’re giving me a headache.” Daria turned to Nik. “What do you think? You know how Yanna dumped Constantijin for her Mr. Fix It, right?”

            “I did
not
dump him.” I tightened the sash of my night robe, wishing it was a noose around Constantijin’s neck.

            “Why do you call the boy Mr. Fix It?” Nik asked at the same time.

            “He’s not a
boy
,” I groaned. God! Sometimes, Nik was too much like Constantijin I almost didn’t want to talk to him.

            “Because he keeps appearing at the right time and place to play knight in shining armor for Yanna,” Daria explained.

            “Ah.”

            “That doesn’t sound like a good ‘ah’,” I said with a scowl.

            “Because it isn’t,” Nik answered readily. As he scooped Daria onto his lap, he continued, “I know how Kastein feels, Yanna. If there’s one thing men like me can be uncomfortable about---”

            “He means insecure,” his wife added.

            “---then it would be boys who are a lot nicer than we could ever be. That’s one thing we can’t really beat and if you chose Mr. Fix It over him that time, who’s to say you won’t do it again when he screws up the next time?”

            “But it wasn’t like that,” I protested. “I didn’t choose Mr. Fix---I mean Drake---over him. I just thought it was a good idea to leave with Drake so that no one’s going to be suspicious about us.”

            “And that’s one more thing,” Nik said triumphantly.