My Dutch Billionaire 2 (3 page)

Fuck.

No.

He did not want to remember anything.

He shot up to his feet, but even as he stalked back to his house, he was unable to run away from the memories.

And it was just one memory really, one that always threatened to drive him to his knees.

Her lips, soft, warm, and trembling, pressing against his—

Her voice, choking and pleading—

“Please. Please tell me you’re…you’re just pretending? You’re just controlling yourself?”

Why the fuck couldn’t he forget it?

He worked fourteen hours each day, fucked a different woman every night, and never went to bed sober.
 

But he still couldn’t make himself forget
her
.

Serenity Raleigh.

The girl who had told him in not so many words that she loved him.

Willem squeezed his eyes shut as soon as the thought occurred to him, but it was too late.
 

“Sere?”
He remembered deliberately calling her by his personal nickname because he had wanted to remind her, selfishly, of all the years they had been together.
 

But when he had, Serenity had looked at him like he was no longer the hero she thought he was, and it had made him furious.
 

“Do I really have to answer that?”
He remembered how her voice threatened to crack at the very end, but he also remembered how he had allowed his self-righteous fury to bury his guilt for being so damn selfish.

“Do I really have to answer that?”
Even then, Willem had known it had been a crass thing to say, but he had still said it. Because even then, he had realized that his fury wasn’t just to conceal his guilt. It was also there to conceal his fear, which was even more difficult to accept.

“T-then…I need you to stand up.
”

And he had done it, even though the most risk-averse part of him had roared at Willem to get the hell out, to leave before his whole world spun off its axis.

“Now what?”
 

“C-come here.”

And like the self-righteous bastard he now knew himself to be, he had ignored everything his instincts were warning him against and had done what Serenity had asked.

He had come to her.

The reminder made him swear and rake his hand through his hair.
Goddammit.
What a smug bastard he had been. She was his
nineteen-year-old intern.
He was her
thirty-three-year-old boss.
He was light years ahead of her in experience, and he had allowed her to command him just like that.

That should have been the only warning he had needed.

But he had chosen to play deaf, and he was now paying the price.

Willem’s fists slammed down on the handrail. “
Damn you.”
The words were torn out of him, but he wasn’t certain if he was cursing Serenity, himself, or Fate.
 

All he knew was that nothing was working.

He could not forget her, and fair or not, right or wrong, Willem despised Serenity for it.

He had already allowed himself to be weak once, out of his love for his family.

He would not allow the same thing to happen again, not even for Serenity.

Chapter Two

A woman rushed out of the CEO’s office at De Konigh Enterprises, sobbing and sniffing, and the sight of her made everyone at the executive floor pale.

“That makes seven,” Andrea whispered anxiously to her fellow receptionist. In a span of one month, Willem de Konigh had gotten rid of six personal assistants, and the woman hastily gathering her belongings from her desk was likely to be #7.

Rachel started to answer, but then the door to the CEO's office opened again, and she and Andrea quickly ducked their heads as Willem de Konigh himself strode out of the office.

The Dutch billionaire was as immaculately gorgeous as always, his blond hair presenting an exquisite contrast with the dark shade of his custom-fitted suit. In the past, all of the women in the office would vie for the chance to greet the boss first. If they were lucky, they might just be the recipient of one of the billionaire’s famous smiles – tiny, brief, but oh so breathtaking.

But for the past two months now, anyone who was
unlucky
enough to draw the CEO’s attention was guaranteed to have their head bitten off.

Even with their heads down, both Rachel and Andrea covertly watched their boss walk past his sobbing P.A., his face hard.
 

Poor girl,
Rachel thought. Beside her, Andrea had sunk down to her knees, hiding behind the reception counter. She started to do the same, only to realize it was too late.

“Rachel.” The billionaire had suddenly stopped next to the counter.

Paling, she croaked out, “Yes, sir?”

“Inform Accounting to give my P.A. one month’s pay then call H.R. to look for a replacement.”
 

She nodded profusely. “Understood, sir.”

“Thank you.” The billionaire gave her a clipped nod before disappearing into his private elevator.

When the doors slid close, everyone in the floor breathed a sigh of relief. Or rather, almost everyone, since P.A. #7 was still sniffing at her table.
 

Andrea rushed to the girl, patting her back, murmuring, “There, there, it’s not your fault.”

Number 7 sniffed again. “I don’t know what I did wrong. I just greeted him,
‘Good morning, Mr. de Konigh,’
and that was it.” The last word came out a wail. “He had this really furious look in his eyes and told me I had broken Rule #1 and was fired.”

“What is Rule #1?” Rachel, having come to join the other employees circled around the just-fired personal assistant, couldn’t help asking curiously.
 

“Not to call him
Mr. de Konigh.
I was to call him only
‘meneer.’
And yes, he did tell me that, but—how was I to know he was that serious about it?”

Everyone nodded in sympathy, having heard the same thing from the other girls as well. They had thought it a ridiculous story at the start, but by the time P.A. #3 had left the company, everyone at the executive floor had been forced to change their minds.

For whatever reason, their billionaire boss now despised his own surname.

“It must be why Serenity quit as well,” Andrea said thoughtfully as she and Rachel returned to their station.
 

“But she
always
calls him
Mr. de Konigh
,
”
her friend argued.
 

Andrea rolled her eyes. “Silly, it’s not that. Can’t you see? Serenity is
Shane Raleigh’s half-sister.
The boss and his on-off girlfriend must have had a fight, and that’s why he fired Serenity, and now he doesn’t want anything that reminds him of the Raleigh sisters.”

****

“You look appalling, Willem.” The words, coming from his open laptop, greeted Willem as soon as he slid inside his limousine. Upon hearing them, he immediately glanced at his chauffeur, but the older man studiously avoided Willem’s gaze as he closed the passenger door.

Martin had been frightened into betraying him again,
Willem thought grimly. He really should have a word with his chauffeur soon.

“Did you hear what I said?” the voice from the laptop demanded.
 

Turning to face the laptop, he said blandly, “A pleasant afternoon to you, too, Your Majesty.” He had been dodging her video calls for days, but he should have known Wilhemina wasn’t one to take the hint that he hadn’t wanted to talk to her.

The Queen of Contini only smiled. “Ah, no ‘grandmother’ for me. You
are
in a testy mood again.”

Her grandson’s face softened a bit. “I am,” he acknowledged wryly, “but never with you,
oma
.”

If the exchange between grandmother and grandson had been made public, the world would have been in shock. When in company, the queen and Willem were civil but distant with each other, a deliberate choice to conceal just how important the role Willem played in handling de Konigh matters.
 

Only those who had worked in the palace long enough knew the truth, and that was that Willem was only second to the queen herself with the amount of power and authority he exercised over all members of the de Konigh clan.
 

“Women problems, no doubt,” Wilhemina murmured.

Willem wasn’t fooled by his grandmother’s tone. “Do
not
interfere, Your Majesty.” He had no doubt that the queen had already made it her business to find out everything between him and Serenity, who she had always expressed fondness for.

“Ah. So you admit that there
is
a problem.”

“
Oma.
” His voice was soft.

She raised her hand in a placating gesture. “Yes, yes, I understand. I shall not meddle.” The twinkle in her eyes faded, and concern lined her voice when she said, “I just want to make sure you are okay, dear.”
 

“I am.” He changed the subject. “I spoke with Gabe last night, by the way
.
I don’t believe he’s coming back anytime soon.” As the Crown Prince’s only legitimate son, Gabe was third in line to the throne, and local press had begun to question his prolonged absence from the kingdom.

Wilhemina was quiet for a moment. “We do not need to force him to come back yet,” she said finally, and with her words she let Willem know she was allowing herself to be sidetracked. With this grandson of hers, any interference from her would be considered a slight, an insult to his independence. And after everything he had suffered as a child, Wilhemina knew that she would rather hurt herself than make Willem feel weak again.

When it was time to end the video call, Willem made an effort to sound more his normal self as he bid the queen farewell. “I’ll see you soon,
oma.
”

“Of course.” But he could see with the way worry still shadowed her faded blue eyes that he had failed. Willem tiredly closed his eyes as he leaned back against his seat.
 

His life was a fucking mess, and even the queen – who was thousands of miles away – knew this.

Something had to fucking give, but what?

His mobile phone buzzed in his pocket, and after a moment, Willem resignedly took his phone out.

It was a text message from Serenity’s older sister.

****

“You look horrible,” Melanie said by way of greeting when her stepdaughter entered the dining room. She had hoped to draw blood, but as always, her words seemed to fall on deaf ears, with Serenity only smiling wanly as she took her usual place at the table.

Bitch,
she thought. She knew that most people thought of her stepdaughter as
Willem Jr.,
and the implication that Serenity was as
perfect
as the Dutch billionaire irked Melanie to no end.
 

Had the world gone crazy? Even Willem de Konigh himself knew Serenity was far from perfect. Melanie didn’t believe a single word about her stepdaughter having to resign due to over-fatigue.
 

Yeah right,
Melanie thought with a sneer as she looked at her pale-looking stepdaughter. No doubt, the billionaire had found her lack of personality tiresome and boring, but he was just too much of a gentleman to say so.
 

The only perfect thing about Serenity was her taste in clothes, Melanie thought grudgingly, but other than that, the girl was perfectly flawed. Ballet had been the only thing the girl had going for her. But no, the idiot just had to break her leg and, in the process, cause Melanie’s ex-husband to kill himself.

The reminder of Daniel Raleigh’s death made Melanie grit her teeth, and she snapped at Serenity, “I’ll need your next month’s rent in advance.” It was this girl’s fault Daniel was dead, this girl’s fault that she no longer had Daniel’s monthly alimony payments and was thus forced to work while her other friends continued to live in the lap of luxury.

“Yes, ma’am.”

The quick acquiescence should have pleased Melanie, but it only made her angrier. “I suppose you’re thinking I’m being greedy?”