Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (53 page)

Chapter
Sixty

Austin

I
had been waiting in the hotel lobby for twenty minutes when Emily emerged from
the elevator and walked across the lobby. My breath caught in my throat as I
watched her. She looked like royalty dressed in the Gucci dress with her hair
done loose and flowing. The makeup artist had only put a hint of cosmetics on
her and she looked fresh and beautiful. I shook my head and laughed.

"You clean up well, Ms. Warner!"

"Why thank you very much, Mr.
Marks," she laughed with me. "It's all your doing."

"No, I only offered the tools,"
I said as I bent down and kissed her cheek. "You're the canvas upon which
those tools look so stunning."

She smiled as she took my hand and I said,
"Shall we?"

We headed out to the car and the driver
whisked us off to dinner. I'd made reservations at Aureole, one of the most
exclusive restaurants in Las Vegas. I wanted Emily to see the beautiful side of
the city, even if it was only for one night. And if I was honest, I also wanted
to impress her.

"Where are we going for dinner?"
she asked as she slipped her hand into mine and smiled up at me.

"I thought that we'd have drinks at
the Foundation Room at the House of Blues and then eat dinner at Aureole,"
I said smiling back at her. "What do you think?"

"Oh, Austin!" she gasped.
"This is crazy, you know. Helicopter rides, luxury shopping trips, people
doing my hair and makeup, it's all too much."

"No, it's not even the beginning of
enough," I said quietly.

"Austin," she began in a tone
that warned me I was dangerously close to tipping the balance and that it
wasn't going to be in my favor if I pushed.

"Look, there are no strings
attached," I said in a light voice. "I just wanted to take you away
from your worries for a day and let you relax and enjoy things."

She nodded as she turned and looked out
the window at the Vegas strip rushing by. I wanted so badly to gather her up in
my arms and tell her everything would be all right, but I knew that doing that
would drive her away. So, I talked about the history of the casino my father
had built as a means of lightening the mood.

Emily soon relaxed and we spent several
hours enjoying drinks and a delicious dinner. We dined on prosciutto wrapped
asparagus spears, tender greens lightly coated in balsamic vinegar and topped
with plump fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, and blue cheese-crusted filet mignon
cooked to perfection. The sommelier had picked wines that were the perfect
complement to each dish the executive chef had prepared as a special menu and
poured them as Emily and I ate our way through the menu. We talked about books
we'd read and the things we still wanted to read and as the meal wound down, I
began to feel sad that I'd have to let her go again.

"I'll drop you off at home," I
said as we climbed back into the car, both groaning because we were so full.

"No, it's fine, just take me to the
hotel and I'll call a cab," she said with a worried look. "It's not a
good idea, Austin."

"Emily, don't be foolish," I
said. "Let me just drop you off at home, please?"

"Well, then take me back to the hotel
so I can change out of my Cinderella clothes," she said. "I can't
walk in the house looking like this." I nodded and told the driver where
to go. It didn't take her long to change out of her finery and back into her
every day clothes. She still looked beautiful.

"I'll have those things delivered to
you in the morning," I said once we were back in the car.

She looked at me for a moment and then
nodded and gave the driver her address. She didn't say a word on the drive,
just slipped her hand into mine and looked out the window. When we reached her
block, she told the driver to stop a few doors down.

"Thank you for the most wonderful day
I've ever had," she said as she looked up at me with shining eyes. "I
loved every minute of it."

"Emily," I said and then
hesitated. Looking at her I knew what I wanted to say, but I was afraid of how
she might react.

"Yes?"

"Emily, I'm so glad you had fun
today, I did, too," I said and then barreling ahead I added. "I want
to have fun like that all the time. With you. I want you in my life. For good.
If you need money to pay off the gambling debts, I'll give it to you or if you
need a place to stay, I'll arrange it. I want to help you in any way I can. I
think I'm in love you, Emily."

Her eyes widened, and she pulled back a
bit as she looked at me. I couldn't tell what she was thinking, but then she
looked down at our hands and said, "Austin, I...I...I don't think that we
should see each other again until I officially end my marriage. It's too
difficult and I don't want to upset the balance of things with Tommy.
He's...volatile, and I don't want to break him. I think this is for the best,
you know?"

I could feel my heart shattering into
thousands of small fragments as she spoke. I wasn't sure what was not being
said, but I knew the words coming from her lips didn't match her actions. She
had to feel something for me.

"I care about you," she
whispered as she leaned up and softly kissed my lips. "I care about you
more than you will ever know."

Then, she got out of the car and trudged
down the sidewalk toward her house. I watched her and knew that there was
something not right about all of this.

"Wait here," I said to the
driver as I got out and followed her. I told myself that I would just make sure
she got inside safely, and then I'd leave her alone as she'd requested. There
was no porch light on in the front of the house and I watched as she fumbled
with the key as she tried to get it into the lock. All of a sudden the front
door swung open and a large muscular man reached out and grabbed Emily's arm
and yanked her inside. The door slammed shut and the block went silent.

The silence was shattered by a piercing
scream that came from inside the house. I motioned to the driver to pull up in
front of Emily's house and as he did, I yelled, "Call the police!
Now!"

I took off running toward the front door,
hoping that the man hadn’t had the foresight to lock it. I turned the knob and
the door swung open. I looked inside and saw Emily lying on the living room
floor, blood flowing from a deep cut in her lip and the man standing over her
holding a baseball bat angrily yelling at the top of his lungs.

"You're cheating, are you? Out with
someone else? What kind of a stupid fool do you think I am," he screamed
at her as he raised the bat and brought it down on her arm. Emily screamed as
the bat connected with her upper arm and I could see a red welt quickly rising
on her skin. He hadn't heard me open the door, so I knew I had the element of
surprise on my side. "I'm no fool, Em. I'm not a fool! I won't stand for
this! You cannot leave me like this!"

"Tommy," she cried as she held
the arm that he'd hit. "Stop it! I was out with a friend! You're being
unreasonable!"

"Unreasonable, am I?" he slurred
as he wobbled a bit on his feet obviously having had one too many beers.
"I have been completely damn reasonable, if you ask me."

Tommy raised the bat and prepared to bring
it down again, but I darted across the room and grabbed it, wrenching it out of
his hands and throwing it to the side of the room before he knew what was
happening. He turned with a confused look and yelled, "Who the hell are
you?"

"Someone who doesn't think you should
be hitting your wife," I shouted as I pulled my fist back and slammed it
into his face. The shock of the hit sent him staggering backward a few steps,
but he quickly recovered and was on me in an instant. His fist connected with
my stomach and drove the air from my lungs, and as I fought to breathe, he
crossed the room and grabbed the bat. I looked up and saw him swinging the wood
wildly as Emily screamed, "Tommy, NO! Don't hit him!"

There was a look of malicious hatred in
his eyes as he swung the bat around and connected with my side. I dropped to my
knees as I felt the air returning to my lungs and the pain in my abdomen
radiate outward. From somewhere behind me, I heard Emily screaming as Tommy
turned and began swinging the bat at her again. I fought through the pain and
got to my feet, and when I saw him holding her by the hair with one hand while
he raised the bat with the other, I knew it was now or never.

I lowered my head and plowed into his back
right as I punched him in the kidney. He roared with pain, and as he
instinctively grabbed his side, he let go of Emily's hair and she scrambled out
of the way. I knocked him to the ground and unleashed the rage I felt on him,
punching him over and over again until he lay beneath me groaning and begging
me to stop.

It felt like hours, but it couldn't have
been more than a few minutes until the police arrived and barged through the
door. They quickly cuffed us both and knowing that this would be resolved with
Emily's account of what had happened, I didn't even fight. They took her
statement and determined that it had been a clear-cut case of self-defense, so
they let me go while they put Tommy in a police cruiser and drove him down to
the precinct.

The officers left on the scene walked me
to my car and took my contact information, telling me that they'd be in touch
within the next few days to get my account of the incident. I asked where Emily
was, and the officer told me that they'd transported her to the hospital for
observation, but he refused to tell me any more than that. I nodded, thanked
him for letting me know, and climbed into the backseat of waiting car.

"Let's go back to the hotel," I
told the driver and he quickly whisked me away from the scene.

Chapter
Sixty-One

Emily

A
few weeks later, I looked up from a packing box in the living room and saw
Trish come bonding through the door. She was dressed in a tank top and what
could only be classified as Daisy Dukes.

"Trish!" I cried as I stood up
and rushed to her. "You look beautiful, as always."

"Princess, you've gotten yourself
into quite the mess, haven't you?" she gently teased. "Look at this
place, it's like a moving team's worst nightmare! Who put you up to this?"

"Now, that's not fair," I
protested. "I've been working on this in between flights. It's a lot to
take care of all by myself."

"So, they put the slugger on
probation, did they?" she asked.

"He’ll be monitored for the next
year," I nodded. "They were going to put him away, but I argued that
it wouldn't help matters. He's getting treatment in a facility where he can
deal with his gambling addiction and alcoholism."

"Well, bully for him," she said
as she rolled her eyes and flipped her coppery ponytail. "How about you?
How are you, Princess?"

"I'm fine," I said looking down
at the box between my feet. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"That doesn't sound very convincing
to me," she said as she stood in front of me with her arms crossed.
"How are you really?"

"I don't know, Trish," I said.
"Some days are good and some aren't so good, but there are more good than
bad, so I guess I'm okay."

"Are you seeing a therapist?"
she asked.

"Yeah, a couple times a week," I
nodded. "It's fine."

"And, are you seeing Mr. Marks?"
she asked quietly.

"He seems to have moved on to greener
pastures," I said, pasting a bright smile on my face as I tried to cover
up the hurt I felt. Austin hadn't contacted me since the night of the incident,
so I was left thinking that he'd simply walked away. "I mean, it's not
like I blame him or anything. My life is a hot mess, you know?"

"Em, your life is your life, hot mess
or not," she said as she patted my arm. "He'll be back, just wait and
see. He's into you and guys like that don't just disappear. Do you know what
happened to him?"

"I tried calling the hotel and
asking, but no one will give me any information," I said. "I mean,
would you give a complete stranger any personal information about your
billionaire boss? Seriously?"

"You're not a complete stranger, but
I get what you're saying," she agreed. She twisted the end of her ponytail
around her finger as she stared off into space for a moment, then said,
"Let me see if I can use some back channels to get some information on
what's happened to Mr. Marks."

"Good luck with that," I said as
I rolled my eyes. "Now, are you going help me with the packing or are you
just going to stand there looking pretty while I do all the work."

Trish laughed loudly and grabbed a box and
a roll of tape. She cranked up the stereo and we sang loudly as we pulled the
ephemera of my life from the shelves and cupboards and packed it in boxes that
would be picked up the next day. Having Trish with me was the safest I'd felt
since before the night of Tommy's rage and I flashed her a grateful smile as we
sang along with the radio.

A few hours later, we stopped and looked
around. The house was almost completely boxed and labeled, and the two of us
were starving. I suggested we drive into town and treat ourselves to something
special, and Trish agreed. She said she'd run home to change and meet me at the
restaurant in an hour.

After she left, I looked around and felt a
sense of accomplishment. It hadn't been easy to pack up the entire house on my
own, but I'd done it, and now I was ready to leave this all behind me as I
moved on to the next phase of my life. I felt sad that Austin was gone, but I
was also grateful that he'd shown me that I deserved so much more than I'd been
getting with Tommy. I was also grateful that he'd intervened in the beating and
saved me from something worse than what I'd received. My mind kept flashing
back to the moment when Tommy had wound up and hit Austin with the bat, and
each time I replayed it, I flinched knowing how hard that bat had connected
with his body. I wondered if his lack of communication was an indication of the
severity of his injury and if I could ever make it up to him.

I shook my head and looked at the clock.
I'd been lost in my own thoughts for quite a while and now I needed to rush to
get ready and get to the restaurant where Trish and I were having dinner. I
took a quick shower and pulled my hair up off my face as I did my makeup. I was
transported back to the hotel bathroom where Donna had made me look so
beautiful the night that Austin had confessed his love for me. I looked away as
I recalled how I'd told him it wasn't the right time. Despite my rejection,
he'd come to my rescue. My knight in shining armor. And, he'd paid the price
for it, too.

I shook my head and tried to clear my mind
of regrets. I didn't have time for this. I needed to focus on getting ready to
meet Trish and then look forward to the next day when I would leave every bit
of my life with Tommy behind. I wanted a fresh start and if that didn't include
Austin, well, then so be it.

An hour after Trish left my house, I
pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. I didn't see her car, and I
laughed knowing that she would probably be running on Trish time, which meant
at least fifteen minutes late. I shook my head and walked through the front
door. The hostess at the front stand looked at me and said, "Please follow
me, ma'am."

I was confused, since I hadn't said
anything about meeting Trish or even who I was. I followed the woman back
through the winding maze of tables to a booth in the back of the restaurant,
and when I turned the corner I heard a familiar voice.

"Emily," Austin said, "I'm
so glad you made it."