Stingray Billionaire: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (64 page)

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR

Lexi

As
Mrs. Zakharov left the store, I turned and looked at Max. He was staring at me
with a strange look on his face.

"What?"
I asked. "Is there a problem here?"

"Not at
all," he said as a smiled spread across his handsome face. I wanted to run
over to him, grab his face, and pull it down so I could kiss him. Instead, I
began shifting the merchandise around in the display case making sure there
were no holes after we'd sold Mrs. Zakharov her statement pieces. I heard Max
move in behind me and quietly ask, "You agreed, right?"

"If you are
asking whether I agreed to participate in the planning of a sham marriage in
order to ensure that you could make a deal with Sergei Petrov," I said
haughtily. "Then the answer is yes, Mr. Malin. I did."

Max looked at me,
nodded, and then turned and walked toward the office. I called after him,
"Hey, fiancé!"

"Yes?"

"May I have
the afternoon off so I can pack and get moved into your place?" I grinned
before adding, "By the way, where will I be living?"

"I'll have
the moving company pack up your things and bring them over," he
deadpanned. "And, if you're nice to me, I'll tell you where they brought
them once they're done."

I thought I saw a
small smile cross his lips as my peals of laughter rang out through the store.
By the time I had regained my composure, a group of women were ringing the
front bell and I let them all in. The afternoon passed quickly as I sold piece
after piece of the collections we had on display, and by the time closing time
rolled around, we'd sold out of most of the more expensive pieces.

"How much did
we sell today?" Max asked as he emerged from the back room with another
tray of replacement pieces for the displays. Around lunchtime, he had exited
the store and come back whistling, and I'd been dying to ask him where he'd
gone, but I didn't dare with all the women in the store gathered around,
looking at things.

"If my math
is correct, we sold one-hundred-forty-thousand three-hundred and sixty-six
dollars worth of merchandise," I said as casually as I could. That sum was
more money that I'd seen in my entire life and more than my brain could imagine
right now. "That's a lot of money, Max."

"That's nothing
Mrs. Malin-to-be," he replied as he replenished the collections along the
wall. "We're going to pull in money hand over fist as soon as Petrov
infuses a little cash for me to pay the suppliers and carriers."

"It seems
like we did pull it in hand over fist today," I said staring at the
receipts and wondering who had so much money that they could spend tens of
thousands on one trip to a jewelry store. "Where are all these people
from?"

"Moscow, St.
Petersburg ," he tossed off as he carefully placed a pendant on a stand
and then arranged the chain so that it hung gracefully down behind it.
"All over, really, but you need to understand that Russians and
Ukrainians, the rich ones, love sparkly shiny things. The women especially love
bright colors and flashy jewelry. We're going to be selling a lot of it and I'm
going to put in an order to triple our stock tonight. We should have full back
stock by the beginning of next week."

"So, we're
really going to do this, are we?" I asked quietly. I still wasn't sure that
Max had meant it when he'd said he'd pay me twice what I was already making to
play along with this farce.

"We are, if
you're still willing," he said, turning to face me. As I gazed across the
room at him, I noticed something sad in his eyes.

"Are you okay
with it, Max?" I asked. "If you're not, we don't have to do it."

"Lexi, we
need to do this. I need to do this," he said slowly, then shook his head
as if to clear it. "Yes, I'm absolutely sure. Are you?"

"I'm
sure," I said. "I need the money, but more than that, I want to help
you do whatever it is you need to do to make this business succeed. I'm
in."

"Alright,
well, go take care of whatever you need to take care of, and I'll get someone
to come move your things this evening," he said as he turned back to the
display cases. Then he turned back around, reached into his pocket, and pulled
out a key ring with three keys attached to it. He tossed it to me saying,
"Here, these are the keys to my – our place. 65 W Goethe Street."

"Hey! You
live right around the corner from me!" I laughed. "Why didn't you
tell me?"

"I didn't
want you to think I was some kind of weirdo," he said with a smile.

"Too late,
Mr. Malin; it's already been confirmed," I laughed. He laughed loudly as I
ran back to the office, grabbed my bag, and headed out to meet Viv at the Royal
Cafe on Michigan Avenue. She was not going to believe what was about to happen.

#

"
You're
what?" Viv screeched so loudly that everyone in the diner turned and
looked in our direction.

"I'm getting
married," I repeated.

"Wally, what
the hell is going on over at that store?" she asked breathlessly.
"And more importantly, can I get a piece of the action? Does Mr. Money
Bags have a brother?"

"Viv, settle
down," I warned. "You're getting ridiculous. But come to think of it,
I have no idea whether he has a brother or not. There's a lot I don't yet know
about my betrothed."

"Wait, you
guys aren't getting married for real for real, are you?" she asked as she
flashed a concerned look that made burst into laughter again.

"Viv, please!
What do you think this is? It's a publicity stunt designed to save this guy's
business," I reminded her. "And, it's the easiest three thousand
dollars a week I'll ever make!"

"Holy crap!
He's tripling your pay just to get you to go along with this scheme?" she
said with admiration and awe. "I am definitely going to have to find out
if he has a brother!"

We sat at the café
talking until the after work crowd came in and started ordering dinner. Viv
offered to come back to the apartment and help me pack, but I told her all I
was going to take were a few suitcases of clothes, enough personal items to
make it look like I actually lived in Max's place, and Anna. She hugged me and
told me to keep her posted and to send lots of pictures of my new digs.

"I'll invite
you over and we'll find out if he does have a brother," I suggested.

"Oooh,
excellent idea!" she cried as she hopped into a taxi and headed back to
her place in the West Loop. I decided that it was a nice enough evening to
walk. I quickly covered the ground between the diner and my apartment and found
a moving crew waiting on the front steps.

"Mr. Malin
hired us to come move your things, ma'am," one of the men said as I opened
the front door and led the crew into the lobby.

"Well, I
don't have that much stuff, so you guys are in for a major
disappointment," I said. "Oh, and I have a kitten, so do not let her
get tucked into one of the boxes by accident!"

"No, ma'am,
we don't pack animals, it's not part of the contract," he said as the
elevator doors opened and we walked toward my apartment.

#

I
was under the impression
that I would just be moving enough things in to keep up appearances, but Max
had told the movers to pack up everything and bring what I wanted over to his
place and store the rest of the things. Max had worked out a deal with my
landlord and I'd been released from the lease agreement. I didn't ask how and I
didn't ask what would happen once this charade was over. Instead, for once in
my life, I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

I walked over to
Max's apartment with Anna in my arms and a bag of her things over my shoulder.
I opened the door and immediately felt intimidated by the opulent surroundings
in the lobby. My building had been nice, but this was the kind of building in
which incredibly rich people settled down and raised families. I asked the
doorman which floor Mr. Malin's condo was on and he led me to the elevator,
took my keys from my hand, and slipped the smallest one into a keyhole on the
panel labeled Penthouse. He stepped back and nodded as the elevator doors
silently slid closed.

"We're
definitely moving up, Anna," I said to the small kitten. She had been
silent the whole walk over and remained so as the elevator climbed to the top
of the building. "Don't be afraid, little one, it's all going to be okay.
I promise." Anna let loose with a tiny chirp as the doors to the elevator
opened and we stepped out into the most expensive-looking living room I'd ever
seen. Everything was white or off-white and all the furniture was square and
modern. The windows in the living room stretched floor to ceiling and allowed
for a nearly unobstructed view of the entire south side of the city. It was
breathtaking, to say the least.

I looked down at
Anna and said, "What do you think, little one?" She butted her head
against my chin and purred, but made no attempt to get down. "Yeah, me,
too." I said as I walked further into the living room toward an open door
at the end of a long hallway. I peeked inside and found Max puttering around an
island in a kitchen that was larger than the whole apartment I'd just left.

"Lexi, I'm so
glad you made it," he smiled as he handed me a glass of red wine and
offered me a seat at the counter. "Who's your guest and what can I serve
her?"

"This is Anna
Karenina," I said. "Anna, Max. Max, Anna. She's going to need her
dinner, but I've got it in the bag."

"Well, I've
prepared a welcome meal for the humans, so you're welcome to sit at the counter
and watch me finish it up or you can wander around and take a look a the
place," he offered.

"I think I'll
just hang out with you and wait for the official tour," I told him.
"I'm kind of afraid that if I wander off in this place, I'll get lost and
not be able to find my way back."

"I
understand," he nodded. "I felt the same way the first few nights I
lived here. I wandered out into the hall looking for a bathroom, wound up in
the gym, and didn't know how to get back to my room."

"Why did you
buy such a huge place?" I asked. "I mean, it seems like an awful lot
of space for someone living alone."

"Yeah, well,
it's an investment," he said. "I needed to put some money in property
and this was the only place I actually liked. The rest were so stuffy and over
done. They reminded me of my grandmother's apartment, and while I love visiting
her, I do not want to live in her place."

"I totally
understand," I nodded. "I grew up in a house that was warm and
wonderful, but I never ever want to own shag carpeting or plaid
furniture." Max burst out laughing and Anna chirped at him loudly until he
stopped and patted her on the head. Satisfied that she'd been paid her due, she
patted my face in an attempt to get me to put her down.

"It's okay,
she can wander wherever she likes," Max said as he smiled at the tiny,
gray puff on the floor. "But she might want to stick close to the kitchen
if she's hungry!" Anna chirped and rubbed against Max's leg as he finished
putting the final touches on plates of spaghetti Bolognese and set one down in
front of me. I looked around for the bathroom and he pointed toward the back of
the kitchen.

"There's one
over there in the corner off of the dining area," he said. "I'll put
the plates on the table and feed the wee one if you tell me where her food
is."

"In this
bag," I said as I pulled the pack off of my shoulders and set it on the
counter. "I'm sure you'll figure out which dishes belong to the
princess."

By the time I
emerged from the bathroom, he had set the table and moved the wine and Anna was
eating her dinner out of her bowl, which had been placed on top of a special
placemat right next to my chair at the table. I smiled at Max and reached down
to pat Anna. She didn't even look up at me.

We spent the next
hour settling in and getting to know each other in a way that would allow us to
live in the same space. As we talked, I realized that Max was even more
handsome out of his suits and away from work. He had a wicked sense of humor
and an easy laugh, and by the time dinner was over, we were telling childhood
stories like old friends. It was comfortable, but I felt the tingle of his
presence as we washed and dried the dinner dishes. He was tall and broad, and I
could smell a trace of his cologne still lingering on his sweatshirt. Our
fingers touched as he passed me the silverware and I felt a shock of
electricity slice through my body, leaving in its wake a yearning for his
touch.

I looked up at
him, but he hadn't seemed to notice the powerful current that had run between
us, so I asked, "Is it time for the tour yet?"

"It is,"
he agreed as his eyes lit up making him look like a little kid on Christmas
morning. "Come see the place!"