The Billionaire's Wife (A Steamy BWWM Marriage of Convenience Romance Novel) (13 page)

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Chapter 20

Cole

I knew that it was time to come
clean.

Releasing my
restraint for just a moment, I furiously punched the console of buttons as the
elevator ascended. I threw another punch, snarling this time, then another with
my other hand, and finally one last, desperate punch with a guttural,
animalistic scream.

Holding my
battered knuckles, I backed up, slumping my weight against the glass side of
the elevator while I bowed my head in defeat.

My final days
were upon me.

I couldn’t
pretend anymore. Alphonse Megami would be here in a week. The rate of
deterioration told me that, in all likelihood, I would still be in reasonable
enough condition to host him…but it was all going to be downhill after that.

Everything
hinged on convincing him that Kiona and I were a loving, functioning marital
union – one that passed whatever silly test the foolish, sentimental man
had concocted. If the two of us could show him what he wanted to see, then he’d
buy my company, and I would disseminate the profits down to everyone who had
stuck it out with me.

They’d all
get their cut.

And Kiona
would keep what was left to orchestrate my last little master-stroke. The will
had everything laid out in broad strokes. The charitable foundation created in
my name would endure and put a bigger mark on this world than I ever did.

Kiona wasn’t
going to be a billionaire herself. Still a millionaire, of course, after
removing operational costs of my foundation, some extra little charitable
donations I intended to leave, and then taking care of the rest of the company.

I needed a
way to encourage the employees to stay with the corporation during this
transition period. Of course, I’d already thought of that. The condition of
their payments was that they continue to work for the company either for one
year after the sale, until they were terminated, or until suitable replacements
were found for their position. That way, the assets wouldn’t be all that the
Megami Corporation inherited – it would take my beloved employees and
their combined talents. If they wanted to piecemeal themselves together a
separate staff, so be it. If Alphonse wanted his people to come in and
reorganize everything, firing everybody who worked for me, that would be fine
as well, because my people would immediately receive their pieces of the pie.

And what a
big pie it was.

I smiled at
the thought of what the staff would say when they realized what I’d done. There
was a girl down in accounting making minimum wage and struggling to take care
of her grand mother as they lived together in a rent controlled apartment on
the upper east side. She probably didn’t think I knew she existed, much less empathized
with her situation. She’d get the same share that an upper manager would
receive. I was going to change the lives of every single employee in that
building.

I would even
make sure that Coppersmith, for all his faults, would receive his own reward…but
perhaps not what he expected.

Coppersmith
, I thought to myself as I
stepped from the private elevator into my penthouse, though a corridor
comprised mostly of glass panes – all the better to see the skyline as I
walked and thought to myself.
As for
the dangerous executive on my staff, I had to find a way to deal with him. The
man had me by the balls and he knew it. Kylie’s one colossal fuckup had been
allowing the man to have accidental access to my private files, and when he
learned about my disease, he obtained the proof he needed to blackmail me.

He was smart
enough to not dare and come after me for money. I didn’t know what his endgame
was, but he was intent on securing his position in the company. Perhaps he
hoped to take over when I died.

Luckily, it
was clear that he was oblivious to the buyout. He could have seriously
jeopardized everything to maintain his iron grip on his high position, and
possibly the company. It had been too risky to poke around and find out how the
inheritance would affect things. If I had tried to access the pertinent files,
he would know. I’d been so alarmed that I hadn’t even informed my own executive
assistant of the impending deal.

Marrying
Kiona had the plus side of being a failsafe. If the buyout fell through, at
least she could take over for me – but then it would be all-out mutiny.
There would be blood on Wall Street.

As soon as I
learned that the board was ready to jettison Coppersmith, I had panicked. I’d
overplayed my hand. I needed to keep my enemy close for now, while he was too
busy stroking his ego and playing
King of
the Mountain
with his executive seat to notice what was going on above his
head. No, it was the wrong time, because the moment he was cast out, he’d turn
on the entire company and cripple us through the tabloids with evidence of my
impending doom. That’s why I had scooped up an engagement ring and performed a last-second
proposal to Kiona onstage, diverting attention from him and saving him from
exodus.

I was not as
good at improvisation as my partner-in-crime was. Maybe in time some of Kiona’s
talents would have rubbed off on me… If only I had time.

My stunts had
been carefully orchestrated so far, and Alphonse had been instrumental in
helping maintain the balance. But he had a vested interest in taking a
lucrative company. Soon, he would be taking over a well-oiled machine with a
highly competent and incredibly well compensated group of savvy employees.

He was aware
of the risks, and accepted his role in all of this.

Of course… Kiona
might
be up to the task if Alphonse
pulled out. I could see her steering the ship in the right direction, and her
demands from our first lunch together – that my employees were going to
be taken care of through the buyout – had convinced me that she would
keep them happy and productive. Besides, my death wouldn’t change the fact that
our quarterly numbers reflected our highest profit yet. Sure, there might be a
temporary panic, but with a strong and intelligent woman at the helm…

The trouble
would be her trying to deal with Coppersmith herself. Having him thrown out
without sufficient reason could rip a schism between her and the board, not
unless she had a plan already in place by that point. But leaving him in was a
liability, too. Then, there was the complication of whether or not the rest of
the staff would accept her, especially after my little spiel on stage at the
Quarterly Party.

I grimaced
angrily at myself as I stepped into the kitchen.

Kiona wasn’t
here. I steadily walked across the penthouse, slumping against the wall as I
hacked up a small storm. It was as if every suppressed cough came back to fight
me in that moment. My vision began to blur as I searched for her, listening for
any sign of occupancy.

No, Kiona had
departed in a huff, postponing our conversation. It was a shame – as
necessary as it was now, I didn’t look forward to telling her that I was a
dying man. It brought me no joy to think of revealing to her everything I had
held back when I thought I had more time, time to make these decisions without
her. But I needed to prepare her now for what was coming.

I realized
now that I had been shortsighted and foolish. Too concerned with stopping the
board from acting independently of me and casting Coppersmith down to the
sharks, not realizing that he could lead those sharks to savagely destroy the
company’s future.

And in my
rash actions, I had crippled the hand that Kiona would have to play if Alphonse
Megami fell through in our established arrangements.

I did not
enjoy this house of cards.

I did not
enjoy this game.

As my lungs
gave out and I collapsed to the floor in a savage coughing fit, my last thought
as the swimming blackness took me was that I did not particularly enjoy dying.

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Chapter 21

Kiona

“So, spill the details!” Swaree
smiled as we sipped from our cocktails. “You’ve gotta tell me what happened
since your wedding…did you go on a honeymoon?”

I felt bad. I
realized with that question that I’d been awful at keeping her in the loop on
things…and I vowed that that was going to change, effective immediately.

“Oh yeah, we
went on a honeymoon alright,” I told her.

“No way!
Where’d you go? Was it Venice? You’ve been talking about Venice as a honeymoon
destination for as long as I’ve known you…if you were ever going to get
married, that was,” she quickly added.

I winced.
“No, not Venice…he wanted to stay in the United States, so I chose New
Orleans.”

“Whoa, you
went to NOLA? How was
that?
”

“It was
pretty great!” I took another sip from my drink.

“Oh, honey,”
Swaree told me with mock concern, her hand sliding onto my wrist, “you have
got
to tell me a little more than
pretty great
. Spill the details,
sister!”

I smiled at
her enthusiasm. “We landed in his private jet, a fancy driver took us to our
lavish hotel, and we had this fantastic executive suite all lined up.”

“Oh yeah?
Tell me more!” She cooed, lifting her glass to her lips again.

“Well…from
the get go, there were lots of fantastic food, great music, and a lot of
tourist stuff. Swaree, you have
got
to
try some Creole food. It is
out of this
freaking world.
”

“I’ll add it
to the agenda,” she grinned. “So…”

“So what?”

“Did you, you
know…
consummate the business
relationship?
”

“Consummate
the…oh, no we didn’t. Well…”

“Spill it,”
she demanded, setting her drink down and staring me in the eyes with a devilish
smirk. “Come on.”

“Nothing
happened while we were there.”

Aiswarya
burst into giggles. “Oh my god, you two totally fucked!
When?
”

“Last…last
night.”

She gasped.
“Oh god. Oh wow. How was he?”

“It was
the…most incredible night I’ve ever had.”

“Seriously?
Even better than the baseball player?”

“What, you
mean in high school? Yeah. Better than that.”

“Wow. I am…I
am so happy for you,” Swaree grinned, swallowing another big sip from her
drink. “That is just fantastic. He was really that good?”

“Oh yeah,” I
reminisced. “It
was
fantastic…”

“I’m sorry, I
just…I can’t get over the fact that you fucked a sexy
billionaire.
That’s really just awesome! Who the hell gets to say
they’ve done that? He didn’t do any weird spanking stuff, right? Did he do the
whole
breakfast in bed
shtick
afterwards?”

“You should
have seen his sex dungeon.”

I watched as
Swaree’s eyes went wide, but I couldn’t hold a straight face. As the laughter
began to bubble up, she hit me on the arm and joined in. “I’m sorry,” I gasped
between giggles, “I couldn’t resist.”

“So no sex
dungeon?” Swaree asked, a pout on her face.

“Not a single
nipple clamp to be seen. And as for the morning… He ran out on me,” I replied,
my laughter fading as I felt a tinge of sadness.

“What do you
mean,
ran out?
”

“I don’t
know, he just picked up and bolted in the morning. He was being super evasive
of my questions and insisted that I don’t come along with him.”

Swaree
thought about this for a moment. “Well, I mean, the guy
is
a billionaire. Maybe he had some stuff to run and take care of.
Like with his company?”

“Maybe,” I
remarked. “Didn’t seem like it though. And he said it wasn’t a business trip
specifically
… Maybe I pushed things too
far. This was supposed to be a business arrangement…”

“Well, look,
you should probably just give him the benefit of the doubt,” she tried to
console me. “I mean, he
married
you.
I was there. Obviously, you two are together through this for the time being,
until your little document thing comes back into play.”

“Yeah, don’t
remind me about that right now,” I chided her, sipping from my drink.

“Wait…you
don’t…oh my god. I know you had sex but Key, do you
like
this guy?” She gave me a sideways glance, her eyes widening.
“Oh good lord you do! You totally like him!”

“Of course I
like him!” I mock-snapped. “He’s a bit standoffish, but he’s kind, he’s sweet,
he’s caring and nurturing in his own way…but he just won’t let me in, and I
don’t know why. I kept putting obvious signals out, and we only
just
started sleeping together last
night…”

“Well, maybe
that’s a bit of a problem…”

“Yeah, you
think?”

Swaree and I
sat in silence for a moment, drinking our drinks, before she perked back up.

“But hey!
Maybe you can win him over with your womanly wiles, right? I mean, did he seem
really into the sex?”

“…Yeah, I’m
pretty sure he was. He was all over me.”

“Perfect,”
she nodded matter-of-factly. “You’ve got him. All you’ve gotta do now is play a
little coy, a little hard-to-get…so, this guy’s used to getting everything he
wants, right? I mean, he literally bought his way into a relationship with you,
even–”

“That’s not
the po–”

“–Even
if that’s a little beside the point,” Swaree continued. “Look, he’s shown you
that he’s into you, right? Maybe those walls are gonna come crumbling down, and
you’ll get in, huh? Just approach this thing with an open mind, and I’m sure
you’ll totally make it work. You’ve improvised your way into tougher scrapes
than this.”

“You really
think so?” I asked pensively, taking another sip of the drink.

“Honey, I
know
so.”

*
      
*
      
*

A short while
later, after Aiswarya had given me a hug and a cheek-kiss goodbye, I
triumphantly marched back towards the penthouse.
She’s right,
I thought to myself.
I just need to play a little hard to get…really show him who he’s
dealing with.

A small, smug
smile crossed my lips.

Just you wait and see, Cole Andrews.

I hadn’t
given any consideration to how I was getting past the lobby staff, which had
undoubtedly changed over since my departure that morning. Luckily, Samantha was
working again, and she recognized me on sight.

“Back to see
Mr. Andrews again?” She asked as I produced the private key.

“Why yes, he
is
my husband.” It was odd to say it
aloud – in all honesty, I hadn’t even given the thought any
consideration, but it was true now. Cole was my partner, yes, and this was all
pre-arranged…but he was my
husband
for
the foreseeable future.

Samantha gave
me a strange, bemused look. He had clearly neither told her, nor anyone else on
the apartment building staff. “Mr. Andrews isn’t married…”

“We married a
few days ago, and just came back from our honeymoon,” I told her confidently. “That’s
why I was here last night. I’ll have to have him confirm it with all of you, so
that I can come and go as I please.”

“Yes…of
course, have him reach out to us to verify,” she replied, not certain whether
or not to believe me.

I followed
Samantha behind the counter and around to the private entrance again. She
watched me unlock the gate for the elevator with a satisfactory nod before
returning to her post.

After
pressing the right button, I had to wait a while for the elevator to appear
– which told me that Cole was already back.
Well…maybe he’ll be a little more pleasant this time;
I smiled
eagerly to myself as I set my bags down on the tile. Holding my heel down, I
tapped my shoe against the tile as I waited for the elevator to make the long
trip down to my level.

I couldn’t
wait to see the look on his face when I presented my finds –
Would he be impressed? Furious?
It was
hard to tell.

The doors
finally opened, and I stepped into the private elevator. Setting the heavy bags
back down, I watched the floors pass until the city appeared again, spreading
out in every direction as I ascended towards the penthouse.

The elevator
ride was excruciatingly slow without anyone to talk to. I wondered to myself
how Cole did it. No surprise that he spent so much time away from his home, if
he had to endure this
every time
that
he wasn’t descending via helicopter.
Then
again
, I thought to myself,
that view
is something else.

Finally,
after enough boring time had slipped past, the elevator came to a stop, and the
doors opened. Letting myself into the apartment, I glanced at the large
windowpanes that dominated the entrance hallway. My heels clicked against the
penthouse tiling as the bags crinkled and shuffled with my brisk steps…they
were so loud in these acoustics.

Something
started to nag on me, but I pushed it out of my head. I’d find him asleep,
maybe, curled up in his bed. Maybe I’d leave him to it, or maybe I’d just stir
him awake and make him cook me dinner. After all, I’d completely forgotten
about dinner when it came to sharing drinks with my best friend.

Something’s not right.

It struck me
as a peculiar feeling, but I knew it was true. Glancing around as I entered the
den from the side, I realized that it really
was
excessively quiet…an unnatural sort of quiet. I bit my bottom
lip in fear.

Why am I on edge like this? Everything’s fine…

I walked
around to the side when I shrieked, dropping my bags. Cole’s twisted form lay
silent and motionless on the beautifully expensive floor.