The Tycoon's Revenge (Baby for the Billionaire - Book One) (14 page)

“This is the one I want,” Derek said as he turned towards the real estate agent, who was practically drooling on his shoes. Her face lit up with total joy, as she pulled out a stack of papers for him to fill out. Jasmine was sure the woman was glad she’d decided to take a last minute call on her weekend.

Derek filled in the necessary information, while the agent talked animatedly to Jasmine and Jacob. The woman probably couldn’t wait to get out of there and go celebrate.

“Tell the sellers I will give them a hundred thousand dollars over their asking price if they can be out within a week. I will also pay all closing cost and pay for professional movers to take their things anywhere they wish. They won’t have to pack a single thing; it can be done for them in one day. I want their answer by nine tomorrow morning and I want it in writing. If they can’t meet those terms I will find another place,” Derek told the woman, whose eyes had widened. Jasmine was sure she wasn’t used to dealing with clients like him. She also knew as much as he liked the house, if his terms weren’t met, he’d walk away. She was sure that’s what made him such a fierce businessman. Once he decided on a course of action, he stuck with it, even if that meant he may not always get what he originally wanted.

“I will let them know but I’m not sure if all the necessary inspections and escrow can get everything done in that amount of time,” she said, afraid she was going to lose the huge commission.

“I will speak to my people and there won’t be a problem getting the necessary stuff done. I will be paying cash for this house, so there will be no financing issues. If the sellers agree to my offer, I can have this place ready to close in three days maximum. I was being polite offering them a week to move,” he said, in his authoritative voice. The man had a way of speaking that made people want to jump to do his bidding. He was just so powerful; there was no other word to describe it.

If he would’ve lived in the past, he would’ve been one of the Gods people idolized, as he wouldn’t have settled for anything less. A shiver ran down her spine as she realized she was going to be marrying him. She’d have to always remember who she was and not fade away behind his shadow. She also had to admit he was incredibly masculine when he asserted his unflinching authority.

“Okay Mr. Titan, I have all the necessary paperwork to get this started. I will get ahold of the selling agent and hopefully the sellers, this afternoon. I will notify you as soon as they have given a response but I know they have been eager to sell, so there shouldn’t be a problem,” she said, looking more like the confident agent she had appeared to be when they’d met her a few hours before. She really was trying to maintain her professionalism, which couldn’t have been easy around Derek.

“I appreciate it and will be waiting,” he said as if waiting wasn’t something that was easy for him. They parted ways and headed back towards Jasmine’s home.

As they pulled up in front of her house, it looked smaller than it ever had to her. She squared her shoulders as she walked in the door. It may be able to fit into the living room of the other home but she’d made it a great place for her and Trevor and there was nothing wrong with it.

Derek came up behind her and laid his hand on her shoulder. “Jasmine I’m really not trying to put your home down, I just do a lot of business from home and need more space. Jacob will also need added security once the press realizes he’s my son. I have a lot of friends and even more enemies. When you take over companies for a living, you make a lot of enemies. I won’t let something happen to my son because some disgruntled person decides to hurt me through my child,” he said, trying to reason with her.

“I do understand,” Jasmine said. She didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so she went off to her room to be alone for a while.

The real estate agent called a couple of hours later and was practically giggling as she explained the sellers agreed to his offer. She said she could meet him anywhere he liked the next day to get all the paperwork filled out.

Derek made an appointment for her to meet them at the offices and Jasmine’s head was practically spinning with how quickly things were moving. It was a Sunday afternoon and Derek had inspections arranged for the following day and escrow scheduled for Friday. They would receive the keys to the house before the following weekend.

Jacob was squealing in delight at having his own swimming pool, among many other things. He called his best friends up and told them all about it and asked Derek if he could have a party so they could all see his new room. Derek, of course said yes but at least he Jacob to wait a couple of weeks so they could get settled in first.

Derek offered to have a moving company box up her things and she put her foot down. She didn’t want a stranger to go through her belongings. He actually had the gall to roll his eyes at her. She knew he was thinking she didn’t have anything that they would want but that wasn’t the point. Her things were personal to her and she didn’t want it tainted by a bunch of strangers putting their fingers all over it.

She knew most of her furniture would end up being donated and that was fine with her. The things she wanted to keep she was keeping and there was nothing he was going to do to stop her.

The next morning Jacob came rushing back into her room first thing in the morning. She was starting to get used to it.

“Why don’t you and dad sleep in the same room? I thought when moms and dads were married, they wanted to be together?” he asked her.

“Your dad and I have been apart for a long time, that’s all,” she told him.

“Does that mean he won’t stay?” he asked with his big scared eyes.

“No Jacob, I’m not going anywhere, your mom just has too girly of a room, and too small of a bed for your big dad. We’ll share a room in the new house,” Derek said, as he walked in to join them.

She didn’t like how he kept walking into her room, as if he had every right to. Once again she wasn’t going to argue in front of her son, though.

“Okay, Dad,” Jacob said, as if everything the man said was gold.

They all got ready together and Derek insisted on taking his car in the morning. He told her it was ridiculous to take two vehicles. She once again just went with it, since Jacob was so excited to be taken to school by both of his parents.

“I need to go by my place and gather a few things, since there won’t be time tonight before we have to pick Jacob up,” he told her.

They pulled up to the luxurious condo complex, which even had a security guard at the front door. Jasmine was ever intimidated by the amount of money Derek had. She missed the boy who used to wear second hand jeans and always had a smile on his face. This new man was so much more cynical of the world around him and took for granted things that the young teenager would have been awed by.

They walked into his huge condo and though it was nice, it was so cold. There was only one picture in the entire place and it was a much younger version of him with his arms slung around his two cousins. She remembered them well from when they were teenagers. They’d always been able to make her laugh. She smiled at the fond memories.

“How are your cousins doing?” she asked him. She imagined they were doing as good as him, because the three had been almost inseparable and there was no way he wouldn’t share his success with them.

“They’re doing great. I just saw Drew the other day and Ryan is off in some other country right now. We all need to get together, it’s been too long,” he said, letting his guard down for a moment.

“They always made me laugh,” she said with a fond smile, still looking at the photograph.

“They’re great guys,” he agreed. He packed up some clothing and then led her back down the elevator. They went out to the garage and instead of getting back in the Porsche; he walked up to an SUV. She was a bit jealous as he unlocked it and opened the back end to put his things in. It was a really nice vehicle. She didn’t understand why the man needed two expensive cars when it was just him.

“I figure we should switch vehicles. The sports car is fun but this has far more room for Jacob,” he said. “Do you mind driving. I have some work I could do on the commute,” he asked, as he tossed the keys to her. He asked but he expected the answer to be yes. She wanted to drive it really badly though, so she didn’t complain. She stepped inside the luxurious interior and noticed there were hardly any miles on it at all.

“You must have gotten this pretty recently,” she told him.

“I had it delivered yesterday. I figured we would need it for Jacob and my office manager said this was rated at the top for safety,” he said as if it was no big deal.

“You purchased a vehicle without even looking at it?” she asked him.

“I trust my staff,” he simply said and then buried his head in his lap top. Jasmine just shook her head at how truly different the man was. Money did not concern him anymore at all but when he was a teenager he had talked so much of his dreams and what he planned to do with his life. Times really changed, she thought sadly.

They arrived at the office and spent the first couple hours going over the applications Jasmine had pre-screened. Derek then had her spend the next couple of hours setting up interviews for the rest of the week. He said he wanted to get things settled quickly, so the company could do as well as it should’ve been doing all along. His statement was offensive but she let it go. She actually agreed with him on a lot of things. Her father had hired some questionable people and the company had been run into the ground.

The end of the day arrived before she knew it and for once Derek didn’t complain when it was time to leave. It seemed he liked having a son and was eager to pick him up.

“Derek, when Jacob isn’t doing sports, he gets out of school earlier. I was able to take some of my work home with me before, so I didn’t have to put him in day care. I know you run business differently but I really do work well from home and would like to continue doing that,” she asked him, afraid he was going to go off on her about her not being the owner’s daughter anymore and being entitled to special favors.

“You can quit all together if you would like, of course our son comes first and there’s no need for you to work,” he said matter-of-factly.

“I don’t want to quit. I enjoy working and I want to make my own money. Just because you have more than any one person needs, doesn’t mean I’d ever be comfortable spending it. If you don’t want me to work here, then I can begin searching for other work,” she said stubbornly, with her arms across her chest.

“I didn’t say I wanted to fire you, I just offered for you to be able to spend more time with our son. He will be grown before you know it and I don’t want you filled with regrets,” he said, exasperated. She decided not to respond, because she felt a tightening in her chest at the thought. She really would like to be able to go to the school more often. She’d always been slightly jealous of those room moms helping at the school during the week with their kids. She spent plenty of time with her son and was there for all of his special events but Derek was right that she was also missing out on a lot.

Jacob came running outside of the school as they pulled up and looked around with an eager expression on his face. He looked right past the SUV, so she stepped outside and called to him. He walked over, with his brows puckered, disappointed the Porsche wasn’t there.

They stopped by a moving company and loaded the SUV with a bunch of boxes, picked up some take-out and headed toward her house. Jacob helped his dad carry in all the empty boxes and the two men went into her son’s room to begin the massive job of packing his belongings.

She stood in the doorway and watched silently for several minutes, enjoying the sound of both of their laughter. They had bonded so closely in only a few short days. She was grateful she’d told her son about his father and he had a great image of the man because he really was a terrific dad. They paused in their packing and Derek tackled Jacob on the bed and tickled him until tears were falling from his eyes, he was laughing so hard.

Jasmine reluctantly walked away from the room and headed into the kitchen. She put together several boxes and started deciding what she’d keep and what she’d donate. She knew a lot of her things wouldn’t fit in with the new home, so the donation pile seemed to get bigger, while her packed boxes weren’t taking up much room.

Derek came out every once in a while and hauled her packed boxes out to the garage, where he was making a nice pile. He’d talked her into letting a moving company at least come in and transport the items. She was actually relieved about that as she hated the actual moving portion. She didn’t mind the packing at all, as it was an adventure, discovering items she’d forgotten she even owned.

There were certain things she wasn’t willing to part with, such as her thousands of books and her mother’s antique china but there were many items she let go of with no qualms. By the end of the night she was exhausted and had barely made a dent in her small home.

“Derek, there’s no way I will finish all of this in time if I’m working all day. I’m going to need to take the rest of the week off to get it done in time,” she told him, as she sat down on the couch, completely exhausted.

“I was thinking the same thing. We really just have a bunch of interviews this week anyway. Take it off and get everything done. I will help you when I get back. Don’t even worry about Jacob, I will stop and pick him up on my way home from work,” he said, sounding just as tired as her. It was really nice to have him there to help with Jacob; she wasn’t used to that at all.