Billionaire Romance Boxed Set (9 Book Bundle) (112 page)

“So you’re saying I’m a great example of a
feminist?” he asked, teasing.

“I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I don’t
think you’re a misogynist or a chauvinist by any stretch.”

“Oh, good. I was worried for a
second.”

We lay in silence, thinking. About each other,
maybe, or not that at all. I thought about Asher, at least, and I
imagined at least a little part of him thought about me. Dazing,
dreaming, closing my eyes, I cuddled with him and imagined possibilities.

…

When I woke up in the morning, Asher was gone. I
yawned, stretching, and looked towards the bathroom, thinking I might see him
there shaving, showering, or something. But, no, he was gone.
Downstairs, perhaps? Making breakfast? Any moment now, after a
knock on the door, he would swoop in while carrying a tray of food. Eggs,
bacon, sausage, diced fruit with toast, pancakes?

“Jessika?” someone called out from
downstairs. It wasn’t Asher.

“I’m up here,” I yelled.

“Alright. Are you decent? Asher asked
me to stop by.”

“Yes. It’s fine.”

I waited in bed, pulling the covers up high to cover
all but my face, while Jeremy bounded up the stairs. Outside the door, he
knocked.

“Come in,” I said.

He entered, saw me laying in bed, and paused.
“Oh. Were you sleeping?”

“I just woke up. Why?”

“Uh, no reason in particular. It’s almost
noon, that’s all.”

“What,” I said, panicking. A clock, a
clock, I looked for one, but apparently Asher never found it necessary to
provide his guest house with a clock on the bedside table. “Is it
really?” I asked, nearly forgetting myself and almost tossing off the
blankets in a hurry to get up, showing Jeremy my babydoll-clad body.

“Well, it’s nine. Close enough.”

I fell onto the bed, relieved and exasperated.
“Nine! Nine isn’t noon, Jeremy. Noon is three hours
away. Don’t do that to me.”

“Hey, look,” he said. “Everyone
wakes up pretty early here, so nine is practically noon. Asher left ages
ago and he asked me to come by. He’s going to talk with Beatrice a little
more, but he’s almost positive she’ll agree to his little deal, so he wants to
make sure you’re ready. Nice guy, huh?”

“Ready for what?” I asked. “I
don’t understand.”

“Are you serious?” he asked.

“Do I look serious?” I thought I
looked pretty serious right then.

“It’s hard to take you seriously when you’re
huddled up to your chin in comforters,” he said.

“Oh. Well, yes, I’m serious.”

“Listen,” he said. “I don’t know
if you’ve thought this through, or if you’re winging it, or whatever, but the
whole egg donor thing? Surrogacy? There’s doctors involved,
right? And examinations? If you’re staying here during the process,
there’s that whole ‘getting your stuff’ thing that people usually do. I
mean, you have a home, right? Apartment, house? Something?
Maybe you want to feed your cats? Tell your friends? Family?
Whatever?”

“Oh,” I said. Yes, I knew these
things, but no, I hadn’t thought too much about them. Truth be told, I
was a fairly quiet person without a cat(or dog), friends that I spoke with but
not every day, and family who was just about the same. They probably
hadn’t realized I was gone for a few days, let alone bothered to worry about
it. Not that they had any reason to worry, anyways.

“So,” he said. “You want
breakfast? I’m your driver for the day. I’ll bring you around
wherever you need to go, help you out, that kind of thing. We have to go
to a doctor and have them do a physical, though. Check out the parts,
whatever. I don’t know what you women do at the doctor.”

“Right,” I said. “Yes. I’ll
shower and be right down. Um, I’m kind of not wearing proper clothes, so
do you mind?” I shooed him away.

“You’re so difficult,” he said.

“I’m not difficult!”

“You’re so difficult and ungrateful!” he
repeated in a playful tone, rolling his eyes. “What do you want for
breakfast? How about French toast?”

“Yum. With strawberries and peanut
butter?”

“You’re one weird chick, but sure, you got
it. Strangest French toast I’ll ever make.”

He left, closing the door behind him. I lounged
in bed for awhile longer, letting my body fully wake up. Today was the
day and I needed to prepare for it.

Everything, all of it, my arrangement with Asher and
the start of a different kind of life. I supposed it wasn’t entirely
different, but this was all somewhat sudden. I wanted to do it,
though. I felt almost like I needed to, as if there was a driving urge
within me to perform up to par.

Except what was I going to tell my parents? Not
that they had any real say in the matter, but I didn’t know how to explain this
to them. Oh, yes, so, mom? Right, I met a billionaire and he wants
me to have his children. Not really in that exact way. It’s for his
wife, you see. Except don’t tell Aunt Nell, please? She’s kind of a
gossiper. Yes, and…

Ah, well. I had time to think on it still.
I’d ask Jeremy to bring me to my apartment first and then see what I needed to
gather up. That would take up some time. And maybe I should ask him
what to do, too? Jeremy seemed resourceful in those regards.

Everything was going to work out, I thought. Why
wouldn’t it?

…

“Do we really have to stop here?” Jeremy
asked.

With breakfast finished, my morning preparations done,
both of us were driving around the city on the way to my apartment.

“It won’t take long,” I said.
“That’s my favorite bookstore. I just want to grab a book.”

“Right. Because Asher doesn’t own enough
books. I totally understand.”

I sat up front this time, as opposed to the backseat
when Jeremy first drove Asher and I to the Landseer estate. I rolled my eyes
at Jeremy as he rolled his eyes at me.

“You don’t get it,” I said. “It’s
a different experience looking through a bookstore. It’s not the same if
you already own the book. Buying a new book is exciting.”

“Technically you don’t own the books in Asher’s
library,” Jeremy said as a point of fact.

“Ugh! That’s not even it,” I said.

“Fine. We can stop here, but don’t take
forever. I know your type, you book people. Wandering through
aisles of shelves for hours and then you forget what you were even doing
beforehand. We have stuff to do today. You have ten minutes.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, offering him a
disingenuous salute. “Whatever you say.”

“Don’t you sass me, girl.”

I laughed. “This is fun. Are you
going to come in? I’ll introduce you to the owner. He’s very
nice.”

“You have a cracked idea of fun,” Jeremy
said. Then he softened. “Yeah, let me park the car and then
I’ll be right in. Have to make sure you don’t take forever, right?”

“Right,” I said.

Jeremy let me out in front of the independent bookshop
we’d been idling in front of forever. I waltzed towards the entryway,
feeling light and springy, then swung open the door and walked inside.
Robert, the owner, wasn’t behind the counter, but that wasn’t too
strange. Sometimes he did things in the back, or went around
re-organizing the shelves. I’d see him soon, no doubt.

I headed directly to my favorite section. It
wasn’t exactly
my
section, but it might as well be. Robert had it
set up with books he thought I’d like, and he said that since he’d done it he’d
seen an increase in sales. I didn’t know if he was just being nice, or if
his other customers really enjoyed my choice in books, but it was neat to have
a section somewhat of my own.

Literary fiction, with some romance. I liked
historical and contemporary, and sometimes fantasy ones. I really enjoyed
Elizabeth Haydon, but she hadn’t written a new book in forever. The
occasional science fiction book was good, too, like
Dune,
but I wasn’t
too into the genre as a whole.

Unfortunately the shelves that usually contained the
books in my section were empty. Some books lay in stacks nearby,
presumably left there from some planned redesign of the shelves. This was
both exciting and upsetting. I looked forward to seeing what Robert might
change, and had a few suggestions for him, but that didn’t help me right
now. I sifted through one of the nearby stacks just in case I found
something new and interesting.

I didn’t, but it was nice to catch up on old books I’d
read. I remembered the ideas in them, and the thoughts I had while
reading them, like a memory within a memory. Yes, this one, a Glen Cook
book I didn’t actually think I’d like, but enjoyed very much. I’d taken
it with me in the bath and read amidst bubbles. When the fantasy army
started fighting off their magical enemies, I turned the hot water on to fix
the temperature of my lukewarm bathwater.

It was fun to remember things like that.

I moved to a table with more stacks, planning to check
through them, too. I stopped before I started, though, feeling odd.
Something… oh, yes. Nearby was the curtained off doorway to the local
book club’s meeting room. And people were talking behind the curtain.

Nothing too strange, except it was a bit early for a
book club meeting. Sometimes they did lunchtime ones for people who had
long lunches, but still, it was barely past ten. When I listened further,
it didn’t sound like any book discussion I’d ever heard, either.

“You have to understand,” a man said,
“we need to tread carefully here. It’s not something we can enter
into lightly.”

He sounded familiar somehow, but I couldn’t quite
place it.

“Why?” a woman asked. “Just do
it. Figure out some plan. I’m tired of this. It’s always the
same. Always. Do you know what he did last night? He brought
home some woman. He plans to have her act as a mother where I
can’t. I keep having to lie to him, and I’m tired of it. Do you
know how much of a nuisance it was to pay off the doctor to say I was…”

“Shh,” the man said. “Not so
loud.”

“There’s no one here. It doesn’t
matter.”

“The owner of the store is here.”

“He’s out back. And, if not, what of
it? Do you think anyone will believe someone like him? He is
beneath me.”

Beatrice Landseer and… Solomon Royce?

I stood perfectly still, caught up in the
moment. Panic and awareness blazed through me. I wasn’t supposed to
be here, I wasn’t supposed to hear this. And, why were they here,
too? I didn’t understand.

“It’s just so boring,” Beatrice said.
“Do you know how annoying it is? I make excuses to Asher, time after
time, and yet he won’t do anything about it.”

“He’s not going to divorce you, obviously.
Even he knows that won’t go in his favor. What grounds does he have for
it, anyways?”

“If he knew, then he’d have plenty of
grounds,” Beatrice said. I imagined her grinning, some sly, sleek
look like a wicked Siamese cat.

“Yes, and then you’d receive next to nothing
afterwards. Just relax and be patient. I have everything under
control. Asher’s not an idiot, but he’s too trusting by far, and he’ll
play into my plan exactly.”

“Our plan,” Beatrice said, sweet and
seductive. She sounded so much different now; still the same voice, but
with more emotion. “You won’t leave me out of it, will you?”

“Of course not,” Solomon said.
“For now, just continue as you have been and we’ll go from there. I
won’t have another ‘business trip’ planned for awhile, so I’ll be able to set
things up. You should do the same. Keep tabs on this new girl,
too. Maybe see if you hear any rumors? If Asher’s done anything
with her, even something remotely incriminating, it’ll work out in our favor
later on.”

“Yes, but I doubt he will. She seems
dull. Though that type does seem to be his sort most times. His pet
projects annoy me to no end.”

“I know. I know. Soon. Don’t
worry.”

I needed to leave. Beatrice and Solomon sounded
like they were finishing up in the book club meeting room, and if they realized
I’d heard everything, well, I didn’t really know what they’d do.
Something bad, obviously, but the scope of it was beyond me. I didn’t
even fully understand most of what they’d said, except for the obvious
parts. Insinuations and assumptions and piecing together parts of their
conversation only went so far.

I rushed to the bookshop door and tried to hurry
outside, but a man blocked my way. Shit, oh God!

“You’re sure in a hurry,” Jeremy said as I
crashed into him.

Oh. Oh! This wasn’t terrible. Just
Jeremy. “We need to go,” I said. “Now.
Hurry.”

“What?” He gave me a funny look.

I pulled him out of the store, dragging him
along. He seemed reluctant to come, but went nonetheless.