Romance: Bad Boss: Billionaire Romance Boxed Set (3 page)

Chapter 5

The morning brought the same sense of panic that the day I overslept had. I sat up quickly, sweating, and looked over at the still-sleeping Lionel, his chest rising and falling with slumbered breaths.

“What have I done?”

I thought to myself. I’d given this man my innocence. My virginity. It was something I could never, ever get back, and I feared I’d thrown it away to this playboy boss who would soon go back to treating me like I was nothing at the office. I began to cry.

Lionel stirred at the sound of my sobs, and adjusted his squinting eyes to wakefulness.

“Maggie,” he said sitting up and pulling me into his arms. “What’s wrong?”

I tried to control my tears as I cried into his bare shoulder. “I feel like I made a mistake.”

“Please don’t think that,” he said softly as he rubbed my hair.

“But you have a reputation… and I’m not like that.”

Lionel stopped and looked me dead in the eyes, his emerald irises penetrating me.

“Maggie, I know the kind of person I have been in the past. But that is no more. You’re the type of woman my inner man has always craved… and I think I could love you.”

I was not sure what to say or think in that moment. I felt I could love him, but I was holding back. I didn’t want to end up hurt.

“Maggie, if I’m being honest with you, I really see you as someone I could be with forever. You are kind and beautiful, and I haven’t smiled this much in years. I’ve loved this week with you.”

My cries began to fade away.

“I really loved this week, too. I was afraid though that I was falling too fast. My feelings for you are getting to be way too strong.”

Lionel stood up and began to slowly pace the room.

“There’s just one thing… one reason I don’t know for sure if I could be with you forever…”

I waited for him to finish, but he was done talking. He wouldn’t tell me why. I watched as he slipped out the door and I was left in the room alone. I sat on the bed for an hour, confused and silent.

What did I do wrong?

It took me much longer to get off the bed and go look for him. I couldn’t find him in the lobby, the poolroom, the outside courtyards, or the gym. H was nowhere.

I finally asked the lady behind the front desk if she’d seen a tall brunette man walking around.

“Yes. He checked out,” she informed me. “Are you Maggie Sanders by any chance?”

“I am,” I replied.

“Here. He left this for you.”

The lady handed me an envelope. I opened it up and found a folded letter inside, handwritten and short:

“Maggie, I am sorry, but I took my jet back home. Here is some money. I booked you a plane ticket for you to get home commercially tomorrow afternoon. Again, I am sorry.”

I couldn’t believe it. I kindly thanked the lady and sulked back to the room. I wasn’t sure whether I needed to be angry or sad, but I was too emotionally exhausted to cry again. Instead, I fell back asleep, and didn’t wake up until the next day.

Chapter 6

I walked like a zombie through the airport when it came time to leave the next day. I did not speak to one person, I just stared out the window of the airplane the whole way, wondering what I’d done wrong to make Lionel leave without a single warning.

I tried to call him a few times when the flight landed, and each time it went straight to his voicemail.

I was back to my normal duties as Lionel Warner’s secretary on Monday. Checking the mail. Taking messages for the staff. Sending generic replies to email inquiries. It strangely felt different, however. Lionel was not yelling at me. In fact, he was not speaking to me at all.

The office was absurdly quiet. A few staff members came up to my desk throughout the day asking how the week went. I’d simply shrug and say it was fine.

“Well, Lionel is pretty solitary today,” they’d tell me.

“And he hasn’t screamed at anyone yet.”

Indeed, Lionel stayed cooped up in his office until four o’ clock when he slipped out, locked the door, and departed the building without saying goodbye to anyone.

I patiently waited each day for Lionel to speak to me. I’d come in to the office, do my job quietly, and leave, each day hoping something would change and he’d acknowledge my presence. It never happened that way.

I sent a bagel and some coffee to his room Friday morning, hoping to receive even a thank you. Nothing.

I dragged my feet out of the office Friday afternoon. He’d already departed, and I peeked in at his empty desk, my eyes beginning to swell.

I was slowly beginning to accept that this would just be how things were going to be moving forward. I prepared to move on, but one thing was holding me back.

As I was walking out of the building, I decided to try calling him one last time. I dug my phone out of my purse and dialed the familiar number. It rang twice and he finally answered.
 

“Hello?” I heard his voice say quietly into the phone.

I was silent, stumbling over the words in my head.

“Hello? Maggie? Is that you?”

“Yes, Lionel, it’s me.” I cleared my throat. “I really just wanted to talk to you… you know, you’ve been ignoring me all week.”

I could hear Lionel sighing into the phone forlornly. “I know. For that, I am sorry. Maggie… are you able to come over to my place tonight?”

“Why? You already did what you wanted with me. You can’t do it again.”

He grew more concerned.

“No, no. That’s not what I meant. Come over and talk. I can make us some tea. Just please consider it.”

I realized at that point that I had absolutely nothing to lose. It was worth getting my answers so I could fully move on from him.

“Alright. Give me your address.”

I showed up at Lionel’s beautiful mansion, it was like a home from an old Hollywood film. He greeted me at the door with a hug, and I could smell his familiar cologne. I tried to not let it weaken me.

“It’s nice to see you,” he said.

I pulled away from his hug and we stepped inside his house.

“You could have seen me all week if you wanted to.”

We entered his living room and he poked at a log in his fireplace, hoping to grow the flames.

“I did want to. I wanted to talk in private though.”

I sat down on his couch, staring at him, unsure if it was anger or just normal confusion I was feeling.

“Then why did I have to call you?”

Lionel came and joined me on the couch, taking both of my hands into his. His eyes were tired and pensive.

“Maggie. I’m sorry. I don’t want you to think last week was a lie. Yes, you were my fake girlfriend, but at some point, it all started to feel real to me. I haven’t felt that good since my early twenties. It’s like you freed me in a way.”

“Then you need to tell me right now why you don’t think you can be with me. That’s what you told me before fleeing the hotel without even a goodbye.”

A teakettle screamed from the kitchen. Lionel disappeared and returned with two cups of tea. I sipped it and the spices calmed me. Lionel was fidgeting with his cup, too anxious to drink any.

“I felt guilty,” he said.

“I have never taken anyone’s virginity before. It made me feel horrible that you were so pure and I’ve slept with so many women. I don’t want to be like that anymore, yet I don’t deserve someone like you. But, Maggie, I do think I love you.”

Lionel brought his head to my chest, and I began stroking it delicately as if I was soothing a child who just had a nightmare. He was a puddle in my hands.

“Lionel. I love you, too. I really think I do. Please remember that I was responsible for it that night as well. I wanted it.”

Lionel looked up at me and I got lost in his eyes.

“I can see the honestly in there,” I said.

“But I can only be with you if you promise to be a one-woman man. If so, I can give you forever.”

Lionel put his hands on my cheeks and kissed me. It was ponderous and spectacular. He pushed my back down onto the couch and placed his finger up my dress, gently touching my inner thigh at first, then massaging my flower and caressing my hair with his other hand. I could feel the sensation building.

“Maggie,” he said through deep breaths.

“I’ve never said this to anyone, but I want to marry you. I will be a one-woman man to you. You are so beautiful.”

I lifted my dress over my head and began pulling off his shirt. He continued massaging me till I was dewy, and I fondled the button on his jeans.

“Please make love to me, Lionel,” I said.

I opened the fly of his jeans and he pulled himself out so he was full and primed in my hands.

He brought his head down to my legs and started kissing the inside of my thigh. His kisses worked their way inward until he was licking inside me.

I lightly moved with the motion of his head, swaying my hips to reach my breaking point, and it didn’t take long for me to come.

“I like how you sound when you finish,” he said.

He raised his head up and placed his body on top of mine as he guided himself in, and I felt much looser and relaxed than I had the first time. I pulled his hand to my breast and he groped it firmly, panting rhythmically as he pushed harder.

I grabbed the couch and allowed my head to fall back off the side, the friction of his body on mine insatiable. I heard the uncontrolled sounds of his voice getting louder as he sweated and worked on top of me.

I started to climb again, it was intense and clenched and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. Just as I erupted, Lionel came simultaneously, his eyes forced shut as he was biting his lips in solace.

We both caught our breath and Lionel pulled me up to his level. We were moist with movement and he kissed my forehead.

“You feel so wonderful, Maggie,” he said. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said. I brushed his tousled hair back. We lay on the couch together as our heartbeats slowed to a mild drumming, and I turned to face him, our stomachs touching and our eyes communicating.

I was admiring the new shade of green I saw in his eyes. There were brighter and richer, like the first leaves of spring. Lionel’s eyes were a forest I was about to walk into without a map. I felt I could wander into those woods confidently without looking back, because I had that old saying backing me up.

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

Seduced By My Billionaire Boss

Stephanie Lex

 Copyright 2015 by Stephanie Lex

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced

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from the author, except in case of brief

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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any

person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

First edition, 2015