ROMANCE: The French Billionaire (A Dark New Adult Billionaire Romance) (Billionaire Romance,Contemporary Romance,Untamed Billionaire,Short Stories) (13 page)

The next day, Mia came into work feeling very pleased with herself. Dating Jayden was sure to make Xander extremely jealous, and right now, all she wanted was for him to feel as horrible as she had when he wrote her that check. She had gone out to a boring, but still pleasant dinner with Jayden last night. She had made sure that everyone had seen them leave the office together, so that word would get back to Xander that they were, in fact, going out.

When Mia sat down at her desk, she realized that there was a memo from Jayden saying that Xander had sent him on an emergency trip to meet with the European branch of their company in London. He would be back in a week, he said, and if she could just keep everything organized for him and answer all of his calls, that would be great.

Then, Xander’s secretary came up to her desk. “Mr. Will would like to see you in his office at your earliest convenience, please,” she said to Mia.

Mia’s stomach dropped. She had not been expecting him to react so quickly. “Tell him I’ll be there in a few minutes,” she said.

She went to the bathroom and made sure her hair and makeup were perfect, and then walked over to Xander’s office and knocked on the door.

“Come in, please,” he said. She walked in and sat down in the chair in front of his desk. “What’s this about, Alexander?” she asked.

“How could you humiliate me like that yesterday?” he growled. “Why would you go out of your way to publicly date Jayden?”

Mia was confused, but also perversely glad to see him so upset. “I thought you wanted me to stay out of your life,” she said. “This isn’t doing you any harm at all. Why are you so mad?”

“Because he doesn’t deserve you,” he said. He then got up, locked the door, and shut the blinds. He yanked Mia up by her wrist so she was standing, and aggressively kissed her, pushing her up against the desk. He started tugging at the zipper on her skirt, but she pushed his hand away.

“This isn’t the time, or the place,” she said.

“You’re right,” he said, breathing heavily. “Meet me downstairs at one o’clock this afternoon. I’ll have a car waiting to take us somewhere better.”

Mia knew she should say no, but she was so captivated by Xander. He was even more magnetic when he was angry. Plus, she knew this weekend hadn’t been a lie. He had to have felt something for her.

“I’ll see you at one,” she said before walking out of the office.

Xander took her out of the city, north this time, to his country house in Westchester. It was a huge, three story colonial, and looked like a palace on the inside, decorated with white marble and gold. He took her up to the master bedroom, which consisted only of a massive four poster bed, a chandelier, and a dresser. Without speaking, he pinned her down on the bed.

“I know you want this,” he said, roughly. “Don’t pretend to be mad at me.”

Mia kissed him, and gave into what he wanted. She let him strip her down and have his way with her, and instead of being scared, she found herself enjoying it. Despite everything, her heart was still telling her that there was more to Xander than his horrible actions. She couldn’t forget the sad look in his eye when they were sitting on the beach, talking about how lonely and isolated he felt in his life. And of course, she couldn’t forget how he’d made her breakfast. How he’d told her she was beautiful and kind, and easy to be around.

After they’d had sex, she turned over and asked him, “Why did you feel like you needed to pay me last time? You know I’m not some sort of prostitute. I would have kept it quiet. I still will.”

“I was intimidated by you. You weren’t like the other girls I’ve dated, who have no personality and just nod and smile. You can actually carry on a conversation. You have your own life, and your own goals. And that scared me. I wanted to feel in control. I still do. It’s a fatal flaw of mine… it caused a lot of problems with my ex.”

“I guess you’re just not used to not getting everything your way all the time.”

“No, I’m not. And even though you seemed happy with me at the time, I knew you had been having doubts about us being together. I couldn’t let you act on those. So I decided to do something about it first.”

“Xander, I really do care about you. But you’ve done some horrible things. You can’t keep acting like this if you want any of this to work out.”

              “How am I supposed to be a perfect gentleman when you’re dating Jayden?! The guy is a total dud. You deserve only the best. You deserve someone that’s going to make you feel like royalty, who’s exciting and powerful and important.”

Mia was taken aback by his intensity. She’d never met anyone so self-important, but she’d also never met anyone who would go to such great lengths to have her. But she couldn’t just let him win. That would be too easy. He needed to learn that he couldn’t just go around breaking her heart.

“This may be true, but I’m still with Jayden. I already feel badly about everything we’ve done here. How am I supposed to explain this to him? I want to be with you Xander, I really do, but this isn’t the right way. He is a good guy. This isn’t fair.”

“I don’t care about him. Or his feelings. You’re meant for me. It’s as simple as that.”

“How about a compromise? I’ll wait until Jayden gets back in the country, and I will break up with him, letting him down easy. We won’t tell anyone about us until it all blows over.”

“I can live with that,” Xander said. He grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss. “I just want you all to myself.”

***

Xander and Mia drove back to the city the next day, feeling tired but contented. They planned to keep everything a secret, until Jayden got back and Mia could break up with him. She hadn’t decided yet what she would tell him. She would probably use a cliché breakup line, something like ‘it’s not you, it’s me,’ or ‘I’m just not that into you”. She figured the less she told him, the better. He would find out about her and Xander in due time, and he was sure to be very upset.

Xander kissed Mia when they were still in the car, and promised to see each other later, when they both had some free time. Then, they got out and went about their usual tasks at work. Mia felt ecstatic. She hadn’t felt this way about anyone in such a long time. Indeed, being in love was wonderful.

At lunchtime, she decided to walk over to Xander’s office just to say hello before she went out, and bought her food. But when she got to the office, she noticed that there was a woman there. Although she couldn’t hear what they were saying, she could tell that Xander was talking to her very intently and seriously. The woman had dark, wavy hair, and after looking at her for a few minutes, Mia realized that it was Lillian!

What is she doing here? 
Mia thought.
They broke up. This cannot be good.

Mia knew that although Xander clearly felt very passionate about her, there was no way she could compete with Lillian. After all, Lillian was rich, gorgeous, smart, and had already been Xander’s girlfriend for years. Worse, she knew that Lillian can actually blow everything about her true identity. What is she going to do?

***

The Fallen Revenge 2

Billionaire Romance

By: Lisa Cartwright

 Copyright 2015 by Lisa Cartwright - All rights reserved.

In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

Mia Madison was standing in shock outside Xander Will’s office. She had come over to ask if he wanted to be out for a quick lunch, even though they had said they would avoid each other at work.

She couldn’t get the memories of the last few days out of her head, the way that he had kissed her, touched her. But now, there was another woman sitting across from his desk, and that woman was most definitely Lillian Davis, who had secretly employed Mia to get revenge on Xander after he broke up with her. However, things hadn’t exactly gone according to plan.

Before Mia could decide whether to knock and figure out what was going on, or to just leave, the door opened, and both Xander and Lillian walked out, looking surprised to see her.

***

              “Lillian,” Xander said, with a slightly confused expression still on his face. “This is Sarah Shaw. She’s Jayden’s new secretary.”

              “Oh! It’s
sooo
lovely to meet you,” Lillian said, with an air of overdone friendliness. She offered her hand out to Mia for a handshake. “I’m Lillian Davis, a friend of Xander’s. Are you enjoying working at Will Golden?”

              “Yes, it’s proving to be quite enjoyable,” Mia replied.

              “Glad to hear it. I hope everything works out well for you. Unfortunately, I’m late for a lunch, but I hope I’ll run into you again soon, and we can get to know each other better.” Lillian winked at Mia and started to walk away.

              “It was nice to meet you!” Mia said with a wave.

              As soon as Lillian was safely outside of the building, Xander grabbed Mia’s wrist and pulled her back into his office, locking the door behind him. He kissed Mia passionately, running one hand through her long blonde hair and slowly caressing her curves with the other one.

“I know it’s only been a few hours, but I’ve missed you,” he said. “I can’t get the last few days out of my mind.”

But Mia wasn’t as responsive as he had expected. She was kissing him back, but it felt like she was just going through the motions.

              “What’s going on with you?” he demanded. “Just a few hours ago we were fine. Tell me what’s on your mind.”             

              Mia shook her head. “It’s nothing, really,” she said.

Seeing Lillian there had really shaken her up. How was she supposed to be with Xander, and work at Will Golden for that matter, if she was keeping this secret?

              “Are you jealous of Lillian?” he asked. “It’s really nothing. I’ll admit, she was the ex-girlfriend I had told you before, but you have absolutely nothing to worry about. We’ve been over for a long time. There’s no chance of me getting back with her, ever. We were just talking about some financial and business related matters, so we could really finalize the breakup.”

              Although she was still feeling uncomfortable from her encounter with Lillian, Mia couldn’t help but smile at how hard Xander was trying to convince her of his innocence. It was rather charming, how much he cared.

“It’s okay, Xander, I believe you, really. I was just thinking about everything for a minute. We still have to deal with the whole Jayden situation, remember?”

              “Ahh, don’t worry about that now, gorgeous,” Xander said. “Why don’t I take you out to lunch? There’s a new five-star restaurant on the Upper East Side that I’m dying to try out, and there’s no one I’d rather dine with right now.”

              “As much as I would love that, Xander, I think I’ll just grab a sandwich from the cafe across the street. I don’t think we should be seen together in public yet, right? I mean, we don’t want to cause a scandal or anything.”

              Xander sighed. “I guess you’re right,” he said. “But you’ll have to make it up to me later.” He gave her a quick little kiss on the lips and opened the door. “Enjoy your lunch, baby.”

***

             
Mia returned from lunch and went to set her coffee down on her desk outside Jayden’s office. She was still feeling rattled by her encounter with Lillian earlier in the day. It was incredibly unexpected, and now she was worried about how she would handle her false identity problem.

How would she explain the situation to Xander? He was going to be so angry, for sure. And what if Lillian found out that she and Xander were together? Then Lillian would be mad at her too, and the last thing she needed were these two rich, powerful people on her bad side. And she still had to break up with Jayden… Just thinking about all of it was enough to give her a headache.

              As she was walking to her desk, she passed a glass walled conference room. Xander was standing at the head of a table, giving a presentation of some sort to a group of men in black suits. This was when Mia found Xander the most appealing, when he was really in his element, charming his way into a deal with a group of soulless, power hungry Wall Streeters. She caught his eye as she was moving past the window, and he gave her an irresistibly sexy smirk. Mia instantly started to feel calmer. Things would work themselves out. She just had to give it some time.

              When she reached Jayden’s office, she was surprised to find a man sitting in the chair across from the desk. He was tall and dark haired, with an intense, almost cold face. He was wearing a gray suit that had to have cost him upwards of five thousand dollars.

              “Hello,” he said, standing up to shake Mia’s hand. “My name is Robert Jackson. I am a Business Executive Developer for Greene Valley Holdings.”

              Mia didn’t know much about the business side of Will Golden Corporation yet, but she recognized Greene Valley Holdings as the name of Xander’s biggest business rival.

“
What is this guy up to?”
she thought. “
I can’t imagine he’s here for anything good.”

             
“If you’re here to see my boss, Jayden Steele, he’s out of town on business for the rest of the week, unfortunately,” said Mia. “He’s actually not even in the country right now, so it’s going to be difficult to get a hold of him until he gets back.”

              “Actually,” Robert said, coldly, “I’m here to talk to you, Mia.”

              Mia’s blood ran cold, and her heart starting beating at triple its normal rate. How did this man know her real name?

              “Oh, I know everything,” Xander said with an evil grin. “I know you’re Jayden Steele’s girlfriend, not his secretary. And I also know that you’re cheating on him with Alexander Will. Which is wonderfully convenient for me, because I need you to get both of them to do something. You see, there’s this document, an agreement that Greene Valley Holdings has been trying to get Will Golden to sign for years. They never do, because it would result in significantly decreased profit margins, and probably the eventual downfall of the entire company. You’re going to get both Alexander and Jayden to sign it.”

              “I… I can’t do that,” Mia stammered. “Why would I get them to sign a document that would bring down this entire company? I just can’t.”

              “You can, and you will, because if you don’t, I’ll expose your whole scandalous life publicly. I don’t think either Jayden or Xander would be particularly happy, if they learned that their precious Sarah Shaw was actually a detective named Mia Madison, would they? And on top of it, just in case you develop a conscience about the whole thing, I will pay you two hundred fifty thousand dollars to stay quiet.”

             
Two hundred fifty thousand dollars!?
That was triple what Lillian was paying her for this silly revenge plot. Mia had no idea what she would even do with that amount of money.

              Just then, Xander walked into the office, a confused look on his face. Why was Robert here? He was always up to something conniving. Mia looked absolutely terrified.

              “Robert,” he said. “It’s nice to see you again. What brings you in today?”

              “Oh, I was looking for Jayden, but apparently he’s abroad. So I was just having a little chat with… Sarah here. I’ll be on my way out soon. It’s nice to see you, Alexander.”

              Robert stood up to leave, and Mia exhaled deeply. He might have been the most terrifying man she had ever met, and she was extremely relieved to see him go, even though she had a sneaky feeling that he would be back, and he would continue to make her life a living hell until he got what he wanted.

              Xander could see that whatever Robert had been saying had traumatized her, but he didn’t want to stress her out more by talking about it right now. He decided that he would ask her later, when they were out of the office and in a more private situation.

              “So, Sarah,
uhhh
, Jayden’s clients are having an emergency meeting at that new five-star restaurant on the Upper East Side. I’m going to need you to come with me, since Jayden isn’t here,” he said with a wink. However, there were several people directly outside the office who could hear him. Mia had no choice but to go.

              Once they were safely in the elevator, Mia grabbed Xander’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “Well played, Xander,” she whispered. She could not have been more grateful that he had walked into the office when he had, before Robert had gotten her to really do anything damaging.

***