The Billionaire Bum (19 page)

I thought for a minute and scribbled a quick list using the prices in the catalog that Lexy and I had been studying. “Um, the tables and chairs are the worst of it,” I said, “About $25,000, plus the other stuff. I would say it was $35,000 to $40,000 worth of damage, I guess.”

“Alissa, I’m sorry,” Jackson said. “I can’t stand for this. I know I told you that I would let you manage your own stuff, and I swear to you, I am not trying to interfere, but this is just wrong. I can’t allow him to take advantage of you like this.”

“Mr. Hayes, I can assure you that we can resolve this, if the lady thinks that $35,000 is reasonable we will give her $40,000 just to be on the safe side. I’ll even agree to freezing her rates for the next year so she won’t see an increase...”

“Shut up,” Jackson almost growled at him. “Is this how you treat all of your small business owners? I have half a mind to pull all of my policies with your company as it is. Don’t make it worse.”

The man shut up.

“Alissa, are you sure you won’t let me help you? We could just forget this whole insurance mess. I’ll give you the money and make them refund your insurance premiums for the last year. You can find a new company. You don’t have to put up with this shit.”

“I just want what is rightfully mine in my policy, Jackson,” I said. “If it says that it should be covered, then I want them to pay me what they are supposed to pay me. I don’t want your money, and I don’t want theirs either if that’s not what I’m covered for. I just want what they agreed to pay me when I bought the policy.”

Jackson’s forehead wrinkled in the most adorable way, and I fought off the desire to kiss it. “I want to see your appraisal guides,” Jackson said to Mr. Jennings.

“Of course, sir, but they are at my office, I’ll have to run and retrieve them.”

“You came to do an assessment without any kind of documentation? What did you plan to do, just eyeball it, or were you really planning on screwing her out of everything before you even got here?”

“Mr. Hayes I can assure you...”

“Never mind. I trust Alissa’s estimate over yours anyway. I should call my lawyer, but I know she wants this to be resolved quickly. According to her policy right here,” he jabbed his finger at one of the papers, “you are to pay eighty-five percent of the total damages minus her $1,000 deductible, which you are going to waive just because you’ve pissed me off. We’re working with a $45,000 figure, because I think she’s underestimating, so that makes it $38,250.

I’ll expect a check for that amount within the next hour.” Mr. Jennings swallowed hard. “Of course, sir.”

“Is that okay with you Alissa?” Jackson smiled at me.

“Yes,” I said. “That’s okay with me.”

Jackson

True to his word, Mr. Jay Jennings returned not more than fifteen minutes later with a check for Alissa. I had been thoroughly annoyed with him when I saw that he meant to deny her the money that she was rightfully owed. I wasn’t sure if he planned to take advantage of her because he thought she was not intelligent enough to know the difference, or because she was a young female, or just because he thought he’d get away with it, but I was not going to stand for that.

They say money talks, and in this case it was true. He obviously did not want to lose the large amounts that I paid him every year in insurance premiums. It was our standard practice to keep the successful businesses that we acquired running pretty much the way they were before we bought them, which meant that we kept the same insurance companies and policies, unless a need arose for a change. Several of the businesses that I owned used his insurance, but as they were adopted policies, I’d never met the CEO. What a scum bag. I was going to have to take a closer look at those papers when I went back to work.

I was pleasantly surprised when Alissa leaned over and kissed me as he walked out the door. “Thanks for defending me,” she said. “You’re like my own personal knight in shining armor.”

I was beaming. I wasn’t able to remove the smile from my face for the rest of the day. I had finally done something right, and even Chief Allen, who had overheard the second half of the conversation, seemed to be proud of me for defending his daughter. I hadn’t seen his gun once since I got back from the hardware store.

Alissa had amazing friends. Lexy rushed off to buy new linens and drapes as soon as the check cleared. Tyler showed up an hour later with a truck that he had borrowed from his father so that we could haul the trash out.

When Lexy returned, she and Alissa picked new tables and chairs out of one of the catalogs and arranged to have them delivered. The one damper on the day came when they found out that she would have to pay nearly double to have the furniture rush delivered. She scheduled the regular delivery, which was a week, but she was clearly upset that they would not arrive sooner. I was on the lookout for ways to help, but I knew that Alissa would be mad if I paid for the rush shipping. I had to be a little more creative than that. So I called my assistant Angela and asked her to do some investigating for me. We owned several shipping companies and a lot of companies that shipped things all over the country on a daily basis. I was hoping I could somehow get Alissa’s furniture to hitch a ride with a delivery that was coming here anyway.

Angela called me back an hour later and said that there was delivery made within ten miles of the furniture store today. The truck would be coming back empty tomorrow to pick up another delivery. Two more phone calls got me connected to the driver, who called me “a fool in love” but said he would be happy to help. He was right, I was a fool in love, and I was grateful for his help. One more phone call got the furniture packed up and ready to be loaded onto the new truck first thing in the morning. It only cost me a couple of minutes of my time, and Alissa would have her tables and chairs tomorrow.

I was going to surprise her with the news when the truck showed up tomorrow, but I was beginning to understand Alissa more and more. I didn’t think she was too keen on surprises, so I decided to tell her now. I thanked Angela for all of her efforts and then walked back into the restaurant where they were diligently sweeping up shattered plates and broken furniture.

“Miss Alissa?” I called.

“Yeah?” she asked, brushing her hair out of her face as she looked up at me.

“I have some good news for you.”

Her face fell for a moment, and she looked worried. I burst out laughing.

“I tell you I have good news, and you look like I kicked your puppy!”

“You didn’t spend any money on me did you?” She visibly cringed.

“Didn’t cost me a dime,” I swore.

“Good, then what is it?”

“I found a spot for your furniture on a truck that was coming back empty.” She looked confused, so I continued. “Your tables and chairs will be arriving tomorrow, free of charge. The truck had to make the trip anyway, and the driver agreed to go a little out of his way to get your restaurant back up.”

I nearly fell on the floor when she launched herself at me. She embraced me in a warm hug saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” over and over again. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I held her for a minute, just breathing in her wonderful scent.

“Of course, I did promise the driver that you would send him on his way a few baked goods heavier,” I teased.

“Free meals for all involved,” Alissa said.

“Make mine French toast,” I said softly, smiling into her hair.

We took a break for lunch around 12:30. Alissa made club sandwiches, and we heated potato soup from the restaurant the night before. We ate in her tiny living room upstairs.

“Chief Allen?” I asked. “Have you heard any more from the police?” He put down his sandwich and considered me for a moment. He could tell that I was trying to play nice, and I could tell that he was beginning to forgive me for our rocky start.

“They haven’t been able to get a hold of Ryan, which is leading them to believe that he was involved. He hasn’t returned to his apartment, but they don’t think he’s left the city. They are tracking his credit cards, and he’s still using them around town. They have a notice out for his car as well. It’s only a matter of time before someone spots him.” I nodded and went back to my soup.

“And Jackson?” I looked up. “Call me Mark.”

After lunch, I needed to go into the office. I hated to leave, but I did have a company to manage, and I could only put off real life for so long. I promised to return to help with the painting this evening. I ran home to shower and change. I packed a bag with clothes for painting so that I wouldn’t have to go home before going back to Alissa’s.

I felt high after such a great morning. I was upset that Alissa’s restaurant had been trashed, of course, but it had opened a lot of doors for me. I felt like I was finally getting on the right track with her, and I was especially glad that her father was starting to not hate me.

I opted to drive the red Ferrari. I almost never took this car because it attracted too much unwanted attention, but today, I would deal with the stares and comments. I wanted the whole world to see how happy I was.

Saying hello to Angela, I retrieved my massive stack of messages. I sat down with her and went over my schedule for the next week. She had done an excellent job of pushing back my meetings, but things were really starting to pile up. I was going to need to put in some extra hours.

After Nick’s arrest, my team of lawyers had done some investigating into his business.

My first task was to read over the report and determine if any further action needed to be taken.

Turns out the company was pretty much bankrupt. Kayla had falsified the previous financial models to make it look like a successful company. We were terminating the agreement immediately. The company would probably enter into bankruptcy.

I now had an extra spot on my board to fill as well. Without Kayla, we would be short a buying adviser. I wasn’t sure about Robert either. I hadn’t really had time to consider that situation, but I was unsure if he had been involved with Kayla and Nick. I wasn’t going to accuse an innocent man, but I couldn’t very well allow him to stay in my company if he had been involved.

We had a long list of potential investors who would be glad to join our team. I would ask Angela to schedule some meetings for Jason and me in the next couple of weeks. I made phone calls for the rest of the afternoon and tried to get everything back on track. Before I knew it, it was after 7:00, and I was so far buried in my work that I didn’t even hear Angela coming in to tell me she was leaving for the day.

Shit. I had told Alissa that I would be back in time to help paint. I threw my laptop back in my bag and left the massive pile of paperwork for tomorrow. Driving to her place felt surprisingly like driving home. I parked out front and walked through the door to warm sounds of laughter. I stood and watched as Alissa interacted with Lexy and her dad. They all had such an easy camaraderie with each other. I was insanely jealous of that.

Alissa looked up from where she was taping up the baseboard and smiled at me. “How was work?” she asked.

“It was good,” I answered. “I’m just gonna’ go change so I can help okay?” She pulled herself up from the floor awkwardly. “I’ll run upstairs with you. I needed a clip for my hair anyway. It keeps falling in my eyes.” Lexy gave her a funny look, and I wondered if I was missing some inside joke between them.

I followed her up and shut the apartment door behind me. Next thing I knew her soft lips were on mine, and her warm body was pressing me back against the door. I dropped my bag to the floor and circled my arms around her. After a moment, she pulled back and looked up at me with those beautiful brown eyes.

“Not that I’m complaining,” I said, “but what was that for?”

“You look incredible in that suit, and I just couldn’t help myself.” She traced my jaw line with her tongue and then nipped gently at my pulse point. I groaned. Fuck she made me so hard.

“If you keep that up, we will never get your restaurant painted,” I said breathlessly. Lord knows I didn’t want her to stop, but her father was waiting for us downstairs, and we really did have a lot to do.

She brought her lips to mine again and then took a step back out of my arms. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said with a little pout. “Go change.”

“Give me a rain check?” I asked, pulling her to me for one more kiss.

“Deal.”

Alissa

Good God he was handsome. When I looked up and saw him in the doorway, I thought I might orgasm right there on the floor. We’d been in a hurry this morning, and he hadn’t shaved.

The five o’clock shadow gave him a rugged bad boy look, but the perfectly tailored black suit screamed of responsibility, and the combination of the two was going to kill me. He was positively lickable.

When he said that he wanted to change, my heart almost broke. Of course, he couldn’t paint in those clothes, but I wasn’t ready to let him take them off yet – well, unless I got to witness the removal. I made a stupid excuse to go upstairs, and Lexy knew it.
Busted
.

I couldn’t take it any longer. I had to kiss him. He was like a drug, a very powerful and addicting drug. I was officially hooked.

When he asked me for a rain check I almost told him to forget the painting and take me now, but he was right. I would hold him to it though. Some day in the near future I was going to get that suit off of him piece by piece. He was too damn responsible for his own good.

An hour later we were all covered in paint. Jackson had started it by accidentally dripping paint into my hair from his position up on the ladder. I retaliated by running my brush all the way up his bare leg from his sock to his knee. He tried to chase me with more paint, but I, of course, tripped over my own two feet and fell into the paint tray, spraying Lexy and my dad with liberal amounts of Adobe Desert. It was an all out war after that. Thank God we had covered the whole floor with plastic.

We were all laughing hysterically and rolling around on the slick, paint-covered plastic when we heard a throat clear in the doorway. Lexy gasped, and I looked up. David was leaning against the doorframe shaking his head.