The Billionaire's Girlfriend (6 page)

I jabbed him with my elbow. "Don't be silly. You're the man of my dreams." When he looked at me for a heartbeat of a second, I could see the anger flash through his ice blue eyes.

The waiter returned to our table and I downed my drink in record time and held up a single finger. He gave me an abrupt nod and hustled away to get me another. Jacob didn't even touch his drink. He just kept his eyes forward, icing me out like I kept some great secret from him. I gave my mother a pointed look and she let out a nervous giggle.

"Well, um, what are you doing exactly? Another junket like Venice?"

I'd been hoping for a complete subject change, but as long as she wasn't singing 'Leila an
d Cade, sitting in a tree', I'd take it. "He actually has a film coming out soon, so we're working with him to set up media interviews and other promotional activities."

"A new movie?" s
he said brightly. "What's it called so Dad and I can be their opening night, bells and whistles on?"

I
couldn't help but smile at her efforts. Even when she was being absolutely ridiculous and embarrassing me with impressive skill, she always found a way to make me lower my arms by reminding me how she supported me. "
Soldier's Creed
."

"That movies about 'Nam, right?"

Everyone turned to my dad, surprised he actually said enough words to string together a sentence.

He cleared his throat and shuffled in his seat uncomfortably, clearly not a fan of being in the spotlight.
"I remember seeing something about it in
The Times
." He passed the mic to my mother. "You remember that article, don't you Cheryl?"

"I sure do." She fondled with the pearls at her neck, a rueful look on her face. "It's just horrible what they did to that boy in the POW camp. For him to stay strong after all of that is amazing."

I nodded in agreement. After meeting Cade I'd read up about the film and the soldier's story that inspired it. After being captured by enemy forces, he'd endured unspeakable atrocities for months on end but he never gave in.

"Cade told me that they actually brought the soldier in as a consultant." I traced the stem of my martini glass. "As a vet, he seemed really moved by the story and honored to share it on the screen."

"Interesting," Jacob said beside me.

I turned to him, glad he was finally getting over it. "Yeah the story was really interesting."

"Oh I wasn't talking about the story." He gulped down a swallow of scotch. "I was referring to you being on a first name basis with a client. Kind of unprofessional, don't you think?"

Heat unfurled in my cheeks as I tried, and failed, to temper my response. "I referred to our last "client" by her first name on numerous occasions. And since you gave the go ahead to share with my folks, I really don't see what the big deal is."

But as soon as I was done, and saw the look on everyone's faces, I felt like the village idiot. The big deal was obvious.

Jacob was jealous.

Even though I knew my mother couldn't say no to anything
dessert related, she acted like she was bursting at the seams and had zero interest in looking at their treats. At the start of the evening I'd wanted to hit fast forward but since Jacob had been given me a sneak peek of the epic fight we'd have tonight, suddenly I wasn't so excited about parting ways.

"You sure you don't want me to walk you out to your car?" I offered, trying to tuck a subliminal message in the words. "It's really no trouble."

My mother's lip smirked slightly as she shook her head. She got the message, but chose to ignore it. "That's alright, sweetie."

Dad rose up and shook Jacob's hand and waited while Mom gave Jacob another squeeze. She leaned down to my cheek and whispered, "Talk to him
" before they hustled toward the exit.

‘
Talk to him’? My date who'd gone from charismatic to quiet as the grave over some silly crush I had on Cade? I honestly didn't even know where to begin.

The waiter came back with Jacob's black visa card and he slipped it onto his money clip. I shook every drop of alcohol I cou
ld from my glass and still came up wanting. There would be no dulling the nerves that had taken up residence in the pit of my stomach.

"So are we going to talk about this?" I said finally, breaking the silence.

"Talk about what?" He chewed every word and spit them out, refuting the nonchalant question.

"About Cade." When he tense
d, I added, "
Mr
. Wallace."

"So now you want to talk about your attraction to him?" Jacob said heatedly. "When I've already agreed to represent him?"

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. "You're saying that if you knew that I had some stupid crush on him forever ago that you wouldn't have brought him on as a client?"

His silence
was all the reply I needed.

I couldn't help but laugh at that. Jacob freaking Whitmore was saying that he'd stonewall Cade Wallace, hell, any man that I dared to have a crush on. It was mind boggling. How did I become this person, this woman worth burning bridges and cutting ties? Me,
just a regular girl from Douglas Heights, making the sexiest man I'd ever met jealous to the point where professionalism was irrelevant? He couldn't be serious!

The sound of his chair scraping backward cut through my laughter. "I'm glad you find all of this amusing."

"Jacob-"

"We're leaving." And with tha
t he raged toward the exit like a bull with red in his sights. As much as I was dreading sliding into his two seater with me, him, and his stubbornness, I was dreading a ride home in a taxi more. If we were trying for a relationship and my feelings for Cade hurt him, I had to figure out a way to talk about it and make it right.

I hustled behind him, trying to grip his elbow but he wrenched from my touch.

"I want to talk, Jacob."

He stopped, but he didn't turn around. "I need to cool off first, Leila. Anything I say now would
only make things worse."

"You won't even look at me,” I said, my voice rising. “
How could it get any worse than that?" I knew we were putting on a show that would have put my mother's water debacle to shame, but I didn't care. I was trying to talk and be understanding and he was turning me into the villain. "I just don't get what the big deal is."

"I'm not going to do this here." He burst through the door and I had tunnel vision, my anger causing me to completely miss the people camped out in front of the restaurant.

"Stop walking away from me!" I said shrilly as I followed him outside and came face to face with the paparazzi. They gobbled up my plea and worked themselves into a frenzy as they snapped pictures left and right.

I futilely held my clutch as a shield, trying to hide from the flashes as the valet helped me into the car but their questions had already hit their mark.

"What were you two arguing about Leila?"

"Is there trouble in paradise?"

Jacob barely let the valet close my door before he stepped on the gas and the car swung into traffic. He snapped on the radio before switching gears, darting and weaving in between cars like some daredevil Nascar driver. It was clear the last thing on earth he wanted to do was talk, and his anger over an innocent crush made me want to talk even more.

I
powered off the radio. "We need to talk."

I expect
ed more fight, but he conceded. "Fine."

I tried to explain it the best way I could.
"I like over the top, insane action movies. And once upon a time, that was Cade Wallace's MO." I swallowed. "So I was a fan. Am a fan."

"Just a fan, huh?"

"Okay so I would have given the president of his fan club a run for her money," I said with exasperation. "But it was just a simple, silly celebrity crush. I never thought I'd ever meet him. And even if I did, I so wouldn't even make his radar."

"Oh but you did, love." I didn't think it was possible for that word to come out of his mouth and make me feel anyth
ing but warmth and safety. Instead, I felt an icy slash of fear, only magnified when I saw the white of Jacob’s knuckles as he gripped the gear shift.

"Jacob, I have no idea what you're talking about. We talked for ten damn minutes, we weren't planning some
super-secret getaway!"

When all I got was silence, I'd had it. If he wanted to be angry, fine. I wasn't going to die in a mangled sports car to
prove I was a good girlfriend. "If you don't want to talk, fine. Pull to the curb and let me out." When he didn't even flinch, I put all of my frustration behind the order. "LET ME OUT!"

He slowed down, but gave no indication that he planned on pulling over, so I decided to wait for the next stoplight. Too bad the paps weren't hot on our tail,
or they'd get a hell of a shot of me sprinting from Jacob's Porsche.

"He tweeted something yesterday that stuck with me, even though I planned to have him delete it. It had a romantic feel to it and completely contradicts the bad ass image we're trying to portray for the film."

I clicked my seatbelt back on, abandoning my plans for escaping. "What does his Twitter feed have to do with-"

"Let me finish," Jacob interrupted forcefully, but without the anger he'd been holding onto since dinner. It was like he'd been clutching this burden and was just exhausted and eager to let it all go.

He glanced at me, his eyes softened. "Please."

I gave him a long look and nodded. "Alright."

"The tweet said something like, 'met someone and felt like cade for the first time in a long time' and when I read it, I saw your face." He inhaled deep and released it. "Before I met you, there was always this hole, this missing piece. And then there was you."

Warmth rushed all over me, the ache in my chest whenever he was near expanding.

"That's sweet, Jacob." I cautioned a smile and the side of his mouth twitched with his own as we moved closer to uptown. "But why would that piss you off? Because of damage control? I still don't get what any of that has to do with me."

"Because he tweeted it almost immediately after he left the Whitmore and Creighton building." Jacob's voice changed, something in it exposed and raw. "I think he was talking about you."

The first tip off that something fishy was going on should have been that fact that Natasha was all smiles when in the past the very sight of me was enough to
make her physically ill. Regardless, I'd taken a deep breath and rapped on Jacob's door, running over the speech I'd been practicing all weekend.

After the bucketful of awkward with Cade's tweet and my mother's overshare at dinner, we both agreed to take a few days apart to get
our heads right. Truth was even after taking the weekend, my head was anything but. Even though I thought my exchange with Cade was totally innocent, Jacob's reaction and Cade's tweet had me replaying the conversation, wondering if anything I said could have been misconstrued. At any rate, I'd come up with a list of reasons why Jacob had nothing to worry about.

1.) He was, well, Jacob. No one else could rob me of the ability to function with just a look. No one could make everything else fade except for the drum of my heart and the ache between my legs. And no one else could make me want to simultaneously do
them physical harm and kiss their lips off.

I smiled when the door was pulled open with number two on the tip of my tongue and when
Missy, one of the staff publicists and ringleader of Operation Leila Sucks, was the one glaring back at me instead of Jacob, I forgot what number two was.

"Missy? What are you-"

"Jacob wanted to see me bright and early so we could go over Wallace's plan of action." She made sure she said every word like they'd been up to a lot more than business. But when I spied Jacob over her shoulder, he gave me a smile that dashed right through her transparent efforts. As soon as his eyes glittered deliciously, I knew that he was mine.

He tapped the bluetooth at his ear and rose to his feet. My mouth watered at the thought of running my fingers over the buttons of his slate blue shirt and diving to the muscled abs beneath. I was sure it must have been all over my face because his brow arched with interest.

Missy turned back to him, ignoring me altogether. "So where were-"

"That'll be all," Jacob said abruptly. "I'll see you in the conference room in a little bit."

When she slowly turned on her heel, her brown eyes round with disdain, I just couldn't help myself. "Jacob and I have lots to discuss. I'm sure you understand."

Once we were alone, Jacob sho
ok his head even though he was still grinning. "Marking your territory?"

"Damn right,"
I took a step toward him then hesitated, remembering our argument. "About Friday night-"

He perched on the edge of his desk and beckoned me with a finger. "Come here."

I closed the distance between us, standing in front of him. "I just want to apologize-"