The Billionaire's Son 8 : Always & Forever (A BDSM Erotic Romance) (Billionaire Erotica)

The Billionaire's Son
8
:
Always & Forever

Copyright © 201
3
by Arabella Quinn

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

The Billionaire's Son
8
:
Always & Forever

I stared out my office window, lost in thought.
Blooming magnolia and crape myrtle
trees
dotted the manicured lawns, leaving me longing to be outside, basking in the warm sunshine. I had been cooped up in my office at Jackson's estate for hours straight, even eating lunch at my desk, searching for answers.

It had been two weeks since the Equinox party
, and since then,
Derek and I
had
spent every moment
that
we could together
. We were officially a couple
even though we had
kept it to ourselves so far
. I could feel Derek's impatience growing by the day
to make it public
.
But,
I was still basking in the
intoxicating
throes of a brand new relationship and
I was head over heels in love. I didn't want to complicate it all just yet.

I worried about Jackson's reaction to the news and
even my own parents'
reaction. Derek was the son of a well-known billionaire. And he had quite the reputation as a reckless playboy.
I could imagine the well-meaning lecture, word for word, from my parents about Derek. I pictured the h
and wringing, the worried looks
and the knowing frowns.

Worse than my parents
was the media.
The paparazzi stalked
Derek
at social engagements
,
always looking for a story
.
My picture could end up on the cover of gossip magazines
;
t
hey might even dig through my past looking for dirt to dish to their readers. Even though my past was squeaky clean, except for my recent activities at The Club posing as Katia, the thought of my privacy being invaded left me queasy. And what if anyone caught wind of Katia? I knew from the
icy
glare
that
Derek's ex-girlfriend,
El
ise
,
flashed
me
before
running off
, that nothing would stop
her from ruining me
if she so desired.

Derek and I spent many hours
,
usually in bed,
discussing
the situation
. He was very understanding of my nervousness about it all and promised to shield me any way that he could. But I knew that once the cat was out of the bag, there would be no turning back.
The repercussions for me were potentially huge. I had to be cautious.

The first week after the party, I spent every moment that I wasn't working at Derek's townhouse. We only risked going out once. We had dinner at a restaurant where Derek knew the owner, and could assure me that no one would bother us.

The rest of the time we stayed in. I learned a lot of things about Derek.
To my surprise, he was a decent cook
;
h
e made
delicious meal
s
for us
several
night
s
. In fact, he seemed to be more comfortable in the kitchen than I was.
He loved sports, both
as a fan and
playing
in
various
leagues
himself
. One night, I
stayed in and
watched
a movie
lazing
on his couch, while he met
up with
some friends to play basketball.

The thing that
pleasantly
surprised me
most
was
how
involved he was
in actually running
his companies
. I had wrongly assumed that his wealth and his job had been entirely given to him by his father
and that he was a mere figurehead
at Vaughn Enterprises
. In fact, Derek
worked hard
to manage and grow
the business
. He worked the same grueling hours
that
I put in at my job, but he often took international phone calls after business hours
were
long
over
. While I didn't
fully
understand
his dealings
, I was impressed with the
depth of his knowledge and the
level of his
involvement
when I
happened to overhear
several of those calls.

A week into our new relationship,
he left for a business trip. He had wanted me to come with him, but I declined. I needed time to think everything through. And I wanted to wrap up my consulting work with Jackson.

A
long
week apart from Derek had me regretting my decision. Our brief phone calls were not enough.
I would leave my office and return to my lonely home at night
,
counting the days until he returned.

I glanced away from the window and back to the stack of papers on my desk.
Sighing, I reached for my cell phone
and checked
my messages. Nothing new. I clicked on the last message
I had received
from Derek. I had woken up to
a
new message
earlier
that morning:
I miss you. Wish you were here.

Two more days. He would be back in two days.

I was getting tired of keeping
the relationship
a secret, too.
I just wanted to be with him
-
without sneaking around and hiding from people.
The hell with it. Who cares what happens?
As long as I'm with Derek it won't matter.

Warning bells went off in my head
as m
y cautious nature
took
over.
You've got to be careful, Julia!

I shook my head to clear it of distractions. If I
buckled down
on completing the final report o
f
the audit of Jackson's business, I might be done with it before Derek got home.
Then
I could take a
much-needed
break
from my job
and decide what I wanted to do next.
W
ith
my professional obligations
finally
wrapped up for the moment
,
I could
concentrate on figuring out how to make
my
relationship
with Derek succeed
despite
the
outside
obstacles
.

Reading through the half-completed synopsis
from
the
report
to Jackson
, I paused before typing. I had already d
escrib
ed several financial anomalies that I had found at two of his companies. They were fairly minor transgressions
including petty embezzlement
by
potentially two to three of Jackson's own employees, but the financial impact had been negligible. The synopsis had accurately
explain
ed each
situation and
the
numerous attachments, charts and tables thoroughly
documented
their
scope.

Now
it
was time
to address
the looming question
. The night I had snuck back into Jackson's estate and got caught up in the secret sex club, I had been tracking a suspicious hunch.
At first I had thought it was possibly a complex tax shelter, but s
ince then, I had located the files I needed, and had meticulously followed the clues down a wayward path of obfuscation and
convoluted
layering and
backtracking, so
complicated that it could only be money laundering.

I couldn't outright prove anything. M
oney could be tracked going out, but
a
fter it was so thoroughly laundered, I couldn't determine
what exactly happened to it
.
A niggling doubt had me worried. The scheme was so well crafted that any individual working in
any of
Jackson's compan
ies
would never be able to discover it. But someone had to be orchestrating the entire operation. And that meant someone
placed
far above any of Jackson's individual
business
holdings
,
s
omeone with high-level access to all of Jackson's
financial
records.

I was pretty sure that narrowed the list down to a very small handful of people. And what caused me even bigger concern was that I suspected that Jackson might even be privy to the entire operation. My instincts were rarely incorrect in these matters, and something about the structure of this system hinted at Jackson's personal participation.

But why would Jackson have me investigate if he were part of
it
all?
It made no sense. Still, my senses were on alert and I wanted to speak with Derek before I added this
suspicious
information to my report.
I had a bad feeling that admittin
g m
y knowledge
might
not be a smart move.

I closed the file containing the scraps of evidence that
I had gathered that
all led up to the conclusion that illegal activity was taking place within
Jackson
Vaughn's corporate empire.
Leaning down to grab my briefcase, I tucked the
file amidst the packed contents already stuffed in it.
I had to be careful with this
material
until I figured out what I was going to do with it.

I sat up and stretched my weary muscles. I had been working long hours while Derek was gone. Maybe I
w
ould just go home early, since I didn't have much else to do at the office. As I was trying to talk myself into
leaving
for the day
, a kn
ock sounded at the door.

"Come in."

The door opened and Marcy poked her head into the office. "Hi, Julia. You've been buried so deep in here, I haven't seen you for days."

I leaned back against my chair and smiled. "You came at just the right time. I could use a distraction from all this. C'mon in."

Marcy loved to trade gossip, so I was surprised when she declined my offer. "I'd love to catch up with you and find out what you've been up to
besides all this boring stuff.
It seems you've been holding out on me.
Clearly, it's something juicy, but I'll have to take a rain check."

Momentary panic set in.
Could Marcy have heard something about The Club or Katia?
Something was giving her that weird
,
knowing look.

Before I could
manage
a reply, she cut in. "I came to let you know that Mr. Vaughn wants to see you in his
library
."

My heart started thumping in my chest. I hadn't laid eyes on Jackson since The Equinox party. I thought back in shame with how my body betrayed me so badly when Jackson took his turn
pleasuring
me while I was in the crazy box contraption.
Luckily,
I was sure that Jackson hadn't recognized me.

I
had
kn
o
w
n
that I would have to face Jackson sooner or later, but I thought I would have more time to prepare. Now, it seemed, my time was up.

I looked up at Marcy with wide eyes, betraying my nervousness. "I didn't even realize he was here."

Marcy nodded. "
He just got here and he made it
very
clear that
no one was
to disturb you. You better hurry.
"

Marcy left as I was hastily checking my makeup in a compact
mirror
that
I fished from my purse. A fresh coat of lipstick and I was as ready as I could ever be. I approached the
library
with trepidation.

I tried to calm my frazzled nerves.
Jackson was probably only looking for an update on my investigation.
On the business end, I felt that I could give him some answers without alluding to the money laundering operation that I suspected. It was
actua
lly
my personal reaction to
Jackson
that I was afraid of. Would I be able to face the ma
n, my boss
and
Derek's father, who
had brought me to
such
a powerful orgasm without
betraying any emotion
or making a fool of mysel
f
?
I would have to.
I pasted on
a
serene
no-nonsense
face
, took a deep breath
and knocked on the
library
door.