The Devoted Winter: BWWM Billionaire Romance Novel (Her Winter Love Series Book 1) (2 page)

“We just need him ‘til launch. Or ‘til he gets bored. We can’t fuck this up, Slade. We
need
him,” Nadiyya said sternly. She knew she would have to keep an eye on Slade, who was prone to acting rashly when tensions got high.

Nadiyya wondered what Slade’s comment meant about Lucian always staring at her. Did Slade still like her? Was the man she’d absolutely abhorred actually trying to flirt with her? Nadiyya wondered why men were so complicated and why they never seemed to understand that women weren’t conquests or simple games they could play. She had no interest in either of them. She just wanted to have something to show for herself as a
real
entrepreneur, as a
real
business woman. Nadiyya had no interest in the petty drama that ‘romance’ would thrust upon her. She’d seen how ‘romance’ could end and it wasn’t pretty.

Her best friend from high school had been knocked up a few times. Her sisters were both married to men who cheated serially. As for her mother… Her mother had been a fool for men more times than she could count. Nadiyya was having none of it. She refused to replicate these debilitating cycles of self loathing and pain all for some half-baked attempt at romance. Why was romance more important for women than building a life for themselves?

Nadiyya felt like she would never understand why everyone around her was so obsessed with finding love.

**********

Chapter 2

Lucian was starting to piss Nadiyya off. Unlike when business meant just her and Slade, each morning at work seemed to be filled with impassioned debate. Nadiyya found it exhausting. She felt like her business and her ideas were being torn to shreds by Lucian. What on earth did he really know? Or at least what gave him the right to be so dismissive?

Lucian didn’t care about the company’s ideals or their vision. He seemed to be treating their business as his personal idea playground. Slade fueled Nadiyya’s rage against Lucian. He felt especially offended once he noticed that the main ideas to be dismissed by the investor were
his.
Nadiyya of course took any slight against her so personally. But Slade soon realized that Lucian didn’t really hate Nadiyya’s ideas at all. He hated Slade’s. He began to become worried about getting pushed out of the company. He began to worry that Nadiyya would realize that she was the only valuable piece in their duo. Slade could see what was about to play out before his eyes and he felt so threatened that he determined to keep Nadiyya on his side.

“Did you
see
the face Lucian made when you suggested that?” he would say, highlighting Lucian’s negativity to Nadiyya in hopes of keeping her blind to the reality of the situation. Slade was becoming expendable.

As their third week of working together got going, Lucian began to realize what the hell was going on. He saw the way Slade was working Nadiyya against him. It had taken him  a while to realize, but soon the whispers at the coffee maker and the meaningful glances began to take on significance to Lucian. The man probably realized how expendable he was becoming and wanted to keep Nadiyya on his side to prevent himself from being pushed out of the company before they launched.

Once Lucian could see how Slade was using Nadiyya’s patience and self-doubt against her, he felt disgusted. Some best friend. Using the women’s insecurities to ensure he could keep his job. Lucian knew he shouldn’t meddle. He was just the investor and really, these small town people meant nothing to him. He’d taken an initial interest in their company as a favor to his friend Jason and he’d stayed so that he could get closer to this fascinating, aloof woman of color. But how could he stop himself from meddling when he could see Nadiyya being used before his very eyes?

Lucian knew that Nadiyya despised him (no thanks to Slade) so trying to approach her at work would be totally ineffective. Lucian decided that he should try meeting with Nadiyya after work, getting her away from the office where her defenses were down. Perhaps then she would see him in a different light that wasn’t quite so tainted by Slade’s negativity.

Work ended and they all went home separately. Nadiyya’s apartment wasn’t far away and since the snow wasn’t terrible she’d decided to walk to and from work that day. As she walked home Nadiyya took some much needed time to reflect. She loved having this time to herself where she could appreciating the crisp, fresh Vermont air and have time to actually contemplate her life. As Nadiyya thought about her work, she was starting to think about how the stress was getting to her. Lucian was a pain in the ass, but she was surprisingly starting to be bothered by Slade too. He just had such a negative attitude and a protective nature that was starting to come off as more self-centered. Nadiyya was beginning to feel like Slade didn’t actually care how Lucian treated her, he just wanted to make sure that she didn’t have a single positive thing to say about him. She really was trying not to hate Lucian but with Slade constantly pointing out the bad things about him, she was finding it hard.

As if thinking about Lucian had summoned him through the airwaves, Nadiyya felt her phone vibrating against her butt in her back pocket. She pulled it out and realized that she’d been so deeply lost in thought that this was actually her fifth missed call.
Shit.
Nadiyya decided not to call him back. She was tired of business.

Nadiyya decided that she just wanted to have a chill evening with her best friend. She texted Slade to see if he would meet her at their favorite spot. She passed her apartment and walked all the way to
Uncommon Grounds
, her favorite local coffee shop. It wasn’t long after she ordered her gingerbread latte that Slade walked in. He ordered his usual, a vanilla chai, and joined Nadiyya at a small table. Hipsters, college students and mountaineers bustled around them as they began to talk to each other as friends for the first time in a while.

Conversation soon turned to business as Nadiyya brainstormed ways they could get Lucian to lay off his need to control their every move without upsetting him and getting him to pull his money out. Slade wasn’t focused on their conversation at all. He engaged with Nadiyya as if he was listening intently but in reality he was off in his own world entirely. Slade was beginning to realize how deep his feelings for Nadiyya really went.

“I love her,” he thought to himself, as she went on and on about money, business and her dreams for their company. Slade didn’t give a damn about their company anymore. It seemed like Nadiyya’s obsession with that company was keeping her away from him anyways. Slade didn’t want money or wealth anymore, he just wanted Nadiyya. He’d always been searching for the perfect woman. He’d tried online dating sites and hook up apps, but the perfect woman for him was sitting right underneath his nose.

Slade wanted to own her. He pictured Nadiyya being his perfect woman: cooking for him, cleaning up after him, nursing him and of course making love. He’d always heard that black girls were the best in bed and he was starting to dream of really making love to Nadiyya. He had to admit that his fantasies were getting more and more twisted. Slade was starting to imagine plying her with drinks and then taking her back to his place where they would ‘accidentally’ hook up.

Once she saw how much he was willing to go through for her, why wouldn’t she want him? Slade justified his perverted thoughts by convincing himself that this was just love. Sure, perhaps it was a little nasty, but that’s just how guys were. These were just his urges, his desires, and he was tired of apologizing for them because of this new wave of political correctness. Slade believed he was a nice guy, and he was tired of getting overlooked.

The more time he spent around Nadiyya, the more time he spent molding her into the ideal woman in his head. He fantasized about her wanting him oh so badly and about her turning away from her dream to be with him. Slade had stopped seeing Nadiyya as a friend and started to see her as the object of his pursuit.

Of course, Nadiyya had no idea of any of this and no idea of the perverted thoughts that ran through her best friend’s head every time he was near her. She did notice that Slade didn’t seem to be listening very closely to her.

“Sorry- too much business talk, I know,” Nadiyya apologized softly.

“I don’t mind,” Slade said, breaking from his train of thought and smiling widely.

“It’s getting late. I think I should head home,” Nadiyya said, looking at the deep darkness of winter that had settled in so quickly.

“I’ll drive you,” Slade offered.

When Slade dropped Nadiyya off at her house, he waited on her street as he usually did for her to go inside. But this time, Slade didn’t leave Nadiyya’s street. He pulled his car into the parking garage across the street, parking on the third floor where he had a perfect view of the inside of Nadiyya’s apartment. Slade wasn’t sure what he was doing really. Was he truly out here like some kind of stalker? The secrecy of what he was doing turned him on so much that he didn’t have time to question the morality of it all.

He saw the lights in Nadiyya’s apartment go on. Nadiyya didn’t really believe in curtains and she had a point. You really needed to be looking to see what was going on up there. No one was on the third floor of the parking garage at this hour anyways. It was easing on nine p.m. long after the busy workers

Nadiyya immediately took her top off and began puttering around her house in just her bra and pants. Slade felt himself get hard as he watched her chest heaving. Her large plush mounds seemed to bounce and sway with every motion. Slade imagined his cock between them and his erection got even harder. Nadiyya left her living room. Slade saw a light flicker on across her apartment. He’d been inside there enough times to realize that was her bathroom.

Slade shifted his gaze to the left where he could see just enough of Nadiyya through her bathroom window. Nadiyya hadn’t pulled the shower curtain shut and from his vantage point, Slade was afforded a fantastic view of the woman as she washed the day’s worries off her body. Slade lost control and before he knew what he was doing, his cock was freed from his pants. He gripped the base tightly as he watched Nadiyya strip down into nothing and step into her steaming shower.

He fully appreciated Nadiyya’s body for the first time. He was only across the street so while she was far away, he still had a detailed view. Nadiyya was a curvy woman, Slade had always known that, but her curviness wasn’t disproportionate at all. Her breasts were voluptuous with large dark nipples that were almost purple in color they were so dark. Her skin was an even, deep sepia tone and even from that distance Slade could tell that it was soft to the touch. As Slade watched her lather her body up with soap, he imagined joining her in the shower and bending her over right then and there.

As he fantasized about using Nadiyya as his personal sex doll, his hand pumped his cock furiously. He watched Nadiyya soap between her thighs and imagined his own hand prying her lips apart and entering her sweet pussy. Slade watched mesmerized as Nadiyya let down her long thick curls. He imagined pulling on her hair
hard
while fucking her. “Oh Slade your cock is so big,” she would say. He wanted her to beg for it like a dirty whore. Perhaps he would hold sex over her head to punish her for overlooking him. Then he would punish her in a much better way by plunging deep inside of her and using her as a dumpster for his cum.

Slade jerked his cock hard as he imagined Nadiyya screaming his name and crying out. But that innocent fantasy wasn’t enough to really get him off. As he watched her, he knew what he really wanted wasn’t some rough sex. He wanted to take her. Completely. Slade imagined her finishing her shower and going to bed. He could use the key to her apartment and let himself into her bedroom. He could hold her down and push her legs apart.

By the time she knew what was happening he would be balls deep inside her. He imagined her clawing desperately at his back, screaming and begging him to remove his cock from her pussy. But like all whores, she would secretly want this. He would ignore her pleas and cover her mouth as he assaulted her pussy. She might think he wasn’t a ‘real man’ but he would show her. He would fuck that bitch so well she’d be chasing after him for weeks, wondering why she didn’t get in on this sooner. Women just wanted to be dominated and he would be willing to dominate this one and show her that there was more to the world than her foolish ambitions.

Slade was getting closer and closer to orgasm. He watched as Nadiyya turned her shower off and stepped out onto her bathmat. As she wrapped her towel around her naked body he came, spurting his cum all over his pants. Orgasm seemed to snap him back into reality and he began to realize what it was exactly he’d just done. Once the euphoria of orgasm waned, Slade felt disgusted and ashamed at what he’d just done. Was he starting to take this fantasy, this love of Nadiyya a little too far? Luckily, there was no way she would find out about this.

Slade put his cock back into his pants and zipped up. He was disgusted by the cold, sticky cum that coated his hands and pants. Slade found himself shaking as adrenaline rushed through his body and his shame became replaced with excitement, the rush of doing something so taboo. He wiped his hands on his denim and started his car. He hadn’t realized how cold it was until then.

He turned the heat up and began to drive home, hoping that Nadiyya wouldn’t happen to peek out her window and see his car driving past a full hour after he’d dropped her off. He made it around the corner safely. Slade was grateful that someone in the heavens seemed to be on his side. The secret of his masturbation was safe but Slade realized that this didn’t solve his ultimate problem. He wanted to actually be with Nadiyya. He
needed
her. How long would she continue this game of ignoring him?

Slade realized that he would have to act fast. Perhaps he just needed to come onto Nadiyya more strongly. Before, he had attempted a simple kiss and as soon as he’d seen any signs of rejection he’d backed off. Not anymore. Women needed to be pursued. What kind of woman would she be after all if she’d been so easy to get the first time? Slade decided that the next time he tried to show Nadiyya how he felt, he wouldn’t be such a wimp about it. He was certain she would realize how much he really loved her if he kept up his pursuit. She would have to succumb to his desires.