Top Love: An Alpha Billionaire Romance (Young Adult Stepbrother and Billionaire Romance Stories) (18 page)

He then brushed by Lauren and headed for the door.

“Riley,” Lauren said, but there wasn’t much yearning in her voice. At that moment, she didn’t really care if he turned around and came back to her or not.

He made his exit, not even bothering to shut the door behind him. Lauren helplessly watched him go and fought the urge to chase after him. After all, Scott was just now sitting up, his eyes wide with fear as he finally started to catch his breath again.

“I’m so sorry, Lauren said. “My God, Scott…I had no idea he would do that?”

“Who was it?” he asked.

“That as Riley. I think he’s sort of my boyfriend.”

“Nice guy,” Scott said. “Seems like the jealous type if you ask me.”

He was trying to be funny in the face of what had just happened to him, but something about the comment made Lauren wince. Despite the strong and rapidly growing feelings she had for Riley, the fact remained that there was a lot that she didn’t yet know about him. Maybe he was the jealous type… and, if tonight was any indication, he was the extremely jealous type.

“I’m sorry,” she said again, the words feeling empty. “Scott…I have to go. This…this isn’t like him.”

Scott winced as he got up. “Be careful,” he said. “The dude packs quite a punch.”

“Sorry.”

“Should I…well, should I stay away from you for a while?” Scott asked.

“No, I don’t think that’s necessary. I don’t know what happened just now, but I really don’t think he’s like that. I’m so pissed and shocked…and so sorry.”

“Stop apologizing,” Scott said. “You didn’t hit me.” He walked to the door, holding his stomach. “Just go and talk to him. And be careful. Because if he hits you, I’m not much in the way of backup. I’m not exactly a fighter.”

“It won’t come to that,” she said as she headed out of the door with him.

But in the back of her head, she couldn’t help but wonder. Do I know him well enough?
Would he hit me if he got angry enough?

“Let him try,” she said under her breath as she took the stairs.

As she made it to the lobby, her fingers itching to get behind the wheel and drive to Riley’s house, she tried to remember if she had ever wanted to both kiss and kick someone so badly all at the same time.

***

Traffic was relatively light and she was able to get to Riley’s house quickly. She arrived shortly after he did, as she saw his headlights dimming out in the driveway as she turned in. By the time she had parked behind his car, Riley was already at the porch and opening the door.

“Don’t come after me,” he said, his voice stern.

“I deserve an explanation,” Lauren said, walking as quickly as she could towards the door without actually running. “You think about that before you close that door on me.”

Riley said nothing but when he walked into the house, he left the door standing open. Lauren saw that as her invitation to come inside, so she did. She stormed up his porch and walked inside. He was standing in the foyer, waiting for her. He was visibly upset, but she couldn’t gauge whether what she was seeing was anger, fear, sorrow, or something else.

She waited for him to say something and when it was apparent that he was going to stay quiet for the moment, she lit into him. She didn’t mean for so much anger to come out, but there it was, spewing out as if it had been building up all night.

“You understand how psychotic it is for you to start just wailing on a friend of mine, right?” she asked. “That shit is for mental institutions…I don’t care how rich you are. And you know what…
maybe
, and that’s a big maybe, we were a couple that had been together for a while and we were totally committed to each other, I might be able to understand it.
Might
. But I’m not yours, Riley. You can’t just go around beating up any guy that I speak to. Scott is my neighbor and, hopefully after tonight, still my friend. I’ve known him longer than you and he had come over to tell me about a rotten date he’d had. Imagine his horror when some crazy asshole shows up at my door with flowers and then starts wailing on him!”

He remained quiet, but he was fidgeting as he stood there; he wrung his hands and pivoted from foot to foot like a kid that was being reprimanded.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” she asked. And through it all, she was a little disgusted that seeing him in his turmoil and whatever he was going through made her want to go to him and take him in her arms.

“You said that you’re not mine,” he said softly. “But what if I want you to be? I feel it coming…something growing between us and it scares me, Lauren. It just about bowled me over when we were having dinner in that field last night. And then last night on the plane…I don’t know that sex has ever been that intimate for me. Like a clicking, you know? I’ve never had that.”

“Me neither,” she said.

“After the fight today, I was sure that you were starting to see a side of me that would drive you away. So I took some time to think over it. Part of me is so scared about the way I feel for you that I almost convinced myself to leave you alone—to forget about you and continue on with my life. But I can’t do that. I want you, and I’m falling for you. And usually when I want something, I just buy it, you know? So tonight when I saw that guy in your apartment, I saw it as just another obstacle in the way of what I wanted. I lost it. I went crazy. And I hope you can believe me what I say that I’m not like that. I’ve thrown one punch in my life before tonight and it was in a fight I lost badly in high school.”

“That’s sweet,” Lauren said hesitantly, “but I’m not something to be owned.”

How frigging ironic, she thought. How did I go from basically praying for dates to having to tell a gorgeous millionaire that they don’t own me? If there’s a God, He’s got an enormous sense of humor.

“I know that,” he said. “But I guess wanting something and then just getting it through influence or money has become so ingrained in me that it’s fucked up my sense of relationships and how to deal with people that aren’t sitting at boardroom tables. Look…Lauren, I’m so sorry. What can I do to show you how sorry I am?”

He stepped towards her now, extending his hand. She took it with some reservation but when they touched she felt herself softening to him. It had to have been hard for a man of his stature to expose himself the way he had just done. That had to mean something, right?

“Seriously,” he said. “Anything.”

“Well, you can start by coming with me to apologize to Scott.”

“Absolutely. Can we go right now?”

“Yes,” she said. “I think we should.”

They walked towards the front door together, still hand in hand. When they were out on the porch, the front door closed behind them, he gave her arm a tug and drew her into his chest. She was resistant at first, but she allowed herself to remain there, against his body and in his arms.

“I meant what I said,” he told her. “I want you. I want you to stay. I want this to work for the long term. And that terrifies me.”

“I’m feeling the same way,” she said, not nearly ready to let him know that she was already falling in love with him. “It’s scary. But when I start punching people on your behalf, that would be a cause for concern.”

He grinned slightly, but she thought the jab had hurt him a bit. Still, she did not take it back as they walked to his car. Still holding hands, he drove them away from his house and back into the city.

***

The apology had been sincere and Scott had forgiven Riley. Riley had even offered to take Scott out for dinner with him and Lauren, but Scott had declined. He had been a bit rude about the invitation, and Lauren didn’t blame him. When they’d left Scott’s place, she’d gotten the feeling that things between her and Scott might never quite be the same.

She had stayed at Riley’s house on Saturday night. There had been no love-making, no kissing, and very little touching. It wasn’t that Lauren didn’t trust him, but she felt that to just act as if things were perfectly fine might be too foolish. She didn’t want to make him feel like he had to pay for what he had done, but that was essentially what it boiled down to.

When they woke up on Sunday morning, Lauren was overjoyed with how peaceful it felt to wake up next to him. Even with their clothes on and on opposite sides of the bed, having him there did something to her that she couldn’t explain.  They stayed in bed for a very long time and once again, there was nothing sexual about it. They talked about the night before and, to Lauren’s surprise, Riley opened up a bit more as he tried to explain the reasons for his unbridle rage-fit the night before.

Riley had purchased his first company at the age of twenty-eight. Some of the money had been taken from the inheritance his father had left him, but he had been careful to not use that money as a cushion after that. He was quite proud that he had not had to use a penny of his father’s money I helping to build his career, outside of that first company. In the three years that followed, Riley had purchased two more companies and that’s when he’s gotten in on the construction and expansion side. Parking lots, shopping centers, open-air malls, and even two parks along the East Coast…those were all his doing and by the time he’s turned thirty-four, he had people coming to him with ridiculous offers.

At thirty-six, he knew that he could retire and live comfortably. If he had kids, he’d have plenty of money to leave them, too. But with that sense of security, there also came a sense of entitlement. When he wanted the latest technological advance in entertainment, he got it. When he wanted a new car, he got it. When he wanted a new house, it wasn’t a problem. Lauren discovered that he actually had three other houses, one of which was a luxurious beach house somewhere in North Carolina that he rented out during the summer for nearly ten grand a week.

She was glad to hear that recognized this entitlement as a flaw and she could easily see how it would lead to a sense of possession in terms of people.

“So let me ask you,” Lauren said as they lay in bed, the afternoon sun coming in through the windows as if trying to coax them out into the world of the wide awake. “Do you see your employees as people you own? Do you see them as possessions?”

“No,” he said. “I sign their paychecks. There’s a sort of exchange there. I’m not using the paycheck to pay for them.”

“So how am I different? Why did you feel like you owned me last night? Why did you feel like Scott was threatening to take something you owned?”

“I thought about that a lot last night while you were sleeping,” he admitted. “I think it comes down to investment. I have never put the sort of emotional investment in anyone like I have out into you. And in many ways, that’s riskier and more exhausting that anything I’d do in a business setting. I think it goes back to that entitlement thing. I felt, at that moment, very territorial. You were mine.  Anything in the way of that needed to be dealt with.”

“And are you over that now?”

“I think so,” he said, looking earnestly into her eyes. “I hope so.”

She leaned in and gave him a sweet, soft kiss. “I hope so too,” she said when she pulled away. “You scared me last night. I don’t know that I can handle seeing that side of you again. I can’t be scared of you like that again.”

“You won’t,” he said. “If you will give me a chance and stay with me, I’ll see to it that you don’t.”

“Okay,” she said.

Their hands met over the sheets and she gave him a slight pulling motion. He came to her and kissed her. “I think we should get out of bed now,” he said.

“Nuts to that,” she said. “I start a new job tomorrow. I need to be as rested as possible.”

“Well, there goes the strenuous activities I had planned for the afternoon,” he said with a laugh.

“Let’s not rule anything out,” she said. “Just how strenuous are we talking?”

With that sensual evil grin that sent daggers of anticipation through her, he said, “Well, not too vigorous for you. You have to sort of just lay there.”

“What do you—,” she started to say.

But then he was under the covers, kissing her chest, her stomach, and going lower.

She did as he said. She just lay there and within seconds, the sunlit bedroom seemed to get much brighter.

***

“You’ve got this,” Riley said.

Lauren sighed, looking at herself in the mirror. She was dressed in an outfit that she had driven back to her apartment to get last night. Riley had offered to take her out shopping for something new, but she had declined. So soon after their argument and the incident with Scott, she did not want him to spend any of his money on her. It was bad enough that she was less than an hour away from starting a job that he had landed for her. She didn’t want to feel like she was taking advantage of him.

“I think I do have this,” she said. “I have a good feeling about it. Still, though. I’m nervous.”

“No need to me. You’ll rock your first day.”

He kissed her then and led her out of the bathroom, through the bedroom and down the hall. Her knees were shaking a bit and her palms were sweaty. She knew that she would do well with this job and even that she deserved it.

And she owed it mostly to the enigmatic man that now walked her to the front door and down the porch towards her car.