Top Love: An Alpha Billionaire Romance (Young Adult Stepbrother and Billionaire Romance Stories) (3 page)

A world she would never see.

**

Elias gazed critically down at the five drawings on the table before him. They were the final submissions that he’d chosen from the thirty submitted to him at the beginning of the week. Though he had pretended to take the process arduously slowly, he admitted to himself that he’d thrown half of them out the moment he looked at them. They lacked originality – spontaneity. That was the problem with most architects these days. They were so busy emulating those who had already come and gone that they had no time to cultivate a sense of creativity.

The remaining ten had quickly been wormed down to five on the basis of sheer size.

Elias didn’t want a mansion – something
that
ostentatious wasn’t what he needed. When he mentioned this to Michael, the man jibed that it didn’t really matter as he wasn’t planning on living in the thing. Elias had, of course, unceremoniously banned his friend from his office to continue his selection process.

Whether he was going to live there or not wasn’t the point. If he was going to spend more than five minutes in the company of the contest winner without losing his temper, the person was going to have to be
some
kind of creative. Elias couldn’t stand to be bored. It was one of the things that had led him to rebel against his former mentor in the first place.

So now, here he was, looking over his final five options. It was obvious that four of them had come from top architecture schools. The styles were a bit dated, but the space was well used, and he could picture at least three of the buildings by the English seaside.

The fifth, however…

H didn’t know what to make of it. For starters, the building was drawn on what appeared to be common construction paper, rather than an architect’s drawing template. Most of the lines had been free handed and there were very few calculations substantiating the numbers. This differentiated the piece from its fellows entirely- both that, and the fact that the design was like nothing he’d ever seen.

Modernity with a touch of antiquity – more windows than walls, designed for an isolated property. Windows in place of barriers, however, were a clever way to make a smaller space feel more open – creating intimacy without sacrificing actual floor space.

The crudest design was, by far, the most prolific one.

He tugged it across his desk to look over it. At the obvious discolorations on the paper, he imagined spilled coffee and oily breakfast foods.

Where in the world had this come from?

A quick cross-referencing of the number on the back with the database Mary had created for him revealed that it was from Detroit, Michigan in the United States. Upon reading the information, Elias frowned.

He didn’t know much about the smaller corners of the US, but Detroit was a city famous for its abrasiveness and danger. That someone living there had created this…it was…intriguing, to say the least.

Opening the main drawer before him, Elias extracted a ballpoint pen, his blue eyes locked on the drawing. He crossed out a few of the balustrade details along the front side of the structure before adding a second floor that would be more closed than open to allow for a modicum of privacy. However, he continued with the expansive feel of the first floor, working on the building until it resembled something that, startlingly, he found himself tempted to see brought to life.

Setting the pen down, Eli scratched at the stubble on his jaw. He was exhausted. The raven-haired man had been up for the past forty eight hours working on coming up with a winner for this ridiculous contest and the sleepless nights were taking their toll.

However, for the first time in what had to be at least twelve of those hours, he suddenly felt his pulse increase as he contemplated the building that he was faced with. It would, he realized, be magnificent. The lines were perfect, and would complement the breezy English seaside beautifully. Storms and sunny days would be equally reflected in the strong, but flexible frame of the structure, which would be comprised mostly of windows.

But they couldn’t be normal plate glass. It would be too insubstantial.

Wracking his brain, the man turned the paper over to jot down ideas, only to find that there was already quite a bit of text scribbled on the back of the plan.

Tempered Glass
was scribbled in one corner.
Cools slower, less likely to rupture under strain. Steel frame with reinforced bolting for x-tra strength. Cement foundation bored down into sand in event of tropical locale to prevent erosion.

Elias continued to scan the notes, his eyes growing wider and wider. Whoever had written these obviously had only the most rudimentary knowledge of architecture – but that simplicity imposed fewer limits on their imagination, allowing for a more innovative design.

It appeared that he had a winner – though he’d hardly expected to find a design he was so personally enamored of.

Turning the paper back over, he scanned it to find the name of his first – his
only
apprentice – and his eyes fell on a signature scribbled in the lower left hand corner.

Catherine M. Harris
.

**

Cat stared at the gold-scrolled paper sitting in front of her on the kitchen table. Though she’d read it over several times, her mind still refused to comprehend the information on it.

“Cat…oh my
goodness, Cat!
I’m so
proud
of you.”

Even as her mother hugged her tight enough to cut off her breathing, Catherine still continued to stare, numb, down at the letter before her.

Dear Catherine Harris,

It is the pleasure of Elias S. Johnson to congratulate you on submitting the winning entry in the race to design his newest residence. After looking over your design, Mr. Johnson has selected your work from over three million applicants and requests your presence in London no later than Friday, February 12
th
, to begin discussing the work on the new building. Enclosed are your plane tickets, as well as reservations for your accommodations in the city. Someone will arrive at Heathrow Airport to meet and carry you to your home for the next six months. Mr. Johnson looks forward to meeting the creator of such an innovative design and, again, warm congratulations!

Mary Steinhart

Publicist – E.S Johnson

Beneath the letter – which her mother had opened ahead of her out of curiosity – were, indeed, two tickets that comprised a first trip to London along with details for a stay at
The Savoy
for a full six months.

She couldn’t even imagine how much something like that must cost – more money than she’d ever seen in her entire life…

It was impossible. She, of all those
three million
people who had entered…she had won? With her small, grubby drawing that was more an idea than an actual plan?

“Am I…dreaming?” She finally managed, swallowing thickly. “
Shit.
Pinch me, Mom.”

Naomi Harris immediately complied,
hard
, and her daughter yelped, leaping out of her chair. “
Ow!
That fucking
hurt
!”

“It was meant to,” Naomi returned triumphantly, her hands on her hips as she beamed across the kitchen at her daughter. Her smile, Cat realized, must be a mirror of her own.

And she
was
smiling. Once she started, she couldn’t stop – and the young woman found that her hands were trembling uncontrollably. It was
real
…She was going to London to meet one of the most famous men in the world…to design the house that he would
live
in!

Suddenly weak-kneed, she slumped to the floor of their small kitchen, much to her mother’s alarm. “Cat! Are you alright?”

“I’m…I’m fine,” the dark-haired girl breathed, trying to keep from hyperventilating. “I just need to breathe.”

“Well, for heaven’s sake,
breathe!
You can’t be dying right now!” Her mother exclaimed in exasperation. “You have to go to London in a week!”

“Mom…” Cat slowly began to shake her head as doubts she never imagined having to face began to surface. “I can’t…I…he’s the best in the world and I’m just an amateur! I barely have a semester of community college under my belt! This was a bad idea.-”

“Cat, I love you to death darling, but do yourself a favor and
shut up
.” Kneeling before her daughter, the middle-aged woman took the young woman’s face between hands weathered from years of physical labor. Labor that she had performed tirelessly in the hope that Catherine would get
one
chance, just
one
, like this. “You are a brilliant young woman, and just because I haven’t been able to give you the chances you deserve doesn’t mean anything about your talents.” Her eyes shone with tears as she brushed strands of her daughter’s dark hair from her face.

In that face, she saw a mirror image of herself from thirty years before – slanted, lovely almond colored eyes and a smattering of freckles across the bridge of a sharp nose. Full, rosy lips and a fall of dark, wavy hair that often refused to be tamed. Cat’s slender form was the result of years of scant meals, but she had her mother’s minute waist and ample bosom – something many young men had come calling after.

But Catherine had always been more interested in furthering her future than chasing men – it had only taken one to break her heart to decide that she didn’t need any more of that in her life, thank you very much.

She worked
so
hard that it hurt her mother to watch, knowing their financial situation would probably never allow for her daughter to get the education she longed for. What twenty six year old woman still took care of her parent, instead of the other way around? And yet, not once had Cat complained. Not even in the days where she’d had to take care of a woman who was drunk more than she was sober, and pined for her dead husband day and night.

No
.

Cat deserved this. And if Naomi had to truss her up and deliver her to the airport herself, her daughter was going.

“Everyone can see how talented you are except you, darling.” She encouraged the young woman with a smile. “This is
your
moment. Are you really going to just let it pass by?”

Exactly one week later, Catherine Harris found herself in the first class section of British Airways on a flight out of Detroit and into the unknown. At least four times in the past week, she’d convinced herself not to go, only to realize that she was being silly.

Johnson had chosen
her
design, hadn’t he? The man wasn’t one of the world’s greatest architects for nothing. He had a very particular eye – so
something
about her work must be worth his attention.

It was this thought that bolstered her courage as she flew across the Atlantic – that, and the fact that she was far too surprised at the luxury she was afforded to stay nervous for very long. Cat had never even
been
on a plane before, let alone flown first class. The fact that her seat turned into a bed and she was served not one, but
two
delicious, high class meals overwhelmed her. She was offered unlimited champagne and wine – which she didn’t exploit, but certainly indulged in, and a selection of movies that put her Netflix subscription to shame.

There was far too much to see and do for her to fall asleep, and she found herself with a sense of almost childlike excitement as the thought of working with one of the most imposing men in the world was, for the moment, pushed from her mind.

But, eventually, the plane landed – and reality crashed back down around her.

As she left the safe, plush interior of the plane, her heart rate increased twofold. Someone was coming to get her. They would take her to her hotel and then, sometime tonight, she would come face to face with
Elias Johnson
.

The young woman clutched her one and only architecture book to her chest like a security blanket, straightening her spine and taking a deep breath. Though she might not be the worldliest person in existence, Cat could certainly handle herself. She’d ground up in the rough suburbs of Detroit and worked for a living for almost as long as she could remember.

It made no sense to be scared now…did it?

As she waited for her single bag near the luggage carousel, the dark-haired girl received an overdue text message from her mother. Upon reading it, Cat smiled.

Knock them dead, Kitty Cat!

<3 Mom

Knowing that she had the support of the woman who meant more to her than anything in the world bolstered her spirits.

When Cat finally found her bag, she left the arrivals section of the airport with her head held high. After all, Elias Johnson had personally chosen
her
as the designer for his newest residence. They might even become close friends and fellow architects! Who knew? In this day and age, anything was possible.