Bad Girls Do It Better (Bad Boy Billionaire Romance) (20 page)

Christian 

Sarabelle slept with her head on my chest for the entire night. When I woke up, I was sore and stiffer than I’d ever been. No doubt the result of sleeping in one position on the hard floor all night. When I looked down and saw her face, still sleeping and looking so content, I knew that a little stiffness in my body was more than worth the prize. Part of me wanted to get up so I could start a pot of coffee but a much larger part of me never wanted to get up again. If I could have held her in my arms forever, I would have done it in a heartbeat. I leaned over and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead, which made her begin to stir.

The beautiful angel that was lying in my arms looked up at me and smiled. She appeared to be happy with no regrets about allowing me to take her virginity. We had spent our first of, what would hopefully be, many nights together. Even as I was lying there, I still couldn’t believe it. She had witnessed the worst in me and was still willing to give me a shot when she had every reason not to. She looked past the way I treated her the first night we met. She looked past my perverted joke at her house. She looked past a lot because she saw something in me that even I didn’t know existed. I’m still not entirely sure what it is she sees in me but I can feel something inside of me changing. My way of thinking is changing. Before she woke up, I was worried that she would run out of the house after realizing that what we had done was nothing but a huge mistake. Seeing that smile on her face gave me relief. I was so happy to see that she didn’t regret being with me. It was at that moment that I sincerely believed that she would be the woman to turn my life around for the better and finally give it more meaning.

“Hi,” she whispered softly as she gently ran her fingernails up and down on my chest.

“Good morning,” I replied. “Did you sleep well?”

“I’m pretty sure that was the best sleep I’ve ever had in my life,” she said as she stretched.

“I’d have to agree with you there. Last night was incredible. You want some coffee?”

“I’d love some. You need some help?”

“Nope, I’ve got this.”

Even though I didn’t need her assistance, she still followed me into the kitchen to give me a hand. While I measured out the coffee grounds and put them into the filter, she fished out the milk, cream, and sugar. We had a seat at my kitchen table while we waited for the coffee to brew. I closed my eyes and inhaled the aroma of the fresh coffee scent in the air while Sarabelle sat staring at me.

“What?” I asked, suddenly self-conscious.

“Nothing,” she replied, looking down at the table.

“You had to be looking at something. What is is?”

“I was just looking at you.”

“I was able to gather that on my own. The question here is why were you looking at me?”

“I don’t know. I just can’t believe that we’re doing this.”

“Really? It’s just coffee,” I said, trying not to laugh.

“You know what I mean. I never thought I would be sitting in your kitchen the morning after spending the night with you. It’s like everything I thought I knew was wrong.”

“No, most of what you knew was probably right on the money. Sarabelle, I’ve never claimed to be this great guy. I’ve been an asshole. I’ve been a cut-throat businessman. I’ve taken many shortcuts to get ahead both in business and in life. As much as I’d love to sit here and tell you that I’m a terrific man, I would be lying to you. With that being said, last night was the first time I could see the potential to change that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you make want to become a better person. When I look at you, I don’t think about my own selfish needs like I normally would. When I look at you, the only thing I want to do is treat you right and make you happy.”

“Well, that’s a good thing, right?”

“It is and it isn’t at the same time.”

“I don’t understand,” she quizzed. “How can those types of feelings be anything but a good thing? Is it because you still want to whore around and bang as many women as you can? If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you, you know? I just won’t be around waiting while you do it.”

“No Sarabelle, it is nothing like that at all. I like feeling like this. It’s the first time in ages that I could actually see myself being faithful to one woman. There has only been one person before you who has ever made me feel like this and she broke my heart. In fact, she was the reason I became the womanizer everyone knows today. I don’t know if I could handle something like that again.”

Sarabelle looked at me as her eyes started to water. She began to move her lips to say something but they didn’t want to cooperate as they quivered. Instead, she stood up and wrapped her arms around my neck. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” she whispered softly into my ear. “You don’t have to worry about me. If you treat me right, I won’t be going anywhere.”

While the words were lovely to hear, I had heard them before. Raina Garcia was my high school sweetheart. If you want to get technical, we were sweethearts long before that. I still remember the first time I ever laid eyes on her. I was sitting in my fifth-grade classroom waiting for the day to start when she came walking in holding a note from the secretary in her hand. She was the cutest girl I had ever seen. She had he hair done in pigtails and had light freckles across her nose. My teacher had her sit in the seat next to me and the rest is history. That day, she sat with me at lunch and I carried her books around from class to class for her. At the end of the day, we decided to walk home instead of taking the bus so we’d have more time to spend together. About a block from the school, she reached down and took my hand in hers. From that moment on, my heart belonged to her.

At 11 years old, she was opening my eyes to a world that didn’t exist before she came around. I was used to being a shy, awkward kid who would rather stay in the background than be front and center. Raina was the polar opposite of me. She loved to be the center of attention and never missed a chance to have all eyes on her. Sometimes I wondered what it was that she saw in me, especially considering how different we were. Whenever I would ask her, she would smile and shake her head before kissing me. Our relationship continued as we advanced through junior high and into high school. We did everything together. Over time, I started to open up and became much less socially awkward. Before I knew it, I was attending parties that I never would have given a second thought of going to. I even took her home to meet my mother, who took a liking to her instantly. It was pretty much a given that we were going to get married and start a family.

During our senior prom, she and I were voted the king and queen. It didn’t come as much of a surprise since she was used to winning almost everything she was ever nominated for. In the weeks leading up to the prom, I thought of the coronation ceremony and how it would be an incredible opportunity to tell Raina that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and ask her to marry me. I went into the jewelry store and picked out a modest ring. I was still several years away from starting my company and making a good living. This ring had to be purchased using the money I’d been saving working part-time at Lenny’s, a fast food joint. The diamond was small but the ring was beautiful. I couldn’t wait to give it to her in front of all our friends.

I had the entire thing planned out. I sat in front of my mirror night after night practicing how I was going to ask her. I even got down on one knee while I was alone in my room so I could make sure it looked the way I thought it should. A few days before the prom, there were rumblings that we had some competition and might not become king and queen after all. In a panic, I made a second plan so I wouldn’t be caught off guard and for the next few nights, I practiced proposing both ways. In the end, we were elected king and queen of the prom and, after we accepted our crowns, we moved down to the dance floor for our first dance as prom royalty. Before the music started playing, I got down on one knee, pulled the small box out of my pocket and asked her to marry me. She was stunned and looked like she might actually start to cry. She took the ring from me and brought it up to her face so she could see it better. Suddenly, her facial expression changed. What had just been excitement had turned to discuss. She said no, handed me my ring back and walked out of the dance, leaving me down on one knee looking like an idiot.

It turns out the diamond was too small. She would later tell me that she couldn’t waste her life with someone who didn’t think she was worth a much bigger diamond. I tried to plead my case with her, telling her I bought what I could afford and would be more than happy to replace it with a larger ring later but it was useless. Everything I was saying had fallen on deaf ears. Eventually, she stopped answering my calls and I didn’t hear from her for years until I got a surprise visit out of the blue from her. Not-so-coincidentally, it just happened to come right after an issue of Forbes named me one of the wealthiest men in America. She realized that this poor kid grew up and made something out of himself. She wanted to come back into my life and make things work but she was much too late. My heart had already hardened and love was not even an option for me. Sure, we saw each other quite a bit and we fucked like rabbits every time she came to town but there was no chance of a relationship. She would even tell me that she knew we belonged together and that it would happen whether I knew I wanted it to or not. I always laughed it off but I was pretty sure she meant it.

Now, I was finding myself in a familiar situation. I was in the beginning stages of a relationship and, for the first time since Raina, the wall around my heart was crumbling. It felt good but it was scary too. If I had to endure any of what Raina had put me through, there was no way I’d be able to recover. The thing that alarmed me the most was how willing I was to jump into this with Sarabelle. If it was going to work, I had to put my trust in her that she meant what she said. If she said she wasn’t going anywhere, I had to believe that she really wasn’t.

After coffee and some bagels, I made sure that I got Sarabelle home safely before trying to go about my day. I knew I had a lot of work to do but I had trouble getting any of it done. No matter what time of day or night it was, whenever I sat down and tried to concentrate on business, my mind turned to her. Knowing that she and I had managed to get so close in such a short amount of time sent my brain into overdrive.

Since I couldn’t stop thinking about her, I did the only logical thing I could think of. I started spending as much time with her as possible. For over a week, I spent at least some time with her on a daily basis. Instead of me taking her out with the intention of getting her drunk like I would have taken any other women, the two of us went on actual dates. We went to the movies. We played mini-golf. We went to the arcade where I beat her pretty severely at air hockey. We did things that made me feel like a kid again and I loved it. She was truly the person that had been missing in my life all these years. Unfortunately, I had been neglecting work and had some clients who were starting to get a little pissed off. I told her that I’d have to get caught up over the following week but hoped she’d be able to stay over a couple nights during that time.

I was doing a lot of work from home but got a note from my secretary that a client had stopped by and really needed to see me. I asked for the name of the customer but all she could tell me was that they were refusing to give their name. I told my secretary to have them wait inside my office and I’d be there within a half-hour.

On my way to the office, I racked my brain trying to think of who would need such immediate assistance. Sure, I was a little behind but none of my work really dealt with deadlines. It didn’t really matter. I didn’t want to have any unsatisfied clients so I made my way to the office as quickly as I could. Once there, I rushed into my office and started to apologize for taking so long but stopped mid-sentence when I saw who was standing there.

“Raina, what in the hell are you doing here?” I asked.

“Oh Christian, why do you seem so annoyed? I just wanted to see you.”

“Well, here I am. You saw me. I’m gonna go now. I have a lot of work to get done.”

“You’re not fooling anyone. I’ve seen you around town with that little Sarabelle of yours. I have to say, I was quite surprised when I saw who you were fucking around with this time. She doesn’t strike me as your type.”

“No? And why is that?”