Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (79 page)

“Just tell me when and where and I’ll
arrange for it,” I said, giving up. “Now, we have a paper to write.”

---

When I woke up the next morning, the world
was suddenly a different place. I felt as though I had awoken from a fantasy so
deeply etched into my subconscious that I didn’t even know it existed. Groggily
I turned around on the bed and reached for Zayden, but he wasn’t there. From
the sound of the shower running I could tell he was in the bathroom.

I looked around the room and took a deep
breath. As of last night, I was in a real relationship with my boss. The
thought sent a shiver of excitement and happiness through my entire body. I was
going out with Zayden Sinclair. I was going out with handsome, incredible
Zayden Sinclair that every girl between the ages of eighteen and seventy would
give up an arm and a leg to spend just an evening with. How had this happened?
How had I not only managed to attract the attention of such an incredible man,
but also make him fall for me? He had said he was smitten, hadn’t he? I only
realized how hard I had been grinning when my cheeks started hurting. It was
too good to be true.

I could dwell on that later. For now, I
fancied a nice warm shower and fresh comfortable clothes. I slowly got up and
gathered whatever items of my clothing I could find discarded all over the
floor and started walking towards the shower that was in the hallway since I
didn’t feel like interrupting Zayden.

As soon as I got out of his room, however,
I almost had a heart-attack. An older looking woman was walking alongside the
other end. I had thought there was nobody but me and Zayden in the house. With
great embarrassment, I tried to cover myself up with whatever bits of my dress
I could grab, but it was probably neither timely nor very effective. The woman
had already caught a glimpse of my face and was smiling in what seemed to be a
very sinister manner.

“So,” she said in a scornful tone. “You’re
his latest conquest?”

“Excuse me?” I looked at her in confusion.

“Zayden’s newest arm-candy.”

“Um, no. Who are you?”

“Never mind that. I have to say I am not
very surprised he picked such a young girl. That’s just his style. You are of
legal age, right?”

Was this woman suggesting I was a minor
and Zayden was committing a crime? What the hell was her problem?

“I turn twenty-one next month, not that
it’s any of your business.”

“Oh wow, you’re feisty too. That’s right
up his alley. Congratulations! Zayden is quite a beneficial catch for you.”

“I don’t know who you are or what you are
talking about, but I don’t have time to address your needless concerns about
things that to my knowledge do not pertain to you in any way shape or form.”

I turned my heels around and walked into
the bathroom, feeling pissed. Who the hell was that woman and why was she being
so judgmental? Suggesting I was a minor and some kind of an object of Zayden’s
fantasy – well that part was, in a way, true enough, but what did she mean
“beneficial”? Was she suggesting I was using Zayden for his money?

The thought gave me an uncomfortable
feeling in my chest. In some ways that was exactly what I was doing, wasn’t I?
I was using the resources he had to my own advantage. But I was going to pay
him back eventually for all the medical bills. That was for certain. No matter
what happened between the two of us in terms of our romantic relationship, I
was never going to forget what he had done for me and would always be grateful.
Even if I wasn’t, even if I ended up hating him somehow, I would pay each and
every penny he spent back. It might take me a few years, but I was determined
to make it happen.

I turned on the shower and stepped into
it. Feeling a little better, I let the warm water run over my body, letting all
my worries momentarily evaporate. But a part of me was still wondering who the
heck I had just talked to…

Chapter
3

Zayden

Ned was driving the Limo on the day I was
to finally meet Aria’s mother. Despite her many protests, I had decided that
there was nothing wrong in displaying how affluent I was. If anything, it would
perhaps help her feel a little less badly about my investment. It always
worried me that Aria thought that the money was worth more to me than it really
was and I did not want her mother to start feeling so indebted too.

“Do you think I did the right thing
getting the limousine, Ned?” I asked, unsure, more to hear some kind of a
reaffirmation than anything else.

Ned didn’t speak for a while, which was
rather odd.

“Ned?”

“I am sorry, Zay, I want to agree with
you, I really do, but come on, a limo? To see your girlfriend’s mother?” He
made a noise that sounded an awful lot like a chuckle but hid it with a cough,
so as not to offend.

“Shit. What do I do now?” Ned’s honesty
had scared the shit out of me. “She is going to hate me, isn’t she?”

“You are spending sixty thousand dollars
to help out this woman, she couldn’t hate you if you landed on her backyard in
a helicopter. A limo is a bit much, yes, and you should keep that in mind for
next time, but this won’t hurt your impression much. Don’t worry.”

“If you say so.” I sighed as we pulled
outside of Aria’s apartment building. Some college girls walking outside were
pointing at the car and giggling so I presumed that they had never seen a limo
in the area before.

“We are here,” I said into the phone to
Aria and hung up. She arrived shortly, dressed in jeans and a casual navy
t-shirt, making my heart sink. I was wearing a suit, as I almost always did. It
hadn’t even occurred to me to dress down.

“Hi,” Aria said moving into the car. Her
face made it obvious that she had wanted to burst out laughing and it was
taking a lot for her to keep a straight face. “Limo,” she said, the sides of
her mouth twitching.

I felt the strangest sensation in my
stomach, something I couldn’t quite identify. It wasn’t anger or frustration or
– I realized with a jolt that I was embarrassed. Not used to such a feeling at
all, I wasn’t sure what the appropriate reaction was.

“I’m sorry,” I said, hoping apology would
cut it.

“No, no, why are you sorry?” Her face was
starting to look pained. “It’s—” she gestured around the car. “It’s quite –
exclusive. And you look, uh, you look very professional.”

We both burst out laughing at the same
time.

“Oh God, Zayden, what were you even
thinking?” she said between laughs. “We are going to the suburbs to see my
mother, in her house. This isn’t some business meeting where you have a client
to impress.”

“I do have a client to impress, though,” I
said matter-of-factly. “I doubt your mother will allow me to continue dating
her daughter if I don’t impress her.”

“Yes, but there is a huge difference
between your business partners and my mom. You can’t employ a one-size fits all
approach to dealing with human beings.”

She shook her head, still giggling, but I
wasn’t laughing any more.

“Do you think I don’t know how to deal
with people?” I was taken aback.

“No, no, no. That’s not what I meant at
all!” She looked horrified by my reaction. “Of course you’re fantastic with
people. You have built and expanded upon a wonderful business by winning people
over. Dale Carnegie would be so proud of you—”

“But?” I said impatiently. “Just get to
the but, Aria.”

“But you’re a businessman,” she said
meekly. “You think of every interaction as a business opportunity. Like there
is always a give and take involved. Like you must ensure certain advantages of
having the interaction in the first place.”

“Well.” I frowned. “What else am I
supposed to do?”

“With my mom, don’t worry about impressing
her. She’s already impressed with you based on the fact that you, you know,
paid off her hospital bills without even so much as ever meeting her just
because you cared about me.”

“So I shouldn’t try at all?” She was
really confusing me.

“No, but try less intensely. If you really
want to get along with her – and notice I said get along, not ‘impress’ – then
you have to find out what she is like and what interests her. Limos and suits are
not those things.”

“What does she like, then? What is she
like?” I was genuinely curious at this point. I had assumed that the woman who
gave birth to the force that was Aria Roberts was bound to be no less fierce.

“She is very simple.” Aria shrugged. “She
is an everyday woman. Very loving, enjoys feeding her children and everybody
who visits her house. She likes puzzles and board games.”

“Wow,” I said thinking back. “I haven’t
played any board games since I was ten years old.”

She looked shocked upon hearing this and
her eyes widened twice their size. “What? You never play board games?”

“Is that something adults do regularly?”
It was strange to think that there was a whole other world out there where
people participated in activities like board games. Perhaps families spent time
together that way, I wouldn’t know. My had been unique compared to Aria’s. I
wanted to be part of her life.

“Yeah, me and my roommates play them all
the time. And card games, they are fun too. You never get too old to huddle around
the people you love and get extremely competitive over things that don’t matter
in the long run.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun,” I said
ruefully with a little smile.

 
“Don’t be like that. You know what us regular
people don’t get to do? Fly to the Bahamas in a moment’s notice. So don’t sit
there feeling all sorry for yourself. And if you really like, we can play some
scrabble with my mother tonight, but just know that she likes to win. If you
don’t let her, it’s not going to go well.”

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to try too
hard,” I said, now grinning at her.

“You know what I meant. Now can we please
stop by a store on our way there so you can get into some regular people
clothes? The limo we can deal with but you really want to get more comfortable
if you don’t want her fussing about how hard you must work that you came to
visit her straight in your work clothes.”

“One condition,” I said. “You pick out the
clothes for me.”

Shopping with Aria was an exciting affair,
mostly because she picked out items of clothing that I would never in a million
years deem appropriate for a meeting such as the one that was about to
transpire. I didn’t understand how her mother was going to approve of me with
the slightly ripped jeans. Aria matched them alongside a navy blue T-shirt that
supposedly made my eyes pop out. I shrugged since she probably knew what she
was doing.

When we were back in the car Aria looked
much more relaxed then when she had first walked in. Even Ned seemed to be
pleased with what she had picked out as well to my utter confusion.

“How do you feel?” Aria asked me happily
as we continued to drive along.

 
“I
can’t really feel my muscles tighten as usual,” I joked.

“That’s called being relaxed and
comfortable,” she joked back. Aria laughed endearingly. “You should get used to
it.”

“I suppose.” I shrugged. “Anyways, I
bought your mom a bottle of wine. Does she like wine?”

“She loves wine. Red.”

“Perfect, I had a bottle of Pinot Noir
ordered from the most expensive Vineyard in Napa Valley. It only arrived
yesterday and I think your mom is going to love it because it’s seasonal and
not available for retail. Members of the Vineyard club are the only ones
allowed to purchase it.”

“She drinks ten dollar Yello Tails. I
highly doubt she can tell the difference.” She must have noticed the
disappointment in my face cause she immediately added, “I mean, she will most
definitely appreciate the thought though. I didn’t mean – that was very nice of
you, Zayden.”

“It’s no big deal.” I waved my hand
nonchalantly. “I just hope she likes it. I didn’t know what else to get her. I
should have probably asked you. I don’t know why that didn’t occur to me.
Perhaps I was a little nervous. I haven’t met a girlfriend’s parents in very
long time to be honest.”

For some reason, that made her blush and
she looked away, not helping my nerves whatsoever.

“Everything okay?” I frowned.

She looked back at me. “Yeah, I just
haven’t gotten used to you calling me your girlfriend yet. It feels nice.”

I pulled her into me in a tight embrace and
lightly stroked her hair. “Well you better get used to it.”

She let out a soft giggle. “Look how far
you have come from being a womanizer. You are really sweet.”

“Shh,” I whispered. “We don’t need anyone
to ever know that at the office.”

So we rode in a silent embrace all the way
to her mother’s house. Meanwhile, I pondered upon what she had said and all the
things that had happened this evening. I couldn’t quite believe I had so
eagerly let Aria change me into a different set of clothes. Only a couple of
months ago, if someone had so much as suggested such a thing I would have been
completely outraged.