Billionaire Romance: Desires (Complete Series) (3 page)

The entire time the woman spoke; there was only one thing that Melody noticed: she was speaking in the past tense. She waited still for what she was building up to, and hoped she would still get a job.

“I am sorry, Miss Mitchell, but somewhere it seems there was some mix up with the files. The receptionist is also new, and she didn’t realize we had already chosen someone for the job when she called you. We are sorry for this inconvenience to you, but we are willing to reimburse you any expense you may have incurred in getting here, as well as for your time, of course.”

She handed Melody a check for two hundred dollars, and though her heart was broken, and she was a proud woman, she was also broke. And that also meant that this man must be wealthy. She took the check from the woman and thanked her, her smile barely hiding the imminent flow of tears.

She got up then and managed to shake the woman’s hand before walking back to the front. Pity, she thought, as she glanced back at the spectacled man inside the cubicle; they could have been friends. She waved to him and he did the same as she hurried outside and into the comforts of the pavement. The tears were now officially freed, and they didn’t hesitate to gallop down her cheeks: too many and too hard to contain. Not wanting anyone to witness her in this state, she held her head down and started rummaging inside her purse for some tissue. She was starting to curse to herself about the fact that nothing turned up in a woman’s handbag that she needed at any given time; they always seemed to be at the bottom.

So blinded was she by tears and frustration that she didn’t see where she was going until she felt a figure loom above her, and by the time she could make sense of it, she felt something warm on her stomach and saw the white on her outfit turn to brown patches. She could smell coffee and she looked up now as she staggered. The man grabbed onto her hand to catch her from falling as she flashed her hands and made a wailing sound as she thought of her new suit that was now ruined. She looked up at him then, mad and intent on lashing out at him for the mess he had made, but she felt him holding her still, and what replaced her feelings of anger when she turned to look at his muscular hand on her arm was totally unexpected. She should be infuriated still, but her skin only burned with desire as she thought of throwing herself fully into his capable arms, and feeling his solid embrace as he crushed her against his chest. She’d never felt this way with Mark - she blushed heavily.

Melody couldn’t bear to think of the stranger in such a manner, and she broke away from his hold on her, albeit a temporary one. Focusing on her dress instead of her embarrassment, she began patting the spot on her blouse, a look of dejection overcoming her again. She looked up at him then, and she couldn’t even find the strength to be angry at him as she cursed herself mentally for being so needy.

PHILLIP’S STORY

CHAPTER 5 - PHILLIP

Phillip hastened across the street, trying to get to a meeting at his office. He tired sometimes of the constant conferences, and many times he wished he had someone who could properly oversee his affairs. He had recently asked for a personal assistant at the office, and he had yet to meet the young woman, but aside from the office, he was on the board of numerous organizations and charity institutions; he was also a member at the country club where he hardly ever got a chance to visit. It was becoming a busy life, and he was not getting any younger. Somehow he needed to get a wife in there; then, maybe, going home would not seem as laborious at times.

He rounded the bend and entered the stretch of pavement lined with several offices. His was closer to the other end, and just when he was about ten steps off, his phone began to ring. He still held the half cup of coffee he was drinking; he had only just bought it across the street when he got the call, and it tasted so good that he didn’t want to throw it out so he just opted to take it with him. Now he balanced the cup in his hand as he tried to get the phone from the inside pocket of his blazer. He found that was useless as he needed both hands; the blazer kept flapping in the wind and prevented him from reaching it. He decided to grip the cup with his teeth so that he could have the use of both hands. He was still walking all this time, and as he held his head down, he was unable to see the woman right in front of him until he ran into her. The sudden impact caused him to lose control of the cup and the thing tipped over, making a mark like an inkblot test all over the front of her outfit. White, of course.

The phone now forgotten, Phillip caught the cup before the entire contents were emptied on her, and reached out immediately to steady her. He removed the cup from his lips with the other hand and as she looked into his eyes, and he could tell she was crying. He had an overbearing sense then to take her in his arms and kiss her, trying to right whatever wrong could have happened to sully the beauty he saw there.

“My apologies,” he finally managed to say as she shook herself away from him, and even in so doing he detected a slight blush on her cheeks, and he wondered as to the nature of it. She stood there staring at the mess on her clothes and the tears started flowing even more. She didn’t answer him, but kept rummaging in her bag until she found some tissue that she was apparently searching for to dry the tears already pouring out.

“You ruined my outfit,” she lamented when she was finally able to speak.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I should have been more careful. But let me make it up to you, please.”

“I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do now,” she told him. “This just highlights my day and the fact that it cannot get any worse, unless a piano falls from the sky and crushes me.”

He looked up just then and made two steps back, pretending to sidestep the figurative falling piano. He detected a smile from her, as slight as it was, when he did so. He came forward again and tried once more to reach out to her. “Your day may not be able to get any worse, but it sure can get better. Let me make it up to you, please. I won’t feel better until you accept. And please, let me reimburse you for the outfit. I think I permanently ruined it.”

She looked down at the mess and shook her head. “I would want to agree with that. And I loved it so, though it didn’t give me any luck today” she pouted.

“See? Come on, what do you say?” He pressed.

“Oh, alright. It’s just coffee, right? But I need to get out of these clothes soon.”

Phillip smiled as he made a sweeping motion, much like a prince, and allowed her to pass. He had wasted his delicious coffee when it stained her top, so he had no qualms about going back to the restaurant and getting another. Whoever was calling him would have to wait. He watched her as she walked ahead of him, how delicate she appeared, and he wondered where she was from. She had a nice petite body with a low cut bob, and her hair was as black as a raven’s. Her grey eyes were stunning, and he agreed with Mother Nature now that she was wonderfully made. Another woman might have slapped him across the face, but this beautiful creature had decided to have coffee with him instead, and he relished the moment, fully intending to explore the emotions that were now surfacing.

When he had touched her, it was as if electricity had coursed through his veins, and he wanted nothing more now than to feel that soft tender body beneath his own as he explored the crevices and corners along her ivory skin. Her hips swished now, tantalizing and provoking him even further, and he was grateful when they got to the entrance and the glass doors prevented him from throwing her over his shoulders and running off with her to a grassy meadow somewhere.

He indicated a table to the back of the establishment that was next to the window, and gently touched her waist as he led her there. It seemed every touch was like fire, and he quickly removed his hand lest his heart get scorched. “You have to try the coffee here,” he advised her.

“You mean the same coffee I’m now wearing?” She teased, but already didn’t look as upset as she had moments before.

“Yes, that very one. Such a waste,” he added, and smiled at her.

The waitress came along and she ordered the coffee and a sandwich, and he did the same, not wanting her to eat alone. He watched her as she sipped it, and then waited for her assessment. “Good, isn’t it?”

“This is lovely,” she said, even while she forced herself to pull away from the cup; or so it seemed to him, for she didn’t pause long before getting back to it. She drank the entire cup before she even looked at the sandwich, and he wondered if she was hungry at all. His phone started ringing again, and this time he removed it and turned it off.

“That could be important,” she said to him.

“They can wait,” he smiled. “Right now I have a lady I must thoroughly apologize to.”

She blushed at his words, and he could tell his charms were already bearing fruit. She did get to eat her sandwich, and he sat there, still sipping his coffee, not making her fully aware of how intently he was watching her. He would have her, one way or another, and if that day wasn’t today, then it wouldn’t be too far off.

CHAPTER 6- PHILLIP

She looked like she couldn’t be more than twenty-five, and her face was marred with worry lines that ran across her brows; he wondered what could have made her so distressed, and what she was crying about on the pavement a short while ago. He longed to ask her, but he felt he had done enough damage, and he didn’t want to rehash her misfortune.

“It is so freaking hard in this town for a young educated woman to land a job,” she began, and he was grateful that she had broached the subject at all.

“That’s what the tears are for?” He asked.

She stirred the half cup of coffee that sat in front of her, her second so far. She seemed caught up in the swirling motion, and he reached out his hand to tap her on the wrist. “Hello?”

“Oh, sorry. My mind started to wander. It’s just that, my life has never been easy. My parents were never able to send me to college directly so I had to work my way through it.”

“The state college here?” he asked.

“The very same,” she said.

So she probably was younger than twenty-five.

“I barely even got a chance to make friends because I was either studying or working. I somehow managed to get a boyfriend, and things were fine until just before graduation when he broke it off because he had to go to Canada to work in his father’s business. Since then I’ve been on the streets everyday handing out resumes and trying to get a job, but that’s been as fruitless as a fig tree. When I did get calls for interviews, it seemed like I was competing with the entire town. I haven’t managed to land a single job in two months, and soon I’ll run out of funds. This was one of my favorite suits that I would wear to interviews, and now this stain just seems to encapsulate all my misery.” She paused for a second, and he could tell she was feeling severe anguish. “Just now, I was leaving that office over there, the latest on this train of disappointments,” she said as she indicated the one he owned.

“You mean the one with the yellow building?” He asked her.

“That’s the one. I was called for an interview for a personal assistant position, and I was told, after I got there, that there was some misunderstanding and the position was already filled.” She gave an exasperated sigh when she was finished and pushed her cup aside. She hadn’t looked up from the cup the entire time, her pose just accentuating her dejection.

Phillip could not believe she was coming from his office, and that she hadn’t gotten the job was amazing. He would have loved to have her as his personal assistant; at least that way work would have some form of pleasure in it. Whether she was good at the job or not, he’d at least enjoy watching her work. “So what’s your next move?” He asked her.

“I honestly don’t know,” she said as she stared her grey eyes up at him, and in that moment he felt her pain and her honesty and sincerity, and he felt like he needed this creature more than she needed a job.

“Come,” he said to her as he signaled to the waitress.

“Thanks for the coffee, and everything is fine concerning the dress. You are probably the only person I have had a real conversation with in weeks outside of my parents.”

“No, everything is not fine. I have a habit of righting my wrongs.” He held his arm out to her for her to take and she did so reluctantly at first, but then he could feel her relaxing against him and he smiled at the idea of her learning to trust him.

“Where are we going?” She asked.

“To replace your clothes,” he said matter of fatly. They got outside, and he was thankful then that his car wasn’t parked in front of the office.

“I wish I could meet the oaf who runs the place; I’d give him a piece of my mind.”

“What for?” He inquired, anxious to hear what she had to say about him unknowingly.

“They get up every day with all the money in the world, and half the time they don’t even know anything at all. They inherit their fathers’ and grandfathers’ legacies, and they drive around in drop-top convertibles, and stock their garages with vintage cars they won’t even need, all a part of the collection. They all seem to be a bunch of selfish airheads who take advantage of others to stay rich. I’m here begging and scraping to get any form of job I can to stay afloat, and I am sure he is off somewhere with his other rich friends at the country club or yachting.”