The Billionaire's Romance (A Winters Love Book 2) (4 page)

~

CHAPTER FIVE

~

ROBYN

We sat on the couch and Aaron held me for about an hour and then he asked me if I was hungry. I said I was and he called someone…probably Jeffrey and had a delicious lunch of homemade soup and sandwiches delivered. We ate and Aaron insisted I go back to the couch while he cleaned up. I heard his phone ring twice and he took both calls in the other room while he was there. He sat back down with me for a half an hour or so and took another call. That was when he said that he had to go. I was stunned. He was the boss…the CEO for crying out loud. Surely he could take an emergency day off or two. Technically, he should still be in Belize so I’m sure that his executive staff could handle whatever it was…if he wanted them to.

“You have to go? Why?” I knew I sounded whiney. That wasn’t like me at all, but damn it I’d just got out of the hospital and he’d just told me how sorry he was…..

“I have a surprise for you. I have to go so I can organize it. Hopefully it won’t take more than a day or two….”

“A day or two? Aaron, I don’t want a surprise. I don’t need anything…I just want to spend time with you. Please get that, I don’t want anything except you!”

“I want to spend time with you as well. But this is something important, you’ll be happy about it, I promise.”

“But…”

“I really have to go.” He kissed me on the forehead…and he left. I sat there looking at the door, stunned. What was wrong with him? What was wrong with me? Why did I keep letting him push me away and then pull be back in? Why did he even bother to tell me back at Christmas time that he wanted to be with me if this was the way he was going to be? Why can’t he see that I don’t want things…? I have everything I want and need….except him.

AARON

I left Robyn’s place feeling at least a little better than I had when I got there and found out what happened. I’d been so upset with her for just showing up at the New Year’s party. She just doesn’t seem to understand sometimes that life is just not always fun and games. But, no matter how upset I was with her, there was no excuse for either my rudeness or the fact that I let her leave alone. It was almost midnight and I was more concerned with ringing in the New Year with a bunch of business men than I was with ensuring her safety.

The next day when I got the message from her that “something had come up,” I assumed that she was just angry. I decided to give us both a day or two to cool down. Then on Friday morning, I went down to marketing hoping to find her in her office. I ran into Max instead. He told me about Robyn’s friend dropping off a note and that he’d called her to check in but she said she was okay. Max of course didn’t know Robyn and I were dating, he was telling me as her employer. I asked questions and Max answered them to the best of his ability.

At first, I was angry that she’d not told me what happened when she called. We were supposed to be dating. Wasn’t that something you told someone that you were dating? I went back to my office, stubbornly determined to wait until she called me before I did anything else. Max said she was going to be okay, that meant she was capable of making the first move.

I tried to get my mind off of her as I worked. I’d find myself in the midst of reviewing a contract and thinking about the soft, throaty chuckle of hers that made me want to say funny things for the first time in my life. I wasn’t normally a funny guy. I thought about how she’d shown up at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Manhattan in an elf suit. That had made me really uncomfortable. I’d called up the memory specifically trying to lose the sentimentality I was feeling. But it didn’t do the trick. When I thought about it tonight I told myself that it was so juvenile…so risky….so…damned attractive. The fact that she didn’t give a crap what any of those high society fools thought of her was such a turn on…I’d wanted to take her right there on the table. The problem was, I had to care what they thought. That was what she didn’t get. That was what ended up frustrating us both, I think.

“Janice!” I’d said into the intercom, much too harshly. She stuck her head in the office. She had her bag on her arm. She was getting ready to leave for the day.

“Get  Hal on the phone and tell him I want to go over the Xiong numbers before we leave today.”

“Sir…it’s after five.”

“Did I ask for the time?”

“No sir.”

“Then don’t give it to me. Get Hal in here…now!”

When she closed the door I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw. I willed Robyn out of my mind. She had come into my life like a tornado…turning it all upside down. Work was the antidote to her power over me…it had to be. I couldn’t go on with nothing but her on my mind….my company couldn’t survive it.

Hal was in my office with the numbers within fifteen minutes. In that short amount of time, I’d decided that I was a complete ass…to Janice, to him and most especially to Robyn. I couldn’t do this; I couldn’t pretend to ignore the fact that she was hurt, no matter how minor. If I didn’t go see her myself, I’d drive everyone around me crazy over it. I pretended to go over the numbers with Hal…quickly and then I apologized to Janice and sent her home. I told myself to get some rest and go see her first thing in the morning.

Trying to rest had turned out to be pointless. Finally at five a.m. I gave it up and went for a run. By the time I got home it was a decent enough time to shower and go see her. I could only hope that she’d even let me in the door. When she did, I realized that I was a bigger ass than even I had thought.

As I listened to her story I realized that this “accident” was entirely my fault. Flowers and candy were in no way going to make-up for what she’d been through. I’d called the police department when I was in the kitchen and asked to talk to the commissioner. I told him who I was and what I wanted. Over the next two hours I got two phone calls, one from the Mayor’s assistant and one from the Mayor himself. He’d had the commissioner bump the investigation up to high priority. From the description Robyn gave them, they thought they already had a suspect. He was someone who was well-known to them for petty-theft and purse-snatching. Pushing her in front of the car was out of character if it was who they thought…but escalating behavior amongst criminals was not uncommon.

The mayor wanted to see me right away and so I told Robyn I was “arranging a surprise” for her and left. She seemed unhappy with me again, but I’m sure she’ll be thrilled when she realizes that I was intent on tracking this guy down and seeing him brought to justice.

I went straight to the police department when I met Robin. The mayor and the commissioner were waiting for me. They briefed me where they were in the investigation and told me what they were doing to find this guy.

“What’s his name?” I asked the commissioner.

“Aaron, I can’t tell you that…”

“Really? Then maybe my checks to the Policeman’s retirement fund will be smaller.”

“That’s not fair, Aaron. It’s blackmail, actually and very unlike you. You need to trust me to do my job. We’ve been friends for a long time….”

“Yes, and this is the first time that I’ve asked you for anything in all that time. You said it yourself, this is unlike me. Obviously it’s very, very important.”

The mayor and commissioner exchanged looks and the mayor finally said,

“His name is Gregor Vivaldi. But Aaron, you have to promise me you’re not going to go all vigilante on us.”

“Of course not,” I told him, “But I will have my security team looking for him. When they find him, they’ll bring him in…safely.” The commissioner didn’t look happy so I said, “I promise you that no one will be playing cop or hero. They follow my orders, very closely. Look, I know you guys are understaffed. I’m not saying you can’t do your job. I’m just saying there’s nothing wrong with a little help, right?”

He finally, reluctantly agreed. He didn’t doubt I’d find the information on my own anyways. I was pretty determined when there was something I really wanted. Before I left the station, I had the suspect’s last known address and list of know associates. I took that information directly to my head of security and told him that I wanted it to be their number one priority until the man was found. That weekend, I spent my time mostly on the phone helping them follow up on leads. The guy wasn’t at his last known address so it was a matter of finding out who his relatives and associates were. With enough money and resources you can find out anything about anyone these days.

Meanwhile, I told Robyn that I was still working on her surprise. I was talking to her on the phone, so I didn’t see her face, but I got the feeling she was very unhappy with me. I knew that would change soon though when early Monday morning I got a call from the commissioner that they had arrested him. The idiot still had Robyn’s I.D. and credit cards on him when they picked him up. I asked him to email me a picture of the guy and I went to work ecstatic, I couldn’t wait to tell her.

ROBYN

By Monday morning it had been two days since I’d seen Aaron. I was beginning to think that he was avoiding me. The up and down of this relationship had started to make me feel like I was riding on an out of control rollercoaster and I wasn’t certain how much longer I could do it. I cared for him deeply, but at some point I was going to have to start thinking of myself.

He’d called me on Sunday night and said he was still “working on” my surprise. I couldn’t imagine what it could be, and I couldn’t want anything less. Anything that kept his attention away from me this long really wasn’t something that I wanted.

I was ready to go back to work Monday morning. I was tired of laying around. I got up and showered and dressed, feeling good enough for the first time in several days to not take any pain medications. When I got to work, Max greeted me first. He hugged me and told me how happy he was that I was okay. Then Gary came in not long after that. He hugged me too and looked so upset that I felt bad for him. I felt bad for me too…the man that I wanted to care that much about me just didn’t seem to.

I tried to shake the weekend off and get right to work. I had some website things to work on, but since I hadn’t been in the office for a while, I decided to check my email first. I had about fifty of them, but the only one that caught my eye was from Aaron. It had been sent early this morning and simply said,

“Robyn, when you have a moment, can I see you in my office?”

I was suddenly excited again, and a little mad at myself for doubting him. I had it in my head all of a sudden that he was going to tell me that we’re announcing that we’re dating. Later, I’ll wonder where I got that idea, but right at that moment I was excited and sure that’s what it was. Maybe sometimes my positive outlook on things crossed a line into fantasy….

I poked my head in Max’s office and told him I had to run upstairs and would be right back and then I took the elevator up to the tenth floor with anticipation building with each light of the button. When the elevator stopped and the doors slid open I stepped off to see Aaron’s assistant, Janice at her desk. She looked at me and said,

“Good morning, can I help you?” She didn’t know who I was. I guess she saw hundreds of faces a day, hoping to get in and see the Wizard. Hopefully, today he would be ready to go public with our relationship and she would get to know me well.

“Hi, I’m Robyn Hurst. I’m here to see Mr. Winters. I think he’s expecting me.”

Janice didn’t look convinced, Aaron obviously didn’t tell her that he’d asked me to come up. She picked up her intercom and I heard her say,

“Mr. Winters, there’s a Miss Hurst here to see you.” After a beat she said, “Yes, sir.” She looked up at me then and smiling, she said, “Go ahead in.”

I thanked her and went in to find Aaron sitting behind his desk looking as amazing as ever. He waited for me to close the door and then he stood up. I thought he was going to come around the desk and hug me or kiss me….I felt really foolish when he laid a photograph of a mug shot down on his desk and said, “Look!”

I looked at the photo and then back at him. He was smiling broadly, obviously proud of himself. “That’s the man who mugged me.” I was confused. What was Aaron doing with a photo of the man who mugged me?

“Good!” he said, ecstatic. “All they needed was your positive identification. I’ll take you down there right away….”

“Wait!” he stopped talking but looked at me, shocked. I’d never used such a stern tone with him…but I was suddenly very angry.  “Just wait…I’m trying to process this. Is this…? Oh my goodness…This is what you’ve been doing? This is my surprise?”

He smiled again, but it was a confused smile. He had no idea why I seemed upset. Hesitantly he said, “Yes, they’ve caught him, with the help of Winter’s security detail. He’s going to be brought to justice. I wanted to make sure that happened…for you.”

“Did you bother to ask me what it was that I wanted, Aaron? Because if you had, the answer wouldn’t have been bringing this petty thief to justice. It would have been spending time with you. That’s all I want…that, and for you to not be embarrassed to be seen with me in public. If you don’t get that, then maybe this relationship is just not going to happen.”

“Seriously? I did this for you. How could you not want this guy in jail?”

“No Aaron, you did this to assuage some sense of guilt that you felt for being so rude to me on New Year’s Eve, and you’re missing the point…I don’t care if he’s in jail or not. I care about you. If you were in an accident I couldn’t have been pried away from your side. The accident was not your fault, but choosing not to spend time with me when I need you, that is. You are so focused on closing your business deals…and that’s what you treated this as, a business deal that needed to be closed. I wish that just once you’d be that focused on being with me…I wish you would have at least just talked to me about it….I think we both need to take some time to think about this before someone ends up getting hurt.”

I turned around quickly then so he didn’t see the tears in my eyes. I opened the office door and hurried past Joanne and I cursed inwardly that the elevator took so long to get there. Once inside, I leaned against the wall and let the tears fall. I was sure he was the one….I’d let myself believe it. I’d let myself forget that he’d have to know that as well for this to work.