The Gift, Book 2 (The Billionaire's Love Story) (6 page)

With the documents that Savannah had fixed, he was able to send out proposals for new business and introduce himself to new clients. He worked on his strategy for the coming year, refining the finer details of the plan which he had been putting together for a few months. These he would share with the board members in the first meeting of the year once everyone returned to work.

While he valued the opinion of the board members, and they were important to him and to the company, it was Matthias he relied on the most. Matthias was his right hand man and had been instrumental in the success of his company. Of course, he was highly rewarded too. The man was as astute and as shrewd as Tobias and understood him and his vision for where he wanted to take Stone Enterprises in the future.

It was a shame, or perhaps it was really a blessing that Xavier had shown no interest in joining the company. Having his brother on board would have been interesting, mused Tobias. But they were polar opposites.

In his office, with no Candace to bother him and no meetings to attend, Tobias was able to get through a lot of things that had been on his ‘to-do’ list. He’d been surprised at how quickly the time had flown as he’d diligently worked away uninterrupted and when his cell phone rang he answered it without looking.

“I’m here. Upstairs, waiting for you.” Naomi’s seductive voice had the opposite effect from what she’d probably intended. He bared his teeth, enraged by her cunning, and slammed down his cell phone.

What did she hope to achieve?

She’d breached his most fundamental of rules: To be available when
he
needed her.

Bolting out of his chair, he raced out of his office, his anger inflamed at the woman’s imposition. He stabbed the elevator button repeatedly driven by his haste to reach the penthouse and put her straight.

“That was fast.” The look of surprised satisfaction quickly vanished from Naomi’s face as Tobias glared at her. The sheer white shirt she had on didn’t hide the lacy bra she wore and her pencil skirt had a slit all the way up her right thigh. He’d never thought of her in terms of a high-class hooker before, but her dress code today screamed ‘fuck-me’ and he looked away in disgust.

“I didn’t call you,” he said slowly, gritting his teeth together.

“I missed you,” she countered, walking towards him and putting her arms around his waist. “A whole week has passed and you never called, not even during Christ—”

“We had a deal.” He moved her hands away.

“I know,” she said, sounding unsure for the first time. He stared down at her perfectly shaped lips now painted burgundy. With her wavy blond hair and brown eyes and eyebrows, she looked a cross between a newbie movie-star and a rock princess. “I was worried about you, Tobias. What’s changed? You don’t call. I haven’t seen you for a while, and you’ve been distant lately.”

“This was never meant to be a relationship. I made that very clear from that start. You do understand that,
don’t you
?
”

Her forehead puckered. “I know that. I know the deal we have—”

“Then you must know I pay for your services as and when I need them.”

She placed her hands around his waist once more, “I understand, Tobias. But I’ve been waiting for you and I miss you.” She leaned in and slipped a kiss on the side of his face, but he moved his face away quickly and stepped back. “I will call you when I want to fuck you. Do you understand?” He threw his words at her like cold water over her feelings. Her eyes glistened.

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“Why did it happen this time?”

“I was worried about you. You never returned any of my texts. It’s not like you, Tobias.”

He stared at her, at the open invitation that she was, leaving nothing to the imagination. He could screw her right now, and she’d be fine with whatever he did to her. A man’s dream, and here she was, ready and waiting for him; only, he’d lost his appetite lately. Naomi was too easy. Not that it had ever been about the thrill of the chase with her. She was a sure thing. He got what he paid for.

Savannah Page, on the other hand, was something else. She offered more in the way of mental stimulation and she managed to do it in her sensible shoes and clothes that clearly looked as though they’d seen better days. He couldn’t figure it out—his interest in her—but knew only that she had something that piqued it.

Mistaking his silent contemplation as a sign of his weakness, Naomi started to unbutton her shirt.

“Don’t,” he warned.

“I’m here now.”

He moved toward her and gripped her wrist to stop her from undoing the last few buttons. “I said, ‘
Don’t
.’”

“You want me, Tobias. I can see it in your eyes.” He clenched his jaw tightly, allowing his mind to drift to the thoughts of what she could do. She was a great lay. Sensational.

“Let me,” she reached down to unzip him but he grabbed her wrist.

“Get dressed and leave.”

“Is there someone else? Is that it?” She challenged him. Then softening, “You can still have me. I’m discreet. You know I am.”

“You broke our agreement.”

“I’m sorry,” she whined, the pleading in her voice grating on him. “Don’t do this.”

“Are you telling me what to do?”

She stepped back and quickly regained her composure. “No. No, I—” she started to button up her shirt.

“Never break my rules again.”

“I won’t. I promise. It won’t happen again, Tobias.” She slipped on her jacket and grabbed her handbag, following him to the door. He said nothing as they got into the elevator but he could tell that she was anxious. She was probably worried that she had messed things up.

He had nothing to say, not even to put her out of that wretched misery he could see so clearly on her perfectly made-up face. They weren’t so different after all, he decided. Her and Candace. Naomi fixed him when it came to sex and Candace fixed him when it came to office duties.

In between the two was a wide open void in which he floundered, lost and bitter. When the elevator stopped at the 21st floor, he turned to give her a final parting nod.

“I’ll wait for you to call me,” she said quietly.

He stepped out and almost walked into Savannah Page.

Chapter 9

“Hi,” said Savannah when she saw Tobias getting out of the elevator. The smile on her face slid to the floor as her gaze fell on the woman who remained in the elevator. “I’ll wait for you to call me.”

He rushed out without replying and Savannah caught a glimpse of the faint tell-tale lipstick stain on the side of his face.

This was his wife?

And they’d both been in the penthouse.

She smiled at the woman and said, ‘Hi.’ The woman smiled back but said nothing and then looked away as though she didn’t want to talk.

Savannah settled back against the elevator wall and stared. She had often wondered what Tobias Stone’s wife was like and here she was with a clear view of the other woman’s side profile. The woman stared at the door, her face was turned away but Savannah’s quiet observation took in her attire from top to bottom. She was smartly dressed, smart and sexy, and she was pretty too. When a few more people got in at subsequent floors, she was able to observe without it being so obvious.

She felt a twinge of something. Disappointment, or was it jealousy? Self-conscious, she smoothed her hair down and stared at her sensible pumps before stealing a gaze at the woman’s shiny blood red sling backs with tiny pencil-tip heels. Her shoes matched her handbag. She shuffled her feet together and clung tighter to her tattered dark brown handbag. The inside seam was ripped and sometimes her possessions would disappear in the space between the lining and the cheap leather, making it hard for her to find her keys or cell phone which always seemed to slip into that gap.

Maybe she would treat herself to a pair of shoes at some point, even though she couldn’t compete with the woman, and why was she even thinking of competing? Tobias Stone’s wife had no worries in life. The woman probably had a daily routine that was so very different from hers.

The elevator emptied at the ground level and Savannah watched her closely from a few steps behind. Once she had gone through the revolving doors, she soon lost sight of her.

She crossed the road to go and headed towards the coffee shop. During the whole of this week she hadn’t brought sandwiches with her to work. Instead she’d given into the luxury of buying her lunch, feeling at last as though she finally belonged in this city that never slept. Now if only she could secure a permanent job, her plan for this year would be well underway.

After lunch she had half a box of files left which she worked through half-heartedly. She’d lost her enthusiasm. Feeling a little lonely, she emailed Briony to give her an update and was surprised to receive an instant reply from her:

“You didn’t take my advice and slow down, did you?”

Savannah replied:

“I don’t know what ‘slow down’ means. Speed is built into my DNA.”

She was still smiling to herself when Briony’s reply came through:

“If you’re done for the day, then you might as well leave. I’ll see you next week.”

And at that moment, the phone rang. The sound of Tobias’s voice made her jump, not because he was loud, but because she had convinced herself that he wouldn’t be in anymore.

“I have another document that needs fixing. Could you come and do your magic?”

She closed her email. “I’ll be over,” she replied, her stomach quivering already.
Better to get it over and done with.

Seeing that his door was already open, she walked in to find him sitting on the couch with files strewn open beside him and on his desk.

“The document’s open on the screen,” he told her.

“Are you having an end of year tidy up?” she asked, noting that his office had never looked messier. He attempted a smile but the skin around his eyes was tight, and he looked irritated. “Something like that.”

She sat down and started to work. “It’s easy enough to fix,” she said.

“What is?”

“The template. I could show you how to, if you want.”

He shook his head in irritation. “You can show Candace when she’s back. I don’t need to know.”

She was about to tell him that she would be leaving tomorrow but judging from his previous reply, she decided not to say anything.
Tobias doesn’t concern himself with such lowly matters
. Briony had said something like that. Savannah glanced over at him and watched briefly as he flicked through his papers. Tension hung low and heavy in the room and she wasn’t sure what had happened but he seemed to have closed up again.

She got up. “It’s done. Was there anything else?” She asked as she walked towards the door. He continued to scribble away, seeming overly busy with his paperwork.

She stared at the faint lip-stick mark on his face. “You have a slight—”

He looked up and she coughed lightly, pointing vaguely at her own cheek. “A lip-stick mark on your cheek.” At first he frowned, then scrubbed his face roughly.

“It’s gone,” she offered, wanting to be helpful. Something about the way he avoided eye contact with her gave her the courage to push forward when her gut instinct warned her to back off. But she’d already seen his wife and she felt it was only polite to ask. Her curiosity was getting the better of her. “Did she like it? The gift?”

“What gift?”

“The blue gift box? Did your wife like it?” Savannah asked.

His face hardened at her words and she got the heavy feeling that she had pried too far into his life.

“My wife?” He asked quietly. “You think she's my wife?” She knew in that instant that the woman she’d seen was not. “I’m sorry, I assumed...” But it was too late to take back her words. She left quickly, without saying another word.

Back in the safety of her room, she collapsed in her chair and stared at the screen. And then she had an idea. She started to search online for information on Tobias Stone.

And what she found made her heart sink. She stared at the screen, her insides feeling cold and as she re-read the article. Not content, she searched some more and clicked on every single link to do with him. It all pointed to the same thing. How the clever boy from Queens had built his empire.

And how he’d lost his young wife in a tragic car accident years ago.

There was no mention of Naomi anywhere and though he appeared on many lists—in the hot, young bachelors list, the most desired men in NY list, and in the wealthiest young men lists—there was hardly any coverage of him with women.

After a while of perusing through the information on Tobias Stone, Savannah held her head in her hands and contemplated the man’s reaction. It hadn’t been so bad, given his circumstances.

The poor man.

Chapter 10

Mistaking Naomi for his wife was the worst insult to Ivy
’s memory. Tobias threw down his pen and got up as soon as Savannah had disappeared.

It was bad enough that Naomi had pissed him off this morning, and now this. He stared at the papers strewn everywhere. This was what happened when his mind was in disarray.

If Savannah Page didn’t know that his wife had died, she must have been one of the few women in New York to be ignorant of the fact.

The press intrusion into his life at that time had been merciless. He had proved their accusations of a cover-up to be false and he had told them everything. He hadn’t held anything back. But he was bait, a billionaire who had fallen down and one whom many wanted to see stay down.

It had taken him a year to get through the outcome of what had happened, and to walk away from it and attempt to carry on with his life. Despite the verdict, he still blamed himself. Nobody could take that away from him.

He had managed to successfully avoid being connected to any one woman since then. Truth was, he wasn’t interested in anyone. It had done wonders for his business, taking him to wealth beyond his wildest dreams. But personally and emotionally, he was a broken man who hid his emotions, or tried to.