The Virgin and the Billionaires: The Complete Series (7 page)

She was going to dinner
with Alexander tomorrow night.

She paced around the tiny
studio frantically for a minute before she noticed Amy and Emily standing in
the corner, staring at her and giggling.

“Who was that?” Amy asked.

Dana shook her head. “None
of your business. Do you two always use other people’s phone calls as an excuse
to stop working?”

“Sorry,” Emily mumbled. “We
were just curious.” She began fiddling with the photography umbrella but turned
it the wrong way so that it fell over on the floor. She flashed Dana an
uncomfortable grin.

Dana sighed. “Don’t you
guys have things to do in the office? I can handle the rest of this myself.”

Amy and Emily looked at
each other, then to Dana. They shrugged their shoulders and walked out of the
studio.

“That’s a relief,” Dana
muttered. The interns had good intentions, but Dana wasn’t in the mood to put
up with their goofiness today. Dana returned to her work and began to think.

Alexander must have a motive. Why else would he go from ‘come to my
office’ to ‘I’m taking you out to dinner?’
It was like he had caught a
glimpse inside her head and had decided to start speaking her language, in his
own authoritative way. Dana wondered if Alexander felt threatened by William’s
dinner gesture.

She didn’t trust him. She
knew that he was a smart guy, and Dana was almost mad at herself for being so
confused by Alexander’s apparent manipulation. She was still convinced that he
only wanted her for sex. Why did he only appear when he
wanted
something?

The situation was
distracting Dana, and she couldn’t afford to miss her project deadline. She
took a deep breath and tried to get back to work. The thoughts plagued her all
day, but she did her best to ignore them.

***

Dana’s distracted mind had
slowed her workflow, and the next day she found herself rushing to get her
boxes of items photographed before she had to send them all to the editor at
the end of the day. She never thought that working alone with inanimate objects
could be so stressful. Usually it was the models – and the extra staff
that went along with them – that made for difficult shoots, but Dana’s
mind was her own worst enemy this week.

She almost regretted
getting herself into the messy situation she now found herself in. She didn’t
have to obey Alexander when he called her that first time, but how could she
not have indulged her incredible intrigue? It was too difficult to resist the
attention of somebody gorgeous and rich.
Anybody
in a situation like mine would do the same thing
, she thought.
What other chance am I going to get?

It was almost six o’clock.
Most of the office had gone home and Dana easily had two more hours of work
ahead of her. She had to meet Alexander in Malibu at 7:30, and she didn’t see
any way she could get everything done and still get to dinner on time.

The interns, who were
required to be at the office for a specific number of hours, were sitting around
in the office, looking bored. Dana had refused to let them back into the shoot
after their general unhelpfulness yesterday, but felt like she had been a
little harsh. She knew that Amy and Emily were both competent photographers and
that her moody presence yesterday probably made them more than a little
nervous. What better way to get to dinner on time and get back on Amy and
Emily’s good sides than to pawn off the last of her work to them? Dana praised
herself for her quick thinking and walked out into the office.

“Hey, girls.”

Amy and Emily looked up
from their desk, where they were browsing Pinterest together.

“Listen. I know I was a
little harsh on you guys these last couple of days, but I’m going to make it up
to you.”

The girls stared at her
like she was strange.

“Don’t look at me like
that!” Dana joked. “Do you two want to shoot the rest of my items? I have to be
somewhere and I’m running a little behind.

Amy and Emily’s eyes lit up
as they nodded their heads.

“It’ll be our little
secret. I trust you guys to do a good job. I know you’re capable. But if you
don’t,
my
ass is on the line.”

“Don’t worry,” Emily
replied. “We’ve got it under control.”

The girls sauntered off to
the studio, grinning ear to ear.

Dana, happy the day was
working in her favor, set off for the Pacific Coast Highway.

***

Traffic was insane.

Dana had totally
underestimated how long it would take her to get to Malibu in 6 o’clock
traffic. By the time her GPS told her she was a mile away, she was already 15
minutes late to dinner. It was going to take her another five or ten to get to
the restaurant. She had no way of calling Alexander to tell him. She prayed out
loud that he wouldn’t think she had stood him up.

She cursed the stop-and-go
traffic that kept her crawling at 10 miles an hour. The beautiful ocean view to
her left did nothing to calm her down. Dana fixed her makeup in the visor
mirror as she waited to move. She had worn her other black wrap dress to work
that day. She had made sure to put on the strappy black heels that she kept in
the back of her car before she started driving. Dana thought she looked good
relative to the amount of effort she was able to put in.

Dana had finally reached
the restaurant parking lot. She handed the valet her keys, straightened out her
dress, and walked toward the door. Her anger and frustration at the traffic
melted into anxiety and nerves. She hadn’t been alone with Alexander since she
was lying on his boardroom table a week earlier.

She walked into the
restaurant. The hostess approached Dana before she’d had the chance to announce
herself.

“Good evening, ma’am. Your
party is waiting for you on the patio. Please follow me.”

The hostess ushered Dana
out to a beautiful deck that sat directly on top of the beach. At a small table
in the corner was Alexander, enjoying an Old Fashioned and staring at the ocean
waves. Though it had only been a few days since she had seen him, Dana had
forgotten how handsome Alexander was. His perfectly tailored grey wool suit
highlighted his tall, slender physique. Underneath, he wore a collared shirt
with no tie, unbuttoned only slightly so a small tuft of chest hair peeked out.
His perfectly manicured hair framed his golden face.

Dana couldn’t believe she
had fantasized about this man fucking his secretary. It should have been her.
Dana reminded herself that it almost was.

The hostess motioned toward
the table. Dana approached the corner slowly. Alexander remained absorbed in
the view.

As Dana’s heels made their
final click on the floorboards of the patio, Alexander looked up and combed her
body with his eyes. His gaze fell on the curve of her round waist, accentuated
and smoothed by her wrap dress.

“I am
so
sorry I’m late. I got held up at work and then –”

Alexander extended his
palm, signaling her to stop. “Shhh. Let me look at you for a moment.” He
continued to run his eyes up and down Dana’s curvy frame but expressed nothing.
Finally, he motioned for her to sit down.

Dana pulled her chair out
and situated herself, taking care to avoid eye contact. A waitress came to the
table.

Alexander spoke for Dana
before she could speak for herself. “A glass of Riesling for the lady, please.”

Dana looked confusedly at
Alexander, but didn’t question him.

“It pairs well with sushi.
Trust me.”

Dana wanted to ask him
about Friday night with Jessica, but decided that she didn’t want to risk
spoiling their dinner before it had even started. She trusted Jessica’s
explanation enough to feel comfortable letting the whole thing go. It wasn’t
like she had any claim over Alexander, anyway.

She continued to sit in
silence, feeling embarrassed, uncomfortable, and at a loss for anything
interesting to say.
This is awkward,
she thought.
 
He’s so gorgeous, he’s asked me to come
eat with him, and all I can do is sit here frozen with my mouth shut. What
great company I am. I can see why he keeps calling me.

Dana was relieved when the
waitress returned with her Riesling. She presented them with food menus and
left to refill Alexander’s Old Fashioned. Alexander cleared his throat, having
returned his attention to the ocean and the people walking by.

Great. Now he’s not even paying attention to me. What am I doing here
?

“What are you going to get,
Dana?” Alexander didn’t shift his gaze.

Dana snapped out of her
thoughts. “Uh,” she muttered, looking at the menu. “I was thinking – ”

“Get as many things as you
would like. Remember, it’s all on me.”

Dana flashed a faint smile.
Alexander’s cold affect was confusing and upsetting. Why did he ask her to
dinner if he wasn’t going to act like he was the least bit happy to see her?

After another moment of
silence, Alexander finally turned toward Dana.

“How was your dinner with
William the other night?”

Dana could feel her stomach
sink. She hoped that she didn’t turn visibly white. “Oh – it was –”
She struggled for a word. “It was good.”

“I’m glad to hear that you
two enjoyed yourselves. I only wonder why I wasn’t invited.”

“Well, William was the one
who proposed dinner, so – ”

“I know. He didn’t think to
invite me. It would have been appropriate, considering that we both own
Price-Levy Investments.”

Dana was taken aback.
William had led her to believe that Alexander
was
invited, but couldn’t make it. Now two people had told her that
he hadn’t bothered to invite anybody else. Had William really lied to her?

“You are free to do what
you want, Dana, but I must say that I was surprised to see the two of you
there. I hope that you aren’t dipping your toes too far into a mess you’d
really rather not get into.”

Was that a threat?
Dana defended herself. “Don’t misunderstand. I
was under the impression that it was a business dinner. That’s why I went.”

The waitress returned to
take their order and left for the kitchen.

“All I’m saying is that may
not have been William’s impression or intention.”

Dana didn’t want to take
the conversation any further, but Alexander continued on.

“Look. The reason I asked
you to come to dinner was because – ” Alexander shifted in his seat and
adjusted his lapels. “Because I think you need to learn to trust me.”

Dana was intrigued.

“I am aware that my manner
is intense and probably pretty aggressive. What I do have going for me is that
I’m honest. I’m practically incapable of lying. I’ll either tell you the truth
– however unpleasant it may be – or nothing at all.”

Was Alexander getting real
with her? Dana, pleasantly shocked by Alexander’s words, tried her best to look
like her insides weren’t a melting mess of nerves.

“Regardless of how I may
present myself, you need to believe me when I say that – if we are ever
to actually go
there
again – I
will not do anything to actually harm you. It’s all a game to me, and you can
choose not to play.”

Dana did feel better
hearing Alexander say this, but she feared that he was misinterpreting her
behavior. “The other week, when I ran out – that wasn’t because I didn’t
trust you, though maybe in hindsight, I didn’t. It’s because I’m –” She
looked around to make sure no one was listening, and then lowered her voice.
“It’s because I’m a
virgin
.”

Alexander’s brow rose
slightly. “I suspected that.”

Dana laughed. “What tipped
you off?” she said sarcastically. She felt an enormous weight lift from her
shoulders.

Alexander smiled.

The waitress returned with
their food. She presented Dana with a large plate of sushi and sashimi.
Alexander received a whole fish, fried. He proceeded to pick it apart with a
pair of chopsticks as Dana continued their conversation.

“Why do you want me? You
can have your pick of any girl you want, and you want me? It doesn’t make sense
to me. I mean, look over there.” Dana pointed to a well-known fashion model
sitting alone at a table. “That gorgeous woman right over there. You could have
her in a second. And you’re sitting here with
me
? I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Your profession may not
treat it like a fact, but there are men in the world – many of them, in
fact – whose taste in women doesn’t conform to the standard definitions
of an ‘attractive woman.’ I like what I like, and I like your type.”

Dana smiled and blushed.

“But don’t get any ideas
that anything deep is happening between us. I find you sexy and attractive.
That is all. Like I said earlier, you’re free to do whatever you want. Do you
think I would deny myself the same freedom?”