Top Love: An Alpha Billionaire Romance (Young Adult Stepbrother and Billionaire Romance Stories) (11 page)

Riley led her to the end of the hallway where he then ushered her into a large room. By the time he had shut the door behind them, she realized that she was standing in his office. The room was enormous, easily twice the size of the reception area. A large bookcase sat against the far wall, crammed with books and binders but not enough to seem packed. A huge desk sat in the center of the room, littered with just a few stacks of paper and a sleek-looking laptop. On the right side of the office, a huge picture window looked out onto the city. She stepped over to it and looked out, her breath catching in her throat. It had to be the best view of the town from anywhere within its limits.

She was so taken by it that she didn’t notice when he stepped up behind her. He said something, but she missed it. His voice startled her and he was close to her that she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. When she felt it, she had to suppress two things at once: a shudder and the urge to wheel around and pull him against her.

In the end, she was able to merely turn around and face him. He was standing less than six inches from him and her stare was burning into her in a way that made her knees wobble a bit. “I’m sorry,” she said. “The view distracted me. What did you say?”

“I asked if you could see yourself working here. Or, if not here, in a place very much like this.”

“Honestly, no,” she said. “I feel like a little kid that all of a sudden has been transported into the working world. This place is gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” he said.

He stepped away from her and she found that she was let down by this. She wanted to follow him, to eliminate the growing space between them. But she stood her ground by the window for a moment and watched him cross the office. When he took the seat behind his desk, she couldn’t get over how perfect he looked behind it. Even with the sexy smile on his face, he looked all business.

It’s because he probably does this all of the time, part of her thought. This was apparently the part of her that had not yet been blindsided by his raw sexual charm. I guarantee you he does this all of the time. He knows what he’s doing. He has tons of money and looks like that. He probably does this to gullible women all of the time.

The sad thing was that she didn’t even care. Let him do this to her. She had no qualms with being another woman that he seduced.

Only, it didn’t feel like that…not at all. And while she was sure that it was a naïve thing to think, she saw something in his stare that she couldn’t quite place. If whatever was developing between them was intended to be some hidden and shameful fling—if it even came to that at all—he was doing a damned good job of hiding it and camouflaging it with something else.

With a sweep of his hand, he gestured to the two chairs that sat in front of his desk. “Have a seat, please,” he said.

She did as asked, walking across the large office and settling down in one of the chairs. She tried to bring about a calm exterior, hoping that she could fool him and, as such, also manage to fool herself. But even the lush material of the simple chair she was sitting in made her feel out of place.

You don’t belong here. You don’t belong here. It kept ringing in her head like a siren.

“How do you feel about blunt people?” Riley asked, almost at random.

“I consider myself to be blunt,” she said.

“Yes, I saw some of that yesterday afternoon,” he pointed out with a smile. “But what I meant, was that given any general conversation, do you like for people to beat around the bush or do you prefer a more direct approach?”

She wasn’t sure if she liked where this was headed, but she was helpless to not play along. “It depends. When it comes to money or business, I like some padding. But when it’s direct conversations and things that are of a pressing matter, I like to have it all on the table right away.”

He nodded and she saw the corners of his smile returning. “That’s good to know,” he said. “And, that being the case, I’m going to shoot straight with you about why I asked you out to lunch. I didn’t tell you at lunch because I felt like I needed to gauge the sort of person you were—to really get a feel for how you carry yourself in a conversation.”

“Okay…,” was all that she said. This is it, she thought. This is when I find out that this was all just some sick little prank.

“Very few people have ever spoken to me the way you did last night. Usually, when they do, it’s cranky businessmen that are trying to intimidate me. Truth be told, I get tired of people faking sincerity and respect for me. So to hear God-honest anger and contempt from someone outside of my usual circle was…in an odd way, refreshing. Beyond that, if I’m being honest with you, I think you have a beautiful face. And—if we’re really being honest—I’m not you knew it, but the top two buttons on your work shirt were undone yesterday. It was the first time I had been legitimately turned on by a normal woman in what seems like forever.”

She was so astonished by what she was hearing that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to speak. Yes, she was aware that he had just referred to her as normal. And while she wanted to be livid about that, she knew what he meant and almost appreciated it.

“You look stunned,” he said.

“No one has ever said that sort of thing about me in a very long time,” she admitted, feeling any barriers around her vulnerability vanishing at once. She felt raw and naked, totally exposed. She wondered if that had been his intention.

“That’s because most men are fools,” he said. “Once you get to a level of wealth and respect near what I have, you begin to understand that. And that’s not to simply boast. What I mean is that when you’ve been spoiled by money and luxury, you start to understand that things you dreamed about and worked your ass off for are really just…just fluff. You mentioned earlier the type of woman that I typically date. They’re that. Fluff. While money and success were my goal from my teenage years, those women only ever wanted to find a man that had all of that. Are they beautiful? Most would say so…and before I actually get to know any of them, I’d agree. But they’re fake. You on the other hand…,”

“I’m normal,” she said, mocking his earlier statement.

He pointed a playfully accusing finger at her. “You know what I meant when I said that. And you know I meant it as a compliment.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to bring some annoyance to her tone, “but I thought I was here because you could make some calls for me about a job.”

He seemed stunned for a moment but then nodded. “I did. One moment.”

He thumbed through the contacts on his cell phone and she watched as he went to work like some sort of machine. He selected someone and placed the phone to his ear. She listened to his end of the conversation, both impressed and appalled at the way he spoke so nonchalantly to what was surely another man just as wealthy as he was on the other line.

“Derrick, hey, it’s Riley. Yeah. Oh, no, no, I heard about that. Yeah. You got a quick second? Thanks. Look, I’m looking for a position for this promising young candidate. An Econ major with a hell of a lot of drive. A promising future for sure. You got anything?”

There was a lengthy pause here, just long enough for Lauren to feel the weight of her future shifting with every word that Riley spoke into the phone.

“Oh, I get that. No worries. Oh…is that right? Great, I’ll do that. Yeah, I have it. Thanks again, Derrick.”

He hung up the phone and gave her a smile that was too playful for her liking. “Strike one,” he said, already thumbing through his contacts again for another name. He grinned when he found this name, pressing it with enthusiasm.

“Linda, hey, it’s Riley Thomson.” There was another pause here, and Lauren could briefly hear a woman laughing loudly on the other end. She said something that she could not make out, to which Riley responded: “Absolutely. I’ll hold you to that. Just no tennis this time. My shoulder has been acting up…yeah, I know…old age. Look, I need to make this quick. Derrick Soulder told me to call you. I told him about this really passionate candidate that I ran into. I’d love to take her on, but we really just don’t have the need right now. She’d an econ major with a world of talent and—,”

He stopped here, listening intently. Then, within ten seconds, he was smiling at her. It made her weak in the knees, even when she was sitting.

“Oh, that’s great Linda. Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Oh, I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Awesome. I’ll talk to you soon. Thanks!”

He ended the call and sat the phone down lightly on his desk. “You know where the Perryman Building is on 7th Street?”

“I think so.”

“Well, look it up soon,” he said. “You have an interview with the Vice President of Alderholt Lending tomorrow morning at ten o’ clock.”

“What? For what position?”

Riley shrugged. “I’m not sure. But Linda seemed excited to have someone with an economics background.”

“Is this a joke?” she asked.

“Not at all.”

“Wh..what time tomorrow?”

“Nine in the morning. Dress nice. And don’t be nervous. The guys at Alderholt are really chilled out. Nothing to be nervous about. And not to sound too pompous, but a recommendation from me should get you up the chain.”

“You don’t even know me,” she said. “Why would you recommend me?”

“Because you have spirit. You’re driven. And I’m pretty sure you’re far too smart to stay in that shoe store for much longer.”

“Why would you do something like that for a stranger?”

He smiled. “Karma,” he said. “And if you want the honest pig-headed male answer, I figured it might make the chances of you saying yes a little better when I invited you back to my place.”

“When?” she asked, the school-girl nerves coming back tenfold.

“Now. I go to sleep pretty early because I have to wake up at four every morning to work out, answer e-mails and all that. So I try to do all of the active afternoon stuff early. I’m usually wrapped up and in bed by nine o’ clock every night.”

She didn’t know why, but she found that very hard to believe. On the heels of that, she started to piece together the fact that she had just been propositioned. Not only that, she had been propositioned by Riley Thomson.

“That seems…underhanded,” she said.

“What does?”

“To so easily get me a job interview that I don’t deserve and then ask me to have sex with you.” She knew she should be highly offended, but it still didn’t feel real. What made it even worse was that she caught herself trying to remember the last time she’d had sex and found it far too hard to recall it.

“I said nothing about sex,” he said. “I just asked you back to my place. Sure, I think most people assume that sex is implied. But no,…not here. I enjoyed lunch and I like speaking with you. I’d simply like to do that some more.”

“Okay,” she said, not even realizing that she was going to say it until the word was out of her mouth.

“Great,” he said. Without taking his eyes from her, Riley reached out to the desk phone and punched a button.  A cheerful-sounding woman answered right way on the other end.

“Yes, Mr. Thomson?”

“Danielle, do I have any meetings this afternoon?”

“Yes, you have a four o’ clock with Astrid Richards.”

“Can you push that to tomorrow morning for me, please?”

“Before or after the meeting with the bank?”

“After, please.”

“Roger that, sir.”

Riley ended the chat and got up. He then gestured to the door and said, “Shall we?”

Lauren could only nod. When she stood up and walked towards the door with Riley beside her, she felt like she was floating and was deathly afraid that she would wake up at any moment.

***

When she first saw Riley’s house from the private drive that was paved better than the street she lived on, Lauren nearly started laughing. This is ridiculous, she thought. This sort of thing only exists, in movies, right?

His driveway was flanked by countless elms, aligning the route all the way to his house. The house, Lauren was surprised to find, was rather simple. There were no huge fountains out front, nor any elaborate decoration or architecture on his large porch. The house itself was at least four times as big as the house she had grown up in, but she had been expecting something much more grandiose.

“I get that a lot,” Riley said as he parked the car at the top of his circled driveway.

He’d apparently picked up on her baffled expression. She frowned, ashamed her had caught on to what she had been thinking.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I can be arrogant. So people expect that to reflect in my house. But I’m not married, I have no kids, and I rarely have guests. So what in the hell do I need a big house for?”

Something about his ability to admit such a thing in a level-minded sense appealed to her and, oddly enough, it made him even more attractive.

He led her up the porch, where he punched a six digit passcode into his electric locks. He ushered her inside and when she stepped in, she had a horrific thought that this could still be a prank of some kind. More than that, there was the extremely paranoid fear that she could be the topic of a headline in the paper tomorrow: WOMAN RAPED AND MURDERED AFTER STUPIDLY FOLLOWING HIM INTO HIS HOME.