Womanizer (A Standalone Novel) (A Steamy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (16 page)

Without
warning,
I felt a horrible
pain in my groin. It was worse than any elbow to the area during basketball and
I realized I had just been nailed with a paintball. The second one came quickly
after and nailed me in my vest. I was down on the ground screaming in pain when
the instructor reached me.

“Oh, bro, that’s a tough one,” he said as he helped me to my feet.

I wasn’t sure what happened next since I had been relegated to sitting on
the couch with ice on my balls. But one by one, the men dragged their asses
into the cabin. Two women were eliminated as well, but by far it was a cabin
full of men.

Finally,
the last man brought himself into the cabin with
the biggest look of defeat I had ever seen. I couldn’t help but laugh. There
were ten women still left in the woods and no men; we had definitely
underestimated them.

When Alicia came into the cabin with the other
women,
it was exciting for them. They all jumped and hollered about
their victory over the men. It was a
well-deserved
victory and luckily none of the men acted like assholes about it. Most likely
because they were all on dates with their women and didn’t want to ruin their
chances of getting
lucky
.

“It looks like you took a pretty good hit there,” Alicia said as she looked
at the
ice pack
between my legs.

“A
soldier
has to do what a
soldier
has to do,” I said as I tried to get up
off the couch.

Chapter 26

I didn’t have enough energy to resist Alicia’s insistence that we swing
by my house and drop me off before her. I was in more pain than I cared to
admit to and really did just want to lay down.

“So that sure was a night of fun,” I said jokingly as I got out of the
vehicle.

We had spent the last thirty minutes laughing and talking as we drove
home from the paintball camp. It really had been a fun night, even with the
ball pain I was having.

“I’m sorry you got nailed in the nuts,” Alicia said and tried not to
laugh as she said it.

“Me too,” I laughed.

I leaned in and kissed her. It was a comfortable kiss. They kind you give
a woman you had been dating for a very long time. I liked the feeling. I liked
that we had started to become more comfortable with each other.

Slowly, I pulled her bottom lip into my mouth and let it stay there for a
few seconds. Her lips were delicious and I wanted to taste them all night long.
Her hands reached up and wrapped around my neck and I forgot all about the pain
I was in.

“Do you want to come upstairs?” I asked.

I didn’t know how I would make it through the pain, but if she had said
yes I would have figured something out. I could have made the pain go away out
of
pure
excitement for finally getting to
have her in my bed.

“No, I better get going,” she said.

I gave her one last quick kiss
on
the lips and then turned to head into the building. She stood at the vehicle
for a moment before she got back in and I thought for a second that she might
have changed her mind.

As I walked
through
the front
door,
I expected to see the doorman, but
instead I saw Stacey standing near the elevators. I swung around toward the
door to see if Alicia had already left out of fear that she would see me
talking to this woman. But she had just pulled away.

“Hi, Stacey. What are you doing here?”

I had no desire to be with her and had no idea how she had figured out
where I lived.

“I didn’t get your number when you were over the other day, but I
remember you had said you lived on the thirty-second floor here.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s alright. I don’t think it would have worked out anyways.
I think your husband didn’t like me.”

The conversation was awkward and I really wanted to just get in the
elevator and head up to my apartment. She didn’t want to let me
go,
though.

I had been in a situation like that before; a woman stalked me to my
apartment and wanted in. The previous woman had found my actual apartment
number from my ID and had been waiting in front of my
door,
though.

“Sweetheart, I think we can make something
workout
. Maybe I could come upstairs with you and we could talk
about it?”

My answer, historically, would have always been yes. Even if the woman
was getting a little crazy for me. Why would I turn down a night of hot sex? I
could always break it off after the night was over. But on that night I
couldn’t bring myself to say yes. I didn’t want her, I wanted Alicia.

“I’m sorry, it’s not going to work out Stacey. I wish you all the best.”

I motioned for the doorman who came over and stood next to me.

“Ron, can you help this young lady get a
cab,
please?” I said and I handed him some cash.

She was pissed. I could see it in her face, but she tried not to show it.
She was a
high-class
woman who didn’t
freak out on people. Luckily for me.

“Alright sweetheart, we can talk another time. Have a good night,” Stacey
said as she gave me a kiss on each cheek and then left the lobby.

I made my way to the elevator and then quickly up to my apartment. It was
oddly satisfying to have said no to her. There wasn’t an urge to fuck her at
all, which surprised me.

The rest of my night consisted of me on my couch with a back of frozen
peas between my legs. I actually turned the television on, which was a first
for several months. It was quiet relaxing. I could see why other people enjoyed
their time at home on their couches so much.

I ended up falling asleep on my couch and was woken up by my phone
vibrating incessantly.

“Yes,” I said as I saw it was Mike calling.

“You missed the staff meeting. I covered for
you,
but you better get your ass in here.”

“Fuck, ok. On my way.”

We had a weekly staff meeting at Taylor Trading. It was nothing all that
important.
Basically,
the partners tried
to get everyone all worked up about some upcoming companies. They would give
out bonuses and talk about how everyone was doing so great. If we worked
harder, then they could work less; that’s the only reason they had those
meetings each week.

I despised our partners, but also admired them as well. I couldn’t wait
until I had accomplished enough in the stock trading world that I was asked to
be a partner. It was a huge goal of mine and I always promised myself that I
would be less of an ass
than
those guys
were. I wondered if they had said the same thing before becoming partners?

My
suits
were always ready to go so
I just got into the shower, put one on and headed over to the office. I had
missed staff meetings before, there was nothing shocking about me missing
another one.

“They talked about your ALL Warren Clothing company today,” Michael said
as I walked into the office.

“What did they say?”

“That you were the best thing since sliced bread since you had invested
in it and everyone else should look up to you.”

“Really? They talked about me?”

“Yeah, I think they gave you a bonus too. But they wouldn’t tell anyone
what they were giving.”

“I could always use a bonus.”

“So, why were you late?” Mike asked as we went into my office.

Natasha was back at her desk and I waved to her as we shut the door. It
was good to see her again, although I had really liked Darla.

“I got shot in the balls and passed out on my couch,” I said with an
awkward smile.

“Was this some sort of sex game or something? I’ve never heard of such a
thing. What did you get shot in the balls with?”

“I went paintballing with Alicia. Some other chick shot me in the balls.”

“Oh, fuck. That sounds painful.”

“It was. I fell asleep on my couch with a bag of frozen peas on myself.
First time for everything I guess.”

Mike laughed at me. We had that kind of relationship. When the other was
in pain, we could hysterically laugh and it was all just fine between us.

“So have you found out the information you wanted on ALL Warren yet?
Seems like you’re going to look really bad if something goes down and you have
all that money tied up in the company.”

“I know. But right now I don’t know anything more than I did before.”

“So you’ve been out with Alicia, fucking her and paintballing with her;
yet you don’t know anything about her company?”

“I’m not fucking her,” I said with a smile.

Mike must have thought I was kidding because he just continued on.

“Seriously, Evan you need to get the information and either get out of
the company or tell me to invest. Stop screwing her and start getting real
information.”

“Mike, I really am not having sex with her.”

“What?”

Mike looked bewildered as he looked at me. At first I thought he might not
have heard what I had said to him, but then I realized I had just stunned him
into silence. He looked at me and then out my window as he tried to figure out
what the heck was going on.

“So she said no?”

“We just haven’t made it that far.”

“Ok, now I know something is going on. No woman would refuse you this
long. I’m all for getting to know a girl. But you have been going on dates for
weeks now.”

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“So is she a lesbian? Or maybe one of those women who like both men and women?”

“No Mike, she’s into guys. She’s into me; we just haven’t had sex yet,” I
said with a straight face.

“Wow, Evan, I’m impressed.”

I know he didn’t mean to
sound as
condescending as he did. But the way he said it made me think he didn’t expect
me ever to actually get to know a woman. Had he really thought I would spend my
entire life fucking one night stands? It gave me a pit in my stomach to think
that the persona people knew me as was such a jerk. That wasn’t really who I
wanted to be.

“I took your advice. Getting to know her a bit. She’s a pretty amazing
woman.”

“Good for you Evan, maybe she’s the one that will finally tame you.”

“Now if I could just figure you if her company was legitimate or not,
then I would be totally happy. Rebecca helped me with some
research,
but there are some pretty big glaring
warning signs with their productions.”

“Yeah, I haven’t had a good feeling about the company at all. I’m not
putting any money into it until you have the answers you need.”

It was fine with me if Mike waited for a bit. I didn’t want to
be responsible for
urging him into a company
that ended up not being a good deal. I would feel much better about
recommending ALL Warren after my investigation had finished. I just hoped the
partners in the firm didn’t come and talk to me before I was done.

They obviously had seen my numbers and the growth so far, it would be
really hard to explain to them why I wasn’t fully recommending the company to
the firm yet. I wasn’t prepared to have that conversation yet and needed to
avoid them for as long as possible.

“I understand. I’ll let you know when I find out anything more.”

“Alright man, I’m going to get back to work. You let me know if the big
wigs check in with you. I’d like to know what they had to say.”

“Sure thing.”

I pondered what to do with my day as Mike left. I really needed to figure
out what was going on with Alicia’s company and I didn’t want to have to rely
on Rebecca for the information.

As I went through the files that I had copied from Rebecca, I decided to
start making some phone calls and see if I could figure out what exactly
happened with her first company. If I could get those answers, maybe I’d have a
better idea of what I was looking for with this one.

I knew I needed to confront Alicia at some point, but I wasn’t going to
do that until I absolutely had no other choice. I still believed that she was
innocent of any wrongdoing and I wasn’t about to just throw everything at her
all at once. If she
was
really
innocent
like I thought she was, it would be
really overwhelming to know that her company was being managed improperly.

“I’m calling to get some information on the Alicia Warren case from five
years ago,” I said to the clerk from Chicago.

“I can fax you over a request form for the public records, but we don’t
share information over the phone.”

The woman sounded like she had repeated herself at least a dozen times
that day and she wasn’t excited at all about having to say it again.

“Sure, I’ll fill it out and fax it right back to you.”

“Include a credit card so you can be charged for the copies. It will take
one to two weeks for the file to be sent.”

“Is there any way to rush it?” I asked.

It was always worth asking.

“Yes, for a forty dollar processing fee we will copy the file today.”

“Deal,” I said. “I’ll get the fax right back to you.”

Forty dollars was more than reasonable to save
me
two weeks worth of time. That was a prime reason why I always
asked for a rush job. Forty dollars to one person might not be worth it, but to
me it was extremely reasonable.

I continued to make some phone calls to get the past records from the
legal case against Alicia and her employees from her previous company. The
problem I kept running into was that no one had information on Alicia. They had
information on the court case against her company, but anytime I requested
records specific to her and her name; there was nothing.

It was extremely mysterious that there was public information on all the
other people but nothing on her. I had even been able to request the records
from Bill
Yobi’s
case without issue. Why
the heck was I not able to find Alicia’s information?

I hoped when the records arrived from the company and the court cases
that it would shine a light onto why I couldn’t find any information on Alicia.
She was the owner, surely there had to be something about her in all the
documents.