Read Billion Dollar Bad Boy (Big City Billionaires #1) Online
Authors: Nora Flite
“Alexis!”
Whipping my eyes up, I stared in disbelief. The man I loved, his hands bound by metal cuffs, was coming my way in a hurry. Did I have a concussion?
“Silver?” I asked, swaying on my feet.
Impossibly fast he crossed the room, catching me in spite of his bound hands. “Pet!” he growled, cradling me where he knelt. “Are you alright?”
Blinking, I reached up to touch his cheek. “How are you here?”
Pushing his hips to my forehead, he embraced me furiously. “You can thank your friend over there for that.”
Vermont approached Florian. Another pair of officers entered the room, bending over the fallen man. Their loud chattering said his injuries were mild. I'd hit him as hard as I could, but he wasn't in critical health.
Sensing my stare, Vermont looked at me. His ears were glowing red; the pen was tugged free, waving between his knuckles. “Your guy there wouldn't shut the hell up about us turning around once he heard you on the phone with me. I thought he was going to smash his face through the damn window just to get here.”
My chin swung like a pendulum. “How did you know where I was?”
“You tripped the alarm,” Silver said. “I heard it go off in my pocket.” Briefly, he glared at the detective. “I told him something was wrong, to check my phone and see the cameras, but he ignored me.”
Vermont shrugged uncomfortably. “I thought he was looking for a way out.”
From the corner of my vision, I saw them cuffing Florian and pulling him to his feet. He was groggy, his head lolling. Still watching him, I spoke softly to Silver. “You got here so fast.”
He cupped my cheeks, tenderly feeling the swelling above my eye. “We were still on the road when we turned around.”
Vermont crouched beside Silver, reaching for his wrists. “Let me get these off, they're pointless now.” The cuffs slid free, and while I saw his skin was raw from struggling, Silver didn't bother checking out his injuries. He was too busy fixating on mine.
“He could have killed you,” Silver whispered hotly. His hands held me tighter, there was a good chance he'd never let me go. “Why would you put yourself in danger like that for me?”
I ran the pad of my thumb across his brow, then down to the dip of his cheekbone. “When you're in love, you stop caring about the risks.”
Silver looked down at me with his mouth fixed in a perfect line. I had a minute of feeling ridiculous. Had I
really
said that?
Burying my worries with his lips, the man I loved... the man I trusted... kissed me until I knew nothing but that moment. There was no pain, no fear, no torment. All that existed was the two of us wrapped together.
What more could I ever need?
Silver
T
he next few days were a funny blur.
Florian was, of course, charged with hacking the security systems of all the banks. Even Old Stone, a crime that belonged entirely to me. I didn't mind; it meant I could finally stop looking over my shoulder.
It was hard to feel sympathy for my old friend. He'd intended to let me take the fall for every robbery. The automatic system he'd buried in my computer was set on a timer. It would hack each bank one by one, tucking the money safely away in encrypted bits in overseas accounts.
Every bit of evidence would point to me.
But then, I'd been arrested before he'd expected me to be. And the next timer was too soon, if it went off, it would make it harder to prove I'd done everything—because I was in cuffs at the time.
He probably could have said
I'd
been using an auto-timed system, but his fingers were all over the code, the damn calling card. He'd been too cocky... he always had been.
At some point, he'd found the old code I'd used years ago to hack Old Stone. I think it must have been around the time he'd found some old designs of mine, or perhaps that had all been a ploy to dig through my files. It didn't matter.
He'd found the trail of my actions, and then he'd refined my program. I always said he was a genius. He was also dead to me.
I'd never forgive anyone that hurt Alexis.
And that was why I had no qualms handing all the evidence on my computer over to Detective Roose. And why I had no problem tweaking the code to remove any hint that I'd ever touched it in the past.
Florian could have all the credit.
I just wanted her.
****
“N
ow, don't be too impressed,” she said, setting the casserole dish on the table between us. “I make a pretty good macaroni and cheese bake. Not bragging.”
Chuckling, I folded my hands in front of me. It was the first time Alexis had let me into her home, a fact I'd brought up to her several times. Apparently, after being exposed to my own place, she'd been too nervous to show me where she lived.
How could she not realize that anyplace she was, was worth more than the most luxurious house in existence?
Waving steam away with an oven mitt, she beamed. “Look good?”
Squinting at the bright orange cheesy pile, I smiled. “Smells good.”
“Then dig in!”
We ate with occasional laughter, and the occasional fidgeting on her part. I had no control when it came to touching her leg under the table. When our plates were cleared, she poured us some wine.
Sipping the tangy drink, I nodded at her. “Thanks for making us dinner.”
“Oh, it was nothing.” She squeezed the glass tight. “I still don't know why you were so insistent on coming here. Wouldn't dinner at a fancy restaurant be nicer?”
“Maybe,” I said, feeling inside my pocket. “But I suspect you'd prefer privacy?”
Alexis crinkled her mouth. “For what?”
Gently, I slid the soft, black box across the table. It bumped her elbow, she nearly spilled her drink as she sat back in surprise. “What's this?” she asked, her palm cradling the box.
My smile was sly.
Setting her wine aside, she carefully opened it. Her eyes flashed between the gift, then me, then back again. “How?”
I was overjoyed with her reaction. “I don't think the pawn shop owner was expecting to sell those to someone just an hour after he'd bought them.”
Alexis lifted the earrings, the emerald depths stretching for miles in the light. Twisting them, she touched the silver edges in wonderment. “I didn't think I'd ever see them again.”
I didn't mention that I was glad she didn't throw them away when the post office worker tried to give them to her. I'd had to go retrieve the gift from him myself.
Curling my fingers around her wrist, I urged her closer. One by one, I clipped the earrings into place onto the perfect shells of her ears.
“How do they look?” she asked, cupping one.
“Much nicer than they did in a glass case.”
The fringe of her smile started to fade. “You hung onto these for weeks, why give them to me now?”
“Well,” I said, bending my knee to the floor. My insides flipped with how wide her eyes became, and the “o” shape of her mouth flushed me with desire. “I wanted to make sure that they matched perfectly with this.”
Withdrawing the ring from my pocket, I held it between us. The silver metal glinted, green emeralds made nearly black by the clarity of the diamond between them.
“Silver...” She whispered my name like a prayer.
Taking her left hand, I teased my fingers over her palm. “Marry me, Alexis. Come with me to LA and let me give you the life I stole. You wanted the big city dream, you wanted to explore your career and find who you were. Do that with me a your side. With me... as your husband.”
Alexis—my beautiful woman, my perfect pet—jumped to her feet. The chair fell over, clattering on her scuffed kitchen floors. My heart sank into the deepest part of my being.
Is she going to say no?
Her whole arm trembled when she lifted it. I still held the ring, but I thought she was imagining it on her bare finger. “What about your company here?”
“I can find someone to run it. I said before, I own others. I'll even open a new one in Los Angeles, you can design outfits for it—whatever you want.”
“And you think that will help me find out who I really am?”
Fuck, I could feel my pulse all the way in my throat. “I do. And if not, I'll find out what will, and give you that.”
“Stop,” she said firmly. Leveling her eyes on me, she blinked as if she'd never seen me before. “Marriage, a dream career I gave up on forever ago? You don't need to do any of that for me. I might have missed out on the life I'd planned... but I already know who I am.”
Leaning closer, I stared up at her. “Then tell me.”
Alexis collapsed forward, a force that was soft as spring wind and as solid as an oak tree. Cradling my jaw, she pressed her nose to mine. “I'm yours,” she whispered. “That's plenty enough for me.”
Shutting my eyes, I breathed inward.
She's mine. Forever mine.
“But,” she said, glancing down at the ring I held. “If it's no difference to you, I think I could handle being your wife, too.”
Grinning, I thumbed her chin and made her look at me. “Is that a yes?”
She held out her hand, energy coming off of her in droves. It fueled me, my skin burning as I slid the ring into place. When it settled, we both gasped from the sudden burst of sharp static.
In a daze, she asked, “We're actually moving to LA?”
“If it's what you want.”
“I think... yeah. Yes,” she laughed. “I'd really like that.”
Caressing her cheek, I tugged at her lower lip with my teeth. “I've loved you since the moment I knew you, Pet.”
She brushed her own mouth, tracing where I'd touched. Her eyes were half shut. “Once I knew who you were...
really were,
I fell in love with you, too.”
Our experiences had been so different. And still, so similar.
Broken people shouldn't fit together with anyone. Our pieces are wrong, we can't mesh, and if you try to force us, we'll just damage the rest of the puzzle.
But when I'd met Alexis, darkening her life, I'd also darkened mine. Together, we'd become each others source of light. I could say without a doubt in the foundation of my soul, that there had never been a love like ours. It was the kind that came from pain, from fear, from destruction.
Only true love could have survived such torment.
And only true love could have won over my ruined heart...
While also healing hers.
––––––––
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A
USA Today Bestselling Author, Nora Flite loves to write dark and filthy romance (especially the dramatic, gritty kind!) Her favorite bad boys are the ones with tattoos, the intense alpha types that make you sweat and beg for more!
Inspired by the complicated events and wild experiences of her own life, she wants to share those stories with her audience.
Born in the tiniest state, coming from what was essentially dirt, she's learned to embrace and appreciate every opportunity the world gives her.
She's also, possibly, addicted to coffee and sushi.
Not at the same time, of course.
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www.NoraFlite.com
Also email her at [email protected] if you want to say hello! Hearing from fans is the best!
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