Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (43 page)

Unable to stop the tears any longer, I
rushed out of the booth into the ladies room. I had never felt so completely
betrayed. Somehow this felt worse than when I had walked into Rick cheating on
me; that had crushed me, no doubt, but this made me feel like my whole body had
left me, and all that was left was a pool of misery and hurt. After all, Rick hadn’t
signed a piece of paper assuring me that he wouldn’t be sleeping with anybody
else. No matter what Zayden was – controlling,
arrogant
,
promiscuous
– I had never gotten the
idea that he was dishonest. Somehow I had managed to let myself trust him, and now
I was really paying for it. My face was completely covered in tears, as I tried
desperately to dab it with toilet paper. I had to go out there and do my job,
but how could I when he was sitting right in front of me?

But if he had broken the contract, didn’t
that mean I could… No, but there was no way for me to prove that he had been
sleeping with his ex-wife. Whatever way I looked at this, I was trapped. Unable
to be composed any longer, I ran into the bathroom stall and began sobbing
more, holding my face in the palms of my hands. How had I let myself get into
this? I had been so, so stupid.

I was such a strong woman until I met him.
Now I felt powerless.

Even more idiotic was that I had trusted
him with my body! It wasn’t in the contract, and against my own better
judgment, I had decided to sleep with him. Because I trusted him. Despite all
the reasons the world gave me not to, I trusted Zayden and believed that he
wasn’t going to hurt me. I had caused this to myself and no one else was to
blame. He must have had a good laugh. His grand master plan to sleep with me
had worked – I had willingly ran into his arms and asked for it.

I pictured him snuggling with his ex-wife
and laughing with her about how stupid girls were. They probably even made a
whole game out of it. Both of them insanely attractive, both could easily have
anybody they desired. That was probably how they even kept their marriage
interesting; the divorce must have been some kind of charade that helped them
in the games they played with vulnerable people.

I kept telling myself I could, and
gathering all the courage I could muster I walked back to my desk.

Mrs. Brian was waiting there for me with a
smirk. “Been crying, have we? Sleeping with the boss. Feeling rejected.”

God, she was a bitch.

“
I don
’t know what you are talking about,” I snapped. “So I
would appreciate it if you could just let me get back to work. Thanks!”

“Work!” She laughed. “Do you do any work?
Do you even have to? You’ve found other ways to please the boss-man after all.”

“Yes, I have,” I said, losing my temper
with her. “And if you don’t stop with the taunting, I will use my influence to
get you fired.”

That shut her up, but she looked ready to
hit me. I didn’t care. She deserved it.

With even more reserve than before, I
started typing out the documents in front of me, not looking at Zayden, not
looking at Mrs. Brian, not letting myself think even for a second, just working
as fast as I could. When the phone rang, it startled be back to reality and I
jumped.

It was Zayden, and he was looking right at
me.

Chapter 2

Zayden

It was obvious from the puffs underneath
her eyes that Aria had been crying. She had definitely seen Gina in my office
and jumped to the worst possible conclusion. It was Gina’s fault. I had told
her not to show up at the office, and that’s precisely why she had come here
snooping, hoping to get me to admit to seeing another woman. The way she had
kissed my cheek was not for my benefit, but rather for the audience that was
peeping through my glass door. She had guessed that the woman I was seeing was
in this office – rightly so – and intentionally done that to create
complications. What a fucking sly fox she was.

It had worked wonders. Aria looked like
she had just been run down by a train – I had never quite seen her this way.
She answered my call with what appeared to be extreme reluctance.

“Yes?” Her voice was wavering.

“I need you to come into my office,” I
said softly, worried about causing any further damage.

“Uh, I have a lot of work to catch up on.
I am sorry…
. Mr. Sinclair,
”
she said the last words with a lot of emphasis. She was trying to undo the last
few months, undo me.

“
I don
’t recall, Miss Roberts,” I said, returning her
formality with the hopes of throwing her off. “Giving you a choice in the
matter. And last time I checked, I was still your boss and I call the shots.”

She shut her eyes tightly. After what felt
like hours, she finally said, “I’ll be there in a few seconds, boss.”

She seemed to take her sweet time, as I
watched her finish up whatever she was typing, then remove and replace an insane
amount of objects from her desk drawers. If she was trying to hide the fact
that she was intentionally delaying our encounter, she made a poor attempt of
it. Frustrated and eager to tell her my side of the story, I called again.

“Now,” I said and hung up, staring at her
with the iciest gaze I could muster.

Finally, she began walking towards my
office, leaving me wondering what exactly I was going to tell her. I could
claim Gina was my coworker; she hadn’t exactly heard anything we had been
talking about, and it wasn’t a completely ludicrous notion that I would be
discussing business with an attractive female coworker at my office. At the
same time, if I was considering Gina’s offer, Aria was bound to find out who
she was sooner or later, and if I lied now, I would not only be accountable for
being married, but also for lying to her about it.

When she was outside my door, she knocked.
“May I come into your office, boss?” She put so much stress into that word, as
though she was taking all the bitterness she felt towards me and our situation
and expressing it through that single word.

“
Just get in here, Aria,
” I said, starting to lose my
patience.

“Do I need to, like, curtsy or something,
since you’re trying to make it clear that you’re the boss?”

“I am though,”
I said helplessly.
“I wasn’t trying to rub
it in like that but–”

“You did. And that’s exactly what you were
trying to do, which is okay. You’re right, you’re the boss and I do as you say
if I want to keep my job. So what do you need, Mr. Sinclair?”

His face was turning red. My attitude must
have been pissing him off.

“Zayden. We’ve been over this Aria. Let’s
not go through this whole ordeal again,” I said and shook my head.

“Oh, so it isn’t just who I talk to that
you control, but how as well? Duly noted, boss,” she snapped.

“Stop! Just fucking stop. We have a lot to
discuss, Aria, and for the sake of both of us, let’s not make it more difficult
than it has to be. Just take a seat will you,” I said, trying to sound a little
more gentle.

She didn’t say a word and sat down across
from me, her expression unreadable.

“You have been crying?” It wasn’t really a
question.

“Hah,” she snorted. “Wouldn’t you like
that? I suppose it helps your already inflated ego quite a lot, the thought of
a girl crying over you.”

“What?” I was perplexed. “Don’t be
ridiculous. You think I want you to cry? The last thing I want is for you to be
miserable. You should know that by now. I would think it was pretty obvious.”

“Right. Between trying to tell me who I
can or cannot talk to and romancing another woman in your office in broad
daylight, it is so very obvious that the last thing you wish to do is hurt me.
Don’t mind me, I am clearly just blind and stupid.” She was looking at her
fingernails instead of making eye-contact. Her voice sounded solid and
confident, yet there was an underlying tone of despair.

I reached out to hold her hand but she
pulled away. “You are neither blind, nor stupid, Aria,” I said. “What you saw
in here? I was just talking to the woman that was here about a business deal
that had recently gone wrong.”

“I know she’s your wife – or ex-wife or
whatever. You should know that before you begin your elaborate web of lies. It
will just be a waste of time.”

“How do you know?” There was no way she
could. Gina had never been here since Aria began working, and not many people
knew… and then I realized. “I am going to fire Mrs. Brian!”

That piece of shit. She did not have any
right to tell Aria. She must have known what was going on between us. A strange
and unpleasant feeling came over me at the thought of Mrs. Brian taunting Aria
about Gina.

“You can fire every single person who
works for you, but it won’t change the fact that you are a liar.” She was
fighting back tears hard.

“I never lied to you!” I exclaimed. It was
true. Gina was never mentioned because when Aria and I had started the contract
she was a non-entity in my life. And even though we were technically still
married, it was merely in the name. Since the topic had never really come up, I
could have never really lied.

That made her burst into hysterical
laughter. “Whatever. Your wife just walked out of here after passionately
kissing your cheek and you sit there and tell me you never lied to me?” She
shook her head as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“She is not my wife, she is my ex-wife.
The divorce proceedings have been underway for a while now and we are married
in name only.” I slammed my fist on the desk, feeling the fury begin to swell
inside of me.

“Oh wow, that is a perfectly reasonable
explanation for what she was doing in your office, acting exactly like a
non-ex-wife would act.”

“She was trying to provoke a reaction. Out
of you, funnily enough. And it seems to have worked.” I shook my head. “Listen,
Aria, I never lied to you. Gina and I are working through certain things that
pertain way more to my mother than either one of us. That is the only reason
she is anywhere near me. I have no feelings for her and I am not sure I ever
did, really. For all intents and purposes, she stopped being my wife a long
time ago. That doesn’t stop her from showing her malicious ways; that is just
in the woman’s nature. She somehow figured out that I was seeing somebody in
the office and she walked in here this morning with the intention of scaring whoever
it was away. You. And by reacting like this you are letting her fucking win.”

“Oh really? Because I care so much about
the games you play with your wife and whether or not you’re winning? Are you
really trying to convince me that none of this is what it looks like? If so,
just save us both the time and yourself the energy, boss man.”

“It’s not a game and she’s not my wife. I
would never, ever want to hurt you.” I looked deep into her eyes, hoping she
would sense that somewhere in my words was an ounce of honesty. With a much
gentler voice, I added, “I really care about you. More than you realize
obviously.”

I regretted saying those words as soon as
they left my mouth. Not because they weren’t true necessarily, but because she
didn’t need to know that. Until this very moment, it was something I hadn’t
even accepted myself, but now I knew it was true. Because the fact was,
watching her look upset with puffy eyes and a little blush over her perfect
little nose was making me feel way more uncomfortable than it should have.

Upon hearing those words, her face seemed
to gain some color. Perhaps she hadn’t even entertained the idea that I
actually cared about her…. I hadn’t entertained it myself, until now, so I
shouldn’t be surprised.

The room was silent for a long time, as
Aria seemed to be weighing my words in her mind.

“If you really mean that,” she eventually
whispered. “I have a request: I would like to re-arrange the terms of the
contract.”

“What do you mean?” What could she
possibly want to change? Sex was not a part of the contract as it is…

“You don’t get to control who I talk to.
Given that you somehow happen to have a wife up your sleeve, I should at least
have sovereignty over who I communicate with.”

“Sure,” I said very carefully. “As long as
it’s not your ex.”

“That’s amusing, coming from a married man
who has been seducing me. If you remember correctly, as a part of the contract,
you’re not allowed to have sex with any other woman. Yet your wife–”

“We’re not having sex!” I exclaimed.
Hadn’t she been listening to a word I was saying? “I told you, Gina and I
haven’t really been married in a while. Whatever shenanigans she was pulling
here before were an act. Part of some evil master-plan she has to win me back.
And by me, I mean my money.”

“So you’re telling me you’re married to
that woman and you don’t even touch her? You don’t have any regards for my
intelligence, do you?” She was starting to sound hurt again.

“On the contrary, Aria, you are one of the
most intelligent women I have ever met. And I can say this with confidence
because I have seen your work. Both as your boss and as someone who worked
through your economics course work with you, I know what your mind is capable
of. I would never underestimate that.”