Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (60 page)

How had I come so far?

I had sworn off love a long time ago,
after all. It was for lesser folk, for people who did not understand that
feelings were at best a show of weakness, at worst a weapon of manipulation.
With Aria, it was neither. Loving her did not make me feel weak, it made me
feel stronger. The idea that I could feel this intensely about another human
being and still keep my sanity and self-intact made me feel oddly powerful. And
perhaps this whole ordeal was a weapon of manipulation at first, while I played
games and she responded with perfectly crafted plays herself. But no, neither
of us was looking for anything from the other anymore. There was only one
explanation for what was going on between Aria and I.

We were madly and unconditionally in love
with each other.

And why wouldn’t I be?

I saw her walking through the front door
and towards her desk and felt a kind of awe. My god, she was the most beautiful
woman I had ever seen. In a pretty blue blouse, black trousers and a cream
colored blazer, she looked like she popped straight out of a career woman
magazine. No other twenty year old I knew dressed as maturely and
professionally as she did, and she pulled it off like nobody’s business. Her
face was radiant and even with very little make up she outshone everybody else
in the room. She outshone most people in most rooms. Usually looks like hers
were enough to get by life. I had met many, many, women over the years who used
their looks to get by. Not Aria, though.

More so than anything else about her, it
was her brilliance and ambition that drew me towards her. A part of me realized
that when we eventually got married, she would gladly handle half my business
operations for me. Maybe I would make her the head of Credit Lending Analysts
and eventually, if she was interested, the CFO. Knowing her though, if I tried
to make her the CFO right away, she would protest claiming she hadn’t earned
the title yet. I grinned again picturing that argument and then made a split
second decision to go buy her the best ring I could find.

On my way out, I stopped by Aria’s desk as
she was busy typing something on her computer and said, “Too busy to notice
your boss now? Boyfriend. I meant boyfriend.” I smiled and noticed Mrs. Brian
beside her try unsuccessfully to hide her gasp.

“Hi.” Aria looked up and smiled. I wanted
to kiss her, but I would have to resist. I couldn’t quite do some things in the
workplace just yet. “Sorry, my tyrannical boss gave me a lot of work so I am a
little busy.”

“What a douche,” I said with a straight
face. “Warn him that if he overworks you, your boyfriend will make him pay for
it.”

She giggled and said, “What do you need,
Zayden?”

“I need you, Aria, to say yes to my
proposition.” I smirked and before she could open her mouth again, I added, “I
know, I know. You made your points and they are completely valid, which is why
I am off on a little mission right now that will hopefully satisfy you. But I
just have one question. What do you prefer? Squares or Circles?”

She looked at me like I had just asked her
something insane like whether two plus two equals seven.

“What now?” she asked.

“You heard me. Squares or circles?”

“Uhmm…” She raised her eyebrows and pursed
her lips. “Squares I suppose. I have never really thought about it, to be
honest. I mean, who even thinks about it? And how is this at all relevant to
anything?”

“You’ll see.” I winked. “For now I have
got to go.”

After turning around to head to the door
and taking a few steps, I stopped and turned to look at her again. “I love
you.” Ignoring the gasps from all over the place, I walked out casually as
though I didn’t notice.

---

Just as I walked out of the building, a
FedEx guy stopped me with some mail. It looked like it was paperwork. Ignoring
the excitement bubbling up inside of me, I ripped the envelope open. The
divorce was finalized! I couldn’t have chosen a better moment to go out to get
the ring. I told Ned to take me to Dazzling Jewelers and Co, an exclusive
jewelry store that only a few people within a thirty-mile radius could afford.

Ned tried hard to contain his excitement,
as I could tell from the etches around his cheeks while he attempted to keep a
straight face. “And why are we going to a jewelry store? I don’t remember you
ever having the desire to purchase any bling before.”

“Shut up, Ned. You know why I want to go
there,” I said, trying to sound stern, but it came out almost comical since I
had been completely incapable of wiping the grin from my face.

“No, sir. I have a guess, but you know
what they say, when you assume, you make an ass out of—”

“Fine, I want to buy an engagement ring
for Aria,” I said. “Now can we hurry?”

“Of course!” Ned exclaimed with joy. “I am
so happy for you, Zayden. She is exactly what you need in your life.”

“I’m glad to have your approval, Ned.” I
smiled. “No, seriously, I meant that. It probably sounded like I was being
sarcastic, but it was genuine. Your approval actually means a lot to me and if
you don’t know that by now—”

“I know,” Ned said cheerfully. “Of course
I know. Now before we drive off to get that engagement ring, might I suggest a
pit stop?”

“Where?” I raised my eyebrows.

“To Aria’s apartment.”

“Huh? What will that accomplish? Aria is
at the office.”

“Exactly.” Ned looked back at me and
winked.

Within the next hour, we had managed to
pick up Aria’s best friend Stacey from her apartment and made it to the jewelry
store, while she squealed and made amusing sounds throughout the way there.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” She had
been muttering those words as though it was a spiritual incantation for a
while.

“You already said that.” I looked at her
with a fake frown.

“But you don’t understand!” Stacey
exclaimed, almost jumping. “You don’t understand! You’re…you’re going to…ask
Aria to marry you!”

“I understand what I am about to do, since
I am the one doing it. Makes some kind of sense, doesn’t it?”

She laughed hysterically, to my surprise.
It was kind of endearing just how excited Stacey was for Aria. It made me
realize how close they were and how much her friends cared about her. It also
made me feel a little bit of an irrational jealousy. No one was allowed to love
Aria more than I did.

“Zayden, this jewelry store! Everything is
shining to the point of freaking blinding me. It’s going to cost you a
fortune.”

“Well, your best friend and roommate are
worth two whole fortunes and more.”

Her face lit up and I could see tears forming
in her eyes. “Thank you so much. Thank you for loving Aria like you do. God
knows she deserves it.”

“Hey! She’s mine, so thank you for taking
care of her for as long as you have. I am quite grateful. But don’t forget
she’s mine.”

“Ha!” she scoffed. “Since you’re about to,
you know, marry her, I hope you know her well enough to realize she will not
take well to be told who she belongs to.”

“I know.” I shook my head and sighed. “I
will have to own her completely behind her back. Anyways, I am thinking of princess
cuts, but I brought you here so you can help me decide what she would like.
When I asked her if she prefers circles or squares, she said squares, which is
why I think a princess cut would be the most—”

“You asked her what?” Stacey burst into
another set of hysterical laughter.

“She reacted rather oddly to my question
too. But really, how was I to ask it without raising any suspicion?”

“Men are hilarious sometimes.” Stacey
sighed and looked at the shopkeeper. “Lucky for you, she always did kind of envision
a princess cut for her engagement ring. Can we look at a few?”

“Of course, madam. I take it you’re not
the bride?” An old, balding man with a silver moustache looked curiously at
Stacey.

“No, of course I am! What bride doesn’t
come to select her own surprise engagement ring with her fiancé?”

“You made your point,” said the man with a
frown, pulling out a couple of boxes. “How about this one? 8 carat, on pure
platinum.”

“No. I don’t want to look at anything that
is less than 15 carat.”

Stacey looked at me with her mouth hanging
open, as though the idea of a 15 carat engagement ring was preposterous. “Are
you sure?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Absolutely positive.”

“Hmm, I think I know exactly what you are
looking for, sir,” the man said with a sudden glint in his eyes that hadn’t
been present until then. “Just give me a moment.”

When he disappeared to look for the rings,
Stacey looked at me and asked, “Exactly how much are you planning to pay for
this ring?”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. A lot? I
haven’t really thought about it. It’s not really about the money or how much it
costs; it’s about finding the perfect ring.”

Looking impressed, Stacey said, “It must
feel awesome to have so much money lying around.”

“It’s alright.” I grinned at her. “It will
ensure your best friend spends the rest of her life comfortably, though.”

“That makes me so hap—” she cut herself
mid-sentence with a loud gasp.

The shopkeeper had returned with an
enormous and beautiful princess cut diamond engagement ring in his hand. I had
to open my eyes and close them again a few times before taking the image in. It
was, to honor the name of the store, and Aria herself, dazzling. I chuckled to
myself.

“That’s,” Stacey said, looking like she
was trying to find the right words to describe it. “I have never seen anything
like it.”

“I will take it,” I said in a single
breath. “That’s the one.”

“You don’t want to know how much it
costs?” The shopkeeper eyed me quizzically. “I get a lot of people with a lot
of money here, but never has anyone agreed to make such a purchase without even
asking about the price.”

“It doesn’t matter how much it costs.
That’s the ring, that’s it,” I said, not removing my eyes from the jewel in his
hand. I pictured what it would look like in Aria’s pretty dainty little
fingers.

It would be perfect.

“All right then. 18 carat on platinum and
I can engrave anything you want on the band for a total of five million.”

Stacey’s gasps upon hearing the cost could
be heard in the entire neighborhood, I had no doubt. It didn’t matter. It was
Aria’s ring and I would have reacted the same way if he had said it was for a
hundred million dollars. She deserved the best of everything.

“Like I said, I’ll take it,” I said and
looked at Stacey who I was afraid would faint any moment.

“Are…you…sure?” she asked, looking from me
to the ring and back to me.

“Would Aria like it?” I asked earnestly.

“Are you kidding? She will adore it, as
long as you don’t let her find out how much you paid for it.”

“I won’t tell her if you won’t. I will be
right back, I forgot my credit card in the car.”

I walked out with a grin as an idea hit
me. I hadn’t really forgotten my credit card. I just needed to get away from
Stacey and into another part of the jewelry store across the hall. The rings
were all in one room, while the rest of the jewelry items had their own
separate areas.

After making the necessary purchase,
Stacey and I returned to the car, and as she continued to look utterly stunned,
I presented her with two boxes. “Congratulations on your engagement!” I smiled
at her.

“What now?” She looked confused. “You
didn’t—”

“I hadn’t given you and Mr. Nick anything
for your engagement. I thought you would like—”

“It’s just Nick, I’ve never heard him
called Mr. anything,” she tried to joke, but there were tears tingling around
her eyes again. “You didn’t have to get us anything.”

I shrugged. “You are Aria’s best friends!
This is the least I could do for all that you have done for her over the
years.”

No longer attempting to hide her tears,
Stacey opened the boxes sniffing, to find two matching platinum Him and Her
bracelets that read “together forever.”

“This,” she sniffed back tears.
“This…is….perfect. You really shouldn’t…I don’t know how to thank you.”

“You already have. Aria is very lucky to
have friends like you,” I said, starting to feel uncomfortable since I didn’t
know how to make her stop crying and wasn’t expecting this reaction at all.

“No, Zayden.” She looked up and wiped her
face with her sleeves. “Aria is very lucky to have you.”

Chapter
3

Aria

“Wow, Aria.
That’s…shocking…utterly…surprising,” Nick mumbled while determinedly avoiding
eye contact. I had just told him and Stacey the whole story with the very
awkward situation at my mom’s house, followed by an even more awkward proposal.