Billionaires Meet Millionaire (A Steamy Romance) (15 page)

"You
okay?" She asked, rising from her position a little. Niall was
breathing deeply. As he nodded he tried to smile a little but it
got screwed up in the effort.

Olta
now rose fully and picked up the offending pillow for desk.
Moving over to the love seat she put against the
armrest.

She
pulled Niall backwards, putting her hand lightly on his shoulder.
He let himself recline but he kept his legs on the ground. Olta
used her free hand to nudge his knee. Niall got the hint and laid
his legs on the seat, the end of them hanging over the other
armrest. All the while he looked at her and she avoided his gaze.
It felt oddly familiar.

"Sorry
about throwing…" Olta started as she reclined back into her pillow
seat.

Niall
looked sharply at her but then grinned a little.

"You're
doing it again." Niall warned her teasingly.

Olta
figured the pain had subsided as his smile was back again.
That smile didn't help her efforts to suppress her blush. She
looked at him shyly and shrugged.

For a
moment they just looked at each other and Olta felt like they were
assessing each other, in the best possible meaning of word though.
It actually was a very comfortable. Olta realized that despite
everything she had never felt truly uncomfortable around Niall.
Nervous beyond belief, yes but not uncomfortable.

A knock on the
door broke the silence.

"Ja?"
Olta questioned and the door opened slowly.

Olta
looked at Niall bemused as he tried to manage himself into
an upright position but failing miserably. Grimacing Niall fell
back.

"You guys
alright in here?" Her mother asked as she entered the room.

"What's
up doc?" Olta said in her best Bugs Bunny accent as she leant
backwards to gaze up at her mother. Her mother glanced down at her
before turning to Niall.

"Niall,
would you like to stay for dinner?" Her mother asked.

Olta
's head snapped back up at Niall. Niall, still slightly in
pain, looked from her mother to Olta and back again. Olta thought
it funny that he looked somewhat embarrassed. It wasn't a look she
had seen before but it was decidedly cute.

Niall
looked at Olta again and back at her mother.

"If it's
no inconvenience." Niall asked politely.

"Now
that would defeat the purpose of asking, wouldn't it?" Her mother
answered with laughter in her voice. Niall smile
widened.

"True,
in that case I would love to stay for dinner, Amanda."

Olta
relished in the familiarity of the display. Her mother and
John always went through this. It was their little ritual. Looking
up at her mother Olta saw that she too recognized the play. For the
very first time since her arrival Olta truly felt at
home.

"Good."
Amanda smiled and left the room, closing the door behind
her.

Niall
looked at Olta

"I need
to call Matilda, though. Do you have a phone I might use? I forgot
mine." He stated.

Olta
got up and picked up her mobile phone from under some
papers on her desk.

"There
you go." She said as she tossed it over at Niall.

"You've
got a cell phone?" Niall asked.

"Yeah,
isn't it the weirdest thing?" Olta mocked.

"It's
just, I haven't seen it on you before is all." Niall
shrugged.

"It's
more for emergencies anyway; it isn't like anyone else besides
mamma or Ra might need the number." Olta shrugged back.

"I'll let you
make your call, be right back." She added and she walked out her
room.

Niall
needed his privacy and Olta needed to have a little chat
with her mother and sister before dinner. There would be no
embarrassing story telling this evening.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Niall
was glad for the privacy Olta had given him, seeing as his
father and Matilda expected him to be in his room.

Hearing the
phone ring he felt the numb thumping ache of his bruises increase.
The painkillers were loosing their effect. Still, he hadn't felt
this good in a very long time, if ever. Although her mother walking
in had embarrassed him.

The
situation was completely innocent, of course. The scenario running
through Niall' head, however, hadn't been.

"Foy
residence." Matilda's voice brought him back down to
reality.

"Hey
Matilda, it's me. I'm just calling to say I won't be home for
dinner." Niall said quickly.

"What do
you mean? Aren't you up in your room right now, resting?" Matilda
asked challengingly.

"Um,
No?" Niall asked nervously. An upset Matilda was a scary thing,
even over the phone.

"NiallFoy, where are you?!" Matilda demanded.

"I'm at
Olta's. You know the girl I told you about?" Niall explained
quickly.

Matilda
's tone softened immediately.

"You really
should be resting, you know."

"I'm fine,
really."

"Well,
you have fun then, young Niall." Matilda said before disconnecting
the line. Niall was sure she’d used her title for him
mockingly.

He looked at
phone in his hand and smirked. Quickly he entered his own name and
number and then gave himself a ring. Now this phone could be used
to actual use.

Laying
down the phone Niall glanced around the room again. His eye fell on
the collage on the other side of the room. Niall had been pleased
with Olta's reaction about that guy, Sam or something like that.
Niall had never realized that she might already have a boyfriend.
The thought just hadn't occurred to him.

So when
he saw this guy holding Olta like he himself wanted to, Niall had
felt a wave of jealousy and possessiveness, only to be replaced by
some weird giddy joy when he heard Olta's derisive words and
laughter. Niall was pretty sure that her words had been directed at
herself and not that Sam guy and he briefly wondered what that
meant.

But the
fact that Olta would snuggle up to a friend like that, now that was
promising. Maybe he could get her on this seat beside him and have
her snuggle up to him.

Oh, who
was he kidding, he was in way too deep to just be friends with her.
And if he wasn't a complete idiot Olta wouldn't want that either.
But that was assuming that he wasn't a total idiot and these days
that was quite an assumption. She had, after all, run away again
when he spotted a clear opportunity.

And
snapping at Olta while she had addressed the very big elephant
waltzing around them was pretty stupid. It had, after all, been the
excuse for him coming over. But if he could avoid talking about his
brother, he would, regardless of Olta's tact in the
matter.

Olta
reentering her room shook Niall out of his reverie. She had
a cheeky grin on her face and Niall frowned at this.

"It's
alright then? You staying over for dinner?" Olta asked and the
cheekiness disappeared. Niall nodded and he noticed that this time
she didn't close door.

"You okay, can
I get you some aspirin or something. My mom has some stronger stuff
too."

"Stronger stuff?" Niall asked with a raised
eyebrow.

Olta
giggled softly.

"I don't
think my mother deems a couple of bad bruises painful enough to
crack open the morphine though." Niall looked at her wide eyed. Her
mother kept morphine in the house? Okay.

"No I'm
all right, thanks. Tell me more about your friends back home. I
mean it's only fair isn't it?" Niall said composing
himself.

"Fair?"
Olta asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah.
You know far more about me and the others than we do about you. You
haven't been really sharing or anything." Niall stated and he saw
her blush return but he was more caught up in the emotions flashing
over Olta's face.

He saw shyness
followed by bewilderment. Then he saw a flash of what he could only
describe as anger only to be quickly replaced by fear and, who
would have thought, insecurity.

"I've
shared things." Olta said, slightly defensive. Niall tilted his
head and looked at her intently.

"Sure
and I'm glad to know that you like science fiction and period
drama's and that you're trained ninja and that your brother's got
an excellent taste in women." Niall was glad to see a smile edge
its way on Olta's mouth.

"He's coming
over on Friday."

Niall
didn't understand who she was talking about.

"My
brother." Olta explained with a faint smile. "He's coming over
coming Friday to explain himself to his mother."

"So he's
hopping on a plane to come and tell his mother what he has been up
to?" Niall chuckled. The guy was like twenty-eight or something. It
didn't sound all too healthy to him.

"Well I
think the fact that he'll be seeing Miss Aliton.. God that really
doesn't sound right." Olta laughed. "Do you know her first name
because it sounds to me like my brother is having it on with Mrs.
Robinson and that just doesn't sit right."

Niall
smiled at her and shook his head.

"No,
can't help you there. But come on Tirana, something a little bit
more substantial."

"Substantial? We've known each other for less than a week."
Olta clearly wasn't too pleased with his current course as Niall
saw a flash of annoyance cross her face.

He
wanted to back paddle right away. He hadn't meant for Olta to get
annoyed with him. He wanted Olta happy, laughing and blushing.
Well, he got her blushing but it seemed for the wrong reasons.
Niall opened his mouth to start his retraction but Olta never gave
him the chance.

"Coming
from Mr. I-snap-when-someone-asks-me-anything-remotely-personal, I
think that's rather rich." Okay, so Olta had picked up on that.
Right. And she was giving him a very harsh and rather scary
look.

All
right, back paddling and grovelling starting now.

"Yeah,
okay, see your point. It's just that Bailey, Al, Peter and I, we go
way back and you're the new kid. Me, not talking about myself is
taking for granted. They know enough as it is. You on the other
hand, we know nothing about." Niall smirked. So he wasn't
grovelling but then again he wasn't used to doing that.

Olta
's harshness dissipated and the insecurity returned. She
looked at Niall questioningly and was biting her lower
lip.

Did she know
just how absolutely adorable and well, simply hot she looked right
now?

If it
wasn't for the dull pain in his body and the small technicality of
Olta not actually being his girl, he would have leapt over at her
and kissed her for everything he was worth. Instead Niall only
shifted slightly.

"Well
then, shoot. But I might take a page from your book though." Olta
said, still sucking on a part of her lip. The slight smirk and the
definite spark her eyes, however, told Niall she was daring
him.

Now all
he needed to do was come up with a question. But Olta was rather
distracting him at the moment.

"Okay, how
many boyfriends?"

Olta
might be all insecure and shy but there was no way in hell
that guys in Holland were too blind to see through that.

Olta
tilted her head to the left as if she didn't know what to
make of the question or of Niall himself. The blush that had never
left her face grew darker.

"Dinner's
ready!"

At
Maggie's voice coming from the hallway Olta leapt up and Niall saw
relieve wash over her face. Apparently Dutch boys were that blind.
Niall really couldn't feel too bad about that, quite the opposite
actually.

Niall
carefully rose from the love seat, pain shooting through
his body. Seeing Olta's obvious concern he gave her wry smile. He
really didn't feel too good right now.