The Billionaire's Elusive Lover (7 page)

Alec’s eyes darkened with concern. “She doesn’t answer her mobile? Why have one if you aren’t going to answer it?”

Edna was already shaking her head. “No, actually, Helen doesn’t have a mobile phone. Apparently a land line is cheaper. But Helen wasn’t home last night, or she simply wasn’t answering the phone in her apartment for some reason.”

Alec could tell that his secretary was concerned about the reasons for Helen’s absence and isolation last night but he was in no mood to tell her that he’d lost the impertinent Helen as well after everyone’s departure. He focused instead on the idea of Helen wandering around London without any means of communicating in an emergency. “No mobile? Is that safe? What would happen if she needed something?”

Edna shook her head. “That’s Elisia’s worry as well. She’s tried to get Helen to accept a mobile phone but Helen doesn’t want to take it.”

Alec’s eyebrows drew together in his concern. “Why the hell not? Its every parent’s right to protect their child. Helen’s just being ridiculous.”

“No,” Edna denied vehemently, “Helen’s not self-centered in any way. She’s the most giving person I’ve ever met. She just wants to earn her way in the world on her own.” Edna looked down slightly before saying, “A little like you, Mr. Dionysius.”

“Excuse me?” he asked, not sure he heard his secretary correctly.

Edna was suddenly uncomfortable. But she continued, “Well, rumors are that your father offered to back you when you started out. You refused and built up all this on your own. It’s quite an impressive legacy.”

Alec dismissed her insight with a shake of his head, as if another person backing him financially to start his own empire had never occurred to him. “My father has his own business interests.”

Edna nodded in agreement. “Helen just wants to make it on her own. She doesn’t want people handing it to her.”

Alec considered this but still thought the rejection of a mobile phone for a woman, especially one as beautiful as Helen, was not right. She could be in all kinds of danger and he felt suddenly uncomfortable, irritable even, at the idea of her walking around the city of London without that kind of security. She was taking an unnecessary risk. “How’s the Lindsey contract coming along?” he asked, changing the subject.

They discussed business for several minutes, Edna updating him on several issues and then Alec giving her further instructions. He was just about to walk into his office to get papers for his next meeting when he turned around. “Edna, get a mobile phone established in Helen’s name. I’ll make sure she carries it around.” He didn’t tell her he’d have to find the silly woman to give it to her though. That was something private he wasn’t going to share with his staff.

And if Helen thought he was going to give up, she’d better re-think her strategy. Alec knew that this thing between himself and Helen wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

Chapter 4

“Hello?” Helen answered absently as she pulled the photos out of the processing chemical. Her bathroom was cramped, but it was the only space she could process her photos without fear of them being exposed to light before they were ready.

“Helen? Hi, this is Jim. I’m sure you don’t remember me but I was the guy standing next to you at Edna’s party last week.”

Helen pinned the photo up on the string hanging across her shower. “Hi Jim. Of course I remember you. How could I forget a guy wearing such a great tie? All those little bunnies! It was great.”

Jim laughed through the phone and Helen could hear him relax. “Yeah, well, that’s kind of my little way of lightening things up over there. I usually don’t wear things like that when I think Mr. Dionysius is going to be in the office.”

She laughed, completely understanding his comment. Alex was mean and tyrannical and she liked the fact that this man was snubbing his nose at Alec’s rules and silently getting away with it. “He’s kind of a tyrant, isn’t he?” Helen said, her nose wrinkling at the idea of anyone being afraid of what they would wear.

“No, no!” he was quick to say. “He’s a great boss. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned while working under him. When I first started at Dionysius Corporation, I was one of those fresh out of college know it alls. Over the past ten years, I’ve really learned a great deal and it’s all because of Mr. Dionysius’ patience and ability to translate his vision to the people who work for him, get us all behind what he’s trying to accomplish.”

That wasn’t what Helen needed to hear right about now. She was pulling out the pictures of the sunset, the ones she’d taken the first night she’d met Alec and she needed to think of him as an awful person. Someone she could never respect and would never get along with. “Well, I’m sure he’s been a hard driving person. You probably work about eighteen hour days, don’t you?” she asked, hoping he would give her more reason to not like him.

“Only sometimes,” he laughed. “And that’s only when I’ve screwed up and need to fix something. I don’t want Mr. Dionysius to know how badly I’ve messed up sometimes.”

Ugh! More bonus points for Alec! “I’m sure he’s made many mistakes in the past, Jim. You shouldn’t have to put in the extra hours just to keep up with him.”

Jim was silent for a long moment. “I think you have the wrong impression of him. He really doesn’t work twenty-four-seven. He’s a big advocate of work-life balance.”

“Hmm…” was all Helen would say. She’d witnessed differently but she wasn’t going to argue with him. “So what’s up? Why the surprise call?”

Jim chuckled a moment. “Well, I was wondering if you might be interested in a party this Friday night. I’ve been invited to something spectacular and was hoping you might be free.” He was silent for another moment. Then he added, “As a kind of a date. That is…” he started off awkwardly, “I mean…if you don’t have any other plans, that is. If you’re busy, I completely understand and this would be really bad timing, especially in light of the way you think of Mr. Dionysius. It might not be the best…”

“I’d love to go. What time?” she asked, interrupting any possible defense of the man she was trying very hard to hate. Or even better, just not think about.

She heard his sigh of relief and was charmed by his nervousness at asking her out. “Would it be okay if I picked you up at seven o’clock?” he asked. “The party starts at seven thirty. And it’s cocktail dress. I’ll be wearing a dark suit,” he explained.

“Seven o’clock on Friday night sounds wonderful under one condition.”

She heard his gulp. “What’s that?”

“You have to wear another one of your great ties.”

Jim laughed, obviously relieved that the stipulation was an easy one. “I think I can manage that since it will be after hours. I don’t think Mr. Dionysius will mind too much.”

Helen had no idea why the man would worry about his employer’s tie preferences when the man was out on a date at a party, but she kept her opinions to herself. If he liked working for a man who monitored after hours attire, then he had a lot more to learn about the work place and life in general. And she was just the woman to teach him, she thought. A project! What a better way to get one man out of her mind? Start dating a new one! Someone who was more along her mental lines – and any man who wore bunnies to work had to have a rebel underneath all that work ethic, she thought. She just needed to bring it out a little more. Helen was always up for a challenge!

“Great. I’ll see you on Friday night.”

“Fantastic!” he said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

When Friday night came around, Helen was actually exhausted. She’d been working long hours just to keep her mind too worn out to think but no matter how much she tried, she ended up dreaming of making love with Alec. She considered calling up Jim and begging off the evening but then remembered how nervous he’d been about calling her in the first place. She could just explain that she had an early shoot in the morning and would need to be in early. She could make it up to him by asking him out for a pizza night next week. She would surely be over this silly infatuation with the tall dark and devastatingly handsome Alec by then. She would make sure of it.

Jim arrived at seven o’clock, on the dot. She was just pulling her hair up into a loose knot on her head when he rang so she had several pins in her mouth as she answered the door with one hand while pinning up her mass of curls into a slightly more respectable twist with the other.

She opened the door and stepped back, mumbling, “Come on in Jim. It’s good to see you again,” she said, extending her hand as a greeting as he walked into her tiny apartment.

Jim looked at her appearance and whistled. “Great dress!” he exclaimed as he tried to find a space in her miniscule family room that wasn’t covered with pictures or camera equipment.

She couldn’t smile without losing her bobby pins so she winked at him instead. “Thanks. There’s a bottle of wine in the fridge. Help yourself while I finish getting ready,” she said. Helen walked back into her bedroom, glad she’d chosen the dress now after seeing his reaction. She’d found an antique silk sarong that she’d wrapped low around her waist and matched it with a matching red, silk tank top with sparkles at the neckline. When she’d gotten it home and tried it on, she realized that the silk top was just a little too small, so she’d added a gold belt with small dangling coins to her waist to fill in the gap. So whenever she moved, her gold chain would peek out. She felt pretty and sexy and the admiration in Jim’s eyes told her she’d hit the right mood for the night.

Her apartment was tiny with only the family room and galley kitchen in the front with the bedroom and a miniscule bathroom off to the side. Two people couldn’t fit into the bathroom at one time and she’d made it even worse since she used it as her dark room. Right now, she had about fifty photos hanging from the ceiling as they dried from the processing chemicals. She watched in the mirror as Jim poured both of them a glass of wine.

He was handsome in a clean cut, nice guy kind of way. He was about four inches taller than she was in her red heels and he had blond hair and blue eyes, looking very sweet. If she’d seen him on the street, she wouldn’t have looked at him twice but since he’d been one of the first people to join in the group of singers last week eager to participate in the impromptu birthday celebration for Edna, she’d been impressed and had smiled at him, remembering him as he sang loudly along with everyone else.

“How do you like the wine?” she asked, fitting the last pin into her hair.

She saw Jim take another surprised sip of the white wine before he said, “It’s very good.”

She came out of the bedroom and smiled, patting her head once more for luck. “I’m glad you like it,” she said, taking the glass he handed her. “It’s one of my favorites but recently I found a merlot that I like even better.”

He nodded his head and looked around the small apartment. “Did you take all these?” he asked, indicating the pictures on the walls.

Helen smiled with pride. The walls were filled with her photos, some framed, some not. “Yes. I’ll splurge on a good bottle of wine but not necessarily frames,” she laughed derisively. “Some might say I have my priorities out of whack but that’s okay. I’ll accept that there might be some truth to that statement and thrive as I open my next bottle of perfect wine.”

He walked over to one of the walls and started examining the photos. “They’re extremely good,” he said after he’d walked by one wall, looking at each carefully. “You have real talent, not just at picking out wines, though,” he winked at her.

“Thanks”, she smiled back, truly appreciative of his compliments. He walked around the room, asking questions about the pictures while they drank their wine. Helen was glad to answer all of his questions, not concerned about what they might reveal about herself. She knew that writing was a little more self-expressionistic but photography revealed only the inside of the subject, if the photographer was good enough, the lighting and angles just right and the subject willing. She could feel the pain or joy of a person when she developed a photo of a person and she could feel that same joy or sorrow when she photographed landscapes.

They finished their wine and Jim said they should get going. He was an easy man to talk to and she learned a lot about him on the way over to the party. The main thing she learned, unfortunately, was that she was not attracted to him in any way. That thought depressed her initially but she told herself to enjoy the evening with him anyway. He was very nice and intelligent. So what if he didn’t stir her senses like some other man who wouldn’t be named….or thought of….or considered at all during the next five hours while she was with another man, she told herself firmly.

“Wow!” she said as they turned down the driveway of the house where the party was to be held. “Is this a hotel or something?” she asked, staring at the enormous mansion looming in front of them. It was magnificent. The white brick highlighted the large windows on three stories with ivy growing up two sides. The drive curved around the front entrance which was lined with flowering trees. She had no idea what kind of tree flowered this late in the season but she couldn’t believe how beautiful it looked.

Jim laughed softly. “No. Not a hotel. Just a residence. Although not like anything I’ll ever be able to afford,” he said smoothly. He stepped out of the car, handed his keys to the valet who efficiently slipped into the vehicle. Jim came around to the passenger side of the car and offered his arm to Helen who was still staring up at the enormous house. She’d lived with her father during the summers so she understood wealth. Her father lived in a mansion sitting atop a cliff in Athens with extensive gardens and more rooms than the man knew what to do with. But this was on a whole other level than even her father who was considered extremely wealthy by many standards.