The Cowboy Who Strolled Into Town (91 page)

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New York Rain

(Billionaire romance)

By Riley Moreno

NEW YORK RAIN

CHAPTER 1

The New York City skyline had its own mercurial personality; on some days, shrouded in fog, it could seem as gloomy and depressed as an old spinster, while on others, with the skyscrapers shimmering in the sunlight, it could seem bright as a mountain sunrise and brimming with promise. On other days it could seem almost menacing and evil, filled with an anger that had been simmering for hundreds of years.

              On this, day, however, it seemed calm and benign, at least up here from the sixty-seventh floor of the Goldman building. Jade Gillie stared out at the sea of buildings, gleaming in the afternoon sunshine. She could see a ghostly image of herself mirrored in the window through which she was looking.

              She couldn't help but chuckle darkly; she felt like a ghost these days. Like a phantom, walking through some dream, or nightmare, from which she could not wake. Since Vince had passed on, since the love of her life had left, so abruptly, ripped away from her forever.

              Forever.

              A piece of her had died with him in that motorcycle accident. Maybe the biggest piece of her. Maybe most of her.

              It had happened two weeks before their wedding.

              That had been almost three years ago; three years of sadness, of grief, of sorrow that would just not leave her side.

              She looked at her ghostly reflection in the mirror, shadowed in front of the majestic New York horizon. At twenty-nine years of age, her coffee-colored skin still glowed with a youthful vigor. Her oval face, with its high cheekbones, was pretty in a simple, country-girl kind of way, and was dominated by two large, dark eyes framed by exquisite eyebrows. Her mother had always told her that long ago, her ancestors had been royalty in Morocco, and that she had inherited the looks of a long-dead princess.

              She believed it sometimes.

              Not today though. Today was a day for serious talk, for business. Thoughts of grief and regret had to be put out of her mind. Business was all she had now, since Vince had passed away. She was supposed to marry Vince, supposed to live out her days with him by her side. Instead, she was living out her days with a briefcase and a laptop by her side. They were her only constant companions. Well, them and Jenny, a high school friend who had also moved from Florida to New York. She and Jenny sometimes met up for drinks in the city, when their schedules coincided. Jade's phone buzzed – a message from Jenny. She took it out of her purse and checked the message.

              “Good luck for the proposal today, girl! Btw, I'm going on a date with a dude who drives a Ferrari later! Yeah! -J.”

              Jade shook her head. Jenny had a reputation as a gold-digger, and she wasn't doing much to combat it. Truth be told, Jenny was a gold-digger, but Jade stuck by her because the ties of their friendship went back so many years. Jade typed in a quick response.

              “Don't let this one get away now girl. And thanks for the good luck wishes! Hope it goes well! Xx. -J.”

              In messages they each signed off only as “J” - which could lead to some confusion sometimes.

              Jade pressed 'send' and put the phone back in her purse, and continued to stare out at the mesmerizing skyline.

              “Ms. Gillie?”

              Jade turned around to see a tall, strikingly beautiful blonde secretary dressed in an eye-catching red dress behind her.

              “Yes, that's me.”

              “I'm Mr. Huxley's personal assistant, Claire Marsh.”

              Claire extended a slim, long-fingered hand to Jade. Jade shook it politely.  

              “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Marsh,” she said.

              Claire beamed a broad smile at Jade.

              “I hope you haven't been waiting too long. Apologies if you have; it's just that Mr. Huxley has been talking to a very important client over a very serious matter. However, if you'll just come with me I'll take you to his office. He's ready to see you now.”

              Jade nodded and smiled, but inside a stab of nervousness twisted her guts. She was about to present a business proposal to one of New York's most powerful billionaires. If she could pull it off, it would be the biggest deal of her career thus far.

             
If
she could pull it off. Brenton Huxley was a notoriously hard man, and rumor had it that you didn't do deals with him –
he
did deals with
you
. If, of course, he liked you. If he didn't, however, he'd be as quick to say so, and that would be the end of it. He didn't give second chances to anyone.
Ever.
You had one shot, and if you blew it... That was it. For good.

              Jade swallowed slowly, trying to keep her nerves under control, and followed the slim figure of Claire Marsh as she strutted off down a dark, somberly-lit passage into the depths of the skyscraper.

Brenton Huxley slammed a heavy right cross into the boxing bag, and the whole bag shuddered and swung from the force. He brushed a wisp of his sandy blonde hair out of his face and then hit the bag again.

              “Tell me one more time,” he grunted as he planted a left jab into the still swinging bag.

              “I'm sorry sir. The MaxTech shares have dropped by seven points.”

              “Damn it!”

              Brenton crunched a three shot combo into the bag immediately after the voice in his earpiece had told him this.

              “Indications, sir, are that share prices will continue to drop even further tomorrow. Do we sell now or hold?”

              “Hold.”

              “Sir, I must say that there is a strong chance that the company will lose eight hundred thousand in-”

              “Damn it Sykes, I'm the CEO! I call the shots here! When I need your advice-”

              BEEP!

              “Hold on Sykes, I've got a visitor.”

              “Sir! If you don't mind me saying, this is a very pressing-”

              “I said I've got a visitor. I'll talk to you later.”

              Brenton unplugged his earpiece just as Sykes started protesting. He didn't want to hear any more of the man's whining, to be honest. Sure, the company might lose a few hundred thousand dollars with the share price drop, but that was a mere drop in the ocean. Hell, he'd brought this company up from a two-bit chump change operation to a multi-billion dollar entity all on his own. And at the age of thirty-seven, he just happened to be one of California's youngest billionaires. Losing a few hundred thousand was par for the course; he'd make a few million in a couple of weeks to cover his losses. He was sure of it.

              The door buzzer beeped again. Without looking at the door, he grunted the password – “Maserati”, his favorite car manufacturer – and heard the pneumatic doors hiss open behind him as he continued to hammer blow after blow and combo after combo into the boxing bag with the full force of his powerful, heavily-muscled arms.

              He heard someone walk in – female, he could tell at once. Her high heels clicked rhythmically on the onyx floor, and a waft of her perfume tickled the nasal passages of his tall, angular nose.

              “You must be Jade,” he grunted as he continued to slug away at the bag.

              “Yes, Mr. Huxley. Jade Gillie. I'm here about the-”

              “SolarTwo proposal, I know. I've read the brief.”

              Jade couldn't help but stare at Brenton's body; his bare torso was all chiseled muscle, and his skin was perfectly tanned. The force and precision he struck the bag with were those of a seasoned professional; she felt both fear and admiration for the power and ferocity that seemed to emanate from his core. What was more, she had not expected to have been dealing with a shirtless, muscled hunk for one of the biggest business deals of her life. She felt surprise, and perhaps even a little shock.

              And something else – arousal? No, surely not... She rarely, if ever, felt this way about white men. She certainly hadn't felt a stirring of feelings like this since... Well, since Vince. And that had been a long time ago.

              Yet this white man – he was different. There was something of a wild animal about him; he had the aura of a great solitary predatory cat, like a jaguar or tiger. She could picture his teeth, like those of a wild beast, biting deep into her flesh as she moaned with pleasure...

              “Ms. Gillie?”

              His deep, sonorous voice snapped her out of the daydream and she felt a blush darkening her mahogany cheeks. She felt suddenly vulnerable and unsure in the presence of this man. Now that he had stopped hammering the boxing bag, he had turned to face her. Sweat was running down his bare torso; pooling between his perfectly-chiseled, bulging pecs and glistening in a sheen over an impossibly ripped six-pack.

              But aside from his male model body, another feature of his was getting her heart racing; his ice-blue eyes – staring at her with obvious hunger. He was making no effort even to disguise how his blue eyes were running with a deep and lusty hunger over the curves of her hip and breast, revealed subtly through her sleek, tight-fitting business suit. His mouth curved into a slow, languid smile as he continued to devour her with his eyes.

              “So Ms. Gillie, what is it that I can do for you? Or is there something you'd like to do... for me?”

              A number of things crossed her mind, and some of them deepened her blush and got her pulse racing for a second, but she knew that at this moment she needed to remain professional. As attractive as Huxley was, getting his pants off was not the reason she had here.

              Although that particular prospect seemed to be at the forefront of her thoughts at the current moment...

             
No Jade! Come on, focus! This is Brenton “One-Shot” Huxley you're dealing with here! One shot! Remember that!

              “I've come about the solar proposal, from a new Chinese company called SolarTwo. If I can just get this technology into the States, it could revolutionize the way we use electricity. If you'll hear me out-”

              “I've read the brief, Ms. Gillie, I know the basics. I really hope you're not here to waste my time. I have a very low tolerance for time wasters.”

              A boost of panic pulsed through her veins.

             
Come on Jade, don't let your nerves get the better of you. He's just a human being, like yourself. You've practiced this a hundred times. Just deliver the proposal. He'll go for it. He has to!

             
Jade went on to explain the details of her proposal to bring SolarTwo's new technology to the United States. She delivered her lines flawlessly, and Brenton seemed to be interested – he was listening attentively and making notes as she spoke on his iPad – and then, she finished with the flourish that she knew would really get his attention.

              “If you've paid attention to everything I've proposed,” she said as she finished, “you'll see that this technology is the way of the future. It's going to change everything, the same way Henry Ford's cars did, or Bill Gates's Microsoft, or Steve Jobs’ Apple. It just needs-”

              “A wealthy investor to back it. Me.”

              Brenton grinned, revealing strikingly-white teeth in a wolfish mouth. He brushed aside a stray lock of hair that had fallen over his eyes.

              “Yes. Yes, essentially, that is what my start-up needs, Mr. Huxley.”

              His eyes steeled over in a second, and suddenly it seemed that his handsome face had taken on the air of a marble statue.

              “No.”

              Despair crashed through Jade's body.

              “No? But... but
why?
”

              She couldn't believe it; she had played this moment out so many times in her head. She had delivered her presentation flawlessly, and anyone with half a mind for business could see how lucrative a deal it would be. She had been so sure that Huxley would have agreed to it, and yet... Yet
this
was his response?

              “I'm sorry Ms. Gillie, but I'm gonna be real blunt with you:  it's just not an idea I see real potential in.”

              “That's... that's
it?!
You're not going to explain why you don't think it's going to work?”

              “No.”

              Jade was stunned; it felt as if he had punched her right in the stomach with one of those killer blows he had been landing on his boxing bag when she had walked in. She felt the world swimming around her as everything came crashing down. She saw, as if in slow-motion, Brenton Huxley touching a button on his earpiece.