A Double Dose of Billionaire (Part One) (6 page)

I chose a comedy chick flick and slid it into
the player.

After what seemed like ten minutes later, I
felt someone nudge my shoulder. I woke up to Kristie looking at me
with a puzzled face. “What are you doing here?”

I yawned. I had to get past this habit of
sleeping at random places all the time. Life was just so
exhausting. “Waiting for you. How was work?”

“Oh, don’t get me started.” She sat down. “I
thought I was done with the accounts, and then stupid Albert came
over with all the boss’s receipts and went like, ‘we need returns
for all this.’ I mean, who does that? I specifically told them not
to give me all their receipts last week… Oh, but never mind about
me.” She elbowed me lightly in the waist and grinned. “Tell me all
about your night with the twins. I want all the details—
all
of it.”

I sighed, not really sure what I thought about
last night. “Well, the sex was amazing. But then I think that I
shouldn’t have done it.”

“Why not? I mean, it’s not like you’re dating
anyone. Go have fun.” She got up. “But remember to use protection.
Who knows where their dicks have been. Coffee?”

I gave her a guilty look.

Her eyes widened. “You didn’t?”

“I kind of forgot to… but it’s okay, I’m still
on birth control.”

“I’m not saying that they are the kind to
sleep around a lot. Okay I am, and have documented proof from the
ever-accurate media. But STDs? Ever heard of them?”

“I know.” I sighed and then smiled. “But the
sex was so good.”

“Better than Damien?” She waved her hand and
rolled her eyes at herself. “Oh, why bother asking.”

“Way
better. Damien couldn’t even last
five minutes.”

“Thank goodness you broke up with that
asshole. I told you about him, didn’t I? That man was up to no
good.”

I nodded. “I just really wanted to settle
down. You know, with my parents nagging at me to find a husband all
the time.”

“Well, don’t settle down for any random
guy.”

“I’ve learned my lesson.” When I found Damien
in my bed with some strange blonde chick, my heart got crushed on
the spot. I spent the whole night getting myself wasted in the
club. Thinking about it now, I realized I wasn’t sad because I was
losing Damien in particular; I only got depressed because I felt
betrayed. My life was perfectly fine without him, especially with
the twins around.

She handed me a cup of coffee. We shouldn’t
have been drinking coffee so close to bedtime, but caffeine lost
its effect on me years ago.

“So have you thought about what your next job
is going to be?” she asked.

“The twins actually offered me
one.”

She took a sip from her cup. “Really? The
three of you are getting awfully chummy for sex
buddies.”

Sex buddies. I forgot to remind myself we were
nothing more than that. Making waffles, becoming their employee,
thinking about spending the next night warm and cuddled up in their
arms. Sex buddies—we’re just having fun with each other until we
get bored. Me, to simply rebound back from my chain of failure
boyfriends, and them because they liked to sleep around.

My mind shot back to this morning when they
told me about telling them apart. Did that make me special in any
way?

I laughed to cover up my uneasiness. “They’re
decent enough human beings to feel sorry about causing me to lose
my job.”

“Meanwhile you better start looking for
another one. Because when one of them gets bored, it’ll suck to be
you.”

She stirred her coffee and beamed as if her
words hadn’t felt like daggers to my heart.

“Yeah… I should.” Eager to change the topic, I
said, “You know what? I fancy myself another movie.”

“I’ve watched every single one of those on
that rack.”

“Don’t care. How about this one?” I said,
choosing a DVD without really looking.

She scowled. “That show is so old. I’m
subscribed to Netflix, you know?”

“Oh, yeah.” I slipped the cover back onto the
shelf. “I thought maybe watching it on DVD would be like old
times.”

“Stupidest excuse ever.” She started scanning
through her movies on her laptop. It was connected to her TV so we
had a nice, large screen to watch from. “Now get your sexy butt
over here and help me pick a movie.”

We ended up picking a horror show. They
weren’t my cup of tea but might as well. The suspense managed to
get my mind off the twins, if only for an hour.

Tyrone, my new driver, dropped me off at my
new office. I had myself completely neatened up today—as neat as I
possibly could have been borrowing Kristie’s clothes and
bathroom.

My visit to her house ended up becoming an
unplanned sleepover. I fell asleep toward the end of the
movie—movies were so difficult to stay awake to—and she was too
sweet to wake me up and kick my butt out the door in the middle of
the night.

I woke up the next day to Riley calling me on
the phone, asking me to show up at the workplace in two
hours.

I had to scramble for clothes. Kristie was a
size skinnier than me so we had some trouble finding some
professional-looking clothes that actually fit. I had to settle for
a very dull gray skirt and a plain white blouse.

I was going to kill those twins.

I was thankful for the new job, but they
could’ve given me at least a day’s notice. What if some unfortunate
circumstance prevented me from waking up to my phone’s ringing and
I arrived to the office late? My new boss would hate my guts and
I’d have to suffer hell for the next few months, at
least.

A busty girl tended to the reception. She was
chewing gum—I didn’t think it benefited the company's image
much.

“Uh, hi,” I said, “I’m Scarlet, I’m supposed
to be…” Then I realized that I didn’t even know what my job
position was. I blushed. “One of my contacts asked me to report
here.”

She looked up and gave me a once over. “Ms.
Fontaine? You’re the new secretary. Our CEO is waiting for you at
the top floor.”

The secretary? So I was being reduced to doing
administrative, boring work. My skill sets were equipped for better
things. Still, with the economy like that, I didn’t have much to
complain about.

Throughout the whole journey to the top floor,
the receptionist chewed on her gum. It sounded like fingers
scratching a chalkboard to my ears. I wanted to smack her head so
the gum would pop right out.

I did some rough research on the company using
Google this morning. The company was called Treston Holdings. It
was a subsidiary company of Crawford, though not many people knew
that. Its profit margins were phenomenal, owning one of the top
hotel chains in the world.

“Mr. Crawford is a busy man; I’m surprised
he’s freed his schedule to meet you.”

Mr. Crawford? Wait a minute.

When the wooden doors of the CEO’s office
swung open, I stood there agape in disbelief.

They lied to me!

Riley stood there looking charming yet
obnoxious in his business suit. “Scarlet, I was expecting
you.”

I smiled, trying to hold my rage in. I didn’t
want to punch my new boss in front of the receptionist. “Mr.
Crawford. I definitely wasn’t expecting you.”

“Thanks, Jess, you can leave us,” he
said.

“Yes, sir,” she replied. She strutted off and
closed the door behind us, still chewing her gum.

I turned back to face the devil in front of
me. He had a cocky grin on, seemingly happy that he had outsmarted
me. Those lying cheats! “I thought I said we were not to have any
contact in the workplace? You promised.”

“Did I? Ryan and I changed our
minds.”

I clenched my teeth together. “What about the
paparazzi I talked about? You’re the Crawford brothers. There’s
protection for you guys. That big mansion with the gates, lawyers,
and the already preconceived notion that you switch girls like you
change socks.” I pointed to my chest. “What about me? I’m just some
ordinary girl and if the press finds out we’re this close, I’ll be
humiliated after you ditch me on the roadside.”

He sighed. “We’re not going to ditch you,
Scarlet.”

My hand fell to my side and my heart tightened
as I heard him say that. I didn’t think those words would affect me
so much. But he most likely meant them in a different way, like
they’d let me off lightly and make sure the paparazzi didn’t
completely destroy my life first.

Yes, that was it. It didn’t have anything to
do with them not leaving me.

“Even then, I don’t want to go home every
night to a house crowded with those ‘reporters’,” I said, my tone
returning to normal and sounding less like a crazy, infuriated
person.

“You don’t have to. You can meet up with us at
our place after work. We’ll prepare a room for you. I’ll ask Gordon
to move your things over and—“

“You’re asking me to move in?”

“I suppose I am.”

“Isn’t that for people with a… a closer
relationship than us?”

“Well, under ordinary circumstances, yes. But
it seems like a more practical option.”

I rubbed a palm over my forehead. “A more
practical option would be finding me a company that isn’t directly
related to you.”

“But we really want you around and
close.”

Heat rose to my cheeks. I reminded myself that
he meant that in sex-buddy terms. I scanned the room. “Speaking of
which, where is Ryan?”

“He leads the management division of this
company. It’s at a different block.”

“Oh, I thought you couldn’t stand to be
apart.”

“We need some alone time, too. Sometimes, I
just want to have you all to myself.” Without me noticing, Riley
had come close. He bent down and kissed me gently.

All my frustration and confusion seeped away
like liquid. My knees turned soft and buckled under my weight;
Riley held me up with his strong, muscular arms. I wrapped my arms
around him and buried my hand in his hair.

His kiss became deeper and rougher, and soon
it felt like he was fighting to take control of all of
me.

An erection began to form and pressed against
my thigh. The sensations of our last sexual encounter flooded back
in. I wanted him in me again.

“Riley,” I said as we took a
breath.

“You’re so beautiful, Scarlet.”

A knock on the door interrupted us.

Frantically, he pushed me away from him and
straightened his shirt. “Come in!”

I darted to the side cabinet and pretended to
sort through files.

A mousy, middle-aged woman walked in. “Mr.
Crawford? These are the documents you asked for.”

“Put them on my desk,” he replied.

We gave each other side-glances as she
sauntered across the room. He poured himself some water in a fancy
glass cup and took a sip.

She picked up a document and showed it to him.
“These are the info sheets for last year’s data, and this one
is—“

“Yes, yes, I got it. You can
leave.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Oh, on second thought, Scarlet here is new.
Can you show her around and tell her what she’s supposed to do as a
secretary?”

He had no idea how deflated his suggestion
left me. I was hoping for a continuation of our
rendezvous.

“No problem,” the mousy lady said. “Follow me,
Ms. Scarlet.”

She led me out of the office.

So much for being more than sex buddies.
Kristie was right; there wasn't supposed to be any commitment in
this relationship.

***

My job as a secretary turned out to be pretty
basic. All I had to do was keep track of Riley's schedule, answer
his calls, type some emails that followed common protocol, and take
care of Riley's needs, like food and drinks.

I was quite certain that those 'needs' of
Riley’s include something more taboo than those elementary
aspects.