Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (71 page)

There was my cue. No, say no, Aria. It
would then be easily over with and I could probably escape and not have to deal
with this whole ordeal. But I froze, unable to say a single word. I made a
feeble attempt at shaking my head but I doubt it looked like anything other
than an involuntary shudder.

“You seem pretty alright, Miss… Aria, was
it?” I heard Zayden’s voice.

“Yes, Aria Roberts. She is one of our best
and brightest,” Mr. Weber said proudly. “In fact, I am not sure you know – you
have thousands of employees after all – but she is already advancing her career
in banking by working as a teller at South National.”

“Ah,” Zayden said, flashing me a look of
pure amusement. “That’s where I know that face from! It all makes sense now. I
am glad to hear young talent like yourself works for me, Ms. Roberts.”

There was a definitely intonation in his
voice – especially a stress in the words
talent
and
works
, like
he wasn’t quite talking about my skills in banking.

“Since you were the least eager to answer
my questions, I suspect you will be the most honest in your responses.” He
looked at Mr. Weber. “Should I proceed?”

“Of course! Ask her anything!” he
exclaimed.

“These questions are basically a screening
of how much your students have learned before I go on to speak about my own
experiences. I want to tailor them to what is relevant to your students. As
such, complete honesty about the material covered is essential.”

“What do you want to know?” I asked, still
looking at Mr. Weber.

He shook his head. “No, no, not here. It
would be best if I could speak with you briefly in private, for maybe fifteen
minutes, so you feel more comfortable answering with honesty. My questions will
pertain to this class too, and perhaps there are things you wouldn’t want your
professor and fellow classmates to know.”

“I am perfectly comfortable right here,
thanks,” I snapped, unable to handle it anymore. Hopefully nobody caught the
bitterness in my voice, and even if they did, there was no way they could guess
what it was about. “You can ask me anything,” I added more evenly. “And you
will get a honest answer. There is nothing I have to say about Mr. Weber or
this class that he wouldn’t like to hear.”

“Be that as it may,” he pushed.
“Participation bias is a serious psychological effect, and to get the best out
of all of our times here, we must have an audience in private. Is that okay,
Mr. Weber?”

Now he was trying to be professional.

“Of course it is!” Weber exclaimed. “Aria,
why don’t you show Mr. Sinclair the conference room and answer any questions he
may have. Meanwhile, I will prep the rest of the class on questions we may have
for him in turn and make a list. You can add yours to it after you return.”

“Uh.” I was trapped. There was no way to get
out of this without raising suspicion or getting into Mr. Weber’s bad books,
which was something I simply could not afford. Zayden’s little game was not
worth my grades and academic performance. It was in my best interest to suck it
up and show him the “
conference room.
”

“Fine,” I said finally. “Let’s go then,
Mr. Sinclair.” I added emphasis on those last words.

“After you, Ms. Roberts.” He looked
thrilled. Why wouldn’t he? After successfully ignoring him at his own bank, he
had found a way to get to me by showing up at the one place where he knew I had
to keep my cool. It must have been easy for him, calling up the Econ department
head and asking to make a guest lecture. He knew what classes I was taking from
when I was discussing schoolwork with him so he must have just easily dropped
the name of the most relevant class I was in and the department head must had
exploded in delight. I was starting to feel lightheaded just from thinking
about it.

As soon as we were out of earshot, Zayden
started chuckling. “How was that?” he whispered.

I said absolutely nothing until we reached
the nearest empty conference room. When we walked in, I closed the blinds and
locked the door so nobody could hear us.

“Really?” he said with a smirk when I
turned to look at him. “Here? Now? I’m flattered, sweetheart, but I suppose
they are waiting for us back in your classroom.”

My face went red from a combination of
anger and embarrassment. I wanted to punch him, or hurt him in some way for
pulling this crap. But for some reason, words just choked up in my mouth as I
watched his face light up. Why did Zayden Sinclair have this effect on me? I
closed my eyes and took a deep breath, resigned to not let myself be charmed by
his ways once again.

After gathering a considerable amount of
courage, I said, “What do you think you’re trying to pull here? Really Zayden?
Don’t you think you have crossed a line by showing up in my class?”

The hint of amusement was still in his
eyes when he said, “Don’t you think it’s a little egotistical of you to assume
I came here for you?”

Oh shit. If it was possible at all, my
face turned even redder than before, and I wanted to scream or cry or do
something completely ridiculous to make all of this go away.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply–”

“Aria, just stop. Of course I am here for
you. I’ve been trying to call you every single day! And I try to catch you at
the bank, but you rush to the other direction at the very sight of me as though
I am some kind of a monster. You left me no choice, did you?”

“Yes, I did,” I said, the anger replacing
the momentary humiliation I had felt a few seconds ago. “I left you the choice
to leave me alone. Why is this so hard to comprehend?”

“First of all, that’s not really a choice.
It’s not like I can just control wanting to see you.” He looked at me like I
was a three-year-old who failed to understand basic concepts of human
interactions. “And second, it’s not what our contract is about, is it? The
whole idea was that you spend as much time with me as I require, no questions
asked.”

“You were also not supposed to have an
attractive wife up your sleeve, if we’re going to nitpick about the stupid
contract. And since when is stalking me into school a part of the deal? I don’t
remember singing up for that.”

“Well, you didn’t complete your end of the
deal that you signed up for so I just improvised,” he said as though it were an
obvious answer and I was being ridiculous for even questioning what he was
doing. As though it were normal and excepted of him to show up here like this and
I was a moron for thinking he wouldn’t.

“Fine,” I said, completely frustrated at
this point. The only way this was going to be over was if I just went along
with it and let him feel like he had won. “Fine. You’re here, great. What do
you want from me?”

He walked forward with a grin on his face
and his mouth came very close to mine. For a few insane moments, I forgot where
we were and what we were doing. All I could see were his perfect lips so close
to mine and if I only so much as tilted my head half an inch, we would be
kissing. The thought of that sent tingles down my spine and I was close to
giving in when he said in a very low voice, “You know very well what I want,
Aria. It’s what you want to. You need to stop denying it.”

That brought me back to reality and made
me jump. “Stop!” I yelled. “Stop trying to tell me what I want, stop trying to
tell me what’s right for me, stop trying to tell me who I can or cannot speak
to. I have survived a perfectly wonderful twenty years of my life without a man
telling me how best to live it and more than anything else in the world, I
would like to continue to do so. You need to back the hell off, Zayden! My life
is none of your god-damn business.”

Those words seemed to have been the
equivalent of slapping him across the face as he took a few visible steps
backwards and looked at me in a completely different way, with something that
resembled very close to loathing.

“Really? Is that what you want? For me to
back the fuck off?” All humor had disappeared from his face and I felt a shiver
of fear at the look he was giving me. Had I finally done it? Offended him
enough that he would just step aside?

“I didn’t mean to sound hurtful,” I said
more gently. “But I have spent my whole life being independent and this,
whatever this is with the controlling, this aspect of our contract is
suffocating me, Zayden. It all seems unfair – especially after I saw your wife
in your office like that the other day – like you think I am some kind of a
commodity you have acquired. Like a pet that you expect will do your bidding
without asking any questions. Somehow, when all of this started, you had
convinced me that you had respect for me. That is obviously not the case here.
And it’s really suffocating me.”

“You already said the part about suffocating
you,” he said softly. “And for the last time, nothing is real between Gina and
I. You are right, I do have respect for you, which is why I wouldn’t lie to you
through my teeth like this. But you have made your point. You want me to back
off, I will back off. The contract is still valid, so if you don’t want to pay
me a huge lump of money at once, don’t break any of the rules.”

Then he turned around and walked away. I
stood there and took deep breaths for a few minutes before following him into
the classroom. When I did, it was like a completely different Zayden in there.
Gone was the teasing, joking man who had come here to mess with me. He was
stern and serious now, discussing his business strictly, and not even making
eye-contact with me. I was so confused and irrationally bothered by it that I
actually found myself raising my hand to answer a few of the questions he
addressed to the class, but it was like I was not even in the room.

Chapter 4

Zayden

Things had become very different since the
day I had gone to Aria’s school. Upset by her defiance, I had stopped pushing
for her attention, but that had caused a remarkable affect on my mood. I felt
cranky and impatient all the time and not a single interaction with anybody had
gone by without my snapping.

I was at the dinner table with my mother
and Gina and whatever they were chattering about was making my blood boil.

“What do you think, darling? You haven’t
spoken a single word all evening,” my mother said sweetly. “Should I try
acupuncture? Gina seems to swear by it.”

“Sure,” I mumbled and went back to
nibbling on my shrimp and mashed
potatoes.

“For God’s sakes, Zayden,” my mother
snapped, seeming to finally lose her temper. “Make the slightest bit of an
effort. How much time do you get to spend with family? Do you think it’s fair
that on the odd night that we all get to sit down and have a meal together, you
are not even really here?”

“What do you want me to say?” I snapped
back. “You two seem to be doing fine on your own. I have nothing to contribute
to the conversation. Leave me alone, mom.”

“
Hey, don
’t speak to your mom like that!” Gina gasped. “She is
only trying to spend some quality time with her son.”

“Nobody asked you for your fucking
opinion,” I snapped at her too. “I am done eating.” I through my napkin down
and stormed out of the kitchen.

No matter where I went, I couldn’t find
peace. At work I was forced to look at Aria all day and not be able to approach
her. At home it was the constant whining of two women who somehow seemed to have
vowed to make my life difficult. Maybe now was a good time to take a vacation…

There was a knock on my door. I ignored it
hoping that would make it stop but I had no such luck.

“Open the door, Zay,” my mother finally
said. “This is really important.”

“It’s open, just come inside.”
I sighed.

She walked in and sat across from my desk.

“Are you feeling alright, sweetheart?” The
look of genuine concern on her face took me aback. “You seem to have been very
disturbed by something these past few weeks. I know you have the weight of the
world on your shoulders, and whatever it is that is bothering you, you know you
can really talk to your mother.”

“Do I?” I glared at her. “It has never
quite seemed like it.”

Her eyes started to moisten but she held
back. I had never seen her this way before. The only times I had seen her cry
were full-blown episodes where she wailed until she manipulated me into doing
whatever she wanted.

“I know you think I am a horrible mother.
You always have. Even before your father passed away, and you learned about
things that I wish you never had to hear.” She looked at me with a kind of rare
intensity for a long while before speaking again. “And you are right.”

“What’s that?” I was surprised to hear
what she was saying. It was not like her. Unless this was some new twisted plot
intended to manipulate me.

“You are right. I could have been a better
mother and a better wife. I had you when I was too young. Married your dad at
an age when I should have focused on my career and living my life, without
understanding the repercussions of being a wife. He wanted a child right away
and I loved him so much, I went with it. Without warning, my youth was suddenly
over and I became responsible for a whole new life at a time when I wasn’t sure
I was doing a very good job of taking care of my own. Your dad had a huge
business to run, so even though he had wanted a child, he didn’t have the time
to care for it. Obviously, I had to quit my job – I was working towards being a
chartered accountant – and then I started getting lonely and distant with your
dad always working. I started finding comfort in other things, other men, and a
part of me felt like I had given up so much, that I deserved to stray a little
bit. Subconsciously, I blamed you for some of the things I had to give up, but
it was never your fault. As you grew older, your dad started spending more time
with you and going to all your football games and you two bonded while I stayed
home and made dinner. So it always looked to you like he was more of a parent
to you than I was, but he never helped me raise you, Zayden.”