Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (79 page)

“It’s a little different for a
woman.
 
You’ve never lived with a
woman, have you?”

He hesitated.
 
“Well…”

And then the phone conversation with her
stalker came flooding back to her, filling her stomach with lead.
 
That creepy voice asking her if she knew
Red had been engaged before.
 
She’d
thought Anderson must be lying, but Red’s hesitation told her otherwise.
 

Nicole tried to control her sense of
anxiety.
 
“You told me no woman has
ever even been to your house.”

“I mean, technically that’s true,” Red
replied.
 
“This house I’m in now is
only about a year old, and no one I’ve dated has ever been here.”

“So you basically lied to me,” she
said.
 
“You used a technicality to
make me think I was special.”

“I wasn’t trying to lie.
 
I was just making an offhand comment at
the time—I didn’t think I was in a court of law.
 
And it was the truth, by the way.”

“So I’ll ask you again.
 
Have you ever lived with a woman?”

Another pause.
 
“Yeah.
 
I have.”

“For how long?”
 
Her hand tightened on her phone until
she thought she might break it.

“I don’t know, exactly.
 
Probably about eight months.”

“Eight months…”

“Listen, Nicole, we can talk about this
later.
 
I don’t think the phone is
the best way to have this kind of—“

“And were you ever engaged before me?”

She heard him sigh deeply through the
phone.
 
“I want to have this
conversation in person.”

She slapped her hand on the wall.
 
“Just answer the question.
 
Why are you trying to avoid answering
me?
 
What are you hiding?”

“Hold on just a minute,” he said, and she
could tell that beneath his controlled voice, he was seething.
 
“I’m not hiding anything.
 
You never asked me any of this before.”

“I’m asking now.”
  

“You don’t get to make demands of me.”

“I’m not some stupid girl you can bully,”
she told him.
 
“Have you been
engaged before me or not?”

“Yes,” he said, “I have.”

Tears overflowed and spilled down her
cheeks.
 
“I wish you would have told
me some of this.
 
I thought…I
thought I was special to you.”

“You are,” he said. “Nicole…”

“I have to go.
 
And don’t come to pick me up.”

“Nicole, don’t do this.”

 
She hesitated.
 
“I’m so angry at you right now.
 
I feel like a fool.
 
Do you know how I found out about your
other engagements?”

“I have no idea.
 
It was never publicized.”

“That Anderson person—the one who
called my phone and left that voicemail you listened to.”

“You spoke to that guy?”
 
Now it was Red who sounded shocked and
appalled.

“He called me last night and—“

“Why would you speak to some guy you
don’t even know?”

“It was late at night and I was taken by
surprise.”

Red laughed harshly on the other
end.
 
“You obviously had a good,
long talk.
 
Is he with The Rag or
one of those tabloids?”

“I really don’t know who he is.
 
I hung up on him.”

“But not before he told you about my
engagements.
 
Did you tell him
anything about me—about us?”

“No.”
 
She shook her head.
 
Suddenly, she was confused,
defensive.
 

“I need to be able to trust you,” he
said.
 
“If you’re talking to the
tabloids…”

She put a hand to her head and closed her
eyes.
 
“I swear I’m not.
 
He called me and started telling me
these things about you.”

“What else did he say?”

“Nothing, but he hinted there was
more.
 
And then he started talking
about Hannibal Lector and Silence of the Lambs.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.
 
I’m coming over there to pick you
up.
 
Be downstairs in ten minutes.”

“Ten?
 
I thought you said half an hour.”

“We wasted too much time arguing.
 
Ten minutes, Nicole.
 
I’m serious.”

***

When she got in his car, Red leaned in
and gave her a long, deep kiss on the lips that almost—almost made her
not care about the two engagements, their argument, the tabloids, any of it.

His mouth was warm and his lips tender,
and she could tell from the way he touched her that he cared about her.
 
And then he started driving, as usual at
high speed, his jaw set, eyes glued to the road.
 

“Do you still want to marry me?” he asked
her.

“Yes.”
 
She said it without hesitation and knew
it was true.

“Good.”
 
The car hugged a turn and the tires
squealed a little.

“Maybe we should slow down.”

“You want to push the wedding date back?”
he asked.
 
“Because I didn’t think
we’d even set a date yet.”

“I meant, maybe you should slow the car
down.
 
I don’t want to end up a
paraplegic before the big day.”

He glanced at her, saw she was nervous,
and immediately took his foot off the gas.
 
“I like to drive fast.”

“I noticed.”

“Nicole, we need to get some things
straight.”

“I agree.”

He glanced at her again.
 
“I’ve lived a very big, flashy life for
a lot of years.
 
You’ve seen the
articles, the interviews, the stuff on the web.”

“I know, and I don’t really care about
that stuff.
 
It’s the stuff about
me, and my family—and your secrets—“

“Let me finish.”
 
He took a deep breath.
 
“It’s not possible to separate my life
and my history from yours anymore.
 
All of the people that used to write only about me—they’re now
going to focus on both of us.”

Nicole gripped her purse tightly as his
words hit home.
 
“You need to give
me some time to get used to this,” she told him.
 
“A strange man called my phone—I
have no idea how he even got my number—and told me things about you that
nobody else knows.”

“Yeah.
 
I’m going to deal with that.
 
I want you to forward me that clown’s
number.”

“Really?”

“Really.
 
In fact, do that now.”

She took out her phone and texted the
number to Red’s cell.
 

They drove a few more minutes in
silence.
 
Outside, the sky was
getting lighter and the skyline of Manhattan was majestic, towering
overhead.
 
She was starting to dread
having to go into the office and deal with all the judgments and hatred that
people directed her way since the news about her and Red had come out.

 
“I’m sorry I’ve been so dramatic,” she
said, finally.
 

“You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“I’m also a little freaked out that you
were engaged twice already.”

He nodded.
 
“I can understand that.
 
But just so you know, one of those
engagements was when I was in college.”

“College.
 
Why would you get engaged as a college
student?”

“Why? Because I was an idiot. And I was
young.”

Nicole shook her head.
 
Then she grinned.
 
“I’ve only just graduated college, so
who am I to talk.”

He looked at her and smiled his winning,
magazine cover smile.
 
“That’s true.
 
You are a little on the young side.
 
But you’re different—special.”

“Right.
 
Lucky number three.”

He sighed again.
 
“I suppose I deserve that.”

“So who was engagement number two?”

“Number two was just a bad idea.
 
The woman I lived with for eight months.
 
We were never any good for each other.”

“So, let me get this straight.
 
Your judgment is pretty much terrible
when it comes to women.”

“Usually, but not in this case,” he
replied.

“How can you be sure?” she asked him.

“Because, you feel it, don’t you?”
 
He glanced over at her once more.
 
When his eyes connected with hers, even
for just that brief second or two, there was a shot of electricity that
radiated up her spine and warmed her body.

“I do feel it,” she admitted.

“Don’t forget that,” he told her.
 
“Don’t let everyone else make you forget
what we have.”

Soon, they were at the office and Red
parted ways with her, after a long drawn out kiss that further reminded Nicole
of what the two of them shared.

She got in and went up to her floor,
making herself a piping hot cup of coffee and grabbing herself one of the
complimentary bagels that were usually available if you got into the office
early enough.
 
Back at her desk, she
chomped away at her little breakfast and sipped her coffee, relaxing for the
first time since realizing that the entire world knew her business.

Just as she was starting to feel a little
better about life, Edward stopped by her desk.
 

Nicole looked up at him, startled, since
Edward rarely had any reason to talk to her.
 
Almost all of her assignments came
through Remi, and other miscellaneous discussions tended to be with Glen.
 

“Can we talk in my office for a moment?”
Edward asked, his expression giving nothing away about what was in store for
her.

“Yes, absolutely,” she said, wiping her
hands with a tiny napkin and immediately getting out of her chair.

“Feel free to finish your breakfast if
you need to,” he said.

“No, I’m fine,” she smiled nervously.

They walked through the maze of cubicles
together, Edward slightly in the lead, and then they reached his office.
 
“After you,” he said, letting her in and
closing the door behind them.
 
“Take
a seat.”

She sat down opposite his desk.
 
He moved to sit down as well, fixing her
with a long, enigmatic look, before finally starting to talk.
 
“Nicole, I’m going to be frank with
you.
 
I’ve spoken at length with
everyone in our team about this, particularly with Remi Danvers.
 
And we don’t feel as though you’re a
good fit to work as assistant to the art director at this time.”

Nicole nodded, trying to keep the emotion
from her face.
 
“I know that people
are unhappy with how things have come about between Red and—“

He put up his hand.
 
“We’re not going there.”

“But obviously this is because I’m seeing
Red.
 
People think I’m getting
preferential treatment.”

“You have to understand my position,
Nicole.
 
Red Jameson is the CEO of
this company and I’m an employee.
 
I’m his employee and I follow his directions.
 
However, I still need to make sure my
team functions effectively, and this…situation…is causing the team to become
dysfunctional.”

“I’m sorry.”

“From now on, you’ll be working with me,
personally,” he said.

She was stunned.
 
“What will my duties be?”

“You’ll sit in on meetings, take notes,
handle certain kinds of correspondence, call people for me and relay
messages.
 
And plenty more.”

“Like an administrative assistant,”
Nicole said, trying to keep the disappointment from her voice.

He shrugged.
 
“Your title won’t change, nor will your
pay.
 
You’ll simply be working for
me instead of Remi.”