The Billionaire's Elusive Lover (5 page)

She saw the woman across the street that looked exactly like a younger version of Edith and waved her free hand. When they were all in front of the enormous steel and glass building, she smiled and stuck out her hand. “Are you Nancy?” she asked eagerly.

“Yes. And this is Jonathan,” she replied, shaking Helen’s hand while indicating her small son who was standing beside her, an excited look on his face.

The little boy’s chubby face broke out into a grin, his excitement almost palpable. “Is Gramma really going to be there? Will she be free? She’s never free,” he said, a flit of uncertainty crossing over his youthful features.

Helen laughed, enjoying the little boy’s enthusiasm. “I just got off the phone with her and she’s only expecting me. I told her to expect a surprise but I don’t think she knows you’ll be there too. You’re going to make her day!” Helen fluffed his hair and he looked up at his mother happily.

Helen was charmed. Bending down to his level, she smiled brightly and nodded down at his neat and tidy attire. “I can tell that you went through a great deal of effort to make today special for her,” Helen said, indicating his freshly pressed shirt and tie.

“She’s my gramma!” he said as if that were the most important job in the whole world. “I have to look nice for her birthday,” he explained with absolute seriousness. And according to this little man, the job of being a grandmother was probably the most important role to fill. Helen admired children for their black and white view of the world. Their perceptions were so pure and simple, it made being an adult look un-necessarily complex.

“Do you think she’ll like chocolate cake?” Helen asked, bending down, only vaguely aware of her own mother coming to a breathless stop beside her. All her attention remained focused on the little man puffing up with pride that he might know something special about the woman they were going to visit.

“It’s her favorite!” he exclaimed. Then he grinned widely. “And I like it too.”

The three women laughed.

Helen scrunched up her nose, looking at the boy conspiratorially. “Okay, well, let’s go inside and talk to Mick and see if he’ll let us sneak by him one more time. Are you ready?”

She took a moment to greet and hug her mother, introducing Nancy to her mother and vice versa. They all gave a conspiratorial smile to each other when Helen explained that Edith’s boss was out of the country for at least a few more hours.

The five of them nodded and they marched inside. Along the way, Helen turned to Elisia, her mother, and smiled her thanks for joining them. “You’re going to love Edna.”

Elisia grinned right back at her daughter, giving her a small hug. “I’m sure I will. And from everything you’ve told me about her and her horrible boss, I’m glad I was able to be here today. She sounds like she really needs a break.”

Helen stifled her defense of Alec, but just barely. She could just imagine her mother’s curiosity if Helen had countered the “horrible” adjective. Had Helen really painted him as that bad in her conversations with her mother? She’d described how Edna worked long hours and was afraid to ask for the day off for her birthday, but Helen also knew that she wasn’t very objective when it came to discussing Alec. She’d been careful to leave off a description of the handsome man, but possibly some of her anger over his last order came through in her discussions with her mom.

Inside the building, Mick immediately smiled as Helen approached. “What trouble are you going to cause today, Ms. Helen?” he asked and leaned forward to smile down at Jonathan.

The little boy knew his cue. “Today’s my gramma’s birthday!” he exclaimed.

Mick chuckled at his eager explanation for his presence. “And who’s your gramma?”

Helen grinned. “Edna’s up in the tower and can’t get off today. We brought her chocolate cake and a ‘Happy 21
^st
Birthday’ cake. Think you could look the other way?”

Mick looked warily at the small cluster of people. “ Where’s the boss man today?”

Helen’s smile instantly disappeared, worry and concern replacing her excitement. “You didn’t get into any trouble last time, did you?” She’d definitely have a word with that arrogant man if he’d said anything to Mick.

Mick waved his hand and shuffled his feet slightly. “Nah, he hasn’t said a word,” Mick replied. “I’m not sure what you said to him but thank you.”

Helen was glad no repercussions had fallen on either Mick or Edna for her little adventure last week. She suppressed the disappointment she felt at the lost opportunity to confront him. She denied that she had been looking forward to an excuse to see him again. That was ridiculous she argued with herself for a moment. The man was demented with his own power and arrogance, thinking he could just order someone around and they would simply fall into those orders. Good grief!

Mick laughed and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it this time. Edna already called down to set you up with a visitor’s badge.” He looked behind Helen to the others. “She didn’t mention there would be others. “What’s going on?” he asked.

Helen smiled brightly. “Today is Edna’s sixty-sixth birthday. We have a chocolate cake for her.” She turned to the others in the group. “This is Nancy, Edna’s daughter and her son, Jonathan. And my mother. We’re all going to surprise her with a birthday cake.”

Mick laughed, delighted. “Hold on. Let me get Joe to cover the front desk and I’ll come on up with you. Edna’s a good woman and she didn’t look too happy this morning.” He immediately picked up the phone and dialed a number, arranging for his friend to cover the front desk for the next fifteen minutes. Joe arrived quickly and Mick picked up his walkie talkie and waved the group to the elevators.

In the elevator, four more people heard what was going on and all wanted to help with the surprise, each of them experienced help from Edna in the past and wanting to celebrate this event with her. As they moved down the executive hallway, the large, boisterous group attracted more attention as others popped their heads out of their offices to find out what all the noise was about. As soon as they heard whose birthday it was, they immediately joined in with the fun.

By the time they arrived at Edna’s office, there were twenty people gathered behind Helen as she lit the “21” candle on top of the chocolate cake. They were all standing outside the office, Helen’s intent was to surprise Helen at the last moment.

The large group couldn’t be very quiet so when they actually entered the large reception area where Edna’s desk stood, the older woman was staring curiously at the doorway, pen poised over the paper she’d been working on. As soon as she heard the loud, “Happy Birthday” song, she gasped in surprise, her face breaking out with a huge grin. At the sight of her daughter and grandson, she was thrilled, standing up to receive her grandson’s enthusiastic hug as he raced into her arms. She was grinning from ear to ear, Jonathan in her arms and tears in her eyes as the song wound its way to the end, Helen holding the cake up to Edna so she could blow out the candle.

The raucous clapping made Edna laugh, shaking her head in excited embarrassment and a fruitless effort to quiet everyone down.

“What did you wish for?” someone from the back called out?

Edna shook her head. “No way. Can’t tell. That ruins the birthday wish,” she said, hugging her grandson closely for a moment. She was beaming with pleasure and obviously thrilled that everyone had taken time out of their busy schedules to acknowledge her birthday. She looked down at the small cake and then at the large group. “How on earth is everyone going to get a slice of that?”

Helen waved that concern aside. “Don’t worry about a thing,” she said. “Just grab a fork from the kitchen and everyone can have a bite. That way, your birthday wish will come true.”

The group gladly joined in and within moments, sterling silver forks were obtained from the executive kitchen and passed around to everyone and then the cake made its way through the group with everyone taking a bite, laughing at the concept and the unprecedented event. Almost everyone was saying how they’d never had a birthday cake at work before and Helen was stunned that anyone could survive with so little workday entertainment.

“What the hell is going on here?” a deep voice said from the back of the room.

Helen looked around and groaned inwardly, immediately identifying the owner’s voice. Alec. How was it possible that the two times she’d snuck in here, he’d come back early from his meetings? Was fate trying to tease her about this man? Edna swore he was regimented to the point of ridiculous levels. What kind of luck was Helen bringing upon this company?

She turned and watched as the whole group instantly tensed. One by one, people walked out of Edna’s office in silence, their head bowed as if they were trying to hide or ignore the temporary happiness that had come their way during working hours. Some dared to nod at Alec but without the return nod, they too bowed their heads and walked faster.

Edna was horrified, Nancy was quickly trying to round Jonathan up, Elisia was patting Edna’s shoulder ineffectually and Helen was simply furious. She had a clear view of Alec while the room cleared out and she glared at him until the employees were all dispersed.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, hands on hips and facing him full on, obviously ready to do battle.

Alec couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A demolished mess of something he suspected was chocolate had been placed in his hands moments before everyone had dispersed, his secretary looked as if she were about to keel over with fear, two other women and a child were either staring or glaring at him and the woman for which his security team had been searching for seven days was now facing him as if he were the devil and she was his secretary’s savior angel. If he weren’t so furious that she’d escaped his team’s efforts for the past week, he would laugh at the idea that this tiny little woman was standing up to him despite all the things he could do to her and her family.

As it was, his eyes traveled down her figure, draped in a crazy colored outfit that stopped at her mid-thigh, the loose dress made up of every color in the rainbow in some sort of psychedelic pattern. On someone else, the dress would look ridiculous, overwhelming the wearer. But on Helen, it just looked…right he admitted grudgingly.

Her lustrous hair was barely tamed with a scarf of orange and her ears dangled with something a middle eastern harem woman would be proud of wearing. Her sandals were nothing more than a flat bottom with leather strings tied up across her feet and ankles that traveled up as if they were some sort of boot without the leather top. And his body reacted immediately, which was why he uttered a curse under his breath before walking into the office to dump the remains of the chocolate birthday cake in the trash.

In answer to her question, he wiped his hands disdainfully before turning to glare down at her. “I believe I work here. As do the rest of the people that had been loitering in this office when I arrived. Care to explain?” he growled out to the still furious beauty who had haunted his dreams every night since he’d met her.

Helen wasn’t intimidated although she knew that Jonathan was clutching his mother’s leg tightly and Edna was about to burst into tears. It wasn’t right to be this mean to someone on her birthday and she was just the person to let him know it. “It’s Edna’s birthday, you insensitive brute!” she said, poking a finger into his stomach. “Why can’t you be nice, and just a wee bit sensitive every once in a while? Can’t you see that you’ve ruined Edna’s birthday celebration and her grandson is now terrified of you? Or do you simply not care?” She was practically yelling at him when she was finished, so worked up at his attitude that she didn’t care what reaction he had to her words.

Helen wished she hadn’t touched him and it had nothing to do with the fact that her finger hurt after coming into contact with the steel muscles in his stomach. Anger, she told herself. That was good. Desire? That would be bad. Maintain the anger and get out of here as quickly as possible.

Her mind gave her instructions but her body moved an inch closer. “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere over France right about now?” She smelled him, and wanted to get closer. Not a good reaction, she told herself. Move away. Run, she told her feet. But they stayed put, not moving even an inch even as her nose inhaled his masculine scent, noting his spicy aftershave and something that was just….male. And sexy.

Alec leaned toward her, forcing her back an inch. “I was able to get an earlier takeoff. But that’s irrelevant,” he snapped, unable to believe he’d actually explained himself to her. “What’s important here is that you’ve once again disrupted my staff.”

That worked, taking her out of the spell his scent had put her under. Anger returned. She continued to poke him in the chest, emphasizing each word as she spoke, refusing to back down no matter how furious his expression became. “Listen here, buddy. Today is Edna’s birthday and you’re an awful employer for not giving her the day off to celebrate with her grandson and daughter. And to top it off, you’re scaring her grandson,” she growled, hearing Jonathan’s whimpers behind her. “And that’s unacceptable. So make nice and find some small portion of humanity in your heart, if you still have one,” she mocked, “and be a gentleman for a small fraction of the day!”

Alec could not believe he was being reprimanded by this tiny woman. Leaders of industry quaked in their shoes when he showed the smallest interest in their company. Rulers of countries called him to ask advice and women threw themselves at him constantly in an effort to gain his attention. And she was yelling at him? Unbelievable!