The Billionaire's Elusive Lover (8 page)

A bad feeling seeped into Helen’s bones. “Jim, who is hosting this party?” she asked nervously.

“I told you,” he laughed softly. “My boss asked all of his upper management to a cocktail party to celebrate the latest acquisition. I was lucky enough to be on the proposal team. This is my second time here but I’m still a little awestruck by the man and his house, to tell you the truth.” They were walking up the steps behind several others who were dressed in conservative dark suits for the men and the black cocktail dresses for the women. Many were wearing pearls at their throats but a few had diamonds. One or two were wearing white cocktail dresses but Helen’s red outfit was by far the most colorful. One might even say outrageous in this company she thought, considering the high necklines and severely tailored dresses on the other women. The most daring accessory she saw was a woman wearing a double strand of pearls, Helen noted, hearing her gold chain tingle as she moved slightly.

“Please tell me you work directly for someone other than Alec Dionysius, Jim. Please, please tell me that your immediately supervisor is not the owner of your company.”

Jim puffed up, a proud smile on his face. “Of course I have managers in between, but I interact with Mr. Dionysius on several issues now that I’ve been promoted over the years.”

She started to pull back and Jim looked at her questioningly. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

Helen swallowed painfully. “I can’t go in there,” she whispered, dropping his hand and starting to walk backwards. “I’m sorry,” she said to him as he walked beside her, the worry already in his eyes. “I just can’t do it and you wouldn’t want me to be with you anyway. Alec hates me. So I guarantee I’ll be a liability to your career.”

Jim laughed and grabbed her hand, stopping her and turning her around. His blue eyes were amused as he looked at her. “Helen, I don’t think Mr. Dionysius even remembers that you were there at Edna’s party so don’t worry. Besides, with you on my side, I’ll be guaranteed to have the prettiest woman in the room. You won’t be a liability. You’ll be a huge asset. Trust me.”

Helen shook her head at the last statement. “You don’t understand. He’ll definitely remember me from the previous occasions.” She didn’t go into the details of her kiss with Alec but she could tell that her face was heating up at just the thought of how she’d felt in his arms. Shaking off that memory, she turned to Jim and looked him right in the eyes. “Alec blames me for messing up the smooth operation of his executive staff. It’s happened twice recently and each time he’s been furious so you don’t want to be seen with me.”

Jim laughed harder. “Come one. The car is already gone to some distant parking space and you can’t wander around the grounds alone.”

“No really,” she said, pulling out of his light grasp. “I’ll be fine. I’ll just wander over to that tree and wait until you’re done. It can’t be very long. I’m sure Alec will send all of his staff home early enough so they can still get in a few hours of work before you retire for the night.”

Jim shook his head, laughing at her suggestion. “You can’t wander around the grounds, Helen. There are motion sensors all over the yard. If you accidentally trip one off, a pack of vicious dogs will come out and scare the living day lights out of you.” He picked up her hand and tucked it back into the elbow of his arm. “Come along. I promise we’ll stay out of my boss’s way and I’ll introduce you to the others I work with. Unfortunately, I’m not high enough on the food chain to actually know Mr. Dionysius on a very personal level yet so he won’t be in our main crush of conversations. He’ll be schmoozing with his vice presidents tonight and won’t even notice us as we partake of his excellent liquor and possibly the best food you’ll ever eat.”

Helen was doubtful but she accepted that there would probably be enough people here tonight so she could at least hide in the crowds and be inconspicuous.

Warily, she followed him up the stairs once again and into the house. Thankfully, they were late enough that, if there’d been a receiving line, it was gone now and they could enter the house without being greeted by the man himself.

“Come on,” Jim said, leading her through the enormous foyer to the back of the house where most of the people were mingling. “You’ve got to see this place. It’s amazing.”

Helen had to agree with him. Even having grown up with her father’s palace-like house, she was impressed with this one. Jim led her to an enormous living room area that had to be more than five thousand square feet and two stories high. The back wall had Palladian windows on the first level, then another set of enormous square windows on the second story. The room had honey colored hardwood floors that added warmth as well as elegance with large, comfortable looking sofas and chairs placed strategically around the room and large white columns spacing the rooms geometrically. She counted three groupings of sofas and chairs in this area with a massive fireplace at each end. The hardwood floors were softened in these groupings by large carpets that made the room look more welcoming.

As she stared out one of the five sets of French doors currently opened onto the patio, she could see more white but this was of stone instead of marble. It extended out to stairs that descended into a formal garden laid out in patchwork with large oak trees framing both sides and marble statuary in the middle. Directly down the center was an Olympic sized swimming pool with floating candles surrounded by flowers dancing on the surface.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Jim mumbled to her as he took two glasses of white wine from a passing waiter. “Mr. Dionysius doesn’t scrimp on the entertainment budget, does he?”

“Nor on the home heating bill,” she mumbled, trying desperately to find something about the party she didn’t like. She didn’t want to be impressed. She didn’t want to know anything about the man that might tip the scales in his favor. Already loving his home, she had to find something that was wrong – and the open doors letting the air conditioning out of the house was the best thing she could think of.

Unfortunately, when she mentioned it, Jim only laughed and shook his head. “Don’t be too hard on him. I think he uses solar energy for most of the appliances and the air conditioning would be one of them. It’s my understanding that one of his smaller companies is one of those research firms and this house is a sort of test tube for their ideas. This house probably uses less energy than my two thousand square foot condominium.”

Drat! Helen hated that little factoid and wanted to find a small corner to hide out in. She sipped her wine and looked around, searching out the one man she’d been avoiding for a week. He must have gotten her phone number from Edna because he’d left her several messages the first few days after their most recent encounter but then she hadn’t heard anything. She’d hoped he’d finally given up on her but something told her that wasn’t the case. She suspected he was just biding his time. Sort of like a spider waiting for the bug to fly into his web. “I’m sure he’s still wasting something,” she grumbled.

“I’m sure he does, but then don’t we all? But Mr. Dionysius isn’t really in the same league, is he? Men like him live in a whole different world than we do.”

Helen looked around at his beautiful home. “Obviously. And these two worlds should stay well apart from each other,” she said and took his hand to lead him over to the patio.

Jim was about to grab a plate at the buffet table when one of his co-workers found him. They were engaged in a lively conversation about the acquisition and their excitement that it was finally over. Jim introduced her to several of his co-workers, all of whom were very nice and instantly incorporated her into their conversations as if she were one of them.

Helen had been at the party for perhaps an hour when she finally started to relax. She sipped her wine and smiled at all of Jim’s co-workers and their significant others when she started to see Jim’s eyes stray to the right several times. Helen followed his eyes in that direction and caught a pretty blond waitress glancing back at him.

When Jim realized that he’d been caught, Helen laughed softly, not taking offense at his distraction since she’d already realized that she wasn’t attracted to Jim in that way either. “She’s pretty,” she said with an encouraging smile.

“Yes, well,” he cleared his throat, a blush creeping up his neck and he adjusted his tie slightly. “Let’s go say hello to my direct boss. He’s over there. Then we can relax and grab something to eat.”

Helen looked in the direction he’d indicated quickly to determine which boss Jim was referring to and, when it wasn’t Alec, she relaxed. Glancing in the opposite direction she searched for the pretty blond waitress, catching the other woman’s eye. Initially the waitress looked away, embarrassed but Helen already had a mind to do something about this situation. Jim was a very nice man. She wasn’t really interested in him as anything more than a friend but the fact that he was being an absolute gentleman and ignoring the blond warmed her heart. She followed Jim and chatted for several more minutes before excusing herself from the group.

She made her way to the bathroom and washed her hands, then searched out the kitchen, determined to find the waitress and find out what was going on. She lucked out and found the woman setting up another tray of creative and delicious smelling appetizers. “Good evening,” Helen said, sliding up to the blond and popping one of the appetizers into her mouth. “Oh, these are scrumptious,” she said as a way to open the conversation. “Did you help make them?”

The blond looked down, not daring to look into Helen’s eyes. “I’m just here doing the serving, ma’am. But I’d be happy to bring you more if you’d like.” The waitress said to the tray.

“Jim’s a very nice man.” Helen said.

The woman stiffened, froze for a long moment before setting the appetizers onto the tray more quickly. “Your boyfriend is an attractive guest.”

“Don’t worry. He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just a friend. What’s your name?”

That admission perked the woman up for a moment, but then she looked around warily at the other workers, obviously afraid her supervisor would catch her talking to a guest. “I’m Amanda,” she said and finished the tray. Picking it up, she smiled at Helen, offering her more food. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

Helen popped another appetizer into her mouth from the counter, not wanting to mess up Amanda’s platter. “Just give me your phone number and I’ll pass it along to Jim. I know he’s interested so I’ll tell him to give you a call.”

Amanda’s eyes widened. “My phone number?” she whispered.

Helen grimaced. “You’re right. Work your way around the party and I’ll get Jim’s phone number so you can call him. It’s safer that way. I know Jim and he’s very sweet, but a woman can’t be too careful.” Helen pushed away from the counter and smiled encouragingly at Amanda. “Don’t worry about anything. I’ll let him know you’re a very nice woman and won’t be dallied with,” she teased.

Amanda instantly laughed and relaxed. “Why would you do this? Why aren’t you interested in him?” she asked, dumbfounded that anyone could not find the very nice looking Jim attractive.

Helen took another sip of her wine and sighed. “I don’t know. I just know that I’d rather be his friend than anything more. So nothing is going to happen.”

Amanda grinned and nodded. “Thank you,” she said quickly and with a great deal of sincerity and appreciation.

Helen watched happily as Amanda walked out of the kitchen with a new spring to her step.

Helen followed more slowly, wishing she could feel jealousy at this activity. Shouldn’t she feel more possessive of her dates? But then, she’d never felt that way about any of the men she’d dated over the years. She’d even been mildly attracted to some of them but none had ever gone anywhere since she’d ended up friends with almost all of them. Some were happily married now with children and Helen was even invited to the birthday parties and other celebrations.

Sighing in wonder, she walked out of the kitchen and looked around for Jim. She spotted him on the lawn by the pool and headed in that direction, her mind thinking of the one man she shouldn’t think about. She smiled up at Jim and whispered in his ear. When he looked down at her, stunned, she only nodded at her suggestion.

Jim surveyed the crowd, instantly catching the eye of the pretty blond woman. Helen almost laughed when both of them blushed. Jim quickly looked away, then pulled out his wallet with a business card, wrote his private number on the back and handed it to Helen. Helen palmed the card and stuffed it into the waistband of her skirt so it would be safe until she could pass it along to Amanda.

The group was laughing about something Helen hadn’t caught when she felt the tingles along her neck. She tried to shoo them away, but the tingles wouldn’t go away. She looked around and froze. About twenty feet away was Alec and he didn’t look happy. He was standing alone but when she looked at him, he moved toward their group.

“Good evening,” several of the people gushed out, astounded that the head of their company would enter their group of employees.

“Good evening, Jim, Marty.” Helen had to acknowledge that it was impressive of Alec to know everyone’s names, even their wives and he greeted each of them with a façade of warmth. Until he came to Helen.

There was a definite coolness about his demeanor as he addressed her. “Helen. How have you been lately?” he asked, his dark eyes looked at her dangerously.

Helen took a deep breath. She’d been looking down when he’d spoken to the others hoping he’d just skip by her and be on his way but when he directly addressed her, there was nothing she could do but look up. It was worse than she’d thought. Alec in the office was one thing but here in his own domain with his tie off and the top buttons of his shirt undone, he looked incredible. Or maybe he always looked this magnificent and she was just putting parameters around him. She wasn’t sure. “I’m fine,” she replied, holding her breath.