Billionaire's Only Cure
Page 1
Billionaire’s Only Cure
Billionaires and Soul Sisters Book 1
Patricia Jones
A.P. Gore
To my lovely Family!
Copyright @ Patricia Jones
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Alice ran in her three-inch heels to catch the elevator at Parker Chemicals on 8th Avenue. She was already super late, and her tight black skirt prevented her from running at full speed.
Cold air-conditioned air bathed her face as she entered the building and ran toward the semi-packed elevator. As she zipped past two men chit-chatting, her heels wobbled awkwardly. It had been a long time since she’d last worn these business heels.
“Sorry.” She flashed an apologetic smile as she shoved her hand between the sliding steel doors. By a mere second, she managed to slip into the elevator filled with at least ten people in business suits and tight skirts standing comfortably. How did they do that?
After catching her breath, she pulled a tissue from her large leather tote to wipe a trickle of sweat from her forehead. While her left shoulder fumbled to keep her bag in place, her right hand somehow managed to fight with the perspiration.
God, how do actual secretaries do this?
Her stomach twisted as she remembered everything a secretary had to carry in her bag, according to Secretaries for Dummies. How was she supposed to manage all of that stuff?
Swallowing, she dabbed the remaining sweat away then adjusted her white blouse to make sure it looked professional. She had to look good on the first day as a CEO’s secretary—a role into which she didn’t fit at all. If not for Mark asking her to make it here, she would have stayed in her apartment, eating bagels and macaroni for the rest of her life. But he insisted, even threatened to sue her if she didn’t make it. Something about on-the-job training for a new role. Something along those lines.
But why a secretary? A secretary singer?
No, God, please no.
She’d been perfectly happy being off-camera for the last three years. Why would she need to act again? She had bought a condo in Mexico, and in a few months, she would move there to live a peaceful life. She would start singing again, maybe join some local productions. If not for the contract keeping her tied to New York, she would have gone to Mexico two years ago.
The contract was ending in few months. She wanted those last few months in New York to pass peacefully, like the last two years had. But then someone took her picture while she slept on a bench in a small park and sold it to the New York Times.
Alice Myer, has-been actress, sleeping on a bench. Is she homeless? Or just bored to death?
She hated the person who snapped her picture. She hated the reporter who wrote the piece, and she hated Mark for pushing her to get on-the-job training for her next role.
What was wrong with sleeping on a bench, anyway? It was a perfectly sunny day. She wasn’t drunk or anything. Heck, she hadn’t even touched booze that morning. Seven hours sober. That should qualify as being off alcohol. And the guy must have been a crazy one to recognize her after three years’ absence from the media. Why the hell did they need to publish an article for a has-been actress?
God knows.
“Excuse me.” Someone brushed past her. His business suit brushed her bare arm, sending need across her body. He smelled like booze, and she desperately wanted some to keep her standing.
Once again, she opened her bag, and retrieved her perfume. Popping off the top, she brought it to her nose and inhaled, filling her nostrils with the fragrant scent of lilies. She desperately needed something else that didn’t smell like Johnnie Walker.
Lately, her need for booze had increased a lot, and she hated it. It was harming her body, which became evident when she couldn’t fit herself into her size Small black skirt this morning. It had been only a year since she bought it; it fit perfectly at that time. Man, she was getting fat. Though she didn’t look like she had put on ten pounds in one year, nor did any layer of fat show around her belly, it was a cruel truth she knew.
Putting on weight was a big no-no in show business. And she had done that exactly.
If Mark had known, he would have burst on her and sent her to the gym every morning. It was the last thing she wanted to do in her lazy and relaxed life.
Well, the second-to-last thing. She didn’t want to work as a secretary either. But fate—no, that stupid contract she’d signed five years ago—made her do that. The only good thing was the job didn’t require her to sing in front of an audience.
The elevator stopped at the thirty-first floor, the floor where the CEO lived, and by the time she got there everyone else had abandoned the elevator. She guessed no one else wanted to talk with the CEO in the morning. But why did he live in his office building? Didn’t he have a social life or something? She bet he was a fifty-year-old man, living on burgers, with a huge flabby stomach, working day and night on chemical compounds.
As she stepped out of the elevator, the sudden change in the tile design attracted her attention. Expensive gray marble covered the floor. Directly across from her, glass walls revealed the crazy traffic on 8th Avenue.
Wow!
She could watch the traffic and lose herself in the beauty of it. It was her favorite pastime when she first came to New York, watching traffic and thinking about new songs. If only she had a couple of chairs, a hot latte filled to the brim, and her noise-canceling headphones. That would be perfect.
But time wasn’t on her side today, so she reluctantly moved forward, only to be amazed by what lay at the end of the foyer.
It wasn’t an office floor; it was a penthouse occupying the whole thirty-first floor.
That man had remodeled the whole floor into a penthouse.
“You’re late.” A sharp voice filled the foyer. That voice. Why did it sound so familiar?
“I’m sorry,” she replied as she stepped through the glass door at the end of the foyer and into the reception area.
“Take your seat and start working.”
She glanced around but couldn’t find the source of the strangely familiar voice.
The reception was a large cone-shaped area. A big semi-circular black wooden desk occupied most of the reception area. An empty chair and a white laptop sat on the desk, waiting for her.
“Get your badge from the
top right drawer and then get in my office. First door on the left.”
Why was his voice so familiar? Had she heard the CEO on some interview? If so, she didn’t remember.
Sliding her fingers along the smooth wooden surface of the desk, she pulled her badge out of the drawer. It had an old picture of her on it. A very old picture. Maybe six years old.
Wondering about how the company got that photo, she stepped in through the first door on the left.
Well, well, well. She was so wrong about the CEO. The moment she entered, she spotted a slender man’s muscular back. He stood before a huge glass wall, flipping through papers.
“Miss Myer, you were five minutes late.”
The man turned, and the badge dropped from her hand.
No, this couldn’t be true.
Chapter 2
Alice stepped back. Her chest contracted, and the huge room closed up on her. This couldn’t possibly be happening to her.
Not him, please.
Her heel stuck in something, and she went down, pinwheeling her arms to no avail. The man in front of her didn’t move an inch. He just watched her fall on her butt.
Typical him.
Thanks to the cushiony carpet, she didn’t feel much of pain, but the mental shock? That hurt. It felt like six knifes stabbed at her chest, repeatedly.
His blue eyes lingered on her. The corner of his lips twitched. Was he laughing at her fall? Bet, he was.
“It’s been six years, hasn’t it?” His deep voice boomed in her mind, pulling her out of the shock.
Pushing her hands into the soft carpet, she stared back at the man in the blue business suit.
He hadn’t changed a bit. Exactly the same. Maybe he had traveled forward in time, skipping six years. Had he?
Sharp nose, rock-hard jaw, neatly combed short hair.
She swallowed hard.
Jade Hyde. The man she never wanted to face again stood mere feet away from her. The same man with sparkling blue eyes. They still took her breath away, like they did six years ago.
But he was a jerk of a man. A man she hated deep in her bones.
The bitter taste of hatred spread over her tongue, invading her throat and choking her heart. She blinked and turned away. Staring at him was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Why are you here?” she asked when the silence became too much. Jade couldn’t touch another human, so how could he be a CEO of a company? It wasn’t possible.
“Not a good first impression.”
The sound of paper hitting the desk reached her ears, and she steeled herself before looking at him again. She couldn’t give up; she needed to steady herself. If the real CEO walked in and saw her in this state, what would he think about a girl sitting on the floor, scared to her bones?
She snorted. “Why does that matter? I’m here to meet CEO Parker.”
His expression hardened. “I’m Jade Hyde-Parker. I’ve hired you to be my temporary secretary. If you’re done with your unimpressive entrance, get to the first floor and meet Mrs. Athena Williams for a quick handoff of your tasks.” He glanced at his iron gray watch. “She should be here in ten minutes.” And like that he left through a door leading to some unknown room.
“Jade, you moron. Come back here. Right now!” She shouted, unable to control her anger. What did he think of her?
She got back to her feet, but he didn’t return. What was the meaning of this? Hadn’t she made it clear five years ago that she wanted nothing to do with him? Why had he come back into her life?
It didn’t matter. She was leaving.
Fumbling through her bag, she searched for her phone. As usual, it had hidden itself in some unknown pocket. It took her two minutes to find that damn phone.
She snapped into the receiver as soon as he picked up her call. “Mark. What’s the meaning of this?”
“Why are you calling me at this hour, babe? Don’t tell me you didn’t go there. On second thought, don’t go there if you want to pay me a huge amount of money. I’m happy either way.” He sounded angry. Cold. He’d been her agent for the last five years and her friend for years before that. How could he do this to her?
“Listen to me.” She softened her voice. She had to handle this carefully, couldn’t lash out and make this a bigger mess. In a few more months, she would be free from all the shackles that held her back in New York. The contract would be over, and she could finally go to Mexico. “I’m in CEO Parker’s office.”
Mark sighed on the other side of the line. “Then why are you calling me?”
“Mark, please listen to me carefully. I can’t work with him.”
“Why?”
“Mark, please, I really can’t.”
“You have to, Alice. There’s no other choice. If you don’t want to get into that role, then pay me back all the money I’ve invested in you and walk away.” Mark replied in a plain, brutal voice. Though he had been her friend, after signing the contract he’d behaved more like an agent.
Money. She didn’t have that. Signing that contract had been the stupidest thing she had done in her entire life. Stupider than slapping Jade the first time they met.
At the time, everything seemed good. She had gotten her first role in a musical show, she had three multi-year shows lined up, and there was no need to refuse the multi-year contract with Mark. Mark her friend, after all. But she overlooked a clause. A five-year exclusivity clause. As per that clause, she couldn’t leave the agency or seek other representation for five years, and she had to do as the agency wanted, what fitted within the moral values of society.
Whoever reviewed the contract at her attorney’s office must have been an intern to miss that clause.
It had been a mistake, a mistake that she’d regretted for the last three years after that fiasco happened with her career.
“Mark, the CEO is Jade Hyde. A guy I dumped five years ago.” She said the words carefully so Mark wouldn’t misinterpret them.
Dead silence was his reply.
“Mark, you there? Darn, even the phone signal ditched me now.” She was about to throw her phone on the ground when she heard a sigh from the other side.
“I’m here. Give me a minute. Let me go through the paperwork.” His voice had a rare hint of emotion.
Alice’s heart quickened as the time passed. Everyone was out to get her. Even the phone in her hand felt like a snake, ready to bite her at any time. All she wanted was to get out of there as quickly as possible. The memory of a blue-eyed guy slowly invaded her mind, and she needed none of that.
“Alice,” Mark said.
Her heart jumped inside her rib cage. Anticipation filled her gut. “Tell me.”
“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. Unless...”
“Unless what?”
“Unless he fires you!”
“Fire me?” Her eyes sparkled with joy. “That’ll be easy. Wait for me, I’ll meet you in your office in few hours with my termination later.” She laughed, as evil as it could get.
Chapter 3
Jade’s hand shook as he entered his disinfection room. Cold disinfectant-filled air blew upon his head, chilling him for a moment. When the airflow stopped, he steadied himself by grabbing the heavy medicinal cabinet placed at his right. The firmness of the wall-mounted cabinet provided him some much-needed stability.
That was intense. Seeing her once again, in person. Even after six years, she still affected him. Those hazel eyes sucked him in, and for a moment he almost forgot why he was there. Her long, slender fingers were the same. Once he used to hold them in his hands for hours.
He exhaled hard, closing his eyes. But her full lips, long black hair, and round face invaded his mind instantly, reminding him how good she looked back then and even now.
No, he couldn’t let that happen.
The small room, filled with the scent of disinfectant, shrank on him. For the first time, he didn’t like that smell. It almost made him puke up the veggie sandwich he’d eaten for breakfas
t. Perspiration formed on his neck, just below where his hair ended. Pulling out a tissue from the nearest tissue holder, he wiped his neck clean. He didn’t want bacteria-filled sweat touching any other part of his skin. Not even his hair.
Was it the wrong decision to call her here?
No, that wouldn’t do. She would have to pay for what she did to him six years ago. That dreadful evening came to his mind, when he’d fallen on his knees in front of her. His resolve grew steely.
Yes, she would have to pay. He couldn’t back down now.
Not when he held the cards in his hands. Not when he had improved so much for this one chance. Not when victory was this close.
“You’ll pay for that. Alice Myer. You’ll pay dearly.” He shouted, without worrying about anyone listening. Because no one would. Every room on the thirty-first floor was soundproof and dust proof. He had worked his butt off to get here, get all of this, and there was no one who could stop him from achieving what he wanted.
Not even his disease would prevent his revenge.
Chapter 4
Alice smoothed her skirt as she entered the first floor lobby. The smooth texture of her skirt reminded of the comfy bedsheets she bought a few days back. If not for this fiasco, she would be relaxing in bed right now, eating tacos or ramen.
She patted her heart, assuring it that all of this would end soon, and she would be home.
As soon as she left the CEO’s office, her phone had beeped with the first floor meeting room location, where she was going to meet Mrs. Athena Williams. According to the brief text, Mrs. Williams was the CEO’s previous secretary.
She chuckled, wondering how Mrs. Williams would feel when she received another call tomorrow—for another quick handoff.
The first floor was all cubicles, meeting rooms, and a pantry area filled with people. On the surface, it didn’t look like a chemical company at all. But Jade didn’t look like a CEO either. He was too young to be a CEO. It must be his mom’s work.
She swallowed hard at the memory of that woman.
Sighing and putting that memory away, she entered the meeting room named Oxygen. What a strange name.