Title and Copyright Page
Title: You Should Believe Her
Subtitle: Clean Lesbian and Billionaire Romance
Author: Karen Klinger
© Copyright 2019 by Karen Klinger. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead is purely coincidental.
From the Author:
Thank you for purchasing this book.
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Table of Contents
Title and Copyright Page
You Should Believe Her
Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
You Should Believe Her
Description
Amanda Young finally has what she wanted most in the world… a promotion. This new situation comes with a price, though. She now has to meet billionaire Langdon siblings, owners of the company she works for and the source of many sleepless nights for her. Tom, her boss, arrogant, distant and more resentful than anyone imagines him to be. Mallory, charming, stunning, hard-working and, unexpectedly, the love of Amanda’s life. As the days pass, Tom makes Amanda’s job harder and harder, while on the other hand, Mallory makes her happier and happier. Amanda already thinks it’s too much for her, but she finds herself deep into the siblings’ personal problem of fighting for the ownership of the company. This will leave Amanda and Mallory struggling to find a balance between their love and their jobs, but exactly how far will they be forced to go for each other? In the end, everything will depend on how firmly they believe in each other.
Chapter 1
Amanda Young has been working hard at Langdon Inc. for almost a year. It’s been frustrating more than it’s been rewarding, but when rewards do come, they come in beautifully. Amanda’s last job was as a waitress. She appreciated it, she valued it, and she learned a lot from it. Truth is, though, she had been dying to actually put her education to use. She had spent the better part of her twenties in getting a degree or two in the area of economics and finances, no big deal, she was only the best in her class. The other part, she spent struggling to afford the said education. Now, reaching her thirties, it was just about time things started working out for her, right? She asked herself that every morning as she fought with herself in order to find the strength to show up to work. Sure, this was her field, but she had not anticipated office work to be so incredibly tedious. It was repetitive; it was uneventful, it was simply boring!
However, Amanda had finally been hit by a lucky strike. Regardless of how much she did not love her job, she did give her best to it, and she had found a way to stand out. The result was that after ten long, long months, Amanda finally got a raise. She was thrilled, excited, ecstatic, she felt like jumping around the entire building. She felt like jumping out of a window and running back home; she couldn’t wait to share the news with… her empty apartment and her grumpy cat. Yeah, she led a mostly lonely life, that much was true. To be fair, though, Martin the cat could be a great company when he was in the mood.
The next day after the news came, Amanda showed up early to work. Obviously, it was her first day in the new position. She looked polished and more than ready for her new job, she was all smiles and kindness on the way there. People would reply with a smile of their own; it seemed her good mood was contagious. However, slowly but surely something started to change. She was in the elevator, going up and up towards the second to the last floor. People began to notice; people started to connect the dots, fill in the blanks of the rumors they had heard. Then it seemed that everybody was looking at her in what seemed like a strange combination of jealousy but mostly… something that looked a lot like pity? She didn’t get it – and she did not have time to dwell on it. The elevator doors opened, and she was welcomed into the most luxurious lobby she had ever seen.
In that floor, however, were only two offices – those of the directors of the departments of sales and production of Langdon Inc. it was a company focused on all things technology, and it showed that it was one of the biggest in the world. Amanda was aware that the owner of the company was an old billionaire man. He had so much money that everyone on his family instantly qualified as billionaires as well. His children were the directors that occupied those two offices. In the middle of the lobby, there was a special staircase that leads them to their father’s office. Amanda guessed that each of the offices on that floor were much bigger than her apartment. She glanced left, and she saw an empty desk in front of a grim looking office. She glanced right, and she stared right into the deep brown eyes of a man that looked very apologetic when he signaled her to go to her left.
That was the day she met Tom Langdon, the older son of Matthew Langdon, who Amanda had never seen, and the director of the sales department. Now, Tom wasn’t exactly unpleasant, not at first sight. He was… a man. Amanda wasn’t particularly interested in men, and Tom looked nothing special – a man in a gray suit, with gray hair on his hair and beard, cold green eyes and only the most basic of manners. Those manners, however, lasted during the entire time that he greeted Amanda, then, he found out she worked for him, that meant goodbye manners.
Amanda felt like she had merely winked and it was already Thursday. She hadn’t been working for Tom for an entire week, and she was already trying to convince herself that quitting her job wasn’t worth it. Tom turned out to be worse than unpleasant.
“Bring me a coffee,” he ordered her nearly every hour. “This one’s cold. Bring a new one,” he would say after she arrived, not even looking her in the face.
“I’m taking a nap. If anyone asks, I’m in a very important meeting,” he grumbled as soon as he arrived in the middle of the morning. Because of course he always arrived late, and of course Amanda always arrived early and was forced to wait for him.
“Let’s see, what do we have to do… This is boring, make Williams do it. This is too much work; you do it. This… I don’t understand this; I don’t know, make someone else do it,” he demanded day after day.
Amanda was under the impression that Tom might have no idea what he was doing at all in his job. Worst was how he delegated his duties; he was selfish and nearly evil. He put specific tasks to people just because he knew they’d struggle with them.
“I’m not here to make my employees’ lives easier, Miss Young. They’re here, so I don’t have to do my job,” he once told her.
“Now, where’s my coffee?”
Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. You’d think that with such an obsession with the beverage Tom would have a professional coffee machine inside his office. That would mean, though, that he’d have to make the coffee himself, even if that only meant pushing a button, or it would mean letting someone in his office – Amanda wasn’t allowed past those big wooden doors that kept Tom isolated from the rest of the world. He sent his orders through the phone, or they went through their routine of him not doing any work, in the small sort of second lobby he had before his office. This all meant that Amanda was forced to go down one floor to the recreational hall of the executives where they had their lunch, enjoyed their free time, anything. Of course,
the place was full of the most outstanding coffee machines, so Amanda actually spent most of her day there, complaining to the innocent machines, ranting about her inconsiderate boss.
“One more coffee. That one was cold. Amanda bring me my coffee. Coffee, coffee, I’m the coffee man, the heartless monarch of my coffee empire,” Amanda whispered.
She was staring with a frown at the inoffensive machine as the coffee prepared itself. Amanda had her arms crossed in front of her, and she was grumbling, imitating Tom’s annoying voice.
“I see things are tense in the coffee empire.”
A voice came from beside Amanda, and she was so startled that she jumped at the noise.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m just really curious as to what did the coffee do to hurt you,” the woman said.
She was, undoubtedly, the most stunning woman Amanda had ever seen. She was tall, slender, she was leaning against the counter and wearing that beautiful and expensive-looking suit as it was the most casual thing in the world. As if the unexpected sound of the velvety voice wasn’t enough to render Amanda speechless, when her eyes found the woman’s eyes, there was no going back, there was no way her brain would have been able to come up with words. The woman’s skin was pale and with only minimum makeup, but it wasn’t necessary. The sharp features, the impressive jawline, the neat short dark hair, the perfect eyebrows and of course, the gleaming green eyes, brighter than sapphires and more profound than any forest – Amanda could only stare.
“I mean, we have done some impressive things here, but I think coffee machines that can hold a conversation are still, you know, not here yet,” the woman laughed, and the sound was captivating. “I’m sorry, I interrupted you, I’m being creepy, I’ll leave…”
“No! No, it’s okay. It’s fine. I mean, I’m fine. The coffee… the coffee is fine. It’s just, you know, lots of coffee!” Amanda exclaimed
She cringed at her own awkwardness, the woman laughed, and Amanda blushed, but she couldn’t help but notice it wasn’t a mean laugh, it sounded fond of her. So, Amanda smiled at her.
“It’s just my boss. He drinks coffee as if his life depends on it,” she explained.
“Ah,” the woman nodded in understanding. “You’re the poor girl that was sent to work for Tom, right?”
Amanda could only sigh at that. How come no one warned her?
“Hey, it’s okay, don’t take anything he does personally. He’s just a spoiled child with a suit, believe me,” the woman whispered and earned a laugh from Amanda. “He has no clue of what he’s doing. I bet you’d do his work better than he does… if you aren’t doing that already.”
The insinuation was apparent in the air. The woman eyes weren’t judgmental, though, she looked knowing and sure of her words. Amanda smiled at her and barely stuttered out a response.
“I’m just, you know, I bring him his coffee…” she shrugged, and the woman nodded, accepting the answer. “Which would be easier if he drank coffee like a normal person, you know? I swear the first day I had to write it down like a damn waitress to remember all the things he puts in his coffee. He’s like a teenage hipster.”
The woman laughed, then, genuinely amused. Her laughed escaped from her gloriously, and it was one of Amanda’s proudest moments, she was also determined to make it happen again.
“God, you’re funny,” the woman said, shaking her head. “I just take my coffee black.”
After the woman shrugged at the cup she had been holding all this time, Amanda tilted her head, “Well, I take it just little sweeter than that.”
“You’re sweet,” the woman complimented her. “Entirely too sweet to be working for Tom. You probably need a break from him already… so, speaking of coffee, what do you say if I invite you for one tomorrow, after work?”
That was surprising, smooth and remarkably easy. Amanda had never encounter anyone like this woman. Her first instinct was to end up utterly speechless again, after all, she felt her heart about to burst out of her chest. Even in that state, though, Amanda knew she would never forgive herself if she ruined her chance with this woman.
“Of course, yeah, I’d like that,” she replied.
“Excellent. I’ll pick you up at your desk.”
After that, the woman winked at Amanda and started to turn around. In an impressive and impulsive act, Amanda reached out to her and touched her arm.
“Wait! Um, sorry, I didn’t get your name? My name’s Amanda Young.”
Seeing Amanda’s cheerful smile and her extended hand, the woman felt her heart fill up at the sight. She stared at Amanda as if she was the prettiest, most precious mystery she could have ever found.
“Pleased to meet you, my name’s Mallory,” she met Amanda’s hand with a friendly handshake. “Mallory Langdon. See you tomorrow.”
In an instant, Mallory had walked away from the scene. Amanda had a disbelieving smile on her face; she was about to say “oh! That’s funny! You have the same name as the owners of the company!” Instead, she turned around and found that almost everyone was minding their own business. Although there was one man, of brown skin and a sharp suit, that was comically staring at her wide-eyed. When Amanda met his stare, he nodded, impressed. Yes, of course, she had been talking to Mallory Langdon, the billionaire daughter of the owner of the company and director of the production department. Amanda had a date with that woman.
Chapter 2
The next day was a Friday, and Amanda swore she had never felt so much anxiety before. Her brain could focus on one thing and one thing only: Mallory Langdon. Under normal circumstances, meeting Mallory would have left Amanda nearly as shaken as she was. Still, there was more than the ridiculous beauty and spellbinding charm. Mallory was the daughter of the owner of the company, Mallory was a billionaire, she was Amanda’s boss’ sister. It took Amanda a few hours of overthinking, but she finally convinced herself that maybe her interaction with Mallory was genuine and their chemistry wasn’t a dream – they genuinely had a date. Mallory, specifically, had asked her out on a coffee date. Not like that simply thought wasn’t already distracting enough.
Surprising herself, Amanda found the strength to survive her day. With her thoughts exclusively focusing on Mallory, she found herself immune to Tom’s usual annoying presence. Considering her boss wasn’t the most hard-working of humans and rarely stayed in his office until the day was over, Amanda was more than ready when Mallory came to pick her up, and what an experience that was.
Amanda was still sitting at her desk when the door to Mallory’s office opened up. So, Amanda quickly stood up, but she was glad she still could lean on her desk for support, because the sight that greeted her was more than enough to make her knees go weak. Knowing they were going out for a casual coffee, Mallory had foregone the suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of her crisp white shirt. Her short hair was neatly combed, she carried a slight smirk firmly in place, and her intense eyes were staring right at Amanda the whole way to her desk. Amanda felt absolutely breathless; she couldn’t believe the sight in front of her. Mallory, the most magnificent woman she could imagine, was slowly walking straight towards her, she was crossing the vast lobby with overflowing confidence, and her eyes never left Amanda.
“Are you ready?” Mallory had the decency to ask, as if her alluring spectacle hadn’t completely crushed Amanda’s mind.
“Not at all. But let’s go.”
Amanda’s reply earned her one more joyful laugh from Mallory, and one more piercing arrow from Cupid through her heart.
Of course, Mallory had a limousine waiting for her outside of the building. Of course, she had a couple of big and intimidating bodyguards following her every move. The world was aware that she, as well as her entire family, was a billionaire. Mallory, however, wasn’t exactly a celebrity. Even with the couple of bodyguards, she managed to easily walk around the street and enter a quaint little place for a cup of coffee with the beautiful woman she found herself so obsessed with.
&nbs
p; “After you,” Mallory said, attempting chivalry by opening the door for Amanda.
She was not expecting the door to be stuck somehow and Amanda to have to reach out and actually open the door for both of them.
“Don’t get out of your office often, do you, miss billionaire?” Amanda teased her.
“Hey, you didn’t have to bring that up first chance you got. I’m sorry I’m – Excuse me!” Mallory almost knocked over a waiter on their way to a table. “I’m naturally clumsy,” she explained.
Mallory looked flushed and relieved when she finally sat down. Equally, Amanda copied and exaggerated that relief, “Thank God, finding out that you are not entirely perfect kind of evens out our situation.”
Mallory looked at her amusedly.
“If you’re really that clumsy then our next date should be something like ice skating.”
For a second there Mallory looked absolutely mortified, and Amanda started laughing, until, in an instant, Mallory recovered her innate confidence and said, “Planning our next date already, Miss Young?”
“No, I, uh, should I go for our coffees?”
“There’s no need, miss, that’s why I’m here for,” the waiter had arrived, “may I take your order?”
Both women finally relaxed on their chairs, and when they got their drinks, they were already deep into a friendly conversation that revealed some of their lives. Mallory laughed along to any and every anecdote Amanda shared of her bad-tempered cat. In exchange, Amanda attempted and failed at keeping her laughs at bay at Mallory’s hilarious childhood stories about her annoying older brother.
“He’s always been a loser; I can guarantee you that,” Mallory said and then sipped her coffee, “I kissed a girl before he did. I was thirteen, he’s ten years older than me and had never been in a date.”
Mallory chuckled at her story, and Amanda was staring at her in the most adoringly way. She could easily picture it all, young Mallory, overconfident and magical in a way that made girls realize maybe they didn’t want to just kiss boys.
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