Tempting: A Cinderella Billionaire Story

by Sophie Brooks

  “Okay. Umm… thank you,” Penny said, standing up and looking at me like I’d lost my mind. But she was calmer. Amazing how the thought that she’s soon see her little girl did that to her.

  Hitting a button, I had Vera on the phone almost before Penny left the room. “Order lunch. For two. And get whatever Penny might need to nurse the baby in the suite.”

  “Like what?” Vera sounded amused.

  How the hell should I know? “A special pillow? A bib? You know I don’t know anything about that kind of thing. For all I know, the kid uses a straw.”

  “Penny’s a lactating mom, not a juice box.”

  “Just get everything here ASAP,” I ordered. Vera’s chuckle as she hung up proved she knew me too well to be bothered when I snapped at her.

  Thank god for that.

  Lunch had gone well. Penny was so good with the baby, bouncing her on her knee, kissing her cheek, talking to her in the cutest little voice. Had my mother ever talked to me in such a silly, light-hearted way? Probably not. Likely some nanny along the way had, but I didn’t remember any specific one. They’d never lasted long.

  It was easier to look at Penny and not get caught when she was focused on her baby. Watching my personal assistant act natural and carefree filled me with longing. Our dinner the other night ended abruptly, and I knew it was hard for Penny to get away in the evening.

  Not that I could ask her out again. She was my employee. That was reason enough to tread carefully. Sure, I’d been attracted to women who worked for me before, but I’d resisted and taken my pleasure elsewhere. It was a bad idea to date an employee. And if that employee was a single mother? That made the situation even more complicated.

  It frustrated the hell out of me. I should stay away, but I didn’t want to. But I also didn’t know how to get any closer. It’s not like I could invite Penny out in the evening—it would be pretty difficult to claim I needed her to take notes at a dance club. And I doubt she’d believe that I checked out new restaurants for official work purposes every week.

  This was new territory for me, not knowing how to approach a woman. Not knowing how to make her mine. Hell, I didn’t even know if she wanted to be with me. Though every once in a while, I caught a look from her that made me think maybe she did.

  Or maybe she wanted this jerk, I thought, as I knocked on the open door of the nursery and went inside. Pat was standing in the middle of the room, holding Zoe on his hip and reading to her from a small book he held out in front of them. He saw me and grinned. “Our little Zoe’s not a rocking chair kind of gal.”

  Nice to know the daughter was as hard to figure out as the mother. Nodding at him to go on, I leaned against a bookcase and listened for a minute as Pat finished reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

  Fairy tales. Those never worked out well. I thought of my Not-Sarah disappearing like Cinderella after the ball and grimaced.

  “Wanna hold her?”

  Pat was at my side, holding the baby out to me. To me. And the little girl had her hands raised and was leaning toward me. What was the point of reading a child fairy tales if said child didn’t recognize a Big Bad Wolf when she saw one? “I’m good.”

  “She’s a sweetie, but she keeps me hopping. It’s good practice for when the other little ones come along.” Pat rubbed Zoe’s back, answering her smile with his own. He was so good with her. So natural. If I tried to bounce her around the room like that, I’d drop her, and Penny would never speak to me again.

  “How many have signed up?”

  “Four so far. We’re good for twelve—more when the expansion is ready.”

  “They’re gonna be in to work on that next week. I figured we’d give Zoe some peace and quiet for a while.”

  “I’m sure she appreciates it. Though it won’t do her any harm to be around other babies. She never saw any when Penny’s friend was watching her, the woman who broke her hip. How’s she’s doing anyway?”

  “No clue.”

  “Oh,” Pat said. “I thought you are Penny were friends.”

  “We are,” I said, almost growling it. Yet I hadn’t thought to ask about Hazel. Some friend I was.

  Pat shrugged and then spun the baby around, making her laugh. He really was good with her. I had to give him that even if I didn’t like the casual way he referred to Penny.

  We chatted for a few more minutes about the expansion, and I made some mental notes of some of Pat’s ideas.

  On the way back to my office, I stopped to talk to Vera. And I did talk to her, but my eyes were on my newest personal assistant’s empty desk. A minute or two later, Penny returned to it holding a stack of files. She saw me and smiled.

  It was a beautiful smile that I wanted to see more often.

  And she was a beautiful woman that I wanted to see more of. It wasn’t a good idea. It wasn’t particularly easy.

  But neither of those things were going to stop me.

  Penny

  “When can you drink again?”

  I laughed and clinked my cup of juice against Jana’s wineglass. We were in my apartment, and I’d just put Zoe down for the night.

  “Not until I stop breastfeeding.”

  “And I don’t suppose that happened earlier today, did it?”

  “Nope. Sorry.”

  Jana kicked off her shoes and crossed her ankles on top of the coffee table. “Okay, but once Zoe’s weaned and Hazel’s able to babysit again, you and I are going out. No designated driver, either. We’re getting drunk and we’re getting an Uber.”

  “Deal.”

  My friend was having a hard week. She taught all day and then visited Hazel in the hospital once she was done. Hazel’s surgery to put pins in her hip fracture had been a success, but she was still in a lot of pain. I’d taken Zoe to visit her once, but frankly, the thought of all the germs floating around the hospital scared me. Zoe’d had some her vaccinations but not all yet. The next one was scheduled for a month from now. I assuaged some of my guilt by promising to visit more often when Hazel was transferred to the rehab center.

  A noise from the baby monitor caught my attention, and I stiffened, but after a moment, I could hear Zoe’s even breathing. She’d been a little fussy today, but she was sleeping better than ever. Pat was doing a good job of keeping her awake and entertained during the day. I’d never expected to find a caregiver I liked as well as Hazel, but Pat was a close second.

  “So tell me more about him?”

  “He’s great with the baby.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. She loves him to pieces.” Zoe was almost as eager to see Pat in the morning as she was to see me.

  “Oh my god, Penny, a gorgeous guy who’s good with kids? You have to snatch him up before someone else does. It’s not like billionaires stay on the market for long.”

  What? I looked down at my apple juice to make sure it hadn’t suddenly turned into something judgement-clouding. “Oh, did you mean Blake?”

  “Who else would I mean?” Jana asked, exasperated.

  “I thought you were asking about Pat.”

  Jana gave me a strange look, and I realized there was a copy of the children’s book, Pat the Bunny, sitting on the coffee table. “Let’s start over,” she said. “Tell me more about your super-hot billionaire CEO boss.”

  “Oh,” I said sheepishly. “Well, you’ve covered the basics.”

  “No way. I need details. I’ve never met even one billionaire. Or CEO. Or super-hot guy.”

  “What about Axel Kline from Chemistry class?”

  “He was hot. Not super-hot.”

  “Yet that didn’t stop you from doodling his name in a heart on your notebook.”

  “Stop it,” Jana said, giving me a playful shove. “We’re embarrassing you tonight, not me. Give me all the deets about Blake Hollister.”

  And so I started talking, slowly at first. Dishing about men was easier when I was able to drink wine to loosen my tongue. But I managed. It told her about all the kind things B
lake had done for me. And for Zoe.

  “But tell me more about how he looks. Grandma said he’s really tall.”

  “She did?”

  “Yeah, she saw him the night she broke her hip.”

  “But she was in pain.”

  “Yes, but not blind. She said he was gorgeous. He looks gorgeous online.”

  Ignoring the fact that Jana had cyberstalked my boss, I gave her some of the details she was dying to hear. “He is pretty damn fine. When he’s in his office, he loosens his tie and takes off his jacket—and I gotta tell you, he’s got some serious muscles. This one time when he stood up, he stretched, and I thought the seams were going to rip on his shirt. His biceps just got bigger and bigger. I went back to my desk and downed an entire ice-cold bottle of water after that.”

  Jana giggled. “I can’t believe grandma got to meet him and I haven’t.”

  “Well, if you break a bone next time I’m with him, I’m sure he’ll drive me over right away.”

  “I just might do that,” Jana said. She took a long sip of wine as she stared at the television on the other side of the coffee table. Some old movie was playing, but the sound was off. “Did Zorro have big muscles?”

  “Yes.” Thinking about him—missing him—still made my heart ache.

  “He’s rich.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure he is. Everyone at the masquerade was.” Except me.

  “No, Blake. What if… what if he was there? What if he was Zorro?”

  Pain pierced through my chest. If only it were that easy. If only there were some way to find my baby’s missing father. “He’s not.”

  “But how do you know? He could have been there.”

  “No, he couldn’t. First off, I can’t see him at something that… frivolous. That was all about rich people showing off for their rich friends.”

  “So? Maybe he—“

  “Secondly, I checked.”

  Now Jana stared at me, the empty glass of wine forgotten in her hand. “Checked what?”

  Warmth heated my cheeks. “When I became one of his personal assistants, I got access to his calendar. And he was gone that week. At a conference in Switzerland.”

  “Crap,” Jana said, trying to take a sip before realizing her glass was empty. I picked up the wine bottle and poured some more for her.

  “Maybe he knows Zorro, though. Maybe they run in the same circles. You could ask him—“

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “How exactly would that conversation go? ‘Excuse me, Mr. Brand New Boss, do you happen to know my baby’s father is? I had a one-night stand with him and I don’t even know his name.’ Yeah, that would go over really well.”

  “Don’t say that. You know that neither of you meant for it to be a one-night stand. You tried to find each other.”

  “I tried to find him,” I said darkly.

  “And he tried to find you.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “So what are you saying? Are you ashamed of that night?”

  “No!” The word came out of my mouth more forcefully than I’d meant it to. “God no. That was the best night of my life. And it produced the most beautiful baby in the whole world.”

  “So why are you ashamed to ask him about it?”

  “Because you don’t talk to your boss about your sex life.”

  “You do if you’re hoping he’ll become a part of your sex life.”

  “Jana!”

  “Shh, you’ll wake Zoe,” she said.

  “That’s supposed to be my line,” I said, much more quietly. But I thought about what she’d said. I really wasn’t ashamed of that night. Even though I’d never done anything like that before, it had been truly magical. And as much as I wished my sweet baby had a father, I had never once regretted that night. “I just can’t talk about something like that with him. He… well, this sounds kind of stupid, but he seems to admire me. Even though I haven’t even completed graduate school. Even though I’m just a personal assistant. He thinks I’m… competent. Vera’s been giving me more complex tasks, and I’m pretty sure that originated from him.”

  “Well, that’s good,” Jana said. “But he’s not just a boss, you know. He’s a man, too. A handsome, single man. It’s okay if you think of him as one.”

  “You’re thinking of him as one.”

  “You should be too.”

  “He’s my boss.” Even as I said that, I knew that wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was that he wasn’t Zorro. If I let myself fall for Blake—something I was constantly battling—it felt like giving up on ever finding Zorro again. And how could I stop looking for the man who was Zoe’s father? I could never do that to my little girl.

  My distress must have shown on my face, because Jana’s eyes were full of sympathy. “You’re not betraying him by thinking of someone else.”

  “Yeah… I kind of am.”

  “No, you’re not. You did everything you could to find him. It’s okay to move on.”

  “It doesn’t feel like it. It feels like giving up.” Suddenly, the lateness of the hour and the turn in the conversation had me near tears.

  Jana scooted over and leaned her head against my shoulder, the same way I’d done with Blake that night in his private suite. “I wish you could find him. And I still bet he wishes he could find you. But at some point you’re going to have to move on. You can’t spend years pining for a ghost. You owe it to yourself to move on. And you owe it to my goddaughter in there.”

  I looked down at her in surprise. “Why her?”

  “Because she deserves a happy mommy. And who knows… maybe you’ll find a man who would be a good daddy for her.”

  Doubtful, but it was a nice thought. “And maybe he’ll have a friend for you.”

  “Right now, I’d settle for a best friend who can actually drink.”

  I checked on Zoe after Jana left. Then I poured out the rest of the wine since I couldn’t drink it, and cleaned up a bit. I probably should have gotten ready for bed, but I was too restless. Jana had inadvertently stirred up a lot of thorny issues.

  With a sigh, I sat down in front of my laptop. Checked e-mail. Caught up on the news. But then something Jana had said jumped into my head. About a friend who drinks. Plus, the wine she’d had.

  Typing quickly, I searched for that wine Zorro had liked. Latour.

  Results came flooding in. There were many different vintages, but all were expensive. The wine from some years sold for a couple hundred dollars, but other years went for a couple of thousand. I closed my eyes and tried to recall the vintage we’d shared, but I couldn’t.

  A fleeting daydream occurred to me. Suppose I ordered this wine, and when I placed the order, the seller commented that another man from my city frequently bought Latour. Then I’d ask who, and he’d tell me Zorro’s real name.

  It was a stupid fantasy that would never come true, but it seemed about as plausible as any other way I’d come up with to find Zoe’s father.

  My chest constricted as I thought about what Jana had said about that. Was it really time to try to move on? To just give up? As I considered that upsetting thought, I idly clicked on various links, looking at individual bottles for sale.

  A new fantasy sprung up—a more realistic one. One of me ordering one of the cheaper bottles. And after I was done nursing, opening it and drinking a toast to my missing mystery man. Drinking to that magical night. Drinking to the wonderful child it had produced.

  Drinking to say good-bye.

  Tears filled my eyes at that thought, but I continued to search. Finally, I found a bottle that was $425. That was a lot of money even though working at Hollister paid a lot better than catering.

  I couldn’t afford it. There was no doubt about that. But Jana was right, I was going to have to move on at some point. Not tonight. Maybe not soon. But at some point.

  Crying harder, I clicked the button marked BUY.

  Blake

  “Have another sandwic
h.” Penny looked great in the faded denim. She was sitting on the flimsy excuse for a picnic blanket with her long legs stretched out on one side as she leaned on her hand. She looked relaxed. Peaceful. As did the baby between us. Little Zoe looked adorable in her yellow dress complete with a floppy sunhat covered in ducks.

  “I’m good,” I said. And I was. Penny had jump-started my plan to get to know her better by inviting me out—something I hadn’t seen coming. She said it was a thank-you for my setting up the nursery. At first it was supposed to be for lunch, but we were already eating lunch together in the suite with the baby most days of the week. Then we tried for dinner, but her friend couldn’t babysit. So now it was a beautiful, sunny Saturday, and we were at a park a short drive from the city.

  I lay on my back and looked up at the sky, very conscious of the woman a foot away from me. It was a lot different experience than lying next to a woman in bed, but it felt more comfortable than I’d anticipated. Almost natural.

  When I’d picked up Penny, I’d been alarmed at how many things she’d brought, most of it for the baby. Stroller, car seat, and a half dozen other things. But she’d handled it all, and all I had to do was to carry what she couldn’t. I’d even managed to look casual while she fed Zoe her lunch a few minutes ago, covering the baby in a wraparound scarf of some type. I’d practically growled at a twenty-something guy who’d chased a Frisbee too close to where Penny sat nursing.

  Everything was perfect except for the cheap piece of red and white plastic beneath me. Zoe was sitting up, patting at the flimsy material as it rippled in the wind. And the edge of it whipped against my legs. “When I was a kid, we had this big ol’ plaid picnic blanket. That thing was great—genuine wool. Set it on the ground, it would have taken a hurricane to move it. And in the colder weather, it was warmer than any winter coat.”

  Penny looked at me curiously as she brushed a fly away from Zoe’s head. “Did you go on many picnics? You don’t seem the outdoorsy type.”

  “It’s a picnic, not wrestling bears.” I winked at her and was pleased to see a faint flush on her cheeks.