Billionaire Playboy

by Terry Towers

  “Not a surprise! Are you kidding me?”

  As usual when it came to that woman, I was confused. “We’re going around in circles here, Amy. I’ve dated. You’ve been in relationships. I don’t understand what is going on here.”

  “Because I always thought, eventually, we’d end up together.”

  Jesus. Here we go again.

  “I’ve seen you with her. You’re different.”

  “Now you’re talking crazy.”

  “You like her.”

  “Of course, I like her. What does that have anything to do with anything? I like a lot of people.”

  “Not like her though.”

  Reaching into my desk drawer, I pulled out a bottle of aspirin. “What? I’m not following you.”

  “You’ve been leaving work earlier than usual. Neglecting the business. You’ve barely given me the time of day.”

  “You’re pissed because I’m no longer fucking you? Me not fucking you grossly predates my relationship with Abby.”

  “Because you’re fucking her and even paying her! What is wrong with that picture? Why would you possibly want to be around someone you have to pay in order to have?”

  Anger was boiling up within me. I was seriously over this conversation. “I am not neglecting the business. Work is getting done. Making this place run is what I pay you people for.” Shaking a few aspirin into my palm, I tossed them into my mouth and swallowed them.

  “Us people?” she exclaimed, standing and planting her hands on her hips.

  “Employees. That’s what I have: employees. You are my employee, and from now on that is it. If you can’t handle that, then I’ll expect a resignation letter on my desk Monday morning.” Amy was seething. I could see the fire in her eyes, but I didn’t care. I was done with this nonsense. She’d be doing us both a favor if she resigned.

  “She’s a gold digger, Devon!”

  Gold digger. The accusation about Abigail had me seeing red. I stood so quickly, my office chair was sent flying behind me. “Out of my office, Amy!” Lucky for me it was Saturday and the office was like a ghost town, otherwise everyone on the floor would have heard me. “I want either the paperwork or your resignation on my desk Monday. You choose.”

  She seemed to deflate a little, and if I wasn’t mistaken I could have sworn I saw tears begin to well up in her eyes. Well, fuck that. She’d crossed a line and I was done.

  ~*~ TT ~*~

  Home, sweet home.

  After all the stupidity at the office, I was glad to be home and anxious to see Abigail. The look on her face when I’d shoved the pair of panties in her back pocket had been priceless. I’d had a breakthrough with her last night and I wanted to see where that would lead us tonight.

  “Abby?” I called out. Not to sound like a chauvinist, but I couldn’t help wondering what she was cooking tonight. She wasn’t the greatest cook, but she seemed to be trying and improving. I had an expensive collection of cookbooks in the kitchen that I never used which I’d noticed out of order, so it would be a safe assumption that she was making good use of them. I’d give them to her if she wanted them when she left.

  When she left…

  Hmmm. A part of me didn’t care for the sound of that. I was getting a little to comfortable with our situation.

  “Abby?” I called out again as I made my way towards the kitchen.

  Entering the kitchen, I was a little surprised to see she wasn’t there. Perhaps she was in the bedroom, wearing something erotic? My cock jerked at the though of Abigail, reclining on the bed with a black leather bustier and panties. That would be sweet, indeed.

  “Abigail.” I called out again, making my way up the stairs, shrugging out of my jacket as I climbed. It was a good thing that she hadn’t made dinner. I could take her and Isabella out to eat.

  “Ab - ”

  “Shhhh. You’re going to wake her up!” Abigail hissed, sticking her head out of Isabella’s room as I stepped onto the landing.

  Looking down at my watch, I frowned. “It’s not even quite dinnertime yet. Why is she in bed?”

  “She’s come down with the flu.”

  “Oh, I see.” A family dinner just went down to a romantic night out. It had been almost a week since I’d taken Abby out. Despite making it home earlier than I normally would lately, business had been so busy I couldn’t even invest as much time as I’d wanted to make her fall in love with me. So much for wooing her. The bet didn’t even matter to me anymore. My priority was simply enjoying my time with her and Isabella.

  “She’s been sick most of the day.”

  Walking towards Isabella’s bedroom, I replied, “But she seemed fine this morning.”

  “It came on all of a sudden.” She re-entered Isabella’s bedroom with me following behind her.

  Entering the bedroom, my heart went out to the little girl who was in the process of a violent cough. “Hey sweetheart.” I walked past Abby to go to Isabella’s bedside. “I hear you’re not feeling very well.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. My head and cough hurts.”

  “Your cough hurts?” I cocked a brow at her.

  Abigail laughed. “She means her throat.”

  “My throat,” the little girl confirmed.

  “Well, all right.” I directed my question at Isabella specifically. “Would you mind if I took your mother out for a little bit.” I leaned into her, my mouth an inch from her ear. “I’ll make sure we bring you home something cool.”

  She didn’t even hesitate. “Is Nina coming over?”

  “She sure is.” I grinned at her. Isabella had really taken to the nanny.

  “Go. Bring me back something.”

  “Isabella Grace Whitney, that’s very rude,” her mother scolded. “Besides, we’re not going anywhere so there’s no point in getting Nina to come over.”

  “But Mommy! I want to see Nina!”

  Straightening, I walked over to Abigail, lowering my voice so Isabella couldn’t hear, and said, “She’s fine with Nina. Besides, I’m hungry and you have a contractual obligation to attend any function or venue I choose.”

  “Are you saying I have no say?”

  “I’d never put it that way, but if it’s the only way to convince you to go out then, yes.”

  “Do you even know if Nina is available.”

  “She’ll make herself available. No worries on that.” Pulling my phone from my pants pocket, I made a call to Nina. She was busy, but she became available very quickly once she heard my offer.

  Chapter 21

  Abigail

  “You’ve been quiet. What’s wrong?” Devon asked from across the table.

  “Nothing. Nothing at all,” I responded, twirling the spaghetti around my fork. We were at the Olive Garden in Times Square. He wanted to go to some posh, upscale place. I wanted the Olive Garden. Ultimately, I ended up winning, saying that I wanted to play tourist and explore Times Square. I did enjoy the street performers, and with it being such a beautiful spring night, they were out in spades.

  “You’re lying. We’ve been living together for close to a month - ”

  “Three weeks,” she cut in.

  “Fine, three weeks, so I’d like to think I’ve gotten to know you pretty well by now. I haven’t heard a single smart-assed comment all night.”

  “Are you complaining?” I forced myself to smile.

  “Actually, it’s rather refreshing.”

  This time I did smile. “Really cute.”

  Reaching across the table, he took my free hand in his. “Is this about last night?”

  “Of course not.” The mention of the previous night and how he’d made me peak, over and over, made my cheeks warm and I lowered my gaze. I didn’t really know how to act around him. I thought I’d had him firmly planted into the “friend zone.” Boy, was I wrong.

  “Why are you lying?”

  “Why are you pressing this on me? I’m not the first woman you’ve slept with and won’t be the last, so let’s just drop i
t.” I said in a whisper attempting to keep my tone as cool and nonchalant as possible.

  Was he fishing for information? Was he hoping now that I’d slept with him that I’d fall head over heels and foolishly admit that I was falling in love with him? Well, I had news for him, I wasn’t about to fall for his games.

  “It meant nothing to you at all?”

  “No, it was stress relief, Devon. Nothing more or less.”

  “I see.” Devon released my hands and continued to eat.

  Was that disappointment in his eyes? Disappointment because of what? Because I hadn’t fallen in love with him or because he was falling for me?

  I huffed, silently chastising myself for being so foolish. Devon Townstead was a self-proclaimed player and ladies man. He wasn’t going to fall in love with his maid, especially with this bet over our heads. Cool detachment. That was my only hope to get out of this situation without another broken heart.

  We finished our food in virtual silence. We’d experienced silence before, but nothing as detached as this.

  ~*~ TT ~*~

  Stress relief. I vented to myself as I finished my meal. It shouldn’t have bothered me that she felt that way, but it did, and it wasn’t because of the bet. Fine, if that’s the way she wanted to play it, then that’s the way it would be.

  After paying the bill we exited the restaurant and stepped out into the night air. With it being Saturday night, Times Square was bustling, with people of all ages wandering the streets.

  “What would you like to do now?”

  “Walk,” she replied.

  “All right. We can do that.” Taking her hand in mine, I led her down the street. Times Square wasn’t an area I frequented often; there were to many tourists and craziness.

  “Oh look.” Abigail pointed to the big screen at the center of the square.

  The screen had a border of red roses and at the top in red script writing read “The Kiss Cam.” From somewhere in someone was shifting the camera to center on specific couples.

  It panned over to us. Abigail blushed upon seeing who it was focused on. Not wasting a moment, I pulled her into my arms and dipped my head, capturing her glossed lips with mine. She was caught off guard and was stiff in my arms at first, but as my tongue probed at her lips they parted, allowing me entrance as her body molded against mine.

  She tasted of peppermint as my tongue began its dance with hers. My arms around her waist tightened their grip, her breasts being crushed against my chest.

  The crowd around us began to cheer, but I was so wrapped up in the feel and taste of her that hardly heard the noise. The only two people that existed in my mind was us. When the kiss finally ended and she stepped away, I could see her wobbly on her heels and her face was flushed. The kiss had shaken her up. Good. I wanted her shook up.

  “What else would you like to do?” I asked, a grin creeping onto my lips. I knew what I’d like to do, and so did my dick which was starting to strain against my jeans.

  “There’s the wax museum. I’ve never been to one before.”

  Chuckling, I nodded. “If that will make you happy, then we can certainly do that.” Admittedly, I’d never been to one myself. Seeing a bunch of celebrities immortalized in wax wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time.

  “It might be fun.” She defended, shrugging her shoulders.

  “We’ll have to see.”

  ~*~ TT ~*~

  Devon

  “Okay. Fine. I’ll admit it. The museum wasn’t all that bad after all.” The museum was as boring as hell to me, but being with her made it enjoyable. Abigail raced from wax figure to wax figure, posing with the fake celebrities and taking pictures. She made the most of every second she was there. I was even able to snap a photo of her twerking with a wax Miley Cyrus. She wasn’t impressed over my capturing that moment for an eternity, but it was done.

  “Ohhh, look!” she exclaimed as we exited the gallery and continued our walk.

  My gaze followed her finger to see a ragged-looking man with a little table in front of him.

  “Ohmygod! They’re so cute!” Without another word she left my side and approached the man.

  Then my eyes spotted “them.” She was looking at four rats that were painted several different colors. I wasn’t sure what I was more disturbed about, the fact she was so excited about some rodents, or the fact the man had actually went to the effort to spray paint the critters.

  “Can I hold one?” she asked putting her hands out for him to deposit the rodent into her hands.

  Coming up behind her I leaned into her ear and whispered. “I pay good money to have those things killed in my buildings and you’re cuddling one?”

  “They’re cute.” She spun and held the one that was sprayed pink up to eye level. It’s beady pink eyes stared at me. Disgusting. And that fucking long tail. How could she think that thing was cute?

  “I’m seriously questioning your opinion of cute.”

  “The guy says it does tricks.”

  “Oh.” Raising a brow, I looked at the owner of the rainbow rats with skepticism. I think I’m fine not seeing any tricks. “Let’s carry on.”

  We walked for a few blocks and away from the square. “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.” Heading north east, we arrived on Madison avenue and I directed her to the Hermes boutique.

  “Hermes? Why are we going in here?” She asked as I opened the door and waved her in.

  “I thought we’d do some browsing.”

  “I’m hardly dressed for this place,” she hissed as we past the security guard, who nodded at us in acknowledgment. I could see her discomfort, but that was okay. Whenever she needed anything, I always sent the girl from Saks or Bloomingdales, but I figured it was time for her to go out to shop for herself.

  I chuckled, looking down at my jeans with rips and t-shirt. Lucky for me, ripped jeans were the in thing right now, so instead of looking old they just looked trendy. “I’m not exactly winning any fashion contests.”

  “I came here a year or so ago, just for shits and giggles with a friend. I wasn’t given the time of day.”

  “We could always go pretty woman on them,” I teased, giving me a wink.

  Rolling her eyes at me, she began looking. I had intentions of buying her a few things, but nothing seemed to make her eyes light up with excitement. She was right though, not a single person made an attempt to assist. Not exactly the treatment I expected or was used to.

  “Mr. Townstead, so good to see you.” I recognized the voice. It was the boutique manager.

  Turning, I greeted the impeccably dressed gentleman I’d grown to get to know well over the years. “Grant. Good to see you again.” We shook hands briefly.

  “Taking the day off?” he asked, looking both myself and Abby up and down. “Who’s helping you today?”

  “Not a soul. We’ve been here for some time and not a single associate has offered to help.”

  The managed scowled and cursed under his breath; it was said as little more than a whisper, but I’d heard it. “We’ll fix that. You have my apologizes, we’ve had a very busy day.”

  He turned to grab the nearest associate, but I stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “No need, we were just browsing anyhow.”

  Grant came closer to us. “Listen, I have something really special out back.”

  “Really? What’s that.”

  The manager lowered his voice. “We have a Birkin. It’s in a beautiful, rare color.” He looked over at Abby. “It would look stunning on your ladies arm.”

  “No.” Abigail shook her head, her dark hair swaying behind her from the motion. “But thank you for the offer.”

  I had no idea what a Birkin looked like. I’m sure I’ve seen them at one point in time or another, but wouldn’t be able to point on out in a line-up to save my life. “Are you sure? Grant can take you out back to look it over.”

  She blushed. “I don’t think it’s quite my style. Thank you though.” I didn�
��t miss the fact that she attempted to hide the handbag she was carrying behind her. That wouldn’t do, but I wasn’t going to force something she didn’t like on her.

  “No worries. If there anything else I can help you with? I can grab an associate.”

  “Thank you, but that’s not necessary. Thank you again.” I gave his hand a shake and we said our goodbye’s. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Grant rounding a few associates up and begin speaking with them. He was pissed.

  “Those bags start at over ten thousand,” she informed me as we exited onto Madison Avenue and continued our stroll. “Isn’t that insane? I saw them in Cosmo magazine a while ago.”

  I didn’t make her go into any more of the stores, but watched her reactions to the items in the window. When we reached Dior, I got the reaction I’d been waiting for. She hesitated as we started to past the window, her eyes lit up and she smiled. I saw the yearning in her eyes. Before us was a pink handbag with a flower painted onto it. It was pretty, I’d give her that.

  Bingo.

  “In here.” As we reached the entrance, I veered off and grabbed the door handle, motioning for her to enter. She’d never ask me for the handbag, I knew this. Her pride wouldn’t allow it. But she couldn’t stop me from buying it and giving it to her.

  “All right.” She entered the store, me trailing behind her.

  We were greeted by an associate almost immediately upon entering.

  “May I help you?”

  “Yes, there’s a handbag in the window. Pink with a flower on it. We’d like to purchase it please.”

  “Devon?” Abigail looked up at me and frowned. “It’s not…”

  “Did you want it wrapped?” I asked her, ignoring her protests.

  “That’s not necessary…”

  I looked back up at the sales lady. “If there’s anything else she likes then let me know. We’ll take that too.”

  “Oh – Okay.” The woman smiled and scampered off to grab my requested item.

  “Devon. I don’t need a fancy bag.”

  “You may not need it, but you’re getting it.”