My Antisocial Billionaire: A Clean Billionaire Romance (My Billionaire A-Z Book 1)

by Katie Evergreen

  “Not here,” spat Michelle, swatting at a bug that had landed on her shoulder. “Inside.”

  “Where the papers won’t fly away,” added David, fighting to hold onto the envelope in the wind from the helicopter blades. “After you, Blake.”

  Blake paused for a moment, then turned and headed back to the house. Ellie walked by his side, not letting go of his hand until they reached the door. Isla had arrived before them and was looking at the trio of newcomers with murder in her eyes.

  “It’s okay,” Blake said. “They won’t be here long.”

  “I wouldn’t stay in this pig sty if you paid me,” said Michelle as she walked through the door. Blake turned to her, positioning his body in a way that made her take a step back in frightened surprise.

  “Michelle,” he said, his voice low and threatening. “The way I see it, you guys have spent the morning chasing your tails all over the West Coast, looking for me. Why? Because you need me. If I don’t sign these papers now, you’re facing a legal battle that could sink this company for good. So listen to me, and listen well. You can say what you want about me, but I swear if you say one more thing about this gracious woman, or her house, or her beautiful, kind daughter, then I will take those papers and stuff them into the garbage disposal and I will see you all in court. How does that sound?”

  Michelle’s mouth fell open like a landed fish and she looked away.

  “That’s an apology, right?” he said.

  “Sure,” she mumbled, turning to Isla. “I’m sorry.”

  “Enough of this,” growled David. “I’m bored. Get me a table, and let’s finish this thing.”

  He shoved past Blake and walked to the dining room table, pushing Ellie’s laptop and notepads out of the way. He opened the envelope and pulled out a sheaf of papers, all covered in small legal type. Post-its pointed to at least seven places where Blake would have to sign. Slapping it down on the table, he grinned at Blake.

  “It’s all yours,” he said, pulling a pen from his breast pocket and holding it out. “Maurice left you a handsome severance package, enough to get by on for the rest of your life, really, if you behave. Any last words?”

  “You’re disgusting,” said Ellie. “What you’ve done to Blake, you should be arrested for it.”

  “Oh boo hoo,” said David. “Welcome to the world of business, sweetheart. I’d try to explain it to you but it would go right over that pretty little head of yours. Blake was played, plain and simple. All these years people thought he was a genius and yet all it took to take him down were a handful of badly written fake posts.”

  “Hey,” said Michelle, walking to his side. “They weren’t badly written, they were carefully constructed. I knew people wouldn’t believe it unless it really sounded like him, so I made it really sound like him.”

  She laughed, and David put a hand on the back of her head, pulling her close and kissing her. Michelle looked at Blake out of the corner of her eye and Blake recoiled. How had he ever found himself attracted to her? She was grotesque, and she was evil.

  “But he’s innocent,” Ellie said. “You framed him.”

  “He was asking for it,” said Michelle, breaking free of David. “He’s a loser. He was more interested in creating a wholesome, positive social network than he was in making money. And everybody knows money makes the world go round.”

  “I made you millions,” said Blake, through gritted teeth.

  “It’s not enough,” Michelle replied. “It’s never enough.”

  “I can’t believe I ever thought there was good in you,” said Blake, and she laughed again.

  “But that’s you all over, isn’t it?” she said. “Blake the good man. Blake the kind man. That’s why this is all so beautiful. You’re the most decent person I know. You’ve never said anything offensive about women in your whole life. You respect women, you respect everyone. And now everyone thinks you’re a monster.”

  “And the beauty is, you admitted to it,” said David, laughing. “Yesterday at the press conference. I mean, we were expecting some kind of fight and we were prepared for it, but in the end you just rolled over. You seriously couldn’t have fallen into this trap harder.”

  “But why?” Blake said, his heart aching as he turned to his old friend. “I loved you, David. You were my best friend.”

  David’s expression wobbled for a moment, then Michelle took his arm and clutched it tight. David seemed to steel himself.

  “No room in this world for nice guys,” he said. “Just look at us, Blake. I’ve got it all, and you’ve got nothing.”

  At this, Blake smiled again. And to his surprise it was a genuine smile. He looked at Ellie and he felt nothing but happiness and relief. She was all he wanted. She was all he would ever want, even when they were old and grey.

  “I have everything I will ever need right here,” he said, speaking to Ellie. “All these years I thought I was happy, but it was only when I met you that I understood what happiness even was. They’ve taken my company from me, they’ve taken my money from me, they’ve taken my credibility from me, but they’ve left me with the most wonderful thing in the world. Love.”

  Michelle pretended to throw up.

  “Well don’t think your little flower here is going to save you,” she said. “Because we’re taking everything of hers as well.”

  “What?” said Ellie.

  “LifeWrite,” said Michelle. “It’s a great idea, and it’s ours.”

  “What?” Ellie said again, louder this time. She looked at Josh, who was skulking in the corner of the room. He walked to David and Michelle, dwarfed by both of them.

  “That’s right,” Josh said. “Did you think I wouldn’t strike back after what you said the other day? Do you really think I’d let you treat me that way? You wrote LifeWrite when you were with me, and I kept copies of all the code. I even helped you create it.”

  “That’s a lie,” Ellie said. “All you did was criticise and complain.”

  “Of course it’s a lie, but that’s your word against mine,” he said. “You never copyrighted it, you never patented it, which means it’s as much mine as yours.”

  “No,” said Ellie. She looked at Blake, tears in her eyes. “They can’t do that.”

  “They wouldn’t dare,” Blake said.

  “Oh it’s already done,” David said. “We signed a deal with Josh this morning. Say hello to Heartbook’s latest update, and its latest soon-to-be-millionaire board member.”

  Josh grinned wetly.

  “But I’ll happily take you back, Ellie, if you beg me.”

  Blake was on the move before he even knew it. He towered over Josh, his arm raised, his fist clenched, ready to pound him into the dirt. Only Ellie’s hand on his shoulder pulled him back. Josh squeaked, scampering back.

  “I’ll sue you,” he whined. “I will, just you try it!”

  “Sue me for what?” Blake said, stepping away. Josh looked for a moment like he might be about to hurl another insult at Ellie, but suddenly she was standing right in front of him. She slapped him across the cheek, hard enough for the sound of it to echo around the room. He dropped onto his knees, howling.

  “You are the very worst person I know,” she said. “The weakest, most despicable excuse for a human being. You deserve everything that is coming to you.”

  “Enough,” said David, losing his patience. “Sign it now, Blake, or face the consequences.”

  “I won’t,” he said. “Not unless LifeWrite is off the table.”

  “It’s too late,” David said. “There’s nothing you can do. You’ve lost. Both of you.”

  Ellie walked up to Blake and he held her tight.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I have everything I want right here.”

  “Me too,” he replied. “The weird thing is, I want to sign it. I want to escape. I want to escape everything. I want to escape with you.”

  “Then let’s do it,” she said.

  She let go of him, and he walked to the
table. David held out the pen and he took it. He knew he should have read through the contract and argued it. He knew he should have a lawyer present. But what he’d said was true. The only thing this contract represented, the only thing he was giving away, was the millstone around his neck, the one that had been pulling him down into the depths and stopping him from swimming. This wasn’t a termination contract, these were his release papers.

  He signed on each dotted line, then handed the contract to David.

  “That was almost too easy,” his old friend said. “You’re even more pathetic than I thought.”

  “Come on,” Michelle said, walking out of the room, her heels clacking on the wooden floor. “I’m sick of the stink of this place.”

  Josh was next, scowling at Ellie and massaging his blazing cheek as he made his way out of the room. David hung on for a moment longer, and Blake smiled at him.

  “I hope you find happiness too,” he said. “I hope you find your freedom. You were a good friend, David. I’ll miss you.”

  David frowned, swallowing hard. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then Michelle cleared her throat and he turned on his heels and marched away. Blake walked to the window, pulling back the net curtain and watching the trio climb into the helicopter. He should have felt fury, he should have wanted nothing more than to take his revenge. But the truth was, he felt lighter and more content than he had in years. He felt as if David and Michelle were soaring into the air with a bomb that he’d been holding for over half his life, and he was almost ready to dance with the joy of it.

  “Are you okay?” Ellie asked, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his back.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I think I am.”

  He turned around and pulled her close.

  “He had no right to do that to you,” he said, kissing the top of her head, breathing in the incredible smell of her. “We can fight it in court, we can get LifeWrite back.”

  “We don’t need to,” she said, breathing her words into him.

  “Why?” he asked.

  She lifted her head and her lips parted. He kissed her deeply, every single thought evaporating except for one: he loved this woman more than he had loved anything in his life. A small eternity later, she pulled away.

  “Why?” he asked again, hearing the excited hammer of his pulse in his voice.

  Ellie pushed her misted glasses back up her nose, then glanced at the table, nodding to her laptop. When she looked back at Blake she was grinning.

  “It’s still recording.”

  28

  It had captured everything—so perfectly that it was as if the camera had been set up to do exactly that. The beautiful irony of it all, Ellie thought, was that when David had pushed the laptop across the table, he’d positioned it in a way that framed the place where they had all been standing. David and Michelle were in the middle of the movie, their smug expressions captured as if by a master director of photography. Josh was there too, sneaking into the frame. Blake and Ellie were on the edge of the shot, and Ellie blushed when she saw herself march forward and slap Josh around the face.

  “That was amazing,” Blake said, putting his arm around her. He held her tight and she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.

  “You should have hit him with a closed fist, though,” said her mom, leaning over with a grin on her face. “Or a hammer. I’ll get the kettle on, we need to celebrate with tea.”

  She walked away, and they watched the rest of the video alone, Ellie barely able to keep the smile from her face. The old laptop had performed admirably, every piece of dialogue was audible—right up until the last few seconds when Blake and Ellie appeared on the screen.

  “You’re right,” said Blake, his words filtered through the speakers. “It’s still recording.”

  It went black. Ellie located the file on her laptop and duplicated it, then duplicated it again. Then she dropped it into an email and sent it to herself just in case the computer decided to explode. Only when she heard the bing of it landing in her inbox did she sit back. Her head was spinning, the adrenaline in her veins making her feel tired and heavy. The encounter with Josh had left her exhausted. For a while, she had lost everything—well, almost everything. Blake had stood by her side through it all, and she knew he would stand by her side for the rest of her life, if she let him. He would never abandon her.

  “What does this mean?” she asked, turning to him. He drew her close and kissed her gently on the forehead.

  “It means exactly what you think it means,” he said. “It means everything.”

  “It means you’re in the clear,” she said. “Everyone will know that you didn’t write those things.”

  “It means any court in the world will deny Josh if he claims he wrote LifeWrite,” Blake said. “It’s yours.”

  “It means David and Michelle will lose their jobs, won’t they?” she said. “They’ll be kicked off the board.”

  “Without a doubt,” he replied. “They might even go to jail.”

  “Do you want that?” she asked, taking his hand. He shook his head.

  “No. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, not even them.”

  “But you’ll get it all back,” she said. “You’ll get your company back.”

  He nodded, but the expression on his face was almost one of disappointment.

  “Do you want that?” she asked.

  “I honestly don’t know any more,” he said. “I thought I did, but so much has changed since yesterday. Right now, the only thing I want is this.” He looked around him, then he looked back at her. “The only thing I want is you.”

  “I feel the same way,” she said. “Nothing else matters.”

  They both looked at the laptop for a moment, listening to her mom clinking teacups in the kitchen. Outside, the goats bleated and the cows lowed, and the world seemed alive with birdsong. It was as if it was Ellie’s first time in the countryside and she wondered why she had never appreciated the full extent of its beauty before. Why had she given this up for the smoke and bustle of the city? Why hadn’t she moved back out here a long time ago?

  Because she hadn’t met the right person to be here with, she knew.

  “Part of me wants to delete that video,” Blake said. “I feel like I’m finally free. I feel like I’ve escaped. I don’t want to go back, ever.”

  “If we do that,” said Ellie. “Then people will never know the real you. People will always hate you.”

  “You won’t,” he said, touching her cheek. “And I don’t care about anyone else. I’m antisocial anyway. I don’t need people to like me.”

  She laughed.

  “It will just be us, on our island,” she said. “Like the Swiss Family Robinson.”

  “Paradise,” he replied. He sighed. “But it’s not right. Nobody should get away with what David and Michelle did to me, and what Josh did to you.”

  “So we send it,” Ellie said, the excitement fizzing up inside her. Blake nodded.

  “We send it. I’ll email it to the board.”

  “And I’ll email it to Buzzfeed,” Ellie said.

  “And I’ll make brownies,” added her mom as she placed a tray of tea on the table.

  “Sounds like a plan, mom,” said Ellie. She pulled the laptop to her and opened up a new email. “Strap in, Blake,” she said. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

  She fired off the file, passing the laptop to Blake. He typed a message, then emailed the video to the board. When it had sent, he closed the laptop lid.

  “Now we wait,” he said.

  “I’ve got some tomatoes that need picking, if you want something to do?” her mom said.

  “Are you game?” Ellie asked Blake, and he smiled.

  “As long as they’re nowhere near the goats, count me in,” he said. He stood up and took her hand, and together they walked out of the farmhouse into the sun. It was hard to believe that a few days ago Blake hadn’t been in her life. And it was crazy t
o think that a single encounter by the river could lead to something as incredible as this. But maybe it was destiny. They were old souls, after all. The universe had been waiting for them to meet.

  “Bumping into you was the very best thing that could have ever happened to me,” Blake said. He stood there, his skin drenched with sunlight, his eyes shining bright. He may have had mud on his clothes and grass in his hair, he may have been standing there bare-footed and glistening with sweat, but Ellie didn’t think there had ever been a time where she had wanted somebody more. He took her hand. “I love you, Ellie Mae Woodward.”

  “I love you too, Blake Fielding,” she said. She pushed her glasses back into place and leaned into him, seeming to melt away in the kiss that followed.

  “Those tomatoes aren’t going to pick themselves,” her mom yelled from inside. Ellie laughed, pulling away and taking Blake’s hand.

  “Lead the way,” he said. And she did, leading him into the yard, into the caress of the sun, into the glorious serenade of birdsong—and into their future.

  Epilogue

  One Year Later

  “Careful, Blake!” laughed Ellie, as he carried her through the door of their farmhouse, almost banging her head on the lintel.

  “Sorry,” he replied, grinning at her. He looked amazing, his hair ruffled, the top two buttons of his shirt undone to reveal the muscles of his chest, his jeans so snug they might have been painted on. The last few months had seen them both working outside for most of the day and his skin was so tanned it was almost bronze. His eyes glittered like sapphires. “I got carried away. I was too excited by the idea of carrying my bride over the threshold.”

  “Then I forgive you,” she said. He lifted her to him and kissed her, his breath full of the strawberries and mint they’d picked that very morning for the wedding drinks. After a small eternity he placed her gently on the ground, but she still felt as if she was walking on air. She made her way across the large country kitchen of their newly-bought farmhouse, staring out of the window. A small group of people milled in the large yard, chatting happily and sipping champagne out of tea mugs. Nobody was dressed up, not even the vicar who had just performed the ceremony. Ellie had never imagined that she would one day get married in a farmhouse yard dressed in a $30 sunflower dress, and to a man in jeans and a shirt. Then again, she’d never really expected to get married at all, let alone to the man of her dreams.