Billionaires Meet Millionaire (A Steamy Romance)

by Jason Vasha

  "I was going for 'a first' and 'harsh' but necessary will work." Peter said thoughtfully.

  "Remind me never to get on your bad side." Bailey muttered, seemingly engrossed in his peas.

  "You couldn't if you tried." Niall said throwing him a rueful smile before turning his attention to Olta's hand. He had loosened his grip and was now lightly running his thumb over the back of her hand. His anger seemed to have vanished.

  "I actually thought it was sort of funny. Sad..but funny." Olta said, glancing around the table.

  She was met with four incredulous stares.

  "You thought it funny to be called names in front of a greater part of our year? To be humiliated so publicly?" Alice asked. Olta shrugged.

  "I just think she made greater fool of herself than me, is all. I mean as far taunts go I've heard them far more imaginative and accurate. "

  Olta realized a little too late what she had implied. And by the looks of even greater disbelief her friends had picked up on it. Not good. Those things were in the past, where they belonged.

  "I just believe that you shouldn't have let her get to you like that." Olta added quickly, looking at Niall. Surely that would deflect the attention from her earlier words. And it did.

  Niall looked at her intently as if searching for something. Then he just squeezed her hand, smiled a little and shook his head almost wearily.

  "Olta, do you know what just happened?" Surprisingly it was Bailey who spoke. Niall was still only looking at her intently.

  Olta had the distinct feeling it was a trick question.

  "Hmm, yes?" She asked hopefully. Why did she all of sudden feel like an ignorant child?

  "What you saw wasn't just Altea insulting you and Niall getting angry about it and standing up for you." Peter explained patiently.

  "It wasn't?" Olta heard herself ask stupidly and slapped herself mentally. That they were treating her like a child didn't mean she had to adopt the behaviour of one. Of course she knew there was al lot more to Niall' outburst than met the eye. She just couldn't read the subtext properly.

  "Look guys, how about we move this some place else." Niall said with a short jerk of head towards Daniel's table.

  And all of a sudden the subtext hit Olta like an anvil. Like a very large anvil with 'dense much?' written all over it in big bold letters. Daniel. Niall. Niall. Daniel. How nice that it all came back to that, once again.

  The realization must have shown on her face because Niall gave her an almost sage smile.

  "That's my girl." He said, with a definite hint of pride. Olta sure did like the sound of that. 'My girl'. Giving her a peck on the cheek he took his tray and got up.

  Olta followed suit but not without a final glance at Daniel. He seemed to lost in a deep conversation with Jason.

  "How about a nice stroll across our beautiful school grounds? What do you guys think?" Niall said as they had cleaned away their trays.

  Olta was about to agree when she noticed the questioning looks the others gave him.

  "Sure." Peter answered unsurely and the other only nodded.

  Olta felt Niall wrap his arm around her waist and he turned towards the terrace.

  People they walked by looked up at them and their conversations got more vibrant once they had passed. Even though she knew there was no helping it Olta didn't like all this attention. She didn't like the scrutiny. And right now she was being scrutinized severely. Judging by all the glowering girls she passed right now she thought about ninety-nine percent of the female population, single or not, hated her right now. Not that she could blame them. At least half of these girls seemed to be a better match for Niall, and that was only at first glance.

  Olta realized again that Niall drug induced affections weren't going to last. Trying to block out the sad thoughts she snuggled tighter into his embrace and she was rewarded by Niall tightening his grip on her. And as she felt his lips brush her hair swiftly Olta just had to grin. She was going to have her hart shattered to a million pieces but there sure would be some awesome memories.

  As she passed Josie she gave her a smile which was returned with a broader one and accompanied by a mouthed 'told you so'.

  Niall suddenly stopped in his tracks causing Olta to stumble slightly. Shooting her an amused and not quite apologetic smile he swirled around back to Josie.

  "Josie." Niall said politely with a grin. Olta quirked an eyebrow at him.

  So Niall knew Josie. Olta wondered what other revelations were in store for her today.

  "Niall." Josie acknowledged slightly surprised but her smile was still firmly in place.

  "I was wondering whether and your friends liked to drop by Alice's party tomorrow." Niall said.

  "That is of course if Alice doesn't mind." He added looking over shoulder grinning at Alice.

  Olta looked over her own shoulder to see Alice's reaction.

  Alice glared at Niall mockingly and stepped forward.

  "Of course I don't mind you inviting people to my party." She said giving Niall a pointed look. She then turned to Josie and she flashed a bright smile.

  "But if you want to drop by, you're more than welcome."

  Gaping like a fish suddenly got a visual as Olta looked at the girls at the table.

  Only Josie and her neighbor had their mouths closed. The neighbours was completely engrossed in her peas, much like Bailey had been earlier. Her face was a deep shade of crimson. Josie, however, just kept on smiling her smile even though her eyebrows had vanished under her bangs.

  "If everything else falls through we might drop by. Thanks for the invite." Josie said with a small nod.

  "Cool." Alice said and with that she turned and they resumed their route outside.

  "Niall." Bailey said as soon as they were outside. He was almost growling. Olta involuntarily took a step backwards as Bailey came towards Niall. She looked to Alice and Peter for some kind of explanation. They just stood aside and watched the scene unfold itself. Olta decided to join them. No need to get in middle of this, whatever it was.

  "What?" Niall said innocuously raising his hands in surrender. Olta could see he was working hard to suppress his smirk.

  "Just because you've got Olta now doesn't mean you can go and play matchmaker for the rest of us." Bailey said his voice was still dangerously low but he had stopped his advance.

  "Just you, Ry. Me and Alice aren't exactly single." Peter decided to throw in. Bailey shot him an evil glare over his shoulder before returning his attention to Niall.

  "I only invited Josie because Olta knows her and otherwise she wouldn't know anybody besides us." Niall was still playing the innocent victim. And doing a very poor job of it.

  Olta watched as Bailey looked about ready to pounce Niall. He looked pretty brassed off.

  Who was Niall setting Bailey up with? Surely it wasn't Josie. She was single but from what Olta had seen Monday morning she had a soft spot for Sam.

  "Right, and what if she hadn't been sitting with her sister, would you have been so magnanimous towards Olta then?" Bailey asked sardonically.

  "She has a boyfriend you know." He added and all anger seemed to have left him instantly. He sounded defeated.

  Olta looked at Alice and she was sure she mirrored the look of dawning realization and the widening grin that followed it.

  "No she doesn't." They all but yelled in unison. Bailey turned around slowly. A nice myriad of emotions played across Bailey's face. Confusion, doubt and hope were all there. He looked like a small boy.

  Before History on Monday Olta and Alice had been talking with Josie about her sister's crush on some sophomore. For the past month or so he would frequent the video store where she worked and they would talk about nothing and everything. Josie said that her sister had blurted out that she had a boyfriend on one his visits to protect herself from crushing any further.

  "She doesn't?" Bailey asked. Olta and Alice shook their heads, again in unison.

  "But she told me, well not exactly told me. But
you know one of those casually tossed in things so that a guy knows he doesn't need to try. So if she doesn't have one, then we all know what that means." He sounded utterly crestfallen as he moved to slump down to a low brick wall.

  "And you have been making fun of me?" Niall smirked broadly. Bailey snapped his head to Niall. Niall raised his hands in surrender again and wisely replaced his smirk with a look of concern.

  "No it doesn't you stupid fool. She has major crush on you. She didn't want get her hopes up." Alice explained as she sat down next to him and put her hand on his arm.

  "Really?" Alice only nodded. Bailey looked to Olta for confirmation and she nodded with an encouraging smile. He looked like a boy who just got told Interclass would be giving him presents after all. Of course in Bailey's case that would be Santa Claus.

  "Not that I'm not enjoying all of this. But who, what and how?" Peter asked, clearly exasperated by being the one out of the loop.

  Olta figured he and her mother would get along just fine.

  Alice turned to her boyfriend and opened her mouth to explanation but Niall cut her off.

  "Short version, Bailey likes Josie's sister and she likes him. Long version will have to wait." Niall glanced at his watch before turning to Alice.

  "Her name is Chesla." Olta heard Bailey mutter. She couldn't resist a roll of her eyes.

  "Look, Alice. I need a favour." Niall said. Alice looked at Niall unsurely.

  "I'd like to invite Sam and a couple of his friends to the party tomorrow as well." Alice looked horrified. Bailey and Peter looked at Niall disbelievingly.

  Olta was sure that she was missing something here.

  "What?!" She almost shrieked. "You want to invite Sam to my party. Need I remind you that he caused the Pairos' house to be almost burned to the ground?"

  Niall shook his head.

  "Niall, what are you playing at?" Peter asked.

  "Yeah, man, what is this all about?" Bailey piped up, having forgotten all about his love life for a moment.

  Niall ignored his friends as he continued.

  "First off, what happened at the Pairos was an accident. Secondly, I don't think he'll go rampaging through your house, seeing as he wouldn't be exactly crashing the party and thirdly if he does do any damage I'll pay for it. Okay?" His voice was very business like except for the slight pleading note at the end.

  Alice thought it over for a moment and then nodded her assent.

  "Okay but they break it, you buy it. And you better be sure what you're doing." She said. She was clearly not too pleased about this.

  "Thanks. Right let's get going then." Niall said throwing an arm around Olta's shoulder and steering her across school grounds.

  Olta mulled everything over. She knew Sam was kind of a punk, both in lifestyle and attitude but Olta found that after he had gotten over his condescending attitude towards her, she liked him, just like she did Josie. Before she could think any further about things she heard Bailey's voice.

  "You know he's going to throw a fit, don't you?" Olta didn't need to ask who Bailey was talking about. So, this too was a way to get at Daniel. What was Niall playing at?

  Niall nodded. Olta noticed he was grinning, once again. Bailey sighed.

  "Alice is right, are you sure you know what you're doing?"

  "Just playing around. Nothing serious." Niall answered and Olta couldn't help but think that that wasn't all there was to it. Bailey obviously didn't think so either.

  They found Sam and his friends lounging at a secluded part of the grounds. As they approached them, the group stopped their activities and rose almost like one man.

  Olta glanced over the group. They definitely were the punk group of the school. Most of them Olta had seen around the school but there were some unknown faces there. They were decidedly suspicious of them.

  Sam stepped forward. Where his friends were suspicious Sam was clearly intrigued.

  He swept his eyes over them swiftly before focusing on Niall and Olta.

  "Told you he liked you." He smirked at Olta and she couldn't help but smirk back.

  She felt Niall mouth near her ear.

  "Sam told you I liked you?" he asked quietly, genuinely surprised. Olta nodded, not taking her eyes of Sam.

  "Should listen to him, he's a smart man." He added in a stage whisper, loud enough for Sam to hear. Sam acknowledged this with a small nod in Olta's direction before turning his attention to Niall.

  "So what brings to this neck of the woods?" He asked, not trying to hide his surprise.

  Somehow this felt like a business meeting between two gangs who weren't rivals but weren't quite allies either. And both Niall and Sam were playing the role of leader with vigour. The image of Niall as a mobster came to life.

  All of a sudden Olta's nose caught a very familiar scent. Someone was smoking grass. And not just any kind. She recognized the kind of grass that was being smoked but couldn't put her finger on it. She looked in the direction where the scent came from and spotted a guy with green hair holding a joint leisurely.

  "I would appreciate it if you and a couple of your friends made an appearance at Alice' party tomorrow." Olta heard Niall ask but her eye was on the joint. She shook her head wearily. God, Americans really didn't know how to roll a proper spliff.

  "And shake things up a bit?" Sam asked although it sounded more like he was musing out loud.

  The green haired guy had apparently noticed Olta's gesture and mistaken it for some sort of moral indignation. He made a show of taking a puff and blowing out the smoke into her direction wiggling his eyebrows.

  "It might make things fun." Niall replied.

  Olta rolled her eyes at the guy's antics. She was, what, supposed to be impressed or shocked now? Right, better leave him be. Olta returned her full attention at the conversation.

  "Sounds like it could indeed." Sam said and his smirk grew even wider. Then he turned to Alice, who wasn't hiding her apprehension about the whole situation.

  "Don't worry Alice, we'll be on our best behaviour." Sam said sincerely giving her a crooked smile. Alice relaxed visibly at that and gave him small nod. She seemed rather subdued.

  Then Olta finally placed the scent.

  "Northern Lights." She blurted out and kicked herself mentally for doing that. Great, why not take an add out in the paper why don't you.

  Sam smiled at her appreciatively but Niall and Alice looked at her with her confusion.

  "The grass he's smoking, its Northern Lights." Olta explained softly, pointing at the guy in question. He, in turn, looked at her bewildered.

  "Right, well we need to get back." Niall said still looking confused. He looked at Sam once more.

  "So, see you tomorrow then?" he asked, his confusion was readily replaced with a smirk.

  "Sure thing." Sam said and he was smirking too. It seemed like they had were sharing a private joke. They probably were too.

  As Niall ran his hand over her back all Olta could do was wonder whether he wasn't getting himself into a shitload of trouble.