“Okay I haven’t. Who’s trying to shove us out the door and why?”
“They really just want contract as an additional feather in an already heavily-decorated cap. These guys are the big league; I even heard they officially decorate the White House. Last two weeks, someone contacted me and wanted to know if we would drop out of the running but I told them we’re in it to win it. I was going to tell you that day but that was the same day you found out about Andrew and you were so torn up about it. The man was all cocky like his boss is the most persuasive man this side of the planet and when you factor in the fact that he’s the Alarico, you can understand why they have such faith in his abilities.”
Alexandra fought off a sudden wave of nausea as she digested this latest bit of information. The Alarico? “What is his name?”
“He’s a Spaniard…Leandro Alarico. He’s a big deal apparently.”
“Claire, do they know where this Alarico person is at the moment?”
“Um, I actually demanded to see him and tell the man off myself and the pissy rep assured me that he was out of reach. Something about him needing a working holiday or some such thing.”
Alexandra felt a great chill chase up her arms and straight into her bones. Her eyes swung to the briefcase lying open on the bed across the room. Wordlessly, she replaced the receiver and turned to stare around Leandro’s suite with new eyes. Who was this man?
Muffled singing from the bathroom told her he was still in the shower and she hurriedly rushed to peep into the documents lying in his open briefcase. Her heart stopped; it was a copy of a bid by Lead Inc for the same contract. The envelope beside it also revealed some pictures of her as well as some reports detailing her life and her personal habits. Tears blurred her vision. Was this why he had sought her out in Hawaii? Obviously their meeting had not been an accident at all. Everything that had happenedthe lovemaking, the laughter, the companionship it had all been nothing but a master-seducer at work!
Her sense of betrayal was absolute and complete as she stared at the document. With a flip of her hand, she flung it back into his briefcase and with quick jerky movements, picked up her clothes and fled to the sanctity of her room.
***
Leandro whistled to himself as he emerged from the bathroom. The world suddenly seemed brighter. He felt more cheerful and happier than he could remember. He was interested in finding out more about Alexandra, he wanted to know everything! That was a first for him, most women he dated, he barely knew more than their first names. There was just something unique about her. As much as he was captivated, it also that scared the hell out of him. At some level though, he thought, maybe that’s what I have needed – someone who can really see me.
He loved her, he realized. He waited to feel choked or trapped but all he felt was exhilarated.
He would tell her the truth today, he decided.
“Alexandra?” he called as he dried his hair with a towel, looking around the room. It was empty. Where had she gone? He strode into the adjourning bedroom, but she was not there either.
A niggle of unease trickled down his spine and he immediately swung about the room, searching wildly for something. He didn’t know what it was but he couldn’t shake the sudden feeling in his guts that there was something he should look out for. His eyes fell on the open briefcase and with a sense of dread, he walked closer. Instantly he knew what had happened. Dammit, he thought to himself. She had found the pictures and the bid. What a mess. He had not gone through the papers yet, but he knew, essentially what he had asked his people investigate for him. He picked up the first document and his jaw tightened as he read what was written on it; the idiot had even detailed where she shopped for lingerie!
Had she seen these? Of course she had.
Hurriedly he shoved his legs into his pants and dragged a tee-shirt over his head. He barely remembered to shove his foot into his loafers before he was barreling towards the elevator. He reached her room and shoved open the door; it was just as he had feared! All her belongings were gone.
Cursing in rapid Spanish,”Mierda, mierda, mierda” Leandro rushed downstairs, his heart in his throat as he looked over the crowd for any glimpse of her.
“Where is she?” he demanded of the receptionist.
The young woman took one look at him. All of the staff knew exactly who he was. She responded without asking who he meant, “She left Sir. She checked out.”
“When?” he bit out so furiously, that the startled receptionist drew back.
“A few minutes ago Sir. She was in quite a hurry.”
“Did you see which way she went?”
“No. But I’ll take a wild stab and say she was heading for the airport.”
Leandro didn’t wait to hear more; he left at a run, searching even as he headed for the door. But she was already gone. Weakly, he sank onto the pavement in front of the hotel. Whatever brightness had illuminated his day a scant twenty minutes ago had gone out completely.
Chapter Six
Alexandra Jordan was a mess. It had been seven weeks since she’d left Hawaii and while Lead Inc had not contacted them at all, she had been unable to get its conniving CEO out of her mind.
She had also been a nightmare to be around at work because she was so sensitive these days that the least thing set her off. In a single day, she had berated her CFO, fired a janitor and sent two new interns crying from her office after an intense scolding.
Three weeks after she had returned, the tension around her had been so palpable that Claire had pulled her aside and reminded her she was supposed to have gone on the break to relax and not to return an ogre. She had the temperament of a bear with a sore paw and she knew it.
When she had noticed that her normally stoic secretary now blanched every single time she so much as looked at the woman, and that even Claire was giving her a wide berth, she had gone home and had a good crying session just to get it all out of her system. These days she was more withdrawn and quiet which was a decided improvement from her earlier raging-bitch persona.
The past week, she had forced smiles until her cheeks hurt. She had smiled for real though when she learned that Beautiful Designs had somehow clinched the Alistairs Plc contract. Things were looking up, she had thought as she joined her colleagues for a toast in celebration.
But just when she had started to convince herself that Leandro was not worth her tears, her doctor had delivered what might have been amazing news under other circumstances, but felt pretty grim as things stood now; she was pregnant!
She had lost some weight, rather than gain some as one might expect, and the bags under her eyes were so prominent they threatened to dwarf her nose. She hadn’t been sleeping much either, she admitted but all that had to change now that she had a baby to think of. She looked around at the park; it was midday and she was pretty much alone. A few kids played in a nearby swing set while adults sat on some benches similar to hers, watching over them.
Alexandra’s hand rested both pensively as well as protectively on her stomach as she leaned back against the park bench and shut her eyes. She wasn’t showing yet but she already loved the tiny human being inside of her with all her heart. It wasn’t its fault that its father was a two-faced rat! But still, this was not how it was supposed to be!
“May I sit?” an achingly familiar voice said from right in front of her.
Alexandra’s eyes flew open disbelievingly. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The two-faced rat was standing right in front of her looking so unbearably handsome that she unconsciously started to grind her teeth. He was wearing a pair of well-washed jeans and a tee-shirt with simple sneakers and yet somehow he managed to look utterly respectable, male and delicious. He was also slimmer than she remembered; he actually looked a little gaunt.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered, her throat almost closing up. She had been torturing herself with images of his handsome, lying face since Hawaii but seeing him in the flesh was even more painful than her fevere
d anticipation had imagined.
“I need to talk to you Alexandra. You left the Island in a hurry and I had no chance to”
“To seduce me further just so you could get me to reveal secrets about my business? Well you failed; we got the contract!” she cut in acidly.
“Cara mia, I’ve hurt you but you will let me make amends yes?” he said, his Spanish accent thicker as he dropped his long frame onto the bench beside her.
Alexandra felt as though the entire air around them reverberated with the very force of his presence and vitality. She edged away from him a little on the bench.
“Alexandra? Come on, don’t avoid me, Cara mia,” he pleaded, his hand grabbing hers to still her nervous movements.
“You have a lot of nerve showing your face here,” Alexandra spat jerking her arm from his light grasp. “So all you wanted was a contract and you had to sleep with me too? The humiliation couldn’t just end at me warming up to you? You could have simply asked me to withdraw as a friend and I would have considered it. You didn’t have to pretend to like me and actually fucking take me to your bed!”
Pun was really not her strong suit, she thought distractedly.
“It looks bad I know, but I swear it was nothing like that,” he said gruffly, taking her hand in his.
She sprung to her feet, flinging off his hand, her heart racing as she said frigidly, “Leave me the hell alone.”
Something glinted fleetingly in his dark eyes but was gone before she could ascertain what it was and he said, “I can’t. I have tried a thousand times to let you go but I can’t. I tried to forget you. I can’t undo what is done.”
“You’re damn right you can’t! I hate you and I curse the day I met you,” she lied.
Leandro looked weary and deflated all of a sudden and Alexandra felt her heart constrict in her chest as she looked at him. In this moment he didn’t look the part of some corporate raider as she had painted him; he looked almost like a little boy whose heart was breaking.
“I never set out to seduce you. I came to Hawaii to persuade you to withdraw Beautiful Designs from the bid. Lead Inc has been trying to take over some companies, mostly subsidiaries of Alistairs Plc and this contract would have been like a leg in the door for us. Before I met you, it was just business, but once I saw you, I had to have you. I wanted to be with you, I should say. Seducing you was never my agenda. I swear it. I tried everything I could to stay away but I just could not forget you. Now that I know you exist, nothing is the same. All that I have accomplished means nothing without you. I was going to tell you everything that last day but you found out on your own before I had the chance.”
“Yeah you should have done a better job of hiding the papers I said,” she said bitingly.
He sighed, “That was the worst day of my life.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.”
“Alexandra, I pulled Lead Inc out of the bid. That was the first thing I did when I returned. You can verify from them, I swear. I didn’t want to take it away from you; not if it meant I would lose you.”
Her heart thudded in her chest. He had pulled out of the contract when it meant so much to his company?
Alexandra took a quick step back as Leandro rose to his feet and took her hand in his once more. “I’m sorry Alexandra. Please forgive me? I feel like I know you as much as I know my own self. Can’t you see? You are a part of me and I am a part of you. Our meeting was a gift. Can’t you see that?”
“You only know so much about me because you read it up in some report!”
“I never read the report. In fact I had only just printed them out that same morning. I never read them I swear. Our connection surprised me too. You are the funniest, kindest, sweetest, most beautiful woman I know.”
His dark eyes stared into hers, open and searching and she read the blazing sincerity and remorse in his gaze. She believed him, she realized.
Her resistance melted away and she nodded, “Okay fine. No harm done.”
“There’s something else.”
“Huh?”
Before her surprised eyes, he went down on one knee and pulled a little black box from his pocket, his dark eyes gleaming as he looked up at her. Alexandra’s throat closed up as she stared at him, her hands flying to her mouth when the box opened to reveal the biggest and most amazingly cut diamond she had ever seen in her life.
“I love you Alexandra. I know I absolutely do not deserve you but will you make me the happiest man on earth and say you’ll marry me?”
“II’m pregnant,” she blurted instead.
His eyes widened in surprise even as his gaze automatically dropped to her flat stomach before flicking up to her face.
“You’re” he began hesitantly.
Alexandra nodded, happy tears springing into her eyes as she grinned down at him. He rose to his feet immediately and gathered her into his arms, his hands encircling her waist as he crushed her to him.
“You’re perfect. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted,” he breathed against her lips. His kiss was tender and gentle. His tongue stroked hers sweetly sending waves of a calm and soothing peace shooting through her nerve endings as she clung to him. An almost indescribable feeling of happiness washed over her.
“You never answered my question,” he reminded her, lifting his head and looking into her eyes with all the love in the world shining from his.
“Yes Leandro, I’ll marry you. I love you too,” she told him.
As she kissed him, all the walls around her heart melted away completely leaving her free to embrace this wonderful love that was hers to savor forever.
THE END
My New Holiday Billionaire
Pamela Avery
Copyright ©2016 by Pamela Avery. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CHAPTER ONE
“I swear, Sage Tariq, if you shed one more tear over that loser… That’s it! Get up out of that bed!”
Sage looked up from puffy eyes at her friend of over ten years; Eden Carter was a force to be reckoned with. Eden was pretty, vivacious and knew her own mind with a confidence men seemed to find sexy. She was also one of Sage’s best friends, but right now, she was Sage’s least favorite person in the whole world.
Sage curled deeper into the fetal position; she wished heartily that she could disappear. She wished Eden would leave her alone; she wished everyone would just leave her alone. It wasn’t every day one’s fiancé dumped them in front of their boss and other colleagues, was it? She was dealing the best way she knew how.
Okay, so Brent Davies had dropped the bombshell over two weeks ago, but it took longer than that to get over a three-year relationship. Her friends, Eden and Beth, had rallied and taken her on a vacation to ‘get her mind off things’, but considering that tomorrow was the last day of their vacation and she was still tucked up in bed with popcorn and Kleenex, she didn’t think their plan had worked so much.
“Eden’s right, Sage, you need to get out of bed,” Beth piped up in her lilting voice. “We leave Madrid tomorrow, and so far, you haven’t taken in the sights. Eden and I have certainly had more than our fair share of fun while you’ve been lying here moping at the ceiling all week. Why, the hotel maids are beginning to look at us funny because they obviously think you’re an addled cousin we stashed out of sight in the room while we stuff our faces with lobster and sangrias every night.”
“Yeah, they probably think we’re Cinderella’s step-sisters without the step-mother,” Eden grumbled under her breath.
“I bet they think Step-mother is locked in here with you to make certain you stay put,” Beth tossed in.
It was too much, Sage burst into laughter, releasing the tension that had been binding her chest as she laughed and laughed and laughed. Beth was a jewel! She
was really Elizabeth Adams, but everyone called her Beth. Sage had known her for just five years, but in all that time, she had seen Beth get angry only once; when someone had insisted on calling her Elizabeth despite her stated preference for Beth.
Beth’s platinum blond hair and big blue eyes, as well as her petite frame and tiny voice, often made people assume she could be pushed around; she usually corrected anyone foolish enough to assume that in her own inimitable style. She also had a dry sense of humor that showed itself at the most unexpected moments; like now.
Even Eden was convulsed with laughter, her heavy red hair swaying around her face as she doubled over with hilarity; tears of mirth standing in her liquid green eyes.
As their laughter died, Sage rose to a sitting position, drawing her knees up to her chest as she looked up at her friends. Her blond hair fell around her face in lumpy strings, some of it falling into her big brown eyes.
“You’re right, guys. I haven’t been much fun, have I?” Sage asked, looking from one to the other.
“No, you haven’t,” Eden said honestly. “You’ve bawled your eyes out and memorized the ceiling for six days straight. Tonight is our last night here, since our flight back to the States is for tomorrow night. Why don’t we make it fun?”
Sage nodded, throwing off the duvet. She had dreamed of being in Spain for as long as she could remember, and now that she was, she had wasted the entire vacation. Anger roiled through her as she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. She was pretty with a heart-shaped face, big brown doe eyes, long blond hair that hung to her waist, the cutest set of dimples, and huge breasts that had always driven men wild. Her eyes sparkled as she examined her figure. She was very chubby, especially with the extra flesh on her hips, thighs and arms, but she loved her figure and she wouldn’t trade it for anything. She was voluptuous and perhaps slightly over-weight for her height of five foot seven, but she had a perfect hour-glass figure and an amazing carriage, and she was damned if she was going to let any man make her question her own femininity and attractiveness. She only had to walk into a bar sometimes and half the guys went crazy; Eden called her the ‘guy magnet.’
CHAINS (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 18) Page 33