Taming The Billionaire

by Darcia Cobbler

  “It’s more than that. You might fool everyone else with your cool expression, but I can see right through it.”

  I looked into her eyes, wondering how much I should tell her.

  “He did something to you and now you’re trying to get revenge, aren’t you?”

  She was good. I was starting to wonder if she wasn’t an agent herself.

  “Fine, you got me. Five years ago, his men killed my sister, thinking she was someone else. They desecrated her body and left her in the river. I couldn’t even give her a proper funeral because the coroners had no hope of reconstructing her face. She always said she didn’t want to be cremated, but that was my only choice after what he did to her. I don’t even want to imagine what she had to go through… he must’ve known she wasn’t his girlfriend when he found her and yet, he killed her…” My voice started to shake, my hands clenching into fists. “So, I have to get this man behind bars before he does that to someone else’s sister… daughter… mother.”

  Brooke was quiet for a moment before she grabbed my hand in hers. “So, let me help you.”

  ***

  Despite all my protests, Brooke was still on the back of my motorcycle, riding toward the poker parlor. I had to give it to her, she was one brave girl.

  Hopefully, my plan would work. Just in case, I grabbed a gun and tucked it into my jacket. My squad was only a few streets over ready to crash the party at the first sign of trouble but you could never be too careful, especially with a beautiful woman by your side.

  I parked in the same spot and once again brandished an ace of spades. The guard seemed to recognize me because he practically growled, his teeth bared like a dog.

  Inside, the parlor was filled with a lot more people than the previous night. Men in tailored suits. Women in fur boas and glittering jewelry on their fingers. Ace was smart. If he wanted to kill me, doing it here, in front of this many people, would definitely send a message.

  Luckily, he wasn’t the only one with a few tricks up his sleeve. Pun intended.

  “Ah, Zach, I’m glad you could make it. And I see you’ve brought along the lovely pianist.” He leaned down to kiss her hand. I had to do everything in my power to keep my composure. The last time we were here I didn’t really think much about him kissing her. It was all part of the act. But now, a flare of jealousy surged through my body.

  Was I starting to get attached to this woman?

  I sure as hell hope not. Such a thing was never good. Made you vulnerable. Made you weak.

  And yet, deep down, anytime I thought of her beautiful brown eyes, my heart beat just a little faster.

  Great, now I sound like some sappy poet.

  Get it together, Zach. This is no time to be thinking about such things, especially since one wrong move meant we’d both be dead.

  “Please, sit down, the game will begin shortly.” To my surprise, he didn’t bother making Brooke sit in his lap. He was definitely up to something.

  As customary, he shuffled the deck and dealt the first hand before passing the cards to his dealer. The game went on smoothly enough. It was obvious that Ace was cheating, but no one dared to say a word. I kept my cool, scanning the area every once in a while. Just as I had observed in my first game, the guards switched positions every four hours. For about thirty seconds, certain parts of the room were left unguarded. That would be my ticket to getting out of here alive.

  “Raise,” I said, placing one of the larger chips on the table. I had a pretty good hand and I wasn’t even cheating. Maybe luck was still on my side after all.

  Ace grinned, calling my bet and nodding at his dealer.

  A golden ace of spades appeared on the table.

  The other players gasped. I was as good as dead.

  I felt the cold barrel of a gun against the side of my neck. In a flash, I grabbed the guard’s arm, yanking him forward, smashing his arm against the table so hard that it broke. The giant screamed, but the pain only seemed to anger him further. He charged, lunging for me, trying to push me into the wall, but he was much too slow.

  I was so occupied dealing with the bodyguard that I didn’t notice Ace grabbing Brooke. She screamed, a knife pressed against her neck. “I wouldn’t do anything stupid if I was you, Agent Moore. Or did you think I was foolish enough to fall for your little tricks.” He laughed, towing Brooke toward the fireplace, kicking her dress skirt toward the flame. If it got any closer, it would ignite and Brooke would be burned alive.

  This man truly was a monster.

  “Dozens of men just like you have come here thinking they could outsmart me, but they all went back home to their families in a body bag.”

  “Well, lucky for me, I don’t have a family. You murdered the only family I had left five years ago.” Sick of his bullshit, I reached for my sidearm and pulled it out.

  Once I pulled the trigger, everything went silent for a moment.

  Ace stood there like a statue and I thought I had missed.

  “Son of a bitch!” He bellowed, his shoulder now red with blood. He threw Brooke to the side as he charged at me.

  No one interfered in our fight, almost as if they were shocked by the fact Ace had been shot or that he was actually doing his own dirty work.

  Hell, he even took me by surprise, slamming me into the wall and winding me for a moment.

  It didn’t take long for me to get my bearings. I grabbed his arm and twisted it back, nearly ripping it out of his socket.

  He groaned, but flung his head back, hitting me in the nose. I heard it crack, blood rushing out like a fountain.

  Outside, the sound of sirens could be heard.

  “Don’t just stand there, you idiots! Do something!” He screamed.

  His guards went running outside to meet my squad, leaving me alone with Ace.

  All his so-called friends had high-tailed it out of there the first chance they got.

  We tussled on the ground, but I had the clear upper hand, my rage fueling me like nothing else. I punched his face over and over again until he finally managed to move out of the way. I rammed my hand into the ground. He flung me off him and scrambled for a nearby gun.

  Bang!

  ***

  I don’t know how long I was out for, but when I woke up, it felt like I had been hit by a train. Had I died? I hope not… If you can feel pain in Heaven that sure as hell sucks.

  Slowly, I tried to open my eyes, only to be met by a bright, white light.

  Great, I really was dead.

  So much for beating Ace.

  I groaned, the pain crippling, especially in my leg, like it had been run over by a train.

  “Zach?” The sound was distant, almost as if I was underwater. “Zach?” I heard it again, the voice familiar. “Zach!”

  Suddenly, there were arms wrapped around me, causing pain to shoot up my spine.

  “You’re awake! Thank goodness you’re awake.” Something wet touched my cheek and I heard someone sobbing.

  My mind was muddy, but piece by piece, things were starting to come together.

  Brooke!

  My eyes shot open and I finally saw her beautiful face, now tear-stricken as she held me closer. Wetting my lips, I tried to speak, but my tongue felt like it had tripled in size.

  She seemed to know what I was doing because she pulled away slightly. “Don’t try to speak…” She said, her hand on my cheek, her eyes watery. “God… I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “W-What happened?”

  She sighed at my stubbornness. “Ace shot you.” She explained.

  “Did he get away?”

  “Unfortunately, yes…”

  I started to get up, ripping the IVs from my arms. “I have to –”

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She said, pushing me back down a little harder than she needed to. “You nearly died. You aren’t getting out of this bed until the doctor says you can and even then, you’re staying with me until you’re fully healed. I’m not letting you go out there
and do something stupid again.” Her voice was firm and I knew she wouldn’t let this go.

  Suddenly, she kissed me, her lips full of desperate, unspoken emotion. Even without saying a word, I knew that she deeply cared about me, that she was scared of losing me.

  We broke away and she looked into my eyes. “Promise you’ll stay with me until you get better.”

  I gazed at her worried but determined face. “I promise. But then, I’m going after Ace and finishing him once and for all.”

  “Good, because I just enrolled in the police academy.” She winked.

  “Brooke...” I was going to say something about her decision but my body suddenly gave in and I dropped back to bed. I could still hear her voice in distance calling for a doctor as I was falling into sleep again.

  I may have lost the battle, but I sure as hell wouldn’t lose the war, especially not with Brooke by my side.

  THE END

  Billionaire’s Nanny

  CHAPTER ONE

  “You promised you’d come out tonight. You were supposed to pull your nose out of that laptop after we graduated, remember?”

  “Cheri, I’m not studying. I’m looking for my career start,” Samantha says.

  “I told you, I’m fine to cover your part of the rent again this month. It’s no big deal, now c’mon, let’s get you dre--”

  “Cheri! It is a big deal. I’m not your charity case. I’m a grown-ass woman who is perfectly capable of paying her own way.”

  “Yes, yes, and I love that you don’t take the easy way for anything. But tonight, my dear, you are my date to the SpaceMark party, and you promised you’d come no matter what,” Cheri says. “You’ve been at this all day--all month. Take one night off and start living your life.”

  Samantha knows she is right. She closes her laptop and looks at the open closet where Cheri is already trying on a little black dress and gold heels.

  ***

  An hour later they step out of a cab in front of an impressively large house.

  “Jesus, Cheri! What is this place? It looks like the Queen of England’s summer home.”

  “This, my dear, is where we are spending our evening. Welcome to the SpaceMark party!”

  “I thought we were going to some hotel or event center.”

  “Nope. SpaceMark likes to put the personal touch on what they do. It’s hard as hell getting them to buy equipment from us--their rep certainly made me jump through some hoops to make the sale--but they know how to throw a good party.”

  The inside pulses with beats. Two women dressed in all gold take their coats and bags, and lead them to the entrance of the ballroom. Samantha pauses at the threshold, a little intimidated by the crowd and extravagance.

  “C’mon! You’ll love it,” Cheri shimmies her hips a bit as she reassures Samantha. “Let’s get you a drink.”

  Cheri is right. A drink, a little settling in and chatting with some people, and Samantha was starting to have a great time. A man with a shiny suit and very tall hair asks her to dance. She remembers Cheri’s words: “You don’t need to want babies with a guy. Just dance. Just be a person with other people.” So, she dances. And she dances some more. And by the time she goes up to the bar for another drink, she is glistening with the heat of her movement.

  Just as she takes her drink from the bartender, an obviously drunk man trips and knocks her hand, spilling her drink down the front of her dress.

  “Hey! What the--”

  “Guess you should’ve been standing somewhere else little mousey,” the man says as he laughs loudly and points at her dress.

  A tall and extremely handsome man appears behind the drunk and firmly takes him by the shoulder. “Excuse yourself,” the handsome stranger says with an edge in his voice. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  The laughing stops, color drains from the drunk’s face. “I’m...I...so sorry,” he says as he looks up at this tower of a man. “I just--”

  “You just what? Thought it was ok to drunkenly smack into a beautiful woman, ruin her dress, and then make fun of her for the mess you made?”

  “Sir, I--”

  “You’re done here. Goodnight.” The mysterious man glances at nearby security who immediately step up to accompany the troublemaker to the exit. The drunk hangs his head and walks away without saying another word.

  “I’m so sorry, Ms.--”

  Samantha is gazing up at this gallant knight, her mouth a little open. Finally, she manages to find her name. “Uh, Ms. Robin. I mean, Samantha. Samantha Robin.”

  The knight steps in closer to her and assesses the stain on her dress. He puts a hand on her hip and says, “Well, Ms. Samantha Robin. I know a trick for just such a situation. Will you come with me?” With his hand at the small of her back, he guides her through the crowd, down a dimly lit corridor, and into a small library. Upon shutting the heavy door, he says, “Right over there, by the brandy.”

  She stands next to a gleaming cart topped with cut crystal decanters of amber liquid.

  “Are you a fan of scotch?”

  Sam nods, making a mental note that she’s always meant to try scotch.

  “Then you should really try this,” he says, pulling the stopper out of the bottle and draining the very last of the liquid from the crystal. “There were only two hundred bottles ever made.”

  Samantha lifts the glass to her nose and takes in a long breath of its earthy, sea spray smell.

  “It’s like making love at the line where the forest meets the beach, isn’t it?” He looks at Samantha intently while she takes a careful sip. “Now,” he continues without waiting for her opinion, “let’s do something about that dress.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I think it’s ruined--”

  “Nonsense!” he cuts in. “I have a magic touch. You’ll see.” He winks at her.

  Samantha blushes brightly, and nods in agreement. The scotch is warming her all over, and having this handsome stranger help her with her dress, in a remote room of this giant mansion, is exactly where she wants to be right now. This surprises her.

  “You’re going to have to trust me,” he says as he steps close enough for her breasts to touch his chest.

  Without a thought, she replies, “I do,” again surprising herself.

  And with that, the man reaches around and pulls down the zipper of her dress. Samantha’s skin ignites with a flush. She’s motionless, held by this incredibly sexy man’s blue-green eyes.

  “This will just take a moment,” he says while grabbing a small white towel from the cart, never breaking his hold on her eyes. “Put this inside your dress under the stain,” he says, smiling in a knowing way.

  Samantha usually expects men to take any liberty they can. This one unzipped her dress and went no further. And, Samantha finds herself somehow disappointed. The man goes to quick work with the stain, pouring a little seltzer onto the fabric and firmly dabbing it with a cloth.

  “There,” he says as he steps back and admires his work. “The stain is gone, even if you’re still a little wet,” he says and gives her a little wink.

  “I am?” she asks in a distant voice, unable to take her eyes off of him.

  He lets out a laugh that sounds like a full moon spilling all its silver onto her. “Yeah. It seems just a bit,” and he points his chin at her dress.

  “Oh!” she wakes up from her daze and looks down at her dress. “Wow! This is fantastic! Thank you so much.”

  “No worries. In college, I used to cater parties like this, and you pick up a trick or two.” He flashes her a smile that makes the space between them feel unbearable big. After they linger in that space for a moment, he continues, “You should probably get back to the party. I bet your friend is looking for you.”

  “Oh my goodness! You’re right,” she exclaims as she gathers her things in a fluster. At the door, she turns back around. “Really. Thank you,” she says these words with deep meaning and smiles at the stranger who’d saved her from a jerk and just reminded
her that there may be more to life than spreadsheets and marketing plans.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “I’m here for Arabella Clark. I’m Connor Clark. I’m her father. I got a call she’s here.”

  The cop working the front desk scans through a list of names. “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t see an Arabella anything here. Are you sure she’s not down at county?”

  “No, she’s not down at county, she’s four!” Connor sighs, the tiredness in his voice obvious. “I was told she was picked up by some officers in the park and that she’d be here waiting for me. Now, where’s my daughter?”