Utterly Yours
Book Three
An Alpha Billionaire Romance
By
Alexa Brookes
Copyright © 2016 Alexa Brookes
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
Table of Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
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Chapter 1
Nathaniel cringed when he saw the sun coming up; he had walked through Frear Park all night. “This is getting ridiculous,” he muttered. This was the second time he had spent an entire night trudging through this park searching for Lillian. This time was different, though. This time he knew who she was, and he was desperate.
He had to work at the shelter again –if only to convince his business partner that he was being productive. Adam had been understanding when Nathaniel had told him that he needed to spend a couple of extra weeks in Troy at the shelter, but Nathaniel had not told him it was really because he was hunting for a woman he had scared away. Lillian was special –although Nathaniel could not quite figure out why. He had really made her angry, and now he was regretting it. His worry for her grew with each passing day as he entered into his fifth extra day spent in Troy. Two weeks and five days he had been in his hometown, and he was missing his new home in California less and less. Before coming here, he thought that he would hate going back to Troy, but seeing Lillian had changed all of that.
Nathaniel headed back to his car, and he slammed his foot down on the gas –peeling out of the parking lot and onto the main road. He still had time to make it back to the hotel and shower before his assistant would be knocking on his door for his wakeup call. In the past five days, Nathaniel had walked through Frear Park at least a dozen times, and he had explored much of the surrounding area in Troy as well.
He pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, and he tossed his keys so rapidly and angrily at the valet that they slapped the kid in the chest and fell to the ground; he had to bend over, stumbling slightly, to pick them up. “Sorry,” Nathaniel grumbled as he marched inside the hotel and up to the presidential suite on the top floor where he had been staying for the past few weeks.
Nathaniel took a quick shower, scrubbing his scalp with a righteous fury as though he thought he could physically scrub the frustration away. He had been convinced that that night was going to be the night that he found Lillian, and now he felt like he had wasted a lot of time and was going to be sleep deprived for the rest of the day for nothing. Once again, he had come up empty handed.
He exited the shower, toweling himself off before wrapping the towel around his waist. He hadn’t ordered room service, so he checked the fridge. Tony, his assistant, always stocked his fridge for him whenever they were on trips just in case. There wasn’t much, but there was jelly in the fridge and bread on the counter. After locating a toaster, Nathaniel decided to make himself some toast with jelly. He may have been used to being waited on hand and foot, but even he could make himself some toast.
There was a knock on the door; he was still just wearing a towel around his waist when he flung the door open, startling Tony slightly. “Damn it, man, put on some pants!” Tony said and looked away.
Nathaniel rolled his eyes and walked back into the hotel room as Tony awkwardly made his way inside. “Hold on, give me a minute,” Nathaniel said and disappeared to the bedroom, returning shortly wearing a pair of jeans and the volunteer t-shirt for the shelter. He plopped himself down at the bar, slapped some jelly onto his toast, and began eating.
Tony poured him some orange juice without being asked; he knew Nathaniel well enough by now to know he would ask for it eventually. “You look like shit, man,” Tony said.
“Fuck off,” Nathaniel warned. He normally had a good relationship with his assistant that allowed for them to joke around from time to time, but today he was not in the mood.
“Sorry,” Tony said.
“I was up all night walking through that damn park trying to find Lillian,” Nathaniel huffed as he took a bite of his toast.
“Seriously?” Tony questioned. He rolled his eyes. “Man, I told you not to play around with her like that. Women, or at least decent women, don’t think that shit is funny.”
“All right, I get it. You told me so. Let’s move on past my fuck up, all right?” Nathaniel was seething in his anger and frustration. “Did you figure out what was going on with that missing 10K?”
“Well, not yet-” Tony began, and Nathaniel banged his fists hard and so suddenly on the table that Tony jumped.
“What the fuck, Tony?” Nathaniel shouted. “I told you about that shit five days ago, and you’re telling me you still don’t know where my fucking money went?”
“Well, I, uh-” Tony stammered.
“Fuck!” Nathaniel pointed a finger across the bar at Tony. “Figure it out, damn it! This is the second time this month that my money has gone missing. First it was thirty thousand, and now another ten thousand? Less than ten fucking people have access to those accounts. It shouldn’t be that hard for you to figure out who transferred it out.”
Tony became pale. He certainly was not used to his boss speaking to him so harshly. “Of course,” Tony said. “I’ve been trying to figure out what happened, but everyone I’ve talked to doesn’t seem to-”
“I don’t give a shit, Tony!” Nathaniel snapped. “Don’t give me excuses, just figure it out! It’s probably someone in accounting fucking things up. Find out why my accounts aren’t balancing and what dipshit is messing with my money, or I’ll fire your ass. You’re not the one doing it, are you?”
“What?” Tony shrieked. “No! Of course not! I wouldn’t steal from you.”
“Who said anything about stealing, Tony?” Nathaniel hissed. “I just thought maybe you were forgetting to report company spending’s. You have a guilty conscience or something?”
“No!” Tony yelped. “I would never steal from the company!”
Nathaniel gritted his teeth. He wanted to keep screaming at the kid if only to take out his frustration on something, but he bit his tongue. He took a breath and let his shoulders relax. Nathaniel looked at Tony sympathetically and said, “I’m sorry. It’s been a rough few days, and I’m taking it out on you. I still need you to figure out what’s going on for me, but I don’t need to flip out like that.”
Tony nodded, but he did not say anything. Nathaniel had scared him to silence. Nathaniel always worked hard to maintain a friendly demeanor towards his employees –especially Tony who was perhaps the single most dedicated employee he had ever had as well as one he spent a considerable amount of time with. He didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable around him. “Really, Tony,” Nathaniel said, hoping to drive his point home, “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”
“It’s fine, really,” Tony said, although he still seemed a bit pale after the verbal lashing.
&nb
sp; “Let’s just get going,” Nathaniel said as he stood up from his seat. “We have a busy day today.”
“Let’s get you some coffee before we head to the shelter,” Tony said. “I wasn’t joking when I said you looked like shit.”
Nathaniel chuckled. He was glad Tony bounced back so quickly.
Chapter 2
Nathaniel had a number of personal calls to make that morning, so he wound up hiding out in the shelter’s shabby little office in the back, locking the door behind him so that none of the volunteers pestered him with questions. There was a reason he hired other people to run the shelter; he was just there to save face. He called Eliza, the woman back home that his mother was trying desperately to hook him up with. She had texted him three times throughout the night.
She answered in a peppy voice, although Nathaniel could tell she was slightly annoyed despite her attempt to hide it. “Good morning!” she said. “About time I heard back from you.”
“Hey, Eliza. I’m sorry I haven’t called. Things have just been crazy out here in Troy,” he said.
“You better watch out, or I might just have to come and get you. When are you coming home to California?” she asked.
“Another couple of weeks,” he said.
“You promised me a date,” she chastised. “When am I going to get that date? You know, a real one? One where you don’t have to run out halfway through it?”
Nathaniel chuckled. “I promise you will get that date. After our little video chat last week, believe me, I am looking forward to it.”
“You know, maybe we should do that again,” she said. “I bought some new lingerie I wouldn’t mind modeling for you.”
Nathaniel grinned. “Watching you on a computer screen while we’re on opposites sides of the country is just a tease.”
“Maybe I like teasing you,” she said. “I want to make sure you’re ready for me.”
“Believe me, I’m ready,” Nathaniel said.
Eliza laughed softly. “Listen, I got to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
“All right. Have a good one,” he said, and they hung up the phone.
He called his mother next, and the conversation was much less pleasant. The woman answered the phone with her voice raised, already angry before the conversation even began. “Where are you?” she snarled. “You better tell me you’re about to get on a plane and head back to California.”
“I told you, Mom,” he said, “I have to spend a couple more weeks in Troy. I am not just playing around, you know?”
“Sure,” she griped. “You know, Eliza is not going to wait on you forever.”
“I’m sure she can wait a couple of more weeks,” Nathaniel said. “I don’t know why you’re pushing her on me so hard anyways.”
“She’s a lovely woman, and you know it. She comes from a good family,” his mother went on and on about Eliza for the next ten minutes, and Nathaniel was forced to listen. Soon his mother ran out of things to say, and the conversation ended just as unpleasantly as it had begun. He sighed as he hung up the phone, wondering why it was so difficult for the two of them to get along. It had been that way for years –ever since his father had been killed. His father had always been the mediator between the two of them; he had done such a good job at keeping the peace that Nathaniel hadn’t ever realized before how little he and his mother had in common.
One more phone call to make; he needed to call Adam. Luckily, he caught Adam just as he was coming out of a board meeting. “What’s up, freak?” his old friend answered.
“Hey,” Nathaniel said drearily.
“You okay, man?” Adam asked.
“Just didn’t get any sleep last night,” Nathaniel said.
“Damn,” Adam said in his typical horn-dog fashion, assuming the reason behind Nathaniel’s sleepless night was something rather dirty. “I bet you were banging the homeless chick again. Nice.”
Nathaniel rolled his eyes, but he did not argue otherwise. He certainly wasn’t going to tell his friend he had spent the night wandering through a park. It bothered him that Adam just called Lillian the homeless chick, though; he had known her once in their youth. “Listen, I hope you’re cool with me hanging out in Troy for another couple of weeks. We haven’t really talked since I decided to extend my stay.”
“Hey, man, do what you got to do. I thought I had everything at the shelter ready to go for you, but if you think it needs some more work before coming home, feel free to take care of it,” Adam said; Nathaniel had not mentioned the reason he was staying was because he was desperately trying to find Lillian.
“Are you going to be good? I mean, you’re pretty much running an entire corporation by yourself out there,” Nathaniel questioned.
“Come on, man, it’s me. You think I can’t handle a few weeks without you?” Adam laughed. “Do what you need to do. Or who you need to do… I have my suspicions you’re just wanting to spend some extra time with your new lady, right? That’s hilarious. Whatever, we all have our weaknesses. Lillian is obviously yours. Just have your fun and get back here when you can. I’ll talk to you later.”
“All right. Bye, Adam,” Nathaniel said and hung up the phone, shaking his head.
He headed back out into the shelter to finish up his day as a volunteer and to make sure everything was running smoothly.
Chapter 3
Nathaniel busied himself with volunteer work; he had to do something to keep himself distracted. All he could think about was Lillian, and it was starting to drive him insane. He did whatever he could to stay busy. He would dust, sweep, serve food, organize donated clothes, and prepare the beds. Anything. He would also occasionally do a conference call with Adam, but Adam was pretty much handling everything smoothly without him. He could always take a lunch with Tony, but slowly he was starting to feel like he was in a rut. Tony was also growing impatient.
“So we’ve been here for almost three weeks now,” Tony said at lunch the morning after Nathaniel had delivered his little screaming routine. “We were supposed to go home five days ago. How much longer are you planning on staying to look for this woman? She obviously doesn’t want to be found.”
“I guess we can’t stay too much longer,” Nathaniel admitted. “Let’s say nine days.”
“Seriously?” Tony groaned slightly. “All right, fine. But I’m holding you to that. Nine days.”
Lunch ended, and the two of them headed back to the shelter. Nathaniel knew he was not getting much done this way. He was wasting his time. While he knew he had to do at least a little volunteering at the shelter to keep Adam from questioning why he had yet to return, he felt like it was wasting valuable search time. And finding Lillian was the real reason he was staying in Troy.
After lunch Nathaniel spent some time with the people who were just finishing up enjoying their free meals. The homeless were starting to recognize him by name at this point since he was there almost every day. He spoke with a few of them as he did every day, but today the conversations would prove to be quite useful. “Mr. Lynch!” a homeless woman waved him down, and he approached her, offering her a smile.
“What can I do for you?” he asked.
“I’ve heard you been looking for Ace?” she asked.
Nathaniel perked up immediately. “As a matter of fact, I have. Have you seen her?”
“She took the bus to New York City,” the woman said and then went into a long discussion about what she believed Lillian was up to, and it did not sound good. Apparently the neighborhood Lillian had intended to travel to was quite notorious for prostitution.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Nathaniel said. It was hard to believe that Lillian would stoop that low, but then again she did seem fairly desperate –and he had clearly made her far too uncomfortable to come to the shelter. He thanked the woman and headed towards the back office to take a look at the map of the inner-city neighborhood the woman had been talking about.
Yikes, he thought. He knew the area, but he had a hard time bel
ieving that Lillian would honestly go there. Just as he was pulling up the map on his phone to save it, Tony walked in. “What are you doing?” he asked, looking over his shoulder. “Ooh, that’s a bad area. I wouldn’t go there. What were you doing, looking for places to eat in New York?”
“No. Someone told me that they heard Lilian was going there,” Nathaniel said.
“Well, that’s her loss. There’s no way you’re going there,” Tony said. “You’ll stick out like a sore thumb unless you’ve picking up a girl, you know what I mean?”
“That’s just what I plan to do –pick up a girl. I just have a specific one in mind,” Nathaniel retorted.
“No way. There’s no way I’m letting you go there,” Tony argued.
“Deal with it, Tony,” Nathaniel said, standing. He looked at his watch. It would be dark by the time he got there.
“If you do that-”
“What?” Nathaniel asked, spinning around to face Tony. “What are you going to do, kid?”
“I’ll quit,” he said and crossed his arms.
“You’re not going to quit, Tony, but I appreciate the concern. I’ll be fine,” Nathaniel assured him.
“I’m not going to come get you if you get in trouble. I’m telling you that right now,” Tony said firmly, but Nathaniel knew he would if he needed him to. That was just the way Tony was.
“Fine,” Nathaniel said. “I respect that. Now I’m going to go before it gets too late. I have to at least try, Tony.”
“Take your Rolex off before you go,” Tony advised. “And leave the t-shirt and jeans on. Please, for the love of God, don’t go there in a damn suit.”
Nathaniel laughed. “Will do, Tony.”
Chapter 4
Nathaniel drove up and down the neighborhood that Lillian had supposedly travelled to. He did not see her anywhere, and truthfully he was a bit too nervous to roll down his window and start asking around. The sleazy looking characters on every other street corner had him nervous. Eventually, though, he realized he was running out of options. He drove around a bit until he saw a group of what he assumed to be prostitutes who were not being guarded by a pimp; the last thing he wanted to do was piss off a guy toting a gun by talking to his merchandise with no interest in purchasing.
Utterly Yours (Book Three) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Page 1