Womanizer (A Standalone Novel) (A Steamy Alpha Billionaire Romance)

by Tyler, Nella

  My body wanted to take her right there, but my brain didn’t want to scare her away. She was finally interested in moving things along a little so I didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize that. I wanted to be the man she needed me to be so I could have her.

  At her place, she let me come upstairs with her and I felt my body react with excitement. It was finally here. I could have her naked in her bed and then maybe find the financial information some time during the middle of the night. Somehow I would make it work, I knew I would.

  At her door, Alicia stopped and I felt like she had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. She went back and forth and contemplated me and the relationship we had so far.

  “You are so beautiful,” I said as my lips touched hers gently.

  It was the truth, Alicia was insanely pretty. Both in the traditional sense and the non-traditional sense. She was quirky, yet fashionable. She was shy, yet strong. Alicia was the whole package and my mind kept thinking about that.

  “Thank you for a fun night.”

  “You are very welcome,” I said as I used my hands to pull her body tight against mine.

  “I’d invite you in, but I can’t.”

  And there it was! The explosion, the letdown, the most devastating news of the night. I wanted in that apartment. I wanted in her bed. I wanted in her. It was devastating to hear her say that there was no way for me to come inside with her that night. My need to have her grew with every visit and I didn’t know how much longer I would be able to hold out. Sooner or later, I needed to be with her. I had to.

  Without much pushing, I decided to just give Alicia one last kiss and then head home for the night. I knew her well enough to know that if she said no that it wouldn’t happen that night, then she meant it.

  Alicia was honest and sweet and incredibly sexy. It just solidified my thoughts that someone else was at the bottom of my search for the fraud in her company. Alicia couldn’t be behind it, she was just too genuine.

  “I understand,” I said as I gave her one last kiss.

  “How would you like to go to my friends clothing line fashion show tomorrow?”

  “Well fashion is obviously my thing,” I said as I pointed to my jeans. “I would love to attend their show. What kind of clothing do they have?”

  “It’s a mix between classic American and grunge, you’ll love it.”

  I didn’t want to tell her that I probably would hate it. Although men’s fashion was somewhat interesting to me, women’s fashion just didn’t have a spot in my heart. But since it was clear that I would not be getting to have my way with Alicia that night; I had to move forward with a plan for another day.

  As I left the building, I felt a twinge of anger build up inside of me. As sweet and innocent as Alicia seemed, it was odd that she continued to avoid us having a night together. Women just didn’t do that to me. I knew it sounded like I was a chauvinist pig, but I really couldn’t figure out why Alicia kept denying me.

  She obviously found me attractive; we had a chemistry that almost electrified us when we were near each other. There was no explanation for her turning me down over and over.

  Then there was her reasoning or lack of reasoning when she didn’t invite me inside. She simply said she couldn't.

  What did that mean? Why couldn’t she?

  Alicia was a grown woman; she could do whatever she wanted. If she had wanted to invite me to her place she certainly could have. As we had made our way up to her apartment, I thought for sure she was going to invite me in, and then there was a pause just as we got there. Something made her change her mind at the last minute and I had no idea what it was, but I was going to find out.

  I wasn’t going to quit that easily. I needed those financial records and I wanted Alicia, both of them would be mine very soon. I was sure of it.

  Chapter 20

  Another night without sleep and I was a zombie as I showed up to work. The temporary assistant was there and she handed me my coffee exactly as I wanted it. She came in a moment later and gave me the numbers for the day.

  “Darla? Was that your name?” I asked as she turned to leave the room.

  “Yes, Mr. Gade.”

  “Oh for God’s sake, call me Evan.”

  “Alright. Evan it is. You look like you had a rough night. Anything I can help you with?”

  “Not unless you can tell me the secret to women,” I laughed, but I was actually very serious. I would kill for a woman to just let me in on the secrets.

  Especially the secrets a woman like Alicia kept. Those were obviously so well hidden that I couldn’t even begin to scrape them away from her. The closer I got to Alicia, the farther away I felt. There were moments when I saw it in her eyes, she was distant and somewhere totally different than in that moment with me. Other times I felt totally connected to her. The problem was, I couldn’t tell when I had the distant version of Alicia or when I had the other version.

  “Oh, I can’t tell you much about women. I still haven’t figured them out myself. My wife is constantly an enigma to me.”

  I froze solid in my seat as Darla talked. Did she just say her wife?

  “You’re a lesbian?” I blurted out in the most unacceptable socially awkward way.

  She laughed and then came back into the room and sat across from me. I felt like people probably asked her that question a lot out of shock when she told them she had a wife. First of all, she was so drop dead beautiful that it didn’t seem like the universe should give her to another woman. But I wasn’t against lesbianism, I was a huge fan; especially when I got to be involved in their intimate time.

  “Yes, I am. I’m married,” she flashed her ring at me. “We have two children, also.”

  “Wow.”

  I couldn’t respond with anything else. I was mind blown by the revelation that Darla, with tattoos all over and a shy personality, was a lesbian mother. It was a new age for sure and I was all for equality. I just had not ever had the chance to meet such a progressive woman; most likely because I spent my days in the most traditional of places, the stock market. Although I estimated that many of the women who worked in my field could be lesbians, or at least told a lot of men off by telling them they were.

  “Is it so shocking to meet a lesbian in this day and age?”

  “No. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it in a bad way. You are beautiful and I bet your wife is as well.”

  “No, we won’t have a threesome with you,” Darla said as she smiled at me.

  “I bet you get asked that a lot.”

  “Every time someone finds out I like women.”

  “It’s one of a man’s biggest fantasies. We can’t help but ask a pretty woman to give it a go. Especially if you have another pretty woman at home.”

  “So let’s get back to you understanding women. What’s up? Do you have women troubles?”

  I didn’t want to delve into my issues too much, but I did like the idea of bouncing around my thoughts with another woman.

  “I’ve been on four dates with this woman and we haven’t slept together yet.”

  As the words came out of my mouth, I heard how ridiculous I sounded. Had I really become so accustomed to instant gratification that I didn’t even know what normal dating was?

  Darla laughed as she thought I was joking with her, but when she noticed the look on my face, she realized I was unfortunately very serious.

  “Come on, four dates is nothing. You want to get to know her don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry that sounded like I was a jerk.”

  “Oh, Natasha tells me you are one of the biggest jerks around.”

  I paused at that revelation. It was true, I really couldn’t contest it. From a woman’s point of view, I loved them and left them. But I wasn’t a jerk about things. I was a stand-up guy and did my best to make every night mutually enjoyable.

  “Evan, can we talk,” Rebecca said from the door.

  “Hey, Rebecca, this is Darla. She is fillin
g in for Natasha.”

  “Hi, Rebecca, so nice to meet you,” Darla said as she shook Rebecca’s hand.

  I could see the look in Rebecca’s eyes of judgment over how Darla looked, but she quickly got over it and smiled at her.

  “Can you give me five minutes? I’ll come find you when we are done,” I said as I pointed to some work on my desk.

  “Sure,” Rebecca said as she turned and left the office.

  “Is that the woman you are trying to fuck?” Darla asked.

  “What? No. Why would you say that?”

  “Oh, you have already screwed that one,” Darla said as she watched me.

  “What are you, some sort of mind reader? How would you know that?”

  I had to laugh. Of course, Darla was right. But it still shocked me to be called out like that for having sex with a co-worker. Even my boss went about it a more politically correct way.

  “I could tell by the way she looked at you.”

  “Well, it was a while ago. We are just friends now,” I said as I tried to change the subject.

  “She doesn’t seem like your type.”

  “Why? Because she’s voluptuous? I like all women. I think every size is beautiful.”

  Darla laughed.

  “No, I meant because she’s really smart and has her life together. You seem more into the women who need to be rescued.”

  Damn, she was right on the money.

  “Yeah, that’s me. Just call me Superman.”

  “It’s a defense mechanism that many people use when they are afraid to go after a person who is a true match for them.”

  This was getting serious. Darla was a wise woman. Much wiser than I and I wanted to sit and talk to her more, but I also didn’t want her delving into all the deepest darkest areas of my life.

  “Let’s continue this conversation later,” I said light-heartedly. “I need to go catch up with that smart, independent woman because I had her doing some research for me.”

  “We can talk anytime.”

  Darla took the cue and move back out to her desk outside of my office. It was weird to have just met someone who knew my secrets already. She certainly could tell I was a player with the ladies, a womanizer for sure. It was nice to not have to hide behind my usual mask around the temps, it was also nice to not have the need to chase after her and fuck her like I normally did.

  I looked for Rebecca at her desk, but she wasn’t there. It annoyed me to have to go look for her, but I really did need to talk about the research. I didn’t like to have to look for, or wait for, anyone. Typically I didn’t have to.

  She was in the break room reading the Wall Street Journal when I finally found her. Not many people actually sat in the break room. Most of us were too busy trying to make money and we never wanted to take a break from our money making long enough to sit in a different room.

  “What did you find out? Did you find the payroll information?” Rebecca said as she looked up from the paper.

  “The files were moved.”

  “Evan, that’s huge. Why would they move the files if they weren’t trying to hide something?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they just needed the room for other things?” I said as I tried to be as optimistic as possible.

  “No. This woman is in on it and she knew you were fishing around so she hid the files.”

  The idea that Alicia knew what was going on did not sit well with me at all. I really liked her, I enjoyed our time together, there was no way I could think of her as a criminal. Surely, even if she was involved a little, she didn’t understand the extent of illegal behavior she was contributing to. At least, that is what I hoped.

  My brain just couldn’t imagine that Alicia would knowingly, and willingly, do something illegal. She was sweet, nice and seemed very law abiding to me.

  “I really don’t think she knows what is going on; if there is anything going on at all. Maybe we are looking for something that isn’t even there. Have we stopped to think that her company might actually be on the up and up? There could be no illegal money laundering or anything going on. This could just be a really good investment.”

  “Ah, fuck Evan. You like this woman, don’t you?”

  “No, I mean…yes. But what if the company is legitimate?”

  It was possible we had all this concern about Alicia’s company and there wasn’t anything illegal going on. I knew in my head that it wasn’t probably, but there was a possibility. I needed to hold onto that. I couldn’t imagine that Alicia was involved in defrauding all the people who had just purchased stock through her IPO.

  “Evan, you are always the first one to say, ‘if it looks fishy it is fishy.’ Don’t let your judgment get clouded by a pretty woman. The pretty once are often the best at hiding their illegal shit.”

  “Anyways, I wasn’t able to get the documents. The files were moved offsite.”

  “Where?”

  I cringed. I didn’t want to have to tell Rebecca where the files had been moved.

  “Her house,” I said quietly.

  “What? Wait a minute; did you just say the files were moved to the CEO’s house?”

  “Yes,” I winced at the look on Rebecca’s face.

  “So you’re protecting this woman even though she obviously was involved. She…had…the…files…moved…to …her…house! Even come on, this woman is in this big time.”

  I shook my head back and forth, there was no way I could believe that Alicia was involved in anything illegal. She wasn’t the type. Somehow I needed to figure out what was going on before she got into trouble, though because deep down I knew Rebecca was right. If it smelled fishy, it was fishy and I didn’t want Alicia to be caught up in something that could ruin her career.

  Hopefully, she didn’t actually know anything about illegal actively and hopefully she wasn’t involved in any of it.

  “I know. I know. I can’t explain it, but I don’t think she knows what is going on. I just need to get to know her better, get her to open up to me so I can help her. I think her finance VP is making these decisions and putting her company at risk.”

  “She’s had the guy around for a long time, I’m pretty sure she knows what decisions he’s making. But if you want to live in a fantasy land where pretty women don’t make mistakes, it’s your prerogative.”

  “I appreciate you helping me Rebecca, you are the best.”

  “I am pretty damn good, you should stop by my house sometime and I’ll show you again just how good I am.”

  Rebecca grabbed my tie and pulled me in for a kiss. It was the first time she had been so forward with me at work and I felt like I might have crossed over to the wrong side of the thin line I walked with her.

  I wanted Rebecca to keep working with me, and I was fine with sleeping with her again. But I was also perfectly fine with not sleeping with her. My brain was on Alicia and not sex with anyone else.

  The thought shocked me. I didn’t want to sleep with her? Something had changed in me and my thoughts were consumed by Alicia. I didn’t want to sleep with Rebecca or anyone else. I did really want to see Alicia again. It was a surprising thought that I couldn’t remember having with any other girl in my past.

  Chapter 21

  Date number five was lined up for Friday night and I was actually excited. Not really that excited to see some new clothing line, but certainly excited to see Alicia. I knew I was the worst detective ever, I kept going out with Alicia and not finding out any information that would help me. It was a good thing I wasn’t an actual investigator.

  “Now I feel like this is my lucky night,” I said as I saw Alicia in front of her building.

  “Oh, you think I’ll sleep with you tonight?” She joked.

  “I didn’t mean that, I mean I’m lucky that I get to be seen out with such a sexy woman.”

  “Good line there, Mr. Gade.”

  “What? It’s true, no lines; just the facts.”

  Alicia had a great sense of humor; it was one of the
things I really enjoyed about her. She didn’t take life too seriously, even though her current life was full of really serious issues. I couldn’t imagine most people would be willing to relax like she had over the last week, considering her company and all the changes they were going through.

  “So, tell me about this friend and her clothing line,” I asked as we got into the car and my driver headed off toward the fashion show.

  “Like I said the other day, it is between classic American and grunge. She’s a little more hipster than I am so it might not be your thing. But thank you for coming with me.”

  Alicia reached over and squeezed my hand. Her touch electrified my body and was the main reason I had been so horrible at investigating her company. Anytime I was near her I wanted to have her naked on a bed and devour her. It was a primal response that my body had and I just couldn’t think of much else when I was around her.

  “I’m sure I’ll survive.”

  When we arrived at the fashion show, there were paparazzi all over the place. It was a red carpet event and I was glad that I had actually worn something appropriate. My custom tailored charcoal gray suit fit in perfectly with the crowd. Alicia had on an elegant white dress with a crocheted design. It looked really expensive, although I didn’t really know what brand it was; women’s fashion just wasn’t my thing.

  “Aren’t you proud, I dressed appropriately,” I said as I held my hand out for Alicia to get out of the vehicle.

  “Very proud.”

  She held onto my arm tightly as we tried to make our way through the crowd. I wasn’t exactly sure who her friend was, but there were a lot of people there for this opening. I felt pretty privileged to be able to come with Alicia.

  Red carpet events weren’t really my thing. Most of my time was spent with the stock market people and other boring financial world stuff. Although, living in New York, there were often red carpet events throughout the city. I was just as fascinated by them as the rest of the world.