ROMANCE: BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: At His Request (Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Alpha Male Romance)

by Carly White

  He asked a lot of question and I think he was genuinely trying to find some commonality that we had. He wanted us to be alike. He wanted me and from the looks that he gave me, I was sure that he really did want me. If I had to guess, I would even say it was for more than just a roll in bed, but I still couldn’t figure out why. Caspien kept talking about fate and knowing, but I wasn’t so sure that I believed in all of that. Fate seemed to be too easy. It seemed like an excuse for people that didn’t want to go out and get what it really was that they wanted in life. I’m not sure if I was ready for fate or anyone else to tell me who was my soulmate. I was going to decide that on my own.

  “Did you like the ride?”

  I nodded before meeting his gaze. The food was actually pretty good, but I was more enamored with watching the people and trying to avoid his eyes. “It was different. I thought I was going to die of fright at first, but I can see there are some good parts to it. A very freeing experience.”

  He liked that answer. I could tell by the way he smiled at me like he had converted me over. I didn’t tell him that I wasn’t looking forward to the ride back. “So do you come here a lot?”

  “Yes. I am always here. Kind of like a second home.”

  I tried to keep my eyes from taking in the surroundings again. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to think of a place like that as a second home, but I didn’t want to come across as a snob. He seemed to genuinely like the place, so who was I to say ill of it?

  The conversation was strange in that there were no questions about what the other person did. I suppose that he already knew, as well as I knew in some ways what he did. It was what normal people would talk about on a date, but it was becoming clear that we were not normal. The date or lunch, whatever it was, was like nothing I had ever experienced before and I was still trying to figure out what I was even doing there. It was so against my character.

  “So where do you live?”

  “Oh, uptown. I just rent an apartment next to the park. It’s a nice area and all…”

  I stopped talking, realizing that I was in one of the worst parts of towns and he would not relate to my need to clutch my purse a little tighter to me. It was not the sort of place that most people would be comfortable in. My side of town was definitely on the other side of the railroad tracks and it was becoming clearer the longer we talked.

  “Don’t worry Eva. I do not get offended easily.”

  “I bet. It looked like the guys in the gym had offended you guys in some way.”

  He laughed, actually chuckled and had a faraway look in his eyes as if he was remembering a good time from when he was young. That should have gave me the indication there that he was up to no good. Caspien was downright happy over what had happened. No matter his reason, his justification, I should have seen it then.

  “They didn’t offend us. They were just not supposed to be there and they knew it. So that was offensive and had to be dealt with.”

  “Is that how you deal with everything, brute force?”

  He leaned in close and it was the first time I thought he was going to kiss me. I wanted him to, waiting for it, but it never came. “Some things need a more delicate touch. The secret is learning which is which.”

  “And me? What would I need? Force or touch?”

  He moved back and looked at me strangely for a minute. Caspien looked at me like there was something he wanted to say or do, but he wasn’t sure if he should. “I think you need a little of both. A soft touch at first and then a hard finish.”

  I don’t know why, but his words made me shiver on the inside. There was something about the way he looked at me when he said it or it could have just been the way his tone changed slightly when he said the word hard. Either way, it was enough to drive me absolutely crazy.

  “Maybe.” What could I say to that? Once again, he was coming up with some really good answers and I was left to wonder what a hard finish with a guy like him would be like. I was already forgotten the violent man that I had first met. This one was different. Caspien was actually a delight to be around and a good conversationalist. That was harder to come by then a handsome man with a nice body.

  “By the look in your eyes, maybe you do just need force.”

  “Maybe.” I looked away, unable to hold his gaze and I tried to busy myself with others in the bar. The conversation had gotten as dangerous as the man.

  “Why are you here?”

  “Because you asked me to come.”

  “Why didn’t you call the police?”

  I looked over at him, trying to figure out where he was going with it. He was setting me up with his words and when I had asked myself the same question, I hadn’t had an answer then. “I don’t know.”

  Caspien seemed happy with the answer. “I can’t tell you why I am so drawn to you either, but I am. I can’t think of anyone else that I would want to be with right now.”

  “Not even that pretty brunette that keeps looking at you?”

  He looked over and then back, no change on his face. “No one I would rather be with.”

  I believed him and I felt the same way, I mean there I was, but it was hard to explain why I felt that way. Caspien was spouting soulmates. I had wondered when he first said it, if it was a type of line. I had heard it all in my dating days, but that was the first time it was said when we first met. It made me uneasy in a way. He didn’t know me, but thought that he was in love. I blamed it on the leggings. They did strange things to men’s minds.

  Looking up at the clock, I was alarmed at how late it was. Where had the time gone? I felt like we had just sat down to eat and now it was time to go. Talking to him was like a time abyss and now I had to go back and do my second class of the day.

  “I can’t believe how late it is Caspien, but I have to go back to work.”

  “So soon?”

  “Yeah, I have another class at 2.”

  “So you teach yoga?”

  I nodded. Finally he had asked what I do. I didn’t feel the same need to ask him the same thing. I didn’t want to know what he did, but I knew what men like him did, so there was no need to be told anyways.

  I stood up next to him and waiting for him to pay or tip someone. When he went to leave, I pulled out some bills to put on the bar. It seemed strange to not pay, but he didn’t notice. Climbing back onto the bike, it wasn’t as bad as the first time. There was still trepidation, but it was because I knew I was going to be so close to him. It was not the ride, but the man on the bike that was driving me crazy.

  When our bodies touched, it was different than before. I wasn’t so afraid that I couldn’t appreciate the hard lines and heat. Now I liked him, knowing he wasn’t just some tattooed biker and it made the touch more intimate. Or it changed the way I felt about it, but now I could enjoy it more and I found myself leaning more than I should and my hands gripped lower than before on his waist so my fingers could lay every so lightly on his hard need. When I made him jerk and then the whole bike jerked, I figured I should be good and moved them back up. Caspien grabbed my hands and pushed them back down and I could feel a rumble from something of a growl through his back.

  I laid my hands on him gently and held on with a grip on his upper thighs. Caspien jerked underneath my touch, but he was able to maintain the trajectory of the bike the second time around. I was being naughty, I knew it, but I didn’t want to stop and it was clear that he didn’t want me to either. Who was I to go against what we both wanted?

  The gym came into sight and it was like the whole lunch with him, over too quickly. I was starting to like riding on his bike, but I had a feeling I would like anything if he was with me.

  Waiting until he turned the engine off, I slid off the bike and steadied myself on his shoulder for a minute as my legs got used to the ground again. “Thanks for lunch. It was nice.” It was far better than I thought it would be and I wanted to see him again. I waited for a few heartbeats for him to say or do something and when he didn’t, I turn
ed to leave.

  He grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him. “I don’t even get a kiss?”

  My lips moved to his slowly, leaning in on the leather-clad bad boy. My eyes closed as our lips touched and it was the delicate touch that he was talking about. The kiss was whisper soft and it made me almost melt back against him. I suddenly didn’t want to go to work, needing to stay with him.

  Then it was over and he was pushing me back to earth. “I don’t want you to be late. What time do you get done?”

  “In about an hour.”

  “Is that it for the night?”

  I shook my head, hoping that he would want to do something later. After that kiss, I didn’t want him to go at all. Something had happened, a jolt had gone through me when we had touched.

  “Yeah I do two classes at ten and two.”

  “The rest of the day is yours?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Do you have plans for tonight?”

  I shook my head that I didn’t again. “Want me to come pick you up?”

  There was no hesitation when I told him yes. I needed to be with him and that was all I could think about was what was next as I walked towards the building. I looked back once to see him watching me with those blue eyes and I shivered as I went in. It was as if my whole life had changed in that one moment, meeting that one person. Was that what it was, love, soulmates?

  Shaking my head of the thoughts, I didn’t know what it was. But it was something. There was something between us and I wanted to see what it was more than anything.

  Chapter 5

  Caspien

  I didn’t want to see her go, but I knew that she had business to take care of. She wasn’t the only one. My phone had been vibrating the whole time we were together and though I had caught the look of Desmond, I had ignored the look. While she was with me, I hadn’t wanted to take care of anything, but now that she was gone, it seemed I had an hour to take care of it. I didn’t have a number, an address and I cursed myself for not being more prepared. I just wasn’t thinking and now I was just finally starting to get my priorities back. A girl like Eva did that to a guy.

  Pulling out my phone in the parking lot, I called back Desmond to see what he had wanted. I just hadn’t wanted to break up what was happening with her and he wouldn’t dare intrude if I didn’t want him to. Now I wished that he had as he told me what was going on.

  Cursing out loud, I told Desmond that I would be right there. There had been a shoot out on the other side of town with one of my runners. It was unheard of. Everyone knew that he belonged to the Black Riders. It was clear that it was our enemy and they had taken it to the next level with a kill. I had made it clear before we got to the gym that we were not to kill anyone, but they didn’t seem to be playing by the same rules.

  I had to push Eva out of my mind and by the time I got back to the bar, she was all but a memory. I couldn’t think about her and do what needed to be done. She already made me doubt my lifestyle, secretly wondering if it was even possible for me to have a relationship and settle down with the right person. I couldn’t when the business was so out of whack.

  When I saw Carlos’ body, I felt a coldness run through me. They were sending their own message and it was clear to me then that they had effectively started a war. I went back to Desmond in the front and asked about his wife and if she knew.

  “Not yet. I was going to send someone, but I thought I would wait for you.”

  “Was he here when I was earlier?”

  “Not yet, but he was on his way. We thought we could doctor him up, but we lost him when they moved him.”

  “Sasha is going to freak out. What about his kids?”

  I could feel the sadness welling up, but it was quickly replaced with an anger that seeped over everything else. They had gone too far and now it was time to make more widows.

  ***

  I left Sasha’s house with a heavy heart, but I had to admire her courage. She knew that it had all happened for a reason. She had been surer of it then me, but in the same instance, Sasha had demanded revenge that I guaranteed her. I would not rest until my friend’s death was avenged. It was personal and not just that they had the gall to, but that I had lost someone who had been with the gang since he was sixteen. He had felt like a brother to me and there was no way that I could let it go.

  I became the man with a plan. I had long since given up on trying to find a semi-peaceful solution. I had always been told that bad peace was always better than good war, but now, things were different. Black Riders had been in bad peace with the Angels for years and Carlos wasn’t the first death. It had always been hard to keep out of each other’s way and now I knew that there was to be no peace. They just had to go.

  In a one night sweep, I wanted to get rid of as many as I could and leave the rest to flee, burning everything they owned so there would be nothing to go back to. I saw the looks when I was telling my plan to the rest of my assembled comrades. That was why I was the leader, because I could do what most couldn’t even think of.

  The few that weren’t coming to terms with it, I sent them off to do something else unrelated. I didn’t want people there that wouldn’t be able to handle it and if they were turning green from talking about it, they were not the ones that I really needed.

  Everyone else loaded up when the supplies were brought in. It was going to be a long night and I yearned for the simplicity of the lunch I had earlier in the day. Lunch seemed so long ago now.

  ***

  Everything was going as planned, most of it carried out within the first hour. I believed in timed attacks and it was going almost too smoothly for my taste. I was getting all the call backs that I needed, the job was done. Listening to the radio scanners, there was only one place that hadn’t been hit yet. It was the most important part of the plan. I wanted the warehouse destroyed before I would be done. It was where they kept their product and I didn’t want them to have any reason to come back. They would all be gone by the end of the night, I was sure of it. Whoever made it better not be in my city in the morning.

  The more I called to no answer, the more I knew that I was going to have to go down there and make sure it went off the way it was supposed to. I called Desmond and had him and a few others go in the woods around the place, surrounding it with sniper rifles. I had a feeling that was where they would make their stand and I wanted the ace in my sleeve when it happened.

  I tried to foresee what would happen, but it was almost impossible to. There were too many variables and desperation was added in, it was hard to deny the way I had a sinking feeling in my gut. Something was about to happen, but I hadn’t expected the call that I got.

  When my phone rang I didn’t recognize the number, but I was hoping that it would be the men at the warehouse, telling me that it was all done. It wasn’t though. It was the soft voice that I had been wanting to hear since I dropped her off hours ago.

  “Caspien?”

  “Yes, I am here. How did you get this number?”

  There was noises on the other line like the phone was being moved around and then knocked against something, and then I heard a deep voice on the other end. It was no longer Eva I was talking to.

  “I gave her the number from the man’s phone that was here to blow up my warehouse.”

  My heart pounded in my chest and i couldn’t believe that they had her. How did they know what she meant to me?

  “If you touch her or hurt her in anyway, I will make sure not one of you lives.”

  “This has gone too far Caspien. Meet us here at the warehouse alone or I will kill her.”

  “Let me talk to her.”

  “No.”

  I was supposed to pretend that I didn’t care, but even I could hear the high-pitched quality of my voice. I couldn’t pretend that she didn’t matter. I had just found her and I was unwilling to even consider losing her.

  “I will be there.”

  “Alone.”

  I hung up and ho
ped that Desmond was already in place with his guys. It had gone too far and all I wanted to do was end it for good.

  Chapter 6

  Eva

  The man that was holding me was talking on the phone to Caspien. It was far worse than the last time I had dated a bad boy. This was far worse than getting cheated on. I have never seen a gun before the two men had come up to me after my class and forced me to get into the back of a car. I hadn’t known then what it was about. They had left me wondering, telling me to shut up when I asked anything. When a man with a gun told me to shut up, there was no other thought but to do it.

  When I realized that it was because of Caspien, it all started to make more sense. It didn’t do anything to make me feel any better. I was scared to death and when I was taken to the outskirts of town to an old warehouse, I thought my time on the planet was going to be shortened considerably. There was nothing to say or do, but to wait for whatever was planned for me to happen. They had taken me for a reason. When I heard Caspien on the other end of the phone, I almost felt a small hope grow inside of me. I knew that he wouldn’t let anything happen to me. He loved me and whether I believed in soul mates or not, I knew that it was going to be okay because he certainly did.

  Then I heard the dark-haired man tell him to come there and I knew I would see him soon. I shouldn’t have felt so calm. The truth was that I barely even knew the man, but he made me feel safe. If he was coming to get me, then I was sure that everything would be okay. I kept repeating myself, hoping that I would believe what I was telling myself. If not, I was going to lose it and not be good for anyone.

  “I don’t know who you are, but you must be something to Caspien if he is willing to come all this way to save you.”

  “We are friends.”

  “Cass doesn’t have friends, certainly not females. He must not have had you yet or he would be done with you already.”

  I tried to ignore his words, but he seemed so certain and it made me wonder if it was true. Was that why he cared so much, because I was some conquest? I couldn’t think like that and I told myself to stop it. It was only going to make things worse. I was sure that Caspien felt something more, he had to. It couldn’t all be a line, could it? A man like that, it didn’t seem that he would have to go through all of that to get a girl. Everywhere I had went with him, there were women practically drooling.