by Anna Wells
She hugged him back, because even if he was driving her nuts, it was because he loved her. “I’m fine. Stop worrying.”
He turned to Trevor. “Nice to meet you Trevor and I’ll see you later Trixie,” he said as he left the house.
Michaela and Trixie returned to the den and Trevor followed closely behind them. She found it sort of odd that he would just show up unexpectedly without Jordan. She certainly wasn’t comfortable with the idea of acting as hostess in Jordan’s home. “So what brings you here today Trevor,” she asked as she leaned against Jordan’s desk.
Trevor sat down making himself at home in the big leather chair that Michaela had favored earlier. He gave her a big grin. “Today is the first I’ve heard of you and not only do I find out that Jordan’s got a girlfriend, but I also find out that you’re living together.” He shrugged apologetically, his brown eyes had a slightly amused twinkle. “I just couldn’t stay away.”
Okay, so it was impossible not to like him. “Well, don’t take the living together thing too seriously, it really just happened unexpectedly because my house burned down last night,” she explained to Trevor hoping Jordan would get home soon. “I assumed Jordan would’ve told you about that.”
Trevor leaned back crossing one leg over his knee as he made himself more comfortable. It didn’t look like he was leaving anytime soon, Michaela thought.
Trixie had taken the chair opposite him apparently content to listen to the conversation. Michaela shot Trixie a quick glance with an unspoken request to help her out. Trixie just arched her brows and remained silent, letting Michaela know that she was on her own on this one.
Trevor inclined his head slightly. “Oh, he told me about the fire, but he was pretty adamant that you’d be staying. I think he’s got you where he wants you. You realize he’s bit controlling don’t you?”
Now that was an odd thing to say about your brother to someone you didn’t know, she thought. “I’ve come to realize that he has some control issues,” she said in a dry tone. “Were you afraid I wasn’t aware of that?”
“Just curious about how well you actually know him,” he told her.
“It’s funny, my brother was just asking me the same thing.” Michaela glanced over at Trixie to try to determine what she thought about that last comment. Trevor seemed to be testing her or prodding her for information, she couldn’t figure out which one. She found Trevor charming, a characteristic that apparently ran in the family, but he was prying a bit too much for comfort. She had an idiot brother of her own to contend with, she really didn’t need to add Jordan’s brother to her list. The sound of the front door opening startled her out of her thoughts.
“Hi honey, I’m home.” Jordan’s voice boomed through the house as he entered the front door.
Before Michaela could respond Trevor answered, “How was your day dear?”
Jordan entered the den taking in his brother’s and Trixie’s presence in addition to Michaela. “Hi Trixie,” he said.
Trixie gave him a big grin. “I hear you’ve been keeping a secret.”
Jordan returned her grin and said unapologetically, “Just withholding a couple of minor facts.”
Trixie arched her brows dubiously. “Oh, weren’t you hiding billions of facts?”
“Hey, I thought you were on my side,” Jordan complained.
“Oh don’t worry, I’m totally on your side, but you better watch out for Michaela’s brother,” Trixie warned him.
“Believe me, I’m well aware of that issue,” he said and then turning to his brother he asked, “Trevor, what are you doing here?”
“Nice greeting, Jor,” Trevor said sarcastically, not looking the least bit offended.
“Didn’t I just see you about an hour ago at the office?” Jordan answered as if that explained his rude greeting.
“Yeah, but I had to come check out your girl,” Trevor offered.
Jordan crossed his arms over his chest. “So what do you think?”
Trevor glanced at Michaela and then looked back at Jordan. “She’s sexy, cute just like Ian said, and apparently she is aware of your control issues. I guess she’ll do.”
Jordan nodded his head slowly as if absorbing wise words. “I think so too.”
“Uhmmm, guys, I’m right here. You’re supposed to talk about me behind my back. God, this is just like the other morning with my mom.”
Jordan walked over to her and bent down to give her a slow kiss. After he lifted his head she said, “Stop doing that!”
“What?” he asked innocently. “Giving you a kiss hello?”
“Talking about me like I’m not there!” she reminded him.
He leaned slightly closer tugging on her a lock of her hair and said in a low soothing tone, “Curly top, don’t be mad, Trevor and I are just joking around.”
Trixie cleared her throat. “Okay, you two are getting kind of diabetically sweet so this is my cue to leave. I just wanted to make sure you were okay Michaela after the fire, but I can see you’re doing fine. I’ll see you tomorrow at the office.” She turned to Trevor and said, “Nice meeting you Trevor.”
Trevor inclined his head. “Nice meeting you too,” he told her as she left the room. Michaela followed her out and gave her friend a quick good-bye hug before returning to the den.
Trevor looked at Michaela and said, “Your friend’s really hot.”
Michaela was just about to respond to Trevor’s comment when Jordan interrupted.
Jordan gave Michaela a questioning look. “What does she mean she’ll see you at the office tomorrow?” he asked with a slight edge, his disapproval apparent. “Isn’t it a little too soon for you to return to work?”
It seemed that between her brother and boyfriend she was going to need a great deal of patience today. Michaela took a deep breath before explaining, “Jordan, I have deadlines to meet and besides there’s nothing wrong with me. I wasn’t in the fire, remember?”
“I told you he was controlling,” Trevor interjected.
“Little brother, shut up,” Jordan told him in a companionable voice as he pulled Michaela closer. “I think you really need to take another day off.”
She grinned at him. “And I think you need to mind your own business,” she said as she turned her head toward Trevor. “Are you staying for dinner? Samantha made lasagna.”
Anticipation glowed in Trevor’s eyes. “Oh, yeah, I’m staying. I love Samantha’s lasagna.” Trevor got up and headed for the kitchen, obviously he knew his way around.
Jordan shook his head in disgust. “You shouldn’t have invited him, now there won’t be any leftovers. He’s a bottomless pit.”
“How could I not invite him for dinner?” Michaela asked as she tugged his hand following closely behind Trevor.
“It’s easy, you just ask him to leave. That’s what I would’ve done,” he grumbled.
“Aren’t you two close?” she asked feeling slightly confused.
He looked surprised at her question. “Of course we are. Doesn’t mean I want him eating all my left overs.”
“Okay that sooo doesn’t make sense to me, so why don’t we go eat. There’s caesar salad too.”
“Hmmm, sounds good, but don’t think you’ve distracted me about the going back to work thing. We’re going to talk about that some more,” he said as he leaned down and nuzzled her neck.
A shiver ran down her spine at his touch. “Well, I’m hoping you try to seduce me into staying home tomorrow.” She was beginning to enjoy his attempts to use sex to change her mind. After all, she could just lie back and enjoy the seduction, so to speak, and still do what she wanted.
“Do you think that will work?” he asked.
“No,” she told him, “but I think the sex will be great.”
Chapter Fifteen
Michaela sat at her desk the next morning smiling at the memory of Jordan trying to convince her to stay home the previous evening. He’d paced the bedroom and ranted about how she had too much stress in her life a
nd that she needed to stay home. She had sat back on the bed enjoying the show while he itemized his reasons. When he was finished she’d calmly told him that she was a professional and she had to return to work to meet her deadlines. He then resorted to using sex to get his way as she’d predicted he would. He’d kept her up half the night until both their bodies were exhausted. It had been completely glorious. Had she ever used the word glorious before? She didn’t think so, but that was the only word she could think of to describe last night. She was tired and sore, but in an oh so good way.
This morning Jordan’s alarm had gone off making a very loud, obscene, beeping noise. He’d apologized, telling her he’d sleep right through it otherwise. He’d been a little grouchy as they got ready to go to their respective offices. It appeared he was a sore loser or maybe he was as tired as she was. She suspected that it was probably losing that really bothered him.
Getting ready for work had been a simple matter since she only had a couple of outfits to choose from. She slipped on her white blouse and a black pencil skirt and grabbed her new black boots.
Before coming home the previous night Jordan had sent Paul to retrieve her car, which had been parked in her spot close to her now burned down home. She’d been able to drive herself to work and she felt like she was slowly, but surely, putting her life back together.
She was going through her morning email and noticed Trixie had sent her an email with the Subject: Business Section. She laughed as she opened it and saw that it contained an attachment of news articles from the business section. She began reading the articles about Jordan, and she couldn’t help but be impressed at how he and his brothers had built their e-commerce business. Apparently, the jean clad Bengals fan was an absolutely brilliant programmer who had developed the most secure payment system in the world. No other company could boast their level of success. Jordan and Ian, who led the business and financial aspects of the company, were given credit for keeping the company one step ahead of their competitors. ECOM Works was always on to the next project, never faltering from their course. Their business model had expanded and now offered cloud data storage and mobile banking apps. The company had a reputation, thanks to Jordan, for earning their clients’ trust, a tough thing to do in an industry plagued with identity theft issues. Many of the news articles attributed their success to their flexibility; ECOM listened to the client’s needs and constantly upgraded their products accordingly.
The company had remained private, much to the surprise of the business community and adding to the mystique of the “billionaire brothers.” When there are no shareholders to answer to, company secrets are much easier to keep.
Jordan had been right about one thing, despite these articles, there was very little personal information about him in the news, and there were no pictures of him in any of the articles. The news reports discussed Jordan’s desire for privacy and remarked on what the news reporters considered a modest lifestyle for his income level. Her mother had been right; he had been dubbed the “eccentric billionaire.” His refusal to discuss anything but business frustrated the media to no end. However, Jordan’s public reticence was the only negative remarks she could find concerning him.
She sat back and grinned, she had stumbled over one special guy, hadn’t she? Would her life have turned out differently if she had studiously read the business section every day? She had to admit it, she was glad she had gotten to know him without the money in the way. They both knew with absolute certainly that she loved him for being him and nothing else. She would never admit it to him, but she was grateful for his little white lie.
Michaela spent the rest of the afternoon working on client files, trying to finish preparations for year-end. December was always crunch time in accounting. Burying herself in her work was difficult, but she forced herself to stick with it. Over the holidays she was really going to sit down and rethink where she wanted to go with her career instead of continuing to whine about how much she hated her job.
It was late in the afternoon when Trixie popped by to see her. “Hey you, got a minute?” she asked.
“For you? Always. What’s up? Or did you just stop by for a chat?” Michaela asked as she started to clean up her desk. She stretched, feeling a slight pain in her lower back from sitting at her desk all day.
Trixie darted her head around and the discreetly closed Michaela’s door. “I need to talk to you about something.” She sat down in the chair facing Michaela’s desk looking slightly agitated.
Michaela wondered what was on Trixie’s mind. “Okay, let’s hear it.”
“I’m leaving the firm and setting up a private investigation business,” she told her.
“Wow, that’s a great idea. Are you nervous about going out on your own?” Michaela asked, a little envious of Trixie’s career change.
Trixie took a deep breath and then said, “Well, that depends on you.”
Michaela’s eyes widened in surprise. “On me?”
“I want you to come with me,” she told Michaela. “I’m an expert at investigations and I know that many of my clients will choose to follow me but I know nothing about the financial aspects of running a business. I could use your expertise.”
Michaela thought about the idea of being involved in the day-to-day operations of running a professional firm, watching it grow, and building a clientele. She gave Trixie a broad grin before saying, “I have to tell you, I like the idea a lot.”
Trixie returned her smile. “So does this mean you’re in?”
Michaela thought for a minute before answering, “Trixie this is the most spontaneous thing I’ve ever done in my life, but yeah, I’m in!”
“Are you sure you don’t need to think about it? I know it’s a huge decision.” Trixie asked.
Michaela looked around her office thinking about how trapped she had felt in his job. She felt no hesitation as she answered, “Are you sure you want me as a partner?”.
“Absolutely! I know you majored in accounting, but your minor was marketing wasn’t it?
“Yes, but I haven’t done much practical work in marketing.”
Trixie made a scoffing sound. “Don’t worry about it, you’ll be great. So you’re in for sure?”
“Yes, I’m in. I don’t even feel nervous about it. I just feel excited about running a business with you. You know, this weekend we should sit down and write a business plan. We have a lot of decisions to make. All those business school classes are finally going to pay off.” Michaela’s mind started spinning with possibilities.
“That’s a great idea and after we’re done we can decide when to give notice!” Trixie’s excitement was evident in her voice. “Just curious, do you think we should do a home office or should we rent office space?”
Michaela could feel her enthusiasm building as she considered the question, “Before we make a decision about office space, we’re going to have to decide about the scope of the business. Although in today’s electronic environment, it’s fairly easy to create a virtual office utilizing websites, email and telephone services.”
“You’re right. I think we should start small and work with subcontractors. You know, if we need to hire a forensic accountant or a computer expert for a specific investigation. Later on we might want to consider expanding and actually hiring staff to fill those roles. I’m getting ahead of myself. I guess we can both do some brainstorming before the weekend and then we can work on our business plan and go from there. Does that sound good to you?” Trixie asked.
“That sounds perfect! What a week… new billionaire boyfriend, my house burns down and starting my own business. And it’s only Tuesday!”
“You’re on quite the roll!” she said before adding, “Score on the billionaire boyfriend thing, by-the-way.”
Michaela shook her head in slight bemusement. “It takes some getting used to and to tell you the truth it still doesn’t seem real.”
“It’ll be tough for you, but somehow I think you’ll manage,” Trixie
replied, her voice light with amusement.
Leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest, she gave Trixie an arch look. “Thanks for the news articles, by the way. I’m all caught up on Jordan’s work history now.” She paused before adding in a dry voice, “I guess I should start reading the business section from now on.”
Trixie rolled her eyes as she said, “God, I hope so, if you’re going to be running our business.”
“Hey, I used to read it every day when I was in University, but when I started working there were only so many hours in the day!” Michaela defended her much maligned reading habits. Or was it lack of reading habits?
Trixie shook her head in mock disgust. “Excuses, excuses. You know you really have no defense, but what the hell, it seems to have worked out brilliantly for you.”
Michaela’s face held a secret smile as she agreed. “It has hasn’t it?”
“So we didn’t have much of a chance to talk yesterday when I stopped by. How are things going with you and Jordan?” Trixie asked giving Michaela an expectant look.
Michaela thought about confiding in Trixie about Donovan’s revelations about a possible FBI investigation that my or not involve Jordan, but she held back. Essentially, what her brother had told her was confidential information and as tempted as she was to share what she knew, she needed to keep the information to herself. She was also fairly confident that Donovan wasn’t going to find out anything negative concerning Jordan.
Where did she begin with how things were going, she thought? Michaela took a deep breath before saying, “Things are intense between us and I was still trying to get used to that when I found out he was this high profile billionaire instead of a successful sales executive.”
“So how did you find out? Did he tell you?” Trixie asked intent on gathering all the details as usual.
Michaela let out a bark of laughter. “My brother blew the lid off the whole thing. Donovan recognized him right away when I introduced them at my parents.”