Rekindled: A Billionaire Second Chance Romance

by Ashlee Price

  She shrugged. “You should know better than that.”

  Getting up, I watched her shut the door and knew that I didn’t have a choice. I could hear her opening the front door and I quickly cleaned the smeared mascara under my eyes. I didn’t want to see him, but I especially didn’t want him to see me like this. My eyes were a little puffy, and again I wished that my complexion would hide my feelings a bit more.

  Going out to the living room where he was waiting, I steeled myself for him. Greg’s green eyes met mine and I knew that he knew instantly that I was upset. He rushed to me and I paused before letting my hands go into his. “I’m sorry for what happened earlier, Desiree.”

  I pulled my hands from his as I felt the familiar shock from the touch. I didn’t want him touching me because then I wouldn’t be able to think. Fran was in the kitchen and I knew she was trying to eavesdrop. I gave her a look, and after a bit of silent negotiation, she finally left us alone and went to the back of the house.

  “Is that your sister?”

  I looked back at Fran’s retreating form. She looked nothing like me.

  “No, she’s my roommate. Why do you ask?”

  He chuckled. “Because I think she was ready to clock me when I came to the door. She thought I was Don.”

  I smiled for a moment. It sounded like something Fran would do. I knew that she was protective of me, and she was already railing against Don about the incident. “Sorry about that. Fran can be a little intense sometimes, but her heart is in the right place.”

  “No trouble. I think it’s sweet that she cares about you like that.”

  I went to the kitchen and poured a glass of wine. I almost didn’t ask him if he wanted any, but my southern hospitality won out. “Did you want a drink?”

  He seemed relieved and nodded his head quickly. “Yes I do. It’s been one of those days.”

  I couldn’t have agreed more and topped off my own before corking the bottle. “So what can I do for you, sir?”

  “I want you to come back.”

  There was no way that it was going to happen. I was not about to deal with those girls and men like Don anymore. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be there. Maybe I was supposed to be back with my own kind of people. At least them I understood.

  “No, thank you.”

  He frowned at me and I tried not to smile in response. I really liked the way he looked at me then. I felt like I should give more of an explanation, but I didn’t want to.

  “You have the job. Not the internship, but as the newest junior member of the accounting team. I wanted to come over here and tell you in person.”

  “The six weeks isn’t even up yet.”

  “I don’t care. The rest will be told the program is over for the year and they are no longer needed. I meant it when I said that you would be valuable to the company. I don’t want to lose you.”

  I paused with his choice of words. I knew it was going to be hard to deny him, but it was harder than I could have ever imagined.

  “It would just be too weird. Besides, I don’t want to work for a man like Donald.”

  “Donald is not going to be with the company much longer. You will work for me.”

  I bit my bottom lip. I knew I was doing it, but the urge was just too strong to stop it. Had he really gotten rid of the other partner? Was he going to do it because of me? I needed the job and I wanted it, but could I really come back from all of that? Could I really work at a place where everyone thought I was a slut? I didn’t really think that I could.

  “I can’t, sir. I just can’t. You don’t know what people are saying about me. About us.”

  I leaned in to tell him so that it wasn’t broadcast out loud, not considering what it meant to be so close to him. I was on my third glass of wine already, and I don’t know why I didn’t move back when I was finished talking. I just stood there looking up into his emerald eyes, unable to move. I wanted him to kiss me so badly. I thought he was going to, and I readied myself for the touch, but it never came.

  By the time I realized it wouldn’t, he was standing farther away from me. I looked away. I felt like such an idiot. Why did I always feel this way around him? He made me feel so crazy.

  Taking another drink, I willed my hands to stop trembling. I finally just put the empty glass down on the table and tried to get myself together. I forgot what we’d been talking about and when I looked over, I swore that the shade of his eyes was darker than before.

  “What do I have to do to get you to stay, Desiree?”

  I put my hand on the table to steady myself a little and tried my best to get a grip. I wasn’t drunk, but the feelings were similar as he devoured me with his eyes. The look bothered me in several ways, one of them being that he seemed to want me so badly but wasn’t making a move. It was frustrating, and after the day I’d had, I just wanted a kiss. In another way I felt like if I was going to get blamed for it, I might as well do it.

  “I just don’t think it will work, Greg. Thank you for the opportunity and everything, but I think it’s better for me to find something else.”

  He shook his head like he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “I need you, Desiree.”

  I heard the words and thought I had heard wrong, but he was coming towards me and I knew I had heard him right. His eyes lingered on my lips before going to my eyes, and I felt the same spark that I had from across the room. He was blinding to me in a way, and when he finally grabbed me and pulled me to him, I was able to feel everything that he had to offer.

  Greg’s lips were soft but insistent, and his grip was so tight I couldn’t have moved away if I had wanted to. I heard a low moan and wasn’t sure if it came from me or him. I didn’t care as his tongue flicked in my mouth. Another sound was added to the air and I wrapped my arms around his neck as he deepened the kiss. My mind had shut down long before, and I wasn’t even thinking about what I was actually doing. I knew that I should stop, but I just didn’t want to.

  Only when I felt his hands moving lower, cupping my ass, did I push away from his chest. I wasn’t ready for that kind of encounter, even though I wanted him badly. He growled at me and pulled away, his arms still on my shoulders as I tried to disentangle myself from his neck. My body was humming and it was hard to even look at him or talk. I wanted him too badly.

  “You have to come back, Desiree.”

  I knew that if I went back, everything that had been said about me would become true. I wasn’t going to be able to keep him at bay for long, and I honestly didn’t want to. The more I looked at him staring at me in such a way, the more I wanted to tell him to never stop. It was not something I was proud of, the need that I felt, but it was unstoppable.

  “I just don’t know, Greg. I don’t think we should work together.” Not the way he had just kissed me. Maybe it was better if he was not my boss.

  “I’m not leaving here until you tell me that you are going to come back. I have seen your work the last couple of weeks, and I know that I’m making the right decision. I know that you are supposed to be here with me.”

  I wasn’t sure what he was really asking for, but it was not hard to see that he was sure that he wasn’t going to leave. The man was used to getting his way, and I wanted the job. I wanted him. Why didn’t he just take me?

  Finally I nodded in agreement. We both knew that he was going to win anyways.

  Chapter 4 – Greg

  I left her house hard and in need, but I held myself together. It wasn’t only that I didn’t want to get slapped by her; I didn’t want to upset her so much that she didn’t come back to work. It was the closest I had come to begging in a long time, but I wasn’t as bothered as I should have been. I would have done anything to have had her, and there was no shame in that. There would have been before, but everything with Desiree was different.

  So I went home and thought about her. It was something that I did basically every day now, and it was becoming part of my routine. It had gone so far that I didn’t even respo
nd to late-night texts from old flings and current ones that I had taken out from time to time. Nothing sounded good. It was only Desiree that I wanted. Only Desiree who could take away the ache that I felt constantly in her presence.

  The next day I went to work earlier. Tommy was there already and had a cup of coffee waiting for me. “So how did they take it?”

  His look told me not well. I should have done it myself, but I had been too worried about talking to Desiree to take care of what I was supposed to.

  “They were not too happy. I think there was talk about complaining to HR.”

  “And?”

  “And one of them brought Desiree up. She wasn’t very loud about it, but she was one of the ones who’d been talking about it pretty openly.”

  I nodded and sat down. It was not ideal that there might be some complaints going in, but I didn’t really mind much. I just wanted them out of the building, and all of their venom with them. The last couple of weeks the atmosphere had changed, and I sure didn’t like it.

  “Well, they needed to go. None of them were really going to fit in.”

  “Are we starting another program, or did we find the candidate for hire?”

  He was asking me if I had gotten her to agree to stay. The fact that she had hit the other partner across the face was surely out in the rumor mill, and I just nodded my head that we had. “She should be here in a little while. Make sure she gets a nice office on the fourth with Paul.”

  Tommy didn’t need to know who she was. I had never made so much of a priority of another employee, but there really was just something about Desiree. Now, I just had to wait to make sure she came in and my plans would be right back on track.

  It wasn’t but half an hour later that I saw her come through the doors downstairs. I wasn’t likely to admit how much I kept checking to see if she was there. I knew her car, and when she drove into the parking garage, I felt a little more at ease. I didn’t go to her then like I wanted to. I knew that it would make more people talk and make it harder on her. Instead, I waited until she was leaving for lunch and hurried out to catch her. It was underhanded, and more than likely it didn’t fool anybody, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t care too much about how I looked or how wanting her looked.

  When I caught up to her, she was about to get into her car. “Going anywhere good for lunch?”

  I watched her start and grab her chest a little, showing me that I had frightened her. Her surprise made me smile, and she smiled back before she even seemed to realize who it was she was talking to. When she did, Desiree went back to her business smile, and I was a little saddened by the change.

  “I don’t know, sir. I think I was going to just grab a sandwich at the deli down the road. Did you want one?”

  I was the one surprised by the offer. She told me to get in, and I looked longingly over to the car waiting for me. Her car was a tiny two-door subcompact, and when I got into it I felt like a giant. She laughed at me a little and I knew it was because my head was only a couple of inches from the roof.

  During the ride, I felt myself looking for somewhere to grab a few times. I’d never pictured her driving like she was in NASCAR, but it was clear that Desiree liked a little speed. It was just another part of her that I liked. Everything I learned just seemed to reinforce the initial feeling that had come over me when we met.

  She giggled at me as she pulled into her parking spot and I braced myself for impact. “I take it you don’t like my driving.”

  I wasn’t sure if she always drove like that, but it was clear that it wasn’t the first time she had. I was feeling a little woozy and seasick, but I would never admit such a thing. Instead, I just laughed along with her and tried to keep my cool. Desiree was full of surprises.

  The sandwiches at the deli tasted better than my lunch did most days and I wondered why I’d never tried the food there. It wasn’t fancy and certainly didn’t cost much, but I found the lunch very enjoyable. I didn’t know if it was the food or the company, but when she was ready to leave, I was not.

  “Come on, we’ve got to get back or we are going to be late.”

  When I protested, she laughed at the absurdity or it, but then shook her head and told me that she needed to go. “I know that you’re the boss and no one cares, but I don’t need anyone else thinking that I’m getting special treatment.”

  I agreed, but wondered if she realized that just being out with me was new. I had gone out with a few of my assistants, and even Paul a couple of times, but nothing like this. She was going to get special treatment whether she wanted to or realized that I was doing it.

  Getting up, she insisted on paying for her meal, another new one for me, and I just went with it. After the kiss the night before, she had changed a little towards me. Before, she found it hard to meet my gaze, but now she was meeting it more often and there was something hidden in the looks she returned my way. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that Desiree was coming around. I couldn’t be sure, but once I was sure that she was ready for me, I knew that I was going to pounce on her the first chance that I got.

  The drive back was as fast as the drive there. She seemed relaxed behind the wheel, her blonde hair down and flowing back with the wind. Desiree made me realize how much I missed driving. At first the driver had been a luxury, a way of showing that I had arrived, but I had forgotten how much I had enjoyed it.

  When we got back to the building, I told her that I had a meeting to get to, but really I went for a drive. I needed the peace and quiet that came from it. Before long my mind was clearing and I was feeling better than I had in a long time. I don’t know if it was Desiree or the kiss or just the thought of all of the possibilities, but something was going on with me, and I liked the changes that were happening.

  Chapter 5 – Desiree

  I still felt nervous going into work, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Fran had told me that I should just ignore it all, and I was working on doing that. I didn’t know if anyone was still whispering behind my back, but I wasn’t listening for it in the first place. They were going to say what they were going to say, and the best I could do was try to make sure that I didn’t let it bother me. I was exactly where I wanted to be, and all I needed was to just ride it out.

  After a week, the nervousness was completely gone and I was starting to really like working there. I had seen Donald only once in the hallway. The look he had given me had stopped me in my tracks. He still hadn’t forgotten about me smacking him, and I was sure that he wasn’t going to forget any time soon. I didn’t ask Greg if he was still thinking about getting rid of him. I just let it go, and as long as he wasn’t around me or messing with me, I could usually ignore it all.

  Greg was a little harder to ignore. He started meeting me out in the parking garage for lunch. I had gone with him every day that week. Now that it was Friday, I was thinking about Greg and how much I was going to miss the relaxed talks that we had over deli sandwiches. I don’t know why, but waiting a couple of days to see him again seemed like a long time.

  When I was leaving that evening, I thought of stopping off to see him. I hadn’t done it yet, but when I got in the elevator, there was an urge to hit the top button and find a reason to say that I wanted to see him. But I didn’t succumb to it. I went down to the parking garage instead. A couple of days weren’t that long, after all.

  His voice stopped me before I got to my car, though, and I smiled to myself when he said my name. Why did I want to see him so badly? We had just seen each other for lunch a few hours ago.

  “Are you done for the week?”

  I nodded that I was, turning around to look up at him. I don’t know how he did it, but he had some of the best timing.

  “Would you like to go out with me tonight?”

  “I’m not really dressed to go out.”

  “I can pick you up around eight if you want. However long you think you need to get ready would be fine with me.”

  “W
ell, aren’t you accommodating today?”

  He chuckled, and I thought for a moment he was going to kiss me again. There were times when we were together that I was sure that he was going to kiss me. He would get close, so close that I could feel his breath on me, and then I would wait in anticipation. It wasn’t long before I would realize, like I was now, that he wasn’t going to make a move. So, trying not to sigh too hard, I agreed to go with him. I didn’t know where we were going, but I knew that it didn’t matter. I just wanted to be with him.

  “I will see you then.”

  “Okay, see you then, Greg.”

  Getting into my car, there was a buzz in the air and I was sure that everyone else could hear it because it was so loud in my ears. I knew then that I wanted more from Greg than just being my boss. I wanted him in ways that I wasn’t supposed to want him.

  ***

  “I can’t believe you are going out with him. I can’t even believe you are working there again, but this is different. If you go, Desiree, he is going to think that you want something more than just a friendship.”

  “I do want more than a friendship. I want him, Fran. I don’t know why I do, but God I want him so bad. He is like Jimmy from tenth grade all over again. I can’t think when he is around. I can barely talk a lot of the time. I think maybe if we are together once, then I could move on. I don’t know. He is driving me a little crazy.”

  She just shook her head at me. She had already given me a hard time about a lot of things, and now I knew what she was going to say.

  “I just think that you are playing with fire, Desiree. Men like Greg Jefferson are not known to be faithful and loyal. Do you really want to get involved with a man like that? I mean, think about it. He is trying to get with you and he’s your boss. That goes against all kinds of ethics.”

  I knew that she was probably right. What we’d been doing so far wasn’t wrong, but what I wanted to happen was certainly frowned upon. But I felt like I was supposed to be with him. If nothing else, I just had to get him out of my system before he drove me insane.