Misjudging the Billionaire - (Contemporary BWWM Romance)

by Destiny Davis

  “See? I told you he was married,” Destiny whispered from whatever hiding spot she’d found within the call center she was a slave to.

  “I feel so fucking stupid,” Eva sobbed, punching the top of her steering wheel as tears streamed down her face. She didn’t want to cry over this man, or any man for that matter, but he’d wormed his way into her heart and knowing she’d been used hurt badly. “His wife’s probably been on vacation somewhere this entire time.”

  “Yeah, that’s seriously shitty. I’m so sorry, girl. I’m coming over right after work, okay? I’ll be there around five thirty,” Destiny said sympathetically.

  “Okay. Thank you,” Eva sniffed as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

  Returning back to her small apartment, Eva sunk onto her sofa in defeat and wept while Burley lay next to her resting his chin on her leg. Her phone sounded as it received a text from Devon informing her that he was on his way home and that he was excited to see her pretty face. She ignored it as she sat fraught with sadness. Thirty minutes later, he tried calling but she ignored that as well. After five minutes she avoided yet another of his calls, and this time he left a voicemail that went unheard and was promptly deleted. Over the next two hours he sent countless texts and made dozens of phone calls in concern, all of them remaining unanswered. Realizing he’d likely show up at her building, she finally sent him a text message back to avoid dealing with him in person.

  Not feeling well. Staying home. Later.

  Within moments he’d responded with a slew of questions. She turned her phone to silent and drew a warm bath to help calm her shattered nerves and soothe her aching heart. As she soaked in the tub, her sorrow turned to anger at the man who’d manipulated her for weeks. For the first time in her life, she’d let her defenses down only to get burned and that’s what stung the most. She’d unwittingly been made into a mistresses and a fool, and she reminded herself why she stayed away from these wealthy elitists in the first place. Devon had seemed so different than the rich jerks she dealt with throughout the week, but in the end it was all an act and she had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. She’d allowed his gentle façade and chiseled good looks to blind her as he delivered an award-winning performance that fictionalized his background and motives.

  A soft knock on her front door startled her from her thoughts. Shit, she thought as she quickly rose from the bath and reached for her towel. She’d been so consumed with her resentment towards Devon Cross that she’d forgotten her friend was supposed to be stopping by. Rushing to her bedroom and throwing on her bathrobe, she glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand and realized that it was only 5:00 pm. A sinking feeling told her that Destiny likely hadn’t gotten out of work early, and that the knock was probably coming from the same person she was trying to avoid. As Burley frantically sniffed and grunted at the front door, she crept her way down the short hallway as silently as possible and peeked through the small peephole. Sure enough, Devon Cross stood just on the other side of the door but Eva didn’t let the look of concern on his face fool her.

  “Are you okay, babe?” he asked as he gently rapped on the door again. He waited with a growing look of impatience before tapping the door a third time. “I hope you’re alive in there.”

  Eva remained frozen, trying her hardest not to make a sound as Devon lingered in the hall mere inches away. She watched as he let out a small sigh and searched his pocket for a pen. He bent down out of sight, and she could hear the faint tearing of paper followed by a scribbling noise against her door. A handwritten note jotted onto a piece of torn brown paper slid from under the door into her apartment, and with that Devon turned to leave. She waited a few seconds to ensure he was truly gone before reaching down for the note.

  Eva,

  Feel better, my gorgeous girl. Left you some soup and medicine just outside your door. Hoping a neighbor doesn‘t walk off with it! Call or text me when you can.

  -Devon

  Confident that he was truly gone, she slowly unlocked all three of door’s steel guards to find a brown paper bag waiting on the floor outside. A piece of the bag had been torn off, its shape matching the note Eva still held in her hand. Retreating into the confines of her apartment, she rummaged through the bag and found a small container of chicken noodle soup from a local deli, a bottle of Gatorade, ibuprofen, and two cans of ginger ale. She tried not to be touched by the gesture, reminding herself that these provisions had been delivered by the same man who’d been lying to her for weeks. With Destiny due any minute, she peered out the window to make sure Devon’s driver had whisked him away. The last thing she needed was Destiny running into the man. Knowing her, she’d either cause a scene by screaming his ear off or attempt to seduce him with her flirtatious ways. Both were scenarios Eva wanted to avoid, but thankfully the street showed no sign of Devon’s limousine or town car.

  A half an hour later, Destiny did show up to console her friend. She’d misjudged Devon so many times since meeting him, and as furious as she was Eva tried to remain level-headed enough to seek out an explanation for his deceit. Together the two used Eva’s laptop to scour the internet in hopes of finding any divorce records for Devon and Marie Cross, but their search returned nothing. The man really did appear to be married and living a double life that his wife likely knew nothing about. She recalled him mentioning over a cheeseburger dinner on their first date that he owned over eighty buildings. How did she know he even lived at the same estate where they’d been spending their weekends? He could very well have his wife, and possibly kids, hidden away in one of his numerous properties. It’s true he’d been spending the majority of his time with Eva, but who knew what excuse he was feeding his wife to explain away his absence? Another business convention, sweetie, I’ll be back in a few days, she envisioned him saying with his deep, soothing voice.

  After admitting she’d been duped, Eva tried to distract herself by having a girl’s night with her best friend. The two gorged on ice cream and popcorn while watching romantic comedies, but come midnight Eva was still as crestfallen as she had been before Destiny had arrived. She donned a fake smile as she hugged her friend goodbye, and after letting Burley out to do his business she crashed down in bed emotionally exhausted from the unexpected day. As drained as she was, the night only brought tossing and turning as memories of her time with Devon flashed through her mind.

  The following morning found her working yet another breakfast shift at Bon Appétit, and she arrived extremely tired yet on time. By the time she punched out, Devon had sent a handful of text messages and her phone showed she’d missed five of his calls. Driving home in the Ford she could no longer stand to look at, and was now horribly uncomfortable even sitting in, Devon tried calling for a sixth time but she ignored it and tossed her phone back into the passenger seat. She wasn’t afraid of confrontation and would call Devon out on his lies in time, but she wasn’t ready to hear his voice again just yet. She needed time to rebuild the wall around her heart before having it out with the man who’d so cunningly manipulated his way through her previous one.

  Later that evening, she sent Devon a short text message telling him she was still feeling a bit under the weather so he’d stop blowing up her phone. He responded that he was relieved to hear from her, that he missed her, and asked if she needed anything. She replied simply with “thank you, no” and set her phone to silent again to spend a quiet evening healing with Burley. The next day unfolded almost exactly the same, with Eva finishing her morning shift to find her phone full of texts and missed calls from Devon Cross. Returning home, she shot him a quick text to tell him she still wasn’t feeling well and muted her phone to again work on mending her broken heart.

  By the third day, Devon had pieced together that Eva was feigning her sickness as a means of avoiding him. When yet another grueling shift at the restaurant finally reached its end, she climbed into the car she now detested to find four text messages and two missed calls waiting for her. With a sigh she thumbed through th
e messages, all of them from the relentless man who apparently couldn’t take a hint.

  Robert Jameson says you’ve been working and seem healthy. What’s up?

  Okay, what did I do wrong? Just be honest with me.

  Seriously, don’t do this to me. Please talk to me.

  At least tell me what I did wrong!

  “I don’t want to talk to you, asshole,” Eva muttered to herself while deleting the messages. She didn’t want to talk to anybody, including Destiny, and just needed some more time to herself. Her friend knew this and had only been texting Eva once a day to see how she was holding up. Eva’s biggest fear was Devon showing up while she was working and causing a scene, but she hoped he wouldn’t be foolish enough to jeopardize the same job he’d paid an undisclosed amount of money for her to get back. Eva had playfully attempted to wrestle the figure out of Devon one night, but he refused to divulge the exact number. She guessed he’d paid upwards of ten thousand dollars, but despite the payoff she was still on thin ice with Mr. Jameson and didn’t want to lose the same job twice.

  Around 8:00 pm that evening, a knock sounded on her front door followed by Devon’s muffled voice pleading with her to talk to him. She lay motionless on the sofa, television clearly audible, as Burley snorted at the door with his tail wagging. He missed his friend, but Eva was still in no mood to see the man and wasn’t about to let him in. After five minutes of his knocks and pleas going unanswered, Devon finally admitted defeat and left a disappointed Burley standing in confusion. One hour later, the LCD screen on her muted phone lit up as it received a message from Devon Cross, who she’d renamed in her phone as “Lying Dickbag.” Curiosity getting the better of her, she reached for the cell to see what Lying Dickbag had to say this time.

  I see you found my office. I know it looks bad, but I can explain. Please, just talk to me!

  For such a successful businessman, she was a bit shocked it had taken him so long to realize she’d discovered his private lair and had subsequently uncovered his bundle of lies. She’d left the box of love notes strewn about and hadn’t bothered shutting the door behind her when she’d stormed out of the room. She’d assumed he’d taken notice of her uninvited entry two or three days earlier, but Devon wasn’t exactly your typically entrepreneur and she never recalled him even mentioning an office. Looking back on the time they’d spent together, she realized she’d never even seen him do much work. He’d occasionally disappear, supposedly on business, but in hindsight Eva wondered if those meetings were merely an excuse to phone or visit his wife. It was apparent that he was living a double life, and with that in mind she placed her phone out of sight on the floor below her and continued mindlessly thumbing through the television channels.

  The next morning, Eva worked her fourth consecutive shift at the restaurant. For the first time that week, her phone received no text messages or phone calls from Devon yet his sudden silence came as a concern, not a relief. He was a persistent man, and it wasn’t like him to simply give up. She wondered if, on some subconscious level, a small part of her didn’t want him to. She could deny it all she wanted, but the truth was she’d fallen hard for him over the few weeks they’d spent together and she wasn’t sure if she was truly ready to let him go. She scolded herself for having these thoughts and reminded herself of his countless lies while delivering a tray of food to a table of wealthy loudmouths. The man she’d fallen for didn’t truly exist, she told herself, and if she ever saw him again it would be to slap or punch him. She hadn’t decided which.

  A few times every hour, when she was sure Mr. Jameson’s watchful eyes weren’t on her, she’d slyly glance at her phone to see if Devon had tried contacting her. There continued to be nothing, and as the day wore on that made her increasingly nervous. She expected him to barge through the restaurant’s entrance at any minute to cause a commotion that would inevitably get her fired irreparably. That didn’t happen, and when her shift ended she cautiously made her way outside half anticipating his tall, powerful figure to be waiting for her. He was nowhere to be seen, and climbing back into the car she’d acquired as an unknowing mistress, she drove back to home to Burley’s wagging tail and warm doggy breath.

  By 9:00 pm, she still hadn’t heard from Devon and assumed he’d finally conceded defeat. She’d exposed his web of lies, and he’d vanished with his tail tucked between his legs. He’d run back to his wife, wherever she’d been or wherever he’d been hiding her. Grabbing Burley’s leash, she walked her excited buddy downstairs so he could relieve himself before bed. The sun had set two hours prior, and her street was illuminated by the only three streetlights that neighborhood hoodlums hadn’t shattered. A midsummer drizzle fell from the sky, yet despite the light rain it was still comfortably warm. Making her way down the front steps to the building’s small lawn, she waited patiently as Burley found a spot to empty himself.

  “Eva,” Devon’s deep voice suddenly rang out of the darkness. Startled, both her and Burley whipped their heads around to see Devon step out of the shadows. He knew her nightly routine, and he’d been waiting for her just out of sight around the corner of the building. Burley bolted towards him, eager to see his human friend, and pulled Eva’s small frame along with him.

  “Go away, Devon,” Eva said while fighting to reel Burley back in. “I really don’t want to see you right now.”

  As he moved towards her and became more visible, Eva noticed his disheveled appearance. He was wearing a wrinkled black suit, now damp from the weather, that looked as though he may have been sleeping in it. The bags under his eyes, however, suggested he hadn’t slept for days. He looked like a mess; his wet hair tousled and tie loosened around his neck, yet despite the unkempt roughness he still managed to remain excruciatingly handsome.

  “Please,” Devon began as he approached her with a deep sadness in his blue eyes. “I’m begging you, just let me explain. Give me at least that,” he pleaded as Burley sniffed at his soaked Italian loafers that were likely ruined from the wet grass he’d been standing in.

  “Explain what?” Eva shot back indignantly. “Explain that you’re a lying asshole? A married lying asshole?” she continued angrily.

  “I’m not married, Eva, I—”

  “Bullshit!” Eva cut him off. “I saw the pictures of you and your wife. I read your little love notes. I can’t believe I fell for your shit. Get the fuck out of here,” she demanded while pointing towards the road.

  “Babe, I swear, I’m not—”

  “Jesus, can’t you just take a fucking hint already?!” Eva shouted. “I know you’re married for a fact. Do you ever stop lying? Now just leave me alone. We’re done. Forget you ever met me.” Tugging on Burley’s leash, she turned to head back inside the building but the sound of Devon’s sobbing voice stopped her.

  “You’re right,” he confessed as a mixture of tears and rain streamed down his sullen face. “I did lie to you.”

  “Yeah, no shit,” she replied in disgust, refusing to look at the man who stood weeping in the dim mist. Anger coursed through her veins, yet she found tears welling in her eyes as hate and love collided inside of her. “Just go,” she said with her voice trembling in emotion.

  “I should have told you that I was married,” Devon blurted, taking a step closer to her. “Was married.”

  “Sure. No record of divorce, Devon. I checked. I’m not an idiot, you know,” Eva scowled as she inched her way towards the building’s front door to escape the escalating rainfall.

  “That’s because we didn’t get divorced,” Devon said with the sadness in his eyes growing noticeably.

  “I know,” Eva growled. “I found a website that was updated pretty recently and it lists you as still married. I guess you conveniently forgot to tell me, right?”

  “I’m not responsible for the content on some random website that doesn’t get its facts straight,” Devon argued, his tired eyes now red and puffy and his suit drenched from the rain. Eva stood under the eave of the building, shielded from the i
ncreasing drizzle as he took another step towards her. “And she’s not with me anymore,” he said softly.

  “Let me guess. You left her, right?” Eva asked sarcastically. Devon lowered his head yet she could see the look of pain cross his face, his tears now indistinguishable from the rain.

  “I didn’t leave her side,” he replied solemnly, his voice low. After a long pause he added, “She left mine.”

  “Oh, what, did she find out about me?” Eva laughed. “Am I supposed to feel bad for you?”

  “She left me five years ago,” Devon answered as he raised his head. His face was filled with a deep sorrow and his far away eyes were clearly recalling some painful memory. He seemed so gentle and sincere, just as he always did, but Eva remained wary as she listened to him go on.

  “By the time we realized how sick she was, it was already too late. The cancer spread through her body so quickly she was gone in less than a year,” Devon recounted with a troubled face. For the first time, the man she’d known as strong and powerful looked weak and powerless as he stood trembling in the rain. Eva’s heart sank at the sight of him, her eyes flooding with tears at his hurt. In that moment she knew this man was telling her the truth, and that the pain he was feeling was very real. Burley sat by her side, his gaze bouncing from Eva to Devon and back again as he read their body language with a look of concern and impatience.

  “Devon, I… I didn’t know. I’m so sorry,” Eva sobbed as she covered her mouth in shock, her cheeks now stained with rivulets of cheap mascara and eyeliner. In the four days she’d spent mulling over the various reasons for his deceit, him being a widower had never crossed her mind. She could tell by how utterly destroyed he looked that this wasn’t some story he’d concocted to trick her back into bed. No, the drenched and defeated man standing before her was as honest as they came and how horribly she’d misread the situation, and treated him in the process, flooded her with shame. She’d acted like an irrational child by giving him the silent treatment instead of offering him a chance to explain himself. She thought he’d demolished the wall around her heart, but apparently a few bricks had remained and they were all it took for her to self-destruct.