Sleeping With The Billionaire - A Standalone Royal Alpha Billionaire Prince Romance (New York City Billionaires - Book #2)

by Alexa Davis

  “Wow, that’s a massive sacrifice. You must really adore her.”

  I love her, I thought, but I didn’t say that part aloud. I simply nodded instead. I didn’t want anyone else to know how I felt before Annie did. It was all about finding the right time to say it.

  “Come on, Justin!” Annie eventually yelled, breaking our conversation apart. “I think Rae might just about be ready now.”

  As Rae argued with her, we both chuckled quietly and said our goodbyes. In that moment, it hit me how much I didn’t want to leave, and it wasn’t just for Annie; it was for everything. I didn’t just have stuff waiting for me in Portland: I had friends and a readymade family waiting for me here, too. It wouldn’t be anything of a sacrifice – if anything, it would be a privilege.

  I drove Rae and Annie back home in a relative silence, wondering how I could fast forward my plan to mostly retire from the company early so that I could make the move happen. I was going to have to train someone up to be a manager, someone that I really trusted to keep everything going well, and that would take some time. But it wasn’t impossible, so if I focused on that…

  “What are you thinking about?” Annie asked, resting her hand on my leg.

  I bit my lip and shot her a look. Could I tell her? Would it freak her out to know how seriously I was taking all of this? “Just the future,” I decided to tell her semi evasively.

  “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that, too,” she replied virtually silently. “It’s a tricky one, isn’t it?” Clearly my questions this morning had got her thinking. “But we’ll find a way to make it work, right?”

  I looked at her, then in my rearview mirror to see Rae sitting there happily singing away to herself. This would work somehow, I would find a way. But I couldn’t tell her any of my plans just yet, in case it didn’t work out. The last thing that I wanted to do was disappoint her. “We’ll find a way, don’t you worry about that.”

  As I dropped them both off at home, I felt like my heart was being torn from my chest. If I didn’t have so much to go back for, if I didn’t have a meeting with my brother’s lawyer in the morning, plus a load of business meetings to catch up on all week long, then I would have just stayed with her. I could tell that she wanted me to from the saddened look in her eyes, but she wouldn’t ask. There was one thing that Annie understood well, and that was responsibility.

  In the end, I had to literally force myself to drive away, and as I did, I allowed my mind to wander.

  I thought about how difficult all of this was for me, with Garrett, and how it must have been so much worse for Annie. If I was worried about the family reputation, then I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like for her. And, with a newborn baby to attend to, as well.

  Sure, I wasn’t experienced in what life was like with a baby, but I could only imagine that it was a never ending chain of someone relying solely on you for everything. No sleep, no real rest, stress every second of every day…plus that nightmare on top of it? That prospect was too unbearable for words.

  How did she manage to fit everything in? I couldn’t wrap my head around how she’d actually managed to do it all without super powers, it was amazing.

  She was an incredible woman, the absolute best – and now she was mine, and I would never ever let her go. She wasn’t just beautiful and smart, like I’d first assumed when I met her; she was brave, too. Powerful and strong. Just the sort of woman that I needed in my life.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Annie – Monday

  “What the hell?” I muttered to myself as I reached Boffees to start work. I’d picked up Rae with Justin by my side, then dropped her off with Nancy so my head was all over the place anyway, but this was totally unexpected. I glanced at my watch, just to check that I wasn’t really late, but I was on time. Something was going on here – I just needed to figure out what it was.

  “Annie!” Tony yelled above the crowd. “Look, guys, she’s here. Everyone, look!” He sounded far too excitable for my liking, it made me very suspicious.

  “Erm, what’s going on?” I asked curiously as a blush filled my entire body. I wasn’t used to so much focus on me all at once, and it was making me a bit uncomfortable. “Why are you all here?” I trailed off, hating that I was basically criticizing people for coming to my store, but I really was confused.

  “We all got advanced copies of your book,” Jan told me happily, handing me her copy to examine. My heart raced as I trailed my fingers over the glossy cover, my dream becoming a reality. “Justin got the publishing company to send all of your best customers a copy, and we’re all here for you to sign it.”

  “I read it last night,” someone else piped up, a face that I barely recognized. “It’s absolutely incredible. I couldn’t put it down.”

  “Wow, thank you,” I replied a little breathlessly. “I…I really don’t know what to say.”

  I unlocked the door to let people in, and started to carry on as normal, but no one would let me have it. One of the ladies took over making the hot drinks for everyone, someone else took control of the register, while everyone else crowded around me to ask me all the questions that they had about the book.

  “When did you write it?”

  “Are you writing more?”

  “What will happen in your next book? Will it be based on the same characters?”

  “How do you find time to write it all?”

  “Are the characters based on real people?”

  I did my best to answer everyone as honestly as I could, except for the part about the characters being based on anyone. I didn’t want people to know that Mary Ann was loosely based on myself, because that would just lead to more very awkward questions – the sort I wasn’t in any sort of position to answer.

  She was her own character, of course; after a while she took on a life of her own, but her internal pain, the fact that she felt blamed for something she hadn't done, the fact that she wanted to kill the male character in the story…that was all me at the time. I laid everything out about what I felt on paper as a form of therapy for myself. It actually worked in a way because it helped me to make my way through a lot of my feelings.

  Instead, I chose to focus on the future and the possible plot ideas of the second book, just to give the people of Florence something else to talk about, which luckily they seemed to love.

  As I scribbled my name across the pages of the book, feeling much more like a celebrity than I thought I ever would, I felt good about what I’d written in that book. I hadn't really thought about it at the time of writing it, I assumed that I was only writing it for myself, but now I could see that I might actually be able to touch other people in a strange way, and I liked that.

  It made me want to do the same again. What I wanted was to make other people happy and hopeful, so that would be the core of my next plot, however it came out.

  “There she is,” a familiar voice burst through the doors of Boffees, making me smile before I even looked up to catch his gaze. “The published author, congratulations.”

  “Hi there, Roy,” I grinned happily. “I know, all of this is a bit crazy isn’t it?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, I always knew that you had it in you.” He took his drink off someone and came to sit with me. “You are going to sign my copy, right?”

  My head was all over the place as I signed his book, admittedly feeling just a little bit silly. It was one thing to do it for people who seemed to be fans of my work, but for a friend…well, that was too bizarre for words.

  “I can’t believe Justin did this for you,” he told me quietly. “He really is something else, isn’t he?”

  “I know, and I’m really grateful to you for telling me to stick with him; things are much better now,” I told him smilingly. “I wasn’t sure that you were right for a time, I thought that you were just sticking up for your friend, and I tried my best to move on. But it didn’t work. I never lost any of my feelings for him.”

  “I know
it isn’t going to be easy taking on Justin with his baggage, but honestly, he really is a good person. I meant it when I said that.”

  “Yeah, I mean this thing with Garrett is difficult for me, you know that as well as I do, but I think I can do it.”

  “Thank you. I really do appreciate that,” I glanced around, glad that everyone else had finally broken off into their own groups of conversation now, leaving us both alone. “But I’ve told him now anyway, so things are much better. I feel like I can be more myself with him. I feel like he understands me.”

  “Yeah, well, I really do hope that things work out between you.” He leaned back in his chair and shot me an odd look. “God, if you’d told me when I set up that investment meeting that we would end up here, I never would have believed you.”

  “Me, neither,” I admitted. “But I’m glad that’s what happened. It’s worked out much better. Now I don’t want to expand, I want to stay here and write more books. I want to be there as much as I can for Rae.”

  “That sounds amazing,” Roy nodded, totally agreeing with me. “Now that you put it like that, that sounds like a much better plan for you. Plus, you have your fan club; you can’t let them down.”

  I peeled into laughter about that. “I know, I can’t believe it. It’s all so much. I can’t believe that they all like the book, it seems insane to me.”

  “I can believe it; you’re an amazing writer. And now you have to believe in yourself, there’s nothing holding you back.”

  With that, he stood up and shot me a wink before heading out on his way. As he left, I felt so glad for him for so many reasons. He was great friend, next to Nancy he was one of the only other people that I trusted, and now he’d led me to love of my life, too, without even realizing it.

  “Now, I’m going to make the coffee this time,” I said loudly to everyone. “So let me know what you all want.” I just wanted everything to return to as normal as possible; the attention was too much for me.

  ***

  “Hey, handsome,” I said playfully as Justin picked up the phone. I’d been wanting to talk to him all day long about what he’d done for me, but I didn’t just want it to be a quick, five-minute conversation. So I’d had to wait until I was home, with everything done, and Rae fast asleep. “How are you?”

  “Urgh, painful, I miss you so much!” he exclaimed loudly. “Plus, I’ve had all kinds of lawyer-related stuff to deal with today, so that hasn’t been fun.”

  I gulped, shaking my own past from my mind, wanting to only focus on what was happening right now. This wasn’t me and Billy; this was Justin and Garrett. If I just kept that thought at the forefront of my mind, everything would be okay. “How is it all going?”

  “Oh no, we don’t have to talk about it,” he did his best to insist. “That wasn’t why I brought it up.”

  “No, I want you to be able to talk to me about it, please?”

  “Okay, well, it doesn’t look good for Garrett,” he sighed sadly. “He’s going to be locked up for a long time.”

  I wanted to tell him that it would never be long enough, but that seemed inappropriate, so I bit down hard on my lip instead to silence myself. “But there’s nothing that I can do for him while he’s being so stubborn, so he’s going to have to dig himself out of this one.”

  “Oh, you’ll always be there for him,” I replied knowingly. “But I think that you’re right. You can’t spend your whole life worrying about someone else. His behavior is his own choice.”

  After a brief thoughtful pause, he continued. “So, do you have any news for me? Anything exciting happen today?”

  “Oh, like you don’t know,” I teased. “You know for a fact that everyone in Florence got a copy of my book today. I was absolutely swamped at work today, it was a nightmare.”

  He laughed out loud, which was exactly the reaction that I wanted. I wasn’t really mad at him, how could I be when he’d made all my dreams come true? “So it was a good day, then?”

  “It was amazing,” I replied sincerely. “Thank you so much, I really appreciate everything that you’ve done for me.”

  “Well, I appreciate you, too. More than you’ll ever know.”

  That made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, just knowing that I made him feel good, too. This was all so new, so exciting, and I never wanted it to end. Luckily, it didn’t feel like it ever would. Luckily, it felt like Justin was going to be in my life for a very long time to come.

  As we talked, I lay on the bed next to Rae, no longer caring that she was spending an increasing amount of time sleeping next to me. That was something that she would grow out of, I was sure of it. I held her close and relaxed as Justin’s voice soothed me.

  I felt at peace, really happy with my life, and for someone who had spent a lot of time feeling the opposite, it was nice. He really made me feel amazing,

  I loved him – that was becoming more apparent with each passing day. I just hadn't quite worked out how I was going to let him know. With all of his talk over the weekend about the future, I knew that he was planning to be in this for a long time, even if he wasn’t saying it aloud, but that still didn’t make it easy for me to express it.

  I would though, eventually. When the moment was right…

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Justin – Friday

  I pulled my suit on and grinned at the reflection staring back at me. Outwardly, I was still the same man, I still looked exactly the same, but I could tell that there was something very different about me. I looked happier, lighter, like I had a whole lot more to live for.

  I grabbed my phone quickly when it started to ring, hoping that it would be Annie on the other end of the line, but instead I found myself faced with another number that was becoming annoyingly familiar to me: Garrett’s lawyer.

  The problem was every time I spoke to him now, it was bad news. He never had anything positive to tell me, which drove me insane. Why couldn’t Garrett just play ball for once? Just to help out the people who were trying to help him!

  “Hey, there,” I answered wearily. “What’s going on now?”

  “I just thought that you should know that the court case date has been set. The trial will be in four months’ time.”

  “Okay,” I replied slowly. That seemed quite quick to me; usually these sorts of things took up to eighteen months, but maybe there was a reason for that. “Does Garrett know?”

  “Yes, I’ve spoken to him about it, but, well, you know how he is.”

  I knew only too well. He had clearly abandoned his plan of getting out of jail now that he’d seen how impossible that was, and he’d decided to get locked away for as long as possible. He was doing everything that he could to make everyone else’s lives harder. At this rate, he would never get out, but if that was what he wanted, then so be it. There was nothing that I could do anymore.

  “Okay, well, I might go and see him today,” I replied decisively. Even if it was the last time that I saw him, I had to give it one last try. Even if there was nothing that I could do, I wanted him to know that I would be there when he needed me.

  My father would just have to understand that I’d done all that I could, and that all I had left was just being there.

  “All right. Good luck.”

  After I hung up the phone, I glanced at my watch to see that I still had enough time before heading into the office. I didn’t have a lot planned, I just wanted to discuss my idea moving forward with Lucia. As my PA, she would have to be very involved with whoever I got in for the managerial position because it was likely she would then be working under them. She was an awesome personal assistant; I didn’t want to do anything that would get rid of her.

  I definitely had enough time. It was time to suck it up and go and see him.

  ***

  “Thank you,” I murmured to the guard as she showed me the way. “I appreciate it.”

  I sucked in a deep breath to calm me down and turned to face Garrett, who looked even more aggressive than he had
the last time I laid eyes on him. This wasn’t going to go well, that was immediately apparent, but to be honest, I hadn't really expected it this time. This wasn’t really about that anymore.

  “How are you, Garrett?” I asked cautiously. “Did you hear the news about your court date?”

  “Yep,” he snapped back, anger dripping off his tongue. “So why the fuck are you here, because it sure as hell can’t be about that. You haven’t given a shit so far, so why would you now?”

  I sighed loudly and sat in front of him. He was just doing what he could to push me away; I needed to be the bigger person about this. “Of course I care about it; you just need to face up to what you’ve done. It has to be made right.”

  He rolled his eyes at me and folded his hands stubbornly across his chest. “Sure, you keep telling yourself that. What I imagine is that you’re here to tell me that you’ve decided to ignore my advice, and you’re still going to hook up with that woman.”

  Wow, he was good. I mean, I hadn't come to tell him that, but the fact that he could tell that was the case was something else. I didn’t dignify the comment with a response, but I didn’t really have to.

  “Well, you carry on, brother. You’ll soon see that you’re just like Dad.”

  “Give that a rest,” I warned, unable to help myself. “I’ve made my decisions in life, I know what I want, and there’s nothing you can say to change my mind. Maybe the Gains gene is a bad one, I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean that I have to behave in a certain way. I am my own man, and I can do what I want.”

  I stared at him intently. If this was going to be the last time that I ever saw him, then I needed to say it all. “I feel bad for you that you found Mom’s suicide note. I know that must have been hard for you. Maybe if you shared that with me at the time, I could have helped you, but you didn’t.