My Billionaire Boss

by Gold, Bella

  “Tyler,” Nicole finally breathed out as she pushed his head back, “Your turn. Take off your pants.”

  “I wasn’t finished yet.”

  She smiled. “Neither of us are I hope, not by a long-shot. Take off those jeans!” He grinned and unbuttoned his pants. He liked it when she was sassy. He pushed up to his feet and pulled off his boots before sliding them and his boxers down in one swift move. He felt his erection pulse when Nicole’s pretty eyes landed on it and widened, “Wow,” she said and then her face colored red again. She was such a contrast, so sexy standing there naked in the moonlight with lust in her eyes, but blushing like a little girl. Tyler pulled her against him and his cock throbbed as it rubbed up against her smooth skin. He gave her a long, languid kiss and then pulled them both down to their knees. Nicole squirmed out of his grasp and brought her mouth down to encircle his hard member and his head nearly exploded as she began running her tongue along the underside of his shaft. She took it all the way into the back of her throat and licked again as she let it come back out, ending with a swirl to the head with her tongue each time. It felt so good that Tyler thought he might have died and gone to heaven, but he had to stop her. He’d waited way too long for this for it to end in her mouth.

  “Nicole, that’s incredible. You’re amazing, but I need to be inside of you, please.” He tugged on her hair gently and she pulled her face up and looked at him. He caught her mouth with his again and wrapped her up in his arms and laid her back on the blanket. He pushed her legs further apart before bracing himself between her legs. Holding his cock in one hand he rubbed it up and down her slit and pressed it into her hard clit before she finally thrust her hips up hard and he let it slide inside of her. Nothing prepared him for the feeling of Nicole stretching around him. She had her hands on his shoulders, digging into his flesh and they moaned together as he pulled back slightly and then pushed forward, this time going in as deeply as she could take him. He did his best to move slowly at first. He wanted to make it last. Nicole had her eyes closed and her head pressed back into the blanket and she used her grip on his shoulders to pull herself up and meet his every thrust with her hips.

  Tyler didn’t want to close his eyes. He wanted to remember every look on her face and the way her breasts heaved with her every breath. He bent down and ran his tongue over her nipples. She was getting close to her orgasm, he could tell by the sounds she was making. She suddenly slid her hands down his back until she reached his cheeks. She squeezed them and then she pushed against them each time she came up off the blanket. She was urging him to go faster and harder and he obliged. He stopped holding back and gave her everything he had for her. Her eyes flew open and he got to watch them fill with ecstasy when the orgasm hit her and she cried out his name. It echoed off the silent trees that surrounded him and the sound of it was what pushed him over the edge. As he came inside of her he briefly wondered if he should have worn a condom…but this was Nicole. He brushed that thought aside and collapsed down next to the woman that he was now convinced was his soulmate. How in God’s name was he going to leave her now?

  CHAPTER THREE

  FIVE YEARS LATER

  “You have to call him, baby.”

  Nicole looked up from the medical records and found her mother standing in the hospital doorway. She must have closed the bakery again today. “Mama I told you that you don’t have to come all the way out here every day. We’ll be home on Friday.”

  Her mother came all the way into the room. Her beautiful mocha skin was etched with worry lines and her hair that was once smooth and black was now mostly gray and fragile. Nicole knew that she was responsible for the bulk of her mother’s aging over the past five years. She had stayed in Copper River Falls instead of going to college or following Tyler out of a need to help her family and keep her mother sane. Sometimes she had to wonder if things would have been different now if she’d gone. Her mother sat down in the green chair next to hers and looked at the sleeping form in the hospital bed.

  “She looks so peaceful. Has she been sleeping long?”

  Nicole shook her head. “Every time the poor thing falls asleep they come in and poke or prod her with something else.”

  Her mother smiled like she was having a memory and then she looked at Nicole and said, “You have to call him.”

  “I don’t know what to say, Mama. He’s going to ask why I didn’t call four and a half years ago.”

  “Nicole this ain’t about pride.”

  Nicole felt an uncharacteristic surge of anger and she jumped up out of the chair. “You think I don’t know that? Do you think any of this has been about my pride? I did what I thought was best for him. I did what his mother told me to do! I suffered for it and the girl in the bed right there suffered for it too.” The tears flowed freely down her face. Her mother sat quietly and waited for the anger to pass. When Nicole was breathing normally again and had wiped the tears off of her face her mother said,

  “I think that you did what you thought was best, baby. But now you have to do the only thing that might save her life.”

  “Don’t say that! She’s not going to die.”

  Rebecca Bennett got up and went over to her daughter. She put her hands on Nicole’s shoulders and looked into her face. “You have to face reality, Nicole. If they don’t find a bone marrow donor soon, she is going to die. I don’t want it to happen and God only knows what would happen to you if it does, but that’s what will happen if you don’t at least call him.”

  Nicole looked toward the bed. Her daughter looked so small with her dark hair splayed out across the white of the pillow and sheets. So helpless. So sick. She shrugged out of her mother’s hold and went to stand beside the bed. Gripping onto the side rail with one hand, she used the other to brush a lock of hair off of Natalie’s dark forehead. She’d gotten Nicole’s coloring and almond shaped eyes and smooth black hair like her dad. She’s the most beautiful person that Nicole has ever known and although she’s only been on this earth for less than five years, Nicole had no idea what she would ever do without her. Her mother is right. She has to call Tyler. She absolutely couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t do everything she could to help her baby. She turned to look at her mother and said, “Will you stay with her? I’m going to go downstairs and call him.”

  Her mother stepped over to the bed and put her hand on her daughter’s back. “Of course, I will.” She leaned in and kissed Nicole on the cheek. “You be as strong as we both know you can be.”

  Nicole nodded. “I will, Mama. I’ll be right back.”

  As Nicole got on the elevator she thought back to the last time she’d seen Tyler. It was three months after he left and she’d just found out that she was pregnant. She told her mother first. Her Mama hadn’t been happy that she was twenty-two, pregnant and unmarried…but she hadn’t necessarily been unhappy either. She was excited about having a grandchild and she had been the best Nana to Natalie that a kid could have ever hoped for. She was also optimistic when she found out that the baby was Tyler’s. Nicole knew that for sure. She had only been with one other man before Tyler and that was right after high school graduation when Tyler was gone to New York. She hadn’t been with anyone for three years before that night with Tyler and no one after.

  After talking it over with her mother she decided that she had to tell Tyler face to face. He’d already told her that he wasn’t going to make it back for Christmas, but he’d invited her to his sister’s home in Oregon. She decided that was her chance to tell him. As she stepped off the elevator in the children’s hospital in Vermont now she remembered that Christmas Eve.

  She’d been so thrilled to see Tyler and he had seemed just as thrilled to see her. His mother and sister weren’t overly warm, but they seemed to at least be trying, if only because of the season. His sister had two small children that Nicole had a great time playing with and her husband Gary was also warm and welcoming. It was her first Christmas away from home, but she was happy the first few d
ays that she was there. On Christmas Eve she carefully wrapped the silver rattle she’d bought to give to Tyler. That was how she planned on breaking the news to him when they exchanged their gifts alone before joining the family. She’d just finished putting the bow on it when there was a knock on the guest room door.

  “Can I come in?” Mrs. Oshiro stuck her head in the door. Nicole quickly tucked the little package away and smiled.

  “Sure, come on in. Is it time for dinner?”

  The older woman closed the door behind her which Nicole found ominous. “Not yet,” she said. “I needed to speak with you…in private.”

  “Okay,” She made Nicole nervous. She could hear the shakiness in her own voice.

  “Sit down,” Mrs. Oshiro said, taking a seat herself on the edge of the bed. Nicole sat and the older woman looked at her seriously like someone just died and said, “How far along are you?”

  “Excuse me?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Nicole, I know that you’re pregnant. I assume you’ve come here to tell my son and in essence, ruin his life. So, I’m asking you…how far along are you?”

  Nicole felt sick to her stomach. “Three months,” she said.

  Tyler’s mother didn’t look even a little bit excited or happy. “You know that Tyler has been instrumental in the development of a program for editing which has everyone in Hollywood scrambling to be the highest bidder, don’t you?”

  “Of course, he told me all about it. I’m so excited for him.”

  She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow and asked, “Excited for him, or for you?”

  Genuinely confused Nicole said, “I don’t follow you.”

  “You’re going to tell him you are pregnant with his child. Don’t tell me that you don’t have fantasies of him proposing and the two of you living in the Hollywood hills in a mansion together.”

  “I don’t have fantasies at all. I’m just here to tell Tyler that he’s going to be a father. He deserves to know.”

  Mrs. Oshiro sighed and said, “Nicole your father was a sanitation worker before he married your mother, am I right?”

  “Yes.” She knew that he was. He was her garbage man before he married her mother. Nicole wondered what she was getting at.

  “And his family was Caucasian, correct?” Nicole nodded. Her father was actually mixed. His mother had been African American and his father white. Nicole wasn’t sure what this was about however so she wasn’t going to go into that now. “And your mother’s family is African American, from Detroit?”

  “She’s lived in Copper River since she was six years old.” Mrs. Oshiro had said, “Detroit” like it was a sour taste in her mouth that she was trying to get rid of.

  “I don’t normally listen to or pass on gossip, but there has been a rumor since your grandparents first moved to Copper River regarding where they got the money to buy both a house and a building for their bakery. They bought all new equipment when they first moved into the building as well.”

  Nicole knew the rumor well. She also knew the truth. The rumor was that her grandfather had been a notorious bank robber in Detroit back in the sixties. It just so happened the robberies stopped when he and her Granny moved. It was silly and the family all got a lot of good laughs out of it. Her grandfather didn’t own a gun. He didn’t even like to shoot. He had no criminal record and he has always believed in working hard for what you need. The truth was that when you lived in a small town rumors were part of life and although he worked and scrimped and saved to buy that bakery and her grandmother saved every penny she made as well, they were both secure enough in their own skin to have a sense of humor about it. Their baking talent and their willingness to sacrifice the small things for the future of their family was what made the bakery a success. They were far from rich, but none of them had ever spent a day hungry.

  “I never buy into rumors,” was all Nicole said to the older woman now.

  “I don’t either,” Mrs. Oshiro insisted again. “But, you do know that it doesn’t matter how brilliant you are, in Hollywood it’s all about who you know. If Tyler was to marry you…well, I’m afraid all of your family’s secrets would be free game for the press. I’m sure Tyler would tell you that doesn’t matter…he’s got such a big heart. But think of how devastating it would be for all of you. Tyler has a chance to reach his full potential here Nicole. I know you care a great deal about my son. If you’re not concerned for yourself or your family, I ask you to think about him and his.”

  Nicole felt like she was in shock. What exactly was this woman asking her to do? Did she not want her to have the baby at all…or did she just not want her to tell Tyler about it? She felt a stray tear run down her cheek and she reached up and wiped it away before saying, “I love Tyler.”

  The older woman covered her hand with her own. The hand was as cold as her eyes as she said, “That’s why I know you’ll do the right thing.” She gave her hand a slight squeeze and then she stood up, smoothed down her Christmas dress and gave Nicole a tight smile before leaving the room. Nicole left that night without saying goodbye. Tyler tried to reach her many times but she ignored his text messages and calls until he stopped sending them. She spent the past four years taking care of her daughter and if it weren’t for the fact that Natalie had been diagnosed with Leukemia almost a year ago and needed a bone marrow transplant, she would probably never have spoken to him again.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Tyler was exhausted. He spent the entire morning in meetings after not getting to bed until almost three a.m. and back up at six in the first place. He had just enough time to grab a quick lunch and eat it at his desk and then he was expected in another meeting across town. Sometimes he felt like it was all too much.

  He took off his suit jacket and sat down at the antique cherry wood desk that his mother’s interior decorator had picked out. He hated it. It was too big and it made him feel like he was six feet away from whoever was sitting on the other side of it. As he opened the food his assistant had left for him on the desk he thought about how he’d gotten here. The way your life can change overnight still amazed him sometimes. One minute he was editing film on a major motion picture and the next he was the creator of the most sought after editing program in the world.

  Tyler had invented the program when he was working from home and killing time selling real estate. He’d been using programs that Adobe, Sony, and Apple created like everyone else, but he wanted one that he had more control over where things like fade and lighting were concerned. The program he ended up writing was simply for his own convenience, or so he’d thought. The first time the lead film editor saw what he’d done with his part of the film, he took him straight to one of the producers. After that man saw what Tyler had done, he was taken to the office of the executive producer. Tyler felt like he was in shock as he listened to these men talking about copyrights and patents and dollar figures with six, seven and even eight figures. The executive producer offered to be his first investor. Almost five years later Oshiro Editing is a billion dollar corporation and instead of editing film, Tyler spends his days in meetings and pouring over financial documents and contracts with his colleagues, employees, and attorneys. He’s wealthier than he could have ever imagined. His main office is in Orange County California, but he has five of them spread out across the U.S. as well. The software had been perfected and was now a popular computer app that people could download onto their cell phones and use for editing pictures or videos.

  He picked up the knife and fork next to his plate and held them poised there above the chicken breast his assistant Annie ordered in for him and he thought about Nicole. He thought about her often and wondered how she was and what she was doing. He hoped that she was happy in spite of the fact that she’d broken his heart almost five years ago. He had a diamond engagement ring underneath the tree and he planned on proposing to her. He had bought it as soon as he got to California. He wasn’t planning on proposing until he finished his job and made it back home to Copper R
iver but she’d made it to Oregon for Christmas and he just didn’t want to wait any longer to start planning their future together.

  Early in the evening before they were all supposed to have Christmas Eve dinner together he’d ran out to the jewelers to pick up the matching wedding band they were sizing. He was a nervous wreck as he drove back to his sister’s house, but it was a good nervous. He was sure that Nicole felt the same way about him as he did about her and he wasn’t really even worried that she would say no. He was a little anxious about dealing with his mother, but he wasn’t about to let her stop him from making a life with the woman he loved.

  Tyler remembered walking into the dining room at his sister’s house that night and the first thing he saw was Nicole’s empty chair. “Where’s Nicole? Did someone let her know dinner is ready?” His mother and sister looked at each other and Tyler knew it was going to be bad before his mother finally said,