Double Boss Me: A Billionaire MFM Romance

by Juliet Woods

It seems like my fate is to be perpetually alone, to just take care of myself in this world. What I had with Austin and Tyler was fun while it lasted, but I have to get back to reality.

  Anyway, the sad truth is that they would have just walked out on me sooner or later, like every man does.

  Better to just end it now.

  It was like a dream being with them. An amazing experience. I felt things I’d never felt before. Intense pleasure, safety, security, and connection.

  But now it’s over.

  Chapter 32

  Tyler

  I’m right behind Austin.

  The elevator is slow, so we’re racing down the stairs flight after flight.

  We hit the street, and Katie is nowhere around.

  “Fuck! She could be anywhere!” Austin says frantically. “She’s got a head start on us.”

  “She may have gone to the subway. I’ll run over to the station to see if I can beat her there, and you get the car and meet me over there,” I shout over my shoulder as I take off for the train stop.

  But she’s nowhere to be seen. I try calling and texting over and over as we drive all over downtown, checking every place she may have gone to. We can’t find her anywhere.

  “What about her house?” Austin asks. “Should we go by there?”

  “I don’t know, Austin,” I shake my head. “She’s always so protective of her mom. I’m afraid she wouldn’t want us to just show up over there.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. And her phone is definitely off. Looks like she needs some space. Let’s just hope she comes around soon.”

  “So we’ll give her some space for a while, and if we don’t hear from her in a few hours, how about we check on her at home?”

  “I guess. I hate not knowing where she is, though.”

  And I hate it too. I can only imagine what’s going on in her head right now. How hurt and afraid she must feel. We need to be with her right now to make her feel better, to let her know everything will be okay.

  Out of options, and with frazzled nerves, we stop at a bar downtown for a couple drinks. It’s before noon, but we need something to make this nightmare a little easier.

  “I’m worried sick about her right now,” Austin says, taking a big swig. “Where could she be? Why won’t she answer her phone?”

  “I think she’s going through something really painful right now,” I say.

  “Fucking Jessica, talking shit,” Austin says, frowning. “Her ass is gone. It’ll be better without her around anyway.”

  “No objection there. I just wish she had been gone before Katie was hired.” I sigh heavily.

  Austin downs the rest of his drink and slams the glass heavy on the table. “Fuck, man, what are we going to do? I’ve got a bad feeling – she just disappeared. She can’t just leave us.”

  We don’t say anything for a while, the tension thick in the air.

  He runs his hand through his hair. He repeats his words, as if trying to convince himself. “No, she can’t just leave us. She can’t.”

  “Does she think any of this is her fault? Because that’s crazy! I hope she knows that she’s not to blame for any of this,” I say.

  “Yeah, we’d make that clear if she would just talk to us. I just wish I knew what she was thinking right now,” Austin says.

  “I’m afraid she thinks she ruined the company. But she matters so much more to me than that company,” I say, looking at Austin.

  “To me too,” he says. “Without a doubt.”

  “I – I’m in love with her,” I say, suddenly feeling a strong urge to tell him what I’ve known for weeks now. “I’ve never loved any woman before. And I need to tell her that.”

  “I love her too,” he says, looking out the window. “She means everything to me.”

  We sit there for a while longer, slugging another beer each just to calm our frazzled nerves, not saying much more.

  We both know what we want, and we know we’re not going to rest until she’s back safe with us.

  Austin goes back to the office. I almost join him, if for nothing else than to give Jessica a piece of my mind and tell her to pack her things. But I need to collect my thoughts, and I promise him I won’t be far behind.

  I think about the past years of one-night-stands. Such a blur. It was fun in the moment, but it always left me feeling so damned empty. It was never enough. Never what I needed.

  But I told myself it was exactly what I wanted. I told myself I was happy being single and that I’d get bored with just one woman. That sex was all I cared about, and all the rest was for suckers. It’s so easy to go on deluding yourself for years, hiding the truth from yourself.

  I suppose if I wanted to psycho-analyze myself, I could find some kind of connection between my bachelor past and my mom. She was never really there for me growing up, to say the least. She’s a New York socialite, and keeping up appearances is her full-time job. I spent more time with nannies than with my mother. That probably screwed me up somehow. Maybe on some subconscious level, I thought I could never let myself get close to a woman.

  I don’t know how, but I know something changed in me when I met Katie Jenkins.

  As soon as I spent any time with Katie, I could see that she was what I needed. The sex with her is amazing, the best I’ve ever had, but it’s so much more than that. She makes me feel things I’ve never felt before. I sure never felt this much love back when I was picking up girls I didn’t care about at the bar. Those old days are long gone and I don’t miss them at all. I’ll never go back to that way of life.

  I can finally see that I’ve wanted to be in love all my life, that I’ve always wanted a special woman to take care of and protect, to laugh with and share my life with. I never thought Austin would figure into that equation, but somehow it all makes sense. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.

  I know Katie must be hurting right now. I want to take her in my arms and kiss away her tears. I want to tell her the words I’ve never told any woman before: I love you, and I’m never letting you go.

  Chapter 33

  Austin

  I slowly walk back to the office, dreading seeing everyone and fielding a bunch of questions. I don’t have any answers to give them. And besides, that’s far from the most important thing on my mind right now.

  Maybe my face looks kind of harsh as I enter the work area, or maybe everyone just feels pretty awkward after seeing the picture of their bosses with their co-worker, but no one really looks up at me as I barrel past them toward my office doors. Good. I don’t want to deal with any of them right now.

  I fall onto the couch in my office. It’s the place where I first put my hands on Katie’s body, where I held her and kissed her.

  It felt good to say out loud that I love Katie, even if it was just to Tyler. It’s true. I love her so much, more than I ever thought possible.

  For so long, I thought I’d never love again. After my fiancée broke up with me and canceled our wedding three weeks before the date, I was devastated. Ripped to the core. I pretty much made up my mind to spend the rest of my life alone, because I thought I could never risk feeling that kind of excruciating pain again. I decided I could get my fulfillment from throwing myself into my work, and leave the fun to Tyler and his one-night-stands.

  So I built walls around my heart, and refused to let anyone in. But someone Katie managed to tear those down.

  And not only did she teach me I was capable of loving again, but she showed me how to live again. I’ve finally learned how to relax a little, loosen up. It felt like a major break-through just to be able to dance a little with her in Santa Fe. For so long I’ve been stuck in my head, denying my body and flat-out ignoring my emotions.

  Being in love with Katie has opened me up to live more fully.

  I want to tell her that, and to thank her for changing my life.

  I send another text: “Please come back. Or at least let us know you’re safe.”

  I try to call again, and leave a
voicemail, begging her to come back to me, how sorry I am that the picture went public and that a co-worker was cruel to her.

  I sigh, putting down my phone.

  The last few years I’ve put work before everything else. I thought that business would be where I would find meaning in my life. Now that I have Katie, I realize how completely wrong I’ve been. She gives my life meaning. The love the three of us share gives it meaning.

  I think of all the times I’ve put my work before Katie. She wanted to be more open about our relationship, to not hide it. But I insisted on hiding for the sake of the company. And for what? We’re in trouble at work now anyway, despite all the precautions we took.

  And worst of all, Katie has disappeared.

  I shudder, realizing that she must think she’s ruined everything for the company. What if she thinks she needs to distance herself from Tyler and me to save our reputation in the industry?

  That would be absurd. The last thing I would ever want.

  Because I’d choose her over the company, hands down.

  But I guess I’ve given her the message that the company is the most important thing. Fuck! Of course I did, making her cater to Jack Brice, making her pretend not to be our girlfriend just to protect our reputation. What a selfish idiot I’ve been. I can’t believe how much I’ve fucked this up for all three of us. And even Tyler is having to pay for my selfishness.

  Unable to stop myself from texting her again, I impulsively pick up my phone.

  “I never meant to put you before the company. You mean so much more to me than everything else.”

  I put down the phone and it is suddenly clear what I have to do. As clear and plain as the light on a cloudless day.

  I have to give up Tyaus Technology. That’s the answer.

  We have to show Katie that we care more about her than selling software. We have to be open about our relationship. No more hiding, no more secrets. I don’t know what our PR department has done, but they can just tell everyone the rumors are true.

  Tyler and I have spent so many years building this business up, and it’s been a labor of love. But none of that matters now that we have true love with Katie. We’ll just have to dissolve the corporation. It will definitely suck for our employees, and I hate the thought of putting them on the job market after they’ve been so loyal to us. But pretty much all of them will be snatched up by other companies based purely on their experience with us.

  As for me and Tyler, we’ll do all right. We have enough funds that none of us, Katie included, will ever need to work again. Hell, Tyler and I could have stopped working a long time ago, but we just kept doing it for the thrill of it. But if I find myself itching to work in software again, I can always work as a freelance programmer, no problem. Money definitely won’t be an issue.

  A peaceful kind of acceptance washes over me. It will be bittersweet giving up the business we’ve created, but I’ll do whatever it takes to keep Katie with us. I know that deep down she doesn’t want to leave us. She’s sacrificing herself like she always has before. But now she doesn’t need to.

  I send her another text:

  “We need to talk to you. If we don’t see you before 5, we’ll meet you at your house.”

  And then one more – I can’t help it.

  “I love you.”

  There’s a knock at my door, and Tyler slowly walks in, his face betraying his confusion and devastation.

  I look up at him, take a deep breath, and tell him my plan.

  Chapter 34

  Katie

  I don’t know exactly what time it is, but the sun is starting to get a little lower in the sky. I’m afraid to turn on my phone to look at the clock. I don’t want to have to face reality right now.

  Putting my shoes back on, I leave the safety of the park, and walk back toward the subway stop. I pass by a quiet neighborhood bar that I hadn’t noticed before. The sign out front, “Edith’s Pub,” makes me smile – Edith was my grandmother’s name. My strong-willed grandmother who always said what she meant, could read a person like a book, and had the best lap to sit in when I was little. I decide to go in and get a beer.

  Walking in the wooden door, I look around at the old-fashioned décor with art and photographs from the 1940s and 50s. It’s mostly empty, with a couple of older guys at a booth in the corner and a woman sitting at the bar who looks up and gives me a smile before looking back down at her newspaper.

  I take a seat at the far end of the all-wood bar and order a draft beer. The young hipster bartender, looking up from his phone, pours it into a frosty mug.

  The light beer feels good going down. I lick the foam off my lips and look at the walls covered in memorabilia from the last century.

  “Who’s Edith?” I ask the bartender.

  “Oh, she was Fred’s wife. He’s the owner of this bar. I’m told she was a journalist. That’s her and Fred right there,” he says, pointing her out in a black-and-white photograph near me on the wall.

  In the picture, Edith is young and beautiful, standing beside her handsome husband. They’re laughing at something.

  “They look so happy together,” I say. “So in love.”

  “They were,” says the woman at the other end of the bar. “Totally devoted to each other.”

  I feel a twinge of self-pity as I think to myself, Something I’ll never have. I swallow it down, refusing to indulge it.

  “Did you know her?”

  “Yeah, I grew up in this neighborhood, and everyone knew Edith,” the woman says, moving a few seats down so we can talk. “She was bigger than life. Fred was shattered when she died a few years ago. She made it to 90, though. They had a lot of years together.”

  “That’s really sweet.” I don’t really know what else to say. I look back down at my beer, and we’re quiet for a bit.

  “Yeah, they were lucky,” she says. “Not everyone gets to find true love like that.”

  A pained sigh escapes me before I can stop it, and she raises an eyebrow.

  “Rough day?” she asks.

  “Yeah, the worst day,” I admit.

  “I hear you,” she says. “Been a hard day for me too. I had to come down here to take a breather from work. My name’s Grace.”

  “I’m Katie.” I smile and shake her hand. She’s got a kind face. The bartender sits on the far side of the room, engulfed in his phone.

  “So, let me guess – guy trouble?” she smiles knowingly.

  I groan. “That’s putting it mildly.”

  “Believe me, I’ve been there so many times,” she says, squeezing lime into her glass of Mexican beer. “He’s not cheating on you, is he?”

  If any other stranger had asked me that question, I would have been upset at the invasion of privacy. But for some reason, all my defenses drop around her. I feel completely at ease, and part of me wants to tell her everything. I decide to tell her at least some of it.

  “No,” I say. “Nothing like that. I just – I got freaked out and I ran off. It’s all too much. And I made everything way more difficult than it had to be. I don’t think I can go back. I ruined everything.”

  She looks at me with compassion in her eyes.

  I add quietly, “I’m terrible at relationships and I think I’m doomed to be alone forever.”

  Grace reaches out and gives my arm a little squeeze.

  “You’re just human like the rest of us,” she says, smiling at me. “We’re all just trying to find our way in the world.”

  I wipe away the pesky tear that has rolled down my cheek. A weight feels lifted off my shoulders just hearing her say those words.

  She looks out of the window for a moment, then back at me. “But there’s still mutual care and affection between you? Maybe love?”

  I think for a moment. I know there’s love between Austin, Tyler and me, even though we haven’t said it yet. “Yes, definitely.”

  “Well, that’s all you need, then. Everything else can be worked out, believe me,” she says. “With s
omeone by your side who looks at you like no one else does, who understands you, who makes you laugh, you’ll figure everything else out with time.”

  I look at her, studying the faint lines around her eyes, each one probably telling its own story of lessons lived and learned.

  “Can I give you some advice, Katie?”

  I nod. I feel so lost and needing of direction.

  “Love’s hard to come by in this world. Hold onto it wherever you find it.”

  I sit, there, floored. Her words ring true through my entire being. I already know what I need to do.

  Grace laughs, probably because I look dumbfounded. “You’re gonna be just fine, Katie. Don’t run away from love. Go back there and make it right again.”

  “Thank you so much,” I say slowly. “You’re so right. I don’t know what I was thinking. I knew I was making a mistake by running away, but I just didn’t see it until you said that.”

  “Happens to the best of us,” she says, laughing. “I’m glad I could help.”

  She finishes the last of her beer, puts some money on the bar, and stands up.

  “I better go. I need to follow my own advice,” she says, chuckling. “Here’s my card. Look me up if you ever need anything.”

  I take her card, too stunned to tear my eyes from her to look at it.

  “Can I give you a hug?” I ask, standing up.

  “Of course!”

  We embrace, and I feel all the tension melt away. I’m finally convinced that everything will be okay, one way or another.

  “Thank you so much, really,” I say, feeling my words are inadequate.

  “Don’t mention it,” she says. “You take care of yourself now.”

  She gives me a wink just before she opens the door and walks out.

  I watch her leave, lost in thoughts.

  Finally, I look down at her card:

  Grace R. Jacobsen

  CEO

  Le Projet Innovations

  Le Projet? Why does that sound so familiar? I rack my brain, then slink into my chair as the realization sinks in.