How Not To Be Seduced By Billionaires (Books 1-3)

by Marian Tee

  I love you, I love you, I love you.

  Lesson #5

  Your billionaire can be treacherous without even knowing it.

  He will make you want to say the words you cannot say.

  “Shit.” The word slipped out before I could stop it when I rolled over to my back and saw the time on the window-like clock at the left side of the bed. Made of silver and glass panes, its transparent parts let early morning sunlight filter inside the bedroom.

  It was five in the morning already, and if I didn’t want to be late for work, I had to leave now.

  “Constantijin?” I whispered, touching his naked shoulder gingerly.

  He stirred but didn’t wake. He was lying on his stomach, his head turned towards me and resting over one curled arm, as if he had fallen asleep watching me. The whimsical thought made me gulp. It tempted me to forget about reality and just stay there, but I knew I couldn’t – wouldn’t – do that. I didn’t want Constantijin to think I took advantage of him and his position at the office the first chance I got.

  I decided to try one more time before leaving. Ruffling his hair gently, I whispered, “Constantijin?”

  But all he did was grunt in irritation.

  It made me grin. I could easily imagine how he was as a child. He must have been a horror, not wanting to wake up for school.

  With a sigh, I checked the drawers until I found a writing pad and pen. Scribbling a quick note, I hesitated at the end. Love could be misconstrued so I decided to end it with something that was sure to make him laugh instead.

  After folding the note and placing it on top of the bedside table, I pressed a kiss to his cheek, where the beginnings of stubble had already appeared. It was my first time to feel his cheek less than perfectly shaved, and it created a warm fuzzy feeling inside my heart.

  This was surely one of the many firsts that we’d share.

  And I was right. But the second of the firsts we had to share took place in circumstances that were less than pleasing.

  Shit. I said the word over and over in my mind as I hit the Up button several times even though I knew it wouldn’t get the elevator to my floor fast enough. Seven-forty-freaking-five AM. I left Constantijin’s bed early just to be late to work.

  I sighed in relief when it finally reached basement parking and, after a few moments, started its way back up.

  The doors slid open.

  Shiiiiiiiiit.

  Constantijin stood alone inside the elevator, gorgeous and impeccably dressed as usual. But he looked different in my eyes at the same time, like the crazy stupid romantic feelings inside me had made him appear even more beautiful.

  He didn’t glance at me, and that sort of killed my courage. I spun around, intending to take the stairs even if it meant suicide with my stilettos, but I was too late.

  “Hold the door!” a woman said frantically behind me, and she was followed by a huge group of people rushing for work. Before I knew it, I was swept along by the tide and shoved all the way to the back.

  Next to Constantijin.

  A prickling sensation hit me as another person’s fingers touched mine.

  I looked up, but Constantijin was staring straight ahead, his face unreadable.

  His fingers tightened around mine, and after hesitating for a fraction of a second, I returned his touch.

  I never believed people who told me in the past that fingers could be erogenous zones but I stood 100% corrected now. They were. They so were! Constantijin's fingers slowly brushed my knuckles before caressing them slowly, gently, rhythmically. It was all I could do not to inch up next to him and pull his face down for a kiss.

  And then we were alone, the only two persons left heading for the topmost floor. Constantijin was staring again, and I suddenly felt embarrassed without knowing why. I tried pulling my hand away but his fingers only tightened around mine, unwilling to let go.

  “My proud and jealous girlfriend, mm?”

  Hearing him say the words I had decided to use for ending my note made me giggle, the tension inside me slowly easing. And when he said, “I missed you,” I relaxed completely. After, it felt totally natural to take the remaining steps that kept us apart. I stood on my toes just as he bent his head down, and the kiss we shared was short and sweet.

  “I missed you, too,” I whispered shyly against his lips.

  When we finally pulled away, we smiled at each other automatically because everything just felt right in our world – better than it had ever been.

  His Dutch accent was thick when he murmured, “Would you like to do the honors of telling everyone you’re mine?”

  “Uhh…no?”

  His smile became sly, sexy, and wicked at the same time, making my heart race even as my mind also went on alert. That smile meant danger. “Constantijin,” I began warningly.

  “Are you really sure, sweetheart? I promise you will find it easier if you were to indeed act as my proud and jealous girlfriend and tell all the women hands off.”

  I snorted before I could stop myself, making him grin. “You’re so full of yourself.”

  He answered with a lazy shrug, a devious smile still on his lips. The elevator chimed as it came to our floor. Before the doors slid open, he murmured, “Last chance, Yanna.”

  “No,” I said very firmly.

  The doors slid opened. “Then so be it.”

  Okay, that sounded ominous.

  “Constantijin---”

  He raised a brow. “It’s Mr. Kastein during office hours,” he said solemnly as he stepped to the side so I could go out first.

  Ass, I mouthed as I walked past him.

  “Oh, and Ms. Yanna?”

  I turned around, raising a brow.

  He stepped out of the elevator. “You’re late, by the way.” And then he was walking away, not looking back even once.

  It wasn't something to smile at, really, but I ended up smiling anyway.

  The details on this week's snowflakes were thankfully not that difficult so I was able to take my lunch on time. George was off again with the 25/F guy so I went to the cafeteria alone.

  Since I was finally eating my mid-day meal with the rest of the crowd, it took about ten minutes before I finally reached the end of the line and gave my orders. I stuck with sashimi, deciding it was time to pay stricter attention to my diet. With a man like Constantijin as my boyfriend, I knew it meant having as many haters as he had his admirers.

  All the tables were occupied except for one two-seater, which had a vacant chair left. I headed towards it but stopped midway when I realized the other occupant was Drake. Right now – it was totally not a good idea to sit with him. Constantijin could get ideas. Feminists might argue about this but why rock the boat when you didn’t have to?

  Fifteen more minutes passed before I spotted another vacant table, and I sped to it like a delayed bullet train. My stomach was already grumbling in protest by the time I reached the table.

  “Ohh.” I closed my eyes in bliss even as I didn’t stop shoving raw salmon inside my mouth. God! This tasted super good, especially since I hadn’t had breakfast this morning.

  When I opened my eyes, Drake stood in front of me, a polite expression on his face.

  I choked on the last bite and quickly reached for my tea. Oops. Too hot. I started choking again.

  People were beginning to look. I bet they thought it was because I was super flustered at the presence of Drake. If Constantijin heard about it – that was a very, very bad thing.

  Clearing my throat, I said lamely, “Hi.”

  “Can I take a seat? I just need to talk to you.”

  “Uhh…” I ended with a weak smile since he had already taken the seat opposite of me.

  Didn’t this look like we were dating? Dear God, I hoped Constantijin didn’t see us together. Constantijin acting jealous was terribly sweet and cute, but I knew he hurt, too, and that I didn’t want.

  I looked at him expectantly. “So…”

  “I was hired by Carole Ev
erleigh to act as your bodyguard, incognito.”

  “WHAT?”

  All heads snapped to our direction. I cringed, whispering, “Sorry.”

  Drake smiled sympathetically.

  “Are you serious? Are you still working for my mom? Do you report everything you know to her?”

  “Hold on,” he said with a grin. “One question at a time.” He rubbed his chin. “So, am I serious? Yes. I was your bodyguard the moment you left their house. They gave me all your details.” He sent me an apologetic glance. “I even know your underwear size.”

  I smacked my forehead. Oh God, Mom. She was going to be the death of me one day.

  “And for your second question---yes, I’m still working for her. But I will resign---”

  “No,” I blurted out, surprising him.

  He leaned forward, and I had to steel myself not to lean back as his face came inches away from mine. “Why not?”

  “Because if it’s not you, it would be someone else, and I’d rather have someone I know and trust.”

  Drake slowly nodded. “I can’t say I’m not glad you said that. I like having an excuse to check you out.”

  “Errr…”

  “I like being your Mr. Fix It.”

  Oh, Lord. Alyx and her big mouth always got me into trouble. “I totally don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said airily but Drake’s answering laughter made me feel sheepish. “Well, okay, I did, umm, sort of call you that. Are you mad?”

  He grinned. “Of course not. I actually like it. It’s nice that you think me as your go-to guy.”

  Cue for awkward silence, which honestly was happening more and more frequently in my life.

  “So…” Drake was the first to speak again. “You’re not going to freak out on me, say I betrayed you for not telling you who I was?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’ve watched too many secret bodyguard movies, my friend.” I picked my chopsticks up again, nabbing a piece of sashimi on my plate and popping it into my mouth. “It’s not like you’re the first one she hired to work undercover.”

  “Won’t Kastein mind about me?”

  “He’ll get over it,” I said, trying to sound like I believed what I was saying.

  “I could talk to him---”

  “No!” I shook my head vehemently. “That’s the worst idea, ever. He’s very…” I trailed off, trying to think of a way to explain Constantijin’s behavior towards me without using the words ‘jealous’ or ‘possessive’. It just didn’t feel right to use those words myself.

  Drake leaned back against his chair, causing his black business jacket to fall to the sides and revealing his striped white shirt underneath. I could feel women around us staring because he honestly looked very yummy, posed like this on the chair.

  The grimness on his face unnerved me a little. “What is it?”

  “It finally happened,” he said finally. “You’re with him now, aren’t you?”

  It shouldn’t have mattered what my answer was. There had been nothing between us. In fact, there was even less than what I thought was there since he hadn’t been at the right time and place because he liked being my knight in shining armor. He had always been there because he had been paid to do so.

  Even so, all those words simply felt like excuses in my mind. I nodded, unable to make myself speak. I only looked up when he sighed.

  “If I were petty, I’d be calling your mother right now---” He smiled wryly when he saw my horrified expression. “I was just kidding.”

  “Good. Because that would be really bad.” I fed myself three consecutive pieces of raw salmon, using its fresh and delicious taste to calm myself. “You know her, you’ve talked to her. She’s crazy paranoid about me.” I made a face. “You see how I didn’t even have trouble believing she hired you.”

  “Touché,” Drake said, his lips breaking into a wry smile. “Her offer came at the right moment, you know. After my last mission in Iraq---”

  My jaw dropped. “No way.” I shook my head. “You look more like a pacifist to me. Like, a peace-loving vegan.”

  Drake’s smile turned angelic, and his voice was matter of fact when he said, “It’s why I make a good sniper. Nobody sees me coming.”

  I gulped, deciding then and there I totally didn’t want to be on this man’s bad side.

  “I was having trouble adjusting to having a normal life back and your mom’s assignment gave me a place to start. Plus, it came with a job here at Kastein. I always wanted to see how it was like to work for someone else who didn’t carry a gun, but I also wanted to make sure the company I was working for was clean as a whistle.”

  His last words made me frown. “Clean, like, you want something with, umm, an environmentally friendly program?”

  He shook his head. “Clean like they don’t do any shady deals. And Kastein Inc. was one of the few that made it to my list.”

  “Oh.” I looked at him admiringly. “That’s, like, wow. You’re such a nice guy.”

  “Not at all. I just didn’t want to be put in a position that I’d have to kill my boss.”

  “I see.” But I didn’t really and I had a feeling I wasn’t the right person to know him that well. All I knew was that there was more to Drake Morrison than what met the eye.

  “Are you scared of me now?”

  Drake’s face was expressionless, but I had a feeling it took a lot for him to ask that. On impulse, I reached out to pat his arm – just twice, though, because doing so felt incredibly awkward. “No. I know you’re a good man, Drake, so…thanks. Thank you for looking after me.”

  “It was the best job I had---have.”

  His eyes gleamed in a way that had me say warningly, “Drake.”

  He laughed. “All right, I won’t put you in an awkward position with him – for now. But I need to be honest, I’ll probably – deliberately – yank his chain once in a while.”

  I groaned. “Drake.”

  He sobered. “It’s a way to make sure he doesn’t take you for granted.”

  Okay, this time I had to sigh his name out since I was honestly touched. “Drake.”

  “Am I interrupting something?”

  Shit.

  This was the one instance I sort of hoped I wasn’t hearing that Dutch-accented voice. Swallowing, I looked up, almost shivering at how Constantijin’s eyes had turned into silvery ice.

  Drake answered easily, “No, sir. In fact, I was just leaving.” He stood up. “It was nice talking to you, Yanna.”

  “Uh, same.” My eyes darted between the two of them. I totally didn’t know who I should be looking at. Should it be Drake because it was the polite thing to do or at Constantijin because he was my boyfriend and he might think I was flirting behind his back?

  Drake winked at me before drawling out, “I just have to say you look very sexy today, Yanna. 33As, right?”

  God, I hated that man now – it was official. It didn’t matter if he was the army’s best sniper. I was so sniping him the moment I survived my confrontation with Constantijin – who was glaring down at me, a muscle ticking in his jaw.

  “Office. Now.”

  Glenda’s gaze was curious as Constantijin dragged me past her table without a word. “Hi,” I whispered just before Constantijin pulled me inside his office and slammed the door shut.

  He exploded immediately, “Why the fuck does he know the size of your breasts?”

  If I wasn’t too worried about what he was thinking, I would have felt insulted at how he didn’t even have second thoughts believing my breasts were that small. “It’s not what you think---”

  “Why do you spend so much fucking time with that boy, Yanna?”

  “It didn’t start out that way---”

  “I swear to God, Yanna, do you want to kill me with jealousy every time?”

  I blinked, unable to believe he was being so open with his feelings.

  He raked a hand through his hair. “I know he’s a fucking angel if you compare him to me! I know he probably has a
fucking nice-boy background compared to mine. He’s not a bastard, with an unknown scumbag for a father and a mother who didn’t have a choice but to sell---”

  Eyes tearing, I threw myself in his arms, taking him by surprise. I hugged Constantijin as tightly as I could. “You don’t and will never have a reason to be jealous of me, no matter what situation you find me in. You’re the best man for me.”

  Yet he remained stiff in his arms, his unwillingness to believe in me palpable.

  I tiptoed to kiss his lips. Looking into his eyes, I whispered, “Constantijin, I mean it. You’re the only one I want. I don’t care about your past – I think it’s wonderful, beautiful, how your mother did everything to keep you alive.”

  He said slowly, “Most people won’t see it the way you do, Yanna. They think my mother is trash because of what she used to do for a living.” His voice became fierce. “But she grew up poor, she never had a chance to go to school, and my father – whoever he is – raped her.”

  When he stopped speaking, his breathing was harsh, and I could only cry and kiss him again, wishing there was something else I could do to take away his pain.

  “She did the only thing she thought she could do and I don’t blame her for it. But she never…she never did it with married men. She never---”

  I placed a trembling finger on his lips. “Constantijin, you never have to defend her to me.” Giving him a shaky teasing smile, I said, “If anything, you have to stop me from punching everyone who tries to insult her in front of me.” My voice became woeful. “I never did get to properly say sorry for that. It wasn’t the good impression---”

  Constantijin took my chin almost roughly, angling my face so he could kiss me deeply. The passion in his kiss made my toes curl and all I could do was lean towards him and kiss him back.

  “It was the best impression, sweetheart. I never thought I’d find a woman who would do that for my mother.”

  I reddened at the rare look of humbled gratitude on Constantijin’s face. “It was nothing,” I mumbled.

  “It was everything. My mother’s past is an open secret in the world I live in, Yanna – something everyone could only talk behind our backs but not one of them had the courage to bring it out in the open. But even so, we all knew.”