Taking Control: A Billionaire Boss Romance (Playboys of New York Book 4)

by JA Low

  Stella laughs. “See, that’s not the man I see. I saw the guy who remembered all his staff’s birthdays, and without fail would always have a cake made for them. I remember a man who took a chance on me when you could have hired a more qualified person.”

  “You did have a nice rack.” She slaps me hard for that comment but then smiles.

  “The man who whisked his sister away in the middle of the night because her fiancé was caught cheating on her.” Stella is reminding me of the night that broke Chloe.

  “She’s my family. Of course, I would do that.”

  “Not everyone’s family does that,” Stella states. “You’re a good guy, EJ. You love your family, your friends, and your business fiercely, and that is admirable.” Her eyes fall to the floor. “You have taken me in when no one else could. You bring me breakfast in bed every morning. And every day, you include my favorite coffee from the café I like so much. You remember my favorite flowers and make sure I have a vase filled with them. You bought costly gym equipment to help get me back on my feet.” She smiles.

  “You happily sit and watch reality TV when I know how much you hate it.” Maybe I don’t hate it as much anymore because it is kind of entertaining. “I’m sorry if I ever made you think you’re not a good man, EJ.” Her brows furrow together.

  “I hurt you to your core when you overheard me with Ariana, and I’m so sorry.” She retakes my hand.

  Stella has nothing to apologize for.

  Screw it. I cup my hand around Stella’s face and pull her to me and kiss her. What I wasn’t expecting is her fingers to reach out and tangle in my tee and draw me closer. What I wasn’t expecting is for her to bite my lip and to greedily take my kisses as I am hers. What I wasn’t expecting are the tiny moans that fall from her lips.

  Dammit, why am I on this fucking bus when all I want to do is pick her up and take her back to my bed and explore every part of her body with my mouth?

  “Get a room,” some dickhead calls out from the street below, breaking whatever spell Stella and I find ourselves under. She instantly pulls away, and I can see the embarrassment fall across her face.

  “No.” Grabbing her face again, I rest my forehead against hers. “Don’t let that idiot ruin what that just was.” She gives me a small smile. “I don’t ever want you to stop kissing me, Stell,” I confess.

  “Don’t you think this is blurring the lines a little?” she asks.

  “I don’t care anymore. I want you, Stell. I’ve always wanted you. I’ve never allowed myself to want you, but I can’t stop myself anymore.”

  There it is.

  I have put all my cards on the table.

  A tiny gasp falls from her lips at my words.

  “I don’t want to ruin this moment, but—”

  Shaking my head. “Then don’t,” I tell her.

  “It’s not that simple,” she explains.

  “Yes, it is. There is something between us, and I sure as hell know I want to explore what it is.” Taking a breath, I continue, “Give it a chance.” She chews her bottom lip nervously, listening to my words. “Unless…” Realization hits me. She may like kissing me, and there may be chemistry, but in the end, perhaps her feelings are not there anymore. My hand slips from her face and falls between us.

  “EJ,” she calls my name. “EJ, look at me.” Gaining my attention, she says, “I’m worried that the feelings you have at the moment are still from shock.”

  Huh? I’m not in shock.

  “That once I’ve heeled, this intense situation we find ourselves in may not be real.”

  “You think I don’t have real feelings for you?” I’m a little hurt by her comment.

  “I don’t know.” She shrugs her shoulders defensively. “I just know that this is not a normal situation.”

  “But you kiss me back every single time.” Feeling a little frustrated with how this conversation has turned around, I can’t help but question what she’s saying.

  “I know, and maybe it’s my fault for giving you mixed signals.” She throws her hands up. “But you have done so many amazing things for me that—”

  “But what?” Frustration laces my tone. “You feel obliged to kiss me as a thank you?”

  “What! No!” Stella raises her voice. She rubs her hand over her face. “I don’t know what I’m saying anymore.”

  “I think it’s best that, um…” Getting up, I move from my seat.

  “EJ,” Stella calls after me.

  I shake my head and walk down the stairs putting an end to our date.

  22

  Stella

  Dropping me home after the disaster that was today, EJ left, and in all honesty, I don’t know when he’s coming home again.

  Why was I such a bitch to him on the bus?

  He’s not the one with the problem. It’s me.

  I’ve waited nearly an hour for him to come home after our day out, but nothing. I pick up my phone and call Ariana.

  “Hey, babe,” she answers the phone happily on the first ring, and I burst into tears as soon as I hear her voice. “Stell, are you okay?” I can hear the concern in her voice, but I take a few seconds before I can answer her, “No.” I sniffle. “I think I’ve messed up.” I let out a sigh. “No, I keep messing up.”

  “Oh, babe. I’ll be right over,” she tells me.

  “Okay.” Curling up on the couch, I wait for her to arrive.

  A little while later, Ariana rushes through the door with a bottle of tequila in her hand.

  “I have your medicine right here.” Shaking the bottle, makes me crack a smile. Ariana goes over to the bar area and brings back two shot glasses. She pours us both a drink, and we knock it back. The liquid burns as it travels down my throat. “So, what the hell has happened?” she asks.

  I tell her everything that happened with EJ and the bus ride today.

  The kiss.

  EJ’s confession of his feelings.

  Me pushing him away.

  “Okay, that is a lot to unpack right there.” Ariana grins, pouring us another shot, and we throw it back.

  “I know, I feel terrible.”

  “So, EJ has kind of confessed his feelings for you?” Ariana asks, and I nod my head in agreement. “But you think it’s because of the accident, and they aren’t real?” I nod again. Ariana contemplates that for a couple of moments, then says, “And you think that none of this would be happening if it wasn’t for the accident?”

  Exactly.

  “There’s no way in the world EJ would be looking after me like he is. We would have come home from Vegas and gone back to our normal lives. I may still be with Dan. Anderson and Emma would be happy and in love, and EJ would be out having fun with all the single women of New York.”

  “I see your point,” Ariana agrees. Wow, okay, I wasn’t ready for that. “But maybe this accident has sped up the feelings EJ’s always had for you,” she points out.

  “He never made them clear when I was dating Dan,” I argue.

  “Yeah, he did. He’s the one who came up with the name Douchebag Dan,” Ariana reminds me. “He always told you that you could do better.”

  “But… but that was as a friend, nothing more.”

  “Was it, though?” Ariana pushes.

  My mind begins to unpack that comment. Going back and thinking about my past boyfriends, EJ has never liked any of them.

  “But he’s never made a move till now,” I groan.

  “Because he nearly lost you, Stell. Before the accident, he knew you were always going to be there,” she explains.

  “That’s not true. I could have met my soulmate, and then what?” Throwing my arms up in the air. “Was he just going to wake up one day and realize ‘Shit, I’ve lost Stella. Let me break up her relationship?’”

  Ariana just blinks at me, taken aback by my angry tone.

  “Just like he did the other night when he kissed me while I was still with Dan.” My cheeks heat up with anger and probably alcohol. “All because he had
a change of heart and decides now is the time he wants me.” Thumping my chest, I grab the bottle of tequila and pour myself another shot and throw it back.

  Ariana continues staring at me like I’ve sprouted a second head.

  “Screw it,” I shout. “Screw him and his stupid abs. His stupid lips. The stupid way he smells,” I add. “His stupid kind gestures,” I grumble. “Screw him for looking after me.” I pout.

  “You’ve gotten yourself in a right pickle, haven’t you?” Ariana grins.

  “Men suck.” I take another shot. Thankfully, I’m sitting down. Otherwise, I would be on the floor. It’s not like I can go anywhere, anyway. I’m stuck. Stuck in this stupid apartment with a man that I want but can’t allow myself to fall for. I know as soon as my time is up here and I’m no longer in his face twenty-four-seven, EJ will go back to his old ways.

  “I can’t fall for him, Ari,” I confess, slumping against the sofa. “No matter how much I want what he’s offering, I can’t do that to myself.” An errant tear falls down my cheek as I tell her the truth.

  “I understand, chickie.” She takes my hand in hers and lays back against the couch.

  “It’s a no-win situation, really.” With a deep breath, I sigh heavily.

  “Maybe moving in wasn’t such a good idea,” Ariana says softly.

  “I think you might be right.” Letting out a large sigh, my eyelids start to become heavy.

  Sudden movement wakes me up.

  “What were you thinking, Stell,” a male voice grumpily sighs.

  He doesn’t get to judge me.

  “I was trying to erase someone,” I mumble under my breath.

  The movement stills.

  “Why?” the voice asks.

  “Because he’s going to break my heart.”

  We are on the move.

  “Not on purpose,” the voice tells me.

  “But he will, and I will lose everything.” As I burrow my face into the warmth of the rigid object, I’m placed on something soft, then a duvet is pulled up over me, and I feel lips press against my forehead before falling into the darkness that is my slumber.

  23

  EJ

  Everything has gone to shit, and I don’t know how to fix it. Not sure if I can. I thought finally we had a breakthrough on the bus when Stella kissed me, and I kissed her. At that moment, I felt what could have been, but Stella retreated into her shell again. I let my frustrations get the better of me after I dropped her home. I checked into a hotel down the road and cleaned out the minibar. At one point, I even contemplated maybe calling someone to come and stroke my ego for the night. Make me feel wanted. Instead, I stalked Stella’s Instagram, and I wasn’t proud of what I did next. I jerked one-off over her bikini pictures from her holidays. I envisioned what it might have been like to finally slip between her thighs and be home, and for some reason, I felt better after that. A bad case of blue balls was getting the better of me, and I was able to see the situation a lot clearer after that.

  What I wasn’t expecting when I turned on the television at the hotel was to see reruns of the show Under the Spanish Sun. My buddy Sebastien Sanchez’s show where he met his wife. We knew each other from my time in Spain, where we sort of mixed in the same circles in the industry. When he moved to America and was cast in the television show Hotshot Chef, we ran into each other on the ‘celebrity chef’ circuit. Seeing him now happy and settled with his co-star, Quinn Miller, hit at that moment. I know I have a reputation, but Sebastien’s was so much worse than mine, yet now he has it all.

  Stella asked me where I see myself in five years, and now, I’m not so sure.

  When do you stop collecting the prizes and just live your life? How many of my friends in the industry have burned themselves out trying to be the best? I was trying to outdo the competition that my dreams lost their true essence.

  I lay back on the hotel bed in my costly suite, looking out over Central Park, and I’m by myself. Why have all this success and be sitting alone enjoying it?

  I don’t want to be alone.

  I want a partner to share my life with, the same as Noah has with my sister. And Logan and Lenna too. Even Anderson found his mate with whom he could share his unconventional life with even if things aren’t great at the moment. Maybe I do want suburbia. Perhaps I want Sundays spent watching football and having a barbecue with family and friends with little versions of us running around getting into trouble.

  Goddamn, what’s happening to me?

  I mocked my friends over them living this life, and now, I envy them.

  I throw my phone up into the air and catch it a couple of times while I process the craziness going through my mind. Throughout everything in my life, all my success, Stella has been right there beside me. Even when she didn’t have to be my biggest cheerleader, which was outside of her job description, she was still there. She would always try to pull me into line if my ego ever got too much. She would voice her concerns over business deals that she didn’t think were great for me, and she was always right. She always looked out for my interests and not because she was paid to but because she genuinely cared.

  Stella wasn’t rejecting me on the bus today. She’s worried if she finally let something happened between us, I would be the one leaving in the end because I always have in the past. That once this little bubble we have created with each other is over that, I’ll go back to the person I was before the accident.

  But I don’t want to be that person anymore.

  I need to get back to Stella and make the tantrum I had earlier right. I have to show her that I don’t bail even if my ego has been bruised when things get tough.

  The lights are out in the apartment when I arrive home. The only light filtering in is from the outside buildings. I notice a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses on the coffee table.

  Damn! Did I push her into the arms of someone else? Was it Gray? Does it matter? As I move forward, I see Stella asleep on the sofa. Her blonde hair is looking like a messy crown on her head. She’s passed out cold. We’re going to have to talk about her mixing alcohol with her pain medications.

  Bending down, I pick her up off the sofa, and she burrows into my chest. Her eyes flutter open for a split second before closing again.

  “What were you thinking, Stell?” I look down at her sleepy face.

  “I was trying to erase someone.”

  I still at her words.

  Is she awake?

  “Why?” I ask.

  “Because he’s going to break my heart.”

  Fuck. My chest tightens as I hear Stella’s truth come directly from her mouth.

  “Not on purpose,” I tell her.

  “But he will, and I will lose everything,” she mumbles against my chest as she clings to me tightly.

  I’m messing everything up.

  I place her down on the bed and pull the duvet over and kiss her goodnight.

  I’ve got to make everything right in the morning.

  24

  Stella

  Why does my head hurt so much?

  Opening one eye as the glare hits me only serves to make my head pound harder. Slowly, I open the other eye and groan with yesterday coming back and hitting me like a ton of bricks.

  Groaning, I try to sit up, but the smell of coffee stills me. I turn, and sitting beside me on the bedside table is my favorite coffee, a bottle of water, and a couple of painkillers.

  EJ. Damn him.

  Gingerly, I take the painkillers and unscrew the lid off the water bottle and take my pills. Then, I take the first sip of my coffee. Ah, instantly, I am feeling more human. I get up and do my morning routine and stumble back into bed where I lay and enjoy my coffee and contemplate how I will tell EJ what I did last night.

  He’s not going to be happy.

  There’s a knock on my door.

  “Yes,” I call out.

  EJ pushes open the door and enters with a Egg McMuffin.

  Damn, I’m feeling bad about what I
need to tell him.

  “Thought you’d need this after drinking tequila last night.” He takes a seat beside me on the bed, handing me the muffin.

  “Blame Ariana,” I groan, just thinking about the alcohol turns my stomach. EJ looks a little relieved by my answer. I unwrap the muffin and take a healthy bite, humming as I devour it. This is good and just what I needed.

  “About yesterday…” EJ starts.

  I shake my head as I try and swallow what’s in my mouth. “Look before you say anything, I have to tell you something.”

  EJ frowns.

  My stomach sinks thinking about it, but I have to tell him.

  “Last night, Ariana and I booked ourselves into a holiday home in The Hamptons. We leave tonight.”

  The room falls silent, and EJ stills.

  “I’m sorry, what did you say?” He doesn’t look happy.

  “I think it’s for the best. I don’t think me being here is healthy for either of us,” I try to explain to him.

  “No.” He shakes his head as he stands. “No, I won’t allow it.”

  “Excuse me?” Glaring at him, I question, “You won’t allow me?”

  “I’m your carer, Stella. Me.” He thumps his chest. “It’s my job to look after you. And I can’t do that if you’re so far away.”

  “Consider yourself renounced of the duty,” I tell him.

  “No, I don’t want to be.” His remark catches me off guard.

  Both of us take a pause.

  “I need it, Elliot.”

  He keeps shaking his head. “But I don’t. I need you here with me.” He points his finger into his chest. “I know this isn’t the best timing and that you don’t believe that my feelings for you are real, but they are, Stell. There isn’t anyone else for me. It’s you, Stella. It’s always been you,” he declares passionately, and my heart breaks in two. He rushes to me and takes my hand in his. “Give me, no us, a chance. Please,” he pleads.