Game of Love: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance

by Lulu Pratt

  We met in the little patch of green opposite Clover House that the employees jokingly called the park. I had picked up some sandwiches and juice, and we had a makeshift picnic on a bench. I had tried to convince him to meet elsewhere, but he was eager to see the building. It wasn’t until I saw him approaching me that I realized that this was the first time he was seeing me as Effie Hancock. He walked right past me, and I had to call him back. He turned, and the look of amazement on his face made me burst out laughing.

  “Don’t want to be seen with me, huh?” I laughed.

  “Oh man!” he laughed. “I would not have picked you out of a lineup. You look so…”

  “Glamorous? Exotic? Exciting?” I asked, tilting my head to pose dramatically.

  “Oh yeah, all those things…” he said, still wide-eyed.

  “I know, I look like shit,” I laughed. “But you know what? It really helps me remember to keep my mouth shut and do the job I’m here to do.”

  He ran his hand over my smooth hair. “How do you even…”

  “It takes a lot of time, a lot of product, and a lot of swearing,” I grinned, turning so he could see how my usually unruly mass of hair was pinned tightly into a neat roll.

  “I don’t know what to say,” he breathed, taking a sandwich from me and giving me another careful look up and down.

  We ate together and talked a little about how I was getting on with my snooping.

  “I’m sorry if you feel involved. I know you think it’s a bad idea,” I added.

  “I just don’t want you in there with those people. This Keegan guy is likely up to his neck in trouble, and I don’t want you to be part of it,” he shook his head.

  “I won’t be,” I said. “And so far, I haven’t found anything to suggest he is behind the theft from Dynasty Games.”

  “What’s he like?” Drew asked.

  “He’s an asshole,” I answered. “But he’s no idiot. His brother practically told me that he is dodgy. And he has some kind of mysterious criminal past.”

  “Please be careful,” he said, and his look was so sweet and caring that I threw caution to the wind and kissed him on the cheek right there. He looked surprised.

  When I got back to work, I met Taylor in the lobby. She was about to leave for lunch, and she called out as she approached me.

  “Tonight, at nine! Not taking no for an answer, so if you have the balls to turn me down again, I will cry in front of all these people!” She looked deadly serious, and I laughed. She and Frank were the two good things to come out of my time at Clover House, but I felt so guilty that I couldn’t be myself with her.

  “I can’t…” I protested.

  “You got something else on?” she demanded loudly.

  “No, but I…” I tried to think of a valid excuse, but she was staring me down, and really, if I were honest, under normal circumstances I’d have loved to go out on the town with her.

  “You don’t want to?” she asked, slightly embarrassed now.

  “I do!” I argued. “but…”

  “It’s settled then, I will text you the details and you will be there?”

  “I…” I couldn’t think of how to say no without hurting her feelings and making it impossible to work together comfortably. Anyway, I liked Taylor; I often wished we had met under different circumstances. “I will be there,” I agreed.

  “YAY!” she squealed, and people across the lobby turned to look at her, but she remained unfazed and called as she walked away. “Have dinner before you come, no pre-drinks and dress code is… sassy!”

  I laughed and made my way up to the office where I was very pleased – and only a little guilty – to find that Keegan had gone out for lunch and left a note saying he wouldn’t be back until around three, as he was meeting with a client afterwards. I’d be long gone by then, and if I had come across any useful information that would prove what exactly was going on at Clover House, I wouldn’t be back. I got to work as quickly as I could, and the hours flew past. It wasn’t until Taylor knocked at the door of Keegan’s office that I looked up and saw that if I didn’t hurry, I would still be there when he got back. I shut down Keegan’s computer and stepped out. I had found precisely nothing. Not a single piece of incriminating evidence. Not even a hint of anything wrong or suspicious. I rested my head in my hands for a few minutes. I was struggling with not having found anything to justify my being there, but there was a different feeling. An unexpected feeling. I felt relieved. It looked like I was going to Ireland after all, and I couldn’t help but feel glad. It was like payback for the fact I had canceled my own travel plans to work at Clover House.

  “Only a few more hours and then home time!” Taylor sashayed through the door. “Eat something and have a nap – you’re going to need all your energy for dancing!”

  I laughed and gave her a wave as I left. As it happened, I did feel like dancing.

  Chapter 16

  KEEGAN

  I BREATHED A SIGH of relief that Effie was gone when I got back after the meeting, which ended up taking all afternoon. She had been working in my office, and the atmosphere was so awkward. She was just so incredibly tense and cold that she instantly froze the room. It was impossible to make small talk or build some sort of rapport. I was starting to regret having to spend a week with her in Ireland. I had watched her a little as she worked. She seemed to find backing up files and re-organizing storage more exciting than I would have thought possible, her fingers moving quickly, her eyes flashing across the screen. She smiled to herself several times as she was working, and I wondered if she had someone special who gave her the reason to smile. It was warm in the office, and we had both taken off our outer layers and were wearing white shirts, and under hers I could make out a bright red bra with lace. It was so at odds with her usual plain style that it almost made me laugh. I looked away and hoped she hadn’t seen me looking.

  Between lunch and the meeting, I’d decided a walk in the fresh air would be infinitely more enjoyable than sitting in the office with Effie. It had been ages since I had just wandered around the city. I found a café near the harbor where I ordered a cold beer and sat back. The small rebellion felt good. I rarely drank during the day now, and never during work hours. This was what my life had come to – feeling the thrill of being naughty because I had ditched work for an afternoon pint. And I knew I’d have to make up the time afterward, the paperwork on my desk calling to me. I’d got back as everyone else was leaving and had the place to myself. There were probably people still working in offices further up in the building, but on our level, it was just me and Beverly, who bustled in and instantly scolded me for making her jump.

  “What sort of a gobshite are you, Keegan Callahan? I’m an old woman, you’ll give me a heart attack!” she shouted at me as though I were a child.

  “I’m so sorry,” I laughed.

  “Aye, you sound sorry!” she tutted and began to dust the shelves. “What are you doing here at this time on a Friday evening, anyway? You should be off enjoying yourself.”

  “I had work to do,” I said.

  “There’s always time for work. What about your young lady?” she asked.

  “I thought you didn’t like her?” I exclaimed.

  “I never said such a thing!” she looked outraged. “All I said was that she thinks rather a lot of herself.”

  The one time Beverly had met Lucy at my place, Lucy had to ask her to repeat herself several times, as Lucy could not understand her accent and eventually just smiled at Beverly, who was clearly annoyed.

  “Isn’t that the same thing?” I had to laugh. Beverly reminded me so much of my grandmother with her knack of saying exactly what she thought, never afraid of what anyone might think of her. Everything about her made me long for home, from her accent that had never softened, to the way she treated me like I was the cleaner and she was the CEO.

  “Well, you’re not very good at picking friends, I will say that,” she sniffed.

  “Beverly, we bo
th know you’re the best friend I have in the whole country.” I laughed again, but I actually meant it.

  “Ah, it’s a lonely enough place if you’re here on your own, all right,” she sighed. “When I first got here I felt like I’d landed on another planet, but it’s sure home now!”

  “Not for me,” I said firmly.

  “Well, sure, we’ll both be home for a flying visit soon enough,” she reminded me, a grin on her face.

  “We will!” I smiled back and she carried on with her methodical and thorough cleaning.

  I spend a while reviewing things from the Design team, suggesting a few changes but mostly okaying everything. The building had got very quiet, and I knew I would soon have to call it a night. I didn’t usually mind being alone, but something about the sunshine, the people milling around the city, and Beverly’s words about loneliness made me feel the need for company.

  I decided to spontaneously call Lucy and check if she was available to meet for dinner. Her part-time job modeling seemed to take up less and less of her time these days. She spent most of her time shopping and meeting friends for coffee. And yet we seemed to be seeing less of one another; she had given me the brush off a couple of times lately, but when I asked myself if she was losing interest, I had no idea. Who could tell what she was thinking?

  The phone rang for ages, and when she picked up, she asked me to hold. I heard a door slam in the background.

  “Cleo, that you?” she asked.

  “It’s Keegan. Everything okay?” I asked. Cleo was her friend who I had met once, and she was almost as impenetrable as Lucy.

  “Of course,” she answered, but for once she seemed to have lost her usual calm composure.

  “I’m still at the office, but I want to see you. Can I take you out for dinner?” I asked.

  “Oh, you know, I just don’t feel good – I think I’m coming down with something,” she said, her voice more animated than I had ever known.

  “I thought you said you were okay – can I do anything?” I asked, concerned more by her tone than her words.

  “You can take me for dinner over the weekend if I’m feeling better?” she asked sweetly. Now I knew something was up. Lucy never, ever, suggested dates. She just waited for me to ask her out. She never asked for anything. Her voice sounded a little manic. I wondered if she might have a fever.

  “Are you hot?” I asked.

  “I think you know I am,” she faltered, the attempt to sound like her usual sultry self falling a little flat.

  We had talked for a little longer, then she had said she needed to sleep and had to go. I thought about her – something about Lucy had always seemed fragile. Like she had no voice. I felt a touch of shame that I hadn’t done anything to help that. It had suited me to pick her up when I wanted and leave her down when I wanted. It suited me that she was never needy, never demanding. Maybe her reluctance to see me lately was because I had taken her for granted. Surely her indifference to the relationship couldn’t go on forever. Was it even a relationship?

  On impulse, I hailed a cab and made my way over to her place. I would see for myself how she was, find out what she wanted to eat, and go get it. I would look after her, and show her that she was more than just a convenient plaything.

  I suppose I probably knew deep down that something was up when I had heard her voice on the phone. With hindsight, I had probably convinced myself she was unwell or emotional because it was easier. When I got to the door of her condo, I didn’t feel that surprised to hear voices inside. I knocked the door loudly like a delivery guy might, it seemed suddenly essential that she would open it. And she did. And no, I wasn’t surprised to see two people standing staring at me. I wasn’t even that surprised that Lucy was only wearing one of my T-shirts, barely covering her ass.

  But I have to admit, seeing Sean standing there, a whiskey in one hand and wearing only underwear and a look of smug delight, was enough to render me speechless.

  Chapter 17

  FREYA

  “I AM NOT trying to tell you what to do,” Drew pleaded. His voice was crackly over a bad phone connection.

  “Isn’t that exactly what you are trying to do?” I demanded.

  “I’m thinking of you!”

  We had been discussing my job at Clover House, and specifically the trip to Ireland. Drew had called me, and I had thought it was to make plans for the weekend, but instead he had given me a long list of reasons why I should quit and forget about the trip.

  “If this is what you called me for, you are wasting your time. I have thought this over, and it’s not something I am doing lightly,” I said quietly after an awkward silence had fallen between us.

  “Freya, please.” His tone was suddenly heartfelt. “I think this Keegan guy is the most likely candidate behind the theft of Animagic.”

  “Then all the more reason for me to be there! If I don’t find proof – who will?” I was getting frustrated with this.

  “Then if he goes down for this, you will go down,” he said flatly. “Corporate espionage is a thing, you know. Or maybe he will find out about who you are before that stage, and we don’t know what he is capable of!”

  “It’s not the mafia, Drew,” I said, not wanting to admit that Keegan’s criminal past had been on my mind a lot.

  “You don’t know what you’re getting into,” he said quietly.

  “Neither do you!” I countered angrily. “And I am absolutely able to look after myself. I was doing perfectly fine before…”

  “Before what?” I could hear the smile in his voice, and it irritated me even more. How dare he proceed to tell me how to live my life?

  “Before you decided to start telling me what to do!” I said.

  “I have your best interests at heart, Freya,” he said, and the patronizing tone finished me.

  “I have my best interests at heart thank you very much, so maybe you should just do you,” I snapped.

  There was another silence, and he sighed. “We can talk about this tonight.”

  “I’m going out tonight,” I replied. I had been a little reluctant to go out tonight with Taylor but this decided it – I was going.

  “Fine,” he said and hung up. The cheek of him hanging up on me made me furious, and I threw my phone across the bed.

  I sat on the bed for a while, hot angry tears threatening to come. I was angry with Drew, but I was also angry with myself. He had a point. What I was doing was risky. Risky, but not dangerous! I thought about Keegan, and the usual uneasiness I felt about him returned. I reached over to the closet and flicked the door open, gazing at the clothes inside and wondering what Effie Hancock wore on a night out. Maybe she had a wild side. I suddenly remembered something and got up and rooted around in the back of the closet, pulling out a black dress entirely covered in tiny sequins. It had been an impulse buy in a sample sale, and I knew as soon as I left the store that I was never going to wear it. But Effie Hancock could. In fact, there was a deep red lipstick in the bathroom vanity that had been a similarly random purchase. If I wanted to forget everything – Drew, Clover House, Keegan, the Ireland trip – then being Effie Hancock was the perfect escape. I sent a quick text to Taylor to say I couldn’t wait to go out – so that I couldn’t back out – and headed to the shower.

  An hour later I stood in front of the mirror. I had used warm browns with just a hint of copper on my eyes, the deep red lipstick, and I had straightened my hair, something I rarely did, so it hung down my back in a sleek curtain of red and gold. I pulled the dress up over my hips and wiggled my butt to try to fit into it. The phone rang and I lay across the bed to reach it, half in and half out of the dress, answering the call hastily.

  “Hi! Sorry, I almost missed you! I am trying to squeeze my ass into an impossibly tiny dress…”

  “Really?” said Keegan’s voice. “Well, I’m very sorry to interrupt you…” he sounded strange, and I closed my eyes in embarrassment. He had never called me outside of office hours.

  “Sh
it,” I said, and then closed my eyes again. “Sorry, I thought you were someone else. What can I do for you?”

  “I need you to send over your details for the flight. It’s booked, but they need some info from you,” he slurred his words ever so slightly.

  “Are you… are you okay?” I asked, trying to sound professional and failing.

  “I’m great. I’m rich and happy, and the world is my oyster. I’m just sorting the flights,” he said, laughing. He was clearly drunk.

  “Are you in the office?” I asked, glancing at the time.

  “No, I’m at home. Alone. I’m just having some um, technical difficulties…”

  “Why don’t you let me take care of it first thing Monday? Let me know what to send and where to send it and I will get it sorted, okay?” I realized I was speaking to him like he was a child, but he seemed relieved. I was, too – I had been worried about how I was going to explain the fact that my passport said Freya Hamilton.

  “Fuck, that would be grand!” he said happily, his accent all the stronger for being under the influence.

  “And you’re okay, right?” I asked again.

  “I’m not, Effie,” he said seriously, before laughing. “Put it this way, I’m not having the best of days, not as good as my brother, anyway!”

  “Okaayy,” I said slowly, telling myself this was not my problem. “Well, you have a good night, and I will see you on Monday.”

  “Sure,” he said, and then added, “Where are you going in the tiny dress?”

  I hesitated. “Just out with some people from work, nothing special, really. I’d better go…”

  “I’m a people from work,” he said in a low voice.

  I was lost for words. Did he really want me to ask him along? What would Taylor say if I showed up with the boss? And yet, his tone made me worry. There was something in his voice that sounded so deeply… sad. And vulnerable. A long way from the usual haughty, unapproachable attitude that he exuded.