Game of Love: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance

by Lulu Pratt

FREYA

  WHEN I WOKE the next morning, I was thankful that I had removed all traces of makeup and drank three and a half bottles of incredibly expensive mineral water. I had even set my alarm early so that I could have a long shower and a proper breakfast before I had to turn up to work. I ate fresh fruit and croissants in my room, preferring not to have the awkwardness of a meal with Keegan. I was dreading seeing him. I didn’t know how to play it. I couldn’t go back to my Effie Hancock alter-ego now. Not after the previous night. It would have been awkward enough to go back to our formal footing after we had been practically tearing each other’s clothes off, but to go back to it after we had sat quietly together and he had confided in me with his painful history would have been cold on another level. If I were being honest with myself, which I wasn’t, I couldn’t face going back to being Effie Hancock.

  I dressed in a sensible business suit and looked at myself in the mirror. What had once seemed like the perfect disguise now looked so frumpy and just… not me. I looked like someone twice my age. I took the jacket off and chose a plain white shirt, tucking it into the black pencil skirt. I left the top buttons open and added my own colorful beaded necklace. Then there was the hair. I hated the elegant roll that I usually wore it in for work. After a few hours, my scalp ached, and I quickly found myself longing to take it down and shake my head to release it. I smiled at the idea of doing this in the middle of one of the endlessly boring business meetings that Keegan had to endure. I needed some kind of compromise, so I played around with it for a bit and then settled on a simple fishtail braid, neat enough to look respectable and a lot less painful. I looked in the mirror again, and I was satisfied that although I might not look like my usual hippy-dippy self, I wasn’t quite full Effie Hancock either. It was a middle-ground, and I figured that this was how my attitude was going to have to be too, professional, but slightly warmer than before. That would be easier now that I no longer suspected Keegan of stealing Animagic from Dynasty Games. His so-called ‘criminal’ past had turned out to be a red herring, and I had yet to find anything suspicious in his files. It looked like he was in the clear, and I ignored how relieved and – almost – happy this made me feel.

  If Keegan felt any awkwardness after the previous night, he certainly didn’t show it. He was sitting in the lobby when I went downstairs, calmly reviewing the notes for the first meeting of the day.

  “Good morning,” he said, eying my change in style appreciatively. “How’s the head?”

  “Fine,” I smiled. “I drank a lot of water last night, but it’s time to switch to coffee.”

  “Let’s move into the lounge and we can get caffeinated and go over the itinerary,” he suggested. “There is a lot to get through today.”

  He got up and I followed him to the lounge area, finding it impossible to resist gazing at his bare arms where he rolled up his shirt sleeves already. There was no doubt that he was incredibly attractive, but ever since I had been so close to him, felt his body against me and his mouth on mine, I had been hyper aware of his physical form. I noticed every detail, how long his legs were, and how his narrow hips led to a taut stomach and deceptively broad shoulders. At first glance he looked slim, but there was strength in his lean form. We sat down at a table by the window, and he passed me the itinerary.

  There was a long list of meetings, luckily all happening at the hotel, and I was glad, because it meant I would be busy. It was my job to take notes, to make sure everyone had what they needed, and to make sure that everything went according to plan so we didn’t overshoot our time and wind up late for the next meeting. We drank our coffee in silence, and I read through the information about the people we would be meeting. I realized with a start that the last item on the itinerary was dinner with his parents, and I wondered if I would be expected to join them.

  “Dinner with your parents,” I commented, for something to say to break the silence. “Business or personal?”

  “Yeah,” he sighed. “There is no divide between business and personal for my parents. The business is about as personal as it gets. Ma will ask me about my personal life, but basically she just wants to know that I’m not hanging around with anyone she would consider ‘the wrong sort.’ Da won’t ask; he gets his updates from Sean.”

  “Families,” I said and shook my head, immediately regretting it. It was only a platitude to show some empathy, and he was sure to ask me about mine.

  “What’s yours like?” he asked, predictably.

  “Complicated,” I lied, and then changed the subject. “I’m going to go talk to the staff about having something sweet brought in with the tea and coffee at the eleven o’clock meeting, just in case the hangover hits. What do you think?”

  “I think something sweet would be essential,” he agreed, his eyes twinkling. “Something extremely naughty would be even better.”

  I went off to sort it out and closed my eyes briefly as I went, realizing that it was going to be harder than I thought to avoid thinking about extremely naughty things. I was glad that with such a busy schedule we weren’t likely to be alone much throughout the day, but that turned out to be more of a problem than I expected. It started in the first meeting with Mick and the various heads of departments. As they outlined what the plans were for expanding various departments and diversifying, I found myself zoning out and spending my time watching Keegan. I could see that he wasn’t engaged – sure, he was saying the right things and being very encouraging, but his eyes kept flicking to his hands, and he did way too much nodding. Nobody else seemed to notice.

  At one point, as Mick was talking, Keegan met my eye and instead of looking away, he just held my gaze. I left it too long to look away, expecting him to. We were stuck, just looking at one another intensely while everyone else continued talking. I was the first to look away, pretending to write something down. When I looked back up, he was still looking at me, just a hint of a smile on his face. I tried to look disapprovingly at him, and the smile grew. He was silently laughing at me, and I felt an odd mixture of annoyance and happiness. I decided to ignore it.

  Ignoring Keegan was easier said than done, and his furtive glances and long hard stares continued throughout the morning meetings. I felt increasingly uncomfortable. Just before the meeting with his parents, we were alone for a short time standing outside the lobby, glad of the fresh air after an afternoon of sitting in a stifling conference room.

  “Probably best to get a rest before dinner with my parents,” he said. “I don’t know about you, but I am suffering a little for last night.”

  “I think you can do without me for this one. You have some family time, and I am going to check out the local shops,” I said firmly.

  “I told you, it will be business. It’s always business with them. Anyway, you have to eat,” he shrugged, leaning against the wall of the hotel and stretching his back. I tried not to notice how his shirt pulled up and untucked from his pants.

  “If I’m not there, it will be less business-like,” I added, avoiding his eye by looking at my phone.

  “Put that away,” he said quietly, so that I wasn’t sure if I had heard him correctly.

  “Excuse me?” I asked, my eyebrows rising.

  “The phone, please put it away,” he repeated, then once I had slipped the phone into my bag, he turned to me and added sincerely, “Please, I would prefer this meeting with my parents to be just business. If you are there, I can avoid any questions… about my actual life.”

  “I don’t want…” I paused. How could I say that I didn’t want to be mixed up in his family life when my family was the whole reason I was even there, working for him under false pretenses?

  “Please,” he said, and took my hand in a tender gesture that he quickly decided to back out of, dropping to one knee in a dramatic sweeping motion and loudly proclaiming, “I will make it up to you, anything you want, just protect me from them!”

  I had to laugh as I pulled him up off the ground. We had earned ourselves some very disapp
roving looks from the concierge. “Okay, okay, I will do it. But you owe me.”

  “Honestly, whatever you want. We have all day tomorrow free. I will take you anywhere you want to go,” he looked relieved.

  My solo plans of exploring the city the following day evaporated and were replaced by a romantic comedy showreel of cheesy touristy shit like Before Sunrise. I banished it from my head and made a mental note not to let myself get carried away. But then he was hugging me, and saying thank you, and he seemed strangely vulnerable, and I was hugging him back and closing my eyes and breathing in the smell of him. It lasted a little too long for just a thank you.

  Chapter 30

  KEEGAN

  DINNER WITH MY parents was the one thing I had dreaded about the trip, and yet I was strangely excited to see them. Apart from the office opening, I hadn’t seen them in months. I was glad that Effie was there, but I was aware that I was totally using her as a buffer to ensure that things stayed friendly and business-like. Ma smiled apologetically to Effie as she embraced me and reached up to smooth my hair.

  “He has always had a great big fluff of hair right on the top of his head!” she laughed. “That’s why we had to work so hard for the business, we had to keep him in jars of gel and wax!”

  “Ma!” I self-consciously ruffled my hair a bit where she had flattened it while Effie laughed.

  We sat down at the table and ate together, and the whole thing was a bizarre mixture of business and personal, Dad asking me about upcoming projects and staffing numbers, and Ma commenting that I looked a little thin, and was I taking a multivitamin? She mentioned that Sean seemed to be at the gym a lot, and I tried not to be drawn into any conversation that might feature my brother. They were nice enough to Effie, asking her politely about her job at the company, how she found working there on a daily basis and if she was happy with the contract, et cetera. Dad seemed genuinely interested in her experience and I was glad, although I couldn’t remember him ever asking me how I found working there.

  After we had eaten, Dad had ordered another bottle of wine to be taken through to the lounge. Effie said that she thought she might escape up to her room, with an apologetic look at me, but Ma insisted she join us in the lounge, adding how pleased she was that I had finally taken on an assistant, and winking at me with her usual endearing lack of subtlety. I acted like I hadn’t seen it. They disappeared to the ladies’ room, and I took the opportunity to ask Dad if he had looked properly at some proposals I had sent him some weeks previously.

  “I really do feel like we could use the company to do something positive. You always tell me to use my experience, and I don’t see why I can’t do something good with some of the bad experiences. I know what it’s like for addicts, for the homeless, for the unemployed, even…” I could see he was surprised that I was speaking so frankly to him. My checkered past was usually off-limits as a topic of conversation, but I wanted to level with him before Effie and my mother got back.

  “You know that I am all for social responsibility in business. Your mother and I are very much involved in charity work here and in the US…” he said as they reached the booth and Effie slid in beside me.

  “Oh!” Mum gushed. “Did you tell him about the lifeguard benefit last month? It was glorious! They had an orchestra right down on the beach…”

  “Ma, I’m not talking about charity,” I said softly. “I’m talking about giving people the tools they need to help themselves…”

  “Yes, yes, teach a man to fish and all that…” Dad said impatiently. “But we simply don’t have the resources right now with so many commercial projects going on…”

  “Of course we have the resources!” I interrupted. “We are uniquely placed to do this! And I have shown how it will even turn a profit. We can help connect businesses who need to prove their social responsibility and gain positive PR by connecting them with social enterprises and charities who need their help. That part will pay for the second part, connecting individuals with the help they need from the social enterprises and charities. It’s a win-win, and the figures prove it!”

  “It’s not what we do, Keegan,” Dad sighed.

  “But it could be,” I insisted, surprising myself with my own intensity.

  “I talked this over with Sean…” he began.

  That told me everything I needed to know, and I cut him off sharply. “Okay, understood.” I needed to change the topic, and turned to smile at Ma. “How is Aunt Lily?”

  “Keegan,” she stammered. “Your dad is just…” She looked from one of us to the other and then sighed. “Lily is fine.”

  “Keegan,” said Dad. “I don’t know what is going on between you and your brother, but as soon as it begins to affect the business…”

  “It affects the business,” I said, as calmly as I could, “when you and Sean discuss my suggestions without me. You know he opposes everything I ever do or say!”

  “What is the problem between you two? He wants things to work, he really does,” soothed Ma, reaching over to pat my hand condescendingly.

  “He sabotages me every chance he gets!” I was trying my best to keep my cool, but this was too much.

  “Sabotage?” smiled his father. “Don’t be so dramatic!”

  “He undermines me, then,” I rephrased, my foot tapping involuntarily under the table. “He wants me to fail.”

  “Why would he want you to fail?” Dad demanded, his tone slightly mocking.

  “I spoke to him this morning, and he asked how you were getting on!” said Ma kindly, adding, “He said he hasn’t even heard from you since you left.”

  “You ask him the next time you talk to him why he thinks that might be,” I snapped. “Ask him! In fact, ask him what he was wearing last time he saw me.”

  “This is all very silly,” she replied, looking at Effie apologetically. “Effie doesn’t want to hear this! Ah, boys and their rivalries! One minute they are fighting over toys, and the next thing they are grown and still bickering! Do you have any siblings?”

  Effie turned to me, ignoring my mother’s nervous chatter, a confused look on her face, answering, “A sister.”

  My mum then swung back to me. “Hang on, dear. That was a funny thing to say – what was Sean wearing?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Forget about it.”

  “I hardly think it matters,” said Dad, and he looked down guiltily.

  “Da, I can’t believe it. You know! Sean told you,” I accused him, disbelievingly, hoping I was wrong.

  “Know what?” Ma looked worried and turned to him warily. “Michael?”

  He sighed crossly. “Nothing, Bridget! There was a bit of trouble with a girl, that’s all. It’s sorted now, nothing to get upset about.”

  “Sorted?” I repeated, my voice low with anger. The force of it surprised me, and I felt Effie’s hand move onto my leg under the table. Under normal circumstances I would have been shocked, aroused, confused, but I knew instinctively that she was trying to calm me, to tell me to take it easy, keep my cool, and it worked. I repeated more calmly. “How is it sorted?”

  “I’m not discussing it, Keegan,” the man was adamant, pouring himself another glass of wine and glancing around the lounge, checking who might be there that he knew just in case I embarrassed him. I saw red.

  “You have clearly already discussed it with Sean, so I would like to know exactly how you think it is sorted?”

  “I’m not doing this here,” he insisted.

  “Would somebody kindly tell me what is going on?” Ma said, in the tone of a woman used to having her demands met.

  “Sure.” I paused for a moment. I’d had no intention of ever sharing the story with anyone, but fuck it, why not? If Sean could share it with our dad, why couldn’t I share it with our ma? “The last time I saw Sean, he was all but naked. In my then-girlfriend’s condo. They clearly weren’t expecting my visit.”

  I watched my father’s expression change. This was either new information, or a new
version of the story. Effie’s hand had tightened on my leg, and I could see her shocked look in my peripheral vision.

  “Oh, Keegan,” Ma said pityingly, then turning to Dad, she added, “And you knew?”

  “No!” he protested. “I knew there was some trouble, and that Keegan had got hold of the wrong end of the stick – you know how he overreacts…”

  “Overreacts?” I spat, furious now. “I didn’t even react! For the sake of the precious business, I didn’t react at all. I saw him there in little more than what he was born wearing, and he saw me in the doorway of my then-girlfriend’s condo as I was dropping by to see her as she claimed she was unwell. I walked away. No words. Nothing. Before you rush, Da, to explain or excuse Sean, I had only introduced them a month ago, so he didn’t sleep with her without knowing that I had been involved with her. And that is why, Ma, Da, I haven’t spoken to Sean.” I stood up. “Now we have had a long day of meetings, and I understand that you no longer wish to discuss my proposals, so I won’t keep you any longer. It was good to see you both. Effie, please gather your things.”

  I stepped out of the booth, and bent to kiss my mother on the cheek as I passed. Behind me, I could hear Effie stammering her thanks for the dinner before her high heels clicked quickly across the tiles as she tried to catch up with me. I didn’t stop.

  Chapter 31

  FREYA

  I CHASED AFTER Keegan, who showed no inclination to slow down, and my feet were absolutely killing me running in heels. The dress that Beatrix had insisted I pack, because apparently everyone really does always need a versatile black dress, was not made for running, and I was at risk of falling over. Meanwhile, Keegan was getting further away across the lobby and into the corridor and despite me calling his name as loudly as I dared, he wouldn’t stop.

  “For fuck’s sake, Keegan, slow the fuck down!” I said, and the same concierge who had tutted at us earlier visibly rolled his eyes in disgust. I wasn’t his usually standard of hotel guest, but I had managed to get Keegan to stop and turn to face me, a look of shock on his face too. I pulled the heels off and padded along the cold tiles in my bare feet. “Thank you,” I said, as I reached him, leaning on his arm as if nothing had happened. “These shoes are a bitch.”