Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (56 page)

Instead of speaking, she allowed the tears
to fall freely. This made me even angrier. It was easier to be a stern asshole
when she was snapping back with all her might. Her tears just made me feel
guilty, which was not something I deserved or needed to feel in the current
situation.

“Aria, say something,” I said in what I
thought was a much gentler tone.

She, however, continued to stare at me
with tears covering her entire face, making me wish I could punch a hole
through the wall.

Chapter
6

Aria

I couldn’t believe what Zayden had been
saying and wished I could stop the damn tears from pouring all over my face.
The last thing I needed was to show weakness in this situation, yet I felt
completely lost in terms of words to produce from my mouth. Scammed. He had
said he felt scammed. That I had somehow, unintentionally scammed him!

My gut felt like it was falling low on a
downward spiral of a dangerous roller coaster when I had heard him use that
word. How could he? In the time we had gotten to know each other, he had most
certainly gotten some idea of the kind of person that I was? If not, then this
whole relationship itself was a scam. After how much I had insisted that he add
the clause about me paying him back to the contract, how dare he question my
character.

He had overheard the whole conversation
between me and mom, which meant that he knew very damn well that I was
completely clueless about this and intended on telling him everything. He found
out as soon as I found out.

It was not good enough though! None of it
was apparently good enough for him. He had decided what I was doing was my
fault even when I wasn’t and demanded payment – literal and figurative – even
though he knew the insinuations would hurt me. It wasn’t that I minded the idea
of paying his bank the money my dad owed it. After all, if things all went as
planned, I was going to be successful in a couple of years and it would only
make me feel good to know that I cleared up the mess my dad left behind. This
was regardless of whether I had ever found out South National Bank’s
involvement. No, the money was not what hurt me so much. It was the fact that
he sat there, looking me straight in the eye and asked me to pay him that money
as though I had personally stolen it from him.

The fact that he could make me feel so low
made me furious!

To think I was coming to believe our
relationship had been making progress. Maybe it had. To Zayden’s credit he had
gone out of his way to make me feel like our relationship was, at last, real,
even going so far as to asking to meet my mom. Obviously, when he had asked for
that he wasn’t expecting all these revelations and neither was I. It wasn’t
some trick or an effort to make me feel as shitty as I was feeling right now.
He was genuinely interested in my life and getting to know my mom.

I tried imagining myself in his place when
he overheard the conversation, from the point of view of a guy who had just
gone against all his reservations and jumped into a serious relationship with
me. After all that he had been doing for me these past few months, a part of me
understood why hearing about my dad must have completely ticked him off. His
running off last night was completely justified. I would have run out of there
myself if I could have, given what I had heard.

I couldn’t run every time things didn’t go
the way I wanted to. Perhaps it would take more time to earn Zayden’s complete
respect and if I wanted to keep this relationship, I was going to have to be
okay with that. As angry as I was, I was not willing to give up what we had
built over the past few months. It would be much easier and respectful to just
agree to pay him the money that my dad owed.

“Option two,” I spoke after what felt like
an eternity, wiping off my tears. “One business-oriented person to another, I
will pay you every single penny back. Happy?”

“Far from,” he snapped, somehow looking
even angrier for getting what he had wanted. He had expected me to put up a
fight, or argue in some way, or most likely of all, walk away. I had thrown him
off with my response, undoubtedly, and it felt oddly like the ball was in my
court all of the sudden.

“But well, good,” he said, standing up
from his chair. “That’s settled then. Is that all you wanted?”

“Are you kicking me out?” I looked at him
quizzically, now beginning to feel amused.

“I don’t know, last time I checked, it was
still my office.”

“So you are kicking me out?” I pressed,
trying not to laugh out loud.

“I have a bank to run, Aria, so if there
isn’t anything else you need from me today—”

“My paper,” I cut him off. “Remember the
paper I was telling you about? That you so nicely volunteered to help work me
on? Well, the deadline for that is coming up, so I was wondering if you were up
to helping me out?”

“I seem to be making a career out of helping
you out.” He snarled at me trying to look menacing, but simply appeared comical
to me.

“I mean you don’t have to help me. I was
just reminding you because you volunteered.”

He sat back down and played with his
stress ball for a bit before speaking. “We will do it tonight,” he eventually
said. “Now for the rest of the day, please just let me be okay?”

“Gladly.” I smiled and walked out of his
office.

---

Later that night, I told the whole story
to Nick and Stacey, who for some reason found it hilarious and burst into a
chorus of laughter.

“Oh my supportive best friends,” I said
sarcastically. “It wouldn’t be so funny if you were in my place, would it?”

“No,” Nick said, trying to straighten up
his face. “It wouldn’t at all. And it’s not funny that this is happening to
you, Aria. Not at all!”

“That’s not the impression one would get
based on your uncontrollable laughter,” I snapped.

“It’s just that,” Stacey, who had finally
managed to catch a breath, spoke. “What are the odds you know? Very, very low.
But then, you’re not going to believe,” she started laughing again. “I can’t,
Nick, you tell her.”

“Well, after you and Zayden had gotten
over your last set of – uh – complications, Stacey and I were talking about it
– we were glad!” he added immediately upon seeing the expression on my face,
which wasn’t exactly that of glee. “We are always happy to see you happy, Aria,
you know this. But Stacey and I were talking about how, well, theatrical this
whole thing between you and him has been. So full of twists and turns and
popcorn worthy. He’s a handsome billionaire and your boss. How often does stuff
like this happen in real life?”

“I don’t understand why any of it is funny
yet,” I said, still annoyed. “Enlighten me?”

“Okay, okay.” Nick sighed. “So Stacey and
I were talking about it and she jokingly said ‘what’s next, we find out that
Aria’s dad banked with South National before he went bankrupt?’ and we just
laughed about it.”

“That is eerie,” I said with my mouth
hanging open, and then burst out laughing myself. If this hadn’t been so
utterly bizarre, perhaps I would have been really pissed. “My goodness, Stacey,
you should become a fortune teller!”

“No,” she gasped. “It’s not like I was
predicting this or would ever wish for something like this to happen to you.
The reason I had even said it was because it seemed so absurdly far-fetched to
be true.”

“It is. Too absurdly far-fetched to be
true. And yet it’s true. If this wasn’t all happening to me, I wouldn’t believe
it could happen to anyone in real life.”

“Are you okay though, Aria?” Stacey now
looked serious, as though only just registering the full implications of what I
had told them. “What are you going to do?”

“I am going to pay him back.” I shrugged.
“Eventually.”

“Oh god, Aria. This is ridiculous! You
shouldn’t have to. You’re not the one that lost him all that money!”

“He knows that. He is just angry right now
and you can’t exactly blame him. I did for a bit but then I put myself in his
shoes and it kind of makes sense why he is so frustrated, with the money he is
paying for my mom and everything.”

“You are so mature about this, Aria,”
Stacey said in amazement and looked at Nick. “If you ever made me pay you five
hundred thousand dollars for something I didn’t do, I would dump your ass.”

“That is never going to be a problem since
I doubt either one of us will have that kind of money any time soon. And if we
do in the far, far future, it won’t matter cause it will be both our money
since we’ll be marri—” he immediately stopped talking. His cheeks flushed hard.
I turned to look at Stacey, who seemed to be about ready to pass out.

“So you guys ready for when I invite
Zayden over for pizza?” I asked brightly, trying to change the subject and
making a mental note to ask Nick if a proposal was coming up. It was essential
that I helped him pick out a ring that Stacey would like or else she would
never forgive me for not fulfilling my best friend duties.

Neither of them answered for a while, but
Nick finally broke the silence. “I actually really am. Let’s see what the big
deal about the dude is anyway!”

“You will soon enough.” I sighed, relieved
that the awkward moment had passed. “For now I have to go to his house. He is
helping me with my paper after much cajoling. He thinks he has made a career
out of helping me out.” I rolled my eyes and walked towards my bedroom to
gather my stuff. I was glad to be able to leave the two of them alone.

Chapter
7

Zayden

I was informed that Aria was waiting in my
living room when I was still speaking to my mother on the phone, exasperated.

“Yes, I am fine,” I said for the
thousandth time. “Of course I was hurt by what happened with Gina mom, but I’m
trying hard to move on. If you keep calling me every day to remind me of this,
I won’t get past it.”

“I’m sorry, Zay. I don’t mean to upset you
further. I just, I worry about you sometimes,” she said, sounding dismayed.
“And quite honestly, I am always just looking for an excuse to talk to you.”

I swore silently and clutched my palms
tight. How long was this going to go on? When it was over, I also had Aria to
deal with. While I was looking forward to seeing her – certain parts of her
especially so – the last time we had been in each other’s company had not
exactly been pleasant. I wasn’t very keen on picking up from there.

A sentimental speech from my mother was
the worst possible preamble to the evening. It went on for another ten minutes
before I could excuse myself, claiming an essential business contact was
waiting for me outside. I did not dare mention Aria. My mother was not ready to
hear that I had managed to fall for a young employee just yet. Not that she
could complain at this point since she was convinced she had ruined the last
woman in my life. Grinning at that thought, I finally stepped outside to find
Aria sitting alone, cross-legged, on the sofa, wearing a bright blue and
extremely low-cut dress and reading a magazine. The effect on me was
instantaneous and I wondered why I hadn’t chosen to wear more comfortable pants
knowing Aria would be showing up. There wouldn’t be enough room for all of me
that got excited upon seeing her shimmering legs. I swallowed, ignoring the odd
yet now familiar desire to lift up her skirt and devour her with my mouth. I
simply coughed lightly to announce my presence.

She looked up at me innocently. “Hi,” she
said and smiled brightly. “Thanks for agreeing to help me out with my paper.
Especially under the given circumstances. Are you still feeling…unpleasant?”

I hardly caught on to what she was saying,
as I was still mentally salivating at the thought of whatever was underneath
her skirt.

“Zayden,” she whispered, looking at me
pleased. “You’re ogling.”

“Am I now?” I asked in a barely audible
whisper. “Sorry,” I said, not feeling sorry at all, rather wishing that I could
take her clothes off with my eyes. I didn’t see how any work was going to get
done unless I took care of my raging erection first. I suspected Aria had a
different order of events in mind. I blinked hard in order to shake off
whatever was boiling inside me. I tried looking to the side of her and said,
“Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I was asking if you were still…I don’t
know… upset with me?”

“Aria, I was never upset with you, you
understand that?” I sighed and sat as far away from her on the sofa as I could.

She snorted. “Right. You weren’t. And you
sure as hell didn’t go completely batshit on me in your office earlier either.
Or scowl at me until I promised to give you five hundred thousand dollars. That
was all my imagination.”

And there we were. No matter how hard I
had hoped that we would just simply ignore what had happened earlier, I knew
Aria far too well to even momentarily consider she would just give me an easy
pass for offending her so deeply. How else was I supposed to react to what I
had heard?

“I was upset. Wouldn’t you be if you had
overheard the conversation and you were in my place?” I demanded.