BILLIONAIRE: Protected (A Dark Billionaire Romance) (5 page)

Liam ran his fingers through my thick, blonde hair as I rested my head in his lap on the sofa. We were having a lovely lazy day together.

I was adorned only in his tee shirt and he was only in his boxers. We were just enjoying the feeling of being close to one another. I closed my eyes and blissfully took in his scent until my cell phone vibrated against the glass coffee table. I rolled my eyes and buried my head in one of the throw pillows.

              “You gonna get that?” he asked, amused.

              “Who is it?” I asked, my voice muffled.

              I heard him pick up the phone and he replied, “Patrick.”

              I frowned and sat up, taking the phone from him and putting it to my ear.

              “H-hello?”

              “Aaliyah?” he asked. “Where are you?”

              “What do you mean where am I?”

              “I mean you were supposed to meet me at Madeline's Coffeehouse thirty minutes ago to talk about the new accounts,” he said. “I left a note on your desk and I texted you three times.”

              “You never texted me,” I argued. “I never got a note either.”

              Liam held up a finger to try to tell me something but I could not quite understand what he was trying to say. I waved him off and waited for Patrick to respond.

              “Well you texted me back 'I'll be there' like two hours ago,” he muttered, confusedly. “Ally, what's going on with you? Are you seeing someone?”

              I felt my heart thumping in my chest and I covered the receiver and hissed, “Liam, he wants to know if I'm seeing someone.”

              “Well tell him no,” he hissed back.

              “But it's too suspicious,” I whispered. “I'm going to tell him that I am.”

              “What? Ally, you can't!”

              “I'm not telling him it's you,” I hissed. I uncovered the receiver. “Sorry Patrick, I was just talking to...Nate! My boyfriend, Nate!” I looked at Liam and shrugged, unsure what else I was going to say. My actions had clearly pointed to me seeing somebody, but I sure had not remembered replying to his text message. Regardless,

I had to cover my tracks. I had to tell Patrick I was dating someone that was not Liam to throw off his radar.

              “Nate?” Patrick asked, audibly drinking something on the other end. “Nate the janitor? Oh honey, please tell me he showered before he took you out.”

              “Y-yeah, Nate the janitor!” I blurted. I had not even thought about the name that I chose to use. In fact, I did not even remember that we had an employee named Nate. “He's been working me like a broom.” I laughed, nervously and watched Liam stifle a chuckle.

              “Exec and janitor. Sounds like the love story from hell,” he murmured. “Well whatever, then. Will you be here soon? We need to talk about the accounts. If you want to bring your boyfriend, he can grab a mop and wipe off my coffee mustache.”

              “Yeah, I'll be there,” I replied. “Can you hang on for fifteen minutes or so?”

              “Ally, I've been waiting a half an hour. What's fifteen more minutes going to hurt?” he said, airily. “See you then, bye for now.” He hung up.

              I narrowed my eyes and looked at Liam. Something told me that he knew about the text message that Patrick had sent me.

              “Liam, when I went to the bathroom, did you touch my phone?”

              “I may have,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. He looked away from me and I knew that he was not being forthright.

              “
Liam!
You're going to blow our cover! You're the one that made such a big deal about this and now you're going to ruin it! I don't have a billion dollars to keep me afloat if I get fired from Hoffman,” I scolded. “Listen, just don't do that again, okay? Why would you do it in the first place?”

              “I wanted to spend more time with you,” he admitted. “If you left to go get coffee with Patrick I wouldn't see you for the entire afternoon. I know you had that appointment later and I just wanted a couple more hours with you. I'm sorry.”

              My expression softened and my heart skipped a beat. I smiled at him and pressed my lips against his. After a moment, his tongue found mine. He ran his hands under my shirt and cupped my breasts.

I let out a moan against his lips and draped my arms around his neck. I felt him shudder.

              “Have time for a quickie?” he murmured, burying his face in my neck. He sucked on my shoulder and massaged my breasts. “
Pleeease?
”

              I moaned and nodded, “It has to be really quick, th—oh, Liam!”

              He smirked against my neck and ran a hand down my body, rubbing me, sensuously. I groaned as he stroked me softly.

I squeaked and he inserted a finger inside of me. Gasping, I ran my fingers through his messy, brown hair. I tugged on it gently and he moaned against my neck.

              “You want it, don't you baby?” he murmured in his smooth, Australian accent. His words sent a shiver down my spine.

              “Yes,” I gasped as he inserted a second finger and moved them around inside of me.

              “Your wish is my command,” he breathed with a smirk. He pulled out his fingers, slipped off his boxers, and rubbed his massive erection against my hood. I moaned and chewed on my lip.

              “Put it in,” I begged. He spit in his hand and rubbed it along his member. Then, he crawled on top of me and I spread my legs. I gasped as he entered me.

I then screamed as I felt him dive deep inside of me. He grunted and thrust his hips towards mine.

              “Oh, babe, you feel so good,” he breathed. He explored my walls and I felt my eyes roll back into my head with pleasure. I bit on my lower lip as hard as possible to stifle a loud scream, clawing his back with my fingernails.

              “Oh, Liam!” I screamed. “That feels incredible!”

              “Oh God,” he grunted, moving inside of me even harder. I dug my fingernails deeper into his back and emitted another loud scream. I felt his manhood stiffen inside of me and I knew that he was going to reach orgasm quickly.

              “Come on, baby,” I urged. “I'm almost there. Come with me.” His movements grew sloppier and I moaned as he hit my g-spot. I was nearing climax and I knew that he was too.

              “I'm gonna come, Ally,” he breathed. I felt him become tenser inside of me and he released. “I'm coming, baby. I'm coming.” I screamed and climaxed with him. He collapsed on top of me. We both closed our eyes and tried to catch our breath.

              “That was the best quickie I've ever had,” I said, breathlessly. I exhaled happily and wiped the sweat from my forehead.

              “Me too,” Liam replied. He kissed my cheek and rolled off me, breathing heavily. He pulled his boxers back on and lay his head on one of the throw pillows. I smiled at him and then looked at the clock on the wall.

              “Damn it!” I cursed, getting to my feet. “There is no way that was twenty minutes!”

              “Whoops,” he said, airily. “Patrick will be fine. He's a big boy.”

              “Yeah, but the whole point was to curb his suspicions. You really think he's going to believe I just couldn't keep my hands off
Nate
the janitor?
He'll never buy it,” I retorted, pulling on his tee shirt. I pulled it back off. “I probably shouldn't wear your shirt if I want to throw him off.”

              “Yeah, probably not the best idea,” he replied, rolling onto his side. “I'm going to take a nap.”

              “Where are my clothes?” I asked. “Liam?”

              He let out a snore and I rolled my eyes.

              “LIAM!”

              He jerked awake and asked, “What was that?”

              “My clothes? Where are they?”

              “Try the bedroom,” he replied. “Alright. Night, night, babe.”

              I scoffed and hurried to the bedroom to retrieve my clothes. I was surely going to raise Patrick's suspicions, considering how late I was.

I pulled on my work dress and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My hair was far too messy to convince him that I had not been having sexual intercourse.

Scowling, I walked into the bathroom and seized one of Liam's hairbrushes. After I fixed it to the best of my ability, I hastily sauntered to the living room and slipped on my business heels.

              “I'll be back later,” I said as I opened the door. Liam offered me a loud snore in return and I rolled my eyes, slamming the door behind me.

Patrick was sitting in the corner of the small coffeehouse. His chin was resting in the palm of his hand and he was scrolling across the screen on his cell phone. I tip-toed towards him and sat in the chair across from him, setting my cup of coffee on the table.

              “A little later than you thought, hmm?” Patrick asked, not looking up from his cell phone. “Oh, you have to see this cat video. It's the cutest thing you'll ever see. It's wearing a hat and then—”

              “So what about the new accounts?” I interjected. He was not acting strange in any way, but I was determined not to allow the conversation to head in the wrong direction.

              “Well, I got nineteen new businesses to bite on subscriptions,” he said, setting his phone on the table. He pulled a small notepad out of his inner jacket pocket and set it on the table. He pushed it towards me and nodded towards it.

              “Restaurants, bakeries, even a couple convenience stores with those tacky little hotdog rotisseries.”

              “Nineteen?” I asked, incredulously, seizing the notepad. I flipped through the pages. “How did you sell that many so fast?”

              “Skills,” he answered, coolly, clicking his fingernails together. “So how was Nate, anyway, Ally? Did you two get stuck cleaning up vomit or something?”

              I swore that my heart stopped. His words caused me to panic, but I quickly regained my composure.

              “No, nothing like that. He was doing my laundry because I accidentally left my clothes there,” I lied.

“He's very thoughtful like that. I guess those cleaning skills stick with him at home too.” I laughed nervously and took a sip of my coffee, looking away from him.

              “He dry-cleans?” Patrick asked, narrowing his eyes.

              I looked down at my dress and knew that he had caught me in a lie. My dress was dry-clean only and Patrick was very familiar with that fact, since I sent him out with my dry-cleaning on dozens of occasions.

The dress that I was wearing was one that he had dry-cleaned for me several times.

              “Alright, alright. I just didn't want to tell you we were having sex,” I murmured. It was my last chance to keep him from asking more questions.

“I knew you'd make fun of me for sleeping with Nate the janitor so I couldn't say anything. You caught me!”

              Patrick chuckled and replied, “Ally, no one cares if you're sleeping with Nate the janitor. It's not like you're having sex with your boss or anything.”

              I swallowed and averted my gaze to the floor. Liam was not, technically, my boss, but he was my business partner and our relationship was just as unacceptable. I knew that I would not be able to hold up the lie about Nate the janitor for very long, but I did not know how else to explain myself to Patrick, yet.

I sighed and reminded myself that I needed to discuss everything with my therapist. I truly had no idea how I was going to come clean.

              “Thanks for being such a good friend,” I said with a smile. “I mean that, Patrick. You've been the best friend that I could ask for. It means a lot.”

              “Oh, stop being so sappy,” he said, a telling smile on his lips. “You're going to make me cry or something.”

              “I mean it,” I pressed. “Now, as my friend,
please
don't mention me and Nate's relationship at work.”

              “Why?” he asked, furrowing his brow. “You're glowing, honey! If that trash collector makes you happy, so be it. Nobody's going to judge you.”

              I shook my head and quickly made up an excuse.

              “It's not that I'd be embarrassed,” I lied, taking a sip of coffee. “He's
married
.”

              Patrick gasped. “No
way!
”

              I nodded, further digging a deeper and deeper pit of dishonesty. I took a large gulp of coffee and wracked my brain for details.

              “Him and his wife are separated but I could get into some serious trouble with public relations if we're caught, okay?” I whispered. I leaned closer towards him and looked around the room. “We're risking both our reputations here.”