Darker (Alpha Billionaire Romance Erotica) (The Dark Billionaire #3) (2 page)

On the way back to the hotel, Jennifer kept silent.
Her first day in Thailand wasn’t as perfect as she had expected.

Bruce had been very cold since their meeting with Kenichi, and he seemed to be lost in his thoughts.
Consequently, she didn’t feel very comfortable being involved in his business anymore. He looked different, as if he were another man. She didn’t know if she simply lacked self-confidence due to her inexperience, or if it was Bruce that made her feel that way.

“
Bruce, can I ask you something?”

“
Sure. Is it about tonight?” Bruce said, turning to look at her.

“Yes, I…” Jennifer started to say when Bruce took her hand and put his finger on her lips, telling her to stop talking.
Surprised, she saw him making a move with his head and his eyes in the direction of June, Kenichi’s driver.

“Not now. Wai
t a minute, we’re almost there.” He whispered in her ear.

Ah yes, June
can speak good English…

The car parked in front of the hotel
, and they walked straight to their room. Jennifer continued.

“I don’t understand, Bruce. I’m trying to imagine why a man like you would ever risk everything to be involved in such a venture.
To me, you have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Why are you even considering doing it? Don’t you have enough money, seriously?”

Bruce had his back turned, getting undressed and walking towards the bathroom.
“It’s not about the money.”

“So what is it?” Jennifer said, following him and removing her ear
-rings in front of the mirror.

Bruce got in the shower. “
It’s a bit complicated. Let’s say that… it’s personal.”

“So what does it mean? You’re not going to tell me? You can share it with your Yakuza fri
end, but not with me, your wife?”

Bruce turned off the tap and looked at her. “What did you say?”

Jennifer’s face became hot.
Bruce noticed I called myself his wife
. “I said
your wife
. I know we’re not married, but…”

Bruce shook his head and interrupted her. “
No, no. Not that part. Before that.”

Disappointed,
Jennifer thought for a second. “Oh… Err… Yakuza friend?”

Bruce looked incredulous. “You think Kenichi is a Yakuza? You
really think he belongs to the mafia?”

“He looks like
it to me. Plus, look at his plans. Excuse me, but he’s not exactly planning to start up a charity!”

Bruce laughed at her. “You watch too much fiction! It’s time for you to get back to reality, Jen. He’s just a businessman
, and he’s keen on acting on new opportunities. That’s how it works.”

Je
nnifer didn’t reply immediately – it’s not what she expected to hear, and she was a bit upset. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue the conversation and discover Bruce’s true motivations. Yet, she said almost automatically - “Anyway, I think you’re making a mistake. I’ve got a bad feeling about it.”

“Based on what? Your feminine intuition?”

“Very funny…” Jennifer felt more and more frustrated by Bruce’s attitude, but didn’t bother fighting.

Bruce sighed. “
Jen, listen - I appreciate your concern, but I didn’t ask you to come here to give me business advice. I really don’t need you for that. You’re very sweet and all, but you’re just a secreta...” Bruce didn’t finish his sentence, probably realizing how rude he was being.

Jennifer’s
face turned red immediately. His words felt like a razor blade cutting through her ego and her pride. “A secretary. Yes say it, Bruce. So what should I understand? That my opinion is worthless?”

“It’s not what I mean
t…”

Jennifer put her hands on her hips and
faced him. “Tell me what it means then. I’m dying to know.”

Bruce took a towel and got out o
f the shower to take Jennifer in his arms. “Jen, I’m sorry. It was mean, I know. Listen, why are we fighting? Can’t we just enjoy being here? It’s our first night in Bangkok. Don’t you think we have better things to do?”

Jennifer felt the urge to keep fighting
– knowing Bruce was trying to avoid the conversation – but at the same time, she also knew he was right; it was useless to have an argument. Instead, she tried to calm down.

He’s not going to change his mind that easily anyway, no matter
what I say. I’d better just go to bed and try to talk again tomorrow morning, when we’re both rested.

Jennifer pulled away from Bruce’s arms
without looking at him and got in the shower. “I’m not going to bother you with my questions anymore for tonight Bruce, but don’t do that again. Don’t disrespect me, especially because of my job position. I’ll probably never be as successful as you are, I’m sure you’re aware of that – but it’s not a reason to talk to me like that.”

Bruce looked embarrassed and shrugged. “I don’t know why I said that, Jen. I’m really sorry. Maybe I should have taken a nap this afternoon, just like you did. Maybe I’
m just tired. We should go to bed and forget about all this, okay?”

Jennifer couldn’t help but think the situation was a waste of time and energy. The very first night she was in an exotic place with Bruce, they were fighting.
Great! Jennifer couldn’t sleep because of the nap she’d taken earlier and probably the jetlag. Lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling, the same question kept coming back to her mind:
why does Bruce want to get involved in this kind of risky and illegal business?

It didn’t make sense.
Another question directly related to the first one was starting to take form in Jennifer’s mind – however, she didn’t want to admit it at first. The more she thought about this whole venture, the more she had to ask herself:
Can I really trust Bruce for business advice?

It seemed so wrong to Jennifer to even doubt Bruce’s ability to show her how to live a more successful lif
e that she felt guilty.

Come on
Jen, be patient. Bruce knows what he’s doing. He’s a smart guy. Maybe I should stop second guessing everything he does and start listening. I’m the one without a job at the moment after all… so I’d better pay attention to what he says instead of trying to be right.

Jennifer finally fell asleep at 6:30 AM. Two hours later, Bruce’s alarm was ringing.

Oh no… why so early? I feel like crap, I have this fog in my head, Jesus…

Bruce came close to her and kissed her. “Good morning. Time to wake up, princess! We have a long list of potential business partners and key contacts to visit today.”

“What?” Jennifer thought she was in the middle of a bad dream. “Baby, what did you say?”

“I said we have a lot of important people to meet. We need to do our due diligence, understand the local mindset, become fr
iends with the right people. Policemen and politicians mostly.”

Jennifer was incredibly disappointed. It wasn’t what she had expected at all. Plus, the lack of sleep wasn’t helping – she was in a terrible mood. “Baby, you said we’
d be here for about a month. There’s plenty of time to do all this boring stuff…”

“Boring? This is the fun part! This is when you actually assess the situation and build your strategy.”

Jennifer wasn’t convinced. “Don’t you want to visit the city? There are so many places to discover, so many restaurants to try!”

Bruce chuckled. “
That’s a waste of time. We’re not here to act like tourists. We have more important things to do.”

“Are we going to spend the whole month doing that?
I mean, shaking hands, going to meetings, and listening to power point presentations? I could have stayed at the office in that case.”

“Should I remind you that you resigned? There’s no more of this waiting for you in New York.”

Jennifer felt uncomfortable. Her fears and concerns about her future and the choice she’d made to quit her job suddenly triggered a defense mechanism. “I resigned because I have ambition and bigger dreams than to be an assistant all my life. I’ve worked hard for many years and I deserve to enjoy a nice trip once in a while.”

Bruce stood up and went to the bathroom. “If you think you’ve been working
hard, I’d invite you to reconsider your business projects. If you really want to be your own boss, anything you’ve done so far is nothing in terms of efforts and sacrifices. Trust me - time is money. If you want to go out and enjoy yourself, be my guest. But don’t complain that you didn’t learn anything when we go back to New York.”

“What am I supposed to lea
rn exactly? How to build an illegal business and scam people?”

“
Don’t start again with that. I told you - it’s personal.”

“
Well, you know what? I don’t think I’m interested, thank you. I’d probably do better all by myself. I don’t need you to be successful in life.”

Bruce came back to the bed, an angry look on his face. “You’re very confident and cocky for someone who’s a total beginner
in the business world. With an attitude like that, don’t expect to go very far, Jen. You don’t have the right mindset. When I hear you talking like that, I don’t even know if I would hire you back as my assistant!”

Jennifer didn’t control it; i
t was automatic. Without thinking, she slapped Bruce in the face. “I don’t allow you to talk to me like that. I didn’t ask you for anything, okay? I won’t beg you to take me back as your secretary – don’t worry! I told you last night; don’t disrespect me like that. I don’t know about your previous relationships but I’m not the kind of woman you can look down on easily.”

Jennifer was now out of bed, gathering her accessories in the bathroom and p
acking. She was furious. “I didn’t come here to be treated like this. If you don’t want to spend time with me, fine. I’m used to it. You’re always too busy for me anyway.”

Bruce was looking at her, shaking his head. “I never said it was a vacation trip – it was clear that I was here for business.
Jen, are you listening to me? Where are you going?”

Jennifer was at the door, ready to leave. “I don’t know but I’
ll find my way.”

She paused and looked at him. “I’m not like you, Bruce. But you know what? I’d rather be average and happy
instead of having all that money and hiding behind a wall of personal issues and secrets. Good bye.”

The clerk at the reception of the luxurious Kempinski hotel seemed embarrassed and hesitant when Jennifer asked her where she could find affordable hotel rooms in a lively area. All she could recommend was other fancy hotels in other areas of the city.

After twenty minutes, Jennifer started to understand what was going on: the clerk was probably afraid o
f insulting her by suggesting anything below a certain standard. “I’m not looking for luxury hotels. I want a simple hotel, okay? Cheap, with many tourists and lots of things to do.”

The clerk nodded. “Oh in that case, I rec
ommend you go to Khao San Road. It’s very lively, cheap, with many attractions for tourists. It’s mainly a backpackers’ area.”

“Perfect! How can I go there?”

“Let me call a taxi for you.”

Jennifer found a decent room in three hours –
two hours stuck in traffic and one hour to actually find an available room. She finally felt like she was on vacation – no fancy malls, no prestigious hotels, no high end rooftop sky bars, no luxurious cars, and last but not least, no billionaire to tell her how to behave.

Her hotel was in a small street besides the main one – a
soi
as the locals called it. Bangkok seemed to be made of multiple
soi
and
sub-soi
, where the activity was unreal. The streets were packed with dogs, motorbikes, cars, trucks, tuk-tuk – funny three wheels cars – myriad of street food merchants, restaurants, bars, tattoo studios, and local people selling souvenirs and clothes to foreigners.

Not the kind of place Bruce would take me…

It was already 1:00 PM, and Jennifer hadn’t eaten breakfast yet; she was starving. She decided to try a random food cartwheel and had a
Pad Thai
. The dish was delicious - salty, sweet and sour. It felt like an explosion of flavors in her mouth. The only problem was that the dish was also incredibly spicy, and Jennifer didn’t handle spicy food very well.

Eating spicy
food in the street under the burning sun was a very poor choice, and Jennifer was sweating like a soaked sponge. After her meal, she rushed into a bar with air conditioning and sat down at the counter.

Oh my God, it feels good…

The bar wasn’t busy yet. It was probably too early. Jennifer ordered a diet Coke and looked around – there were a few locals, but mostly tourists. After five minutes, she saw another client coming in. Jennifer couldn’t help but notice how different he was; a tall Caucasian man, dressed in a grey suit with a black shirt, with long black hair slicked back and intense black eyes.

The man
, very confident, sat down across the counter, almost facing Jennifer. He was hard to miss – he was way too classy and elegant compared to all the backpackers dressed in sandals, shorts, and tanks around.

What is he doing here? He doesn’t fit
in the neighborhood at all…

She quickly looked at him but her eyes kept locked on him a bit too long; he saw her w
atching him and smiled. Jennifer’s face turned red immediately.

He’s going to think I’
m hitting on him! Oh, I knew it - he’s coming over to me now…

“
Hi. Are you waiting for someone?” The man said with an extremely sexy European accent.

“
Hi. Yes, maybe.” Jennifer said without looking at him.

“
You’re sweating. Let me offer you a drink.”

“
No, I already have one, thank you.”
Jesus, I don’t need a playboy to bother me right now…
“Look, we both know how it works: you buy me a drink, we talk, you make me laugh, and then you ask me my number. Except that I don’t have a phone number, okay? Don’t waste your time.”

The man chuckled. “Why not? Why don’t you have a phone number?”

“I didn’t have time to buy a sim card.”

The man nodded silently, turned around and left the bar.
Handsome but not very persistent! He probably thinks he just needs to show up to have women crawling over him! Loser…

She ordered a
second diet Coke and wiped her face with a napkin. She was still very hot and couldn’t stop sweating. She finished half her glass and closed her eyes, leaning against the counter, when she heard something next to her elbow. She opened her eyes and saw a plastic card wrapped in cellophane. The European man was back, sitting next to her.

“What is it?” She asked
, surprised.

“Your sim card. You can get one
in any seven eleven. It doesn’t take more than five minutes, you see?” He said with a grin. “I’m Enzo, by the way.”

He extended his hand, and Jennifer shook it.
Okay, playboy, you got my attention…

“
Thank you, Enzo. That’s very nice… I’m Jennifer. Nice to meet you.”

Enzo was 32 year old from Roma, Italy. He
told Jennifer he’d been living in Bangkok for seven years and was a hotel manager.

“I have to ask you:
what are you doing in here? This neighborhood doesn’t suit you.”

Enzo ordered a Thai ice tea and took a sip.
“You’re right. I never come here usually. It’s just that I’m off from work, and I was supposed to fly back to Italy. I came here because I heard there are good travel agencies here, and I wanted to know if I could change my ticket.”

“Why do
you want to change your ticket?”

Enzo smiled and looked embarrassed. “I feel a bit silly… but I forgot to renew my passp
ort. I’ve been here for so long I didn’t think about it. My passport is actually expired.”

Jennifer
tried to keep her composure but finally laughed out loud.

Enzo threw his arms in the air.
“Yeah! Yeah! I know it’s silly. I told you.”

“Yes it’s very s
illy, but guess what? The same thing happened to me. I was supposed to come to Thailand a few months ago, but my passport was expired.”

Enzo raised his glass. “Maybe
we were destined to meet today. Cheers.”

Jennifer felt a little something in her stomach
, and her cheeks felt hot. “Cheers…”

Enzo pulled
out his smart phone from his pocket. “Oh by the way, do you have a Facebook account?”

“Yes, of course.” Jennifer took his phone and added herself on his profile.

They kept talking for an hour. He was very nice, funny and interesting. He had a lot of stories to tell her about living in Thailand and Jennifer felt at ease with him - he knew how to make her forget about her worries. However, she started to feel very sleepy and left him to take a nap. He was very charming and entertaining, and Jennifer agreed to meet him again later that night.

Enzo took her to
a small restaurant with a live band, and made sure the food wasn’t spicy. Then, he took her to the night market, where they walked in the streets with neon signs everywhere, smelling fried chicken and noodles soups. It was incredibly lively, noisy, and dirty, but Jennifer liked it. It was about living an adventure. It was about living life.

Life in Bangkok was amazing
, and Jennifer didn’t feel time passing by – for three days, she followed Enzo to every place imaginable, tasting unknown food in the streets, taking pictures with ladyboys in clubs and feeding baby elephants in Chinatown. She felt amazing.

Many times, she thought about Br
uce, though. She wished he was there, spending time with her in a new city, instead of working all the time. Whatever his reasons were for getting involved with Kenichi, Jennifer was convinced that nothing good could possibly come out of their association.

She also knew that her opinion didn’t matter much; not when it came to business decisions. Bruce had been very clear
about that, and Jennifer wasn’t ready to forgive him easily for the lack of respect he had showed her.

As she was thinking
about Bruce, Jennifer was about to cross the street. She looked to her left – it was clear, so she stepped on the road confidently when she heard tires screeching and a loud car horn.

She looked to her right – where she should have looked first – and saw a yellow taxi
charging at her at full speed. Her eyes widened, her pupils dilated, and her heart raced.

My God, I am going to die!

Suddenly, she felt two strong hands grabbing her arms from behind and felt pulled away from the road. In a split second, she was back on the pavement, shaking, feeling her back against Enzo’s body and his arms around her chest.

She was terrified. The taxi finally stopped about
two meters to her left, meaning it would have completely crushed her without Enzo’s quick reaction. She turned around and looked at him, her eyes filled with tears, still shocked and unable to talk.

He took her in his arms. “It’s okay. Calm down, you’re fine. Shhh… it’s okay.”
Jennifer felt surprisingly safe and protected inside Enzo’s arms. She was incredibly grateful – that man had just saved her life! He was so warm and thoughtful.

The taxi driver got out of his car and screamed at Jennifer – probably insulting her. Enzo talked to him
in Thai and gave him money to make him leave.

“Th… Thank you.” Jennifer
said while leaning her head against his chest. She was still shaking and sweating, breathing heavily.

“
You’re in shock. You need to lie down and rest. Let’s go to my place. It’s not very far.”

Jennifer simply
nodded, unable to speak while Enzo was calling a taxi and giving his address to the driver. On the way to Enzo’s place though, Jennifer realized she was going to be alone with him in his home.

She thought about Bruce. “Enzo, thank you
, but I think I’m fine. Can you tell the driver to drop me at Kempinski hotel, please?”

“Why? What are you going to do over there?”

“Can you please just tell him?”

Enzo told the taxi driver to change directions. Fifteen minutes later, they arrived in front of the hotel. Enzo paid for the taxi and followed Jennifer
in.

“Enzo, you don’t have to come with me.
I’m fine thank you very much, but I need to be alone.”

“Why?
Tell me what’s going on – I can’t leave you alone like that; not after what happened.” The look on Enzo’s face was intense, and it gave Jennifer butterflies in her stomach. She knew she liked him – she’d been attracted to him since the beginning, and the more he cared for her, the harder she fell.

Jennifer
looked around, took his wrist, and went inside the mall next to the hotel. “I think we need to stop seeing each other.”

Enzo gazed at her intently and
leaned in closer. “Why? You don’t like me?”

The
battle inside Jennifer’s heart was unbearable. She couldn’t lie – she did like him – but she couldn’t tell him either; what about Bruce? She shifted her gaze, trying to look away from him. “It’s a mistake. I barely know you…”

Enzo took her chin in his hand and gently turned her face toward him.
“Look at me. We can take our time if that’s what you want…”

Enzo leaned forward and
got dangerously close to her. Jennifer couldn’t resist and closed her eyes, letting him press his lips against hers. Her knees were wobbling. The man was giving her insane butterflies and messing with her guts in a way that she couldn’t explain. She felt completely helpless and weak, unable to fight. She immediately realized that her crotch was getting soaking wet – and fast – and she felt a burning desire consuming her empty channel.

It took her several seconds to gather her thoughts and
to finally find the will power to push him away. “Stop.” She was panting. “Please. I can’t. We should stop seeing each other. It was a mistake.”

Jennifer pulled away from his arms and
, after turning around to see him one last time, she ran inside the hotel.