Pawn of the Billionaire (3 page)

Marco’s face was a study in indecision. He wanted to make a stand, but he didn’t want to lose me, that much I knew. “Well, girl. You’ve got to manage things better.”

I sensed a movement behind me. The sexy man brushed past me as he went to the door and a jolt of electricity made me jerk. But his face was expressionless, tight.

“No offense taken, mister. I think the girl’s right. Let the vet stay.” And he pushed out of the door. I started after him since he hadn’t paid. Then I glanced at the table. A twenty dollar bill was tucked under the mug. My eyes bulged. I heard Marco chuckle.

“Well, if you get that sort of tip, girl, you’d better watch out.”

I rounded on him, then thought better of it. I sighed, “I suppose.” The man was gone. The most attractive, sexy devil I’d seen in a long time had walked out of my life, and I had no means of ever finding him again.

I looked around. The few remaining customers eating studiously, heads down. Tables cluttered with used dishes, waiting to be cleared. The smell of greasy food in the kitchen. My life wasn’t about to change any time soon.

I went to get Sam a refill of his coffee. Marco glared at me. But he wouldn’t say anything more to me today. I knew him well enough to know that.

I
strode down the sidewalk
, my coat shrugged up over my hunched shoulders against the rain. I’d even forgotten about the car, until it slid up alongside me, and Steve leapt out to open the door.

I shook my head. “Sorry, Steve. I forgot you were waiting.” That sounded lame, even to me, so I shut up and got in the back, letting him close the door behind me. I darkened the screen between us and thought back.

What the hell had happened? I’d abso-fucking-lutely had to get out of that shit place as quickly as possible. Just one look at her had me all knotted up inside — and that had never happened before. When that stupid, bloated owner had started in on her, I’d so nearly upped and punched him. But then she’d leapt to her own defense, and her sheer mastery of him had me sitting there in gaping admiration.

I could absolutely see her controlling Edward without difficulty.

And at the thought of handing her over to my weak and ineffectual brother, my belly clenched and my heart went cold. I knew I was scowling. The car headed home. I hadn’t told Steve any different, and he was probably a bit scared of asking me. He was fairly new, and I could sense his uncertainty.

I was too deep in my thoughts to bother putting it right though, and I thought back to the diner.

She was tall, not nearly as tall as I was, but she might take an inch or so off Edward. She was ungainly, stooping with an adolescent awkwardness. But she’d grow out of that soon enough. She wasn’t quite twenty, and in a few years, with the right training, she’d have an effortless elegance and her height would be an advantage to her and us. I leaned back against the seat and shut my eyes.

How did I know her body so well? Her face was familiar to me from the photo in the dossier. But I knew how she’d feel in my arms. I could scent the luxury perfume she’d soon be using. I could tell what her creamy skin would feel like when I slid my hand down the luscious curve of her ass, the perfect handful of its rounded cheek.

My cock stiffened in my pants. I tensed. I had to control myself. She wasn’t mine. And my heart sank.

I considered her background information in the dossier that Lawrence had given me a couple of days ago. This girl was Antonia Chapman, the great great granddaughter of the Earl of Amherst.

Back in the eighteenth century, the Earl’s only son had been killed in a hunting accident, and his three daughters couldn’t inherit. When he died, the title became extinct. Two of the daughters had married wasters, weak, ineffectual men who’d quickly ruined the family finances as well.

I smiled tightly. The beautiful old mansion had been sold. I believed it was now owned by a wealthy footballer. I sat up abruptly. I couldn’t — wouldn’t — let that happen to my own family home.

No one ever knew what happened to the third daughter. But the eldest, Antonia, had gone to America with her husband. Their family history made interesting reading, but children had been few, and when Antonia’s only surviving daughter had become pregnant out of wedlock, she’d vanished from the family records. None of her surviving nephews and nieces knew of her existence, or what had happened to her.

I slipped the file from the folder still sitting on the back seat of the limo. Before I opened it, I stared out. The car was driving through the city outskirts now, a wider, cleaner street. Up to the billionaire’s part of Silicon Valley. Better than the narrow, crowded downtown street where the diner stood, and the bitter taste of the cheap coffee was still in my throat.

I looked down. I was surprised how interested I’d been in the history of this family. Normally, I’d have been bored.
This girl? Okay, if you say so. Give her money, send her off to that finishing school, pass her to Edward and let me get on with my comfortable life
.

But no. I’d sat, fascinated, reading the story of these long-dead people who’d made mistakes in their lives, had to live with the consequences.

I’d waited, striding the room impatiently, while Lawrence had instructed teams of investigators and genealogists, finding what had happened to a missing pregnant girl nearly fifty years ago. I smiled.

Lawrence had been puzzled.

“Sir, there are three other suitable girls from other families we’ve already found. Shall we research those, and put this one aside? There might not even be a female descendant.”

I’d shaken my head. “No. I want to find out.” I couldn’t tell him. Tell him that I’d looked at an old photo of Elizabeth, the Lady Antonia’s daughter. Her eyes had looked out at me. I had to find out what had happened to her. The consequences of her uncle’s reckless riding to hounds had cost her the chance of an aristocratic life, a suitable marriage, and had led to abandonment by her family, having to raise her child alone in a strange country. That we’d found out she’d ended up here, in San Francisco, had seemed beyond coincidence.

I watched as my own luxurious home swung into view as the car rolled to a halt outside the wide steps. I picked up the folder and stepped out as the limo slowed to a halt. Lawrence was waiting beside the steps, his eyes on my face.

“Decent coffee, Lawrence. A decent cup of coffee as soon as we can.” I took the wide steps quickly and the great door swung open for me. I wondered how this Antonia would take it. The understated taste, the quiet staff, a place to relax, where you didn’t need to do anything unless you wanted to. Food would arrive at the table, what you wanted would be bought for you, the house cleaned, maintained, filled with flowers. Everything done to ensure your comfort.

I looked around. I’d earned this. I’d slogged my guts out, worked every hour there was, taught myself everything I needed to know.

And I’d been lucky too. Who’d have predicted that apps would be the way to go? The big software firms had their share of the market, and I wouldn’t take them on. But apps were easy to get into. Yes, I’d been lucky. Lucky enough to have the money to live on in the beginning so that I had time to learn, lucky enough to have the sort of brain that could see what to do, control the team I built around me as I built my empire. Lucky enough too, in the apps that I chose to develop. They’d sold like crazy. I smiled in relief as I threw myself into my chair, and David entered the room at the same time from the service door, bearing a tray. The coffee aroma finally heralded home, and I sighed.

“Thank you, David. It smells heavenly.”

He smiled. “Thank you, sir. I’ve taken the liberty of adding Scottish shortbread. You didn’t eat breakfast.”

I looked at the tray, and my mouth watered, imagining the soft, crumbly biscuits.

“Great, thanks.” I nodded at him and got out the dossier again.

Soon, I’d need to see her again, tell her what I had planned, work out how to get her to agree.

“Sit with me, Lawrence.” He’d never come and join me without being told to, but he was a very useful sounding board, and never tried to take advantage of his position.

“Well, your men were right. It’s an absolutely foul little hole.” I shuddered again. “The coffee!”

I looked over at him. “But you know, she’s absolutely perfect for what we need. She’s exactly like that photo of Elizabeth, her grandmother.” I flipped through to the old photo. Staged, black and white, old-fashioned hairstyle and hard makeup, she still mesmerized me.

I held the two photos next to each other. The old one of Elizabeth and the modern one of Antonia — Toni, the customers had called her. I had to talk to her.

“I think she’ll be easy enough to persuade. The diner’s a horrible place and the accommodation block’s no better.” I tapped the pages absently. “I just can’t work out why she’s there.”

Lawrence sat quietly. He knew I didn’t want answers, just a sounding board. “She’s a bright, clever girl. Her school records show that.” I frowned and slid the timeline towards me. “Then she couldn’t finish High School because her mother was diagnosed with cancer.” I looked up at him. “You’ll have to help me here. In England, of course, there’d be all the support necessary to let her carry on at school.”

Lawrence’s eyebrows rose. “Even if she was past school age? Here, there’s not much support unless you can afford it, and college was never going to be an option for her.” He reached forward and selected the small binder. “Look, sir. The grandmother tried her best, but couldn’t ever get work that paid enough. But her baby, this Antonia’s mother, she just never tried. There wasn’t ever enough money, or any sort of ambition, was there?”

“No, you’re right.” I leafed through the binder. “But this one’s got it okay. The ambition, I mean. I can see that in her eyes. There’s something there.” I frowned. “Which is why I can’t work out why she’s still working where she is.”

“With all respect, sir, I don’t think you quite understand how hard it is to get yourself out of a situation like that.” Lawrence’s voice was deferential, but he knew I wanted to know how things really were.

“She’ll be working long hours, her room’s almost certainly depressing and dark.” He shook his head. “It drains energy, living like that, stifles dreams and ambition, and is so exhausting it takes a huge effort to pull yourself out of it.”

I rubbed my face in my hands. “Well, there’s one hell of a lot of talent in this country going to waste then.”

“Yes, sir.” Lawrence sat and waited. It was my choice.

I smiled. It was no choice at all. This was the right girl. The other families were out of the picture.

I looked over. “All right, Lawrence. We’ll do this. I’ll go back tomorrow, talk to her.” I thought for a minute. “What I need you to do is to research what support programs we can get for homeless disabled vets. See what we can make available with enough money thrown at it behind the scenes.” I saw his eyebrow quirk. I grinned. I was sure he thought he’d perfected the expressionless look, but that little quirk, tiny enough to be unnoticed by anyone else, told me exactly what he was thinking. “There’s a homeless vet she gives coffee to and lets sit in the diner all day,” I explained. “She’ll never leave there if she thinks the owner will throw him out.”

“Yes, sir.” Lawrence made a note.

“Oh, and what you said.”

He looked up at me. “What I said?”

“Yes. What you said. I don’t like to think of wasted talent. Let’s think about some sort of non profit foundation. There’s too much money goes abroad and doesn’t help young people over here.”

He made another note. “Whatever you say, sir.”

“Yes.” I leaned forward. “But we’ll need to find someone good to set it up. And someone even better to keep tabs on the money, makes sure it goes to where it’s needed.” I had an idea. “Maybe it’s something that the girl would like to get her teeth into. Helping people who are in the same position she’s been in.” I felt good. That might be a way to persuade her. That and a program for the vet.

“Well, maybe, sir. But she’ll be away of course. I’ve got the prospectus here, and I’ve made a provisional reservation.”

It was my turn to look puzzled.

“The finishing school, sir.” Lawrence held out the glossy brochure. “Switzerland.” He smiled. “It’ll be quite a change for her.”

I took the brochure mechanically. That was going to be a problem. I couldn’t just let her go. I’d only just found her. How the hell was I going to explain this?

I nodded at him. “All right, Lawrence. I need to think what I’m going to say to her tomorrow. You get on with that.”

He took the hint and rose from the sofa. “Yes, sir. You have lunch booked for twelve-forty-five, and a meeting with the team over at your office at three-thirty. I’ve booked the car for three.”

I nodded at him. I’d better go to that. My newest app was nearing completion. This one was my baby. My chess app. My hand dropped over the arm of the chair, where the old chess set stood. Heavy, individually-carved pieces, I’d loved it since I was a small boy.

I’d played childish battles with the pieces, the knights fighting, clashing in my pudgy fingers long before I learned to play properly with that very same set.

My hand found the queen, my fingers smoothing up the elegant sweep of jade.

I found myself thinking of Toni. Her body, tall and stately, a gown swirling around her body and legs. Fuck! My cock hardened and I dropped the piece. I was up, pacing to and fro. I had to control myself, had to think what I was doing. She wasn’t a suitable bride at all. She needed training to become a wife to Edward, a guardian of our birthright. That meant finishing school.

I absolutely couldn’t take her as mine. I didn’t want a partner. I didn’t need the complications. I was a loner. I liked my house the way I liked it. I didn’t want to live at anyone’s beck and call, didn’t want to have to consider other people’s feelings.

There was a quiet knock at the door. David came in. “Luncheon is served, sir.”

“Thank you, David.” I nodded at him and he closed the door quietly behind him. Suddenly I realized ruefully that with staff and employees I already lived at the service of others. They relied on me, on my fairness and respect for them. I shrugged, and picked up the folder of information again to read in the car after lunch.

Maybe these things would sort themselves out.