Resisting the Billionaire Collection (24 page)

Resisting the Billionaire Volume
II

Prologue

"MJ, if you don't shut up, I'm leaving right
now. Do you hear me?" Alison was getting very tired of her best
friend’s line of questioning.

“
Okay, okay, just let me
settle down here a little." MJ fanned herself with a magazine, took
a drink of water, and then settled in for more
cross-examination.

"So tell me then. What exactly did you say
to him?"

"Well, I was left kind of speechless. I
mean, my God he's hot as hell--"

"And richer than God."

"Yeah, whatever--"

"Whatever? The guy is loaded. He's a
millionaire, right? Certified by the Certified Millionaire Online
Dating Agency or whatever it's called."

"Does that have to be the most important
thing?"

Alison couldn’t have cared less about the
guy’s money, in fact, she was pretty sure he was broke, but MJ was
fixated on that one idea.

"Why else were you there? Why would you even
sign up with a millionaire dating agency if you didn’t care about
how much money he has? Every guy on that site should have minimum
one million dollars in cash, in the bank and not a cent less or
they are guilty of fraud. So don't shortchange me here, Ally. Don’t
skimp on the details. Is the guy a millionaire or isn't he?"

MJ knew something was up.

"He kissed me."

"You let him kiss you?"

"He just did it; the perfect kiss. He
reached over to me, held my head gently in his hands and then
kissed me without another word. It was like he was psychic. Just
the right moment, I swear to you, he was amazing."

"You let him kiss you."

"Of course I did."

"Without clarifying his financial
situation."

"We took a taxi home."

"Where was his limo? The guy arrived in a
limo; did he lose it along the way? A taxi, goddamn it? He took you
home in my best outfit in a stinking yellow cab with some motor
mouth New York cabbie ogling your cleavage?"

"Taxi, limo, come on. What's the difference?
We went back to my place."

"Your place? Why your place? Weren’t you
good enough for his swanky pad? Or is it he’s hiding something?" MJ
was positively angry now. "Let me check this guy out, Alison. I
don’t want to be responsible for you getting involved with some
weirdo imposter."

Alison took a deep breath and tried to stay
calm. Her friend had never struck her as the gold-digging type and
now all of a sudden she was out of control.

How the hell did I get
into this mess to begin with?
She asked
herself.
I never even wanted to date a
stupid millionaire.

One week earlier, her life had been simple
-- uncomplicated. Telling crazy lies to her best friend would have
been unthinkable. Openly lusting together over a guy's bank account
even more absurd…

Chapter One

One Week Earlier

Alison Myers, 28 year-old barista at the Midtown
Manhattan branch of the Tête-á-Tête gourmet coffee house franchise,
was struggling to get through the morning and through her life. She
pushed back her long blonde hair and tried to focus. The customer
in front of her was angry. They were all angry today. It was a
Monday from hell. Heavy rain poured down outside onto a gray New
York City and the grumpy morning office crowd was being even more
obnoxious than usual. New Yorkers like things fast and they don't
like mistakes.

It was a far cry from the small Midwestern
town Alison had been raised in, pouring coffee in her uncle’s
little rest stop café. People had all been so nice there. Slow, but
nice. Now this guy was shouting at her and there was a long line of
irate customers behind him.

Alison felt like throwing her barista’s
apron on the ground, hightailing it out of the shop as far away as
she could get.

"I'm sorry sir, could you repeat that?"

"How many goddamn times do I have to repeat
it?"

Jeez, you only asked me
once.
She thought.

"Where's the goddamn manager?" He
screamed.

Sebastian Drummond stood behind the pretty
blonde and struggled to fight his instincts to go and over and
throw the man out into the street. He had to remember that he was
no longer Sebastian Drummond the billionaire, but Daniel Johnson,
the brand new, entry level, empty the trash and mop the floor guy
at the Tête-á-Tête café. 

There was a reason he had to conceal his
identity.

Don't screw it up this
time, Sebastian.
He thought.

"Sir, if you'll just repeat the order,” he
said, mastering his anger, "I'll be happy to take care of it for
you." If it was anything he had a talent for, it was controlling
and manipulating people.

Not that he was exactly proud of
it. 

"I don’t want to repeat the order. If I
wanted to repeat orders, I would have joined the Marines. I asked
to see a manager and I'm not leaving this goddamn counter," he
glared behind him at the long line of exasperated customers, "until
I see someone in charge."

"I'm the manager here." Sebastian said with
absolute confidence. Alison was right in front of him and already
he could feel her, wanting to reach out to her and hold her. It was
his first day on the job -- his first hour -- and he was supposed
to stay out back, emptying trash, cleaning the floor, and lifting
boxes, but he didn't care. He could have bought the café on a whim
if he wanted to, or even the entire chain if he felt like
it. 

Alison heard the deep, commanding,
masculine voice behind her. She didn’t recognize it but she
could see that the angry customer was already taking things down a
notch.

"I’m the manager." Sebastian repeated
firmly.

"Oh," the man said, "is that right?"

"That's right, sir. My name is Daniel
Johnson and I'm the supervisor here today. I'll be happy to help
with your complaint."

Alison stepped aside. There had been no talk
of a new manager and certainly nothing about a drop-dead gorgeous
Greek god come-to-earth one. All of a sudden, the morning
didn't seem so bleak. Even under his Tête-á-Tête Coffee Shop
uniform, his tall, muscular frame left no doubt as to his rippling
masculinity. He was definitely all man, whoever he was, and sexiest
of all was his manner. This was a guy who knew exactly who he was
and had absolute self-confidence.

Sebastian didn't even know her name but as
soon as he saw her face, it came to him in a flash: she was the
one. He had to know her. He had to have her.

She would be his and his alone forever, but
she had to take him for who he was; no billionaire bullshit. She
would want him as Daniel Johnson, minimum wage wannabe barista or
she wouldn’t want him at all.

He read her nametag and a surge of
apprehension went through him. Even though he towered above her and
was accustomed to women falling at his feet, still he couldn’t
shake the thought.

What if she doesn't like
me?
 

Normally, he didn’t care.

"This
girl, 
Alison,
" the customer squinted at her name tag, "just can't seem to
get my order straight."

"Well I'm very sorry about that, sir. Can I
take your order for you? It's on the house of course."

"Huh. Well, I guess that would be okay." He
huffed. "But what about her?" He said. "Are you going to do
something about her?"

"Of course sir," Sebastian said in his soft,
sexy commanding tone, "I'll attend to Alison myself and make
absolutely sure that the proper disciplinary procedures are adhered
to. And you can have my number if you would like to follow up on
that." He reached into his shirt pocket but the little man had
calmed down by now and waved it away.

Stupid little
asshole.
He thought.
You don't know how lucky you are.

He gave Alison a wink and a complicit smile
meant just for her to let her know that it was all hot air and that
she should forget about the whole thing.

Wow.
She thought.
Who the hell is this
guy?

The line didn't get any shorter for an hour
and the New Yorkers didn’t get any friendlier, but Alison was
as light as a feather in her work. She had forgotten she could even
feel that way. It had been a long time since there had been anybody
like that on their team. In fact, it was the first time. This guy
wasn’t just cute, he was a knock out hunk with moviestar looks and
that super-confident understated charm to boot. She smiled back at
him.

God, you're
beautiful.
He thought.
I can't wait to get you out of this place to somewhere you
deserve to be. First things first though. First things
first.
 

He poured coffee for the customer and went
back into the rear of the shop as quickly as he could. After all,
he could still get fired and then how would he get to spend time
with this girl he needed to be next to? Even though he had been
living incognito for nearly a full year, he was still not quite
used to holding off on his desires. He had been rich from birth and
superrich since adolescence, so he always got what he wanted and
when he wanted. But this would have to be different, just like with
Melanie. He would have to work for this girl, literally sweat, but
it would be worth it finally, when he would take her to his bed and
be with her as only a devoted lover can. She would scream his name
-- his real name -- like no woman ever before her and she would
mean it.

Guaranteed.

The next hour was a torture as he learned
the mundane routine of the shop and being talked down to by MJ, his
new manager. She was nice enough but kind of crusty and a bit of a
motormouth, but obviously good at her job. She even had a great
rack and a year ago, he wouldn't have thought twice about taking
her in the sack. In fact, if he had met her a year ago, he probably
would have already boned her in the lockerroom before they even
knew each other's names. 

But not anymore. This was the new Sebastian
Drummond. Looking for love, not lust -- not just lust
anyway. 

Alison watched him go. Something didn’t add
up but she was too tired, dazed, and busy to figure it out. In the
meantime, all she wanted to do was see him again. It felt like some
stupid high school crush, but boy did it make a change from the
routine. She was no longer some silly little single girl from the
boonies with her first job in New York City. She was a grown-up
now, with a steady boyfriend, and plans to work hard as hell to
save her pennies to go to college. Workplace flirtations really
weren’t her thing. God knows she didn’t need the distraction. The
staff at Tête-á-Tête was almost exclusively female and that suited
her perfectly.

But boy, this new guy was something
else. 

Her regular manager and best friend Mary
Jane came on duty and she couldn't help but ask about him.

"Hey," she whispered as she sprinkled
chocolate onto a cappuccino, "why didn't you tell me that sexy new
guy Daniel had started? At last we have some eye candy around here
for the ladies." She joked.

"Daniel!" She snorted. "How do you even know
about him? Did you meet him out back?"

"No, right here out front. He helped me with
some little asshole angry pants who was giving me a hard time."

"Did he now?" Her friend and manager said.
"Well we'll have to see about that."

"What do you mean?"

"He shouldn't even be out here. He's in
non-customer contact training all day. No way is he ready for
real customers yet."

Alison did a double-take.

Not ready for customers? That meant…

She knew how dedicated her friend was to the
job. If the new guy had impersonated a manager, then MJ would go
crazy. As much as she loved her friend, the guy had done her a
favor. She wouldn’t tell on him, not even to MJ. It wouldn’t be
fair.

"Well, he did an awesome job. Definitely
manager material. That guy just took one look at him and turned
into a purring kitty cat right away."

"Yeah, well don't get too excited. The only
things he'll be managing for a long time will be a mop and bucket.
It’ll be weeks before we even try him out on the floor with paying
customers."

"You're kidding me, right?" Alison was
incredulous. "This damn coffee chain with its pretensions of being
corporate. They couldn't spot talent if it came up and slapped them
in the chops."

Her friend gave her a long look and
sighed.

"Oh Alison, come on. Don't start with this
again. I absolutely forbid you to go near this guy."

Alison's jaw dropped.

"What are you talking about?" 

"No more minimum wage losers, okay?"

"Mary Jane, how can you even say something
like that?"

MJ pulled her aside and ordered another
barista to cover for them.

"Come on honey, we're taking a break. I need
to have a serious talk with you. Haven't you learned your lesson by
now?"

Alison was incensed. She loved her friend
dearly, in fact, since she had lost her parents and had no siblings
Mary Jane was the closest thing to family she had anymore. She
respected her friend's opinion but sometimes she could be too
controlling.

"How can you be so materialistic, MJ?
And besides, I'm already dating someone. I'm just saying that this
new guy is a hottie, that's all. There's no need to get all worried
and protective about it."

"Dating? Surely, you’re not referring to
that uber-loser Brad. The waste of space with the pretty face? The
cute little ass you just have to pass? The good-looking schmuck you
don't need to fu--"

"Stop it, MJ. He's a good guy."