An Heir At Any Price: The Billionaire's Obsession - Contemporary Romance (10 page)

Aiden laughed and said, “I didn’t say
we had everything in common. I haven’t always been what you call a
“millionaire mogul” you know.” He had laughed, but he almost
sounded offended, as if that was all I thought of him.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to offend
you. Of course I know there’s a lot more to you than
that.”

He smiled again and said, “You didn’t
offend me, Holly. I do get tired of the labels that we attach to
people. Now, I’m the millionaire mogul and people bow at my feet.
When I was a teenager I had different labels. I was the “bookworm,”
I was “the nerd.” It’s amazing how money can change people’s
perceptions of you, and themselves.”

I was staring at him, gaping I
suppose. Finally he said, “What?”

“I’m sorry; I just can’t picture you
as a nerd. Being smart is usually one of the qualities so yes, I
see that…but you’re much too attractive to be a nerd.”

He laughed and I think I blushed. I’m
not sure what I’d meant to say, but it wasn’t that. “Well, thank
you for that. Sometimes I still feel him in there, that nerdy kid
who everyone picked on and made fun of trying to get out. What
label did you have in high school, Holly?”

“I don’t think I had one,” I lied. I
was one of the outcasts, one of the groups of kids whose home life
was so miserable that they were practically invisible anywhere else
they went, because that was easier than making friends and then
telling them they can’t come to your house, or no, your mother
couldn’t drive them home from school.

I could feel Aiden scrutinizing me,
but he let it go. He turned to another subject, “Tell me why a
beautiful woman like you is still single, and why such an obviously
intelligent woman is working at a dead end job.”

My stomach lurched a little. I didn’t
want to talk about all of that with him. What difference would it
make in the long run? “I just haven’t found the right man yet,” I
said. “And I was actually saving for college,” I lied. “I’m going
to get there soon. Maybe that’s what I’ll do with the money that
you’re paying me.”

He reached out and touched my face
sending tiny little chills running down my arms. Then he said, “I
think there’s a great deal about you that I have yet to discover.”
I wondered if that was just an abstract statement, or if that meant
he really wanted to know me. He answered that question with his
next one, “What was it your father was tinkering on in the garage
when he listened to his oldies?”

I had to smile at the thought of my
dad. He loved to work on things. By trade he was a sanitation
engineer, a garbage man for the city. He loved his job, and I
always thought it was because he got to find ‘treasures’ that he
would later be able to bring home and fix up. “Everything,” I told
Aiden. “He would find things that people had thrown out and bring
them home and then when he had time, he would restore them, or make
completely new things out of them. He was good too. Much of what
was in our house were things that he made or as he used to put it,
‘brought back to life.’”

Aiden was smiling, “Did you lose him
long ago?” he asked.

“When I was fourteen. It was the
hardest thing I ever had to do, stand and watch them put the man I
loved so dearly into the ground.”

“I know what you mean,” Aiden told
her. “My parents were killed in a car accident when I was twelve.
It was earth-shattering. I was lost for most of my teen years, just
wondering where I belonged.”

“Oh Aiden, I’m sorry to hear that. Did
you have other relatives who took you in?”

“I did, but none of them could keep me
for long for one reason or another. My aunt took me in first, but
she already had four children and when she found out she was
expecting her fifth, she sent me to live with my grandparents. They
were good to me, but they’d lived in another state much of my life
and we didn’t really know each other. They were a lot older too. It
was like living with strangers. When my grandfather passed and
Grandmother had to go into a nursing home I was sixteen. I
emancipated myself then and I’ve been on my own mostly since. I’m
sure all of that has to do with why I crave my own family so
badly.”

“I’m sure it does,” I said. “No
brothers or sisters?”

“No, I was an only child.”

“Me too. My parents lost one after me.
I think they were afraid to try again.”

We sat quietly again, listening to the
music. It was a comfortable silence, one that comes from being
content. I had my head leaned back into the sofa and I felt Aiden
reach over and touch my hair softly. I looked at him and he said
softly, “You’re so beautiful, Holly.”

I felt myself blush and thankfully
before I could spit out my silly, “Thank you,” he pulled me into
him and covered my mouth with a kiss. His tongue snaked in between
my lips and joined mine in a beautiful tango. We kissed for a long
time and even though I started to feel like I could hardly breathe,
I didn’t want it to end. When it did, he only pulled back slightly
and I could feel his breath on my face as he said, “Would you mind
if I join you in your bed again tonight?”

I smiled, I’m sure it was a giddy
smile because that’s how I felt. “Not at all,” I told him. He stood
up and reached out for my hand. I took his and followed him to my
new room. The curtains were wide open so that the twinkling of the
fairy lights across the city cast a soft glow over everything. We
didn’t bother closing them, we were on top of the world, and no one
would see us here.

Chapter Ten

~

I woke up alone again the next
morning. The night before had been magical. Aiden was a skilled and
tender lover, without a doubt the best that I’d ever had. Not that
I’d had that many, but enough to know that the way he concentrated
on my wants and needs and unselfishly brought me pleasure was not
the norm. I wondered if he left the moment that I had fallen
asleep. Was that to keep himself distanced? Was he trying to not
have feelings for me, or did he really not?

I stretched out in the
comfortable bed and told myself not to think about it now. There
would be plenty of time to figure that out while we work on
conception and then spend nine months awaiting the arrival
of
his
miracle. I
shuddered again at that thought and made myself change tracks. I
had to take my mother to rehab today and then meet the contractor
at her house and discuss with him what needed to be done
there.

I threw back the sheet and climbed out
of bed. I put on my robe and slippers and wandered through the big,
empty apartment to the kitchen. I found myself looking around as I
poured my coffee, but there was no note today. Yesterday’s was a
fluke, just to orient me to my first day. He wasn’t my husband, or
my boyfriend. I was his employee and he was under no obligation to
tell me where he was going, when he would be back, or to wish me a
good day.

I took my coffee out on the balcony
again and as I sat there and sipped it in the cool morning air I
reminded myself that Aiden wasn’t the only thing I needed to be
careful of not getting overly attached to. The lifestyle could be
addictive as well.

After finishing my coffee I showered
and dressed. I was just getting ready to leave the apartment when
my cell phone rang. It was Rose.

“Hey girl! What on earth is going on?
Joe said you quit.”

“Yeah, I went in to give him my two
week notice. He told me I could just go and you all would be fine.
I was going to go out and talk to you but it was the lunch rush and
you looked awfully busy. I’m sorry.”

“Why did you quit? Is it your mother?
Is she giving you a hard time again?”

“No…well yes, she was. I’m taking her
to a rehab facility out in Scarsdale today. Hopefully it will
stick. That wasn’t why I quit though, I have a new job.”

“Doing what?” Rose asked.

“I’m a personal assistant, of
sorts.”

“Wow! I didn’t even know you were
applying.”

“I wasn’t,” I told her. “Sometimes it
tracks you down and presents itself.”

I held my lips closed and said
something completely unintelligible. I really didn’t want to tell
her.

“I’m sorry, what did you
say?”

“I said, Aiden Scott,” I
repeated.

Rose actually gasped, “Are you kidding
me? The Aiden Scott? The one who has the giant hots for
you?”

I laughed, “He does not have the
“giant” hots for me,” I said, trying not to blush as I thought
about all of the things he did to me the past two
nights.

“Honey you’re either lying, delusional
or in denial. I always knew he had it bad for you. Now it’s just
confirmed. Is he paying you good?”

“Better than you can imagine,” I told
her. She went on again about how he “wants me” and then she let me
in on some of the gossip going on around the café. When I finally
got off the phone, it had been an hour conversation from start to
finish. I felt bad not telling my friends the whole story, but I
just didn’t think any of them were going to understand. Some days,
I wasn’t sure I understood myself.

I had to wait another hour when I got
to the hospital for them to get Mom and her things ready. We
finally headed out to Scarsdale around eleven-thirty. She
complained the entire way and I was trapped on the train with
her.

“Holly, I want to go home. I want to
be in my own house in my own bed…”

“We’ve already had this conversation,
Mother. If you leave this facility before you’re deemed ready to go
by the staff, that’s it for us, do you understand me? If this is
how you choose to live your life, I can’t stop you. It is not how I
choose to live mine, and I can make the choice to not live it that
way.”

My mother didn’t have anything to say
to all of that, but she didn’t refuse again, but even if she did,
she’d have to wait now and get on the train back to midtown when we
got to Scarsdale.

We got to the train station and she
still hadn’t said a word, so we got a cab to the rehab facility and
she sat silently on that ride too. She thought she was punishing
me, but I definitely preferred it to the incessant whining. She
refused to speak to the admissions worker as well, so I answered
all of the questions. She did sign the paperwork which I was
thankful for. When I got ready to leave I said, “I’m sorry that
you’re angry with me, but I’m only doing this because I love
you.”
She wouldn’t even look at me. I kissed her cold cheek and told her
to call me if she needed anything. She stared straight ahead with
no response. I left with tears in my eyes and allowed myself to cry
all the way home. Then once I got there, I told myself that was it,
there was nothing left to cry over, she was on her way to being
well, and I was on my way to financial freedom, at last.

AIDEN

I got home from the office late the
second day that Holly was living with me to find multiple boxes of
Chinese food, enough to feed an entire family sitting on the dining
room table with a note that said:

“I hope you had a nice
day. I didn’t know what you liked so I ordered a variety. Sleep
well, Holly.”

I smiled, because it was sweet, but I
also had to grimace. Was I making a mistake with this naïve young
lady? She’s only been here two days and it already seems as if
she’s treating this as some kind of domestic partnership. Were my
intentions so incredibly selfish that I failed to consider the
emotional ramifications that this would have on her? I understood
clearly that this was a business deal, and she said that she did,
but did she really? A lot of women would be happy to do this for a
large sum of cash and walk away. Holly didn’t seem like that type
and ironically that was one of the reasons I picked her. I liked
that although she seemed to be struggling and I knew she was taking
care of her alcoholic mother, she didn’t seem overly attached to
the money or the luxury that she suddenly found herself surrounded
by. She still refused to let the driver run her around town and
instead took a cab everywhere she went. She cooked and she cleaned
up her mess. She made her own bed. To me, those were astounding
qualities in a woman who was suddenly and completely relieved of
the responsibility of doing any of that.

I can tell when we’re having sex that
to her it is more than just the act of conception. She looks at me
with real emotion in her eyes and sometimes my guilt runs so deep
that I can’t look back. The sex is phenomenal, the best that I’ve
ever had…and I’ve had more than a few. Afterwards, she always
snuggles into me, and damn it feels good but I wait for her to go
to sleep and then I go back to my own room. Spending all of our
nights together would add to her confusion. I don’t want to lead
her on, that’s why I’d put everything into the contract and made
sure that she understood all of it before we agreed to any of
this.