The Billionaire and the Assistant (The Billionaires 3)

Chapter 12

Eli

I couldn’t afford to fuck this up. I bought the stereotypical but universally accepted gift of a bunch of flowers and unannounced, I walked into the office. Alex jumped as I walked in, her hand flying across her mouth.

“You scared me.” She said, her hand dropping back to the desk. “You didn’t tell me you were coming back.”

Alex looked tired and too thin. Like she needed feeding up and a week’s sleep. I’d not physically seen her for nine weeks and all I wanted to do was minimize the space between us and take her into my arms. But I couldn’t. I needed to do this her way.

“So, I brought you these.” I handed her the flowers and she accepted them, looking at me warily. “And these.” I placed the annulment papers in front of her.

“They’re not signed, Eli.”

“No, not yet.” I cleared my throat. “Alex, I want to take you out tonight.” I held up a hand as she started to protest. “I know you think we rushed things. I agree, we did rush things. So let’s rewind. Let’s start dating. I’ll talk to you about things more this evening and I’ll bring the annulment papers with me. So what do you say to dinner tonight? And because this is a first date, I need to tell you now that I won’t be putting out.”

She laughed and I breathed a sigh of relief at seeing that light up her face. “Okay then, a date it is.”

We made arrangements and then I went into my office and we spent the rest of the afternoon with her catching me up on business and us pretending like we’d never been anything but boss and assistant.

She met me at the same restaurant where we had our first date at nine. My eyes flashed over her and I noted the pant suit she wore, so different to the silver slip dress she’d arrived in for our first date.

We placed our drink and food orders and sat back.

“So, things seem to be going better with Brianna?” She questioned.

“Yes.” I nodded and placed my glass back down on the table. “We’re never going to be a fully functioning parental unit. There’s been too much happen in the past. However the therapists we’ve seen have given us the tools to move forward and that’s what we’ve all agreed to do.” I smoothed down my pant leg before looking back at Alex. “I have to thank you, for giving me my daughter back. I had no idea of the damage I’d caused her growing up. No idea at all.”

“It’s good that you seem to have found a way forward. I trust Katrina and Roger’s wedding went well.”

I nodded. “Yes. Katrina is absolutely in love. So fortunate for her that he’s another billionaire though as I can’t see her changing her lifestyle any time soon.”

“So, you’re getting on better with her though?”

“Yes, we had some counselling sessions together about the breakdown of our marriage. I’ve worked through a lot of shit these past couple months, it’s not been easy.”

She nodded and took a drink of wine.

I took the annulment papers out of my jacket pocket. “So. These papers. I’ve signed them.”

/> Alex bit her lip, sadness flashing in her eyes.

“I agree we got married too early and that we should have it annulled. However,” I took out some more papers. “I took the liberty of booking the Bellagio again on what would have been our second anniversary. Let’s date and if we’re still together then I will propose on the 18 December this year and we’ll get married the year after. I want to show you that although I agree to spend time getting to know you, I’m going nowhere Miss Cross.”

She smiled. “It sounds like a plan.” She licked across her lip and I wanted to bite that lip between my teeth. Not having her in my bed was killing me. “But I have to raise the subject of children. Do you want them, Eli? Because if you do you have to be all in. I won’t have you repeating the mistakes you made with Brianna.”

“How many do you want?” I clarified.

“Ideally two. I was an only child and I don’t want that for my own children. I know they’d have Brianna as a sibling but she’s a lot older. So, I’d like two, maybe a year apart, as soon after our wedding as possible.”

“You sound fairly confident our wedding will go ahead.”

“I am. Aren’t you?”

“Absolutely. But I’m looking forward to getting to know you in the meantime, Alex. I’m going to get to know you real well.”

“So, Eli?” Alex said lightly.

“Yes?”