Rock Star Billionaire

“But I will be out of college in a little over a year.” My voice was shaky. “And I will have an excellent job, I assure you, and my situation will change completely.”

“When that happens you can reapply for the loan.” He actually looked a little apologetic.

“I need to pay for my mother’s heart surgery.” I don’t know why I said it. Studying to be a loan officer, I knew that there was nothing Wilson could do personally. His reasoning was completely sound.

“I’m really sorry to hear that, and I wish the bank could help you out, but right now there is nothing we can do.”

“I understand.” I did. That didn’t stop me from wanting to run into the bathroom and bawl my eyes out. “Thank you.”

My face was swollen and covered in tears by the time I made it back to the teller’s booth.

CHAPTER 4

ZAYDEN

She was crying. Crying women made me uncomfortable. My mother knew this so well that I didn’t remember the last time I saw her without tears in her eyes. At first it was about my dad’s death, so I used to try and make her feel better, but slowly it became directed towards my dad, in bitterness. At first I didn’t understand why she would speak of her dead husband as though he were some sort of a monster, but snide comments here and there about how I was handling my billions and it all started adding up. She couldn’t believe that he hadn’t left a single penny in her name, which made no sense to me at first either, but eventually the truth came out: she had been cheating on him for years. With his lawyer. Who also happened to be one of his best friends. He tolerated it while he was alive because he loved her or some nonsense of that sort, but apparently this “love” thing was not that big of a deal because he found a way to get back at her from the grave. It made me hate her for a little bit, which added to the endless crying, but she was still my mother and I found a way to tolerate her. I bought her a giant house in California, thousands of miles away from me.

Why was Aria Roberts crying? I debated whether to go over to her and what the implications of that would be. There was no question about the fact that I wanted her body, but approaching her at an emotional time might suggest I wanted more. That I cared about how she was feeling. Well, maybe that’s exactly what she wanted; maybe believing exactly that would be what broke her restraint. I got a strange feeling in my gut that I didn’t understand. I was the master of manipulation. I messed with women’s emotions all the time. The hint of moral fiber had to be because she was crying.

I shook my head and trotted over to the booth. She was the only person there. Her mascara had slightly run down her smooth, blushing olive cheeks, which made her look surprisingly sexy.

She seemed to be so phased out that when she noticed I was standing in front of her, she jumped. Quickly wiping her face with her palms, she said in a squeaky voice, “Good morning, Mr. Sinclair!”

“Liar,” I teased. “It doesn’t seem to be that good of a morning for you.”

“Oh, yeah, I am sorry about this. I’ll cut it out before a customer walks in, I promise.”

“Well, obviously, that’s what I came over here to say.” I was smiling. “It’s okay, Aria.”

That made her burst into a whole new bout of tears. I guess it wasn’t okay, whatever it was. Completely unsure of what to do, I told her, “Take a paid hour off. Walk around if you need to, take a break.”

“I can’t,” she said between sniffs. “Mrs. Brian won’t be here until noon and Kevin is sick. I’m the only teller on duty right now.”

“That’s okay, just take some time. I’ll man the booth,” I heard myself say.

She looked perplexed, but that made the crying slow down significantly. “What? You can do that?”

“The thing about owning the company, Aria, is that I can do whatever I damn well please.”

I must have come across strong because her expression turned into that of slight fear. I tentatively put a hand on her shoulder, expecting to feel her muscles relax; instead, I felt them tense.

“It’s okay. Just go for a little bit. It’s not a request.”

“Alright, alright,” she said, starting to sniff again. “I’ll just take a walk around the block and be back soon.” She pointed towards her face. “No more of this after that. I promise.”

The minute she walked out, I felt myself get angry. What the fuck was I doing? Teller in my own bank? To get into a girl’s pants. She better be worth it when I finally made it in there. I was working way too hard for this otherwise.

I even wanted to punch the young guy who had just materialized in front of me.

“I need to deposit a check,” he said.

I pointed towards the front exit. “There’s the ATM Machine. They take checks these days. And by these days, I mean the past ten years.”

He looked terrified and strutted out. I was lucky I was the CEO of the company and never had to work customer service.

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When Aria returned a half-hour later, her make-up was freshly painted on, with no trace of the crying fiasco on her face.