Billionaire Baby Daddy

The other side of the vast canopy bed was empty, with only ruffled sheets and a strewn pillow to indicate that anyone had actually been there. On the floor, where our clothes had ended up in a pile, only my clothes remained.

For a few panicked moments, I had extremely urgent doubts about the reality of the whole situation. I rubbed my eyes. Had the whole thing been a dream?

I stretched, and climbed out of bed. That’s when I saw, positioned neatly on the ornate antique bedside table, a note written in Asher's untidy scrawl.

My heart sank as I read it. Asher had also left a credit card for me to use and had organized a chauffeur for me. He'd instructed me to buy a plane ticket back: first class. He'd said that all of this would be covered by him.

There I sat on the edge of the bed, alone again. Just like the morning after the last time we’d been together. Why hadn't he simply woken me up to tell me in person about this? And, why hadn't he been specific about what this supposed “emergency” was? After all, he knew I cared about the company, as well, even if I was a new member to the team, rather than the CEO.

Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful he'd left me a car and the credit card, but the whole night, between bouts of lovemaking, he'd said how much he was looking forward to seeing Paris with me. How he couldn't wait to see the museums, the galleries, the cafés, and the Eiffel Tower with me.

And yet, he had just left without a word, like a phantom in the night. Without even telling me clearly what the “emergency” was.

I fell back onto the bed. Despite the lingering ecstasy of the previous evening, I was beginning to wonder if Asher was someone I could completely trust. While a part of me wanted to give in to him and give all of me over to him, another part of me was hearing warning bells and seeing red flags waving all around.

Maybe my reaction before was right, maybe I was just another conquest. Even though he'd done all these great things for me, he was a billionaire. This weekend, this hotel, the luxury car and chauffeur he'd organized, all of those would be far beyond the means of even a moderately rich man, but for such a spectacularly wealthy man as him, such expenses amounted to little more than chump change.

He’d probably treated his models and actresses to similar luxuries before booting them to the curb and moving on to his next prize. I inhaled deeply, trying to reason with myself. I knew there was more to Asher than just that.

He'd opened up to me about his dark and tragic family secrets. Surely that wasn't something he usually did with his Hollywood starlets. If he had, there would likely be more about him in the press. There’s no way he could keep those types of secrets out of the media after a break-up if anyone knew about them.

Damn him. My mind was really in a mess with so many conflicting thoughts bouncing around it. The only thing left to do was take a trip around the city in an effort to clear my head and distract myself from all the questions. I got up, ordered some breakfast, and showered while I was waiting.

Once it arrived, I ate quickly and then called the chauffeur. There were plenty of places I wanted to see, and nothing was going to stop me from seeing them. I grabbed my purse and headed out into the bright sunlight of the Paris morning. My first stop would by my original hotel, so that I could put on a fresh outfit. My second stop: all of Paris.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Asher

I managed to sleep well on the flight home, which was fortunate because I'd hardly had any chance to sleep at the hotel. Not that I was complaining—not in the least. I’d give up sleep for a night with Lilah any time, even if it meant being woken up at 4:00 and having to leave immediately.

One of the perks of having my own jet was having a bed on it as well. So, on the flight, I'd simply laid down and fallen asleep almost as soon as my head had hit the pillow. So I was refreshed and energized when we touched down, especially after a hearty, wholesome breakfast.

I called Alan Weiss, my head of security, and told him I'd arrived the moment I could use my phone. ALfred was waiting to pick me up in the Maserati, but when I got to the car, I took the wheel.

“I need to get to the building fast. So, I'm going to drive,” I informed him.

I raced through the streets, pushing the car hard, and scaring Alfred in the process, but I got to my building in record time. Alan was there waiting for me, a stern expression on his face, but that was nothing unusual. He always had a rather serious nature. He did seem to be in a better mood than when I'd spoken to him on the phone in Paris, though.

“Would you like the good news first or the bad news, sir?”

I scratched at my chin. “Bad news.”

“Most of the computers are trashed. The intruder did his best to hack into your system and, when he couldn't, he simply destroyed the hard drives instead.”

“Wait, he couldn't get in?”

“That's the good news, sir. Your data is safe.”

I exhaled, a huge wave of relief washing over me. I knew I'd done the right thing by hiring the most expensive—and best—data encryption company in the country. It had turned out to be money well spent.

“Yeah, the perp was obviously an expert. According to the guys in tech, he hacked pretty deep into the system, but still couldn't get past the final security features protecting the highly sensitive data. So, I guess he just got pissed and decided to destroy the computers instead.”

“That doesn't matter, computers can be replaced, and we've got backup of all of our data. Was anything else stolen?”

“Nothing that we can tell, sir. It appears they were only after data.”

I nodded. “Any leads in the investigation?”