A One Night Stand With the Billionaire (Taming The Bad Boy Billionaire 5)

Every muscle in my body went on lockdown, but I managed to rotate slowly to face him. Now, he was sitting more upright behind his desk, looking at me instead of focusing on his computer as he flashed me a devilish grin. “I’m looking fo

rward to getting to know you better.”

My heart skipped a beat, and my fist tightened suddenly around the door handle. Another inexplicable chill swept over me as I forced my lips up into a tight smile. “Yeah, me too.”

Without another word, I was gone, making my way back down the long hallway, past the decadent fountain, around the bustling conference room, and safely back into the elevator. I was tempted to pull the emergency brake again and stay in that safe space all day, but instead, I just let out a gasp when the doors closed—a gasp I realized I’d been holding in since the first moment he trailed his fingers across my skin.

My heart was pounding as if I’d just run a marathon, and no matter how hard I tried to calm myself, I couldn’t seem to slow my breathing. For the second time that day, I gave in and pulled that red lever to take advantage of a self-imposed timeout, just long enough to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do.

This is a good thing, isn’t it? The man stole my heart—and then some—the first night we met, and now I’m getting another chance with him. That’s a positive...right?

It dawned on me then that he still hadn’t acknowledged what had already transpired between us. On the contrary, he was denying it with silence. By his own admission, the only reason he was willing to be lenient with me was because he found me attractive.

But that’s a good thing, too, isn’t it? After all, you think he’s hot as well. Don’t deny it, Della. You certainly didn’t deny him anything the other night.

The problem was, though, that he didn’t seem like the same man I’d frolicked around with on that fur blanket. It was completely impossible for him to be anyone else, and none of it made any sense, but there was something different, something I couldn’t quite explain. It was as if he was some sort of imposter, as if I’d somehow stumbled upon one of those corny old sci-fi moves. Invasion of the Hot Body Snatchers? Not only was he different, but I also felt different around him. His touches that seemed warm at first were now icy, and that made no sense to me at all.

Either way, I knew I was lucky to still have my job, and I didn’t want to put that at risk again. If he will let me continue working here, that’s great, I reasoned, and if he wants to explore the possibility of more, I guess that’s great too. Before he made any acquisitions of me, though, I had to be sure he really was the man I had met before, and I already knew precisely how I’d do that.

Chapter 15

The next morning started with a bang, but it wasn’t exactly the fun type.

“I need the key to the CEO’s office!”

My feet skidded to a stop inside Madison’s office, and the beaming, coffee-enhanced smile automatically faded from my face when I realized that not one but three people were looking up at me. Madison was there, of course, but she was accompanied by the two men who were cramped closely with us in the conference room the day before, the men we’d tried to hide behind. They twisted around slowly to stare at me, but neither said anything.

Madison pursed her lips to hide a bemused smile. “Tom, Caleb, meet Della Jones. She’ll be our fourth.”

Finally, two hands extended politely my way as they got to their feet in perfect unison, wearing incredulous smiles.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Tom said, with a twinkle in his eyes.

I shook in horror and released him.

“This should be fun,” Caleb said, stepping up to the plate. He, too, looked as if he was fighting back a smile as he settled back in his chair. “Don’t worry though. At some point, we’ve all wanted to break into Ben’s office. It’s a rite of passage here at Cross.”

“Not Ben’s anymore,” Tom corrected quietly, immersing himself in a report on the price of sugar mills in Haiti. “It’s Robert’s now.”

Caleb flashed him a quick glance, then picked up his own stack of papers, with a flicker of resentment marring his face. “Yeah? Well, if these numbers keep dropping, we’ll see how long that lasts.”

I tilted my head curiously to the side like that dog in the old phonograph ads, trying to figure out just what I was hearing. I knew the founder and president of the company had suffered a heart attack a few months back, and I’d heard rumors of discontentment among the ranks. It was nothing substantial, of course, and much of it could be dismissed as exaggeration or that characteristic internet overreaction, just whispers in the dark, but it was obvious that the company was in a bit of trouble.

Benjamin Cross, the original patriarch of the entire operation, was a corporate genius the likes of which the world had never seen, with a once-in-a-generation mind that he put to use to develop an empire. That empire dictated global tides for the better part of five decades, and no country was too small to slip through Cross’s fingers, no market too obscure to be free from his influence. A creator, innovator, and international humanitarian, Benjamin Cross was the kind of man everyone wanted to work for.

His first coronary episode slowed him down, but the second forced him to give up his chair. Fortunately, the upper echelons of the company were structured in such a way that Ben’s forced step-back didn’t create a typical power vacuum. The position of CEO simply went to his son temporarily, until he was ready to take back the crown himself. Everyone was sure that would only take a few weeks, a few months at best. Ben was not one to lie around, and his doctors promised that he would be back on his feet in less than a year. Everything was supposed to go back to the way it was supposed to be, but two years later, Benjamin had yet to leave his house.

It was a sad turn of events, especially for those who knew him, but at least on a business level, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Robert might have lacked his father’s inherent virtuosity when it came to steering the ship, but he was more than capable of keeping things at an even keel. Due to his diligence, Cross Enterprises continued to operate much the same way it always had. Recently, though, the waters had grown very stormy, and as hard as Robert tried to navigate, things were beginning to slip.

“I heard the old man’s getting too fragile to take his calls,” Caleb muttered under his breath as he pulled a chair out for me.

I sat down immediately and honed in on the gossipy spirit, trying to soak in every bit of information I could.

“Back when Robert first took over, he ran everything past his dad—every merger and acquisition, every single option to buy or sell. Now that ol’ Ben’s health is really starting to decline, the lad has to make those calls himself. He’s choking, big time.”

Choking? Really? Things look fine on the surface. Are they really that bad?

“Nonsense,” Tom spat quickly when he saw the look on my face. “Pay no mind to that. It’s just idle speculation. The sooner you learn to ignore Caleb, the better. The rest of us certainly do.”