Read Claimed by the Billionaire: Lust #2 Online
Authors: Danielle Jamesen
Claimed by the Billionaire: Lust #2
Claimed by the Billionaire
#2
Lust
Danielle Jamesen
Copyright © 201
4
by Danielle Jamesen. All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, distributed or
transmitted in any form without the prior written consent of the author.
Disclaimer: This is a
work of fiction. Characters, names, places, incidents and events are either the
products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity
to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
1
I watched the rain
fall
through the window that was closest to
my desk. It splattered against the window, the clouds dark and angry. It was
day four of this endless rain and it made me tired. It made Greg cranky too, I
realized, having dealt with one of his temper tantrums this morning about going
to school.
Mr. Gable had been in
his office all day, as usual. It had been a full two weeks since our almost
kiss in his office and me finding out his “date” had really been him just
meeting about his divorce. Things had been strictly professional since then
although he was a nightly fixture in all my fantasies. In fact, what I had for
him before — a crush, a flame, whatever word you wanted to use — had seemingly
grown tenfold since he distanced himself from me.
Gone was his invites to
lunch or offers to do a meeting on Monday morning. He was clearly avoiding me.
If I hadn’t known he had been meeting about his divorce two weeks ago, I would
have thought he despised me.
But I knew better and
being alone had made me abnormally confident. (Most likely due to the fact that
I didn’t actually have to speak to him or interact with him in any manner that
would test this new found confidence.) Mr. Gable had a meeting in ten minutes
with some investors but I had everything already prepared in the meeting room
that was down the hallway at my right. I yawned, which I quickly stifled as the
door behind me opened.
“Serena,” Mr. Gable
said and I turned around to look at him, “Can you sit in the meeting
today? I’ll need someone to take down notes and clear the calendar.”
“Of course.” I said,
nodding.
He looked extra good
today, I thought to myself. His hair was slicked back which was the only thing
I didn’t care for. I liked it better when he had his hair messy and tousled,
like the day of my interview. But other than that, Mr. Gable wore a perfectly
tailored suit with a tie that looked like something I could have afforded back
before I became poor. He carried himself with such an easy confidence that
usually would have been off putting, but in his way was more entrancing than
anything else.
He headed off towards
the meeting room, “Show him in when he gets here.”
“Yes, sir.” I said
after him but he didn’t turn back around.
It was ten minutes
later on the dot when the man showed up, Mr. Stevens, from some investor
company that wanted to meet with Mr. Gable directly. I have to admit it that I
hadn’t paid much attention when I set up the meeting. I just didn’t find it
interesting and I was discovering that I had a talent for catching the most
important details with the smallest amount of effort.
I led Mr. Stevens to
the meeting room, with a large mahogany table, a flat screen TV over it and a
mini bar off to the side, like something from the 1950s. Mr. Gable had his
tablet in front of him, as well as one phone off to one side (his business
phone, he told me) and another one he was slipping in his pocket (his personal
phone, wonder what he was doing on that one?).
I sat down next to Mr.
Gable, who slid the tablet to me. I brought up his calendar and on it as well
as a section for notes and got ready.
Mr. Gable cleared his
throat and leaned over to me as Mr. Stevens sat down, “Mrs. Warden?”
“Yeah?” I replied,
flicking my gaze up to him.
“Would you like to see
if Mr. Stevens would like a drink?”
Oops. I stood up
quickly, almost dropping the tablet, asking Mr. Stevens if he’d like a drink.
He said no and smiled kindly at me, like I was the daft girls they hired back
when he was staring out, which, judging by his age, was roughly eighty years
ago. The meeting began and I began to tune out. Very carefully tune out. I made
the applicable notes and kept track of what I could but most of what the two of
them were discussing went deftly over my head.
“…And we were wondering
if you and your assistant could come to our convention in Las Vegas next week…”
Mr. Stevens was saying when I tuned back in.
I almost blurted out
“What?” but at the last second remembered to be quiet. I glanced over at Mr.
Gable.
“That is short notice.”
Was all he said.
I hadn’t been to Vegas
in about eleven years when my husband and I had gone for a trip right before
Greg had been born. We hadn’t even gotten married yet, but I had already known
I was pregnant, therefore left out of all the fun stuff to do in Vegas. I hadn’t
had a vacation since my honeymoon. Any trips I had taken was purely for
business, which meant I had been alone in strange places while my husband had
attended business.
“I know, Mr. Gable, but
if you were to speak at our convention, I feel as though we could come to terms
on this agreement you want more easily.”
My eyes darted back to
him hopefully, “So, in short, you want me to speak at your convention free of
charge for you to agree to what I want in order for our partnership to grow?”
Mr. Stevens paused,
playing with his tie, and then spoke, “Yes, that is the short version of it.”
“I have no time.” Mr.
Gable said shortly.
At this, Mr. Stevens
laughed, “Oh, Mr. Gable, we all know you could make the time if you truly
wanted to. Are you really going to be so stubborn over this? And deny your
lovely assistant a trip to Las Vegas?”
Mr. Gable’s eyes darted
to me at this and I tried to look as lovely as I could, ignoring the tingles I
got whenever he looked at me.
He sighed, “Fine.” He
replied.
“Wonderful. I’ll have
my assistant send the details to yours.” Mr. Stevens said, standing up.
They both shook hands
and he saw himself out, leaving me alone with Mr. Gable. I tried to keep the
smile off my face. Las Vegas! I wonder how much it had changed since I had last
been there. And to be frank, it would be a trip alone with him…My eyes darted
over and then darted back right away, hoping he hadn’t noticed.
“Get in touch with Mr.
Steven’s assistant, please,” He said, sighing, “They should tell you what hotel
needs to be booked and when our flights are.”
“Yes, sir.” I replied,
heading for the door.
“Will you be able to
find someone to take care of Greg?”
The personal question
made me stop and look at him, “Yes, I’m sure my parents would like to see him.
They haven’t gotten to spend much time with him as of late…with everything
going on.”
“Okay. Have you
been to Vegas before?”
“A long time ago, when
I was pregnant with Greg.”
He raised one eyebrow,
“Ah, so you’re in for a treat.”
I tried not to make my
face flush, “Isn’t it a business trip?”
“Maybe.” He smiled and
it sent shivers through me.
I walked away with a
smile on my face.
Cathy took a sip of her
coffee as Greg bounded off to watch TV, “So, a business trip to Las Vegas, huh?
Fancy!”
I shook my head, “I
doubt it.”
“Greg okay staying with
your parents?”
“Yeah, he was actually
pretty excited.”
Cathy glanced over at
Greg who was sitting in front of the TV, trying to find his favorite cartoon,
“It’ll be good for him.”
“I think so too.”
Cathy looked back at
me, “It’ll be good for you too.”
“How?” I said, pouring
myself a cup of coffee, “It’s not like it’s a vacation.”
“Yeah, but,” She
lowered her voice as though we were kids again, about to share a secret, “I’ve
heard how you talk about him.”
My heart thumped, “Talk
about who? My boss?”
“Yeah, your boss,
silly.”
I started busying
myself with cleaning up the kitchen, “I don’t know what you mean.”
Cathy got up and walked
around the counter, slinking up to me like a cat who had caught it’s prey, “Come
on, Serena. You’re into Bradley, aren’t you?”
“I have no interest in
Mr. Gable.” I said stiffly.
“It’s so obvious
though. Why even call him Mr. Gable; I bet you don’t in private.”
“I do, actually,” I
said, annoyed, “Can you drop this? It’s ridiculous.”
Cathy held her hands up
as though she was surrendering, “Okay, okay.”
It was then my phone
went off. It was Mr. Gable…Bradley, I thought, tasting his first name in my
mind. Cathy didn’t notice it was him, looking at her own phone. I snatched it
up and walked out of the kitchen to the hallway.
“Hello?” I said.
“Serena, sorry to
bother you so late.” He said, his voice deep.
I looked at the clock
in the hallway; it was nearing eight, “Not a problem. What’s up?”
He paused on the other
line, as though my casual tone was silly, and then spoke, “I just finished
going through all your confirmation e-mails.”
“Everything okay?” Now
I was worried I had messed up somehow.
“Everything is good.
Thank you for scheduling all of that.”
“You’re welcome.” I
said, not sure at why he was calling if I hadn’t messed up something.
He must have picked up
on my tone because he spoke quickly, “Would you like to have dinner with me
tonight to go over everything?”
I blinked. Dinner to go
everything? Didn’t he just say everything was okay? Was he asking me out?
“I can’t,” I replied,
“I’m watching Greg tonight and I just can’t leave him by himself. He’s only
ten.” I tried to make my tone light to let him know I did want to get dinner
with him, but not at the expense of my son.
He seemed slightly
abashed on the other line when he said, “Of course, of course.” And quickly
ended the call, telling me good-night.
I looked down at the
phone and then glanced in the kitchen. Cathy was talking to her own husband
now. I gripped my phone tightly. What was I getting myself into?
***
The flight wasn’t
nearly as long as ones I had been on when I had previously had money. But it
felt even longer, mostly because of the close proximity I had to Bradley. Any
time our knees or hands accidently touched, it felt as though an earthquake
went off in me. I was hyper aware of his presence and over the flight, it drove
me crazy. I had a vivid fantasy about us going to the bathroom up front and his
hands all over me. I loved his hands. They were large but strong looking and
the thought of them all over me made me shiver. I wanted him so badly. I ended
up thinking about him lifting me up on the small counter in the bathroom,
sliding up my skirt and going in me. I thought about him gripping my thighs,
whispering in my ear, thrusting in me, pulling my hair…
By the time we landed
and we pulled up to the Encore at the Wynn, I felt flustered. I barely
remembered our conversation in the limo. All I could think was that we were
finally here and we were alone for the entire week…
As we walked into the
lobby, I fell in love. It was a dark red, with windows that opened out
overlooking a garden, with the pool nearby. The floors looked like marble and
as we headed towards the lobby, I could see the casino — more red with purple
hues. This place was expensive and it showed. The people in the casino wore
high end clothes, even though they were lounging around. For a second, I felt
out of season, until a couple wearing tacky tourist shirts walked by.
Bradley was talking to
the lady behind the counter, checking in. I was still looking around, eying the
lobby bar, when he called me over.
“There’s been a mistake
with the room.” He said to me quietly.
The lady was typing
away on the computer and either didn’t hear us, or was well practiced in
appearing as though she was not listening, “What do you mean?”
“They only booked one
room.”
“Can they fix it? You
saw I clearly booked two.” My voice raised an octave higher, slightly panicked.
“I showed them the
confirmation e-mail. But they’re all out. They’re going to upgrade us.”
I fiddled with my
thumbs, looking back at the bar, suddenly craving a drink. Whatever I felt
about Bradley aside, I still wanted to do well at this job. Messing up my first
assignment, even if they said it wasn’t my fault, made me feel like a fool. I
was still blaming myself when he told me the room was ready. He arranged for
the bell hop to take the rest of our luggage to the room and we headed to our
room. The elevators were behind the lobby bar. We rode up in silence, crammed
between two other couples. When we got off on floor fifty-three, it was just us
in the hallway. The hallway curved slightly, I realized, making it appear as
though you weren’t in an endless hallway that just went straight. We stopped in
front of our room and he slid the lock in the key. It let out a quiet beep and
we walked in.
The room was beautiful.
They upgraded us to one of their suites. The room looked almost circular, with
cream colors, mirrors and gorgeous lighting. A circular mirror was above the
living room, with a full kitchen, and a wet bar. I walked through the suite
slowly, hoping against hope that it had more than one bedroom. But after
staring at the luxurious bathroom and walking back to the bedroom, I knew it
only had one.
“I’ll sleep on the
couch.” Bradley said, putting down his laptop case.
I turned around, “No,
you can’t, sir. This is my mistake.”
“No, it’s not Serena.
The hotel messed up. That’s why we got this suite.”
“I can’t let you sleep
on the couch.”
Bradley walked out of
the room, waving his hand, “Its fine. Come look at the view. The sun is
setting.”
I walked back out into
the main room and over to the large windows. We overlooked the strip and it
took my breath away. The sun was setting, casting purple and orange shades over
the sky. The lights were slowly turning on below throughout the strip.
“It’s gorgeous.” I
mumbled, entranced.
Bradley looked at me
out of the corner of his eye and our hands touched, very briefly. The touch was
electric, sending shockwaves through me.
“Are you hungry?” He
asked.
“Yes.” I admitted.
“Let’s go eat.”
This time I didn’t have
an excuse to say no.