FLAWLESS (A BWWM Alpha Billionaire Romance) Read online

  “Am I supposed to feel sorry for you now? Because if that’s what you’re trying to do-”

  “Quiet.”

  Her jaw hung open for a second before she pursed her full lips together. Her arms crossed just under her chest, pushing up her cleavage and drawing my eyes to them like magnets. She was sexy as fuck, and the fact that she hated me and she was an off-limits employee, only turned me on harder.

  “I get it, Alexis. I get that you hate me. I get that you accept my…my gifts…begrudgingly. You don’t need to remind me day in and day out. I’m listening to you. I hear you.”

  She took a step back, not saying a word as if she were trying to figure me out.

  “My motives might seem confusing to you,” I continued. “Just know, that I am not my grandfather, and I’m going to spend every last year I have on this earth righting his wrongs – of which there are many. I’m sorry you had to close your business, Alexis. I thought offering you this job – your dream job – would help ease that burden. If it’s not good enough and if it’s not what you want, there’s the door. But I’m not going to spend every day groveling to you and trying to get you to forgive me for something that wasn’t personal.”

  Her shoulders slumped, her mouth still pursed together in a straight line and her arms still crossed tight. “If you have nothing further to add, Ronan, please excuse me.”

  I lifted my hand, which was still clenching the tumbler, and motioned toward the door, waiting and watching as she walked out and slammed the door behind her. Maybe there was no winning with her. Maybe I was fighting a lost cause.

  I tossed back the remainder of my scotch and slumped down in my desk, hating the fact that when it was all said and done, I wanted Alexis to like me. And I wanted her to like me in the most inappropriate of ways.

  Maybe it was never about diamonds and stores and cars and jobs. Maybe it was about finally meeting my match – finally meeting a girl who had the guts to stand up for what she believed in. My whole life women had thrown themselves at me the second they knew my last name, but not her. She looked at me as if I were any other ordinary man. No one looked at me that way. It was refreshing and humbling, and I knew everything about Alexis was real.

  My grandfather was right – Alexis was flawless. Not only on the outside, but on the inside as well.

  NINE – ALEXIS

  “Hey, a bunch of us are going out for drinks tonight. Want to join?”

  I glanced up over my drafting desk to see Carissa, one of the marketing assistants, standing in my doorway.

  “Oh, um…sure.”

  She smiled and flipped her red hair over her shoulder. “Great. Five o’clock at O’Mowrys.”

  I wasn’t sure who all was going, but I was sure that I needed a good, strong drink. Every pre-conceived notion I’d had of Ronan was shattered the second he gave me that little speech in his office. I wanted to hate him. I wanted to hate him so bad. But I couldn’t after that. And as the day went on, I found myself liking him. Really, truly liking him.

  ***

  “There she is!” a group of my new co-workers sat around a high top table in the corner of O’Mowry’s. Apparently they’d all left work a little early, because it was five past five and they were all sitting there with half-finished drinks already.

  I took a seat next to Carissa, who had a big ass smile plastered across her freckled face, and slipped my purse off my shoulder.

  “What’s your drink?” Carissa asked.

  “Oh, um, I’ll just have a beer. Samuel Adams.”

  She twisted her face as if she were shocked that I was a beer drinking and then she ran off to the bar to order it for me. She came back two minutes later. “My treat. Congrats on your first week at Pratt Diamonds.”

  “Thank you,” I said, scanning the table and suddenly realizing I was sitting next to Levi, the guy who had sleaze bucket written all over him.

  “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” Levi said, extending his hand. Oh, yes, we had been introduced. He just wanted an excuse to touch me. I shook his hand lightly to be polite. “I’m Levi. I hear you’re quite the talented designer?”

  I offered a small smile. “Designing jewelry is my passion. I live for it.”

  I took a sip of my beer and sat it down, feeling the weight of the collective stare of the small table of people. I knew what it was like to be the new girl. I’d switched schools a lot growing up on account of my parents always moving their jobs around town.

  “I invited Ronan,” Levi said to the table. “He should be here soon.”

  “Your boss drinks with you?” I asked, quickly remembering he was my boss too. I knew we’d had wine at lunch the day before, and I’d seen him drink scotch in his office, but I was shocked he’d go out to a pub with his employees after hours.

  “All the time. He’s cool like that,” Levi said, shooting back a tequila shot and sucking on a lime. “Whoo!”

  I cringed. Levi was so fucking cheesy I could hardly stand it.

  “There he is!” Levi said, pointing at the jingling door as Ronan came in. My heart fell to my stomach as I had to practically pry my eyeballs off him. I wasn’t expecting to see him. I was hoping I could let loose and get to know my coworkers a bit without him breathing down my neck and looking at me like he wanted to devour me from head to toe every five minutes. He ran a hand through his thick, dark hair and locked eyes with me. Making a beeline in our direction, I averted my gaze and reached for my beer, ignoring every sexy thought my mind was filling with as he grew nearer.

  Ronan edged between Levi and myself and shot Levi a look that made him hop off his chair and offer it to his boss.

  “Good to see you’re getting to know your colleagues, Alexis,” Ronan said, turning to me. The corner of his mouth arched up halfway as his stare pierced right through me.

  “Next round’s on me,” Levi said, strutting over to the bar and returning with a couple pitchers. He placed the pitcher in the center of the table and then lingered between Ronan and myself despite our best efforts to ignore him. “So, uh, Alexis.” He leaned in, and I could smell his fading cologne. It was expensive-smelling, but overly done – probably some pricey bottle of something or other a pretty perfume counter girl sold him as he was trying to score her number. I stifled a laugh at the thought. “I saw you took the bus today. If you need a ride home tonight, just let me know.”

  “Won’t be necessary,” Ronan interrupted, his lips pursed into a straight line. “Alexis has a company car now.”

  “A company car?” Levi’s face scrunched. “No one gets a company car.”

  “It’s just until we move back to the city,” Ronan said. “Two more months.” He leaned in closer to me, and I tried my hardest not to wrap myself up in how delicious he smelled. I could bathe in Ronan’s scent and still not get enough. “You won’t need a car in New York.”

  “So Alexis.” Levi was relentless, and each time he said my name I saw Ronan’s face wince a little. I wasn’t sure what their dynamics were, but I could already tell Levi annoyed the shit out of Ronan on a daily basis. “If you ever want to, you know, get dinner sometime, just us…”

  Ronan’s face reddened, and his nostrils flared slightly. “Levi.” He stood up, his hand gripping Levi’s shoulder as a parent would do to an errant child. They headed away from the table and came back a short time later, Levi saying nothing and retreating to another chair across from the table.

  “I told him earlier today to leave you alone,” Ronan said, leaning in and speaking lowly into my ear. The sound of his low voice vibrated against my eardrum, setting my nerve endings on fire.

  “You don’t have to look out for me.”

  “Oh, yes I do.” He huffed, cocking his head to the side. “I’ve known Levi for years. Every time we hire an attractive woman, we have to reign him in a bit. He’s got an appetite for women like you.”

  “Women like me?” I pulled away from him, furrowing my brows. “What’s that supposed to me? Black women?” />
  Ronan chuckled. “That came out wrong.”

  “Mm, hm.”

  “I mean, successful, attractive, could-put-him-in-his-place-in-two-seconds kind of women. The harder you are to get, the harder he’s going to try to get you.”

  “Sounds like a sexual harassment law suit waiting to happen.”

  “Which is exactly why I’m here.” His hand gripped his stein as he brought the mug to his full lips and took a mouthful of beer.

  “That’s the only reason you’re here?”

  “Yes, Alexis.”

  “I don’t believe you for one second.” I stood up, slipping my purse over my shoulder.

  “Where are you going?” He sat his stein down on the glass table and stood up alongside me.

  “Hey, everyone,” I said, offering a polite wave. “Thanks for inviting me out. I’ve got to take off now. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

  Turning on my heel, I headed toward the door, but it wasn’t until I was outside the bar when a hand gripped the crook of my elbow and stopped me dead in my tracks. I spun around, my heart pounding, to see Ronan holding onto me with the most determined look in his eyes that I’d ever seen.

  “Alright,” I sighed, yanking my elbow from his grip. “You’ve done lost your mind, Ronan Pratt.”

  “Alexis,” he said, stepping toward me. We stood under an awning as beads of rain began falling from the sky. My hair was two good minutes away from becoming ruined, but all I could think about was Ronan and that all-consuming stare I was suddenly loosing myself in.

  “Why are you so damn obsessed with me?!”

  “I-I don’t know.”

  “So you admit, you are obsessed with me.”

  His jaw flexed and tightened as he stepped even closer into me, and I felt him breath me in as he closed his eyes for just a second. “You’re right. I’m absolutely obsessed with you, and I’m trying to figure out why.”

  I felt my body melt a little and my lips part, as if they’d suddenly grown minds of their own and were willing to bend to the silent commands of Ronan’s body language. I’d never found myself lusting after someone and hating them all at the same time, but then again, my grandmother always said every day is a journey and every day is an opportunity to learn something knew about ourselves. This was a new experience. These emotions, mixing like hot and cold air and threatening to produce the storm of the century, was brand new to me.

  Ronan bumped up against me, our hips meeting enough for me to feel the bulge in his pants. His hands gripped my face, pulling my mouth toward his. “Fuck, Alexis. Look what you’re doing to me.”

  With his lips claiming mine, I realized that Ronan Pratt was willing to give up everything in order to be with me. A man as powerful as him – my boss – was willing to mindfuck me under the awning of a pub after work, and he was willing to claim my mouth as his, not even asking if he could first.

  He pulled away, leaving me speechless for the first time in my young adult life. “Sorry, Alexis. I had to do that. I’d been dying to do that since the moment I first saw you.”

  “Kiss me?”

  “Make you mine.”

  “I’m not yours.” I wanted to step away, but I realized his hands were still on my body, refusing to let me go. “Don’t get it twisted.”

  “Maybe not yet. But you will be.”

  TEN – RONAN

  “I’d take you home tonight, but it’s kind of against company policy.” My hands dropped from her face slowly, savoring the way her soft caramel skin felt beneath my fingertips.

  Her face softened a bit after I kissed her, as if he were suddenly looking at me in a new light. I’d never done something like that before – kissed an employee. But something stirring deep inside me told me she was mine, and in my adult life, I’d never had a problem taking anything that I wholeheartedly believed was mine.

  Only she didn’t know she was mine yet, and I had approximately two months to make her realize that she couldn’t possibly belong to anyone else but me. I’d decided right then and there, looking at her out there on the sidewalk as she shielded herself from falling drops of rain, that by the time we moved back to New York, I wanted all of her. She was going to need someone to watch out for her, someone to acclimate her and take care of her. And I was going to be that man.

  “Who says I’d go home with you?” she asked, arching an eyebrow and stifling the tiniest hint of a smile. Relief washed over me, though I did my best to hide that fact. She didn’t hate me. I saw a sliver of hope in her eyes telling me that there was a chance and that my very calculated risk was going to pay off.

  “I have half a mind to kiss you again,” I growled, leaning into her ear and inhaling her sweet scent. “You better be careful.”

  She was such a cock tease, and I fucking loved it.

  “Threats don’t work on me, Mr. Pratt,” she said, licking her bottom lip before biting it. “Nice try.”

  “Playing hard to get doesn’t work on me, Ms. Turner.” Pulling in a sharp breath, I flashed a wide smile. “But it’s okay. It’s just going to make it all that much more satisfying for me once you finally pull your head out of your ass and see that we belong together.”

  Her face grew serious as a flash of lightning lit up the fading early evening sky and thunder grumbled and groaned above us. “When I look at you, Ronan, I see my failures. I don’t like that. I don’t need that constant reminder of everything I lost – everything I worked my ass off for. Gone in the blink of an eye. Because of you.”

  “When I look at you,” I said. “I see everything I’ve ever done right. And I hope you’ll give me the chance to prove that to you someday.”

  I slipped my hands in my pockets and headed back into the restaurant, as she held her purse above her head and ran, in the rain, toward her Mercedes.

  ELEVEN – ALEXIS

  I thought about Ronan – about that kiss – the entire way home from the pub. Never mind that I was driving one of the nicest vehicles I’d ever set foot in. Never mind the fact that I absolutely loved my new job. All of it paled in comparison to the fact that Ronan Pratt wanted me, and it confused the hell out of me.

  I shook my head, as if that could possibly rattle those thoughts out of there, but it was no use. I parked my car in my reserved spot and prayed it wouldn’t be bothered by the neighborhood mini gangsters and fifteen year old thug wanna-bes. If I could just get through the rest of the week, I could move into that renovated space above the store the following weekend.

  I’d decided to take him up on his offer to live in that apartment. It was meant for the jewelry store manager, but they hadn’t even hired that person yet so it was just going to sit empty. And it was going to be closer to work – closer to downtown.

  Closer to Ronan.

  The only downfall would be the fact that my vacated shop would be sitting pretty right across the street. I’d have to look at it every single day and force myself to be strong and not shed a tear.

  “He kissed me, Monique,” I said as I called her that night. I stood above a stove of boiling water, preparing to dump in a box of Kraft macaroni shells. At least it was a step up from ramen.

  “Girl, who kissed you? Ronan?!”

  “Yes,” I sighed.

  “You don’t sound mad?” Her words were like a question, which was coincidentally the very same one I’d been asking myself all night. “You don’t feel violated or anything like that?”

  “No,” I sighed again. “I don’t think so. It was kind of hot. He just sort of…took me right there on the sidewalk, in broad daylight, with all his employees inside the bar on the other side of the glass.”

  “He’s crazy. I told you, girl, white boys are crazy.”

  Ronan wasn’t just a crazy white boy. He was a hot, rich, arrogant white man who happened to be offering me the world on a silver platter. He could incinerate my panties with one smile, and the way he looked at me as if I was the only girl on the face of the planet was damn near the final nail in my coffin. I was
almost about to tell her that I was kind of having second thoughts about hating him, but my body and mind were too exhausted to have to explain something to her that I didn’t even understand myself.

  “We’ll see what happens,” I said, draining my shells and mixing in the neon orange powdered cheese. My lips formed a slight smile when I realized the next day would be payday. Thank goodness.

  “Don’t give in, Lex,” Monique said. “He took your store, don’t let him take your heart and soul too. You’re better than that.”

  If only it were that simple.

  ***

  The first thing I did the second I got to work the next morning was log into my bank account to make sure my paycheck had been deposited.

  $32,457.18.

  “Um, what?” My hands flew to cover my gaping mouth as I stared at the amount. It was way more than we’d agreed on.

  But why?

  I marched into Ronan’s office and slammed the door.

  “You always this bitchy on Fridays?” His brows arched as he looked me up and down.