Billionaire Romance Boxed Set 2(170)

“Solomon Royce has done good work for me, though I don’t understand his methods exactly,” Asher had said. “Always away doing this or that, sparking interest in company holdings, doing press releases, that kind of thing. I couldn’t manage any of it for the life of me, so I’m glad to have him, but sometimes it’s confusing since I don’t understand most of what his reports are about.”

Maybe I was worrying over nothing, but it seemed like Solomon could easily pull something if he wanted. If he slipped it into a report, disguised it so that Asher wouldn’t even bother to notice, then it could be disastrous. Asher said he trusted Solomon and that the director of public relations had done good work for him in the past, so why would he suddenly stop trusting him? If Solomon wanted to sabotage Landseer enterprises through faulty reporting, Asher probably wouldn’t even bother to double check and try to understand the PR reports until it was too late.

I walked to my bedroom contemplating that. Falling onto my bed, I snatched the cordless phone from my nightstand and dialed my mother’s number.



…



“Jessika,” my mother said. “I’ve tried calling you. Where have you been? What are you doing home this early. Shouldn’t you be working?”

“Mom,” I said. “Yes, about that. There’s… well, I found a job. It’s um, maybe more permanent.”

“Oh?”

Right. A job. That’s how I’d spin it. “So I met a man,” I said, figuring I should start with that.

“You’re not moving to Las Vegas or something, are you honey? I don’t care how attractive he is, if he says you can make it far as a stripper he’s just trying to use you.”

“Ugh! Are you serious? No, I’m not moving to Las Vegas and I’m not becoming a stripper.”

“You were a really good dancer. You could probably do it if you wanted to. Have you looked into that? I’ve heard those girls are really nice and you can make a lot of money.”

“Mom, I’m not going to be a stripper. You need to be attractive for that.”

I could almost see my mom shaking her head on the other side of the phone. “No, that’s not true. They have um… waffleface?”

“Butterface,” I corrected.

“Oh! Yes, that’s it. Not that you are one, but if you’ve got nice breasts then it doesn’t matter. I’m your mother, so I know these things, and I bet men would definitely like your breasts. Just don’t become one of those crackwhores, alright? Promise me that.”

“Mom. Listen, please. I’m not even becoming a stripper. This isn’t about that. I met a man and he’s rich, alright, and…”

“Oh, so he’s like a sweetdaddy. That sounds nice.”

“Sugardaddy,” I corrected. “And, no. Um. So, he has a wife, right?”

“Are you having an affair with a married man, Jessika?”

I blushed. Oh God, my mother already knew about my indiscretions with Asher and I hadn’t even told her. “Would you let me finish?” I said. Better to change the subject, really.

“Alright. So you met a man and he’s rich and he has a wife. I can’t see where this is going if you aren’t having an affair with him.”

I ignored the last part. “They want children, but his wife… she can’t. There’s problems, right? So he asked me if I’d consider doing, um…”

“Oh. I read about that in the paper. There was an ad looking for women to donate eggs. That’s really nice. So you’re doing that? That’s probably better than being a stripper, honey. I don’t think you could handle taking your clothes off in a room full of men.”

“Yeah,” I said, blinking twice, frowning. This was going easier than I thought. “Yeah, so I’ll do that. I’d be a surrogate, too. His wife, she doesn’t really want to carry the baby to term, either. Um… it’s about a year long, nine months and everything and… maybe I’ll be a nanny after, you know? Because I’ve always wanted to try and get more into book stuff. I’d really like to see if I can do it. This way, if I’m living there and helping out, I’ll have a little more free time.”

“Just don’t let his wife catch you having an affair with him, alright? I don’t want to read about you in the tabloids.”

“Mom! We’re not having an affair! I… we just watched a movie once, and I slept in his guest home. It’s…”

“Oh, no, don’t tell me about the affair. I don’t want reporters hounding me if you get caught. I’d rather know nothing so they can’t get information out of me.” My mother laughed when I groaned. “So who’s this man? What’s his name?”