Wife Wanted (A Billionaire Bad Boy Romance)(107)

 

Nick thought of his two younger brothers, Michael and Ian, who he hadn't seen in years. When their parents had died in a car accident, leaving the family business to the children to manage, their lives had changed. Michael had taken off to Europe. He claimed he wanted to explore the world and live wild for a few years. Nick was jealous of him. He wanted to explore the world too, but he and Zia had inherited the overseeing of the day-to-day operations of the family company because they had heads for numbers, according to his parents. He never asked what his brothers were good at; he had simply assumed the role.

 

Ian had moved to California a few months ago, signing off on the business as well. He had moved in with his girlfriend and they didn't hear much from him. This was good as far as he was concerned. Ian had trouble written all over him, and years ago, when they were one big family, Ian had always caused trouble. When he announced he was moving out of town, Nick could not have been happier. Granted, some days it was hard to run the family business with just the help of Zia and the occasional meddling of their grandmother, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

He found an empty bench and sat on it in a position that allowed him to watch the kids. The children seemed excited to be playing. He smiled as he watched a young boy, no more than three or four, holding a girl and giving her a hug as they flew down a slide. Even kids knew how to express love, something he admitted to himself he didn’t know. The girl said something to the boy and he kissed her quickly on the cheek – an innocent, playful kiss. He was jealous of them. The girl had not run off the way Sara had, and she and the boy were now playing in the sand. Maybe if he had asked Sara’s permission, she would have let him kiss her. But he doubted it. She was going to be hard to get.

 

But the feeling that she was his soulmate was getting stronger by the day, and if he didn’t want to be more messed up than he was, he had to get close to her. Offer her something, something she couldn’t refuse. But the first thing he had to do was find her and talk to her.

 

 

 

 

 

SARA

 

I stood at the main entrance of Saunders Empire, wondering how I got there. The night before, Amy had convinced me to go to Nick Saunders’s office and talk to him, to return the necklace and confront him for kissing me. She had opted at the last minute not to go with me in order to “control herself.” I didn’t ask her what she meant, but knowing Amy’s knack for causing problems, I was relieved she had decided not to go with me.

 

“Don’t let him push you around,” she giggled. “Come back in one piece.”

 

Amy had used the word push to make fun of me. Left to her, she would have gladly gone back for more pushing from Nick. Like she’d said to me right before she left, "Who wouldn't want to be kissed by a billionaire?” Apparently I'm the only girl on earth who didn't want some stranger shoving his tongue down my throat. Billionaire or not.

 

As I debated whether to go in and demand to see him, some lady brushed past me. She looked very familiar; actually, she looked exactly like Nick, except she was the female version of him. This was the famous twin Amy had alluded to. The resemblance between her and Nick was too apparent to be missed.

 

She walked a few steps ahead of me. She was tall with dark, bouncy, black hair and heading for the entrance when she turned around to face me. "I know you from somewhere," she informed me, walking back. "Are you coming in?"

 

"Yes," I replied.

 

"Come on then," she said as she walked through the door, which had been held open for her. I followed her closely.

 

“Thanks. Are you Nick's sister?" Once the words left my mouth, I regretted speaking. I had called him Nick like I knew him well. The way his name rolled off my tongue, no one would have known that the only interaction the two of us had shared so far was a kiss I had been an unwilling participant in.

 

She stopped in the middle of the reception area and turned around. She didn’t answer my question, but she looked at me from head to toe as if assessing me. "So you’re a friend of my brother’s?” she asked. “Interesting.”

 

The way she said it made me self-conscious. I probably wasn't what she was used to seeing when compared to Nick's fleet of mega-rich brats and bitch girlfriends, aka sluts. Maybe I wasn't skinny enough or maybe I wasn’t slutty enough. I looked down at my clothes. Yes, second-hand clothes, even though nice, hardly made a good impression on a billionaire princess.

 

"Not really," I said. “Well, sort of.”

 

"And you're here to see him?"