Wife Wanted (A Billionaire Bad Boy Romance)(84)
He pulled out his phone again and checked his messages, but she apparently hadn’t left one for him. He knew what she wanted to talk about. She obviously had no idea who he was and being invited to an exclusive ball, to her, must have seemed like an error. He guessed she was probably going to refuse the invitation and would most likely return the necklace. But he didn't want that. He wanted her to come. And he wanted to make her comfortable, hence his hesitation in sending a dress to wear for the event like he normally would for his female guest. He could pretty much guess her size, but that could freak her out.
He had already made the mistake of personalizing the invitation card and the gift box card, which was most likely freaking her out. He couldn't risk a situation where she became so uncomfortable she simply did not show up. He truly wanted to be in her presence again, but within his own controlled environment. It was much easier to make a woman his when he was in control.
He flipped through the pages of the file and another picture of her fell to the floor. He picked it up. It was his favorite. She had been out on a morning run. He could see her curves - her breasts held tightly but spilling from within what he assumed was her sports bra, and her firm ass rounded against the shorts she wore. Her legs caught in the running motion seemed all muscle. She was wearing an arm band and had ear phones on. She seemed oblivious to the world - so innocent and pure.
He continued flipping through the file, a little slower than he did the files of the people who worked directly under him. Damn, she had applied for a job in his company a few years ago, but his staff had been assholes and declined application for employment. If he weren't being subtle, he would have fired the employee who hadn’t given her a chance to be an asset to his company. He flipped through a couple more pages. Nothing in there was new to him; he had perused it a few hundred times. But one thing that unsettled him was that she had spent eight weeks as an intern with his company and he had never set eyes on her. He had been gallivanting around Europe with his girlfriend, Amanda, who had readily left him when she found someone a tad bit richer than him.
He looked at his phone again, debating whether to call her back. He wasn't really sure what to say to her. If he spoke to her, he would be forced to answer questions that could clue her in to who he was. He decided the best thing to do was ignore any calls she made to that number, letting them all go to the voicemail. Giving her the number was already a mistake he regretted, but if he hadn't put a number on the invitation she might not have taken the invitation seriously. He sighed, got up from his bed, and walked to the window.
Acres of green, lush land lay in front of him. He wasn’t sure how many acres of land he truly owned. He had simply purchased all the land around where he wanted to build his home and erected what some would call an expensive house on it. He had a tennis court, a swimming pool, a golf course, but most importantly, acres of forest. He needed the wooded land for those moments when he wanted to be with nature but couldn't get away to his private island. During those times, he normally gave most of his staff the day off, and locked down his property. The beauty of having money is that he could do whatever he pleased, and when he needed privacy, he could have his whole estate to himself, and maybe in Sara’s company, if he played his cards right.
Today, though, the peace surrounding him was not as tranquil as usual. To be honest, since he’d met Sara, he woke up every day with a feeling he couldn't quite put his finger on. This day was no different. In fact, the feeling had been getting worse since he’d sent that invitation to her. He had personally written and mailed it to make sure it didn't get lost. He couldn't even remember the last time he wrote something by hand. Normally, his personal assistant took care of things like that – things like responding to his girlfriends’ emails, or sending gifts, flowers, and cards. He gave his secretary a budget, and she'd pick out the gifts and send them to the women. He trusted her judgment and the women always seemed to like their gifts, so it was a win-win for everyone.
Nick paced his room for a few minutes, fighting the urge to call Sara and confess. On days like this he wanted to lock down his property for utmost privacy, but he couldn't because his younger sister, Zia, who worked with him, would arrive at any moment to go over the final plans for the ball.
SARA
I unwillingly followed Amy as she stopped in every dress store in the mall. Three hours into our shopping experience, and I had yet to find something that looked like what I would wear to an exclusive ball. Or rather, most of what I would want to wear was super expensive, and the cheaper dresses just looked plain cheap after looking at the expensive dresses. Amy was more than eager to whip out her credit card to pay for any dress I wanted since I planned to spend my tip money on rent, but I couldn’t let her spend so much on me. I pretended I didn’t care for the really nice dresses.