Playboy Billionaire Read online

  “Hannah,” my father said. “This is my son, Justin.”

  Hannah flushed even brighter. She turned to me and dipped her head slightly. “Pleased to meet you,” Hannah said softly.

  “Hannah, you will be supervising Justin,” my father continued. “He will be your personal assistant, your secretary, and most of all, he will be in charge of all basic administrative tasks. He’s never had a job before, and I trust that you will manage him with grace and respect.”

  Hannah’s mouth opened slightly but she nodded her head. “Yes, sir,” Hannah said. “I will.”

  “Well then,” my father said. “You two get going. I’m going out for lunch.”

  With our jaws hanging slack, Hannah and I watched as my father grabbed a blazer from the back of his chair, picked up a pair of sunglasses, and waltzed out of the room, whistling jauntily under his breath.

  As soon as we were alone, I turned to Hannah and sneered.

  “I don’t know what you’re planning,” I told her nastily. “But I’m not going to listen to you.”

  Hannah raised her eyebrows. “I haven’t even told you anything yet,” she said. “Is working for me really going to be that bad?”

  I eyed her unkempt appearance, her messy hair, her bright green innocent eyes. She must be a virgin, I thought. There’s no way an experienced woman would be standing there gawking like that.

  “Well?” Hannah cocked her head to the side. “Is it?”

  “Yes,” I said sarcastically. “It’s going to be more fun than shooting myself in the foot.”

  Hannah

  I couldn’t believe it. The most gorgeous man I’d ever seen in real life was now going to be my employee.

  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  After William left his office, I felt a wave of nervousness wash over me. Justin was staring at me with his lips twisted in a cruel smirk. His dark brown hair tumbled carelessly over his brown, and his sapphire-blue eyes were glowing with a visceral hatred.

  “Well, come with me,” I managed to say. “I’ll get you set up behind my desk.”

  “Well, come with me,” Justin repeated in a high mimicry of my voice. “God, you’re pathetic.”

  I glared at him. “Excuse me,” I said snippily. “But this is my first job – not to mention, my first time managing someone. You’re going to have to cut me a little slack.”

  Justin breezed past me. His hand sliced through the air and landed on my ass with a loud smack. Crying out, I leapt into the air and my cheeks burned bright red with embarrassment.

  “Sure, honey,” Justin said with a smirk. “I’ll cut you all the slack you want. Sound good?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever,” I mumbled. Internally, I was screaming. But I knew I was going to have to find a way to make this work – with or without Justin’s cooperation.

  The rest of the day was awful. I couldn’t believe my bad luck. I’d been so excited to start at Creovation all weekend, but now, working with Justin was turning my dream job into a real nightmare.

  Every time I turned around, Justin was smirking or leering or making a face. I felt invaded and ignored all at once – like he was scorning me, but also purposefully letting me know that he really didn’t give a fuck about how I interacted with him.

  It was enough to drive me crazy.

  At the end of the day, I felt like I hadn’t accomplished very much. I’d set out to write two five-hundred-word blog posts, and I’d asked Justin to go through the files in the filing cabinet and make sure all of the receipts matched up with the expense reports. He’d sulked about it, but when I’d threatened to call William, Justin had snatched the paperwork out of my hand.

  It was enough to make me want to break out in hives, just so I’d have an excuse to stay home.

  “You can go,” I said wearily. “It’s after five.”

  Justin leapt up from his makeshift desk – a card table with an executive chair borrowed from the conference room – and grinned. He blew me a kiss, then walked over to my desk. Every time I was nearer than five feet to Justin, I couldn’t concentrate. He radiated sex like a male model, and I felt like a blushing schoolgirl every time his sapphire eyes flicked over my body.

  “Any plans?” Justin asked suggestively. He leaned over my desk until he was inches away from my face. Suddenly, I clamped my lips shut, worried that the tuna sandwich I’d eaten for lunch was still clinging to my tastebuds.

  I shook my head.

  Justin’s lips curled into a smirk. “Cat got your tongue, Hannah?”

  I shook my head and forced myself to relax. Just breathe, I told myself. He’s only a man, after all. He’s not some powerful god descended from the heavens. And besides, you’re his boss!

  “No plans,” I said. “Just getting a drink with my best friend.”

  “Oh, girl time,” Justin said. He nodded and smirked. “I get it. Cool. You gonna tell her all about your awful new employee?”

  I blushed. “No,” I lied. “Of course not.”

  Justin grinned. He leaned even closer and a wave of musky, heady cologne washed over me. I felt dazed, like I suddenly wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

  Just as I thought Justin was about to sneer in my face, he closed his eyes and dipped his mouth to mine. At first, the kiss was mechanical – almost chaste. But after a few moments, the heat from his lips transferred to mine and I felt a delicious rush of arousal wash over my body. My knees went weak as Justin’s warm tongue slipped between my lips and danced in my mouth. I’d never been kissed like this before in my life, and I was finding it hard to breathe.

  Justin reached forward and grabbed my shoulders, pulling me into the kiss. His strong hands gripping my body made me feel delicate, like a real lady. Lust and desire swarmed through my belly as the kiss grew more intense, and I found myself moaning softly into Justin’s mouth.

  Justin pulled back and grinned. “Have a great night, Boss,” he said with a smirk.

  When he was gone, I sank back down into my chair and groaned.

  Working at Creovation, Inc. was going to be a real education, all right. And the way things were looking now, I was suddenly wishing that I was all done with my schooling.

  An hour later, I pushed my way through a crowd and hopped onto the lone free barstool, next to my best friend Susan. She wrinkled her nose at me, then leaned in for a hug.

  “God, could you have been any later?” Susan teased. “I thought someone was going to murder me for this spot.” She pointed to her big black laptop case. “If it hadn’t been for this, I’m sure someone would have actually tried pushing me out of the way.”

  I laughed. “I know, it’s a real vicious crowd here,” I said. “But they have the best happy hour in town. You can’t ignore that.”

  Susan smiled wanly. “So, tell me about work.” She sipped her drink – it looked like an orange crush, with orange soda, rum, and vanilla. “Is everything going well?”

  I rolled my eyes and groaned dramatically. “It’s a nightmare,” I said. “Honestly. I have no idea how I’m going to manage to keep working there.”

  Susan narrowed her eyes. She handed me her drink and I took a long, greedy swallow, enjoying the way the rum seemed to melt right into my tongue.

  “Why? You were so excited when you got hired,” she said. “They hired you on the spot, didn’t they?”

  I nodded glumly. “Yeah, but I didn’t know what I was getting into until today,” I said with a sigh. “The CEO’s son is working under me. Like, right under me.”

  “Oh god,” Susan said. “That sounds like an HR nightmare.”

  “It is.” I blushed, thinking of the steamy kiss I’d shared with Justin at the end of the day.

  “So what’s he like? Frat boy nightmare?”

  “Bingo,” I said. “He’s got to be older – maybe twenty-eight or twenty-nine – but it’s like he’s never had a job before. He showed up looking like he’d just come from a night out with his buddies. And he hates me,” I added, swirling Sus
an’s glass around in my hand. “I didn’t even do anything, but I can tell he feels resentful about having to work with a woman.”

  “What does he look like?” Susan raised her eyebrow. “Is he hot?”

  I frowned, then pulled up my phone and quickly typed Justin Williams into the search bar. Handing the phone over, I tapped the first photo that came up.

  “That’s him,” I said. “Although he looks younger here.”

  “Oh my god, he’s gorgeous,” Susan gushed. “Jesus, those eyelashes! You think he’d let me borrow them?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t count on it,” I told her. “He’s selfish and greedy and a huge jerk.”

  “Still, he’s rich,” Susan said. “I mean, right? William Long is like the most successful businessman in New York. You’ve heard the joke about Long Island, right?”

  I nodded. “He’s wealthy, yeah,” I said. “But I mean, that doesn’t make working with him any better.

  “Well, it’s not like you’re going to get out of this,” Susan said wisely. She took her drink back from me and gulped the rest of it down. “He’s the CEO’s son. It’s not like you can just complain and say that he’s being difficult.”

  “The thing is, I think his dad knows,” I said slowly. “I think his dad put him under me to teach him a lesson.” I blushed. “That’s the worst part of it – his dad knew that Justin would find it demeaning to take orders from a woman, especially someone as young as I am.”

  Susan shook her head. “You should feel honored that he thought you were up to the challenge,” she said.

  “I don’t think he thought of it that way,” I said. I rested my chin on my fist, feeling depressed. “What if he does something and I get fired? What if I can’t ever find another job because this will be a stain on my resume?”

  “Girl, you landed a gig at Creovation,” Susan said. “Everyone’s going to love that.”

  “Not if I’m fired,” I mumbled.

  Susan giggled. “Well, just don’t do anything wrong,” she said. “Like, don’t fuck the boss’s son.”

  My stomach churned as I realized I couldn’t possibly tell her about the kiss now. And to make things even worse, I was starting to doubt it myself. I wasn’t sure why he’d kissed me – was it to show dominance over me? Or was it because he could clearly tell that his astonishing good looks left me feeling more unsettled than ever?

  Either way, my memory was starting to seem cheap and tawdry…not romantic at all.

  “So,” Susan said. “Ask me about my life.” She grinned, suddenly looking as smug as a cat. “I bet you’re dying to know what’s been happening to me.”

  I nodded. “Yeah,” I said, although to be honest, I felt like going home and throwing myself into bed. “Tell me what’s new with you.”

  Susan smirked. “I met a guy.”

  “Oh my god, tell me everything,” I said, perking up. Susan and I had been best friends ever since the Penn State Association of Student Life had assigned us together as roommates. On paper, we were total opposites. Susan was outgoing and sporty while I was bookish, shy, and introverted. But the moment we’d met, something had clicked between us and we’d been best friends ever since. Susan was also gorgeous, but even more important, she was confident. And that confidence landed her a lot of dates.

  I’d gotten over being jealous of Susan and her dates long ago, but that didn’t keep me from the occasional moment of reminiscing and wishing that I was more like her. I envied Susan so much – her ability to pick herself up and dust herself off after a bad or awkward situation was something I’d always admired.

  “I don’t know about him yet, to be honest,” Susan said. “He actually seems kind of weird. He called me like, three times in one night just because he wanted to know whether or not I wanted to go out with him the next week.”

  “Wow,” I said. “That sounds…interesting. He sounds like he really likes you.”

  Susan shrugged. “Maybe,” she said. “Hey, he’s got a few friends who are single. We should double-date sometime!”

  I shook my head quickly. “No way,” I told her. “Especially not now – I won’t have any free time, I can tell I’m probably going to be spending lots of long nights at work.”

  Susan frowned. “Hannah, you’ll be a virgin forever if you keep saying no,” she said. “What would be so bad about just trying it out? This guy’s really cute, I bet he has cute friends.”

  I glanced down at my dress, a find from a secondhand store in Manhattan.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I mean, I don’t really think I’m pretty enough to have a boyfriend.”

  Susan laughed. “It’s not about that,” she said. She eyed me. “Girl, we gotta get you some confidence.”

  “Just loan me some of yours,” I told her. “I think I’d be good with maybe ten percent of what you have.”

  It felt good to laugh with Susan, but after a couple of drinks, I knew that I needed to be getting home. After all, I had to wake up bright and early at seven in the morning in order to be at my office by eight-thirty, and I could only imagine what horrible trick Justin would have in mind for me.

  “Shit,” I muttered as Susan and I walked out onto a much quieter street than we’d left before. “It looks like it’s gonna rain.”

  Susan fumbled in her bag. “I’m gonna take a cab, you want to share?”

  I shook my head, too embarrassed to tell her that I’d spent my last ten dollars of free money for the week on cocktails.

  “Okay,” Susan said. She glanced up at the darkening sky. “Love you! See you soon!” She leaned in and air-kissed both of my cheeks, then skipped over to the curb and threw her arm into the air.

  I smiled tightly as I watched my gorgeous best friend climb in the back of a cab. She has it so easy, I thought. I bet she’d know how to deal with Justin.

  I guess maybe I’m not through being jealous of Susan after all.

  Thunder boomed in the sky and I cringed, jumping into the air. If I wanted to make it back to Brooklyn before the skies opened up, I knew I was going to have to hurry. As quickly as I could, I darted down the street, looking for the subway entrance. I still wasn’t all that familiar with Manhattan, but I could have sworn there was a stop somewhere around here.

  Cold droplets started falling from the sky, dripping on my face and shoulders. I groaned as I felt the thin fabric of my dress start to soak through. It was a cold rain, especially for early autumn, and I couldn’t risk getting sick – what would happen at work?

  The light spatter of rain turned into a heavy shower and I yelped, running down the street in my low heels as quickly as I could. Puddles were forming all around me and despite my best efforts to stay dry, I landed in a deep one that sent rain splashing all over my legs, soaking me to the knee. By the time I reached the intersection, I was chilled to the bone.

  “Come on, come on,” I begged, staring at the pedestrian walk signal and desperately wishing it to change. I could finally see the subway sign – I was only a block away – and I knew I had to get there as soon as possible or risk catching pneumonia.

  A sleek black limousine pulled up at the curb. I groaned. Was this asshole going to stay parked here and block traffic? What the fuck was going on?

  The back door opened and I rolled my eyes, waiting for some rich executive to dart out into the rain while cursing his misfortune. But when I recognized who was sitting in the back, I let out a little cry of surprise.

  It was Justin. And he was beckoning me inside, waving with his hand.

  Hannah

  “Justin?” I asked stupidly, staring straight at him.

  Justin grinned. “Get in,” he said. He jerked his head to the side.

  “Oh, no, I couldn’t,” I stammered. My cheeks blushed flame red.

  “Come on, you’ll get sick,” Justin said. He grinned and winked. The wink was enough to melt my heart, and I shivered when he reached out his hand towards me.

  I sighed. “But…”

  “No bu
ts,” Justin said firmly. “Come on.”

  I sighed. The rain started pouring harder than ever and with a squeal, I leapt forward into the limo.

  Justin closed the door behind me and rapped on the partition. “Take us to Brooklyn,” he said in a clear voice. Turning to me, he smirked. “That’s where you live, right?”

  I blushed. “That obvious, huh?”

  Justin grinned. “Champagne?”

  I frowned. “Why are you doing this?” I asked after accepting a flute full of Dom Perignon from Justin’s outstretched hand.

  “What?” Justin sipped his champagne, then leaned back against the seat. “Why am I doing what?”

  “Being nice to me,” I mumbled. “Why? You don’t have to, so why are you doing this?”

  Justin laughed. “What? I’m not allowed to be nice now?”

  I stared at him, unable to believe that this man was the same smirking, smug creature who had paraded around in front of me all day. The change was immediate and apparent – like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

  “No, it’s not that.” I sipped my champagne, savoring the creamy taste of the fizzy alcohol. “I just…” I trailed off, blushing furiously. “I don’t know. I thought you didn’t like me.”

  Justin shrugged. “I don’t know you,” he said. He raised his eyebrow, making me blush all the harder. “I’d like to know you, though,” he added, placing a hand on my knee. The contact from his skin burned hot through the soaked material of my dress and I shivered.

  The limo rolled on in silence. It felt like a completely different world from the New York I was used to. Instead of a gritty, smelly, buzzing city, I was now enclosed in a smooth world of plush fabric and leather, driving quietly through the crowded streets.