Working Him: A Billionaire Romance (2 page)

As soon as I typed his name in the search box, I was confronted with a headshot of Garrett, his dazzling smile reminding me of one of those toothpaste commercials. He had grown up rather nicely, gorgeous in fact and I felt my cheeks bloom with heat as I took in his all-American good looks, right down to those eyes I had known so well when we were kids. They still held that mischievous look to them, but that killer smile could easily take any woman’s breath away.

Quickly, I flipped through some photos, immediately noticing that my former childhood bestie was a party boy as well as extremely successful. There were dozens of pictures of him surrounded by a bevy of bikini clad girls, bare chested and giving me an awesome view of his muscular chest and chiseled abs, his tan clearly not from a bottle. There were also pictures of him dressed to kill, which in my opinion, was all the sexier. I do love a man who can wear a suit well.

I set the laptop on the couch and leaned back, closing my eyes. How was I going to do this? What if he was guilty? I had yet to run into anyone that I knew in this job who I had to investigate, especially not on this level. It was going to be hard, extremely hard to not have my personal feelings come into play and cloud my good, sound judgement. I had to stay professional.

Chapter 2: Garrett

Miami

God, I felt like shit. I cracked open one eye, the sun blinding me and causing my head to pound. It had to be champagne that had me feeling this way, but then again, it could have been the tequila too. Hell, I didn’t know. A hand drifted down my bare chest and I couldn’t help but grin. Apparently it had not been a lonely night at all. I opened my eyes and looked over at the blonde beauty lying next to me, seeing that her eyes were still closed. Well, maybe she was having a good dream then and I was the lucky bastard that was within her reach. My cell phone vibrated on the table and her hand stilled just below my belly button. Damn. I removed her from my side and reached for my phone, stabbing in the general direction of the button. “What?”

“Good morning to you too,” my co-partner in crime, Travis, chuckled in my ear. “Dude, where did you go last night? You just got up and left in the middle of the ceremony.”

I looked around the room, recognizing the familiar décor of a posh hotel in downtown Miami. “Apparently I got a room, with a blonde.”

“Well, that makes it all worth it,” Travis said. “Don’t forget, we got a presentation in an hour. If we want any part of those condos in South Beach, we need to impress the hell out of them.”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you there,” I responded before ending the call and sitting up on the bed.

The blonde next to me rolled over and snuggled up to her pillow, a catlike smile on her face. As much as I would have liked to stay in the bed with her and continue whatever we had last night, I swung my legs over and placed them on the cool marble floor before standing, the room tilting slightly as I did.

The water was visible out of the floor to ceiling windows before me, the sun reflecting off of the surface. I loved living in Miami, my own condo offering a spectacular view such as this. Across the floor there were clothes scattered all over, starting at the door of the bedroom and trailing to the bed. As I started to pick up what was left of my tux piece by piece, I noticed the glimmer of gold sitting on the small bench at the foot of the bed. Ah yes, my award.

Last night had been the annual evening of stars for the real estate business, the who’s who of realty vying to receive realtor of the year based on company profits and the number of houses they were able to push out. I had pushed myself hard this year, hating the fact that I had come in second place to our rival, Luke Tendar, the previous year. Luke was an asshole and I had been extremely glad the moment they had announced my name to accept the award, seeing the fall of his normally perfect smile as he realized he had just lost, to me. The award to me was a culmination of busting my ass to prove that we were in the elite class of real estate in South Florida and I couldn’t wait to start marketing the fact that were the top of the pyramid for at least a year.

Finding the rest of my clothes, I moved into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. Staring back at me was a man in his prime, thirty and highly successful. I had more money in my bank account than I would ever need, a nice ass condo and a sleek black Porsche that I hoped was parked downstairs or I was going to be late for my meeting. Travis was right. I couldn’t afford to let this deal pass me by. I had worked for months to get our name on the list to be the exclusive agency to sell these condos and today we were to meet with the building owner to interview for the spot. If I could get this deal sealed, Travis and I would be set and the award would be mine for the next year.

With a sigh, I washed my face and threw on my clothes before walking out of the bathroom, my jacket slung over my shoulder. In no time I was in my Porsche and pulling out of the hotel parking lot, turning toward the south side of Miami. Despite the early morning hour, the air was already heavy with heat, the steam rising off of the pavement as I drove through downtown.

Miami had been my home for fifteen years, after my mom had lucked up and married George Keller, a real estate mogul in Miami. My dad had been dead for a year before she had started dating again, meeting George in a bar in Jacksonville. Before long, the man was coming around the house, taking us to places we had only seen on TV and it was no surprise when they married after a few short months. Moving out of Jacksonville and to Miami had opened my eyes to a wealth of possibilities. George was a good guy and with no children of his own, he had really taken me under his wing, teaching me everything he knew about the real estate business. At twenty I was already managing George’s office and then two years later, taking on my own office with Travis. Travis had been a realtor in George’s company and after a few dozen drinks, we had decided to strike out on our own. Now, it was paying off big bucks.

I turned my car down the street toward the condos, a grin on my face despite the damn hangover I had. Once I got these condos wrapped up, I would buy myself a boat, something that I could take out into the ocean and just spend a few days on, with company included. The Porsche had been a gift to myself when I sold my first multi-million-dollar house and with the money that the condos were going to provide, I definitely deserved something bigger for that reward.

I pulled into the parking garage and cut the engine, reaching into the glove compartment for the extra tie I kept there for, well, overnight emergencies. I couldn’t do anything about the tuxedo shirt, however, and I raked my hand through my hair before exiting, seeing Travis standing by his expensive Lambo. I didn’t know why he felt like he had to have that damn car, but Travis enjoyed expensive things worse than I did. His house was in one of the gated communities that backed an exclusive golf community, his garage stocked with three other cars that had been on his bucket list.

“Garrett,” he said, removing his sunglasses and tucking them into his shirt pocket. “Did I disturb something important?”

“Perhaps,” I grinned, sliding my own sunglasses off. “But damn, if I could remember.”

Travis laughed and clapped me on my back, causing me to wince as the sound travelled up to my aching head. “I hope you got your award back at least.”

“Of course,” I replied as we walked toward the entrance. “That baby will be displayed right next to this contract once we close on this one.”

Travis grinned and we walked through the doors, stepping around the construction that was still taking place before entering an empty condo that was to be the meeting place for the interview. Even on the first floor, the spot was impressive, the living room already set up to do tours for those that had large enough bank accounts to view the hottest spot to live in Miami. A group of gentlemen were already seated at the table, eyeing us as we walked in.

“Ready?” Travis asked under his breath as we approached them.

I looked around the condo and then at the group, putting on a killer smile that I used when I wanted to close a deal. “Damn right I’m ready.”

***

The meeting had lasted thirty minutes. I had given it all the charm I could muster given the hangover I had, and in the end, I thought we had done pretty damn well. After the whole “we will get back to you” spill, Travis and I walked out together, only to meet Luke as we were exiting.

“Luke,” I said as I held the door open. “I hate to break it to you man, but we just killed our presentation.”

Luke grinned, his eyes shooting daggers at me. “Yeah right, Louden. You might have killed it, but I am going to blow them away.”

“Just like you blew away the award last night?” Travis interjected with a chuckle. “Man dude, you will do a great job then.”

“Assholes,” Luke muttered as he moved past me and I let go of the door. It felt good to have him in my back pocket, no longer on top of his game. That meant that he had to play catch up to me and not the other way around.

“I think he still has a sore spot for losing the award,” Travis remarked as we walked out to our cars. “He doesn’t have a snowball chance in hell of winning this contract.”

“I hope not,” I said, sliding on my sunglasses. It would be embarrassing to lose it now that we were the top dogs in Miami. “I’m going home. I need a shower.”

“I’m heading to the office,” Travis said as he opened his car door. “See you later.”

I nodded and climbed into my car, pushing the air on high. It was damn hot outside. My condo was not far from this building and I was pulling into my reserved parking spot in no time, grabbing my award from the passenger seat before taking the elevator up to the twentieth floor, where my condo resided. I had purchased it a few years ago, mainly because of the view and hadn’t thought about upgrading until recently when a nice home on the water came available. It was expensive and three times the size of what I currently had, which gave me pause to signing on the dotted line. I mean, I didn’t really need eight bedrooms right? I barely slept in the one I had most nights.

I threw open the door and stopped in my tracks, a heavy sigh escaping me as I saw what was awaiting me in my living room.

“Garrett! Baby! I’ve been waiting on you.”

“Cherise, I don’t have time for this,” I growled as I placed the award on my entry table for now and threw my jacket on the back of the couch. “How did you get in?”

Cherise Handel held up a key ring, a single key dangling from it. “See? Still have the key of course.”

Cherise had been my most recent serious fling, lasting a little over eight months before she started talking about diamond rings and marriage. She was gorgeous, with long legs that at one time used to drive me fucking crazy. Now she just drove me fucking crazy. She was the only daughter of a rich car dealership owner, who sold exotic cars to Miami’s upper class and we both moved in the same social circles, meeting at a club and ultimately going to bed that night. Though I’ve never really been one to commit to a girl for too long, somehow she had managed to stay on long enough for me to give her a key to my place. Once she started moving some of her shit into my domain, I had started looking for a way out. I got all of her stuff out of my place a month ago. Apparently, I forgot a very important piece of that.

“Cherise, it’s over,” I said flatly, walking to the fridge and pulling out a can of soda to get some caffeine in me. “Leave the key on the counter and get the hell out.”

“Oh come on, Garrett,” she said, her heels clicking on the floor as she walked over to me, sliding her hands along my shoulders. “You don’t mean that. Remember how good we are together? Daddy says you’re good for me and I don’t want to lose you.”

I sighed and shrugged off her touch as she started to put her long nails in my hair. The problem with an only child who has always gotten what she wanted was trying to tell her that she couldn’t have what she wanted. “Cherise, I’ve been sleeping with someone else.”

“I don’t care,” she said, poking out her lower lip as she placed her hands on her slim hips. I noticed she had a skirt on today, one that barely reached her mid thighs and gave me a long, long view of those legs. “I’ll share if I have to.”

I exploded into laughter. “No you won’t. Remember that client that you saw me take to lunch that time? I ended up with a scratch a mile long down the side of my car door.”

“I didn’t do that,” she said immediately, the glint in her eye telling me all I needed to know. Plus, I had reviewed the video footage from the restaurant parking lot. She clearly had done it. “You know you want me. I can see it in your eyes, Garrett. You can’t live without me.”

I walked over to the door and opened it, looking back at her. “I am sure as hell gonna try. Goodbye, Cherise.”

She huffed and grabbed her purse off of the entry table, stopping to look at me on her way out. “Don’t bother calling me when you need someone. I won’t be available.”

“Cherise,” I started, seeing a look of hope in her eyes. “I need that key.”

“You asshole,” she seethed, throwing the key at my chest. “Go to hell.”

I shut the door behind her, locking it for good measure before dropping the spare key in the bowl that I kept on the entry table to empty out my pockets. She would be back, I had no doubts on that, but at least she couldn’t get into the condo. Although, I wouldn’t put it past her to have a spare key lying around somewhere. Cherise, while blonde, was resourceful and I knew she wouldn’t give up the thought of me putting a ring on that finger of hers. To any other normal guy, it made sense. Her father was rich, she was rich, and damn gorgeous even if she was a little crazy. But to me, hell, I wasn’t ready for commitment.

With a sigh, I walked back to the kitchen, opening my soda along the way. That was why I didn’t do relationships. Bed hopping was more fun and a hell of a lot less complicated.