My Fake Billionaire Damaged Boyfriend
Chapter 15

Dimitri

I wait outside my rival’s workplace, waiting for those light eyes and that tight skirt to come prancing out of the elevator in the lobby. Instead, I watch droves of people come out of the lobby door without much to say or do with me. Still, I wait, tapping my foot slightly impatiently.

Alek comes outside eventually, his smile a little wider than normal. “Hello, friend. What’s going on?”

“Just waiting for Izzy,” I mutter, wishing to avoid him at all costs right now.

He comes over to my car, his arms crossed in a similar pattern as mine are. “Well, I thought she called you, Dimitri.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, she’s just taken on a new project, and she’ll be working late. I assumed she would at least text you that. A little weird that she didn’t mention it. She knew since this morning she would be working late tonight. A personal project from her boss, you know what a stickler he can be.”

I roll my eyes at the humorous light he seems to see himself in. “Yes, well I would prefer if you would just move on with your evening, Alek. I don’t take relationship pointers from you.”

“No, of course not. I’m no one to be giving advice but I will tell you this,” he adds, leaning in closer to the point that I consider slamming my fist into his jaw, “I think your little Miss is upset about something.”

My heart quivers at the thought, “About what? Did you threaten her again?”

He sneers, and I realize I’m under his skin almost as much as he’s under mine. “I don’t know the details, boy. I would just tread lightly. She’s under a lot of pressure at work and moving to the city alone. She’s been through a lot.”

“I know everything she’s been through,” I bite.

His eyes widen like I’ve just told a lie to his smug face. “Oh, okay. Then I guess this doesn’t mean anything to you,” he adds, pulling a note card out of his pocket.

I take the folded sheet of paper and watch him prance off down the sidewalk while waving at me in an afterthought over his head. Either way, I ignore his tantalizing mocking of me and Izzy. He thinks we’re in some kind of relationship and he wants to break that apart.

But on some levels, we kind of are together. I know I told her I wanted to take her on a date first, but that’s just to get the semantics out of the way. I really just want to hold her in my arms and get to know her mind and heart. From what I’ve heard from both already, including her body, it’s been f*****g amazing.

I want more, and I want her to know she can fall gracefully in my arms without the threat of her boss ruining everything between us. But he’s the reason we are spending so much time together. Maybe that’s turning her off now.

Maybe I should just go home.

I clutch the sheet in my hands, eyeing the elevator inside. The security guard is lazy, never seems to care when I come to meet with Alek unannounced. I decide at last and hurry inside the building. The guard doesn’t get up from behind his desk, giving me a short smile as I make my way to the elevator. I’ve already been home and changed out of my suit, my fingertips looking to toy with my cufflinks, but instead, I’m in a dark shirt-shirt and some slacks.

I thought about taking her to the club tonight, but I then decided to just let her pick.

Something tells me she likes my little apartment more than she claims to hate it. Either way, I rock on my heels, waiting for the elevator to hit the top floor. It’s only now that I realize I’ve palmed the paper that Alek handed me outside. Undoing the wrinkles, I pull the sheet out fully, my heat stammering to a dead stop.

“What the…”

Ping.The elevator doors yawn open, and I walk into the offices on the top floor, coming to the mess of cubicles that is this wretched place. I know where she works already, so I hurry into her office, a light cooing sound holding me back just behind the edge of her doorframe.

She’s crying. My body goes numb at the thought of why.

Turning the corner, I see her bent forward against her desk, weeping shamefully into her crossed arms while she’s pressed firmly against the keyboard. It makes me wonder slightly, my steps light as I come around the side of her desk unnoticed.

Her screen is full of scanning code, the hidden search engine unfound even with her flash drive plucked into the keyboard. I finally grow the nerve to brush her shoulder, watching her jolt upright in sudden shock. She stands wearily against the side of her desk as she wipes her face dry, but the splotchy redness in her cheeks and button nose tells me those tears aren’t new.

She’s been crying for a while.

“What the hell happened?” I gust, pulling her into my arms. She fights me slightly, and I assume it’s because I just startled her, but she eventually pries out of my arms and wiggles away from me a few feet. “Hey, Izzy. Talk to me. Did he hurt you? Did he say anything to you today?”

“No, no,” she grumbles, working hard to collect herself like it’s not obvious that she’s drowning in sorrow. “I’m fine, I promise. I was just… I’m so… it’s just overwhelming, that’s all.”

I pluck her flash drive out of the system and hold it between us. “You probably shouldn’t use this here. If Alek found out you had this handy little aid, he would want it for himself.”

“Good point,” she sighs under her heavy exhale.

She takes the flash drive into her palm and steps away again, upset over something still.

I tap my fingers on the desk awkwardly, unsure how to handle this moment. She’s obviously despondent, and I can understand why if she would tell me, but she’s not letting a thing show. If it’s Alek, I’ll make him pay. If it’s just work stress, she can have my bathtub and some wine for dinner.

If it’s something else, I don’t know, I’d handle it. I just don’t want her to cry anymore.

I pull out the sheet that’s been lingering in my hands and hold it out, unsure what to say. She takes it without needing to be prompted further, her bloodshot eyes combing over the text that he’s just thrusted into my possession.

“What happened, Izzy?”

“What do you mean what happened?” Her brows furrow, her tense reaction a bit defensive already. “I was poor, Dimitri. Alright? What did you expect?”

“You told me that people crowdfunded your debts. They read your story and they pitied the fact that you were given away for adoption. I’m just curious about where the money went if you’re still in this amount of debt?”

She backs away slightly, crumbling the sheet into a ball and tossing it into the trash nearby. “It’s nothing that concerns you, Dimitri. I told you everything that I had to say that night. Yes, people pity me. Yes, they gaveme money before, and it did alleviate some of the debt.”

My mind is still in too many knots to make sense of. “Wait, so did it pay off all your debt or are you still—”

“Please, I don’t want to talk about it,” she says, her voice becoming deeper and more distraught.

I want to charge across the room and pull her into my arms, but she wouldn’t be susceptible to that. I can see it in her wilted, teary eyes. But why? What’s the big deal? Why wouldn’t she tell me she’s in trouble with money like this? Sure, we’re not like tightly bonded old friends or something, but I know this woman. I know she can be honest with me. she’s done it before.

Why didn’t she just tell me this before?

“Why are you hiding this from me?” I gust, a bit influenced by the fact that Alek had to give me this information, and not Izzy. “I’m just asking something simple, Izzy. It’s not the end of the world.”

“No, it’s not the end of your world,” she gusts.

I shake my head, still lost in translation with this mix-up. “What is the issue then, huh? Why didn’t you tell me you were in trouble? I could have helped you.”

“Because I don’t need help!”

Her voice bounces off the walls, and I can see now I’ve poked a beehive that wasn’t ready to be trifled with. But it was a simple question. Why is she taking this to such an extreme? Normally I would walk off and give up trying to care, but not with her. Not with Izzy. I care about her too much to just let this blow over us both like some uncontrollable force of nature.

“Are you really down a million dollars?”

She stammers to keep upright, tucking her head down as tears hit her desk where she leans. “It’s a lot of money. I didn’t… I didn’t want people to know how bad it was. When they wanted to write the story to get me some help, I lied about how much I needed. It gave me some money to help, sure, but I still lost the house. I paid off the car, that’s about it. The rest went into getting me here.”

My mouth is dry in shock. I couldn’t give a damn about the amount she’s in the red with, it’s nothing to me but mere pennies. But how does Alek know this? Why would he hand it to me like it’s something she’s purposefully trying to keep from me? Unless maybe she was trying to keep it from me after all. But I can’t imagine why. We’ve been very open with one another.

More open than I’ve been with anyone in a long time.

“Why didn’t you just tell me? How does Alek even have this information?”

She shakes her head at this point, slowly shutting down right before my eyes.

I won’t let that happen. I’m not going to turn this into some f*****g wedge that Alek is so obviously trying to drive between us. I’ll just go home and think about her all night. I don’t want to be sad over losing a woman that is as amazing as her. She’s smart, too damn smart for my own good, and she’s so funny and sweet. She’s strong too, strong enough to get past this with me.

I cross the room and take her petite frame into my hands. She refuses to let me have her fully, but I have to be stern now. I have to put my foot down. I lift her a*s up and set her on the edge of the desk, my lips already breathing in her exhale as I smother her mouth into mine. She hiccups slightly, taking the feeling in long strides that ripple over her precious body.

She shudders, and I hold her tighter, only releasing our lips from the tangled k**s when I can feel her relax in my arms. Pulling away slightly, I stand over her, watching her eyes dry up at last.

“I don’t want you to use me to take Alek down, and I also don’t want you—of all people—to pity me.”

I nod with her claim, understanding how valid that is. “Okay, I understand, Kitten. I don’t pity you. I envy you. You’re better at this work than anyone I’ve ever met. I own a coding company, and I’m not even as good as you are. I could never pity you. I can pity the situation you’re in, but only if you tell me the truth. Alek is trying to separate us because if we break apart, we won’t be strong enough to take him down.”

Her eyes are like honey on my tongue, the taste addictive to the vicious bear of a heart I have. “You’re going to come to my house tonight, and we’re going to settle a few things while we’re there, okay?”

She nods slowly, accepting that suggestion with ease. “Alright, if you say so,” she whispers. “I just… I didn’t want you to think I would use you for your money or anything. I don’t want a handout.”

“Hey, it’s not a handout. I’m going to pay you for the work we’ve done. You’re saving me millions, Kitten. I owe you something, okay? Just promise me you’ll take it and never think that I’m just going to use you and discard you afterward. Please.”

“Yeah, I can do that,” she says.

I relax with those words and hold her into my chest long enough to feel her melt in my arms with ease.

Now, it’s just a matter of getting her to the house and showing her what I’m really working with.

She’s going to have a lot of fun with it, she just doesn’t know it yet.