Mr. Big: A Billionaire Romance (14 page)

They pulled into the parking area for the restaurant and he walked with her holding her hand again. She told herself that it was romantic, though it didn’t feel that way to her. She was still thinking about it when they walked into the entrance and she heard a familiar voice and looked up to see Alexander Daniels standing a few feet away with a beautiful woman at his side.

Alexander was dressed in a tailored suit and he looked, as he always managed to when he was out, like a James Bond hero. The woman who was with him was just a few inches shorter than he was, with dark brunette hair that was carefully styled and pinned up around her head. She had porcelain skin and big, warm brown eyes. Her features were classic and elegant, and she reminded Mia of Audrey Hepburn in many ways. She was wearing a navy dress that covered most of her, while leaving her arms bare. In her hands was a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and Mia felt her heart stop when she saw all of it.

Logan was mumbling about having to wait when they had reservations and Mia wished that there was somewhere that she could hide, some way to vanish, some way to hide the pain she felt in her heart from showing on her face, but there was no way. Alexander turned then and looked at her and she saw several emotions cross his face.

He looked subtly surprised for a moment, and then hurt, and following that, he looked curious and then annoyed as his eyes moved to Logan who was standing silently beside Mia, still clutching her hand while he looked around the restaurant.

Mia sighed. There was no one else waiting for a table, only the four of them, and they were in such small quarters that there was no way to ignore one another and avoid having to say hello.

She nodded at him and took a few steps toward him. “Hello Alexander,” she said quietly.

“Good evening,” he replied in a monotone voice.

Sighing softly, she indicated Logan. “Alexander, this is Logan Parker. Logan, this is Alexander Daniels.”

Logan looked surprised that she knew anyone there and he smiled and reached his hand out to Alexander. Alexander seemed to give it a snug squeeze before he let it go. He turned to the beautiful woman at his side and smiled at her.

“Emily, this is Mia James and Logan Parker. Logan, Mia, this is Emily Hawthorne.” Emily reached her hand out to shake Mia’s hand, and Mia felt like her heart was going to break right in two at having to shake the hand of the woman that Alexander had taken to the restaurant where he had promised to take her. Somehow, Mia made it through the woman’s gentle handshake, and they smiled at one another.

The maître d’ arrived and nodded to Alexander and Emily. “Right this way,” he said with a smile, and Alexander and Emily nodded at them, while Emily wished them a nice evening and Alexander did the same, his eyes lingering on both Logan and Mia before he turned and walked away.

Mia wanted to turn and run from the restaurant. She wanted to bolt from it as far and as fast as she possibly could, but there was no escape, the damage was already done. It couldn’t get worse from that point.

“How do you know him?” Logan asked curiously as they waited to be seated.

She felt her heart catch in her chest and she tried to act nonchalant. “Oh, he’s a business associate,” she said offhandedly. It was another half-truth. She had worked in his office for one day.

Logan nodded and his attention turned to looking around the restaurant once more. The maître d’ returned and they were seated a few minutes later. She cringed inwardly when she saw that they were seated not far from Alexander and Emily. They were far enough away that there would be no way to overhear conversations, but they were close enough that there was no way not to see them as they dined.

Logan noticed where they were as well and he raised his hand and waved, and Alexander and Emily both nodded back. Logan sat down and looked thoughtful.

“Would you like me to invite them over to dine with us?” he asked, looking up at her.

Mia felt like an earthquake had struck her inside as panic shot through her. “Oh, no… they’re obviously on a date. Let’s let them have their evening and we’ll keep ours to ourselves as well.” She took a long slow breath and tried to still the adrenaline that had shot through her with lightning speed.

They ordered wine and dinner and Mia did her best not to look up at Alexander, but it was unavoidable, and she found herself glancing in his direction more times than she wished to. She was surprised to realize that several of those times, he was looking back at her, though his expression was completely unreadable.

Logan talked on and on about small inane subjects, and she tried to listen and agree now and then, but her mind and her attention were almost entirely focused on the man sitting not too far from her; the man whose eyes continued to peer into her as if there was nothing in her that he could not see.

She wondered at his uncanny ability to look at her that way and she remembered that he had looked at her like that right from the first moment that he had met her. She wished it away to no avail. No matter how subtle she tried to be, she could not hide the fact that her eyes were like a magnet to him, and the more she saw him looking at her, the more she wanted to go to him and explain what had happened, to tell him that she was sorry for everything, and that it had all changed as she had gotten to know him, but there was nothing but space and silence between them, and intense eye contact again and again.

Mia tried her best to focus on dinner and Logan, though it was a considerable struggle for her. As they were finishing their meal, she glanced up at Alexander again, and the intense look in his eyes completely undid her nerve. She wasn’t able to take it any longer.

“Logan,” she said with a small smile, “would you please excuse me? I’m going to the ladies room.”

He nodded and stood up, helping her with her chair as she left, and then he sat back down and she hurried away from the table, trying to still the storm that was becoming a raging tempest inside of her.

She pushed the door open to the ladies room and rushed inside, bending over and trying to catch her breath as emotion cascaded through her like a massive tidal wave. She wasn’t able to push any of it away. She had actually begun to believe that she was going to be able to get over him, particularly by being with Logan, but as the night had worn on, she realized with increasing dismay and worry that she was not going to be able to do any such thing, and that trying to use Logan to get over Alexander was unfair of her. Logan genuinely liked her, and she knew it, and she didn’t feel the same about him and she knew she never would.

Mia admitted to herself that she was going to have to stop her plan to date Logan. It wasn’t going to go anywhere and he deserved to be with a woman who wanted him for himself, rather than as an escape mechanism. She took one of the face cloths from the basket by the sink, ran it under cool water and then pressed it to her face for a moment, trying to calm herself.

Alexander had moved on. She needed to do the same, but by letting him go, rather than trying to replace him. He was obviously not interested in knowing what had happened, or in knowing what had changed between them. It was something he just didn’t care about and she told herself that she was just going to have to accept that and move on, leaving that conversation behind her. It just wasn’t important to him and he was never going to let her have the moments she so desperately wanted with him to explain everything. He was never going to listen, and it didn’t matter to him. He knew what he knew, and he was not interested whatsoever in anything else. It was hard for her to accept, because it meant so much to her to try to explain it all, but it was never going to happen with him.

She shed a few hot tears, releasing some of the stress in her, and then she wiped them off of her face with the cloth and touched up her hair and makeup. Taking a deep breath she told herself to finish her date with Logan and then tell him that it was best if they only had a business relationship. Then she would never go to Hastings again, because she knew she couldn’t bear to see Alexander with anyone else. It had been a mistake to even go there to begin with, and she was paying dearly for it.

Mia took a deep breath and walked out of the restroom and straight into Alexander’s chest and arms. He reached around her as she walked into him, only to stop her and steady her. She gasped and stared up at him with wide eyes. The feel of his strong arms around her made her heart race so fast she wasn’t sure she could stand it.

He frowned and moved his hands to her shoulders, pushing her back a little from his body. “I was just about to go in after you! You’ve been in there forever!” he scowled at her.

She blinked in consternation and shook her head. “What are you doing waiting out here for me?” she asked in confusion.

He narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing here in this restaurant?” he asked in an accusatory tone.

Mia furrowed her brows. “I happen to be on a date! I didn’t know you were going to be here!”

“You know this is my favorite restaurant!” he snapped back at her. “And who is this guy Logan, anyway? Are you sleeping with him for measurement purposes as well?” he shot at her with a nasty tone.

It hit her hard. She bit her lip and looked down and Alexander’s angry face softened and looked away from her for a moment.

“I’m just having dinner with him, that’s all, and I didn’t know you were going to be here,” she said quietly, looking up at him with anger and sadness in her. “Look, I know I made a mistake with you, but you don’t have to throw it back in my face like that. I told you I was sorry and I wanted to explain what happened, but you just aren’t going to let me, so let it go, okay?” she said shortly.

His eyes were locked on her, and his hands closed tighter around her shoulders as he looked at her. “Why did you come here with him? You could have gone anywhere in the city!” he said angrily.

She lifted her chin and looked up at him defiantly. “It just kind of happened! Besides, what do you care where we are or what we are doing? You’re here on your own date! You don’t see me asking you all about Emily!”

Alexander’s frustration was crystal clear. “What I’m doing here with Emily is my business!”

Mia kept her chin pointed out at him. “Well, what I’m doing here with Logan is my business and it doesn’t concern you at all!” she threw back at him.

He shook his head as the frustration in him mounted, “It does when it’s you!” he said angrily.

“It doesn’t! You don’t even talk to me! You never wanted to see me again! Nothing I do concerns you because you want no part of me!” she flared furiously.

Alexander tried to speak, but the words stopped before he spoke them, he shook his head, but could not seem to make himself say what he wanted to, and suddenly he pulled her to him, his hands clamped on her shoulders and he kissed her hard on the lips.

Her eyes flew wide open as he moved his mouth over hers roughly, and everything in her stopped in a single moment, until his arms went around her and crushed her body to his, and then everything in her combusted simultaneously and she was overwhelmed by the fire that consumed her.

She succumbed to him, giving in to the need and desire she felt so deeply for him, giving in to anything he wanted from her. She closed her eyes and parted her lips as he thrust his tongue into them and demanded with it that she kiss him in return. She lost herself in the wildfire that burned through them both, and her body ached everywhere for him, but no part of it ached as much as her heart did for him.

A soft moan escaped her and at the sound of it, his kiss grew deeper and more urgent, and she felt him push her back up against the wall. His hands began to travel from her back to her hips and he grasped them tightly, squeezing his fingers into the soft curves, and he pulled her hard against his massive solid erection. She gasped and grew breathless as he moved it against her, filling her with a fiery need for him. She closed her arms tightly around his neck and kissed him with all of the passion in her.

Suddenly he pushed her away from him, his face flushed, his breath ragged, his chest heaving, and he shook his head. “I wanted every part of you!” he said gruffly, “You just didn’t want me for more than your ticket to Italy.”

With that he took a long deep breath and turned away from her as she panted and tried to calm her breath and her heart, and she watched him walk away from her, leaving her standing there against the wall alone, burning for him, as tears coursed down her cheeks.

He disappeared around the corner back into the restaurant, and she returned to the bathroom and cleaned her face again, wiping away the tears and trying to subdue them from continuing to cascade from her eyes.

She couldn’t believe he had fought with her and kissed her, making her want him more in that moment than she ever had. She couldn’t believe he walked away from her again, and that there was nothing she could do about it, but more than all of that, she couldn’t believe that he had told her what he had; that he had wanted every part of her. She knew he was telling her the truth. She knew that he wasn’t holding anything back from her, and she wished that he had told her that before, and she wished that she had been honest and told him about the challenge when she still had a chance to talk with him. When she could have tried to save everything with him, but all of that was gone, and he had gotten her back in some small way.

Steadying herself and wiping once more at her face, she left the restroom and went back to her table. Logan was waiting quietly and patiently for her. He rose up from his chair and helped her to sit down again.