Page 34 of Trapped with the Billionaire

“Closed.” I lifted the mug. “And thank you.”

She smiled and shut the door behind her.

I hadn’t been entirely truthful about the day. The first two flights had been terrible, but I had gotten to meet Nicole. The third flight, with us on the couch, and finally her in my bed last night had certainly provided a more-than-adequate end to the day. Waking up with my arms around her this morning had been even better. My cock swelled with the memory.

I opened the file on Tuscan Foods, but then put it down. I had something else to do first.

Closing my eyes, a picture of Nicole came to mind. Long, light-brown hair, wonderful green eyes, a cute nose, and a cuter smile. I composed a text to the number I’d added to my contacts last night. I sent it after changing the suggested day to tomorrow. It might take her some time to get her phone replaced.

ME: Josh here - how about dinner Tuesday? You can tell me how you ended up in that beautiful old house

I hit send. She deserved a proper date after all she’d been through, and then we’d see.

Next I called Phil again.

He assured me he’d finish the repairs to Nicole’s house today, and he had a glass guy ready to roll.

Returning to the Tuscan file, things got progressively murkier as I pored over the limited financials. They carried a large debt load, which had grown over the years. That in itself was concerning. Operating cash-flow had been inconsistent, from what I could tell, but with only a few pages, there wasn’t much to go on.

I could only guess that, like a lot of family businesses, they’d promoted based on nepotism rather than performance, and slowly lost their edge. Without an outside force to shake up their ways, a lot of family firms became progressively out-of-date in their methods.

I closed the folder, followed by my eyes, and imagined a dinner across from Nicole. What would she wear? I’d call her this afternoon and see if she’d gotten her phone replaced. Maybe we could move up our dinner.

Being a gentleman last night with my arm around her had been the right thing to do since she was drunk. Why was the right thing so damned hard?

Chapter 9

Nicole

I waitedin the throng at the jail.

Lara came out the doorway of the jail and walked sullenly my way, manila envelope in hand. “You hung up on me. I was afraid you wouldn’t come,” she said.

“I didn’t hang up; my phone died.” It hurt that she’d thought I would abandon her.

She gripped me in a fierce hug. “I can’t thank you enough.” She sniffled. “I owe you.”

She most certainly did, but this wasn’t the time nor place to tell her what she owed me was to get her life straightened out so I didn’t have to make any more trips to Three-B.

“I came as soon as I could.” I pushed her to let me loose. “Let’s get you home.” I needed to know more, but not here, not with everybody around. “The car’s out front.”

Lara walked with me through the doors that represented a return to freedom. The look on her face as she turned it toward the sunshine was one of relief. “Two days in this hellhole. I could kill him.”

“Shh,” I warned her. “You can tell me in the car.”

Talk of revenge with deputies walking by was a sure recipe for more trouble, not less.

She grimaced and followed me in silence.

I unlocked the car door, and she climbed in. She tore open the envelope, and her paltry personal effects from lockup spilled into her lap. She counted her money three times.

I pulled out of the parking space. “You really think they’d steal from you?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them.” Her phone got the same careful scrutiny before she started working her seven earrings and studs back into place. Lara wasn’t one for symmetry.

I cringed when she stuck her tongue out and struggled to replace the silver ball stud she wore there.

“You know it would be easier to get hired without that.”

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