Page 37 of My Fake Billionaire Damaged Boyfriend

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 fucking 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 ass 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 kiss 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.

CHAPTER16

Izzy

Inearly fall asleep in the front seat of Dimitri’s car. He’s driving so fast and recklessly that I should stay awake, but it’s not enough. Instead, I’m fighting through my heavy eyelids to keep focused while curled into a tight ball in his passenger seat.

He’s not headed for the Smith tower. Instead, he’s going somewhere else, somewhere further away from downtown. It’s a questionable move, but I’m not in the interest of asking where we’re headed. I just lay back and try to steady my beating heart that fights to stay calm while I’m battling myself on the inside to just stay awake.

Eventually, I don’t win that fight, and I slip into a dark world of mild dreams and unrelenting nightmares. They shift back and forth recklessly, forcing me to toss and turn on the cloud where I lay until I can’t stand it anymore! My parents’ faces flicker through my mind, then Alek’s voice, jolting me out of my sleep.

“Ah!”

I sit up, panting and out of breath, my head covered in a fresh sheen of sweat. My limbs are aching, my bones are stiff, and every muscle in my body is twisted and tight. I need a break. I need a minute out of this life to just recollect my thoughts and come back. But for now, I’m distracted.

This isn’t Dimitri’s apartment.

It’s a dark room, with darkly painted walls and normal windows covered by darkening shades. The floors are like black oak, the ceiling a modest navy hue that matches the ombre effect of lighter paint colors coming down to the baseboards.

It’s a huge room, even bigger than the room he has in the tower, but it’s cold. I take the blanket with me as I walk out of the bedroom, clinging to the fake fur texture of the comforter that drags behind me like some kind of king’s cape. It’s a wonderful thought, a rich one, too, but it’s short-lived in my optimistic thoughts right now.

There’s a typing noise that catches my attention, the sound so quick that it’s nearly impossible to be human. I hurry to follow the sound, hearing it ring through the endless hallway that’s better off as a New York fashion week runway.

Or that of an airplane hangar, my ankles sore when I finally reach the end of the hall near the noise.

I poke my head around the corner of the open door, seeing Dimitri pace in three-step increments. He is glued to the sight of his computer screen, something about the fluttering text and code making him mad. Even with my eyesight a bit blurry after sleeping for what feels like an eternity, I can see my flash drive pokingout of the side of his setup.

“It won’t work,” I mutter, my croaking voice seeming to wake him out of a deep stupor of thought. “He changed the algorithm. Flooded it with too much code and then ran my flash drive against it.”

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