Niobia Bryant - A Billionaire Affair

“You’re not?” he asked in feigned surprise.

She rolled her eyes. “Surprise, surprise, Mr. I Can’t Keep My Personal Life Out of the Tabloids. Not every straight woman flings herself at your feet. Some of us have more discretion—and taste.”

Alek leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. “Perhaps if you stopped playing businesswoman and focused on finding a life of your own, you wouldn’t have time to watch mine.”

Alessandra fought hard to keep her composure. Gone was her nervousness, replaced by the fire and indignation his attitude evoked. She enjoyed their banter. She even felt rallied by his challenge. “And perhaps your life entails such a long string of women because you’re incapable of satisfying one well enough to stay around,” she said, and then offered him a tip of her head. So there.

Alessandra rose and gathered her files and folders before turning to walk to the door without another look at him.

“Perhaps if you were my type I would show you how well equipped I am at satisfying a woman.”

She froze just as her hand closed around the cool brass of the doorknob. She released a short breath as if a pressure valve had been briefly turned. Allowing herself a five count, she turned and walked the length of the spacious conference room to stand before him. She reached down to grip the back of his chair, bringing their faces just inches apart. His face within a lick of her oxblood-tinted lips, she said, “Physically I am your type, Alek. I am very much your type...and you know it. Humph, it’s only my brain and my backbone that you think are a turnoff.”

His face was a mask of boredom, but his eyes dipped down to her mouth, and Alessandra saw it. Her breath caught and she rose, backing away from him at the truth of her words in his eyes. She knew desire when she saw it. She turned and quick-walked to the door, trying to hide how much he flustered her.

“Qui s’enfuit maintenant?” he asked smoothly in French.

He must have known she spoke it fluently. “Who’s running away now?” he’d asked.

Me. I’m running. Running fast and hard and not stopping one damn bit.

Alessandra didn’t stop her hurried steps until she had left the room and pulled the door closed behind her. With her heart beating rapidly, she licked the dryness from her mouth and allowed herself a moment to press her back to the door as she fought hard to reclaim the coolness she had become known for in the last five years.

Making a pained face, she raised her free hand to lightly knock her wrist against her forehead. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she admonished herself in a whisper.

The man was a chauvinist who made it clear he wanted her out of the company in which they equally owned the majority of shares. He had no respect for her. No desire to work with her or even be around her.

The doorknob turned against her buttocks a moment before it was opened from behind her. Alessandra’s face filled with alarm as she felt her body free-fall backward.

She felt Alek’s large hands wrap around her upper arms. The thin material of her shirt did nothing to protect her from the warmth of his touch as he kept her from hitting the floor. Her head landed on one of his shoulders and her back pressed lightly against his chest.

Alessandra felt nothing but strength.

Quickly she turned, accidentally pressing her body back against the open door. “Th-thank—thank you,” she stuttered, her nerves completely undone by him.

He stepped up close to her.

Alessandra tried to back away more but there was nothing but the unrelenting pressure of the door against her back.

“You’re welcome, Alessandra,” he said softly, before reaching up to lightly stroke her cheek and then her chin before he walked away from her.

She closed her eyes and released a long shaky breath, left with nothing but the warm scent of his cologne and the lingering aftereffects of his touch.

* * *

I wanted to kiss her.

Alek looked back over his shoulder as he walked down the length of the hall leading to his office. He stopped and turned as Alessandra closed the door to the conference room, pressed her files to her chest and then walked across the reception area. His eyes shifted down to the gentle sway of her hips and buttocks in her pants.

Alek considered himself a connoisseur of woman, and Alessandra Dalmount was top-shelf.

Very nice, he thought, not turning away to continue down the hall until she was out of his line of vision.

He walked through the open glass double doors into his outer office.

“Hello, Ms. Kingsley,” he said to the woman whose very appearance was the essence of propriety and no-nonsense.

He wanted it that way. He’d experienced the debacle of a young, sexy secretary with her eye on the wealthy executive. He didn’t need the temptation.

Ms. Kingsley gave him a smile that didn’t reach her cobalt blue eyes. “I entered all your messages on the online log,” she said.

Alek patted the inner pocket over his heart where his iPhone sat. “I got the notifications. Thank you,” he said, moving past her desk to open one of the double doors leading into his office.

“Please get Naim Ansah on the line.”

“Of course, sir.”

With an approving nod, he closed the door and tossed his briefcase on the leather sofa of his reception area before he unbuttoned his silk-lined blazer to remove it and place it on the hanger of the wooden valet standing just outside his private bathroom. Taking his seat behind his massive desk, he signed on to his iPad to check the log of his incoming messages. A few business calls, and at least one message each from his mother, LuLu, his sister, Samira, and his brother, Naim.

He smiled. His return to New York meant more time spent with the family he had left behind five years ago. They visited him often in London, but he was pleased to be back among them regularly. He was sure his mother was already preparing his favorite Ghanaian dish of yam fufu and nkatenkwan. He couldn’t wait to pull off a piece of the fufu ball and dip into the stew of chicken cooked in a rich peanut butter sauce and tomatoes with spices.

His stomach grumbled, but he focused on work instead. It was time to get serious about his plan to shift ADG into commercial aviation, and his younger brother was just the help he needed. Naim was younger than him by five years, but he was ambitiously climbing through the ranks of the company through sheer hard work. Nepotism had gotten him in the door but Naim was out to prove that he deserved his seat at the table. In the three years since he had begun at ADG, he had moved up the ranks from a management trainee to a lead position in the marketing division.

Bzzz.

“Yes?” he said, continuing to scan the message log.

“Mr. Ansah is in a meeting. Would you like me to continue holding?” Ms. Kingsley asked via the intercom.

Alek held his finger above the tablet at the sight of his ex-wife’s name. Kenzay called? His brows dipped as he frowned deeply.

“Sir?” Ms. Kingsley gently nudged.

“No. I’ll see him later,” he said before turning off the intercom.

He leaned back in his chair and swiveled to look out the twenty-foot windows. The warmth of the sunlight framed him as he looked off in the distance at the varying shapes, colors and designs of the neighboring high-rise buildings. Is Kenzay in New York?

Usually they reached out to each other only during those rare occasions they were in the same city.

He’d met the beautiful socialite on the elevator of the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. He’d been staying at the hotel while in the country checking on one of ADG’s numerous oil refineries; she was on a massive shopping spree sponsored by her father, a real estate developer of luxury hotels and mansions. Within hours they were making love against the floor-to-ceiling windows of his presidential suite with the sapphire ocean as their backdrop. Six months later they were married in a five-million-dollar destination wedding in the Maldives. The honeymoon period came and went quickly. Although their nights were filled with hot sex, their days were nothing but bitter arguments and long stretches of cold silence. They agreed neither wanted to be married and they never truly loved each other. By their second wedding anniversary their divorce was finalized.