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My Billionaire Boss
My Billionaire Boss Read online
Bonus Content
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
A Secret Baller’s Baby
Chance with an Asian Billionaire
Falling for an Asian Billionaire
Love in the Dark
Owned & Claimed
Desires Between Us
Fated Russian Mobster’s Wife
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My Billionaire Boss
By Bella Gold
Copyright © 2016
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
[See Next Page for Bonus Stories]
Table of Contents
Bonus Content:
A Secret Baller’s Baby
Chance with an Asian Billionaire
Falling for an Asian Billionaire
Love in the Dark
Owned and Claimed
Desires Between Us
Fated to a Russian Mobster
Chapter One
“Okay,” I muttered to myself, while fiddling with the buttons on my blouse once more. “You can do this, it’s going to be okay.” But, unfortunately, no pep talk was going to do it; there was nothing that I could say to reassure myself. I was scared as all hell, and that’s all there was to it.
To be honest, a lot of the problems lay on my shoulders. I was piling all this pressure on myself, freaking myself out when there may not have been any reason to. I’d just spent all the twenty-three years of my life trying to land a position this lucrative, and I did not want to screw it up. I’d worked hard in school, missed out on all the amazing parties, just to land a highly sought after place at an Ivy League school – Yale was the one I chose in the end – just to make something of myself. I always felt the need to prove myself, and this would be a great way to do that.
See, I grew up in a very male-dominated world, and that gave me a drive like no other. I didn’t have my mom around; she left when I was only a baby, leaving me with my older brother, Mike, and my dad. My dad was a high-powered attorney and my brother was always an academic genius, leaving me feeling a little inferior. That sensation could have taken me one of two ways: I could have given up and squandered my life, or I could have fought, worked hard, and proven that I was worthy too.
Clearly, I picked the latter.
That only got worse when my dad met Raquel and they quickly got married. She was the first woman to ever come into my life, but she didn’t seem to have any maternal instincts either. She was career focused, driven, and another inspiration. She had a son, one who was a few years older than me, Ethan, who had much more of a laid-back attitude to life, but by the time I met him it was too late. I’d set myself a goal of obtaining a high-powered career, and that was all that I wanted.
Funnily enough, after working my ass off, forgoing friendships, dedicating all of my time to trying to find a way to carve out such a job for myself, it was actually Ethan who ended up helping me. His friend from his school days, Mason Trent, had gone on to create a company of his own – which was a surprise to everyone because he was always just as laid back as Ethan – and my stepbrother had secured me an interview there.
Somehow, despite all of the nerves and anxiety, I’d managed to nail the interview and now I was about to have my very first day. I worked hard at mathematics, I knew numbers well, but I was still absolutely terrified about finding myself on the trading floor of the stock market. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly going to be high powered since I was having to learn the business from the ground up, and the pay wasn’t exactly as high as I’d have liked, but it was a start. I was becoming so desperate that I would have taken anything at that point.
Still, I would be working closely with Mason, and from what I remembered, he was a nice guy. Cute too, with his soft, brown hair and buttery-colored eyes. Not that I’d ever think about crossing that boundary. I was just glad to have a friend to help show me the ropes.
I smoothed my dark hair back, hoping that a long ponytail would be smart enough for what was required of me. I had natural-looking makeup covering my slightly olive skin, although I’d highlighted my green eyes because I was often told that they were my best feature. Then I turned to check out my butt in the pencil skirt before forcing myself to leave my apartment. Turning up late for work on my very first day was not the impression that I wanted to give.
Luckily I lived right in the heart of the city, so my new high-rise office block was within walking distance, making the job even more appealing to me. I hated the subway, I certainly didn’t want to include that in my commute if I could help it, so I would just have to work that much harder to ensure that I kept it.
As I stood outside the building that would define my future, I felt my heart pound heavily in my chest and my mouth run dry. My fingers were even trembling under the fear of it all, but there was a heavy determination there too, the same dedication that had gotten me this far in life.
My heels clicked noisily along the marble ground as I made my way through the reception area and towards the elevator. I sounded like a professional, and I probably looked like one too, but inside I felt a bit like a fraud.
“Oh, erm… yes,” I answered, sounding a little more unfriendly than I’d like. “You too?”
“Yeah, are you a secretary too?”
How the hell was she so confident? Why didn’t she seem to share any of the self-doubt that was plaguing me right now? It didn’t seem fair at all!
“Erm, no, actually I’m going to be a trader.”
Her eyes widened in shock and she turned to face me head on. As I ran my eyes all over her, I realized that she had a really sweet look to her. She had blonde, cropped hair, bright-red lips, flushed cheeks, and a heart-shaped face. There was something about her that actually drew me in and made me want to be her friend. The only problem was I wasn’t much experienced at having close friends.
“You are?” she gasped. “Wow, that’s usually a male job, isn’t it? I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to do that.”
“Well, I grew up around all guys,” I told her with a casual shrug. “So I’m sure I’ll be okay. Plus I know Mason a little.”
“Mason Trent?” her face screwed up, and she actually looked unimpressed. “Was he always so… you know?”
That totally took me aback. “So what?” Yes it was surprising that Mason had achieved so much, which meant he obviously wasn’t exactly the same guy that I knew back then, but he was still a great guy, wasn’t he?
“You know… bad tempered?” she actually glanced around her as she spoke, as if afraid of being caught. It was absolutely ridiculous.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to query her more because at that moment, the elevator arrived and we had to get inside with lots of other people. As we traveled upwards, my mind whirred like crazy. All I could remember of Mason was him laughing and having fun. If anything he was more of a prankster than anything else. He was so fun loving, she had to be wrong about him. It had to be just crazy rumors, I would soon see that it was all just meaningless gossip and everything would be all right.
As the ping rang out, the doors flew wide open, revealing a crazy busy trading floor. “Well, I guess this is it,” the woman who I hoped would become my new friend hissed at me. “Let’s do lunch. I’m Carly by the way.”
“Mel,” I whispered back. “And I’ll see you later on.”
As I walked forwards, I felt totally out of my depth. So much so that I almost turned on my heels and ran. I slowly moved my head from side to side, drinking every bit of it in, and it instantly felt like a place where I really didn’t fit in one bit. This was nothing like growing up with guys everywhere; this was men in business suits, yelling and screaming for as far as the eye could see.
“Right, everyone,” a booming voice rang out over the whole room, commanding so much attention that everyone actually hushed down.
My eyes followed where everyone else was looking, and my heart jolted with recognition as I saw a very familiar vision in front of me. Sure, he was all pinned into a suit rather than the casual band tee-shirt and chinos that I was more used to seeing him in, and he’d cropped his long curls back into a starker style, but it was him all right: the man who’d gotten me the job.
Mason Trent.
“Now, I’ve just had a phone call from Wix International, and as it turns out our very own Jack Gell has lost them lots of money.” He had that sarcastic tone in his voice that I really hated. I much preferred it if people were more honest about their feelings. “Hundreds of thousands, so of course now we need to fire him.”
Everyone turned to look at the poor sucker that was being called out in front of everyone, which made my heart ache with sadness. He looked heartbroken, embarrassed, and devastated… but not surprised. Was this sort of thing common? Was this the sort of humiliation that was doled out every single day? I didn’t like that one bit, I hated the idea of everyone looking at me that way; it was such a powerful emotion that I nearly ran all over again. It wasn’t a good sign that I hadn’t even started working yet and I’d already wanted to leave more than once.
I felt my feet slowly edging backwards, as if my brain had concocted the plan to sneak out without me even realizing, but before I could get anywhere, Mason’s eyes traveled around the room to find me. It was almost as if a magnet were between us, fixing our gaze on one another, and as he looked at me, I found myself frozen. I couldn’t have moved even if I wanted to.
Maybe he’s had to be tough to get by, I tried to justify his behavior lamely to myself. Maybe he is the same guy deep down. Maybe I should give him a chance.
“Back to work.”
The noise and commotion all started up again, but I couldn’t really hear any of it. It was as if it’d lunchtime by the vision of Mason walking towards me. He no longer looked mad, just intrigued, and that had me pinned to the spot.
“Mel Johns,” he grinned as he got near enough to talk to me. “I forgot that you were starting work today.” I half expected him to say that it was good to see me again, something along those lines, but despite his smile, there was an intensely icy demeanor about him. “Have you met Derrick yet? That’s who I have you working alongside.”
“Erm, no,” I bumbled, my whole face heating up with humiliation. “No, I just got here so I haven’t met anyone yet. But erm, yeah, thank you for hiring me.”
“Well Ethan informed me that you’re a hard worker, so I expect that you’ll do well here.”
“Oh right, thank you…” I said, to the back of his head. He’d already turned away and moved on to someone else, making my heart sink with shock. He really did seem different; maybe Carly was right and his temper was foul. Urgh, I didn’t want this to be a mistake, but how could I see it as anything else?
So much for my friend showing me the ropes; it seemed like I was on my own with this one. I just hoped that I could do it, and that I wouldn’t let anyone down.
Chapter Two
"Will you hurry up?” Derrick whined at me in that condescending tone he’d been using all day. “Seriously, this stuff is not that hard to grasp. Why is it taking you so long?”
I growled to myself, almost reaching my breaking point. I wanted to scream at him, to tell him that this filing system was ridiculous and that no one could possibly understand it in only a few hours, but I didn’t. I couldn’t; he was already treating me like dirt just because I was a woman, so I didn’t want to complain. I didn’t want to do anything to make my failings stand out.
I would just have to work harder, faster, better to prove myself. I could do this, even if Derrick was an asshole. Soon I hoped to overstep him, to work above him, and then I could get my revenge.
Luckily I didn’t have to answer Derrick, because Mason swept into the room, changing the demeanor of absolutely everyone. The guys stood up straighter, paid him all of their attention, acted like his little puppets. It made me screw my nose up in disgust; what a load of ass kissers. I knew that you had to do whatever to get by, but I didn’t think I could ever stoop so low.
“For fuck sake, Hank!” Mason screamed in that awful tone once more. “Do you want to follow Jack out the door today? I don’t have time for this bullshit.”
The poor guy walked in behind Mason, proving to me that Mason liked to have an audience for his bullshit. He didn’t like to just give someone the telling off the deserved; he wanted everyone else to see. Whether it was all part of his crazy dictatorship, or he just wanted to keep the others in line I wasn’t sure, but it totally sure that this was the best way to go about it.
“How are you going to fix it?” he demanded. I looked up to see Derrick smirking, which wound me up even further. I bet he didn’t look so happy when he was on the receiving end of public humiliation. “What are you going to do?”
“Erm… I…” he was floundering, totally falling apart under the pressure of it all, which everyone else seemed to be loving. They was all horrible, all the same side of a very ugly coin, and it made me feel sick to my stomach. This wa
s messed up, a horrible world, and inside I vowed to myself that as grateful as I was to Ethan for helping me out, I would start looking for another form of employment as soon as possible. I just hoped that it wouldn’t be so difficult now that I already had some form of employment.
I felt terrible even being in the same room as this berating, so I stood up and made my way as discretely as I could to the bathroom. I tried to keep my eyes fixed on my feet as I went, trying not to draw any attention to myself, but at the very last second I found myself drawn back towards Mason, and he was staring at me too with a question in his eyes.
As I burst free through the doors, I felt the tension in the room lift from my shoulders and I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding. That was utterly unbearable, but for now it was something that I was going to have to get used to. It seemed like the sort of thing I would see all day long.
I locked myself in the toilet cubicle for a second, allowing just one single tear to fall. I certainly didn’t want to be the sort of person who cried on her first day of work. I hadn’t slaved away for that, yet here I was all the same. I never thought it would be easy, that wasn’t what I’d come in to this thinking, but I never thought it would be this dreadful either. Maybe it would get easier, but I wasn’t totally convinced that it would.
I brushed my face quickly as I heard the bathroom door swing open, not that anyone could see me, and I realized that the person speaking was a voice I recognized.
“…yeah, I know; can you believe it?”
It was Carly, and judging by her excitable tone, she was having a much better first day than me. I wanted some of that infectious enthusiasm to roll off onto me, and I also really needed to keep up with our lunch plans, so I took a deep breath as quietly as I could, and I emerged back into the public eye.
My Billionaire Boss