Dearest Billionaire Jett: A Billionaire Romance (Carrington Billionaires Book 1) Read online

  "Okay, so if we’re going to start with the bookstore, then I think we should move down the high street after that..." Micah went on. But I was too distracted to hear him in that moment. Because the notification had been an email, an email from the last person I had expected to hear from.

  I clicked it open. No way that it could be from Olivia. Not that Olivia. Not Tracy’s daughter. Not the same Olivia that I had turned on when we had both been in high school, the Olivia I had teased relentlessly until she basically hid out in classrooms during lunch hours just to avoid me. And if it was her, well, I expected nothing more than a sharp warning from her to stay the hell away from her and her mother as long as I was in town. It was what I would have done if I was in her shoes.

  But, to my surprise, it wasn’t - in fact, it was an email inquiring about the personal assistant that I was looking for, and suggesting herself for the role. I checked the name on the email again – yes, there was no way that it could be anyone other than her. Who else in this town would have known about that position already? I hadn’t so much as posted an announcement yet, and here she was, letting me know that she was keen to get involved. I shook my head as I stared down at the message. Her mother must have overheard me talking about it and decided that her daughter would be perfect for the position. But did she remember – did she remember everything that I had done?

  Surely, she couldn’t have forgotten. I was still tormented by the memories of what I had done to those other kids when I had been in high school. I liked to think that I was a different person now, but that didn’t mean that anyone else had to see me the same way. But Olivia? Olivia didn’t much seem to care. In fact, if anything, she seemed keen to meet with me again.

  "Hey, buddy, you with me?" Micah asked, and I realized that he had been talking the whole time while I had been utterly checked out. I put my phone back in my pocket and nodded.

  "I’m with you," I replied, and he furrowed his brow.

  "Interesting message?" He asked, and I shook my head.

  "Nothing important," I replied, and I turned my attention back to the map in front of us. "Okay, so where were we, exactly?”

  "Like I said, we’ll start at the bookstore..." He explained, and he planted a finger on the map where he intended to begin. I tried my best to keep up with what he was suggesting – but in truth, my mind was heading in a million different directions at once. And all of those paths seemed to lead back to Olivia.

  Chapter Three – Olivia

  "He’s not already there, is he?" I fretted, as I tried to work out what to do with the loose strand of hair that never quite wanted to sit on either side of my face. I flicked it back and forth and found that it didn’t look right no matter where I put it. Great. Just what I needed.

  "He’s not here," Mom assured me. "But he will be soon. Come on, get down here, you don’t want to be late for your interview, do you?”

  "Right," I muttered. "I’ll be there in ten, alright? See you soon."

  "See you!" She trilled down the line, and she hung up, leaving me with nothing but my own reflection staring back at me. It had been such a long time since I’d had to go in for an interview that I had nearly forgotten what it was like to try and pull yourself together and look professional. I had pulled back the long, mousy-brown hair that I had been meaning to get cut for a while into a ponytail, and smoothed it back away from my face. Which, of course, revealed how tired I looked from dozens of shifts where I hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep. I applied some concealer under my eyes and somehow it just made me look worse, like plaster over a cracked floor, so I scrubbed it off and went with mascara instead. I thought the brown on my lashes made the green in my eyes pop, but that didn’t matter, of course, since this was strictly work-related and nothing to do with showing this man who had made my life hell that I was better than he could ever have imagined.

  Nope. Nothing to do with that at all.

  I checked my outfit one last time – simple pants with a blouse that buttoned up to the neck but showed off a little of the shape of my body underneath. I gave myself a quick once over from head to toe and, satisfied that there were no scuffs or price stickers clinging to any part of me, I headed out the door and down towards the diner.

  I had chosen the spot for the interview – I was pretty sure that he still thought I was kidding about this, after all, so he wasn’t going to rent an office space for it. We had exchanged a few abrupt emails, where he had agreed to meet with me in person so we could talk out the details of the job. And I had decided that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it on my home turf.

  The diner was a safe place for me, always had been – Mom had worked there for as long as I could remember, and I knew that he wouldn’t have made many visits to it over the years. He had grown up on the wealthier side of town, far removed from our lives down here, and frankly, he was welcome to it. I had always thought that it was devoid of personality, anyway. At least, that’s what I told myself, to make myself feel better about not living there.

  By the time that I arrived at the diner, I had worked off a little of the excess energy that had been bouncing around my system, and had started to calm down somewhat. This place had been a second home to me – I had done homework in the booths, sat on the counter when I was a kid and helped my mom count out change, even slipped into the back to cover the burners for a little while when there was some emergency and they couldn’t find anyone else to handle it. This place didn’t even have a name, not really – it was just “the diner”, the only one in town worth anything, and people always knew exactly what I was talking about when I referenced it.

  I took my spot in a booth not far from the door so that I could watch for when he arrived. I had no idea what I was looking for here, no idea what kind of man he would have turned into. In my head, he was still the sneering rich kid that I had known when we had both been teenagers, but surely he would have moved on a little from that. Right? Surely...

  As soon as I saw him, I knew that this was the man that I had been waiting for. My heart twisted up in my chest, and it took everything I had not to climb out of that seat and bolt out of there in that very moment. My body still held all that fear, all that anger from before, and I didn’t want to have to sit there opposite him and pretend that I viewed him with anything but total and utter disdain.

  As soon as he walked through the door, all eyes in the place turned to take him in. And I knew it was more than just the fact he was Jett Carrington behind it. He had always been a good-looking guy, from what I remembered, but these days – well, these days, he had gone into outright damn territory. He was wearing a simple black tee that showed off a sleeve of colorful tattoos down his right arm, and his dark brown hair was quiffed back a little to show off his sharp jawline and strong, angular cheekbones. He scanned the room for a moment before his eyes landed on me, and as soon as they did, I felt a little jolt rush through me.

  It was him. It was really him. Until that moment, I had been able to tell myself that this wasn’t real, that it couldn’t be real, but there was no doubt in my mind now that this was the man who had made my life hell for such a long time. I couldn’t believe it. He was there.

  As soon as he locked eyes with me, he came over and planted himself down in front of me, looking at me for a long moment like he was trying to work out if I was really there or not.

  "So, you really came, huh?" He remarked, bluntly, and I couldn’t help but laugh. So he was as shocked that this had actually happened as I was, I could see.

  "I really came," I conceded. “… And so did you."

  "Yeah, well, I had to see if you were being serious or not," he shot back, and his mouth curled up into a smile – it actually reached his eyes this time around, unlike when I had known him back in high school and he had constantly hit me with the endless stream of promises of kindness followed by a bait-and-switch that would leave me looking stupid.

  "I am," I replied, and he tipped his head to the side and just looked at
me for a moment.

  "And can I ask why?" He demanded. I sighed, looked down at the coffee that Mom had brought me, and then back up at him.

  "Look, I’m a nurse," I explained. “Or… I was a nurse. I had a good job till recently, the hospital I worked at had a major downsizing and a bunch of us lost our jobs. Me included, actually. And so I have to find some other way to make ends meet."

  "And your mom heard me talking about needing an assistant?" He finished up. I nodded again.

  "Yeah, and I figured that you would pay better than any nursing position could," I replied. "Just so you know, I’m going to be looking to get back into nursing the whole time I’m working for you. But I can start now, and I know that I’ll be damn good at it. I know how to organize, that’s all that being a nurse really is."

  "You make a compelling case," he replied, and he waved down a waitress and ordered a coffee. He didn’t seem bothered about the fact that I had just told him I would be looking for other jobs as long as we were together. In fact, the thought of it, if anything, seemed to amuse him.

  "Well, as long as you’re going to be honest with me about it," he replied, as the waitress returned with his coffee. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

  "What?"

  "I’d bet that most of the people who work for me are looking to move on to something more solid," he explained. "At least you’re telling me the truth about it."

  My eyes widened.

  "What are you saying?"

  "I’m saying, you’re hired," he told me. "Can you start today? There’s a lot that we need to take care of, and I don’t want to wait around any longer than I already have."

  For a moment, I was sure that he was joking. But then I saw the calm, sure expression on his face, and I knew that this was real. Before I had a chance to think it through for a moment longer, I nodded.

  "I can start today," I replied. And I wondered how I had just managed to land a job with the man that I had promised myself I was never going to let into my life again.

  Chapter Four – Jett

  As I pulled the car into the spot outside my house, and watched her do the same, I couldn’t help but notice how out-of-place her little Mini looked outside my home.

  I had asked her to follow me back to my place so that we could get started on work stuff sooner rather than later, and she had agreed at once – it all seemed a little too easy, if I was being honest, and I wasn’t sure that I trusted her yet. But she climbed out of the car and stretched and stood there waiting for me, and I figured that the only way I was going to be able to find out one way or the other was by getting off my ass and doing this.

  I climbed out of my car, and, a moment later, heard the familiar tapping of claws on the concrete in the driveway – Tesla. I thought about waving away my dog, but if Olivia was going to be working here, then she would need to get used to having her around.

  My Rottweiler bounded up to the new addition to the household, snuffling happily against her legs – Olivia looked a little thrown for a moment, but then put her hand down to pet her on the head nervously. Tesla looked like she could have taken chunks out of you, but in reality, she was harmless.

  "Hey, Tesla! Here girl!” I called to her, and she ran to my side. Olivia had a smile on her face as she watched the dog bound over to join me.

  "I’m still trying to get an actual office space sorted," I explained to her, as I headed towards the door. “... so we’re working from home for the time being."

  "That’s cool," she replied, and she let me lead the way inside.

  "Come in, meet Micah," I ordered her. I knew that I was being a little brisk, but I didn’t have time to wait around here – and if I did, if I stopped and actually thought about what the hell I was doing, then I was more than likely going to see this for the batshit-crazy decision that it was. I had really just hired this woman. I still couldn’t believe that it had actually happened. I was waiting for the penny to drop, for one or both of us to hold our hands up and admit that this was just a gag that had gotten way too far out of hand, but neither of us were blinking right now.

  "Micah’s your partner?" She asked me, as she followed me into the kitchen.

  "I am indeed," Micah announced, as soon as he spotted her rounding the corner he extended a hand to her, and she took it at once.

  "I’m Olivia," she introduced herself, with a cool confidence. "Nice to meet you. Looks like I’ll be working for the two of you from here on out."

  "Oh, will you now?" Micah replied, and he shot a look at me that told me I was going to have to come up with an explanation sooner rather than later.

  "So, we’re looking at putting some money into this town," I explained to her, jumping in to stop Micah before he started coming with the questions so soon after she was through the door. "We want to invest in a few smaller businesses, hopefully keep a few that are struggling afloat. I’m sure you know this town better than we do, your expertise could come in useful."

  "Right," She agreed, and she went over to the map that Micah had still got spread out on the counter. "And what exactly will I be doing day-to-day?"

  "I’m going to need you to man the phones," I told her. “Well… woman them. Ten hours a day, and I want you on call in the evenings too. I’ll pay whatever you want to cover the time lost."

  "Perfect," she agreed. "I have a week left at the hospital, but after that I can start helping you guys out here full-time."

  I stopped in my tracks.

  "A week left?" I asked, more than a little annoyed. She nodded again.

  "Yeah, I have to finish out the last of the contract before it’s dissolved for good," she explained, and I shook my head.

  "Why don’t you just stop going in?” I replied impatiently. "You don’t need to please them anymore, they fired you."

  "Yeah, I know," she muttered, and she glanced at her feet for a moment, as though hearing me say the words out loud was more than she had been ready for. "But I don’t - look, I need to make sure that I do everything right, so that when it comes time for them to give me a reference for another job, they’ve got no reason to hold anything against me."

  "We’ll pay you better," I told her bluntly, and she nodded and sighed.

  "I know," she admitted. "But I just need to finish up there, and then you have my full attention. I can still work on the calls in my off-hours, if that’s any good?"

  "I’ll see what we can do," I replied, but I wasn’t impressed with this. I supposed that actually getting the job had been the last thing that she had expected, and now that she was actually looking down the barrel of working with me, she had to figure out just what that was going to mean for her. I made a fist and released it, trying to dissipate the tension that had rushed through me when she’d said that. I didn’t like it when things didn’t go my way. Didn’t like it one little bit.

  "So, this is where I’ll be working?" She asked, and she looked around the office that we had managed to throw together – I nodded, and she headed over to the chair next to the desk beside the door, the one that I had been working in since I arrived. She flopped down into it and tested it a couple of times, shifting back and forth as though she was getting used to the feel of it beneath her.

  "Okay, well, I’m going to have to get a real chair to work in," she told me brightly, bouncing up once more. "That one is way too uncomfortable, I’ll never get any work done in that."

  "Fine," I replied. "That’s my chair, anyway. I didn’t think that it would fit you as well."

  "Right," she agreed, and she made her way towards me once more – scanning the space around us, she finally snatched up a pen from the counter, not bothering to ask first. She grabbed my hand, flattened it, and quickly wrote out a number on my palm before I could even think to protest. And, if I was being honest with myself, there was something about the feel of her skin against mine that made the words just slip right on out of my head.

  "That’s me," she announced, as she pulled back, dropping the pen in her pocket as thoug
h she had already forgotten that it belonged to us. "I’ll be back as soon as I finish up at the hospital, okay? Nice to meet you, Micah!”

  And with that, she had strolled out the door, and all I could do was stand there and watch her walk out like I hadn’t just hired her for a damn job. I looked down at the number scrawled on my hand, and wondered where in the hell she had gotten all that confidence from. Maybe because she felt like this was her town, not mine, and she knew that she finally had the upper hand.

  "Well, this is going to be interesting," Micah remarked, with a big shit-eating grin on his face.

  "I’m going to take a note of this number," I told him, turning on my heel to get the hell out of that situation before I exploded. Tesla trotted along beside me, and I reached down to pet her. She had approved of the new addition to our team, that was for sure. But I was going to need to blow off some steam – thank God I’d gotten the piano installed when I had arrived first-thing. It was the only thing, beside Tesla, that made me feel calm these days, and it seemed like Tesla had thrown in her lot with the very person who had me feeling so on-edge.

  Micah was right. This was going to be interesting. But I couldn’t tell yet if I was glad, or pissed at the thought of what was to come next.

  Chapter Five – Olivia

  I was just sitting down to have lunch when my phone rang – my heart dropped. What if it was Jett?

  But, instead, I found that Petra was on the other end of the line, and I smiled as I scooped it up and took the call.

  "Well, hello there, stranger!” I greeted my best friend. She had been out of town the last few days, on a conference for architects or something similar, and I had missed her like crazy. We had texted a little while she had been away, but I hadn’t said a word to her about Jett. I wanted to do that in person, preferably over a couple of bottles of wine, so that she wouldn’t lose her mind and call me totally crazy for agreeing to be anywhere even close to this guy.