The Billionaire's Masquerade: Betting On You Series: Book Two (9 page)

“You never cease to amaze me. I knew you could handle it but didn’t expect you to have accomplished anything today.” He normally would have assigned something like this to Wendy to handle. That is what an assistant was for. But when he received the call from his sister, the only person who entered his mind was Elaine. That shouldn’t surprise him; she was all he’d thought about since the moment he’d met her in Jon’s office over a month ago. He was positive the effect she had on him would have worn off quickly as it always had with other women. Instead, each time only enhanced his attraction, his need for her.
Damn it. I really like her.

“Thanks, I have some good contacts. Your father requested I arrive the day before, which I will, but I’m confident everything is in order. You and your siblings should be able to handle it from there.”

She’s not getting off that easily.
The last thing he wanted was to be the go-to person for the party. Things were better, but not that good. “I believe my father wanted you to be at the party.”

“I’m sure he was only being polite when inviting me. This event is for family and friends. I’m neither.”

“My father wouldn’t have invited you if he didn’t want you there. There is another reason for you to be there as well.”

“And what is that?” she asked.

He got up from behind his desk and went to stand by her. “I want you there.”

“Trent. I can’t,” she said softly.

“Can’t what?” he asked as he touched her cheek with the back of his fingers. “Can’t go or can’t kiss me right now?”

“Why did you say that to your father?” She pulled away slightly as she asked.

He had no idea what she was talking about. From her tone, whatever it was seemed to have hurt her. Quickly retracing their conversations that day, nothing jumped out to him. “Say what exactly?” Dropping his hand to his side, he waited.

“You told him that . . . I . . . that I don’t mean anything to you. Why did you say that to him?”

He could see the pain and confusion in her eyes. What he didn’t understand was why she was upset. How was giving her what she wanted causing her to be sad?
You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t!
“You’re asking me why?”

“Yes,” she demanded.

He could feel the frustration build within him. He didn’t want to talk about his father or what he’d said or hadn’t said to him. He wanted to be kissing her, touching her, here and now. Pulling her to him he said, “Because you’ve told me again and again, no one, I repeat,
no one
can ever know about us. I was only keeping my promise to you. I’m not the one with the issue about sleeping together.” He knew his words were harsh. He regretted them once they were said, but there was no going back once they left his lips. He saw her eyes widen in anger.
This was not going to be good.

“You’re right. This is my issue. Thank you for not saying anything,” she said in a controlled tone.

“You can thank me by having dinner with me,” he stated, not wanting the evening to end, especially like this.

“It’s late, and I’m tired.”

It was true, they both had put in a long day, but that had never stopped them before from enjoying an evening together. She was leaving because she was mad. “I didn’t mean to hurt you with what I said.”

“You were being truthful and did what I had asked. I have no right to be angry with you for that.”

He was not being entirely truthful, but didn’t want to mention that now. Hopefully she wouldn’t find out. “Let me take you home.” He pulled her against him and felt her wiggle beneath his fingers. Trent had no intention of letting her leave. Reaching behind her, he slammed the door shut. “Don’t leave.”

Once again Elaine pulled away from him. “Good night, Trent.”

Without saying anything further, he watched her walk quietly out of his office.
I think she still might still be mad.

This was why he had never gotten deeply involved with women before. They were confusing. They say one thing, yet get upset if you do exactly that.
Shit, I don’t have the energy to deal with this. I don’t like her being angry either.

When she arrived home she was physically tired but mentally wide-awake. She’d spent the afternoon working on plans for the Davis family’s celebration. This only rekindled her desire to find out about her parents—who they were and why they gave her up. She had been a baby, from what records she could find. Were they so poor they couldn’t afford to take care of her? Was her mother alone with no support, no other options? Were they like the Davis family, loving and thoughtful? So many questions and absolutely no answers. She’d been searching for answers since she graduated college nine years earlier. Now at thirty-four, she was no closer than she had been then.

The search always ended up the same—empty. She might not know who she was, but she was positive she wasn’t an alien. There had to be a record somewhere. Someone had to know who her parents were. Over the years she’d tried Google searches and found nothing. Then she’d tried looking at local census reports from the time she was born, but that have proved difficult because she was not sure what state she’d been born in. There wasn’t much she remembered about her first foster family. She knew she’d stayed with them until she was almost ten. They were an older couple and unfortunately had developed health issues and could no longer care for her. Things after that weren’t so easy. Finding a permanent foster home as a preteen had been challenging. Over the next eight years she’d gone through three additional homes, each in a different state. Every time she was relocated, she’d felt as though she’d become simply
disposable goods
. The emotional scars had only begun to heal when she had been on her own and had entered college. Elaine couldn’t say she’d had a happy childhood, but she knew she had been luckier than others who had gone through the same system.

The only thing she still had was a few school pictures. Growing up like that, one place to the next, one family to another, had been very difficult. She’d never let herself get close to anyone, learning quickly it would be only temporary. When she looked at the pictures now, she knew that some of the families had given her what they could, even though it had not been what she’d hoped for. She’d spent many nights in front of her computer looking at those old pictures. What a sight she’d been, so tiny with a mass of dark curls that were as unruly as she had been.

What a little terror. She’d always bucked the system and had always gotten caught.
I never seemed to stop back then.
Now she understood—she’d wanted attention. She’d gotten it but not the kind she’d wanted.
Or needed.
When she’d entered high school, her focused had changed. For the first time she’d begun to think of her future. There’d been one special teacher, Mrs. West, who hadn’t put up with any excuses. She had believed in Elaine and had pushed her to be the best she could be, nothing less. All that pushing had paid off; she’d earned a full scholarship to Bryant University in Rhode Island. Elaine would never forget Mrs. West for her never-ending kindness. Every year, a birthday card had arrived, and she’d known who it was from before opening it. And even though she had retired after Elaine’s last year of high school, Mrs. West had come to her college graduation with a bouquet of flowers when she earned her master’s degree. The card inside had stated,
I always knew you could do it!
Though the flowers were long gone, she’d carried the card in her wallet ever since that day.

Mrs. West was the closest she’d ever come to having a family. When she’d passed away five years ago, Elaine once again had felt alone, abandoned. That was when she’d begun her search again, but she’d thought she would leave it to a professional, so she’d hired a private investigator. Almost two thousand dollars later, he’d come back with exactly the same results: a roadblock or records restricted.

It had now been almost a year since she’d worked on finding her parents. She had been very busy running Another Chance, but that had been only an excuse. Reality was, she couldn’t handle hearing the same thing over and over again.
Sorry, we have no information
. Somehow hearing Trent talk about his family had reignited the fire within her. How could she have a future with him or anyone else when she didn’t know her past?

Her stomach growled in protest as it dawned on her she hadn’t eaten since lunch. Elaine went to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of red wine, grabbed a bag of crackers, and headed for the living room. Before she knew it she was sitting on her couch, her laptop opened, staring at the screen.
What is left to try?

Maybe social media was the way to go.
Why not?
Her fingers trembled as she searched for the hottest social media trends. Here she was, thirty-four, and never had a Facebook account or a Twitter account.
I’m so behind the times.
Maybe it was time. She created a user ID and uploaded one of her childhood pictures. She then searched for groups of people also looking for their loved ones. Elaine spent the next several hours reading page after page. There were people looking for their parents, but many others were looking for missing children. It was heartbreaking, and it didn’t take long for her compassionate instincts to kick in. She wanted to help every single one of them. Soon she was connecting them with agencies to help in their searches and forgot the reason she was there in the first place, to find her own answers. She closed her laptop and dragged herself to bed. As she faded off to sleep she thought,
maybe tomorrow.

Only Wednesday?
Elaine rolled over in the bed and shut off the alarm clock. She dragged herself to the coffee pot and cursed herself for not remembering to set it the night before. This was a bad way to start the day. Pressing the on button, she decided to make her usual bagel while waiting. When she opened the refrigerator it dawned on her, she was supposed to stop and pick some up on the way home from work last night. This was all Trent’s fault for getting her so upset before she left work.
Well, maybe not all his fault.
She laughed while she searched for an alternative. Grabbing a jar of peanut butter and a spoon she said, “I really need to do food shopping someday.”

When a day starts this way, there is only one thing to do. Picking up her cell phone, she called Wendy, letting her know she’d be working from home the remainder of the week. Elaine couldn’t believe it when she heard herself say,
I’m fighting a cold.
What a lame excuse. She knew truthfully she was avoiding Trent.

Her job really could be done from anywhere so why shouldn’t she do it from her apartment in pajamas? Going into the office only added to the cover story of working for Davis Enterprises.

Her cell phone rang, and she knew exactly who it was without even looking at it.

“You didn’t look sick last night,” Trent said teasingly.

Pretending to cough, Elaine replied, “I must have caught a chill last night.” She knew she wasn’t fooling him one bit, but she really wasn’t trying to either.

“And here I was thinking you wanted me to come and warm you up.”

I won’t get any work done if he is here.
“Thank you, but I’m all set,” she said.

“I’m glad you are taking it easy and resting up for Friday night. Everything you need for the Masquerade Ball will arrive at your apartment Thursday, so work the rest of the week from home.”

Elaine wished she could control the burgeoning excitement as she thought about the upcoming ball.
You would think I’m sixteen, going on my first date.
At least he wasn’t standing in front of her to read her thoughts. This would be the first time she and Trent could be publicly together without revealing their relationship. She couldn’t wait to see what he had chosen for her. When a woman called for her measurements it had felt odd, but then she had realized the other option would have been to give her measurements to Trent, and that hadn’t appealed to her either.

“Thank you. Will you be picking me up?”

“No, your driver will pick you up at six. He will have your entrance ticket.”

“What will you wear so I can find you?”

“Ah, my sweet Elaine, don’t worry, I shall find you. See you Friday.” Laughing lightly before he disconnected the call, Trent added, “Hope you feel better.”

Getting up from the couch, she went to pick up her work laptop then stopped. Maybe she would take a half-day off. There was a bit of shopping she wanted to do for Friday as well. He wasn’t the only one who could be full of surprises.

***

Trent was concerned when Wendy informed him Elaine had called in sick. He didn’t believe she actually was sick. More likely still pissed off from yesterday.
Oh, that’s right, she’s not mad
. He shook his head thinking back on how angry she had been. Her eyes had turned dark green, and she’d begun to tap her foot. He had been tempted to laugh because no one ever stood up to him like that, especially not someone so damn beautiful. Or sexy. But she was so much more—intelligent, strong, and at times, displayed one hell of a sense of humor.
She needs one to be around him.

Sitting as his desk he began scribbling a few ideas down. Flowers?
No.
Candy?
No.
Jewelry, car, private jet?
No. No. No. How do I make up for a fight we didn’t have when she is mad but says she’s not?

Trent brushed the notepad away in frustration. This was why he didn’t do relationships. They required thought and work and until now he seemed to have been able to avoid them nicely. How was it the one woman who claimed to not want to be involved has found a way to distract him from the one thing he was totally committed to? Work.

He had no intention of apologizing for something he didn’t do. He did however want to show her he cared about her. Wendy, his ever-helpful assistant, would know just what to do here. When he had her on the phone, he said, “I need you to get me numbers of a few people.”

After he rattled off the list, Wendy asked, “Would you like me to reach out to them for you? I would be happy to make the arrangements.”

He was tempted to say yes, as Wendy probably could have done this in her sleep. “I’ve got this one. Thanks.” This was something he wanted to handle himself. Picking up his cell phone, he called the first number on the list. Hopefully Elaine was going to enjoy what he had planned for her.