Once Upon A Beast: A Billionaire Fairytale Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Epilogue

  Once Upon A Beast

  A Billionaire Fairytale

  By Evie Monroe and WSJ Best Selling Author KB Winters

  Copyright © 2018 Evie Monroe and BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 Evie Monroe and BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Contents

  Once Upon A Beast

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Free Book Offer!

  Acknowledgements

  About The Author

  Chapter 1

  Zach

  I lifted my head from the pillow and tried to figure out who was hammering in my ear in the middle of the night. I checked my Apple Watch for the time. Oh. It was 9 a.m.

  I wasn’t in the habit of getting up before noon — hell, I didn’t get up at all if I could avoid it. It had been weeks since everyone stopped bothering to get me out of the house. My brother had quit visiting, and even the members of the board who relied on me to keep the business ticking seemed to accept I wasn’t going to emerge from my bed any time soon.

  Life was too fucking much these days. I’d gone from top of the world to the pits of hell in a split-second, and the fall from top to bottom had knocked all the air out of me. I still hadn’t caught my breath. This was the worst I’d ever felt in my life.

  First of all, my dad died, unexpectedly. Sad thing was, he seemed so full of life the last time I’d seen him, and just like that, he was gone. It still hurt to think about it, a deep void in my chest busting open every time I remembered he wasn’t with me anymore.

  I threw myself at the business back when he was alive, reminding myself how proud he was of me and how deeply he wanted me to succeed. And I had exceeded all expectations, up until then. I’d come up with The Exchange, a new method of exchanging basic things that were applicable across dozens of industries. It had already made me millions of dollars and climbing. I worked my ass off for ten years to get it off the ground, and it had granted me the kind of lifestyle I’d always dreamed of. Fast cars, hot women, a big house in the country and a penthouse in the middle of the city. Yes, life was great back then. But now, this enormous mansion felt gaudy and garish and empty without anyone in it but me.

  I’d put so much time into the business, I had none left for my personal life—not even my father. That was the final straw. I’d thought my fiancée would stick around through it all, but I was dead wrong. She took me aside, three months after Dad died, and I knew before she said anything where the conversation was going.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” I muttered as she delivered the news. But all she did was blink at me sadly with those gorgeous gray eyes that had landed her on the front page of dozens of fashion magazines over the years.

  “I don’t need to come first all the time, Zach,” she sighed. Then I noticed exhaustion in her voice that had been there the last few months. Only I hadn’t paid any attention to it until now. “But I have to come first some of the time,” she added.

  And with that, she left. The last little thread that connected me to the real world pulled away, and I was left crashing to the ground . So, I retreated to my mansion and refused to come out.

  At first, everyone seemed keen to allow me time to mourn my father—and my relationship. In fact, they indulged me. Even Johnny, my brother, gave me his blessing to take some time off for myself to heal from everything I’d been through. But, a few days turned into a few weeks, which turned into a few months, and before I knew it, I was lost in a full-blown depression. Listless and miserable, wondering what the fuck to do with my life and wanting everyone to leave me the hell alone.

  My business was crumbling, the few friends I had before everything went south drifted away because, apparently, holding on to me was proving to be way too much effort.

  Fuck ‘em.

  I wouldn’t want to be stuck with someone like me either, not in the state I was in. Like some fairy-tale villain—miserable, angry and dismissive of human companionship—I wanted to be left alone. But be careful what you ask for, as they say. Because that’s what I got. Every last one of my so-called friends let me hide out in this stupid mansion I’d built for Alana and me so I could drown in an ocean of self-pity.

  Boo-fucking-hoo.

  So, what had woken me up? I sat up and looked around, then, I heard it again. A knock on the door. The sound had pierced through whatever fitful dream I’d been having and pulled me back into wakefulness. Not what I wanted at this god-awful hour of the morning. I growled at the
noise. Who the fuck was here to see me now? No one I wanted to see, that was for goddamn sure. I buried my head under the pillow and willed the nuisance to go away.

  The next knock was louder, and the one after sounded like a damn wrecking ball. Letting loose a few of my favorite four-letter words, I knew I’d have to deal with the unwelcome visitor if I hoped to get any peace, so I grabbed my robe from the edge of the bed, quickly wrapped myself up in it, and headed downstairs, my grumbles increasing with each step.

  I took a peep through the doorbell camera viewer and saw a frazzled, nervous woman, tapping her foot on the step and glancing back at the door at periodic intervals. Do I know her? Should I know her?

  She lifted her hand to knock again just as I pulled open the door. Her fist hung in mid-air, and she stared at as though I might be an ax murderer. I didn’t blame her. All the toothy press photos I’d taken for the PR stories on the company were null and void by now, with my beard grown out and my hair jutting at weird angles from my head, I certainly didn’t look like the owner of a mansion. The suits had been replaced by whatever smelled cleanest on my bedroom floor. But, all credit to her, the woman recovered her surprise, barely missing a beat before she introduced herself.

  “I’m Jessibelle Adams.” She extended her hand, using the other to anchor a large pile of papers against her body. “Mr. Zach Rose?”

  I grunted a yes.

  “Good. I’m here to discuss asset management for your—”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I snapped, my voice sounding funny even to my own ears. It had been a while since I’d spoken to anyone in person, and I was somewhat out of practice. She dropped her hand and raised her eyebrows at me, returning my bad manners by transforming her warm smile into a hard mask of irritation. In any other circumstance, I might have found her cute. She had a lush body, with all the right curves tucked into a neat pantsuit, with her light hair pulled into a bun on top of her head and a pair of heels that lifted her an extra few inches off the ground. But the circumstances were as they were, and some cute woman on my doorstep wasn’t going to change that.

  “I’m here to talk about asset management,” she repeated, a little more crisply than before. “My firm set up an appointment with your assistant.”

  “Yeah, well, tell them I don’t want to fucking talk about that right now.” I threw that back in her direction. I could have slammed the door in her face, but that felt unnecessarily rude and unpleasant. I knew she hadn’t come here because she wanted to, but because she had to do her job, and I wasn’t going to punish her for that. I turned away, instead, and headed back into the house. She’d get the message. They usually did.

  To my surprise, footsteps followed me over the threshold, the unmistakable sound of heels tapping the cool marble floor. It was dark in the entryway because I couldn’t be bothered to flick on the light. Yet to my surprise she was still following me. I had stuff I wanted to do this morning, and she’d have to get on board with it if she wanted to stick around. Stuff like going back to sleep.

  “Mr. Rose.” She spoke with uncertainty in her voice. “We really need to discuss—”

  As a diversionary tactic I ducked into the pool room. Surely, she’d get the message and back off now. However, I wasn’t able to hear her over the hissing and grinding of the gears as the pool cover automatically retracted when I walked in. It seemed like such a cool feature when we’d had it installed, but now it was a pain to wait for it to pull all the way back so I could take my morning dip.

  When I glanced over my shoulder, there she was. She’d followed me into the pool room. She looked so out-of-place standing there, awkwardly looking around and clutching the papers to her chest. I almost burst out laughing, the most emotion I’d shown all damn week. Instead, I watched as the cover retracted completely and then dropped the robe to the ground, letting it pool at my feet before stepping out of it.

  I heard a sharp intake of breath from behind me. Well, she was the one who wanted to follow me into the house. She’d have to handle everything that came with that, even if it was my nakedness. I dove into the pool, letting the warm, clear water wash over me and wipe away some of the sleep still clinging to my system. Swimming was one of the only things I’d been able to keep up since I’d retreated to this place in the middle of the country, mainly because it didn’t require me to leave the house.

  I began to swim the usual lengths I did every day and threw occasional glances at the pretty woman. Was she going anywhere? She just stood there, not moving a muscle, not allowing me to bother her or get under her skin, her eyes fixed dead ahead as though worried that if she looked at me, something terrible might happen. What? A boner? Not in this water.

  Her face was flushed bright red. Was nakedness really that bad? Or was I just that out of touch with the rest of humanity? Either one was perfectly likely.

  I wasn’t sure how long she stood there, but I had to give her some credit for not giving up and storming off as soon as my robe hit the floor. Eventually, something in her snapped. A sharp “fuck it” expression on her face told me she’d had enough of dealing with my bullshit and wasn’t going to indulge me any further. She slammed down the thick stack of papers on a small table next to one of the lounge chairs that lined the edge of the pool. One of them fluttered off the top, and she grabbed it out of the air and slammed it back on top of the pile, crossing her arms angrily and staring down at it as if daring it to move again. I popped my head above water just long enough to hear the words she threw in my direction.

  “You’re an asshole!”

  And something about her final proclamation—the hatred with which she’d said the words and the way she’d marched for the door like she had better things to do than pandering to my ego—piqued my interest. I leaned up on the edge of the pool and watched her turn back and glare at me, and for the first time in a long time, I grinned. Her eyebrows knitted together in a fury, and I raised mine at her, daring her to go further.

  And of course, she did.

  Chapter 2

  Jessibelle

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  I couldn’t keep a hold of my words any longer. I was so freaking pissed at how this man was treating me. I’d had it up to here with men, and this was just the cherry on top of the shit sundae that had been the men in my life.

  Well—not men, per se—a man. Aston. Aston LaChase. My ex. I mean, with that name, I shouldn’t have expected anything more than the overly cocky jock and asshole I got, but I was so flattered to have the attention of a hot guy who normally wouldn’t have given me a second look.

  I should have known something was up.

  Back in high school I never felt like I fit. I was out of sync with the rest of the world, it led to me to college a dateless virgin. So when Aston showed me even a hint of interest, I was right there, running after him like a dog after a bone, doing everything I could to convince him I really, really wanted him.

  We’d dated a while. Long enough I gave him my virginity. It felt like such a precious thing to me, something sweet and sacred, something I was happy to share with him. Like a gift.

  Sadly, the sex was just okay, but I was still so grateful to be with him, I never even considered asking for more. Why would I? Things were perfect the way they were, or so I tried to convince myself over the course of our relationship.

  There were obvious problems in our story. He went out late without bothering to tell me where he was going or who he was with. I caught him blatantly checking out other women when we were together, but if I so much as I glanced at a dude, there would be hell to pay.

  Almost everyone in our graduating class seemed to know before I did that he’d been hooking up behind my back with a third-year bitch named Becky in the law library. That was the clincher. I could ignore everything else and put it down to something wrong with me, but that one was all on him. And if I wanted to cling to even a shred of my dignity, I had to leave.

  So, I did. And it was hard
. God, it was so fucking hard. I focused my energy on getting the job at my stepfather’s law firm and did my best to leave that asshole in the rearview mirror, reminding myself at every opportunity he’d used me and taken me for a ride and was nothing but an unrepentant asshole the whole time we’d been together. But after I’d believed him for that long, it was hard for the truth to penetrate the fantasy I’d construed in my head.

  I thought about it on the way over to meet with my new client. In fact, whenever I found myself alone, my brain drifted into the painful intricacies of my relationship with Aston. That was what had me in such a terrible mood when I arrived to speak to Zachary Rose about the assets for his company. My job was to help him figure out what to do with them while he took a temporary leave as CEO. Should be easy, right?

  I pulled up to his house and envied him. This place was in the middle of the countryside, a gorgeous mansion clipped straight from the pages of a fairytale picture book I had as a kid. The long driveway opened up to this stunning, castle-like home too beautiful and majestic for my crappy old car to be anywhere near. But I forced myself out of the driver’s seat and to the front door, despite the butterflies dancing in my stomach. I had to get this right. I couldn’t let the firm down—not this soon on the job. How would it look for my stepdad if the first thing I did was mess up my first case?

  They’d warned me this Mr. Rose was depressed and not receptive to visitors. In fact, one girl at the office told me he was a damn monster. But that had to be an exaggeration. No one could be that bad, after all. Yes, he’d lost his father, and then his fiancée left him, but he had to be resilient to get where he was in the cutthroat world of business. Surely, this wasn’t weighing him down as badly as everyone thought.

  As soon as he opened the door, I understood how deeply the losses of the last few months had affected him. He looked so different from his pictures I’d googled before coming here to meet him. Shocked. Gone was the polished CEO with the big, cocky grin, and in his place stood a shell of man. Beneath the grown-out hair, the thick, shaggy beard and a haunted look in his eyes that made him seem that he just arrived from a distant planet, I could see the remnants of a handsome guy.