Once Upon A Beast: A Billionaire Fairytale Read online

  But I wasn’t so good at that, it seemed. In fact, I was making a habit of running out on him as soon as the two of us were finished fucking. I’d never thought of myself as the kind of girl who’d treat sex the way some men did, slam, bam, thank you ma-am, er, sir. That is, getting the hell away from Zach as soon as my head stopped spinning. But then, I never thought of myself as the kind of girl who would indulge her crush on a smoking-hot client, either. In the last few weeks, I’d done a lot of things I didn’t think I was capable of. But that was what life was all about, right?

  I finished getting ready and headed into the office, the sound of his voice drilling through my head repeatedly, his words swirling around my brain like some kind of song stuck on a loop. I ducked into the meeting room, pulled out my phone, and dialed his number, my fingers fidgeting while I waited for him to pick up. What would I say to him?

  “Hi.” He answered the phone immediately, catching me off-guard. I opened and closed my mouth, trying to find the words to reply, and had to take a deep breath to steady myself before I could speak.

  “Uhm, hi, it’s Jessibelle Adams,” I replied, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible. “You left me some messages last night. I’m just following up.”

  “Right,” he said, and I thought I could hear the creak of a chair, like he was leaning back from a desk while he spoke to me. “I’ve had some thoughts about how we can push the case forward.”

  “We don’t need to right now,” I pointed out. “They need to prove competency first, and then—”

  He cut me off, his voice as business-like as I tried to make mine. “We both know they’re not going to have any trouble doing that.” So he wasn’t calling about our romp in the back seat. Had he forgotten? “We need a plan to follow up that action,” he said, sounding rushed. Apparently. “Do you have anything in place for keeping a step ahead?”

  “I will once the time comes around,” I protested weakly, but it sounded like an admittance of failure. He sighed and I thought he might be a little pissed with me, and I bristled in annoyance at his attitude. I wanted to remind him who’d won in court yesterday.

  But he was on a roll. “Okay, so here’s what I was thinking.” He launched into a plan that I had to admit was pretty damn solid. He wanted to pull some files from earlier in the year, the ones that showed the shareholders had been all too quick to jump in when he’d taken a step back from his business. He wanted to make the case that they were circling him like predators and waiting for him to fuck up, putting further pressure on him and damaging his mental state during his bereavement leave. It was a bold, brash move, but it might work if we could connect it to other things they’d messed up on as well.

  As I listened to him talk, my mind drifted to the limo. His hands on me, his hot kisses on my neck. The thoughts danced around my mind, and I did my best to ignore them and keep focused on what he was saying, but I wasn’t doing a good job so far.

  “How does that sound?” He’d caught me off-guard.

  “Uhm . . . solid?” I said, but I sounded distracted even to my own ears.

  “Were you even listening?”

  “Yeah, I was going over the details in my head.” I had to think fast, or I’d sound like a jerk. “Needs some work, but we can take it from there for sure.”

  “Excellent.” He sounded proud. “So, when can I see you about this?”

  “How about tomorrow afternoon?” I suggested. That was far enough away that I’d have time to pull myself together, but not so far it would seem like I was putting it off.

  “Perfect,” he replied briskly. “I’ll catch you then.”

  And with that, he hung up, leaving me staring at the phone, disappointed I hadn’t figured out how to keep that sexy voice humming in my ear all morning.

  Chapter 15

  Zach

  This was going to be the toughest deal I’d ever brokered, but I was confident I was up for the challenge.

  That was how I was approaching this thing with Jessibelle. I knew that throwing myself head-first into it was just asking for trouble. She didn’t seem to want to embrace whatever was between us outright, and I knew after everything that had happened in my life, the last thing I needed was another rejection to send me back into my pit of depression. No, I needed to play this very carefully. But I was sure I could convince her I was an option worth investing in.

  I still didn’t know what had happened between her and the other lawyer to draw out the venom between them I’d seen in the courtroom. I knew how to read people, though, and I had a pretty good feeling the two of them had some kind of history together, some kind of past that bound them in ways I didn’t understand. Whatever it was, it seemed like it had ended badly, judging by the callous way the two of them brushed each other off. Still, I didn’t like it. It wasn’t good for my case, and maybe she was taking it out on me. At any rate, I was going to find out what the hell was going on there. Because if that asshole was the reason she was edgy, then we had some business together, and it wasn’t going to be resolved in the courtroom.

  Of course, I couldn’t help but think that they’d fucked before, but he couldn’t have been the only guy she’d ever been with. She was too good in bed for that, not to mention too much of a catch for that many guys to overlook. I wondered if it was someone else who’d left her so nervous about jumping into a relationship with me or if it was just me that was scaring her off.

  Was I that bad?

  Whenever we were in a room together, our chemistry was so . . . out of this world. I couldn’t think of any other words for it. It was all I could do not to order everyone else out of the room and take her right there. Sometimes in meetings if she sat across from me, I’d remember how she’d looked on top of me or thought about how sweet she’d tasted in the back of the limo or recall the little noises she made as she came around my dick and I was lost for the rest of the discussion. She had me hooked on her, but did she feel the same when she looked at me? If she did, she was doing a damn good job of hiding it.

  ***

  It’d been about a week and a half since we’d had sex, and I’d completely checked out of the meeting I had called as I thought about bending her over the table and banging her from behind.

  “Mr. Rose?” She waved her hand in front of my face, pulling me out of my little fantasy session. I shifted in my seat, blinking and ignoring the stirring in my pants as she looked at me.

  “Call me Zach,” I implored her, for at least the tenth time since we’d started working together in earnest on this case. She flushed slightly but nodded.

  “Zach,” she replied. “Anyway, what do you think? About going after Frank Redford for the marketing stuff?”

  “I think we should hold off on that for now. Keep it in our back pocket in case we need to pull it out later,” I suggested. “Really, I think a lot of this is going to be a waiting game to see who turns against who with regard to the competency hearing.”

  “You think my plan will work?” She cocked an eyebrow. “Seems like a hell of an assumption to make if you turn out to be wrong.”

  “I’ve already dug myself in this deep,” I said. “A few assumptions here and there aren’t going to ruin me. And trust me, this isn’t that much of a leap. I know these kinds of people, and I know they’d be the first to throw the people they work with under the bus if it benefits them.”

  “No honor amongst thieves, huh?” she remarked, deadpan, and I grinned.

  “Damn straight,” I replied. They were thieves. That was how I saw them, anyway. There was stepping in to help with the business, and then there was steamrolling over everything I’d put in place and attempting to wrestle control of the business away from me while I was out.

  I had thrown myself into studying everything that had happened at the business while I was away. It was so much to catch up on, but I was always up for a daunting task, especially when it meant holding on to the company my father had passed down to Johnny and me.

  I hadn’t heard a lo
t from Johnny since I’d returned to work beyond a couple of phone calls that seemed more like niceties than attempts to figure out how I was doing. He was probably just as focused as I was on keeping everything together. He’d worked his ass off to keep things ticking in my absence, and I trusted him completely. It was just a shame we hadn’t had more time to spend together now that I was doing better.

  Reading all the dozens of files Jessibelle had left at my place the first day we’d met had kept me plenty busy. And there was something there, some common thread between them, a pattern I was having trouble recognizing but knew was running through everything. If I could just put my finger on it. It felt good to do some work related to the business again, and I had the double incentive of knowing that the more I had to say about this case, the more time I’d get to spend with Jessibelle. I organized a number of meetings in the office, which had the double effect of reminding the shareholders that I was still very much a part of proceedings around here, and also gave me time with the woman I was falling in love with.

  We’d grown closer over the past few weeks and seeing her hard at work had proven to me that she was more than some rich-kid-straight-from-college lawyer with a chip on her shoulder.

  Those were a dime a dozen in this city. No, she was something special, something different. I found in her an obvious passion for the game, for winning, the same passion I saw in myself. Maybe that was why I was still interested in her, even after we’d had sex a couple of times. Or maybe I found my attraction as strong as ever because she didn’t act the way I’d expected her to. After so long with the people around me hitting every mark I predicted they would, it was hard not to find myself growing a little bored of their predictability. Jessibelle kept me on my toes, but I still couldn’t figure out how she felt about me.

  One day, I brought in coffee for both of us, from the same shop we’d gone to at the start of that fateful night we’d first ended up in bed together. She took the cup and glanced at the logo printed on the side, and I saw her mouth twitch. Whether it was with amusement or disapproval, I couldn’t quite tell, but it was a reaction, and I’d take that for the time being.

  “Thanks for the coffee.” She pulled the top off and took a long whiff. “Mmm, that’s just what I need.”

  “Glad to hear it,” I held my cardboard cup up to hers, and she tapped her coffee against mine like we were clinking champagne glasses. She smiled at me, her face briefly lighting up with amusement, and I had to smile back. Something about seeing her happy never failed to put me in the best mood.

  I’d fallen in love before. I was in love with Alana before she dumped me. But usually, falling for someone felt like a controlled descent. I could decide how far, how fast, how deep I’d go with them. I could hold myself back. It sounded cynical, and maybe it was, maybe I’d never fallen for someone the way I’d fallen for Jessibelle. Because being with her made me feel as though something had knocked me off-guard, taken me straight off my feet, part of me hated it and part of me loved it and couldn’t get enough of her.

  Without sex hanging over us, she started to relax, and soon enough, I actively looked forward to our meetings, not just for the chance to hit on one of the sexiest women I’d ever met, but also to spend time with her. She had a great sense of humor and was smarter than a lot of people working in that office. And she knew when to call me on my shit, which was a feature I valued and yet didn’t seem to come across a lot. Now that we were just working together professionally—or, at least, it seemed we were—I was getting to see the real her and falling for her harder and faster than I was sure I was ready for. It was an unsettling feeling, but one I didn’t want to put a stop to.

  “When do you think we’ll end up in court again?” I asked casually. She shrugged, glancing at the papers in front of her.

  “Why do you ask?” She looked up at me, distracted.

  “I want to see you in action again.” I grinned at her, and she rolled her eyes at me playfully.

  “Yeah, well, I really think you should get someone with more experience this time.”

  “And miss out on you beating those assholes again? Not a chance,” I protested. She returned my smile, a flush moving up her cheeks.

  “Noted.” She returned her gaze to the papers, but the smile didn’t leave her face. And finally, finally, it felt like I might be getting somewhere with the sexy lawyer I couldn’t get out of my head.

  Chapter 16

  Jessibelle

  “Atherton?”

  “Yep.” Zach nodded, and I stared at him with my mouth hanging open as I tried to process what he’d just told me.

  It had been weeks since the court case, and I was starting to feel good about our relationship, starting to feel as though we’d moved past that awkward stage where I wasn’t quite sure he could contain himself and more into something solidly professional. In fact, he’d thrown himself head-first into figuring out what we were going to do about the case, and I was impressed at the conclusions he’d come to.

  He’d drawn a comparison between three of the complaints brought against him by the shareholders. The wording was similar enough—and far removed enough from the kind of language they had used in separate communications—that there seemed to be a common thread between them. We weren’t quite sure what it was yet, but it was certainly there. Now, if we didn’t figure it out, we’d lose the case.

  This was the man I’d heard about. It was something I hadn’t been able to shake from the back of my mind. The Zach I’d first met was far removed from the powerful, intelligent, and in-control man everyone had described to me. I liked this Zach a lot better, the Zach who worked his ass off and threw crazy but half-plausible ideas in my direction and stayed up late to read through old case files in the hopes of finding something we could use to win in court. We were on a mission, and I suppose I let the little flutterings in my chest get the best of me once in a while. I hoped he didn’t notice those moments when I looked at him and my heart flipped and my palms grew sweaty. There was just something about a guy who was completely dedicated to getting the truth, to getting justice, that did something to me.

  He hadn’t put the moves on me since the limo, and part of me was glad because it meant we could stay focused on the task at hand. Another part of me was sincerely disappointed that he seemed to have gotten over me so easily. Did the sex mean that little to him? Maybe he had a dozen other women at his beck and call, ready to satisfy his needs at will. The thought made my stomach twist. Was I disposable to him when it came to sex? Because our encounters were smoking-hot, the kind of sex even I knew didn’t come around often. Maybe that was what it was like with every woman he slept with.

  I did my best to keep those thoughts out of my head. They wouldn’t serve me well, and my focus here was to make sure Zach got his company back under his control without interference from his shareholders. We were inching closer with every new discovery. I could feel it, and when he produced the emails showing connections between the three shareholders’ complaints, I knew we were getting somewhere. I just didn’t expect what he’d ask next.

  “Atherton? Seriously?” I repeated, the name sounding odd and out-of-place on my tongue.

  “Yeah, have you been before?”

  He cocked an eyebrow at me, and I shook my head.

  “I got a place up there a few years back.”

  “I’ve heard it’s amazing,” I remarked, trying to keep my voice steady. I’d heard a hell of a lot more than that over the years. Atherton was the kind of place people like my stepfather spent their entire lives trying to land a house in, the kind of place that seemed specifically constructed to flatter the egos of the people with the money and status to earn their way in. South of the city in a heavily-wooded residential area, it was made up of a handful of luxury estates owned by some of the richest and most famous people in the country. It was news when someone bought a place in Atherton.

  “Just the two of us?”

  “Just the two of us,” he nodded casuall
y, as though he’d forgotten about what had happened the last time the two of us had spent time together, alone. “I don’t want anyone else poking their noses in on what we’re doing right now. I feel like we’re close, and I don’t need someone blowing it for me at the last minute.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” I muttered, half to myself and half to him. My mind was racing as I tried to figure out just how bad an idea it was and how bad it would look if I turned him down.

  I wanted to go. I wasn’t sure I’d ever have a chance to stay in Atherton again, and part of me was curious to see what the hell all the fuss was about. The other part of me—one that was far more pressing—wondered about being alone together so far from the city and everything that tied us to the office would lead to something happening.

  But, he’d been keeping me at arm’s length the last few weeks, treating me with nothing but complete professionalism. Maybe nothing would happen. Maybe he was over it and just wanted to get the case handled.

  “Sounds like a good idea.” I managed to nod my acquiescence, straightening my back and looking him in the eye as though challenging him to prove something different to me. “I’ll pack tonight.”

  “Give me your address, and I’ll come pick you up in the morning,” he suggested.

  I texted him the info then glanced down at my watch. “I should probably be getting home. So, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

  “Bright and early.” He grinned at me, and for a split-second, I remembered what he’d looked like the very first time we’d met. His hair had been long and wild, his eyes sallow and expressionless, his mouth turned down into a practically comical half-moon of sadness. But so much had changed since then. The man standing before me was about as different as could be, and I wondered what other hidden depths he had yet to show me.