The Billionaire’s Creed

ADLEY

On Monday, Mykel dropped me off at my office. Of course, he caught everyone’s attention as if he was the leading man in a new sexy rom-com movie. This time, he smiled and waved at my team instead of being on his cocky swagger persona.

“How’s your weekend, everyone?”

“Hey, Mr. Creed,” my employees in unison.

“Not every day we got a visit from a billionaire, ex-playboy philanthropist.” Blaze joined us.

“How are you, Blaze?” They exchanged pleasantries.

“I’m great. How are you?” Blaze turned to me, inspecting me from head to toe. “You look great, Adley.”

“It’s because I take care of my wife.” Mykel slipped his hands into his pocket.

A brow raised from Blaze with a slight nod. “I can see that now.”

“Anyway. Baby, can I take you to lunch later?”

I rubbed the back of my shoulder. “It’s Monday. I have a lot of work to finish. Our clients are piling up.”

Mykel looked around. “You needed to expand your area and hire manpower.”

“I agree,” For the first time, Blaze was with Mykel on this.

“Are you sure you don’t have thirty minutes for me?” He couldn’t accept rejection even if I were still thinking about it.

“Mykel, we can have dinner at home later. And I’ll make it up to you for lunch.”

“Sure. Anyway, I’ll make sure we will have a pleasant dinner at home.” His smile was mischievous.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Blaze did not miss it. I noticed the look in his eyes as he stared at me for confirmation. I let it go, but once Mykel left for his office, Blaze would drill me with questions and lectures.

“I’m still picking you up later.” He pecked me on my lips before he left.

“Bye, baby.”

“Bye.”

Once Mykel’s back was gone, Blaze was too predictable. “You two are sleeping together.”

I rounded to my desk and took a seat. “We’re married, Blaze.”

“So this is official?”

“I’m being spontaneous, going with the flow, and having some fun while still married.” I flipped my laptop open. “Grandpa approved our relationship.” I puffed out a breath and stared at him. “Why do I need everyone’s approval?”

“He changed you.”

I rolled my eyes. I knew Blaze wouldn’t let it go until he was satisfied with what he wanted to hear from me. “You pushed me to get a life out of work. I went to a bar to have fun-it didn’t work. Now, this is me getting a life because I have a terrible history of relationships-the cons of being an heiress.” I quoted in the air. “I’m just happy at this moment. Could you just be happy for me too?”

“I don’t wanna see you getting hurt.”

I leaned back, crossing my arms over my chest as I stared at him for seconds. “Life is full of pain and suffering. Relationships include boyfriends and girlfriends, marriage life, friends with benefits, one-night stands, and even sex club buddies. They aren’t always rainbows and unicorns. Life should have never been perfect because how would people learn and grow. We tend to make many mistakes and learn from them, Blaze.”

He raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. “Okay, Dr. Phil. It seems that everything works out just fine. But I’m still your best friend. You can shut me off for being caring and concerned about you. Mykel looks like he really cares about you, even not in bed.”

My cheeks burned. We had a few rounds last night. Even in my sleep, he was between my legs. I thought I was dreaming. I was wanton, yet he still had a voracious appetite for sex.

Blaze shook his head repeatedly. “Oh, boy.”

“Don’t tell me you never had a few rounds in one night with Elise?”

“That’s my limit. I’m getting out of here.” He hurried off into the door.

I laughed out loud. “See you at lunch, Blaze.”

Later at lunch, I was with Blaze when I received a call from Mykel.

“I need to see you.”

“Okay.” My brows furrowed. I couldn’t shake this feeling that he was not carrying good news. “I’m in the cafeteria. Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry I have to cut your lunch short. Can you meet me at the parking lot in two minutes?”

“Sure.” I ended up the call and turned to Blaze. “I don’t know, but he seems in distress.”

“When you have a stake in almost every first world country’s economy. It comes with the territory. You know that. Go see your man.”

I stood up and smoothed my dress. “Thanks.”

I found Mykel at the parking. As soon as I got closer to him, he met me in the middle, cupped my head, and kissed me so hard I almost lost my balance if he wasn’t so quick to keep me steady-the kind of kiss of desperation-the kind of kiss where he savored my mouth with sweep and hard strokes of his tongue, my toes curling.

After I pulled away, I searched for something wrong in his eyes. “You okay?”

“We’ll talk in the car.” He pulled the door open.

“Mykel, I have to go back to work.”

“I know. We’ll talk here.”

Sax gave us his back, doing his jobs like a Hawkeye minus the bow and arrow.

“Okay.” I entered the car. “What’s wrong?”

He pulled something from his jacket. I instantly figured out what it was. “I was supposed to give this to you tonight. I know it’s nothing much, but I want you to have it.”

I flipped the blue velvet box open. It was a pair of diamond solitaire earrings. “This is the emergency?” I chuckled.

“Nope.”

“But this is beautiful.” It may be around two-carat each in princess cut and looked stunning. “Thanks.”

“Glad you like it.”

“You know you don’t have to give me anything.” I kissed him on the cheek. “But thank you.”

“I’ll give you the moon and the stars if possible. But let’s not be cliche.”

“I know.” My smile had not faded off. “So?”

“Dru paid me a visit in my office. He pulled the father card to pass the receptionist.”

“What did he want?” I asked gently. I knew how that visit affected him.

“He has nothing to say, baby. We didn’t have good memories to remember. I don’t know exactly what he wants.”

“I know.”

Mykel stared at me. He was hurting.

“As people grow old, they don’t want to be alone anymore. It scares them. They want to make amends of their past and make things right with their loved ones.”

“I don’t think he considers me as his loved one.” His breathing hitched, and his jaw clenched the whole time. He stared outside the window, maybe watching the old couple pass by.

“You’re still his family-half of his DNA. We’re going to that dinner. How else will you find out what he wants if you keep declining his invitation.”

“We’re not going, Adley,” he said in disdain.

I held his hand. “Look at me, Mykel.”

He was still scowling, but he faced me.

“You want his persistence to end. That’s the only way. He’s still your father, no matter what his terrible actions did to you and your mom. Mom will want you to give Dru a chance if she’s with us in the car right now. You might as well invite her so he won’t pay her a visit again.”

Before I could continue talking, he kissed me again. This time it was soft and slow. “I don’t know what I will do without you.”

I smiled against our lips. “You did pretty well the last time I checked. Let’s end this, once and for all.”

“You’re my rock, Adley.”

“Good. Because if you say that to another woman, I’m gonna punch you so hard in the face.”

He chuckled. Somehow, the darkest storm in his eyes had passed. I picked up his hand and kissed my knuckles one by one. He closed his eyes, pressing my palm against his face.

“You’re gonna be okay.”

“I know. Are you sure you wanna do this?” He nodded in agreement.

“I hate to see you like this. I also don’t want you to regret not doing something before it’s too late.”

“Okay then. I’ll call him that we accepted the dinner plan this weekend.”

After my work, Mykel and I had dinner with Grandpa in the restaurant. Grandpa looked better. He laughed a lot. I felt terrible that he had to follow a restricted diet regimen.

“So when I’m gonna hear the good news?”

“What good news?” I instantly asked.

“A great-grandchild.”

My chuckle turned to snort.

Mykel didn’t look surprised at all. Even though we didn’t use condoms, I never missed taking my pills, so there was no way I would get pregnant.

“Give us a break, Lex. If Adley isn’t ready, then we have to wait until she is.”

“So you two have talked about this already?”

Mykel squeezed my knee under the table. “Before you came into his office before I left. Remember?”

I tried hard not to overreact. Was that the reason he slept with me without pulling out the gentleman’s card?

“I just want you two to start a family together. At least I can hold my great-grandchild in my arms before I have Alzheimer’s.”

“Grandpa,” I chided.

“I’m old and sick. That’s the reality.”

“Oh, come on, Lex. You’re being dramatic. You can still watch your great-grandchild walk down the aisle. And you’d be there when I’m marrying Adley for the second time.”Wow! His optimism suddenly became annoying.

We hadn’t talked about getting married again or planning on extending the family. This pressure and all just gave me a terrible headache.