The PlayLion Billionaire: A Paranormal Billionaire Romance Read online

  “I think you’re an excellent candidate for any position you might want,” Robert said, smiling slowly. “Fortunately, you already have a position in mind. I’ll get in touch with my HR Director this evening.”

  “Thank you,” Olivia said, glancing down at her empty plate. She’d tasted so many delicious things; everything that the waiters put in front of her so carefully, so unobtrusively, seemed to go perfectly with the wine Robert ordered.

  “This…” she hesitated a moment, looking at Robert once more. She had to admit to herself that he was actually extremely handsome. With his dark and messy short hair, his bright eyes, the slight stubble on his cheeks, his lean build and the impeccably tailored suit he wore, she would find it hard to say no to him. “This isn’t because you want to wear down my resistance, is it?”

  Robert held her gaze for a moment and then laughed.

  “I am not going to sexually harass you,” he said. “If you have no interest at all in sleeping with me, I will back off gracefully.”

  Olivia bit her bottom lip.

  “You seem to be pretty confident that I want to sleep with you in the first place,” Olivia said. She felt her heart beating faster. “I’m…I’m not the one-night-stand type, I’m not the mistress type.”

  Robert looked at her closely for a long moment, and Olivia felt her heart beating even faster, her cheeks heating up as she blushed.

  “I have ways of knowing,” Robert said lowly. “I respect that you can tell me no at any time, and I will never hold that against you.” There was something in his voice—almost a low growl—that gave Olivia a shiver. “For now, why don’t you enjoy dessert, and we can discuss the next thing in its own time.”

  Olivia wasn’t sure how she managed to have another glass of wine; she had told herself that she was only going to have one drink. But she was sipping her third glass, eating something that tasted absolutely delicious—something with black currants and chocolate, that she had never tasted before in her life. Olivia was telling him about her less-professional side, telling Robert about the fun times she had had in college instead of her studies. She wasn’t sure how she had managed to open up so much to him.

  In her own turn, Olivia found Robert opening up to her—though there was something strangely curt about his disclosures, as if he was cutting himself off just short of revealing some piece of information.

  He told her about his father, about growing up as the wealthy son of a billionaire. He joked about his partying ways; Olivia couldn’t quite find herself as attracted to him when he mentioned some of the more extreme pursuits he had followed up until his father had passed away. Olivia had always thought that life itself was already full of risks. She had never been terribly fond of the idea of sleeping around, for either men or women. But he said that he was putting that behind him.

  “I’ve been informed by my mother, among others, that it’s my responsibility to find someone to settle down with,” Robert said, pushing his dessert plate lightly aside. “So I must put my bachelor ways behind me.”

  “You don’t sound all that enthusiastic,” Olivia said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Well, I thought I’d have a few more years,” Robert admitted. “But I have come around to the idea more recently.” He smiled. “You seem tired, Olivia. Why don’t we go somewhere else? Those shoes you’re wearing look like they’re murder on your feet.”

  Olivia glanced at the ground. He was right; she had only been counting on wearing the shoes for maybe a couple of hours at most—not through two separate interviews and lunch. “Where did you want to go?”

  Robert considered for a moment, and she felt and saw his gaze trail over her body, from her face downward. It was as if he was savoring the sight of her; it wasn’t quite like he was leering at her.

  “Do you trust me, Olivia?” Olivia bit her bottom lip, meeting his gaze as her heart beat faster in her chest once more. Did she trust him? She wasn’t sure how she felt about Robert Lowe, but did she trust him? What would it mean to trust a man like him? He had given her, at least he said he had given her, an honest opportunity to try for a job, and he had hired her without even asking her to sleep with him.

  He made it clear, in words at least, that he did not intend to hold her sleeping with him or not, over her head. If she went with him, she could expect him to be discreet.

  Before she could answer, Robert’s phone chirped. His features fell briefly into an irritated expression, but he slipped the phone out of his pocket, gesturing for Olivia to wait for just a moment. He read something on his screen and she saw a flicker of some deeper emotion that disappeared so quickly she thought she might have imagined it.

  Then Robert put his phone back into his pocket and turned his attention onto her. “Well, Olivia? Do you trust me?” She had been so confused by the strange performance that she hadn’t actually given his question very much thought.

  She looked him up and down; he had offered her a job, and she couldn’t deny that she was attracted to him. If he turns out to be some kind of kinky sado-masochist, I am so screwed, she thought.

  “Yes,” she said quietly, glancing around instinctively to see if anyone was actually watching them. “I guess I do trust you. I might regret it, but I do.”

  The hotel room that Robert brought Olivia to was so incredibly beyond her experience—so opulent and luxurious—that she almost couldn’t quite believe it. She had known, in theory, that billionaires like Robert had access to the kinds of beautiful spaces that regular people who had to work for their living could only dream of; but she hadn’t had a real concept of what kind of opulence that wealth could buy.

  It was a penthouse suite, apparently, under continual reserve for Robert. He had simply gone to the front desk and asked politely for the key to “his” room, and the woman at the desk retrieved a key-card and gave it to him with a smile. A private elevator took them up to the top floor of the hotel, where there was only one other room like it, as evidenced by only two doors in the hallway.

  “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Robert told her as he led her into the room. It was immense, and Olivia thought that the room itself might be larger than her apartment. “If you just want to take off your shoes, have a nap on the couch, you are more than welcome to do just that.” Olivia laughed at the idea.

  “I don’t know if I could take a nap knowing that you’re just… hanging out somewhere in the room,” she had said, covering her amazement with an effort. The suite was fully furnished, and it looked to her as if the sofa cost more than all of her bedroom furniture combined; it looked almost obscenely comfortable.

  She kicked off her uncomfortable high heels anyway, pushing them carefully aside next to the door and stepping from the cold marble of the entryway onto the plush, thick rug that sprawled across most of the living room floor.

  “Do you like me, Olivia?” Robert asked her from behind her. Olivia turned, biting her bottom lip.

  “I don’t actually know how I feel about you,” she said. Robert’s bright-eyed gaze was intent on her, seeming to take in every line and curve of her body.

  “I can tell you find me attractive,” Robert said, his voice falling into a lower register. Olivia blushed, feeling the burn from the roots of her hair down onto her chest.

  “How can you tell? I’m not being—I’m not obvious, am I?”

  Robert smiled slightly, shaking his head.

  “No. You aren’t. I can smell it on you, though.” He moved closer to her and almost instinctively, Olivia stepped back. Robert paused. “If you tell me no, I will stop, Olivia. I’ll leave you to your privacy in this room, if you like; I’ll go back to the office and make the arrangements for you to start work on Monday.”

  Olivia’s eyes widened in surprise. Did she want him to stop? Did she want to tell him no? She could feel her body heating up with more than just embarrassment—she had ignored the low simmering of desire that had started up in her from the moment she’d gotten a good look at Robert Lowe,
an instant after she had run into him.

  She wasn’t going to be one of “those women,” who tried to use sex to get ahead—especially after Alexander Brooke’s remarks and insinuations. She would be lying to herself if she tried to pretend that she hadn’t noticed that Robert looked good.

  “I don’t want you to stop,” she said, her breath hitching in her throat slightly. “It’s been a while, I don’t really know…” She felt her cheeks burning with an even deeper blush.

  Robert smiled again.

  “All you have to know is that any time you tell me to stop, I will. Any time you tell me no, I take that seriously. The rest is…” he chuckled lightly. “Animal instinct.”

  He closed the distance between them and Olivia gasped as she felt his surprisingly warm hands on her waist; she could feel the heat of his body through her clothes and for an instant she wondered at it. Before she could move past simple confusion, however, Robert leaned in, brushing his lips against hers. Breathing in, Olivia could smell the scent of his soap and cologne—clean, slightly woody, with an undercurrent of thick musk that was somehow more pleasant than she would have thought.

  Olivia began to respond to the kiss as Robert’s tongue swiped against her lips. In moments, she found herself pressing against him, feeling her whole body heating up with a steady onrushing flow of desire. Any question of whether she trusted him, what she felt towards him other than the need to see his body naked, to feel his body pressed against hers, dissolved.

  Robert’s hands slid all along her body, caressing and teasing, finding the hems and buttons of her clothes, and Olivia’s hands came to life along the lines and planes of Robert’s body as well. She fumbled for the buttons on his blazer, trying to get them open; she tugged and pulled at the fabric, determined to strip it away, even as she felt her own clothes falling without knowing where they landed.

  Robert guided her towards the couch, his hands cupping her breasts through the thin fabric of her bra, squeezing lightly. There was something possessive in his touch that Olivia couldn’t define—but something about it made her even hotter, and she could already feel the slickness along her labia, the wet sensation of her body gearing up. Robert reached around to her back, deftly unfastening the clasp of her bra, and Olivia moaned as he pulled the fabric gently away from her body before cupping her breasts once more, teasing her nipples into firm little nubs.

  The backs of her knees collided with the edge of the couch, and Olivia fell onto it, startled but unhurt. She looked up at Robert and watched as he stripped off the shirt she hadn’t quite been able to finish unbuttoning, as he unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and pushed them down over his slim hips, stepping out of them quickly and standing before her in nothing more than his boxers. She could see the ridge of his hard cock straining at the confines of the thin fabric.

  In that moment, the only thing Olivia could even think of wanting was to see Robert fully naked and feel him inside of her. “You look even more gorgeous naked than any woman has a right to,” Robert said, his voice slightly breathless. He sank down onto his knees in front of her and Olivia gasped against his lips as his hand slid up between her thighs, his fingertips lightly brushing her bare pussy in a teasing caress.

  Robert’s fingers pressed against her, sliding between her slick labia, and Olivia found herself rocking her hips automatically, twisting and writhing for better contact as he stroked and rubbed her, finding her clit by touch.

  Robert’s lips barely broke away from hers as he spoke. “Mm, Olivia you’re perfect…so lovely…” Olivia moaned against his mouth, her hands trailing over his body, slithering down along his back and then his chest to find the waistband of his boxers. Robert stroked her clit in tight, firm circles, sending hot and cold jolts of pleasure through her body, making her more and more turned on by the moment.

  Robert pushed her down onto her back, his lips trailing down from her mouth to her neck. He cupped her breast with his free hand, bringing it up to his lips, and Olivia cried out in pleasure as he sucked and licked, barely grazing the firm nub with his teeth. Her hips moved in automatic rhythm, her body arching and twisting as Robert slowly pushed one finger inside of her. “Do you want me, Olivia?” he softly asked her. She nodded, breathless and needy. “Tell me you want me.”

  “I want you, Robert,” Olivia said—barely noticing that she had used his first name. “Please!” She heard Robert’s low chuckle as his fingers retreated from her pussy, his lips sliding up to her mouth.

  She felt his weight moving on top of her, covering her whole body. Olivia pulled back from Robert, panting and gasping; her whole body was lit up -- every nerve tingling with hot and cold impulses of pleasure. He had brought her to the edge of orgasm over and over again with his fingers; Olivia was absolutely consumed with need. Robert’s hips pressed to hers, his body shifting and sliding against her hips. Olivia gasped as she felt his hard, hot cock press against her soaking wet labia, rubbing up and down slowly along her folds. “God, you already feel so good,” Robert murmured with a groan, rocking his hips against hers more firmly.

  “You…you too,” Olivia said, still panting. “Mm, please, please, Robert.” Robert chuckled, and Olivia felt him shifting against her, felt his fingers brush against her labia as he guided his cock up against her. He thrust into her slowly, filling her up inch by inch. Olivia moaned, clutching at Robert’s back and shoulders. She pushed her hips down to meet his thrusts, falling into Robert’s rhythm as they both began to move together.

  Olivia kissed Robert everywhere her lips could reach, exploring his back and shoulders by touch. Robert caressed and teased her even as he nipped and nibbled along her throat, kissing and licking her. Olivia noticed, belatedly, that Robert’s tongue felt rougher than she would have expected, almost rasping against her skin.

  “Another time,” Robert murmured against her skin between gasps, “I want to taste you all over.”

  Olivia moaned an agreement without thinking, pushing her hips down again and again to meet Robert’s thrusts as he pushed deeper and deeper inside of her. He felt so good --so right, in some way she couldn’t define --inside of her. His slim weight pressed into her was like an itch that Olivia hadn’t realized she’d had until it was scratched.

  Olivia’s pleasure mounted moment by moment, her body heating up as she and Robert both began to move faster and faster. Their lips and hands moved everywhere on each other’s bodies, and within moments it seemed, she was barely able to hold herself back; she felt the first wave of climax crash through her all at once, blanking out any ability to think.

  Olivia clutched Robert’s body as if for life itself, her muscles flexing in erratic spasms. She was so wrapped up, so trapped in her pleasure that she barely even heard Robert’s low, growling groan; she barely even felt the twitching of his cock deep inside of her, or the flood of sticky-slick heat as he reached his own orgasm.

  She collapsed against the couch, feeling Robert sag against her, and Olivia fell into a deep haze of satisfied pleasure, panting for breath as electric aftershocks coursed through her nerves. She smiled in spite of every misgiving she had before agreeing to have sex with the man, slipping into a contented doze.

  *

  Robert grimaced as he heard his phone chirp, interrupting the quiet reverie he shared with the woman he had already decided had to be his. Olivia stirred underneath him at the sound. “Oh god, you should be at the office,” she said. Robert lifted himself up slightly and shook his head.

  “What’s the point of being the CEO of the company if I can’t demand my own hours?” he asked her. “I’m sure nothing has exploded.” He reluctantly climbed off the couch, reaching to the floor and picking up his blazer to extract his phone. He had some warning, an early indication that his day was not going to be as relaxing as he could hope, during the lunch he’d shared with Olivia.

  A text message from the member of his Pride he trusted most, apart from his mother, had come in. There was a sighting of a lone male; someone related to
one of the members of the Pride that Robert had banished after he came to power.

  The new message was worse. There was a raid on our land. It’s been marked everywhere—foreign scents. Ben was injured. The Pride’s land, a reserve set aside and held in trust with the deed belonging to a shell organization, was nearly sacrosanct; first changes happened on the land, mating ceremonies, and the monthly hunt, held during the full moon—an important occasion in the Pride’s calendar—all happened on the acres of grassland and woods.

  Ben, a member of the Pride from Robert’s father’s generation, was the nominal caretaker of the land—he would have done what he could to confront whoever had raided them, and it was easy for Robert to figure out how the older man could have been injured.

  How serious are the injuries? He would deal with the insult to his Pride; Ben was one of the few links that Robert still had to his father, a trusted member of his community. He would have to be, in order to have been given stewardship of the land. The response from Alexis came quickly.

  He’s going to be in the hospital for a day or two. His mate is with him; Carrie took the cubs. Robert frowned. Were-lions had many preternatural healing abilities. For Ben to need to stay in the hospital meant that it was serious, indeed.

  Who was it? Robert glanced at Olivia; she was watching him warily, as if she wasn’t sure if she should just volunteer to leave, or stay where she was.

  Working on that. There’s about a dozen scent-marks. One of them belongs to Peter. Peter was one of the males that Robert had driven out -- one of his own generation who challenged him for the position of Alpha. If he was involved in a raid on the Pride’s land, then he was obviously looking to take over. If he brought strangers in, then the problem was much bigger than Robert originally thought.

  Keep me updated. Robert put his phone down and smiled at Olivia. “Nothing to worry about, just a minor crisis.” Olivia raised a dark auburn eyebrow with a grin.