The Billionaire's Best Frienemy Read online

  “How are things going with Laura?” I teased.

  “How are things going with Willow?” he shot back.

  “I just hired her to work at the firm.” I actually hadn’t been planning to mention that to him. But I figured he’d find out soon enough anyway, so whatever.

  “You did what?” he bellowed, his voice so loud through the speaker it bounced around the entire car.

  “Calm down, dude. Y’all have wanted her there for years.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, his tone calmer. “But, you talked us out of it. Every time we’ve tried to bring her in, you gave us a hundred reasons why it would be a bad idea.”

  I shrugged even though he couldn’t see me. He wasn’t wrong. But things were different now.

  “Look, I will support any decision you make in this firm,” Luke continued. “I know the others give you a hard time. It’s got to be tough being the baby of five brothers, man.”

  “Not any harder than being the oldest I’d imagine,” I told him.

  “Anyway, you want her to work there, I’ve got your back. But let her work,” he warned. “Don’t bring her in if you just think this will be a way for you to get some control over her.”

  “First of all,” I said with a laugh. “No one will ever have any kind of control over Willow Tate. Second of all, why wouldn’t I want her to work? She’s smarter than the five of us combined.”

  “You love her,” he said.

  “I hate her guts,” I lied. “But I’m about to get her fired from S&S, so I thought giving her a backup option would smooth things over a little.”

  “Did you have to get her fired?” he asked, his tone sharper than it had been.

  “Shultz senior called to warn me if I get the permits reinstated, he was firing her for gross negligence.” I blew out a heavy sigh. “What was I going to do? Pick one girl over hundreds of people’s jobs? “

  “I think you might have grown up a little too much,” Luke said sadly. “Look, thanks for getting it done. I hope this works out for you.”

  Yeah, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t.

  * * * *

  “You selfish, arrogant asshole!” Willow yelled.

  “How did you even find me here?” I asked, walking past her out of Luke’s office.

  “You got me fired,” she said, stomping her foot in apparent frustration.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. I turned and handed Luke’s assistant, Roz, a folder. “Can you get copies of those sent to Doug at the site please?”

  “Of course, Mr. Malloy,” she said, standing quickly as if hoping to make a fast escape.

  I raised an eyebrow at that. Roz had never called me Mr. Malloy in my entire life. If she was trying to make me look good in front of Willow, it was sweet, but that ship had long since sailed.

  “You’re late,” I told Willow, crossing my arms and glaring at her.

  “What?” Her eyes widened, and she took a step back from me, her hand resting on her stomach. “What are you talking about?”

  “I told you to be here last week. I told you to come work here. Your office is ready, and your assistant has been sitting at her desk for days with nothing to do.” I reached out and touched her arm. “Wills, why didn’t you come to me?”

  “I don’t like who I am around you,” she admitted, hugging her arm across her stomach. “And I don’t know how to not be that way. You bring out the worst in me, Jamie. And I hate it.”

  “We could try a different tactic,” I offered. “We could maybe…start over? Try being nice to each other?”

  She made a gagging noise, and I laughed. Twenty-some years of animosity was hard to erase. But damn it, I actually wanted to try.

  Roz came back as her phone started to ring. I motioned for Willow to take our conversation out into the hall but froze when I heard Roz say something about a wedding chapel.

  “You want me to book a wedding chapel for you and Miss Moretti?” Roz met my gaze across the room. “No, Luke, I won’t call your family. But your mother will be very disappointed.”

  I looked at Willow in shock. My asshole brother was about to get married without any of us there.

  We both walked back to Roz’s desk the moment she hung up.

  “Well?” I asked.

  “What?” She glared at me. “He specifically asked that I not tell the Malloys what was happening. If you’ll excuse me, I have some calls to make.” She pointed at the chairs across from her desk with a wink.

  So, Willow and I sat while Roz made calls and got my brother booked at the Paris Hotel wedding chapel. I thanked Roz, and we ran out, eager to get there and not miss the ceremony.

  “I still can’t believe you got me fired,” Willow snapped as we headed down to the parking garage.

  “Technically, you got yourself fired,” I told her. “You knew what would happen. You didn’t even get them pulled. You got them frozen.”

  “Well, I needed more time than Shultz gave me, so yeah, I froze them until I got the right signatures to have them pulled.” She climbed into my car and slammed the door behind her.

  “Whatever,” I said, getting behind the wheel. “Look, you can pretend to be pissed at me all you want. But we both know you were always going to end up here.”

  “And where exactly is here?” she asked, her tone dangerous.

  “At the family firm,” I answered. “Where you belong. Regardless of what happens between you and me, can you really deny you’re part of this family?”

  “Nothing is happening between you and me, Jameson.”

  The finality in her tone just made me want her more. Made me want her forever. For just a second, and I would never have admitted it to anyone, I wondered if I could con her into marrying me while we were already at the chapel.

  Probably not. Besides, when I finally got Willow Tate down the aisle, I wanted her in the big white dress and I wanted all of our family and friends there. I’d need all the witnesses I could get.

  Chapter Three

  ~ Willow I-Wish-I-Had-A-Clue Tate ~

  Well, this wasn’t how I’d envisioned my first day of work with the Malloys. I hadn’t even been to my desk, and I was already in a wedding chapel. Granted, it wasn’t with me in a big white dress with Jamie staring adoringly at me, but at the moment, his eyes were devouring me, and it was making me hotter than I wanted to be—ever. I’d sworn off this man. He couldn’t keep making me tingling and wet.

  Shifting my gaze from the infuriating ass, I refocused on the couple at hand. Despite his no family dictate, I think Luke was glad to have Jamie and me there. Laura was thrilled to have one of her closest friends in attendance. I was super glad to be there when her father had shown up in the middle of the ceremony and tried to break up the most nontraditional wedding I’d ever witnessed.

  At first, I’d thought I’d like to have a dad who even cared a little what I did. Then I realized this guy was as much of an asshole as my own father. Maybe, all men were just dicks.

  I glanced over at Luke who was ready to go to war for Laura and knew their brother Chase would do the same for Emerson. So maybe I couldn’t count them in that group.

  And that’s when I realized, Jamie was shielding me with his body between me and the angry interloper. When the guy left, realizing he’d lost, Luke pulled Laura into his arms while they declared their love. At the same time, they argued over Luke paying her father to get out of her life forever. Jamie moved beside me. His fingers brushed my wrist, sending a shiver through me as he started to take my hand. Apparently thinking better of it, he crossed his arms while we watched his brother and sister-in-law.

  “What’s mine is yours, babe,” Luke argued. “But most importantly, you’re mine. All mine. Forever.”

  She melted into him. “All I want from you is your love. And maybe babies, one of these days.”

  At the mention of babies, I fought the urge to splay my hand over my stomach. Thankfully, the pants and loose, untucked blouse I wore hid the start of my bump, but I knew there’d be no hiding it soon. Especially if Jameson insisted I work at the family firm.

  Luke grinned. “I look forward to making as many as you want. And as for my love, you’ve owned that for months. You’re stuck with it.”

  Beside me, Jameson made a gagging sound. Infuriated that he’d interrupted the romantic moment, I punched his arm. “Shut up, dick,” I demanded. “Your brother is exactly what women want. Sweet, romantic. He’s the kind of guy I’ll—”

  I screeched as Jameson suddenly threw me over his shoulder and stormed from the chapel, interrupting my declaration of the kind of love I desired. We were barely outside the building when he had me around the corner and pressed up against the wall, his mouth devouring mine. And my traitorous body… My arms squeezed around him, my legs wrapped around his hips and I kissed him back with equal hunger and ferocity. Whenever we were apart, I missed him so much, more than I’d ever be willing to admit. His hand wandered over to my breast then down toward…

  My eyes went wide, and I shoved him away hard before he touched my stomach. My feet thumped to the ground, and I stumbled a few steps from him. Jameson was dazed for a split second before he came after me and enclosed me in his arms. I tried not to shake, not to sink into him, not to fucking cry, but my over-hormonal body had a mind of its own. It wanted a home. And whether I liked it or not, home had always been him.

  Maybe, that’s why I hated him so much. Hated him, loved him… It was a fine line, and I tended to jump back and forth like I was playing Chinese jump rope. I knew if we just surrendered, we’d have the kind of relationship history wrote about. But Jameson would never give in. He said he didn’t love me, and mostly, I believed him. And God knew, I would never show my vulnerability and admit my feelings to this man. That would be completely humiliating.
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  “Why do you fight this so hard?” he asked into my hair where he’d pressed his lips.

  “Because I’m in love. And that means I can’t be with you,” I said, telling the truth and knowing he’d take it differently, knowing he’d believe there was someone else. Did that actually make it a lie?

  He flew backward his hands up as if he’d touched lava. His eyes were wide and full of hurt. “W-what?” he gasped. “Since when? Who?”

  “None of your business.”

  Okay, Willow. Your maturity level is stunning.

  My hand went unconsciously to my belly, and Jameson’s eyes followed the movement. If possible they widened even more. “You’re pregnant?” he practically yelled. “Willow…but…”

  His shoulders slumped, incredible pain emanating from him. It pricked at my regret, and tears filled my eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. At the moment, I didn’t hate him near as much as I usually did. Far from it. He was reacting as if…he had feelings of some sort. For me. Was it because he was losing his random fuck buddy? He’d said a million times that he’d never love me. I pushed away my own confused feelings. This reaction was nothing other than him realizing he’d lost a plaything or something.

  He gave a sharp nod. His gaze fell to my stomach again before he closed his eyes. Had that been longing?

  “We should go,” he said.

  I sighed quietly. “Yeah, probably. I have things to do.”

  “Like what?” he asked, his voice flat, devoid of anything, as he led the way to his car. I’d never heard this from him.

  “Well, for one, I need to find a job.”

  “You have a job.”

  “Last I knew, you got me fired.”

  He growled. “Damn it, Willow! You work at my company now, and you fucking know it. Why do you have to be such a pain in the ass?”

  “Why do you have to be such a dumbass?” I retorted.

  He held the vehicle’s door open for me, silently glaring. It slammed behind me, then he circled to the driver’s side. “We had something good going,” he muttered as he started the car.

  “Excuse me!” I exploded. “How is constant fighting and random booty calls a good thing? I’ve never been anything to you but a good fuck—a very good fuck, if I do say so. Beyond that you…you never cared. Pardon the fuck out of me if I want something more than that.”

  His mouth opened and closed a few times while he stared at me. Then he shook his head angrily, slammed the car into gear and took off down the street without another word.

  * * * *

  Jameson wasn’t speaking to me. In the week since I’d officially started working here, he’d avoided me like the proverbial plague. As a remodel project manager, I was under the supervision of his brother, Tatum. That was just fine with me. And I was happy as a clam, so to speak. I had charge over a small remodel at one of the Strip’s casinos, and I wasn’t doing peon work.

  But like a clam, there was that little grain of sand irritating me. Namely Jameson and my never-ending desire for him. Although, I waffled between desiring his dick and desiring junk-punching him. On most days, both would make me equally happy. I didn’t see a pearl coming from the irritating situation. Unless you counted little baby Tate-should-be-Malloy.

  Annoyed that my thoughts had drifted to him again—and let’s get real, when didn’t they—I grabbed up some paperwork Chase needed and headed over to the executive offices.

  “Hey!” I heard just after I’d handed off the folder to his assistant.

  “Emerson,” I exclaimed, hugging her. “How was your honeymoon?” I hadn’t seen her since her wedding, where I’d spent most of my time avoiding Jameson. I wasn’t sure he even knew I was there.

  And there was that huge grain of irritation again.

  “Perfect,” she sighed dreamily. The girl had it bad for her husband. Stars in her eyes and all that…

  “You’ll have to show me pictures when you get a chance—PG of course.”

  She swatted at me, rolling her eyes. “They’re all PG. Chase is completely paranoid about someone seeing too much of my skin. I just know he’s going to freak and make me see a female OB when the time comes. Heaven forbid, a guy doctor see the business.”

  “Damn straight!” he called through his open office door.

  She rolled her eyes again. “We should go to lunch,” she told me. “Catch up and stuff.”

  “Oh,” I groaned in regret. “I wish I could, but I have a doctor appointment today.”

  “Doctor?” Jameson said from behind me. I closed my eyes and huffed out a breath. Of course, he heard that.

  “I’ll see you later,” Emerson whispered, giving me a pat on the shoulder before practically skipping away. I swear to God she should have birds, butterflies and fairy dust fluttering around her.

  “Is everything okay? Why do you have to go to the doctor?” he demanded.

  “Now you’re talking to me?”

  “Cut the shit, Willow. Why are you going to the doctor? Are you okay?”

  “It’s just routine,” I gritted out then whispered so the whole office didn’t hear, “It’s my first ultrasound.”

  He swallowed hard, looking like he’d just tasted something bitter. And maybe it was a bitter pill to him that his booty call was out of reach.

  “Is…um…” He scrubbed his fingers over his lips then looked over my shoulder. “Is the…father…going with you?”

  “No.” Though I wished he was. And I really wanted to tell him he was the father more than I wanted anything, other than for him to love me.

  “Can…can I come with you?”

  Chapter Four

  ~ Jameson ~

  What in the hell had possessed me to ask Willow if I could go with her to this thing? Two nurses and the lady at the intake desk had asked if I was the father, and I’d had to hear Wills confirm to them all that no, I wasn’t.

  “So where is this asshat love of your life?” I asked, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest.

  “Busy,” she snapped.

  “Too busy to see the first images of his child?” I was being a dick, and I knew I wasn’t helping the situation. But I was in too much pain to find anything but anger.

  When she’d told me she was in love with someone else, that she was carrying his child, it felt as if I’d died. We’d been each other’s firsts, each other’s only, since…whatever this was between us had started. I thought we’d both known we’d end up together, eventually. It never occurred to me that she’d find someone else.

  I loved her. I’d always loved her. And now, I was way too late to tell her.

  “You didn’t have to come,” she said with a sigh.

  “You shouldn’t be here alone,” I argued.

  I forced myself to loosen my posture and walked over to her. She was wearing a paper gown and lying on an exam table with a blanket over her legs. She looked so tiny. Her hand rested on her belly, which showed no evidence of a bump. How could she be pregnant?

  “Sorry!” the doctor chirped when he came into the room. “We’re running a bit late today.” He held out his hand to shake mine. “I’m Dr. Bob.”

  Dr. Bob? Her OB was named Dr. Bob.

  “That’s okay,” Willow assured him, propping herself up on her forearms.

  “Let’s get a look at that baby.” He dropped onto his stool and wheeled over. He helped Willow push her gown up under her breasts, and I had to clench my hands into fists to keep from knocking his hands away from her.

  I had to get a grip. She wasn’t mine anymore. Apparently, she never really was.

  Dr. Bob… Jesus, really? Dr. Bob squeezed some goo on Willow’s belly and started pressing the ultrasound wand over it. He pushed a few buttons and soon a soft thwump-thwump-thwump sound filled the room.

  “Is that…” Willow’s eyes went wide.

  “Baby’s heartbeat,” he confirmed with a smile.

  Tears suddenly pricked at my eyes, and I had to turn away, not wanting to let her see what this was doing to me. Damn it, this should be the happiest moment of our lives. Instead, I was just an interloper, standing in a room with what could have been.

  “And there it is,” Dr. Bob said softly.

  I couldn’t resist turning to see the screen. My own heart was in my throat at the sight of the tiniest little bean, nestled inside Willow.