Decoding the Billionaire

  Meg MacRose

  Decoding the Billionaire

  Copyright © 2019 by Meg MacRose

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  First edition

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  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

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Meg MacRose

  Chapter 1

  The coolness of the chic embossed metal wall against Elly’s bare back felt like a refuge. She pressed against it, wishing it was one of those magic walls that could somehow flip her around and remove her from the unfamiliar nightclub’s lights and sounds. Although, she had to admit, with the help of these cocktails, she was feeling less the odd one out than she had earlier in the evening, when she’d been ushered straight onto the dance floor with her sisters and their friends. Elly had been dreading this night for weeks and had tried to come up with some viable excuse to give her father. She thought working late was a perfectly acceptable reason to stay home, but her father had only shaken his head and muttered his oft repeated phrase, “Truly, Elly, you work too hard and play too little.” And she’d not managed to come up with any other feasible reason to not join the party, so here she was.

  Elly noticed with wry amusement, that at some point since she’d started drinking the neon blue cocktails in bulbous fish-tank-looking glasses, her body had started to sway with the beat of the music. Who would believe it? Elly dancing in a nightclub?

  She shook her head in disbelief. Cocktails, nightclubs, even parties in general, were not her thing. And this little slip of bright turquoise that Nina, her best friend and business partner, had insisted would look gorgeous on Elly’s frame, was not her normal attire at all. A comfy pair of jeans, a t-shirt and her sleek, lightweight e-reader on-hand was her idea of bliss.

  “Cheers Nina,” Elly muttered under her breath in silent appreciation as she lifted her almost finished drink. “At least I fit in.” She glanced around the pulsating room and decided it was most definitely Nina’s kind of place. With regret, Nina had not been able to join her as she’d already had plans for a special night out with her latest conquest, John. No, Josh. Or was he Joe? Regardless of his name, Nina seemed to be quite besotted with him. Though, her men seemed to be all the same type. Rugged, rude, outspoken and not particularly at ease with successful women. Elly shrugged her shoulders to no-one but herself. Nina deserved better, but Elly had been trying to tell her that for years. Nina never listened.

  Despite her reluctance to attend the party without Nina to brace her, Elly couldn’t stay home. Her baby sister was twenty-one years old, and their father had been most insistent that Elly join the birthday celebrations. Both her sisters had always been popular and enjoyed a socially active lifestyle. Quite different than Elly’s own introverted self.

  Elly watched her sisters out on the centre of the dance floor, surrounded by their friends. The night was still young for them. Their smiles were huge as they waved their arms and moved their sequin clad bodies in time to the beat of the music. Her sisters had always adored being all dressed up, if what they were wearing even qualified as dresses. They looked a little more like slightly too long skin-tight t-shirts. Anyway, they looked gorgeous in their very skimpy black sequin dresses that accentuated their youthful slim bodies.

  The entire party, minus Elly, had spent the afternoon having their hair styled and make-up applied at some exclusive London salon. Elly was grateful that she’d at least managed to avoid that event. Although, her excuse this time had been quite legitimate. She’d had a last-minute project that needed some computer code reviewed. She might have kept reviewing code all night had Nina not shown up.

  “Elly, you have to leave in fifteen minutes if you’re going to make your sister’s birthday dinner.” Nina pointed to Elly’s unruly hair and plain face. “But you can’t go like that. Where’s the dress we bought at lunchtime?”

  Elly tugged open her bottom drawer and grabbed the bag with the said dress in it. Her fingers touched the soft and silky fabric inside. She sighed. It was a gorgeous dress that she’d bought. Only, it was just not her style nor her kind of place to spend a night out. Could she pull it off or would everyone see that she didn’t fit? She glanced around the room, there were only the two of them left this late in the afternoon, so it was safe to strip off and change then and there. Nina was rattling around in her enormous handbag, the one that went everywhere with her.

  Elly tended to remove her shoes every time she sat down at her desk and work shoeless. Still barefooted, she changed out of her weekend casual work attire of plain blue jeans and bright yellow t-shirt. As she slipped the dress on, the smooth fabric rustled and fell in sleek motions down the curves of her body. There was nothing understated about it, but it did feel good. Her fingers played with the material against her thighs.

  “Wow. You look incredible.”

  Elly looked up in surprise. “But you saw it on me when I tried it on in the shop.” She’d been so grateful when Nina had offered to go out with her in their lunch break to help her choose an outfit for her sister’s 21st party. Work had been so busy, and she’d just not had the time to go out in the weeks leading up. There were a lot of contracts that they had accepted that were all peaking in workload at the same time. And she’d been putting the whole go-search-for-a-dress off while she tried to come up with an excuse for not going to her sister’s party.

  Nina smiled back at her. “I know. And I still say wow. It’s just that kind of dress. The Elly I first met would never have been able to pull off this kind of dress – and here you are absolutely owning it. And here you’ve been fretting about keeping up with your sisters – El, believe me when I say that they’ll be walking in your footsteps tonight.”

  Nina pulled her make-up bag out of her oversized purse. “Come on. I’ll just pop some colour on. We can’t have you schmoozing at the Phoenix not looking your best. Keep your eyes closed and don’t move.”

  Elly could only obey. With her eyes shut tight, the gentle flick of a powdered brush tickled her chin and cheeks. Then Nina had held her head in place while she drew with thick crayon-like pencils on her eyebrows, mouth and around her eyes. Nina was silent as she worked her magic. In five quick minutes, Elly’s face and hair had been transformed.

  “There you go, my friend. Now you’re ready.” Nina’s smile had said it all. When she’d handed Elly a small mirror, Elly had gasped with surprise. The mirror was too small to see her whole
face, so she’d had to move it around to different angles.

  It wasn’t her reflection. Her normally quite unruly hair and plain face had been turned into someone who oozed sophistication.

  “Wish me luck, Nina,” Elly had called out to her friend as she’d pulled out the matching stilettos from the same bag in her drawer. She’d put them on when she was downstairs, so she didn’t break an ankle before she even left.

  “You look incredible,” Nina had said. “Enjoy your sister’s birthday. Find some swanky sexy guy at the Phoenix and have a great night! I’m totally gutted that I can’t make it.”

  Elly had flagged down a black cab outside her office and crossed her fingers. “Don’t be late, don’t be late,” she’d muttered in a quiet tone, like a mantra. Her family’s dinner reservation was at some swanky French restaurant on the other side of London.

  As she’d entered the restaurant, she spotted her Dad standing awkwardly across the room next to his wife Wendy. He waved out to her and made his way to her side.

  “Elizabeth, dear. Great timing. Wendy’s extended family has all arrived and they’re a bit much, if you know what I mean.”

  Elly nodded. While Wendy was reserved, her siblings and their families had always been chatty and often a bit loud.

  “Look at you, my dear. Just look at you.” Her Dad had placed his strong arms around her and hugged her, as he murmured in her ear, “Your Mother would be so proud of you, Elly dear.” Dad had never spoken words like that before and he rarely made reference to her mother. But then, she didn’t usually apply any cosmetics or dress up stylish like this. That was the one thing that she remembered about her mum. She had been classy. His words had given her a glow of happiness as she sat down at the table and joined her family for a most luxuriant seven course birthday dinner.

  Elly grimaced and screwed up her face as she took the final sip of her cocktail. She’d had enough of the oversweet drinks. Her big sister duty was over. It was time to bolt.

  She eyed a table close by. Perfect. Once she deposited her empty glass, she could slip across to the exit on the other side of the dance floor and escape. Halfway to the table, her gaze fell upon a familiar masculine shape standing over in the corner. She halted midstride, her eyes widening in both disbelief and surprise. Elly’s heartbeat turned erratic as she stared at the group of businessmen as they chatted and laughed. A sexy waitress passed by them and delivered each man a drink. Unaware of anyone or anything else, the hairs on Elly’s neck prickled as her body honed in on one specific man. Tall, with dark hair and strong, chiselled features, Alex exemplified the ultimate alpha male.

  Memories of his hands as they gently touched her body surged back, and she physically ached to be held by him once again. But her memories were bittersweet. He alone had once shattered her heart. Just being in the same room with him returned those old feelings of vulnerability and unresolved hurt, mixing them with the desperate desire to touch him that surged through her.

  But it wasn’t just his physical touch that she remembered. With Alex, she had felt adored, an affection that she’d never experienced before or since. Their short relationship had rocketed her to a new world, where she had experienced exhilaration. It had been full of fun, excitement, mutual debate and discussion. Together they had explored old ruins, secluded bays, art galleries and hip ouzeri bars. Elly had always been studious and an introverted bookworm. She’d never attracted the interest of someone so charismatic and so much fun. Not until Alex.

  His rejection by that single sentence, “It was good, but it’s over,” had literally changed her life. Once she’d had a taste of being part of a world full of fun and laughter, she’d not wanted to regress back to her loner ways. Even though he’d broken her heart, Elly felt like she owed him; he’d opened up her world to one of excitement—to a world she had always thought was out of her realm. Alex had aroused in Elly not only physical feelings for him, but a desire to become more than what she was. Her reserved and studious nature had been her defence in her teenage years from dealing with society, from going to parties, or even just going out to meet people.

  She’d met him on a Greek Island. She was on holiday courtesy of her father as a celebration for obtaining her bachelor’s degrees. He was there for business reasons. For weeks they enjoyed the kind of Summer romance that you only read about in cheesy love stories.

  After their break-up, she had sat alone on the next budget-flight off the island. With a heavy heart, she’d gazed out the window at nothing in particular. It was then that she’d realised that to return to London as the old Elizabeth, a girl who had always held onto her defensive demeanour, only limited her opportunities to live life to the fullest. There and then, as the methodical planner that she was, she wrote a long and detailed bucket list for herself on the back of her boarding pass. Her list, which she still had somewhere in her bedroom, included what kind of person she wanted to be perceived as, and activities, exhibitions and experiences that she’d never otherwise have indulged in. Although she didn’t know exactly how she was going to change, she’d been determined to take those first steps.

  She’d returned home to a cold flat, and for the first time since she’d moved to study in London, she had been engulfed in loneliness. Before she could change her mind, she’d advertised on the university noticeboard for a flatmate, something that she’d never have done before Greece. It was with luck that the first applicant was Nina, a short and curvy vivacious and vibrant post-grad marketing student, who wanted to escape the chaos of campus student residences. The girls had connected straight away, and Nina moved her sparse belongings into her room the following day. They spent their first afternoon together basked in the late summer sun as they became acquainted in the quaint courtyard of their local pub. Nina was grateful for the accommodation and friendship, and Elly had appreciated her bubbly presence. Right from Day One, their different personalities complemented each other, and they got on like a house on fire.

  As a teenager, Elly’s body had been a constant source of awkwardness, and she’d never bothered with nor understood fashion. What was the point? She’d always considered herself to be gangly, tall and shapeless. But her liaison with Alex had taught her to appreciate her body, that men valued intelligence, and that she was attractive. Nina had helped her focus on that, she helped her to reconstruct her identity that maximised her qualities, found clothes that accentuated her long legs and small hips. Her confidence and new persona hadn’t appeared overnight, it had taken time. Somewhere along the way, they had combined Elly’s brains and an ability to articulate technical information into simple terms with Nina’s flair for marketing, design and communication, to create a successful business model. They made a great team, able to bounce ideas with each other. Their small business was respected for being successful as a specialised IT consultancy, in what was still a man’s world. Elly had morphed, finding herself an identity that was still both inherently her own and quirky, but also one that looked like it fitted in. Though, as Nina had explained it, it’s all about building perception and looking like you’re confident. And under Nina’s tutorage, men didn’t ignore Elly anymore, quite the opposite.

  Against her better judgement, all Elly wanted to do was to flaunt her new self in front of him. Her body was beyond excited and almost acted on its own accord. The empty glass, still in her hand, revealed the slightest of trembles and the pulse in her neck beat an irregular rhythm. Her sisters were quite forgotten.

  While her body inched closer to him, her mind wouldn’t stop the feelings of anguish and hurt that he had caused. Emotions that had been subdued years ago, bubbled back to the surface.

  She had been a quiet intellect, happy immersed in her books and laptop—a loner who had attracted the attention of a beautiful, assertive man, a man who had unlocked her soul and drew her out into the world. Her hands trembled, and she felt warm. She could blame the alcohol, but there was something enchanting about seeing Alex again. Her nostalgia was not just because she had los
t her virginity to him, a dream lover in all ways possible. No, she’d also met her match intellectually. He was someone who could debate with her and challenge her in such a way that even the memory of it stimulated her. He had showered her with attention, affection and been everything that she had ever dreamed a boyfriend could be. But all that, it meant nothing in the end. Her love had been rebuffed when a more beautiful, more capable, more sophisticated and flawless woman came onto the scene. It was good, but it’s over. In six words, Elly, a tall, lanky, introverted student had been ditched for a gorgeous and extroverted Greek siren who made everyman’s head turn, including Alex’s. He’d continued to explain that his whole reason of being in Greece was to entice that magnificent model-looking woman as a way to expand his own business. Just like that, she’d been tossed aside.

  Her gaze remained fixed on him. Perhaps it was the heady mixture of alcohol and pulsating music, or just the exhilaration that this one man had brought to her sheltered world, but Elly knew what she had to do. For just for a moment, she needed to push away the hurt., She was desperate to show this man she had once adored that despite his rejection twelve years ago, despite him telling her that he had found someone better, she had survived and thrived. And anyway, she asked herself, how many times in her life would she be clothed in a dress that rivalled that Greek woman who had turned his head? Her dress symbolised all the changes that Elly had made since she’d left Greece. She couldn’t show him her successes in life, the friends she had made or the type of person she had become. But she could show him a hint of that. Nina always said that perception was all it took. And tonight, she had the look - confident and sexy. She felt confident and sexy. The planets had aligned. For the one night that she was dressed up all glamorous and here he was. It was like she was meant to flaunt herself in front of him. It was like she had waited twelve years for this to happen.

  She didn’t allow time for any rational thought to enter her head and stop her. Elly made her way across the room. Her gaze didn’t waver. She had one man in her line of sight and was completely oblivious of anyone else. Still feeling sexy, she progressed across the room. She gained more confidence, more swagger, with every step. Her walk accentuated with small movements in time to the music. For the first time in Elly’s life, she felt like she was the female predator, as she hunted her man.