P.A. to the Billionaire Read online

  He laughed and rolled his eyes.

  “I know, it all sounds very ‘oh poor me’, but seriously, all I ever wanted was my mom around to take care of us kids, a stable home and a normal life.”

  She felt her heart break for him. No wonder he had been so messed up when he had gone through his divorce. His dreams for his perfect life had obviously crumbled.

  “This is all I ever wanted,” he said again. “A normal family home and a woman like you… and now I’ve found you.”

  He traced his thumb down the side of her face and kissed her again.

  “We found each other,” she whispered. “And we’ve both turned out to be exactly what the other needed.”

  He smiled at her and rested his forehead against hers.

  Russell had shown her how to be strong, and she had shown him a glimpse of a real future. Now that their souls were intertwined, and they had confessed their love for each other, Amanda knew it could only get better from there.

  10.

  The deals kept coming in for the leisure space down at the dockside development, and within two weeks, they had secured some huge names who wanted to open retail space along the front.

  Russell was flying high, he was happy and content, and he showered Amanda with love and affection each time he got another bit of good news. The nights that the girls were with their father, he would come over to her and spend all night with her, wrapped up in her arms and telling her all of his hopes and wishes for the future. He had fully opened and accepted her, and now that he had his heart caught up in hers, it was becoming more and more apparent that he never wanted to let her go.

  “By the time we lease the space in the remaining units, I’ll have recouped all I’ve spent so far,” he said with bemusement. “That’s even before anything is open, and not counting the rental going forward.”

  Amanda smiled at him widely and kissed him. He was doing so well and he was putting it all down to her.

  She curled up in his arms and closed her eyes. Life could never be more perfect than this, and she never wanted these moments to end. They had spent so much time together that she felt as if she knew him inside out, and all she wanted was to make him happy.

  As they lay there, Amanda was relaxed and calm, and even though she was drifting off to sleep, she was sure she heard a small sound from outside. She opened her eyes again and listened intently. Beside her, Russell was breathing deeply, obvious to her that he was on the verge of being completely asleep.

  She sat up and tried not to disturb him as she listened and squinted her eyes through the dark as if this could help her somehow.

  The noise came again and this time, she knew she wasn’t imagining it.

  The sound she could hear was coming from somewhere downstairs.

  Someone was in the house.

  She clutched her hand to her chest and held it there and all she could feel was the pounding of her heart.

  “Russell,” she whispered as she gently shook him awake.

  He opened his eyes and smiled at her, but when he saw the look of panic on her face he sat up too and held a finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet.

  As he rose from the bed and the moonlight that was spilling in from the curtains caught his incredibly tanned muscles, Amanda held her breath and closed her eyes. She was afraid, but also very grateful that the girls weren’t home, and she wrapped a sheet up around herself and watched as Russell crept toward the door, his huge frame barely making a sound on the floorboards.

  “Be careful,” she whispered, but he looked back at her with a wry smile as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

  She got to her feet and began to follow him, but when he realized she was coming he motioned for her to go back into the bedroom.

  “Get in there,” he whispered. “I’ll deal with this.”

  She bit her lip and felt her knees tremble as Russell began to descend the stairs, with his fists raised and his arms flexing, ready to lash out at whoever may be down there.

  She heard the snap of the light switch before the light filled the hallway and then the sounds of two men hurtling at each other. She ran toward the staircase and as she looked down with shock etched all across her face as she honestly couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

  It was Rob.

  He had broken into her home, and now Russell had him pinned up against the wall with one hand and by the scruff of the neck.

  “ROB!?” she screamed as she stepped down the stairs with her mouth gaping open.

  Russell had his other fist primed and ready to bring it crashing into Rob’s face, but he stopped when she called his name.

  “What?” Russell said as he turned and stared at her with wide eyes. “You know this guy?”

  Rob was wriggling around and trying to escape from Russell’s grip, but he held him there so effortlessly it was clear that there was no way Rob was going anywhere.

  “He’s my ex-husband,” she said as she reached the bottom of the stairs and glared at Rob with so much hatred she honestly didn’t know that she had it in her. “What the hell are you doing here, Rob? Where are the girls? Have you seriously just broken into my house? This is insane!”

  “This was our house,” Rob said, half choking from behind the grip that Russell had on his neck. “My home with my girls.”

  “She’s not your girl anymore,” Russell said as he squeezed Rob’s throat tighter. “She’s mine.”

  Amanda’s heart swelled, but her fear was rising. She had always known that Rob had it in him to snap like this and go crazy, but she had hoped that she had managed to avoid it.

  She had clearly been wrong.

  “My daughters,” Rob spat. “I have them at home and they need their mother.”

  Amanda shook her head and buried it in her hands. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, he was using the girls as emotional blackmail.

  “What did you think you could turn up here and convince me to go with you? After you’ve broken in in the middle of the night?” Amanda screamed. “And where are the girls, Rob!? Have you just left them home alone?”

  He shook his head, unable to speak from behind the tighter grip that Russell had on his neck and he sighed and closed his eyes.

  “My mother,” Rob managed to croak.

  Amanda collapsed down onto the floor and Russell let go of Rob so he fell down against the side of the wall too. He clutched at his throat and gasped for breath and Amanda felt herself hunching in over as she began to cry.

  “I can’t do this, Rob,” she said. “You’ve got to let go.”

  Russell was standing over him and looking down at him with so much hate Amanda honestly didn’t know how he wasn’t kicking the absolute shit out of him. His fists were pumped and he was ready to go, but she raised her hand and asked Russell to stop.

  “I just want to go and get the girls,” Amanda said as she rose to her feet and rushed past them both. “You’re not stable, Rob.”

  Russell dragged him out toward the front of the house and threw him halfway down the driveway. He wrapped his arm around Amanda’s shoulder and kissed her on the side of the head as he comforted her and breathed in and out with rage.

  “Get the fuck out of here,” he said to Rob. “And don’t even think about coming back.”

  Amanda wiped a tear from her eye as she and Russell began to walk toward his car.

  “We have to get the girls,” she said. “I don’t want him anywhere near them.”

  Rob was staggering around the end of the street and shouting up into the sky. He had clearly been drinking and he was a mess, and now Amanda was afraid for her children. All she wanted was for them to be there with her and Russell and as far away from Rob as they could get them.

  “Come on,” Russell said. “We’ll go and get them, and don’t worry, he won’t be seeing them again any time soon.”

  Amanda looked up into his eyes and as he began to drive, he took hold of her hand.

  “What good would all this money
be if I didn’t put it to good use?” he asked her with a wry smile. “I’ll get the best lawyer I can, and we’ll make sure his visitation rights are cut.”

  Amanda felt herself breaking down again and her shoulders heaved with relief as she cried.

  “He’s been troubling you for some time, hasn’t he?” asked Russell as they swung through the suburban streets and made their way to Rob’s mother’s house.

  “Since the moment I met him,” she confessed. “I always knew he had the potential go off the deep end. But he was always such a good father, I didn’t ever want to stop him from seeing the girls.”

  “He’s unstable,” Russell said. “Now you’ve seen him like that…”

  “I know,” she agreed. “Now I know I have to do what’s best for them. And right now, until Rob has sorted himself out, he can’t have them like this on his own. Especially when he is just pawning them off on his mother so he can go out drinking.”

  She rubbed her temples and tried to stop the flow of tears. She felt as if she had been waiting years for this moment. Years for her to finally be able to break free from the trappings of her past and her ex-husband, and she could finally move forward to enjoy a true life for herself and the girls.

  Now Russell was declaring his love for her and offering to help her.

  He really did mean every word.

  As they pulled up outside the house where Rob’s mother lived, Amanda opened the door and raced up the driveway before Russell had even managed to get the car into park. He got out quickly behind her and ran too, them both reaching the front door at the same time and hammering on the door with both fists.

  When the old lady opened it, she too had tears in her eyes, and she stepped to the side to let them go in and collect the girls.

  Amanda swept Madeline and Grace up into her arms and hugged them so tightly she knew she was never going to let them go again. She loved them so much and she was done being the woman who tried to do everything. She knew she had to step aside as Russell’s assistant and concentrate on her family. They were her priority, and she was sure that he could find someone else to help him run his empire. She had him and she had her girls, and all she wanted was a simple life with all of them.

  “I’m sorry,” Rob’s mother said as they left the house and slammed the door behind them. It hadn’t been her fault, but Amanda wasn’t in the mood to talk as they loaded the girls into the car and buckled their seat belts.

  They slept soundly on the back seats as they drove back toward home, and Russell reached out and took hold of her hand again. He squeezed it gently and she looked up at him and smiled.

  “You know what I’m going to say, don’t you?” she whispered.

  He smiled and nodded his head.

  “Well, if you didn’t, I was going to…” he said. “You need to be there for them.”

  She smiled.

  “I don’t want to let you down,” she whispered.

  “You’d be letting me down if you insisted on staying,” he laughed. “I want you at home raising these girls. I can find another assistant.”

  She nodded her head.

  “And I’m going to look after all of you from now on,” he said it so naturally she almost missed it. “You won’t have to worry about anything. We’re a family now. The four of us.”

  She felt her mouth sag open and he looked up into his eyes. She knew she had tears forming in her own, and she honestly had never felt so incredibly blessed and loved in all her life.

  “Russell?” she whispered.

  He squeezed her hand again and then he brought it up to his lips and kissed it gently.

  “I’m yours, baby,” he said. “I love you and I love them, and I want to take care of you all. You make me a better man, and I can’t imagine my life without you now. We’re a team…”

  Amanda let her head rest on his shoulder as they drove through the dark.

  She had her man, and her daughters, and now she had an exciting future laid out ahead of her. She had turned her life around and had finally found her freedom.

  “I love you,” she whispered as she held his hand tight.

  “I love you too, new girl,” Russell smiled. “I love you too.”

  11.

  Six months Later

  Television crews were lining up along the dockside as they filmed the grand opening of what had been dubbed the city’s most exciting new development in over a decade. Camera lights flashed, and journalists swarmed around the base of the warehouses as Russell and Amanda looked down at the chaos that was happening below them from the top of the office window.

  “This is insane,” Amanda said as she leaned up on her tip toes to try and get a better view. “Can you even believe that this is happening.”

  Russell wrapped his arms around her from behind and breathed her in deeply, kissing the back of her neck and holding her tight.

  The girls were running up and down the office halls, playing on chairs and scooting along on them, playing races and cackling as they went.

  “I think it’s more insane in here,” Russell smiled as he kissed her again and laughed. “They’re enjoying it, aren’t they?”

  “They’re having the time of their lives!” she beamed.

  Amanda looked back toward the crowds and she could see the cameras swooping around each individual unit and reporting on what businesses were going to be housed inside. They had a multitude of restaurants and bars, clothes stores, coffee houses, a boutique hotel and a spa, a gym and a small set of creative office spaces for new startups, and the top floors of the warehouses were all New York studio style apartments.

  Russell had done good.

  He had done very good indeed.

  When he had taken over the land at the side of the dockland, it had all been derelict and in disrepair. But he had had a vision and he had stayed true to it. He had brought it all back from the dead and revived the warehouses, keeping all of their original features and charm and bringing them back into the present. He had created a new little town all of its own. An island in amongst the river and nestled on the edge of the city, waiting for the successful and hip young professionals to move in and thrive.

  He had done it.

  He had made a success and it had all been down to Amanda.

  “I never could have done this without you,” he whispered into her ear as he cradled her pregnant belly. “You were the one who kept my inspiration alive. You were the one who didn’t just tell me yes, you gave me the challenge I needed, and then you helped me find myself all over again.”

  “And you helped me feel free,” she said as she rested her head against his.

  She truly had never known a love like it before. He had given her wings, he had helped her and the girls escape from Rob’s control, and he had taught her how to love again.

  Downstairs and outside in the crowd, Amanda gasped as he saw Regina barge her way through the swarm of journalists and people flocking to get a good look at the grand unveiling.

  She felt Russell tense as he caught sight of her too, but he took a deep breath and rolled out his shoulders.

  “She’s come to see you,” Amanda tried to say it calmly. “She must feel terrible.”

  They looked back to the crowd and found Regina, and it was Russell’s turn to gasp this time as they realized an older, gray gentleman was with her. Amanda tensed too. There was no way she wouldn’t recognize Ronald Newport from all of the photographs she had now seen in the media.

  Russell’s father was there, and he had come to see what his son had done.

  “Your dad…” Amanda whispered.

  Russell shook his head.

  “I can’t actually believe he’s here.”

  She squeezed his hand and kissed his cheek.

  “This is it,” she said to him.

  Russell nodded and took a deep breath.

  “Girls!” he called as he looked over his shoulder and beckoned for Madeline and Grace to come toward them.

  They ran up th
e full length of the office in their matching dresses and with wide smiles, and when they stopped in front of Russell, he bent down so he could be eye to eye with them and he smiled at them warmly.

  “Are you ready?” he asked them.

  And they both nodded their heads and clapped with excitement.

  “Now, remember,” he said. “When I hand you the big scissors, we’re cutting the red ribbon, okay?” He winked, and the girls giggled.

  Madeline and Grace held hands and Russell took hold of Amanda’s hand as they all walked toward the elevator. When the doors opened and they stepped inside, they both knew that this was a big moment for all of them. Not only were they showing the world Russell’s achievement, but they were also announcing themselves as a family to the entire city.

  Russell touched Amanda’s belly again and he smiled at her.

  “Not long to go,” he said.

  The bump was big and inside, they knew their little boy was waiting to come out and meet them all. Russell had found Amanda and the girls and now he was giving her a son. They truly had everything they had ever dreamed of and more.

  When the elevator stopped and they waited for the doors to open for them to walk out to the crowd, they all stopped and looked at each other and smiled.

  Madeline, Grace, Amanda, and Russell.

  A modern family who were bonded stronger than they had ever known was possible.

  “You did it,” Amanda whispered as they waited by the doorway for them to open and announce them to the word. She clutched his hand and breathed in slowly.

  “No,” he smiled as he looked to her with all the love in the universe. “We did it.”

  THE END

  Collections

  Stonybrooke Shifters

  Daddy Shifter’s Virgin Auction

  Leela Ash

  Copyright ©2017 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.