In Love With Mr. Billionaire - Chapter 27: Chapter 27

****Aaron's POV****
I stood on the balcony of my suite looking out at the Duomo. The warm, yellow lights illuminated the Cathedral, making it glow against the darkness of the night. But the beauty of the architectural wonders of Italy was not the center of my thoughts. It was the woman who had started to take over every aspect of my life.
This was going to be a business trip to set up a new restaurant in the city. There were surveys to be done, locations to be finalized, instructions to be passed to the branch for a smoother escalation of events, and deals to be signed. Yet I had decided to spend my whole day with her. The worst part of it was I had zero regrets about it. Instead if given a chance, I would like to spend the whole week the same way I had spent the day. This was what she was doing to me.
I took a deep breath and shook my head, realizing that I was smiling like an idiot.
After dinner, Caroline had gone to rummage through all the shopping bags. Back in the shop, she had not seen the number of bags, but the moment they were brought to the suite by the hotel staff, she had freaked out. She was sure she had not bought that many things. She was right, she had not. I had accepted my crime of adding some of the stuff.
"This is a lot, Aaron. I'm never going shopping with you ever again," she had given me a hard glare that I found ridiculously cute.
The striking difference between her and her family baffles me sometimes. James had gone so far only to get a hand over my wealth. It was astonishing to think that I would shower Caroline with all my money if she asked me for it, without a second thought, and yet that was the last thing she wanted from me. How had she managed to keep her heart when surrounded by goblins of greed, I had no idea.
The ringing of my cellphone broke my chain of thoughts. I had ordered Carter to take care of all the work calls for the day and forward them to me only under emergencies, so even before I pulled the phone out of my pockets, I knew it was going to be some trouble calling for me. But the instant I saw the caller ID, I realized it was going to be catastrophic.
"Bark," I said arrogantly as soon as I put the phone to my ear. I was greeted by silence on the other end. I shook my head in defeat and sighed, "fine. Speak."
"Just to make you realize I'm not a dog," Brian declared.
"Of course. Dogs are better than you," I retorted.
The noises in the background of the phone being snatched away from Brian and him cursing at someone alerted me until a different voice spoke.
"They definitely fight like dogs."
"Nate? What are you doing with Brian?" I asked, confused. They live in different countries.
There was once again a series of cursing and pushing noises. "No, he is still in Australia. I'm with Brian," Kevin spoke.
I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at the screen strangely. Nate, Brian and Kevin were my school buddies. It had been months since I last talked to either one of them. Since we lived in different countries, had different jobs, and had goals in life, we hardly meet as often as we used to. I still miss the old days with them, but times change. They have their own careers and I had my company to take care of. Sacrificing some things to achieve others was a part of life. And somewhere along the line, priorities change.
Though the different paths we had taken in life had failed to lessen the bond we shared as kids. We always visited each other whenever either one of us was in the same town and called occasionally, often to mess with the other, but it was nearly impossible that the four of us were ever together at the same time. The last had been the reunion, years ago.
The fact that all three of them had decided to make a conference call was suspicious. I put the phone back to my ear only to be greeted by them speaking over each other's voices.
"What the fuck is happening and where the fuck are you morons?" I joined them. My voice was loud enough to make them stop arguing.
"Stop fighting, you dickheads! Don't you think we have something more important to talk about?" Nate chided the other two men. Nate was the sanest and calmest one among the four of us. He was a man of patience who hardly let anything get to him. So, if he was losing his calm, it was definitely something very important that they wanted to discuss.
Have they somehow found out about my engagement with Caroline?
"That's what I've been trying to say to Brian, but he doesn't have a freakin' brain to get that across his head!" Kevin snapped.
I stayed silent and so did Nate, waiting for them to get over their argument. It was Brian who backed off.
"I'll fight you later, K," he said with a silent warning, "but right now. Aaron you fucking bastard!"
"Get him off the phone, K," I said.
"Why did we not know you're engaged?" Kevin snapped again. This time, it was at me.
There it is. They found out about it.
With every little hell that I had to go through to finally have Caroline in my life and with every dreadful event preceding my engagement to her, I had forgotten about sharing the news with them. Looked like they were not going to let go of it easily.
"Because I didn't care to tell you guys about it," I said with a smile, knowing my reply was going to irk them more.
I heard Nate sigh, "alright. We forgive you but-"
"I don't!" Kevin snapped. This time it was Nate on the receiving end of it.
"Neither do I," Brian snapped after him.
"You go on, Nate," I said, ignoring the other two men. Brian and Nate were always arguing over the smallest of things like kids in kindergarten. It was very rare that they agreed on things and it was never a good idea to take them on when they did. Like right now.
"You're engaged to someone and we don't even know about her," Nate said in a calm tone, "at least make us meet her. I'm curious to know as to who managed to finally tie you down. And what did you say her name was again...?"
"I never told you her name before, but since you're so curious about her. Her name is Grace Morgan," I said and burst out laughing. Kevin and Brian joined me while Nate spouted angry curses at the three of us.
Grace Morgan was Nathanial's crush in college and as he puts it: his one true love. Throughout our college days, he had been crazy about her but never gained the courage to confess it all to her. Fast forward to the last reunion, he finally asked her out, only to be rejected with the simplest of words. He was heartbroken after the tragedy and even though all three of us had been there for him at the time, we never left a chance to taunt him about it.
"Good one," Brian commented.
Nate was about to resume his streak of curses when I ended the call. I would have to arrange a proper meeting to pacify them about it all.
Still chuckling, I placed my phone back in my pockets and moved inside the suite to check on Caroline. She was sitting on the couch with opened boxes and empty shopping bags all around her. I stopped near the balcony to watch her.
She was holding a box in her hands, her eyes were trained on it as if it was a ticking time bomb. With more care than necessary, she got off the couch. Eyes still on the box, she started moving towards the balcony, not realizing I was standing there. Not until she bumped into me.
I was about to wrap my hands around her, but she yelped and jumped back in horror. I moved forward to comfort her. Her eyes softened the moment she realized it was me.
"You scared me," she hit my chest playfully.
"What is so interesting about the box?" I asked, urging her to show me what was inside.
A frown appeared on her face with that. She dropped her gaze to the box and then looked back up at me. A pair of stilettos revealed itself when she removed the lid over the box.
"I never bought these," she said.
"I did. I saw you looking at it," I reasoned.
"But I didn't ask you to buy it," she reasoned back.
"You liked it, Caroline. I saw you look at it with fondness. I was confused as to why you didn't buy it yourself," I told her.
"5700 euros, Aaron!" She placed the box carefully on the table and placed her hands on her hips to glare at me again. I forced myself not to smile at how adorable she looked doing that when she was trying to argue with me.
"And why does that matter?" I asked.
"It's too expensive!" Her eyes went wide as she said those words like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"You liked it, Caroline. You should've bought it. But you didn't so I did it for you. The price doesn't matter," I stated simply, trying to convince her that she doesn't have to care about the cost before buying something for her.
"It doesn't matter to you. But it does to me," she said. Her voice went low and she brought her hand to the front, fidgeting with her fingers. "You know dad always said-"
"James is an ass!" I said, anger coursing into me with the mere mention of his name. Caroline's head snapped up at me in surprise.
I saw the worry emerge in her pretty brown eyes at the tone used. I have always tried my best to be calm around her—it wasn't a difficult thing to do in her presence. For whatever reason, just the slight tinge of anger directed at her would bother her more than it should. I had seen that on her face the first time we met when she crashed into my car. I placed my hands over her arm and softened my tone. She should know I would never hurt her. Not even at my worst.
"You don't have to care about James, Caroline. He is an opportunist who doesn't care about anything other than himself. I know he doesn't treat you right. I'm here for you. Stop listening to him," I said, pulling her into a hug.
She wrapped her hands around me and placed her head over my chest. "Money doesn't matter. You do," I said, kissing the top of her head.
Caroline raised her head to look at me. I leaned in for a sweet kiss. "Thank you," she whispered to me.
"For what?" I raised my eyebrows.
After a brief moment of thought, Caroline broke the hug and picked up the box of stilettos, "for these." I nodded. I was sure she hadn't meant it only for the stilettos, but if she wanted to change the subject, I was going to let her do that.
I was woken up by the continuous knocking on the door. "Aaron," Caroline's sweet voice called for me. The door was unlocked so I don't know what was stopping her from coming in.
I pulled the comforter away from my semi-naked body and went to open the door. Caroline's freshly bathed, breathtakingly beautiful face greeted me on the other side.
She was looking down at the newspaper in one of her hands. Not realizing that the door had been answered already, her other hand reached up to knock again. Instead of the wooden door, her fist hit my bare chest. It was a soft hit and my hand automatically went up, to hold her hand in place before she pulled it away.
Startled, Caroline looked up from the newspaper. Heat rushed to her face when her eyes took in my clothless upper body and her hand resting over the hard muscles of my chest. When her eyes met mine, I saw how flustered she was with the closeness.
"You don't have to knock, Caroline," I told her. She nodded, then passed me the newspaper.
"What's this?" I asked, unfolding it to reveal a picture of mine—not a very flattering one—printed on the first page.
THE BILLIONAIRE PLAYBOY AARON WOODWORDS ENGAGED? The headlines read. An article, taking over almost one-fourth of the first page of the newspaper, was accompanied by a picture of Caroline and me holding hands, walking out of the museum we visited last evening. A smaller box was drawn on the bottom left of the picture, focusing on Caroline's diamond ring.
I moved my eyes over the article for a quick read. Since my publicist has been told to keep me off the news at all times, unless it was something that would be ultimately beneficial for my company, there were not many details in the article. Though it did contain the names of all the places we visited yesterday, including the name of the hotel we were currently staying in. There were repetitive mentions of the 'mystery girl' I was engaged to. It was a relief they knew close to nothing about her. Once they find out her relation with James Marshall, they will leave no stone unturned to print her whole life in the newspapers for the world to read.
With a deep sigh, I tossed the paper on the table. "Don't worry about it. Ignore it. It doesn't matter," I told Caroline. Being the public figure I was because of my company, I was used to dealing with all this media shit. Caroline was certainly not, but being with me had pulled her in the mess. I could see the distress on her face as her eyes constantly drifted to the newspaper lying on the table.
I took her hand and pulled her to the couch, making her sit on my lap. "This is not it," Caroline said, "The manager came a few minutes ago. He says the media and reporters have surrounded the hotel, they're waiting for you to step out. The guards have been stationed outside, but it doesn't seem like they are going away anytime soon."
I raked my hand through my just out of bed hair in frustration. It was not about me. It was about the beautiful girl in my arms who looked like the world was coming to an end. I entwined my fingers with her cold ones, and gave it a little squeeze of assurance.
This was exactly why I had not announced my engagement with her to the public yet. I knew this was going to happen and I knew Caroline hated being the center of attention.
The paparazzi had nothing better to do than wreck people's lives by constantly poking their nose and sharing whatever scent they found with the whole world. Though I was going to make sure none of it affected her. I was going to have a chat with my public relations people and keep her away from all of this.
"I'll take care of it, Caroline. There is nothing to worry about," I said.
My cell phone started to ring the next instant. This was the start. By the end of the day my phone was going to blow off with messages and calls. I was planning to ignore all of it and forward the calls to Carter to sort out this crap, but the name on the display forced me to answer it.
"Having fun, Woodwords?" Nathaniel's voice was like a child getting his favorite present on Christmas. It cleared all the clouds that were blocking the reason behind the sudden upheaval.
"What did you do?" In contrast to his joyful voice, mine was dangerously grave.
"You remember Geremiah? My little journalist sister? I swear I did not tell her much, just shared a little about you being engaged and roaming freely in the streets of Milan. Nothing else," he said, lacing his tone with fake assurance.
"You're dead, Nathanial," I threatened, "meet me and you're dead."
"That's my revenge for yesterday. Have fun with the media," he laughed heartily and ended the call.
Caroline was looking at me, waiting for the details. I sighed, "my friend informed them. We can't go out for a while."
"How are you going to go to work?" she asked.
I looked at the time on my phone and realized I had a meeting in two hours. I could simply reschedule it or cancel it for the time being, but the media was not going to disrupt my schedule.
"I have ways," I smiled at her, then called Carter to make arrangements before heading to take a refreshing shower.
The breakfast was brought up to the suite by the hotel staff. As we were finishing up the Italian baked egg and sausages, the sound of chopper blades cutting the morning air resonated through the hotel walls. Caroline looked over at me, confused.
"What's happening?" She asked, raising her head to look up at the ceiling. It reverberated as the chopper landed on the helipad on the terrace.
"If I can't go by road, I'll go by air," I winked at her. She gasped with startling excitement.
I pulled her to me for a deep kiss and went off to work.
The meeting took most of my morning, the only relief being that the deal had been successful. The location for setting up the restaurant was finalized and the construction would start as soon as the other parts of it are approved by me.
The publicist was working with a team to get the situation under control, but even after everything, one thing was certain: there was no way we would be able to go out in peace till the media didn't decide to let go of it. It was ridiculous to think that they were so interested in someone's life. It was not like I had decided to escape the law after murdering a man—James came to my mind as a potential victim. All I did was get engaged to the woman with whom I wanted to spend all my days with.
I shook my head to pull my thoughts away from Caroline. I had tons of work to do and thinking about her would drag me back to the tempting rabbit hole which doesn't have an exit.
At nearly three in the afternoon, my phone rang up. It was Caroline and I answered it immediately.
"Did you eat?" was the question she asked me as soon as I put the phone to my ear.
"Yes," I lied. I had been in a meeting during lunch, but she didn't have to know that.
"You were working, weren't you?" I could imagine her raising her brows to demand the truth.
"In a meeting," I told her the truth. It was apparent that the lie hadn't worked well on her.
"Eat something," she instructed, "how much work is left?"
I looked at the pile of files resting on a side on my table and shook my head, "a little."
"Great! When will you be leaving?" she asked enthusiastically. The feeling of someone getting so excited to see you again, to have someone waiting for you with a smile on their face after a hectic day of work, was such a simple gesture but such a significant display of affection.
"Immediately," I chuckled.
Work has always been the most important part of my life. I loved my company, my business, and the duties that came with it. Most of the time I got so engrossed that I would skip my meals—like today. And now I'm skipping my work for just one person.
You see, somewhere along the line, priorities do change.