Trusting the Billionaire

Chapter Fifteen: Visitors

Across town, Audrey's mother arrived at Bellamy Trust with disdain written plainly across her face. She had never cared for the work her late husband built his life around, only for the comfort his money bought her. She swept through the halls in a cloud of expensive perfume, and everyone stepped aside to let her pass, elegant, coiffed, carrying herself with the quiet superiority of someone who had never had to earn a paycheck.

She brushed past the secretary's protests, ignoring the woman's insistence that she wait while a meeting was confirmed, and let herself straight into Audrey's office.

"Mom."

"Don't 'mom' me." Her mother settled into the chair across from the desk without being asked, smoothing the skirt of a dress that cost more than most people's rent. "You haven't been picking up my calls."

"I've been busy."

"That's what you always say." She sighed, the kind of sigh meant to be heard. "You're making me look bad, Audrey. I don't want you working yourself into the ground, staying here till odd hours. I want the best for you."

Audrey pinched the bridge of her nose. I should have just taken her call, she thought. She wouldn't be here making a scene if I had.

"Mom, I'm fine."

"You're coming to dinner tonight." Her mother's tone left no room for argument. "I invited Bennett. He's been dying to meet you."

Audrey closed her eyes, tired of her moms bickering. She understood that her mom cared about her in her own fancy way, even though it did not align with Audrey's personal need. she loves both parents even with their marital inadequacies, but she needed to put an end to her nagging, maybe she should take Tracy's advice and agree to Marshall's term. it will make her life easier on every angle.

"mom" she said as she took a breath. "I am in a relationship"

"yes I know, bla bla bla, you're married to your work" Audrey almost smiled at her obvious attempt at a joke.

"no mom, someone has been asking me out, and I just recently agreed to it"

"what are you serious" "who is he" Celyn's countenance quickly brightened up.

"oh my God I need to meet him"

Audrey slowly and smartly stood up, went to her mom and pulled her up, gathered her bag. "mom we are just getting to know each other," she said as she steered her towards the door. "but I think you will like him," to herself she said, 'you will definitely like him because he is rich and powerful'

"I promise to bring him to see you, but right now I have a meeting and I am late"

"oh, bring him over for dinner on Sunday" Celyn said excitedly. "I will prepare the finest dishes"

"okay mom, I will call you then."

Relived she was finally gone, she rushed back to get her things for the meeting.

Audrey was halfway to the conference room, phone in one hand and a folder of loan documents tucked under her arm, when she walked straight into what felt like a wall.

A wall that was warm. A wall that smelled faintly of cedar and something clean underneath it. A wall that made a low sound of surprise and reached out to steady her at her waist, before she could stumble back.

"I'm so sorry," the wall said, and there was an easy, apologetic warmth in the voice that didn't match the solid weight she'd just collided with.

Then the voice registered.

Audrey went still and slowly lifted her head.

Marshall King looked down at her, one hand still curved lightly around her waist, his expression shifting from polite concern to something more careful the moment their eyes met. For a second neither of them said anything. Her heart was doing something erratic and she blamed it entirely on the collision.

"You," she said, stepping back so quickly his hand fell away. Shock came first, then bewilderment close behind it, and she felt both settle plainly on her face before she could smooth them into something more composed. "What are you doing here?"

"Good morning to you too."

"Mr. King." She said it like a warning, glancing past to Derek his PA standing behind him down the hallway as if the answer might be standing there instead. "I asked what you're doing here."

"I came to see you." He said it simply, like it was the most reasonable thing in the world, like he hadn't just walked into her building unannounced.

"I told Derek I wasn't available."

"You told Derek that three times." A faint, humorless smile touched his mouth. "I decided to see if you'd tell me yourself."

Audrey felt her face heat, less from embarrassment than irritation, and clutched the folder tighter against her side like it might shield her from him. Around them the office had not quite stopped moving, but she was aware of a few heads turning at their end of the hallway, of Priya standing near the conference room door with wide, unmistakably curious eyes.

"This is my place of work, Mr. King," she said, lowering her voice. "You cannot just show up."

"I can, actually." He said it lightly, but there was steel under it, the kind of statement that didn't leave much room to argue. "There's no rule that says a man can't walk into a lobby."

"That's not the point and you know it."

"Then what is the point, Miss Bellamy?" His voice dropped, quieter now, meant only for her. Up close she could she the fine lines of his sculpted face, the sharp edges of his jaw, she swallowed and for a moment the irritation in her chest wavered into something else. "You've refused to see me three times. I needed to know why, and you weren't going to give an honest answer to my PA,"

She opened her mouth to answer and then remembered the folder in her arms, the meeting she was already three minutes late for, the fact that half her floor was currently pretending not to watch them. "I have a meeting," she said instead. "Right now. I can't do this here."

"Then let me wait."

"No."

"Audrey."

"I have a meeting, Mr. King." She stepped around him, putting distance between them before her own resolve could crack under the way he was looking at her, steady and unbothered and entirely too aware that he'd rattled her. "You can't just plant yourself in my office until I have time for you."

"I can, actually," he said again, and this time there was the faintest curve of amusement in it. "I'll be in the lobby. Take as long as you need."

She turned to tell him that was ridiculous, that he had a company to run and could not simply sit in her lobby like a man waiting on a delayed flight, but he was already walking toward the visitors seat, with the unhurried confidence of someone who had never once doubted he'd get his way. She watched him go for a beat longer than she meant to before she caught herself and turned sharply toward the conference room, where Priya was still hovering by the door with an expression Audrey did not have the patience to address.

"Miss Bellamy, is that Marshall King?" Priya asked

"Yes."

"The Marshall King?"

"There's only one, Priya."

"Right." Priya fell into step beside her practically vibrating, as they went in for the meeting.

Priya was obviously wondering, if her Boss would keep such an important man waiting.

The meeting was a blur. Audrey sat through twenty minutes of quarterly figures and a compliance update she would normally have picked apart line by line, and came out of it with almost no memory of what had been said, her mind circling back again and again to the hallway, to the warmth of his hand on her waist, before either of them knew who the other was, to the fact that he was, at this very moment, apparently still sitting in her lobby like he had nowhere else in the world to be.

When she finally stepped out of the conference room, she found him exactly where he said he'd be, seated in one of the low leather chairs near the reception desk, looking entirely at ease in a space that clearly hadn't been designed with a man of his presence in mind. He stood the moment he saw her, unhurried, buttoning his jacket, and for a second she let herself simply look at him, the crisp line of his shirt, the way he carried himself like the room had rearranged itself around him rather than the other way around. She caught the thought before it could go any further and shut it down hard.

"You could have called," she said, stopping a careful distance from him.

"I did. Three times." He tucked his phone into his pocket. "You didn't want to hear it over the phone. I figured in person might work better."

He glanced toward the small meeting room off the lobby, empty and glass walled, and tilted his head toward it. "Five minutes. That's all I'm asking. If you still want nothing to do with the arrangement after that, I'll leave, and I won't send Derek back either."

She couldn't resist, she was already considering it as Tracy suggested, the fact that he'd come himself saved her the embarrassment of calling him.

"okay," she said finally, and started toward the room before she could talk herself out of it.

He followed, and as the glass door shut behind them, cutting off the low hum of the office beyond.