My hottest Billionaire a Boss

The Beginnings.. When he is back after 4 years .Edward is very excited . It was raining that night and Edward could not see anything the driving rain lashed against the windscreen of the car, obscuring the road and blurring the sign fixed to the low stone wall, but Edward needed no help or guidance in finding his way to the place he was looking for. The country lane that led to the House hadn’t changed at all in the 4 years since he had last seen it, and his hands were already moving on the steering wheel, ready for the turn, even before he glimpsed the gateway. The savage downpour meant that he could only take the steep, curving driveway in low gear and at a crawling speed but that wasn’t something that troubled him. He had waited for this moment, planned for it, for so long that a few more moments didn’t matter. The truth was that he was enjoying the anticipation almost as much as he expected to enjoy putting his planning into operation, and as the big sandy-coloured house came into view the sense of grim satisfaction that had been with him ever since he had left deepened and darkened at the thought of what was to come. Inside that house Liza was acting out her part as lady ., unaware of the fact that her days in that role were strictly numbered—had, in fact, already come to an end. In a very short space of time the reality of her situation would hit home to her and he would be there to see her reaction as her world fell apart around her. The thought of that moment was something that made the long, tedious journey from the airport bearable, even in this appalling weather. ‘I think we’re ready now. Liza spoke softly, stopping her father’s butler just as he was about to leave the room after ushering in the latest blue-coated, sombre-faced arrival. ‘Would you ask them to bring the cars around to the front of the house? Is there a problem?’ she added, black eyes frowning slightly as Nick hesitated, looked a little concerned. ‘No problem, miss,’ the elderly man explained. ‘It’s just that I think it might be best to wait a little while yet—until everyone has arrived.’ ‘Wait?’ Liza pushed a hand through the soft fall of her chestnut hair as she looked round the room, struggling to remember just who had been invited today. She couldn’t think who, if anyone, was missing. ‘But everyone is here—aren’t they?’ Again there was that flash of a disturbing expression—one that crossed Nick’s face and was gone in a moment. But Liza had seen it and the feeling that it left in its wake was one of unease, a niggling sense of something she didn’t know about—but felt that she should. Something that unnerved and worried her, setting her on edge like a nervous . ‘Not quite everyone, miss. But who? Liza glanced around the room, frowning as she completed another survey of the guests. Everyone there was elderly, like most of her father’s friends, and she couldn’t think if someone was obviously missing from the list of people who should have been invited to Jety’s funeral. ‘I can’t think of anyone…’ ‘There is one last…’ Nicks hesitated over the right way to describe the person he meant. ‘A person I was told to expect,’ he finished awkwardly ‘Told by who?’ ‘Mr Joy—Mr Ricky .’ Her father’s solicitor. So this person, whoever they might be, was known to Ricky. But why hadn’t Ricky told her about him—or her—when they had had their last discussion about the preparations? ‘I’ll ask…’ she began when the sound of a powerful car’s engine outside cut through her words, making her break off. The next moment the rich, purring sound had been silenced too as the car drew to a halt beyond the big bay window, just out of sight. ‘It looks as if our missing guest is here,’ she told Nicks, whose attention had been caught as well. ‘I suggest you go and let them in now and we can get on our way to the church.’ And she could find out who the missing person was, she told herself as she smoothed back a wayward lock of her gleaming hair that had fallen loosely around her face once more, tucking it behind her ear in an attempt to secure it. She’d fastened most of it back for today, but it seemed that one bright lock was determined to escape. The new arrival must be someone important, she reflected. Important enough for Ricky to have told Nicks not to start without them. But if that was the case, then why hadn’t he mentioned this expected arrival to her when they had been going over the details of Jety’s funeral? She’d asked him to let her know if there was anyone she ought to take particular notice of. Out in the hall she heard the big, heavy oak door creak open and the murmur of voices. Male voices. So the mysterious arrival was a he after all. One small part of the problem solved. There was something about the tone of the voice that responded to Nick’s greeting that grated on her, searing over nerves that were suddenly and unexpectedly drawn tight. Something unnervingly familiar that tugged on her senses and reminded her of… Of what? Of something just out of reach that she couldn’t focus on or grasp at. The thundering sound of the driving rain out beyond the open door had blurred the words and made them totally incomprehensible so that, try as she might, she couldn’t make them out. But they had stirred a memory. she had thought was hidden deep. One that set her heart racing, brought her breath into her lungs in a sudden gasp, as she struggled with the clenching of her stomach in irrational response. There was no way this visitor could behim , she reproved herself. And there was no reason to panic over nothing. The strain of the past week was getting to her. The shock of Jety’s sudden, devastating heart attack. The long, anxious night while he had lain in a coma. At least he hadn’t suffered, and he hadn’t lived long after that first attack, but all the same it had been a distressing, exhausting time. She wasn’t surprised that it was starting to catch up on her. But it had to be just that which was playing tricks on her mind. Nick was coming back. As so many times before this afternoon, he paused in the doorway, clearing his throat slightly. ‘Mr Edward…’ he announced formally and the sound of the name she hadn’t even allowed herself to think of hit home like a blow to Liza’s face, making her mind reel in shock. Edward. No! It couldn’t be—it just couldn’t! She really had to be dreaming. Either that or the confusion of her thoughts had scrambled her brain so that she had got it wrong, hearing the name that was in her mind instead of… The sight of the man who stepped into the doorway, taking Nick’s place as the older man moved aside, froze the thoughts in her head, wiping away her ability to think. She could only stand and stare, struggling to reject what she was seeing. There was no reason at all why he should be here. No reason why he should return to the estate that he had left under such a cloud almost seven years before, just about shaking the dirt of the land from his feet as he’d vowed that he would never ever return. But there was no denying the evidence of her eyes. The tall, powerful frame was too strong, too solid to be a figment of her imagination, the Grey-haired head held arrogantly high, the burning blue eyes that swept round the room as if he was looking for something. Or someone. The sting of guilt and anxiety was so sharp that instinctively she shrank away a little, not daring to take a step back in case the movement drew attention to her, but unable still to control the instinctive response. But it seemed that the tiny movement was enough to catch his eye and that searching gaze focused sharply, his dark head turning in her direction as he took in her shaken face, the sudden loss of the colour that she could feel draining from her cheeks. In that moment she felt like nothing so much as a small, cowering field mouse that had been spotted by a circling hawk and was now frozen to the spot, simply waiting for it to pounce. It was as if the 4 years since she had last seen him had been stripped away. She was nineteen all over again, burning with the deepest, hottest embarrassment of her life, and hearing a sneering, thickly accented voice saying, cold and clear, ‘Don’t delude yourself, child. I have no interest in you in that way at all. I don’t play with little girls.’ After that appalling last night, she had been so glad to know that he had gone, and she’d hoped never to see him again. So what sort of malign fate had brought the man she had once named the Fairy back into her life at this terrible moment? But there was no way she could ignore the new arrival. He was looking straight at her, that arrogant dark head slightly tilted to one side as if he was waiting for her to make the first move. As was everyone else in the room, she realised, suddenly becoming conscious of the eyes that were turned in her direction. Of course, as Jety’s only surviving family member, even if only by marriage, she was the one who had to greet every new arrival, as she had been doing for the past hour or so.