The Millionaire's Bet [BOOK ONE][#Wattys2015][#SYTYCW15][#CarinaPress]

part fifteen

ALYSSA

Today was the day of the Charity Ball and the day I had spent the last two days dreading, because it was also the day that I had to pretend to be Andrew's girlfriend for the evening, and I have already prepared myself for the worst. Although the last two days had passed in total silence, he didn't even have anything to say to me during the flight and the only time he spoke to me was to tell me that we were coming in to land, and the only time I had really spoken to him the last two days was to pass on messages from the office which had been sent to me and marked as urgent—though, the main reason for the silence, had been down to the amount of time which Andrew had taken to spending in the free bar which came with the rooms.

But, other than that, I had remained in my room and had confined myself to reading through contracts, and then signing them on Andrew's behalf when I was sure that there were no loop holes and there was nothing in them which was going to lose Andrew money on the long run. I may have hated the man, but I didn't want him to lose money, and I sure as hell didn't want to run his company into the ground for my own selfish reasons.

"Miss Lopez. If I may say so, you look absolutely stunning this evening," Robert's voice spoke softly from behind me and I couldn't help the smile which graced my lips as I checked myself in the mirror one final time, just to make sure that I was actually looking back at my reflection and I wasn't imagining things.

My hair had been curled into a bun with parts of my fringe hanging down at the sides, all of which was held together was some serious amounts of hair spray and decorated with both glitter and flowers. The dress, which had been picked out for me by Robert yesterday afternoon, was a royal blue, floor length gown which had a slit on either side from the mid-thigh to the ground with an open back and spaghetti straps. I was wearing my six inch silver heels to prevent the dress from dragging too close to the floor and, as a gift to match the dress, Robert had also bought me a royal blue clutch which had a small bird on the front of it.

For the first time, in quite a long time, I was actually happy with the way that I looked and I thought I looked something other than presentable for a change. All I needed to do was pass Andrew's seal of approval and hope that he thought I was good enough to pass as one of the many women he would so willingly sleep with at the end of a night.

"Thank you, Robert," I grinned when I turned to face him, "and, I have told more than once, please call me Alyssa."

He simply nodded politely and offered me his arm, because I had been informed that he was going to be escorting me to the ballroom where I would meet with Andrew, I would hang off his arm for a while as he introduced me to some of the people at the event, and then I would be able to return to my room for the duration of the trip so that I could continue with my business.

I had planned to have a little fun with Andrew, show him all of the reasons why he doesn't want to get on the wrong side of me, but then I remembered that I was also here as a representative of the company and I could save my fun for another time, a time when I wasn't going to jeopardise the future of Andrew's company and run the risk of losing him valuable clients—that wasn't to say that I couldn't have a little fun, within reason of course, and that I couldn't subtly show Andrew I wasn't as much of a pushover as he thought me to be.

The journey in the elevator was silent, something I didn't like, and something which was only made worse when we walked into a room full of people, none of whom I had ever met before, and it certainly didn't help that I couldn't see Andrew either. I gripped hold of Robert's arm a whole lot harder than was normal for a person, but I wasn't used to being crowds of people this big though and, the additional fact that I suffered panic attacks when I was in enclosed spaces for too long, also didn't make this any easier than it already was.