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

part twenty

ANDREW

"You know," when I realised that it was Alyssa who was sitting there, I couldn't fight the urge to speak with her, not when it had been so long since we last spoke about anything other than business, but that's what she had wanted and I wasn't going to ignore her request this time, especially not after the last time I ignored something she wanted from me, "for someone who hates smoking, told me numerous that it would kill me if I remember rightly, you sure do spend a lot of time out here."

I knew that she would know it was me, before I had even stepped out of the shadows, there was no way that she wouldn't be able to recognise me because I was the only person she knew who both smoked and drank whiskey on the rocks, but that didn't stop me from acting like a weird stalker. I had taken my tie off, throwing it on the back seat of my car, and undone the first few buttons of my shirt before I even walked into this place—I didn't want them to assume that I thought I was better than them by walking in here in my suit, not when I was here to get wasted and forget about the day from hell.

"I only come out here when there's no one around. There's something peaceful about the silence at night," she quickly replied and then turned her attention back to the sky, a slight smile now gracing my lips for some unknown reason, but I would like to think that it was because Alyssa had actually engaged in conversation with myself about something other than the contracts which she had signed on my behalf.

All the other times I had spoken with her, she had always sounded professional, but now she sounded more like the Alyssa who had first walked into my office and she sounded like a woman who hadn't had anything to do with my family.

"I am here though," I chuckled as I took a seat beside her on the bench and stubbed my cigarette out in the ashtray which was provided.

"How do you know that I spend so much of time out here anyway? That's not something I have ever mentioned in conversation," her attention was still on the sky as she asked the question and it appeared that she as in deep thought about something.

I couldn't help but take a quick glance at her and, in the evening light, she looked even more stunning than she did during the day. Since the day we had stopped speaking, she had done nothing other than plague my thoughts and, whenever I closed my eyes, she was always there and she was the one who invaded my thoughts when I was alone. Even when I was busy and had work to fill my time, she was still there, and it didn't matter what I did, I could never erase her face from my mind.

It was driving me insane now. No girl had ever had this effect on me before and I didn't know how the hell to deal with it, even though I know she is never going to come anywhere near me, but that didn't mean I wanted her any less and that also didn't mean that I didn't want her to see how sorry I was for the things which I had done to her and the harsh words which I had spoken in the past.

"Jenni and I do talk, you know. She often tells me stories of what the both of you get up to at the weekend, and I have heard some interesting stories," I laughed because it was impossible to miss the slight pink tinge to her cheeks as she wondered what her best friend had told me about their nights out together.

"Like what?" I could hear the nerves in her words, but there wasn't really anything for her to worry about, not when Jenni only ever raved about some guy she had fallen in love with but she didn't have the courage to ask him on a date, and so she used other males to make him jealous in the hope that he would ask her on a date instead, but her plan had so far failed given that she was still single and the love of her life was happily flirting with other females. She had also told me how said guy had made it his job to play the role of overprotective, older brother to Alyssa as well.