Free Resisting the Billionaire by C. C. Snow

was hard to imagine
him as a disobedient child. “Oh?” I raised my eyebrow in curiosity.
    That was all the prompting Troy needed to tell me stories
that had me in stitches. It made it hard to eat the scrumptious linguine, but
somehow I managed to finish everything on my plate.
    “Holy cow! Your parents are saints,” I gasped, holding onto
my sore stomach.
    “So they tell us every chance they get.” He ran his fingers
through his golden hair, sending the strands in all directions. His full lips curved
up mischievously and his blue-green eyes glinted with mirth.
    I sighed softly. “You Weston men sure are pretty.”
    I didn’t realize I said it out loud until Troy purred, “Oh,
that’s good to know. I’ll make sure to pass on the compliment to Jake.”
    My mouth flapped open and closed and my eyes rounded in
horror. “No! Please don’t! I didn’t mean to say it out loud!” My fingers were
claws digging into his arms.
    Troy must have seen I was in a full-blown panic mode because
he said soothingly, “Hey, calm down. I was just kidding.” He patted my hand.
“Why are you so freaked out about a little harmless comment?”
    “Jake would flip out if I’m not completely professional,” I
confessed. “He fired his previous EAs because they were personally interested
in him. Not that I am interested,” I hurriedly added, “but I don’t want my
comment to be misconstrued.”
    Disgust crossed his face. “Oh, Jake’s just wary because of
that bitch, Sophia.”
    “Who’s Sophia?”
    He assessed my face for a moment before he lowered his voice.
“She was Jake’s assistant a couple of years back. She was a barracuda. Despite
Jake’s cool exterior, underneath he is a big softie. He never could resist a
damsel in distress and Sophia Chandler played an Oscar-worthy role of a woman
down on her luck.
    First she claimed she didn’t have an apartment because her
roommate’s boyfriend was moving in and they wanted their privacy. Since she
wasn’t on the lease, she was essentially homeless. Jake fell for her lies and
offered to put her up in a company condo. Then a supposed ex-boyfriend started
stalking her so she clung to Jake like Velcro. Long story short, Jake spent a
lot of time with her and he fell into a relationship with her. It was very short-lived
because he realized she liked being a billionaire’s girlfriend more than she
liked him. She tried to get him back, but he rebuffed her.
    Then little things started to go
awry with our business deals. Rivals had our proprietary information. We
started to look into a possible leak when Sophia sued Jake for sexual
harassment. He was furious, but he didn’t want any bad publicity for the
company so the lawyers settled with her. Then we uncovered evidence that the
bitch had been selling confidential information to our competitors. Apparently,
she was willing to do whatever was needed to get her grubby hands on money,
whether that was as Jake’s girlfriend or as a spy. But by the time we found
out, she had already left the country. Jake blamed himself and even tendered
his resignation to the board. Of course they refused.”
    The story threw a whole new light on Jake’s distaste for
assistants who were trying to snare him. I grimaced in sympathy.   “What a horrible woman. He must have felt
so betrayed.”
    “Yeah. He felt so guilty about the failed deals that he
worked even harder to make up for the lost revenue. He worked longer and longer
hours, determined to prove to everyone that he could be trusted with the
company.”
    That would explain why Jake was so merciless when it came to
the interests of the company. He felt like he had to atone for his previous
lapse in judgment. My heart ached for him.
    Troy’s lips flattened in anger. “After the episode with
Sophia, he became more cynical and distrustful about the people around him. Family
is the one exception. You seem to be softening him up, though.”
    I shook my head at his misguided impression. “No, I