Free Utterly Yours (Book One) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Alexa Brookes Page B

upset.”
                  “I’m sure everything’s fine.  Tony can over-react at times, but you never know.” Nathaniel quickly paid the check, thanked Eliza for a lovely date, and hurried out the door where Tony was waiting in the parking lot by his car to drive him back to the office.
                  “She looked dull,” Tony said and Nathaniel clasped his shoulder in his hand.
                  “I owe you, kid,” Nathaniel laughed as he hopped into the passenger’s seat of his car, and Tony started up the engine.  He kept laughing; he could not believe how crazy Tony could be at times.  “You sounded like you were honestly crying.”
                  “I minored in theater, remember?” Tony teased.
                  “Yeah, why exactly did you do that?” Nathaniel asked as he leaned back in his seat, thankful to be away from Eliza Hordon for the time being.
                  “Those improv lessons are really beneficial whenever I screw up at work and I’ve got to come up with something to tell you,” he joked, and Nathaniel gave the kid a friendly punch in the arm.
                  They headed straight for Lynch Industries, and Nathaniel could not possibly have been more thankful for the emergency rescue; he was ready to be back at the office after such a disastrous date with the spoiled daddy’s girl.

Chapter 2
     
                  Nathaniel checked his Rolex for what was probably the ninth time in the past hour; he despised flying commercial.  He felt as though time would stand still whenever he was squished so close to other people; his personal jet was in for its annual maintenance, so he had to book an actual flight, go through security and deal with the TSA.  Thankfully, Tony was beside him instead of some random stranger, keeping him somewhat sane; he could not believe they weren’t even able to get first class seats.  Some woman got the aisle seat beside him, and she had been snoring the entire flight.
                  “Would you relax?” Tony said and gently nudged Nathaniel in the side.  “Have you seriously never flown coach before?”
                  “Don’t start with me, Tony,” Nathaniel snarled and leaned back in his seat.  This trip to Troy, New York was not exactly something Nathaniel was looking forward to, and Tony knew that.  “I don’t even see why I have to be there for this thing,” Nathaniel griped.  Lynch Industries was opening up a homeless shelter in New York as a sort of charity PR stunt.  It would act as a shelter, soup kitchen, and there would even be places where the homeless could collect donated clothing.  Tony had set virtually the entire thing up along with Nathaniel’s business partner and best friend, Adam Reins.  Nathaniel had virtually nothing to do with it, but the PR stunt was pretty much to fix his reputation.
                  “Well,” Tony spat, “If you would stop acting like such a damn party boy, you wouldn’t need to constantly remind people that you’re not a bad guy.”
                  “Screw you, Tony,” Nathaniel said, but he knew Tony was right.  His twenties were rapidly leaving him, and he had spent most of those years acting like a complete fool.  He was a thirty-year-old man-child who just so happened to be a business genius.  Drinking, partying, and bringing home random women was not something he was willing to give up just yet, despite his mother’s constant efforts to get him hitched.  The public knew him all too well as the rich guy who liked to flaunt his money to impress anyone who would sleep with him; only to turn around and be the predictable heartbreaker.  It was an act that the public was getting tired of reading about in the tabloids, so putting some positive light on his company was well needed if investors were ever going to take him