Its complicated, p.1
It’s Complicated, page 1
It’s Complicated
Khardine Gray
Bella Fontaine
Bliss Romance Publishing
It’s Complicated
USA Today Bestselling Author
Khardine Gray
Writing as
Bella Fontaine
Copyright © 2019 by Khardine Gray
It’s Complicated
All rights reserved.
USA Today Bestselling Author Khardine Gray writing as Bella Fontaine
Cover design © 2019 by Net Hook & Line Design
This work is copyrighted. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The author asserts that all characters and situations depicted in this work of fiction are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations.
It is intended for mature readers. All characters are 18+ years of age and all sexual acts are consensual.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
The Love Doctor: Excerpt
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1
Patterson
* * *
“Pat, get up,” came that voice again.
I moved my head to the side and snuggled closer into the bed sheets. That was all anyone was getting out of me today.
Damn, was I tired. I couldn’t remember why, and I didn’t want to.
All I knew was, my bed felt extra comfy and I wasn’t leaving it.
“Pat!!” The voice said with more insistence.
A woman.
The voice belonged to a woman.
I was too tired to figure out which one it could be, but it made me snap my eyes open a little too quickly. I wasn’t prepared for the bright morning sunlight that pierced through the blinds and felt like knives piercing through my eyes.
God, what the hell?
How was it morning already? It seemed like just minutes ago that I’d closed my eyes. Maybe it was.
Footsteps sounded in the corridor then in the room.
“Pat, get the hell up.”
Pat…
It was Georgie, my PA. She was the only one who insisted on calling me Pat. Her abbreviation for my actual name, Patterson. She said Patterson was a surname, and since calling me by my surname, which was Flynn, seemed rude and would be weird at the office, she didn’t want to call me Flynn either.
Instead she chose Pat, which in many books was a woman’s name.
I couldn’t remember why she was here again. Granted, it wouldn’t have been that unusual for my wonderful secretary to be at my penthouse suite, or… in my bed.
No, it wasn’t like that. We didn’t have the relationship most people assumed we had. We weren’t sleeping together.
We had a sort of weird unconventional relationship that just worked for us.
I lifted my head as she stomped over to me and tossed a white button-up shirt on the duvet. She then loomed over me and scowled.
The sunlight caught the beautiful light brown of her eyes and radiated off her dark skin, reminding me of raw honey. The kind Mom used to get from my uncle before he moved to Barcelona to expand his business.
Better to focus on Georgie’s ethereal beauty than try to figure out why she could be mad at me.
“Pat, don’t let me get the water. I mean it. I will grab that bucket and toss ice cold water all over you.” She wagged her pointer at me and straightened.
I simply groaned and gave her a haggard stare. “Woman, why are you so mean? Can’t you see I’m on my last lap? I’m so tired.”
“Don’t you ‘woman’ me, Pat.” She folded her arms under her breasts. I just noticed she was wearing one of my shirts. “You have to be at the office in an hour for the meeting. I told you not to go out last night. You got in at four. Was she really that good for you to stay out all damn night?”
“I can’t remember.” That meant I’d been drinking. Drinking a lot if I couldn’t remember shit from last night.
Hold on… something was coming to me.
I was playing Call of Duty with Georgie. That was how we usually ended a hard day at the office.
Most nights saw us hanging out together, playing some video game on my Xbox. Five years ago, when we met, that was how we connected. Games. I’d never met many girl/ woman gamers, and the fact that talking to her was like talking to a guy didn’t hurt either. That was how we began and blossomed into this relationship or attachment. Whatever it was. It worked.
During our break last night, I went out to get some more snacks at the convenience store. I ran into Phoebe there, one of my hookups, and then I sent Georgie a message letting her know I’d be back later.
Phoebe and I then headed to her place. I remembered a lot of wine. Me pouring it over her naked body.
That was it.
I couldn’t remember how I got back here.
“Look, forget it. We don’t have time for shit like this. You can’t be late for your meeting. Your dad made me promise to get you there on time.”
Ugh. I didn’t know what the hell my old man would want to see me about.
Everything was all clear cut.
He was retiring from the company in three months and handing the place over to me.
Simple.
Flynn Property Development Inc. would be mine, and I’d live the dream of owning the multi-billion-dollar international corporation.
Happiness. That was happiness from achieving a lifelong goal.
Dad had groomed me from birth to take over the company. I was his only child, and because of that I had everything the man could give.
I was thirty-six and the perpetual bachelor. The billionaire playboy who had no plans to be anything other than that. I was damn good at my job and a guy who was living his best life.
“Baby, I’m not going to work today. How about we blow the day off and go to the beach? Sailing? You love that. It’ll be a great day.” I nodded.
She must have been pissed at how I’d ditched her in the middle of a game because she scowled at me.
“Pat, I don’t consider spending my time on the yacht serving you drinks with some skanky chick you picked up as a great day.” Georgie tapped her foot and shook her head at me. She actually looked upset.
“When did I do that?” I frowned and sat upright.
“Last time. If you’re taking me sailing, you take just me sailing. Not under some guise, and then I end up being your servant for the day. No thank you.”
“Baby—”
“Don’t ‘baby’ me either. I’m serious, Pat. You have to be at the office in less than an hour now. I may be your PA, but your dad’s my boss, and I still answer to him. He wants you at the office nine a.m. sharp. He has another meeting straight after you, and he needs to speak to you about important stuff.”
I tilted my head to the side, and a lock of hair fell over my eye.
Important stuff. What the hell did that mean? He didn’t mention anything about important stuff before. Clearly, he’d spoken to her away from me. Also, this version of her was very rare. Her trying to get me to the office for a simple meeting with Dad.
“When did you speak to him?”
Her frown deepened. “I told you. It was just before I got here last night. He called me on my way over. You were texting Mandy, and I asked you if you were listening, and you said yes.”
Fuck.
I wasn’t listening. How would I have heard that when Mandy was sending me naked pictures of her tits? She’d just had implants to make them bigger than they already were and wanted my opinion.
I was a man. Wave a pair of perfect tits at me, and all brain function and senses would leave me.
This time, it would have been better if I’d been listening because had I truly heard her, I would have called Dad last night.
“Okay, I’m getting up. You might not want to be in here for this part. Not unless you want to see me in my birthday suit.” I was butt naked.
Her mouth dropp ed. “Pat, I was in here sleeping when you got in this morning. You got in bed naked with me?” Her voice took on a shrill tone, and her eyes widened.
I laughed. “Georgie, all I know right now is, I’m naked and I’m here. I can’t remember how I got here, but I assure you I would have kept on my boxers had I seen you in the bed.”
She picked up a pillow and hit me with it several times.
“How can you not see me? I’m not four feet tall.”
“Five feet and two inches. God made the honey-colored woman short, but she has a tall personality.” I was simply reiterating what she’d said to me many times.
I was six feet four. She was like a dwarf when she stood next to me.
Yes, I should have seen her in the bed, but I didn’t.
“I can’t with you today, Pat. You drive me crazy.”
“Maybe it’s because I’m so used to sleeping with you.” I opened my palms.
“Jesus, please don’t let anyone hear you say that. The whole office already thinks I’m sleeping with you.” She opened my wardrobe and tossed me a tie.
“You are sleeping with me,” I teased.
“Stop it.” She pouted. The long ends of her ponytail bobbled as she cut me a glance over her shoulder.
“It’s hardly the worst thing in the world.”
She threw me a pair of pants and shrugged into a pair of yoga pants that were draped over a chair on the other side of the room. She then grabbed her purse. I noticed she kept on my shirt.
“Georgie, you know if you leave the place dressed in my clothes, it’s a dead giveaway that something’s going on between us.”
She stopped by the door and looked over at me. “Today, I don’t care. I have to get back to my place and change. I overslept, and my stuff here is just… not.”
“Wait… so what time are you getting to work?” I thought we’d be going in together like most days.
It would have been nice to have the support today since it looked like Dad had something up his sleeves.
“After lunch. I’ve asked Sally to take care of the phone.”
After lunch…
I narrowed my eyes at her. It wasn’t often that she took half days, and if she was taking all that time off, where was she going?
“What are you up to, baby?”
“Stuff,” she answered simply, which meant she was up to something she didn’t want to share with me just yet. Secretive. Last time she got like that was on my birthday. She and my best friend, Ivan, planned a surprise party for me. Since my birthday wasn’t for another four months, I doubted it was that, and she wouldn’t have organized a party like that again.
She got this guarded look in her eyes and gave me a one-shoulder sassy shrug.
“I’ll see you at the office. Don’t let me down, Pat. Get there by nine, or I won’t speak to you ever again.”
I brought my fingers up to my lips, kissed my forefinger, and saluted her.
This woman knew exactly what to say to me to make me do whatever she wanted.
I might have been the biggest asshole on this side of the planet, but letting her down was something I’d never do.
She smiled at me and shook her head. At least I’d managed to break down her annoyance on some level.
I just wondered what stuff she was tending to that would keep her busy all morning.
Close as we were, there was a line I never crossed when she decided to put up her fence and remind me our relationship was professional. I was her boss, and she was my PA.
While she kept some aspects of her life private, I spilled the tea on mine every chance I got.
It wasn’t her fault that I told her everything.
Chapter 2
Patterson
* * *
Okay, I was here.
I got myself here and in one piece.
As usual, I got the once-over looks I normally received from women as I walked out of the parking lot and in through the revolving doors of Flynn’s.
I’d always loved attention and was guilty of doing my best to keep that attention.
Like now. There was a sexy blond woman coming out of the ladies’ room. Looked a little like Amanda Seyfried. She looked at me, and I didn’t just look back at her.
I made sure she knew I thought she was gorgeous by stopping mid-stride to look her up and down. Then I nodded my approval, smiled, and winked at her as I continued to Dad’s office.
She was number worthy, but it was five minutes to nine, and I would definitely be late if I stopped to chat.
I was anxious and eager to see what Dad wanted to see me about, and truthfully, a little nervous. It was the way Georgie was acting.
I never really had much to be nervous about when it came to work, but there was always the possibility of something happening. I didn’t know what that would be, but today felt like something was on the horizon, or in the making.
I hated surprises, which was why when Georgie and Ivan planned that party for me, they went through all manners of covert missions to pull it off without me having an inkling about what they were up to.
I’d worked here since I graduated high school. I earned my business degree at UCLA just to have that backing, like most of the Flynn men in our family. I also didn’t want to feel like any of my cousins had anything on me, or over me.
In addition to this branch here in L.A., which was the headquarters, the company had branches in New York, Chicago, Miami, and Atlanta. That was this side of the globe. We also had branches in every major city of the world. Each run by family members. Dad would say I had the privilege of belonging to a large family. I would say otherwise because most of my cousins were complete pricks who hated that I’d be getting the company when Dad retired.
Those fuckers would take any opportunity to steal the chance from me because they always had one thing or another to say about me.
However, fact and figures spoke for themselves. I never came across a deal that I couldn’t close, and I always found new businesses.
I loved to play hard because I worked damn hard, and Dad knew that. As long as he knew that, I didn’t care about anybody else.
Just my dad. Head boss until I was boss.
When I entered his office, he straightened behind his desk and motioned his hand toward the chair in front of him for me to sit.
He wore a crude expression on his face that made him look his age. Dad was seventy. Seventy with a thick head of dark hair like mine, with the exception of the silver streaks on the sides that made him look like Mr. Fantastic.
He furrowed his thick brows and glared at me. That was it. No ‘Good morning,’ no ‘How are you,’ no anything like that.
He just had that gruff expression on his face, and I knew something was definitely up.
“Hey, Dad, are you okay? You look like you forgot to take your blood pressure medicine this morning.” I was going for lighthearted. Something to ease the tension in the room, but it didn’t work.
He glanced toward the Monet painting next to the floor-to-ceiling windows, and his frown deepened.
When he looked back to me, he pulled in a shallow breath and reached into his drawer to pull out some newspapers and a few copies of the National Enquirer.
He stood and dropped the newspapers down on the desk space in front of me.
It was today’s paper. The L.A. Times. On the front cover was a picture of me with Adriana, a Victoria’s Secret model I’d hooked up with the night before last.
The headline read:
Billionaire Playboys. What is the future of Flynn’s Property Development Inc.?
Dad moved the paper aside so I could see the other one underneath. That was The Chronicle.
