When I Was His: A Billionaire Age Gap Romance Book

Chapter 1

I can see the glint of the cold steel in the streetlights as the figure approaches. My father tells me to stay in my seat and steps from our SUV. No words are exchanged, and all I can process is a bang and a flash of fire as my father crumples to the ground. I’m left alone as the assailant retreats. A scream erupts from me.

“Ryleigh, wake the hell up.”

My eyes shoot open and I’m staring up at my roommate of the past four years, Sadie Fulbright. She has her hand on my shoulder, and I can see the look of concern on her face.

“Shit, I’m sorry.”

“You haven’t had these this bad since your freshman year.”

I sit up and wipe the sweat from my face with the collar of my t-shirt.

“I know. I don’t know why they came back.”

Sadie went back to her bed and plopped down, “Probably because of stress. You have a lot going on. We have a lot going on.”

She was right, we did. In a few days, we will graduate from Columbia University with degrees in business administration. We’d recently secured a small apartment in Chelsea and put the deposit down. It was all coming down at the same time. I had interviewed and was hired for a position in public relations.

Sadie would be working in the same building but for a marketing company. Our lives were changing. No more late nights staying up studying to maintain our B+ averages.

My mother and stepfather wanted me to come back home to Hudson Brook in Northern Westchester to live for a couple of years. I said no. Both my brothers moved out of the house when they graduated. I wanted to follow suit.

My mother had been married to Anders Stewart for almost fourteen years. She started dating him a year after my father was murdered. I was, in a few words, fucked up after I saw him get shot. My six-year-old brain couldn’t process what I’d seen, especially when I huddled near his bloody body on the deserted street. A car finally came by and stopped to call the police. It didn’t matter, it was too late. My father was dead the minute the bullet entered his heart.

I didn’t talk for almost eight months after the incident, and when I did, it was in the form of a scream. I went to therapy and was out of school for almost a year until I could deal with the trauma. I had nightmares for a while and was okay unless the stress was too much for me to handle. My subconscious usually manifested that stress by dragging up the most horrible memories of my life.

The first couple of weeks I lived with Sadie, I thought she would tell me she wanted to move out. The first night it happened, she freaked out and ran to get the RA. By the second week, she was used to my nocturnal disruptions. I calmed and rarely had them until I was stressed again.

“Why do you want to live with me?”

Sadie tucked her blonde behind her ears and fixed her smoke gray eyes on me.

“Because I love you. I don’t want to live with anyone else and I need a roommate. I can’t afford the rent in Manhattan. If we don’t room together, I have to move back home.”

I laughed because Sadie had younger brothers who were triplets. They were sixteen and drove her nuts.

“This should stop once we get settled. Graduation will be over soon enough,” I said.

“Will your entire family be there?”

“My parents will, but Finley has some meeting with a venture capitalist and Matthew is not sure he can get out of work.”

“Seriously? He freaking lives in the city. His boss can’t give him a stinking couple of hours off?”

“He has a new job. His boss is an ass.”

“Fucking traders. Greedy bastards is what they are.”

“He’s making good money.”

“He doesn’t need it.”

It was true. Matt, Finley and I all had trust funds. My father started them when we were babies. When he died, we gained control of them on our twenty first birthdays. I could afford to live in a better apartment, but Sadie couldn’t. She was proud and I didn’t want to damage her pride by telling her I would pay seventy five percent of the rent. She wouldn’t allow it and I didn’t bother to ask.

“No, he doesn’t but he wants to save it for his retirement.”

Sadie snorted. “He’s all of twenty-four. Why the hell does he need to worry about retirement now?”

Financial stability was important to not just my brother but all of us. Though my mother was secure after my father died, we all felt insecure without him. He handled most of the financials and investments.

I shrugged. “Anders is proud of him. It’s what he’s been preaching to us all these years.”

“What about you? Are you splurging on anything?” she asked.

“Maybe some furniture.”

Sadie bit her lip which I’d come to recognize as a coping mechanism.

I caught her gaze. “What?”

“You said we would wait until I had a couple of paychecks under my belt.”

“Why can’t you just allow me to buy the furniture?”

“Because it’s our place and I want to split the cost.”

I chuckled. “You’re a pain in the ass.”

“But you love me. Let’s go back to sleep.”

She slid under the covers and turned out the light above her head, leaving me in darkness. I leaned back against my pillows and looked at the ceiling. I couldn’t sleep after the nightmare. It was just after 4 am and we had nothing going on for the day. I decided to grab my phone and text Ty.

Tyler Barnes was my next-door neighbor when I was growing up. He was twenty-five and a detective for the NYPD. He’d been with the department for almost five years. It was obvious Ty still had a crush on me, but I wasn’t interested, at least that’s what I told him. We were only three years apart, discussed it and decided it was better to be friends.

He often visited me at my dorm on his days off, and we’d go to the park or have lunch. He usually worked the night shift, and I texted him to see what he was up to.

What are you doing tonight?

Working on some paperwork. What’s up? You’re awake early.

Had a nightmare.

Ty was well aware of my nightmares. We shared a tent several times when our parents took us camping and I woke everyone up with my screams. It was probably because Ty told me bears came around at night and I was scared. My phone vibrated with his call, and I went out into the hallway, answering just as I got to the lounge.

“You had a nightmare? I thought you were over those?” he said with concern in his voice.

“I still have them occasionally.”

“I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Ty’s voice sounded serious, and I braced myself for what he had to say.

“Tell me.”

“I pulled your father’s file.”

My chest felt heavy at his words. My father’s murder was never solved and had become a cold case, and I wasn’t able to provide much information since I didn’t remember anything. What I’d never told anyone was that I had seen the man’s face.

In my nightmares, I always try to see it again, but his image never crosses my vision. It’s frustrating but after all these years, it probably wouldn’t make a difference.

“Why are you dredging up the past?” I squeaked.

The last thing I wanted was to bring this to the forefront. My mother and brothers were settled and pulling it back to the surface could cause problems.

“Because it’s an open case. A lot of detectives work on cold cases in their spare time.”

“But why my father’s?”

He lowered his voice, trying to soothe me. “Because I knew him, and I want to see justice done. Don’t you?”

Tension was tight in my neck. “I do, but it hits so close to home.”

“Ryleigh, I would never hurt you or your family, you know that.”

“I know. It just hurts.”

“I would be surprised if you said it didn’t any longer. Your father deserves justice. He was a good man.”

Tears threatened. I had to agree that he was a good man. He took care of all of us and didn’t deserve what happened to him.

“I miss him,” I sniffled.

“I know. You can always talk to me if you need a friend.”

“Thank you.”

Ty had been one of the few people I could talk to about how I felt. I knew how sensitive the issue of my father’s murder was to my family, and I kept my feelings to myself. After sixteen years, I still had many questions.

“Did you discover anything?” I asked eagerly.

“I just pulled the file a couple of days ago. There’s a lot of paperwork to go through.”

“Would you tell me if you did?”

“Of course. You’re an adult now.”

“Can you tell that to my parents?”

Ty chuckled, “What now?”

“They want me to return to Hudson Brook after I graduate.”

“But you already secured an apartment.”

“I know. I did it without telling them because if I didn’t, they would work on me until I gave in. Finley and Matthew moved out after they graduated. I want to do the same.”

“How are they, by the way? I haven’t talked to either one of them in a few weeks.”

“Matthew is busy with his new job. He’s making gobs of money in his new position. Sadie’s calling him a greedy bastard.”

“He’s not greedy, he’s smart. What about Finley?”

“Still begging the VCs for money. He’s missing my graduation to hold out his bowl for more porridge.”

Finley had been chugging along for the past year and a half, working on his software start-up. Now, it had several employees and a small office in midtown; as his applications gained traction and more seed money came in, so did the limitations of his time. He was a classic workaholic, just like my father.

“Sounds like Finley. He could always be found in the computer lab in high school on his off hours and after school. I guess it worked out. Why did he bother to go to college?”

“I have no idea. Probably to find employees. It’s like a nerd factory over there.” I sighed, remembering the last time I went to his office. “I hate visiting—they all look at me like they’ve never seen a woman before.”

Ty laughed, “It’s not that. It’s because you’re gorgeous.”

I ground my teeth because even though Ty and I had decided to be friends, it bothered me when he said things like this. I knew he wanted more, but I couldn’t give myself to him.

It wasn’t his looks that turned me off; he was very handsome, with his thick chestnut hair and cornflower blue eyes. It was his career. I never wanted to face what I did when I was six. If we got involved, I would always worry that two officers would show up at my door telling me Ty was dead. I couldn’t take it again.

“Stop embarrassing me. I’m sure it’s not that at all.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit. Are you dating?”

“Not really. I haven’t found anyone I want to get involved with.”

I did, but after my last boyfriend got the word out that I occasionally suffered from nightmares, guys stopped approaching me. It was ridiculous, but soon I would be out of college, and a whole new pool of men would open up. I yawned into the receiver.

He laughed. “Oh? Am I keeping you awake?”

I yawned again. “I only got four hours of sleep so far.”

“Then what the hell are you calling me for? Go back to sleep,” he chastised.

“How do you stay awake all night?”

“After three years, I’m used to it. It doesn’t bother me.”

I couldn’t stay up all night. I didn’t know how Ty got used to those crazy hours.

“But you sleep the day away. Doesn’t that get to you? Everyone is awake while you’re slumbering?”

“First off, I get out of here at seven. I’m in bed by eight and up by one. I have several hours to go before I have to be on shift again. It gives me plenty of time to enjoy the day.”

I changed my voice to sound like Dracula. “Still, you’re like a vampire.”

He mimicked me. “Then I’ll be sure to latch onto your lovely neck with my fangs next time I see you.”

Again, I felt the warm heat of embarrassment on my face. I yawned again and segued into telling him goodbye.

“I’ll see you sometime this week.”

“I’ll see you at graduation,” he said.

“How?”

Tickets were limited per student, and Ty didn’t know anyone else who was graduating.

“I’m running plainclothes security. Can’t be too careful these days.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll see you on Wednesday then.”

“Can’t wait. Talk to you later.”

“Goodbye.”

We hung up the phone at the same time, and I put my head down on the arm of the rust-colored couch I was sitting on.

“Ryleigh, wake up.”

My eyes fluttered open, and I picked my head up to see my next-door neighbor, Laura, standing next to the couch. She was wearing a short pink satin robe and carrying a white shower caddy with all her bath products inside.

I winced as I sat up. “Shit, I fell asleep here. My neck is killing me.”

“When?”

I yawned. “Maybe 4:30.”

“Did you have a fight with Sadie?” she asked.

“No, just a nightmare. I’m surprised you didn’t hear it. I came out here to talk to Ty.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “Ty. How is Mr. Hottie?”

Laura had a crush on my childhood friend, but Tyler wasn’t interested. She came on to him several times, but he rebuffed her advances.

I scowled, “He’s fine.”

“He - is - fine. You’re out of your mind. The man practically throws himself at you, and you still don’t want to date him.”

I could hear longing in her voice. She wanted him even though he didn’t want her.

“Dating Ty would be like dating my brother.”

“Send him my way.”

“He’ll be at graduation. He has security detail.”

“I’ll be sure to look for him.”

“What about David?”

She shrugged. “It fizzled. He has to move back to Delaware after graduation. Long distance relationships aren’t my thing.”

Laura’s family lived in Manhattan,, and she would be moving back with her parents, who had an apartment in Midtown. I was glad because I considered her a good friend. It was nice to have people you know living in the same city as you.

“I know what you mean.”

She turned to leave. “I must get in the shower. My parents are meeting me for lunch at The Wyatt today. You want to come?”

I yawned again. “I’m wiped. I think I’ll spend another couple of hours in bed.”

Laura walked away as I rose from the couch, pulling my t-shirt over my panties. This was a coed dorm, and though some of the women and men felt comfortable strolling around in their underwear, I did not. I hurried down the hall to my room. Sadie was still sleeping as I locked the door and slid into bed.

Two hours later, I was awakened by my phone. It was nearing 10 a.m., and I grabbed it from the small shelf next to the bed, where I had dropped it when I came back to the room.

I wiped sleep from my heavy eyes as I answered. “Hi, Mom.”

“How are you?”

I turned onto my back. “Good. Just waiting for graduation.”

“Are you packed?”

“Most of my stuff is at the apartment already.”

My mother sighed loudly. The apartment and living in Manhattan remained a point of contention between us.

“Are you sure I can’t talk you into moving home?” she whined.

I frowned. “Why are you so intent on me moving back home?”

“It’s lonely here. Anders has been working late the past few weeks.”

I turned to my side. “But he won’t forever. You know him.”

“I do, but I would love to have at least one of my children home.”

“Have another baby,” I mumbled.

My mother could since she was in her forties. She tried with Anders, but it never happened. He adopted me and my brothers a few months after they married.

Her voice grew harsh. “Excuse me?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly. “I want to live in Manhattan. You don’t get on Finley or Matthew’s asses about coming home. Why me?”

“You’re my only daughter. Don’t you want to share some girl time?” she reasoned.

“You have tons of friends. You can have girl time with them.”

“They’re not my daughter.”

Sadie muttered something in her sleep, and I pulled the quilt over my head and lowered my voice.

I grunted. “No, Mom. I’m not having this conversation again. I want to stay in the city, and that’s final.”

She exhaled loudly into the receiver. “Don’t fault me for wanting to spend time with you.”

I knew what she was doing. She was trying to guilt me into coming home and living, but that wouldn’t happen. Four years of freedom, and I wasn’t willing to give it up.

“Then come to the city to have lunch with me,” I compromised.

“I can’t. I have tennis lessons at the club at noon, then lunch with Lila Van Pelton.”

“See, you’re busy. You don’t need me.”

Sadie pulled her pillow over her head and groaned.

“Mom, I have to go. Sadie and I have a thing.”

She snorted. “Jesus, Ryleigh, you can’t even make up a good lie?”

“We do!” I protested.

“Fine. Go do your thing, and I’ll talk to you later. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

I swiped the end button before she thought of something else to say, shoving off the quilt. Sadie peeked out from under her pillow.

“What did she want now?”

My best friend was well aware of my mother’s manipulations to get me to move home.

“Same old shit. I don’t know how many more times we have to go through this. I’m staying in Manhattan. Sorry, I woke you up.”

Sadie sat up. “We should get up anyway. Where were you this morning?”

“I couldn’t sleep, so I called Ty. Laura woke me up in the lounge.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Eww, you fell asleep on the make-out couch?”

I threw my stuffed tiger at her, “Big deal. It’s no worse than falling asleep on the carpet in there.”

I was referring to a few weeks ago when Sadie drank a few too many and passed out in the lounge. She was too heavy for me to drag down the hall, so I gave up, leaving her there.

She smirked, “If you were a good roommate, you would have rounded up the masses and had them carry me to our room.”

I chuckled. “I know, I suck as a roommate. Still want to live with me?”

“We signed a lease. I have no choice now.”

“I hate you.”

“I love you.”

She threw the tiger back at me and slung her legs over the side of the bed. I couldn’t believe we would be out of here for good in a few days. Four years had passed so quickly. In two weeks, I would start my new job, and I was damn nervous but excited for the future.