Passion Abroad – A Billionaire Romance Novel

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked. Daniel reached for his wallet and pulled out a business card. He looked at it for a few minutes before he handed it to Erica. “Quicker Kitchen Me? The microwave guys?” she asked. Daniel smiled and nodded. “Wait, CEO? You run QKM?” she asked almost too surprised.

“You know about the company?” he asked.

“Are you kidding? If you saw my kitchen you would probably have me as your poster child,” she said with a smile.

“Well you see, you were really wrong about me being a venture capitalist,” he said.

“Actually, unless you do the actual groundwork in your company, I really don’t think you are anything other than a venture capitalist,” she said as she took one last bite of her food.

Daniel was smiling, almost grinning.

“How did you ever get your law degree if you can’t even know the right definition of venture capitalist?” he asked. She looked at him and shrugged before reaching for her glass.

“How do you know that all this is not just an act?” she asked looking at him over the rim of her glass. Daniel looked at her perfectly round brown eyes and shook his head.

“Yes, how do I know,” he said. She looked at him and took one last sip of her juice before putting the glass down.

“I guess you will never know,” she said as she dabbed her mouth with her napkin.

“Leaving already?” he asked as he looked at him.

“Well, I am done with my lunch or really late breakfast,” she said as she looked at him.

“I would really like to see you again,” he said. She looked at him and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“Are you staying here? At this hotel?” she asked. Daniel nodded. “Good, then I’ll see you for breakfast tomorrow,” she said as she walked out of the restaurant. She could almost feel Daniel’s eyes on her as she made her way out.

“You came here to get away from everything, not to start a fling,” that was the thought running in her mind but somehow, she pushed the thought to the back of her mind. When she got to her room, she could not wait to talk to her sister.

                                                            *****

When she finally turned the corner, Erica was practically running to the elevator. She had tried as hard as she could to maintain her femininity for as long as she thought Daniel was watching before she finally broke into her real self. She was breathing hard and deep as she waited for the elevator to stop at her floor. She was drumming her fingers against the side of her thigh as she hummed a familiar tune. She didn’t even realize that she was riding the elevator with two more people.

“Oh God…I’m so sorry,” she said when she came to her senses. The man and woman in the elevator smiled and shrugged.

“You sure do look happy,” the woman said.

“I am. For the first time in a long time I really am,” Erica smile and then shrugged.

“Well, that’s what life’s all about right?” the man pointed out as the elevator doors opened. Erica smiled at them politely before she walked out. She tried hard not to smile as she passed a few more hotel guests along the hallway. When she got inside her room, she tossed her purse somewhere as she headed for one of her bags. She pulled out her iPad and checked her connection as she sat on the bed. As soon as she established a connection, she smiled when she saw her sister was online. She dialed her and waited for her to pick up.

“Hey you,” she said when Emily picked up.

“Hey…what’s wrong with your connection?” Emily asked.

“What do mean?” she frowned as she looked at her screen.

“I can’t see you. That’s what’s wrong,” Emily said.

“Wait…I think I know what’s going on…hold up,” she said in a low voice as she tapped on the ‘enable video’ icon. “There,” she said sitting back.

“Better. And oh, someone looks excited,” Emily said with a smile.

“I kind of am but I first want to hear about you. You look like you are still in the office,” she said.

Emily looked around her office and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess the work is never really done,” she said.

“Those guys don’t pay you enough,” Erica said.

Emily smiled. “I know, right? Sometimes I think that maybe I should have gone into law like you did,” she added. Erica frowned and shook her head. “What, you don’t think I would crack it?”    

“Come on, Ems. You have always been the money guy. Accounts are like s*x to you. You would never walk away if your life depended on it. You know, kind of what I did,” Erica said.

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask, are you sure that is what you really want? To just walk away from everything?” Emily looked at her and smiled.

“Yeah. Maybe I will rethink everything in the long run but the truth is that right now, this is all I want. To just be away from everything,” Erica shrugged. “I’m fine, I promise you,” she added with a smile.

Emily ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.

“I’m happy if you’re happy, sweetie,” she said. Erica looked at her sister and smiled. If she could she would have reached right through the screen and kissed her sister. Sometimes Emily acted like she was the older one and Erica adored her for it. “So, why are you so happy anyway? I mean I know that you are on vacation and everything and that being happy is kind of part of the package but you are a little glowy,” Emily noted. Erica tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Okay, I’m not glowing but if you must know, I met a guy,” Erica grinned.

“Wait, didn’t you just land today?” Emily asked. From the tone in her sister’s voice, she could tell that Emily was impressed.

“Yes, I did and I blacked out…I was too tired but as it turns out, the decision not to have room service was what led to me meeting a fine gentleman in the restaurant,” Erica said excitedly.

“I didn’t understand any of that,” Emily frowned.

“Okay, I wanted to have room service, you know with the exhaustion and everything but I remembered that time we went to Puerta Vallarta and didn’t get out of the room for most of the vacation so long story short, I ended up going downstairs and bam! I met the guy. And get this, he is hot!” she said excitedly.

Emily smiled at her sister.

“So, what was this? Just a one-time meal or is there something else in the future?” she asked.

Erica shrugged as she thought of the look Daniel had given her as she left the restaurant. She was not sure but years of working with other men making huge settlements had taught her that she could read men quite well and the way Daniel had looked at her spoke volumes.

“We are definitely going to have something else,” Erica said just as she heard Emily’s office door open and close. “Are you busy?” she asked when she saw Emily look up from her computer.

“Yeah, I just got this stack of paperwork. Something to do with last month’s financials. Talk tomorrow?”

“Maybe but if I don’t I’ll get some time later this week,” she shrugged.

“I have a good feeling of what you’ll be doing,” Emily said before she hung up. Erica rolled her eyes. She didn’t get enough time to tell her sister not to mention anything to Cassandra. Emily had a thing for always exaggerating and given a choice, she would have loved to be the one to break the news to Cassandra. She shrugged and put away her iPad. Maybe she would take care of that later…much, much later.