FALLING FOR MY BILLIONAIRE HUSBAND’S BROTHER

Three Years Ago

Simon’s Point of View

Imagining my cold heart turning warm seemed impossible till Lily Stack came into my life six months ago. She had my attention the moment she walked into my office, hair dripping wet and clothes drenched, seeking an internship placement. The spark in her eyes was something I couldn’t resist. I saw in her eyes the fire I had in mine five years ago when I started Siwes Ltd. Hers was filled with a desire for more and mine with a drive for survival. If I were, to break out from the Weston dynasty, I had to build my own. Hard work, sacrifice, and determination have brought me this far. I was sitting as CEO of a financial service company that operated globally and had amassed a worth of over $30 billion in just five years of its inception. In all that time, I had no interest in anything else until her beautiful brown eyes bore into mine. I started only intrigued, wanting to know more about her. Unwilling to let her out of my sight, I handed her a job by my, side. What came next wasn’t a part of my plan. I didn’t envisage that she’d score my heart. 

We’d been working closely together, and I ensured it.  I wasn’t about to miss spending time with the young woman who intrigued me. She’d walk into my office with a completed report or task, I’d take a look at it, or assign a new task, which had become our usual routine.

My eyes, followed her as she entered my office with two files, one red and one blue. She wore a white shirt tucked into her black pants, looking effortlessly beautiful.

"Mr. Miller," she began, her voice confident, "I’ve completed the performance report based on the KPIs," she said, lifting the red file slightly. "And I’ve also prepared the financial report for the last three months," she continued, raising the blue file.

I, should, have been paying attention, to her words. But all I could see was the way, her, lips moved and the way her eyes sparkled with interest. She was standing right in, front of me yet I felt as, if I were in another world, one with an angel. Her beauty was nothing short of angelic. In the past months she had worked with me, I had spent most of the time we had together fighting my attraction for her. Primarily because I’m not the type of man who’d engage in an office romance. Mixing business, with, pleasure wasn’t my forte; I liked to keep my work and private life separate. More importantly, she was a distraction. One I gave a pep talk to myself every morning to ignore.

"Mr. Miller?" she repeated, a little more firmly this time, pulling me out of my thoughts. We had agreed she’d call me by my surname to keep it professional. Moving to Canada, it seemed, fitting to take my mother’s maiden name since I was touring my own path. Of course, she didn’t know this. No one here knew me as a Weston and I had to keep it that way.

I blinked, shaking my head slightly to clear it. "Yes, of course. Sorry," I said, reaching out to take the files from her hands. Our fingers brushed, and I felt a jolt of electricity. I could tell she noticed the slight hesitation in my grip.

"Thank you, Lily," I added, trying to steady my voice. "Let’s review these together." She took a seat across from me. Her presence drew me in, making it difficult to concentrate on anything else. Her eyes met mine, and for, a moment, I was completely lost in them.

She must have grown, tired of me by now and all my mixed signals. She had made it evidently, clear to me that she had fallen for me. I, still, remember the embarrassed look she wore when I told her it’d be better if we kept things professional.

I opened the red file, forcing myself to focus on the contents. "Good job Lily, you delivered on such short notice, very efficient," I said. But even as I began to discuss the performance metrics, she standing there, staring at me with those eyes it was going to be hard to concentrate.

I abruptly closed the files, stood up from, my seat, and began, moving closer to her.

"Sir, you're coming closer," she said, her eyes fixed on me.

"Yes, I am," I replied, but that didn't stop me. I took slow, deliberate steps, drawing nearer. I wanted to keep it professional yet I desperately wanted her.

"Si," she whispered as I was just inches away. She called me by my first name this time, and only she called me Si and I liked it. My self-control was hanging by a thread. She was an irresistible temptation, and I halted, staring into her eyes.

"We promised we’d try to remain professional but you're giving me the look," she said.

"What look?" I tilted my face, waiting for her to tell me what I already knew.

"The look you give me when you're tempted to kiss me but end up running away," she said, biting her lip. Before now, I thought kissing her would permanently bind me to her spell and I couldn’t allow it. Distraction was a luxury I wasn’t prepared to afford. Not now, I still had revenge clouding my better judgment.  I’d be terrible for her. None of that mattered now; I was about to be entrapped. D*mn…I knew I had lost the battle.

"Yes, I want to kiss you," I admitted.

"You can't. I work for you," she said, her voice trembling.

"You do," I acknowledged, yet it didn't stop my hands from caressing her arms.

"That's against your principle. You don't have romantic relations with your employees," she said restating my words back to me, trembling under my touch.

"No, I can't," I agreed, yet my hands continued their slow exploration.

"You're not the type of man that kisses his employee in his office during work hours," her words said one thing, but her actions betrayed her.

"I'm dying to kiss you," I confessed.

She placed her hands on my chest and softly moved them until they were across my neck. "We'll be breaking company policy if you kiss me," she whispered.

"It won't matter anymore. This is the last day of your six-month internship, and I have waited so long to do this," I said. "Do you want me to kiss you?" I asked.

She nodded, her eyes blazing with intensity. I flashed a charming smile, cupped her face, and then captured her lips with mine, tasting her as our tongues entangled. She rapidly pulled away, but I didn't release her.

"Why did you pull away?" I asked, concerned. I knew she loved me, but why was she resisting? We had spent months together, working closely. I knew her—something was bothering her.

"I'm afraid," she said.

"Of what?" I asked, ready to hold her fear captive and release her from its grip like a soldier on the battlefield.

"I have fallen in love with you, and it scares me to death," she said, biting her lip. From the way she kept her face, I could tell she felt she had said too much.

I smiled, elated. She loved me. I knew it already, but hearing the words come from her mouth as I watched her lips had my heart pounding. "Why do you fear loving me?" I asked.

"I don't know…maybe it’s the fact that you’ve been blowing hot and then you’re cold and it confuses me or that being with you all these months just seems too good to be true. I feel like there's some tragedy waiting ahead," she expressed, apprehensive.

"I love you with all my heart, and you love me too. Trust in us," I said, clinging tightly to her. I watched her eyes widen in shock. I bet she didn’t think I could come out with it. The way we both feel for each other was not a secret for either of us. I’ve just fought too hard to keep myself away from loving her. Now, I couldn’t anymore, not now her internship was over. I realized how much I needed her close to me.

"It's hard to just… let go and… only love without thinking," she said, pouting her lips.

I ran my fingers through her hair. "Love me… please," I begged desperately. I wanted her all for myself—she consumed my every waking thought.

"I love you, but I don't want to get hurt if we try and it doesn't work out. I'd rather hold on to what we have now than wreck it," she said.

"If we feel what we feel with the barriers of this office, how much more would our love explode now that the boundaries will be lifted and we'll finally be together? Would you deny your heart the pleasure of knowing the depths of our love?" I asked.

She stared at me, grasping every word I said. I saw her taking in my words. "Don't give me an answer now. I won't pressure you. But think about it. I will go through, the reports," I said, releasing my grip on her and going, back, to my seat.

 “I know you have this other part of your life tucked away somewhere in your heart. I, want you to show me the other side to you. What are you keeping away from me” she asked.

But I froze, I couldn’t give her an honest answer, so my best option was silence. How could I tell her my mother was murdered or worse, I suspected my father and stepmother as the culprits? I’ve justified in my head hiding from her the secrets of my past.  First, leaving her out of it was the best way I could keep her safe. The only way to truly have a fresh start and finally to have my revenge against the people who killed my mother.

She shook her head, disappointed.

My eyes watched as she hastily ran away.

Simon’s Point of View

I couldn’t leave things as they were. I had to fix it before it was too late. I strode into Lily’s office, a space I had deliberately created for her so I could watch her through the glass. It had slowly become my favorite hobby—looking at her through the glass with a cup of coffee in my hands. As I stepped, into her office, she was already clearing her desk into a box.

“Lily,” I called.  She looked up at me, and then her hands got busy again, packing her stuff.

“My Lily,” I said softly. She stopped and turned to face me. There it was again, the spark in her eyes. This time, it seemed like she wanted me just as much as I wanted her. My body screamed at me to grab her in my arms and kiss her over and over again. But I didn’t dare oblige, not until she spoke to me.

“I’ve thought about it, as you asked me to,” she said. “Yet, I can’t help but feel that as long as you’re keeping a part of you away from me, we’