The Billionaire’s Games (The Billionaire’s Obsession 2)

Fixing my hair as I sat beside Evan in the cab, I ignored his permanent smirk. Someone had a great time on the plane and not just because of our adventurous bathroom sex. He helped me take a nap on the plane and I was sure he had a nap too. We were fully rested and sated and meeting my parents now didn’t feel as awful as a minute ago.

I reached for my makeup bag and tried to fix myself. I managed to look decent enough and spritzed on some perfume. Evan didn’t need to do anything, he looked great. I was kind of jealous he looked that great without any effort. It was unfair, really.

“I think I shouldn’t have pushed you for it,” Evan muttered, the smirk fading from his face.

I frowned, “W-What?”

“We’re meeting your parents right away.” He muttered, “I shouldn’t have touched you.” He whispered the last part, trying to hide our conversation from the driver, “It’s like shoving in their faces that we’re together and apparently up to no good.”

Placing my hand on his knee I glanced out the window, trying to hide my smile from him, “I get it. There is no going back now though. We’ve done it and I tried to fix it, if we just keep this conversation light we’ll get away with it.”

“We’re not supposed to keep this conversation light, Zoey. We need to talk about our feelings, at least, you need to talk about your feelings. Letting them know it’s your life and you value their opinion but in the end, it’s still about what is making you happy and not them.”

I turned my head, holding his gaze, “You mind if I use your words? I mean that’s what I was trying to say to them for years, but I could never express myself with the right words. You just gave me a none bullshit summary of what we’re here to do.”

His smirk came back to his face, making his whole face light up, “Sure, Zo. That’s why I’m here in the first place, right? Moral support?”Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

He placed his hand on top of mine and held it tightly. We could do this, we could face them without embarrassing ourselves or them.

***

Leaving our luggage in the hallway we followed the housekeeper to the living room where my parents were waiting. I held tightly onto Evan’s hand as we entered the room, my parents were seated on the couch next to each other while we slowly approached them. I noticed instantly how my father looked at me then moved his eyes to our hands and then moved his eyes back to me, looking disappointed. Yeah, this was going to be a fun afternoon.

“Zoey, it’s good to see you.” My mother got to her feet and stepped to me, wrapping me up in her arms as she pulled me in for an awkward hug, “We didn’t know you were taking your friend with you.”

I released Evan’s hand and pulled out of the awkward hug, narrowing my eyes on my mother, “I did tell you I was coming to see you together with my boyfriend.” I turned to Evan and gestured to him, “My boyfriend Evan Black.” I then gestured to my mother and father, “Emma and Bradley.”

“Nice to meet you,” Evan told them firmly.

“Nice to meet you.” I noticed how the hostility left my mother as she gawked at Evan, that was what she was doing and there was no denying it, “I’m sorry, but we were expecting to have a private conversation with Zoey-”

“This is about us.” I told them, “About my future which includes Evan so of course, he’s here.”

My mother nodded, “You’re right.” She agreed her eyes never leaving Evan, “Take a seat, please.”

We took a seat across them, my father still hadn’t said a word. But he was watching and forming his opinion about us. His look told us he wasn’t happy at all.

“I thought you told me you weren’t dating this boy.” Her father said, refusing to call Evan by his name, “What else did you lie about, your new choice of career too?”

“When you called Evan and I wasn’t dating yet.” I told him, “But I don’t appreciate the tone you use whenever you talk about my boyfriend. I’m serious about him and Evan is a good guy. Making his own living and kind to his friends and family. It’s fine that you’re upset with me, but he doesn’t deserve your anger.”

“How can I not be angry with him as well when he is part of the reason you’re throwing your life away.”

I sighed, “Dad, I’m not throwing my life away. I’m doing what I like and making a living out of it.”

“We had a plan, Zoey, you were going to graduate and take the job at Mr. Powers office. Marry-”

“Excuse me?” Zoey interrupted him, not liking where the conversation was headed, “I graduated and took a job which had my interest. I moved to New York and started living my life. If I get married it’s to a guy of my choice.” I flickered my eyes to Evan who didn’t look too happy to be here right now either, “You have no say in that matter whatsoever.”

“Zoey, we’re only looking out for you.” Her mother told her, trying to calm everyone down.

“You’re not looking out for me.” I was getting pissed and it could be heard since my voice was getting higher and higher, “You want me to follow a plan you made up, but that’s not going to happen. I follow my own plan and live my own life. What you’re not getting is that I pay my own rent and bills. You can give me advice but in the end, I make my own decisions.”

“Mr. Powers son is-”

I titled my head to the side, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen, dad.” I told him firmly. I reached for Evan’s hand again and firmly held it in mine, “If I’m marrying anyone anytime soon it would be Evan. You either accept that or hold your tongue, because it doesn’t matter what you think about it.” I got up and tried to pull Evan up as well, “And by the way, if this is about money and being well taken care of, you can rest assured, Evan’s a billionaire.” I told them, “He just doesn’t flaunt it around. Needing to show his money off to feel good about himself.”

Evan got up on his own and gently rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand, trying to calm me down, “I didn’t come along to witness this conversation going south. But I hope you can understand why Zoey is this upset right now. She is doing great, has a lot of friends who’d do anything for her to make her happy. I’d do anything to make her happy. You not seeing this is upsetting to her. We’ll be staying for two more days if you want to meet up again and talk things over. We’ve time. I don’t want to come between family, but backing off isn’t an option to me either. I won’t give her up.”

I noticed the shocked looks on their faces and knew it was low of me, but I was just so pissed I wanted them to be upset too.

“That’s right, I’m not dating just a pretty face here. Evan actually has layers.” I turned to Evan, “Can we go now. I need some fresh air, maybe we can head into town for dinner.”

Evan met my gaze, “So we’re still in town for two days, you can contact Zoey anytime.”

With that we left the house, taking our luggage with us. We didn’t have a car waiting but I didn’t care. I rather wait outside for a car than spending another minute with them. Hand in hand we walked away from the porch and waited at the gate. Evan called a cab, his eyes never leaving mine. Once he hung up he pocketed his phone and reached for me, running his knuckles lightly over my cheek.

“You okay?”

“Hm.”

“Still upset?” He sounded amused.

“Really upset.”

“That might not have been the right time to talk about my pretty face and my billions.”

I glared at my boyfriend who wasn’t completely taking my side here, “It was the best time considering he mentioned something about marriage. Like hell, I’m marrying some dude he thinks is right for me because he has a job which he sees as appropriate. Now he knows he made fun of a guy who is actually better than Mr. Powers’ son.”

“I’m a great guy.” Evan nodded, still sounded amused.

He wanted to lighten the mood and it worked. I laughed and gave him a playful shove.

“Your arrogance knows no boundaries.”

“You did praise me quite a lot in front of your parents, I think I’m allowed to be a little arrogant right now.”

Smiling I leaned in and wrapped my arms around his waist, resting my head against his chest. It didn’t go well, but I knew from the beginning things wouldn’t go well. They needed to accept that I wasn’t going to follow whatever plan they had for me. I was going to live my life the way I wanted. Once they accepted that we could move forward.

“You feeling a little better?” Evan asked, wrapping his arms around me as well and kissing my head.

“Hm, better already.” I told him quietly, “I’m glad you’re here. You handled that better.”

“You got emotional, that’s okay.”

“I just want to get away from here.” I murmured.

“I’m sure things will work out, Zo. Everyone just needs to calm down and let things sink in. We’re here another two days. I’m sure either your mom or dad will contact you.”

I sighed, “It doesn’t matter either way. I said what I wanted to get off my chest.” Pulling away from Evan I smiled at him, “After this, we deal with Priscilla.”

He rolled his eyes at me, “I knew you were going there.” He then looked at me again and smiled, “That was the deal, so yeah, we’ll deal with Priscilla after this trip.”

We took a cab to the hotel to drop our luggage and then headed into town together. It was a nice change, helping me get my mind off things. Evan made sure to entertain me, trying to make me laugh. He didn’t need to put much effort into it though. Everyone liked hanging out with Evan since he was easy to get along with. He never left my side and made sure I could lean on him when I felt down. I was definitely going to marry this guy.