Cheating With The Billionaire

Chapter 12: Personal (Kaden)

Kaden's POV

What is love in this day and age?

Everyone uses the word so loosely that it has begun to hold little power, at least with me.

I've had countless women tell me that they loved me before, the majority having been drunk when they said it. The rest always followed up with a monetary request afterward.

Maybe Bella didn't realize what she had said, or she was trying to say something else but got her words mixed up. I wore her out last night, so perhaps she thought she was dreaming when she whispered those three words. I know she cares about me, but love? No f*****g way she's in love with me.

"I'm such an idiot..." Staring at the eggs sizzling in the frying pan, I'm supposed to be fixing breakfast instead of zoning out and thinking about—

"Good morning!" Bella sneaks up behind me, pinching me on the ass. "Oh! Someone's a little jumpy. Did I seriously scare you just now?" She laughs as I turn around from the stove. Our eyes meet and my heart starts beating ridiculously fast. "What's with the weird look? Do I have something on my face?"

"There's nothing on your face, Bella. You're perfect." I lean down to kiss her, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her flush against me.

We kiss like tomorrow isn't coming. She moans softly, parting her mouth and inviting me inside. I pour my all into the kiss. I'm so goddamn hungry for her. All of her. I can never get enough, and part of me knows she feels the same.

Who the f**k am I kidding? I'm absolutely nuts about this girl. There isn't anything that I wouldn't do for her. I love taking care of her. I love making her smile. I love making love to her. s**t. Maybe I'm in love, too. Maybe she's the one. My one.

"You're my girl, Bella." I pick her up and place her on the kitchen counter, my c**k hanging heavily between my legs. She immediately wraps hers around my waist, her hands caressing my bare chest, sharp blue eyes staring into mine. "Say it. Tell me who you belong to."

"Kaden," she whispers my name like it's a dirty word and I f*****g love it. "I belong to you, and you belong to me." She lightly tugs at the waistband of my sweatpants, slowly licking her lips. "I know what I want for breakfast, and it isn't what you're cooking on the stove..."

The smell of burnt eggs promptly snaps us out of the daze that we had fallen in.

"Ah, s**t!" I laugh nervously while taking the pan off the stove eye. The eggs are inedible. I scrape them out of the pan and into the trash. "Looks like we're having biscuits and bacon for breakfast because I'm not cooking more eggs."

"It's fine. You've done enough." Bella fixes herself a plate, giggling all the while, and then she joins me at the kitchen table.

"Is that Evangeline's?" I spot a diamond tennis bracelet laying on the other end of the table. I rarely see Bella wearing jewelry, so I assume it's something of her mother's. She grabs it, examines it for about a minute, and then slips it into her pocket. "Oh. I didn't know it was yours."

"It's not. It belongs to Madison."

"Who is Madison?"

"Mom's friend. She had Madison over yesterday while you were at work. They hung out inside and I did my own thing outside. I'll give mom the bracelet when she comes home."

"Okay."

I don't care that Evangeline had company over. But I am very curious to know what the hell she and Madison were doing in the kitchen that caused Madison to lose her bracelet. I tense and stare at the table. It looks clean. Surely Evangeline took her shenanigans upstairs.

"Anyway, about last night..." I eventually put an end to the small talk after Bella and I finish eating. "How much do you remember? You kind of passed out after I made you c—"

"I'll karate chop you in the throat if you finish that sentence." Bella blushes, giving me a trying look. "I remember all the important parts, so why do you ask? Did I do something stupid that I don't know about?"

Ouch. This hurts more than I thought it would.

She doesn't remember what she said to me. f**k. Now I'm back at square one. Did she truly mean to tell me that she loved me, or had it simply been something that she muttered while in the heat of the moment?

"You didn't do anything stupid," I quietly respond, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice. I leave the table to place our empty plates into the dishwasher, changing the subject. "What are your plans for the day? I think I'm going to head to the office and get caught up on some of yesterday's work."

"Really? I thought we were going to pick up where we left off..."

"Last night wasn't enough?" I tease, turning back around. "You want more?"

"Of you? Always." Bella stands and walks over to me, taking her shirt off in the process. My mouth waters at the sight of her bouncy t**s. "You just said I was your girl, did you not?"

"I did. You are my girl."

"Well, your girl wants your c**k. Are you going to send me away, or are you going to f**k me?"

As if I could ever tell this woman no.

"Use me however you want." I reach for her pajama shorts, tugging them down quickly. "I'm all yours."

* * *

LATER THAT DAY

Halfway through my workday is when I got a panicked call from Evangeline.

She talked so damn fast that I could barely process her words, but what I caught in between her yelling and crying was that someone had vandalized one of her hair salons. I leave work early to be by her side.

Thank God Bella is at home and safe. Our cover would have been blown had I pulled up to see her crying and trembling next to Evangeline. I would have consoled her without a second thought, right there in front of my supposed-to-be wife.

"Holy s**t," Tony, one of my security guys, mutters from the driver's seat as we pull into the empty parking lot of Evangeline's salon. "Who the hell did your wifey piss off?"

"No clue but I'm about to find out." I hop out of the car before Tony gets the chance to shut it off.

The salon looks worse than what Evangeline had tried to describe. The front windows are completely gone, and glass is scattered everywhere. Misogynistic text written in black spray paint covers the brick exterior. I move closer to assess the inside and it looks just as worse as the outside. All of Evangeline's equipment has either been knocked over or smashed to pieces.

It's a f*****g shitshow.

"Kaden!" Evangeline comes running out of the salon and crashes into me, crying against my chest. For show and also because I genuinely feel sorry for her, I hold her as she sobs. "The cops have come and gone. They said they'd follow up with me in a few hours. There's so much to repair and I'm just..." She struggles to catch her breath, her body shaking. "You haven't spoken to Bella about this, have you? Because I don't want her worrying about me."

"I haven't told her anything," I say after we separate. "I had trouble understanding you over the phone, so can you try to tell me what happened when you first got here?"

"Yeah, I found it exactly like this! I'm in the process of renovating the floors which is why the salon has been closed. I came over to get some extra supplies for my other salon and I saw this one had been trashed to hell. Whoever did this... they're experienced. My security systems were disabled beforehand. Nothing was caught on camera. But..."

"But what?"

"This." Evangeline pulls a yellow sticky note out of her pocket and passes it to me.

The note read: f**k with my life and I'll f**k with yours, starting with your cheating wife.

"No, I haven't shown this to the police. Yes, I've been seeing someone behind your back, not that it f*****g matters," Evangeline mutters. "But you know who did this, right? It sounds personal."

"It is personal." I crumple the note and shove it in my pocket. "I think I know who did this, but I want to be sure before I confront the bastard. You were right to keep this away from the cops. The less they're involved, including the media, the better."

Fortran is so close to being mine that I'll be damned if that son of a b***h Jason tries to pick a fight with me at the last second, all because I exposed him for the traitorous piece of s**t that he is. He's the only person that came to mind as I read that note. It's not a coincidence that something like this happened shortly after I humiliated him and got him fired.

Evidently, I hurt his little feelings. But instead of coming at me directly, he's targeting my family.

"My salon, Kaden... What are we going to do about my salon? What if this psycho tries to go after my other one? What if—"

"I'm going to fix this, Evangeline. I'm going to take care of everything, so don't worry about the damages. Whatever needs to be replaced, I'll replace it. But, in the meantime, it's best if we lay low for a while. I don't know what this asshole plans on doing next, and until I find out, it'll be better if you're at home where I know you'll be safe with Bella."

"I have a gun in my glovebox, Kaden. I appreciate your concern, but I am not giving this dickhead the satisfaction of scaring me out of coming to work."

"Damn. You own a g—"

"Nevermind that. What did you do to piss this person off so badly? And why is he f*****g with me and not you?"

"Because he's too p***y to bring this fight directly to me," I answer simply. "This guy, if he is who I think he is, he did some shady s**t while working at Fortran. I exposed him and had him fired on the spot. I suppose this is his way of getting back at me. Either way, I'll get to the bottom of this."

If this is how Jason wants to play, then I'll happily show him just how ruthless I can get.