Forgiving the Billionaire - Macie St. James

1

Living above a coffee shop sucked when you suffered from insomnia.

Grumbling to herself, Alyssa Kennedy sat up, swinging her feet to the floor in the process. Her best friend’s sofa was her bedroom for the foreseeable future. It was necessary while Alyssa struggled to build her own marketing firm after being suddenly laid off from her job at one of the city’s top tech companies.

Alyssa looked at the coffee table, already reaching out for her laptop. Her hand was met with empty space, then the table surface. Her laptop wasn’t there.

“Ugh,” she said as she remembered exactly where it was. Downstairs.

Careful not to wake her roommate sleeping on the other side of her closed bedroom door, Alyssa crept toward the door to the apartment, grabbing her keyring from the hook near the kitchen. She’d just retrieve her laptop and return to the sofa, catching up on some work in the two hours before they had to get ready and open the coffee shop.

The closer she got to the store, the stronger the smell of coffee was. They could close this place up for six months and she was pretty sure the scent would still permeate this entire area. It had permanently soaked into the floors, walls, ceiling, and furnishings.

Alyssa unlocked the door and stepped inside, flipping the lock behind her before entering. Over the past couple of weeks, she’d gotten used to entering a dark coffee shop every morning. Usually, she came down and started on opening duties while the café’s owner, her roommate, showered and got dressed. She found it amusing that she could be thought of as the early bird when Emily had been opening this store at four a.m. for two years.

The laptop was right there, on the counter. Alyssa headed straight toward it, eyes on the prize, and was just about to grab it when a sound caught her attention. It was coming from the direction of the front door to the café. Her heart began racing as she turned, seemingly in slow motion, to check out the source of the noise.

There was a man outside that door. He was dressed in all dark clothing, like a burglar, and even had a black beanie on his head. Burglars wore black beanies, didn’t they? She was pretty sure she’d seen that on cheesy TV shows. Alyssa quickly looked around for something to use as a weapon, realizing at the same time that the wise move would probably be to run. She could call the police from her cellphone upstairs and—

A loud click drew her attention back to the door. The burglar had figured out how to pick the lock, even though it was a super strong deadbolt. But that door was opening and the man in the beanie was entering. If she didn’t find a weapon fast, she’d be toast.

“I called the police!” she shouted.

It was too dark to make out the face of the burglar, but she could confirm he was wearing a beanie. And he had a fairly thick winter coat on, which was odd for San Francisco-area weather. He probably had all his burglary tools secured in the pockets or something.

“Alyssa?”

That voice. She’d know it anywhere. It was the grown-up version of the voice of the boy she’d heard in her head every day and night of her adolescence. It was the voice of Jeremy Owens.

“Jeremy?”

Alyssa’s hands immediately crossed in front of her. She was suddenly all too aware that she stood there in a long T-shirt and nothing else. Not even a bra. She couldn’t guarantee the T-shirt was thick enough to conceal what she needed covered in the chest area. Suddenly, the counter in front of her became a shield.

Jeremy turned and flipped the switch on the wall next to the front door. Light flooded the coffee shop, calling her attention to another thing to be self-conscious about. She wore no makeup and hadn’t even checked her reflection in the mirror. She was guessing she had a bad case of bedhead.

“Alyssa Kennedy!”

Yes, his voice was deeper, but he still had that slightly playful tone that seemed to underly everything he said. It was one of the things she’d found so adorably irresistible about him when she was fifteen. But as her best friend’s older brother, he’d been off-limits. Not that he’d ever noticed her. As he’d always said, he had two little sisters, Emily and Alyssa.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

He frowned and started toward her. “What, no hug? I’ve been overseas