Falling For My Arrogant Billionaire

Louisa.

"What do you mean, marry him?" I asked, staring at my father in disbelief. I had been called from my office to hurry to the house and now looking at my father while he sat on the sitting room sofa, my mother sitting beside him, I couldn't believe the ridiculous statements that came out of their mouths. "What do you mean marry your boss, Dad?" I asked again.

My dad shrugged his shoulders, his voice filled with panic. "Hurry up, Louisa, we need to give an answer before 5:00pm, it's 4:40 already." He replied.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked while he turned to look at the clock and the door simultaneously.

"They'll be here soon. Hurry up," he responded.

He was shaking. My father, Jeremy Jordan, head of Finance at Yeats Group was shaking on his seat as panic enveloped him. And I still didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

"He's just a man, Louisa." My mother, Verna, said, sitting beside him to offer comfort.

"Nobody said he wasn't a man, mum. He's a man, a very rich and powerful man. He's a man I've never met and one who I'm sure doesn't know who I am. Why I should suddenly be marrying him is what you need to make me understand." I said to them.

"He likes you." My father rubbed his palm as his eyes met mine. "He likes you, Louisa. He says he's seen you several times and feels you should be his wife.'

I stared again, my eyes open with shock. "What the hell does that even mean? I'm not someone he should be asking to marry just because he felt like it."

"You are being too difficult." My mother said, standing up to her feet this time around and pacing the living room. "A man that powerful likes you, you should be jumping for joy." She added.

I shook my head at her again and turned to face my father whose impatience was becoming very visible. "Dad?" I called. "What did you do that you are willing to give me up to your boss?"

"I didn't do anything. I don't know why you keep asking questions when I have already told you to prepare to meet him. You should be on your way to his office right now before they come." He answered staring at the door and the clock again.

Confusion clouded my mind. Something was definitely wrong with him. He wasn't someone to be this scared of a man like himself. "I am not marrying him." I said with finality, standing to place my hands on my hips.

My father jerked his head towards me and before I knew it, he grabbed my arm with his strong hands.

"I don't know what you think this situation is." He said harshly as I winced from the strength of his palm. "You don't have a say here, Louisa."

"Stop it, Dad." I called as his arms began to hurt me. "Stop it and explain to me why you are giving me up to Jared Yeats." I said. He didn't release me, not until my mother intervened.

"Let her go, Jeremy. After all, it is your fault and your carelessness that brought us to this situation." She said, using her palm to separate my father's hand from my arm.

I watched her drag me off, her head facing downward as she could not afford to look at me. Tears were also in her voice.

"Mum?" I called, looking from her to my father.

"You need to marry him, Louisa," she said as she gained the courage to look at me. "You need to marry Mr. Yeats if that is what will save our family from this problem and embarrassment."

"Mum, listen..."

"He's rich and young and handsome, he will take care of you. You will be happy with him." she added.

One of the maids rushed into the living room and whispered into my mother's ear. She nodded in response, taking my hands again.

"Go to him, Louisa. Go to Mr. Yeats in his office and tell him you have agreed to marry him."

"But I have not agreed to marry him. I have not agreed to do anything, I don't know why the both of you are doing this to me." I said as the tears threatened to fall from my eyes.

As soon as the words left my mouth, the door flung open, and we all turned to the sound. A man in a suit walked in, but he wasn't Jared Yeats. He was accompanied by three other men, one of them in a police uniform and the others in ordinary clothes.

"There he is." The man in the suit said. "Take him."

Immediately, the other man in a police uniform seized my father and placed a handcuff on him while one of them on mufti, showed us a typed warrant for arrest.

"Good evening, Mr. Jeremy Jordan. We are from the FBI. You are under arrest for the embezzlement of funds from Yeats Group.”

My eyes widened in shock as I turned to look at my father's face. "You did what?" I exclaimed.

************

Five minutes later, I was still staring at my father, after my mother had asked the officers to spare us some minutes to talk.

"You did what?" I exclaimed in horror again, walking up to my father. "You embezzled funds? "You stole from Jared Yeats?"

"That was what we were trying to tell you, Louisa." My mother said.

"No." I shook my head at her, raising my index finger. "You weren't trying to tell me anything. The both of you were only trying to force a marriage on me, for something that I knew nothing about."

I turned away, dragging my hair away from my face. It was infuriating and disappointing at the same time. How could he have done something like that? Stealing from Yeats Group, a place where he was highly respected and feared.

"What did you use the money for?" I asked, turning to him again when I was calm. "How much is it? And what did you use it for?"

"You shouldn't concern yourself with that, Louisa." He said angrily. "The time is ticking, and I have a handcuff on my god damn hands. You have a future of being the wife of Jared Yeats, CEO Yeats Group. Do you know what that means?"

Looking at him, I shook my head, disgusted at his lack of remorse.

"I won't marry him." I said again and the look he threw my way sent shivers down my spine. He gritted his teeth and lunged at me, but before he could get to where I stood, the door flew open again.

"Alright, family reunion is over." The man in expensive suits said and my father was dragged out of the house by the officers, leaving my mother sobbing uncontrollably.

"Louisa, please." She cried out to me, rubbing her palms together while the man in suits walked closer to where we stood.

"Now that the criminal is gone." He spoke harshly again, pointing his index finger at me. "You, come with me." He snapped and before I knew what his were, he lunged me on his shoulders and walked out of the house.

Louisa.

I tapped my legs uncontrollably on the ground as I awaited my fate on the lounge of Jared Yeats' big office. His personal guard had kept me there and after whispering to the secretary who was now looking at me suspiciously, had walked out of the room.

Wondering what was going on inside the office, I stood up and began to pace the lounge, aware of the pair of eyes that watched me.

"Do you want a glass of water, miss?" The secretary, whose name I could see was Alice because of the nameplate on the table, asked.

I shook my head in response, appreciative of her kindness. "No, thanks."

She smiled at me, turning back to look at the computer before her. About five minutes later, her office phone rang and after talking into it, signaled for me to go into the main office.

I took three steady breaths while standing, before opening the door to Jared Yeats's main office. The coziness of the place was no surprise to me as I had expected it to look very expensive, but what surprised me was the size. I wondered why a single man should occupy an office that large.

The man in question sat by his desk and as I walked closer, I noticed he had a smile on his face, his index fingers against his lips and his beautiful eyes sizing me up in an unusually flirty way.

God, he was breathtaking, I shivered. I didn't know how tall he was because of his seated position, but he was handsome like sin. It should be illegal to look like him, in fact, he was supposed to be arrested for looking that perfect. I thought inside my head.

"Hello, Miss Jordan. It's so nice to finally meet you." He said, standing from where he sat. My eyes widened at how tall he looked and when he walked closer to me, I was lost at how intoxicating his scent was. Trying not to stare for too long, I took the sofa he offered me, jamming my hands together in fear.

He sat across from me, still staring and I felt my cheeks beginning to burn with heat. "Hello, Mr. Yeats," I muttered when I could finally find my voice again.

"Jared." He corrected, still smiling sweetly at me, revealing a great set of teeth. "Call me Jared, since we are going to be married."

I looked up at him, surprised that he also wasn't going to give me the chance to refuse his proposition. "I didn't say I was going to marry you, Mr. Yeats."

"Jared." He corrected again. "And you are going to marry me, because you don't have a choice."

I stared at him, my heart beating hard at his words. His voice was flirtatious and very daring, in fact, everything about him was a warning for me to run away.

"I do have a choice. I wasn't the one who stole from you. I don't know why I should be paying the price." I replied very quickly, the words running out of my mouth as if they were rehearsed.

Jared leaned back on his sofa to study me, a weird but sensual-looking smile on his face. He stared at me for a moment, before leaning forward again.

"From the pictures and the videos that I have seen of you, you didn't look like someone who was selfish" he murmured, making a face at me.

''Excuse me!" I blurted out and he laughed at my expression.

"You are beautiful.'' He simply said, taking me quite aback with his statement. With the way the conversation had been going, I never expected such a compliment from him. "You are beautiful, Louisa and intelligent, also very smart too. That's some of the reasons I want you to marry me." He added. "Your father's debt is just an excuse.''

"I don't understand you. You are confusing me." I said to him.

''Good." He said and I was surprised that a man that powerful could be so sweet and serious at the same time. “If you agree to the marriage, your family and mine will be in-laws and I will forget the debt, forever."

"Why?" I asked. "Why do you want to marry someone you are not in love with?"

"Who says I am not in love with you?" He asked and my eyes widened in shock. I opened my mouth to speak but couldn't find the right words to use. My gesture brought out a fit of chuckles from him even as he waved off his secretary who was signaling from the glass that he had a meeting to attend to.

"It's a simple request, Louisa." He said, standing up from the sofa " I'm about to be the president of my company and can finally get what my grandfather passed to my father and my father passed to me. The only thing stopping me from finally being the sole owner of Yeats group is marriage, which is why I need a wife.”

“But I…”

"No matter how nice I am, I'm sorry, but marrying me is the only way to save your father from prison because he actually did steal from me." He added, walking over to open the door of the office for me himself. He waited till I was at the door, before stretching his hands to stop me.

''Marry me, Louisa, save your father from prison and I get to have all of my company. Think about it, but..." He stopped, tapping at the very expensive and elegant watch on his wrist. "Time is ticking.”

As he ushered me out, I began to calculate my thought process. He was definitely not going to be too bad to marry because I hadn't expected someone that rich and powerful to be so lively and easygoing. What I was worried about was marriage on its own. I had vowed never to get married for money, but for love. Now, I wasn't so sure about that.

*****************

My mother was pacing the room like a crazy person while I watched her with a lot of thoughts on my mind. I had been informed that I was to make a decision today, even though it was just yesterday the news had come to me.

I thought about my career as a fashion designer, and the dreams I was about to give up in order to be the wife of Jared Yeats. Yes, he was a sweet man but there were lots of responsibilities awaiting me as his wife.

Firstly, I didn’t know a thing about being that rich and wealthy. Secondly, I knew nothing about running a group as large as Yeats Group, a group that consisted of subbranches like Yeats Airline Corporation, Yeats Winery, Yeats Department store, and Yeats Hotel. Damn, a group like that needed someone classy and versed to be the wife of the owner, and not someone like me.

"Louisa." My mother urged me for the hundredth time since we sat in the living room, but I turned my face away. "You don't know the kind of charges your father is dealing with. Even if he is free tomorrow and asked to repay the debt, we won't be able to pay back for the rest of our lives." She added.

"It's my life, Mum.” I snapped at her. “It’s the whole of my life. I'm going to be paying back a debt that I didn’t collect, with my own life. Yet, I still don't know how much he stole."

My mother closed her eyes at my words. She took a deep breath before leaning closer to me. "It was thirty million dollars."

"What!" I exclaimed silently, making sure she didn't hear me. "How could he be so stupid? We will never be able to pay off that huge amount of money, mother.”

The doorbell rang as soon as the words left my mouth and we stood immediately, knowing it was Jared's people at the door. The maid in the house looked at us, asked if she should open it and I allowed myself two deep breaths before giving her permission to do so.

Immediately the door opened, two men in suits; one from yesterday and another one I didn't know walked into the house. "Good day, Miss Jordan." The one from yesterday spoke and I nodded at him. "Have you made a decision?" he asked.