Utterly Yours (Book Four) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Alexa Brookes Page B

down at his laptop as he video-chatted with his best friend and business partner, Adam.  “Eliza was not supposed to be here, and now she’s staying in my hotel room.  How am I supposed to hide that from Lillian?” Nathaniel groaned.  “I really don’t know what to do.  It’s not like I can just throw Eliza out.  She flew all this way just to see me, and you know how crazy my mother is.  If I blow Eliza off again and she finds out, there will be hell to pay.”
                  “Maybe you shouldn’t have been dating two women at the same time?” Adam suggested.
                  Nathaniel rolled his eyes.  “I wasn’t dating Eliza…. Well, we did video-chat some.”
                  “Did she remain fully clothed during these video chats?” Adam asked.
                  “Well, no, but-”
                  “I’m going to stop you right there,” Adam said, laughing slightly under his breath.  “Sounds to me like you got yourself into this mess all on your own.  There’s not a whole lot I can do for you.  You got to pick a girl and ditch the other before all this blows up in your face.  That, or you’re going to have to be really conniving to pull this off.  There’s no way you can pull this off and come out with neither of them pissed off.”
                  “I can try,” Nathaniel said as though Adam had challenged him.
                  “It’s your funeral, buddy,” Adam said.  “Listen, I got to go.  Got a board meeting in an hour.”
                  “A board meeting?” Nathaniel questioned.
                  “Just looking over the last quarter’s credits,” Adam said in a reassuring tone.  “Nothing you need to freak out over.  I can handle it.”
                  “If you say so,” Nathaniel bid his friend farewell and ended the chat.  Before he had much time to think about their conversation, Tony entered the office.
                  “Hey, Nathaniel, Lillian is here,” he said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder.  “She is wanting to know if you want to have another date this evening.”
                  “Shit,” Nathaniel said under his breath.
                  “Everything good?” Tony asked.
                  “No.  Eliza showed up at my hotel room last night,” Nathaniel said.
                  “Seriously?  That woman really likes to play with that line between crazy and sane, doesn’t she?” Tony laughed slightly.  “And knowing you, you agreed to take Eliza on a date tonight for coming out this way, am I right?  You probably banged her last night too, didn’t you?”
                  “Shut up, Tony,” Nathaniel griped, but he was surprised at how dead on the kid was.  “But, yeah.  I can’t cancel on Eliza.  She’ll-”
                  “Call your mother?” Tony asked, so Nathaniel threw a book at him that had been sitting on the desk.  Deep down, Nathaniel knew Tony was just calling it like he saw it, but he didn’t want to hear it out loud.
                  “I can’t deal with all of these crazy women –my mother, Eliza, Lillian!” Nathaniel said.
                  “Lillian seems pretty normal to me,” Tony said.
                  “You say that, and she’s the only one with actual, diagnosed psychological problems,” Nathaniel said.  He shook his head.  “I need you to come up with a good excuse that I can’t go with Lillian tonight, please.  I just have to deal with Eliza for two days.  She’s leaving the day after tomorrow.”
                  “Tell you what,” Tony said, “I’ll come up with something to blow Lillian off for tonight, and I’ll see what I can do about making it seem like you’ve got something important going on tomorrow night to keep Eliza off your