I'm In Love With My Bestfriend's Billionaire Fiance!
Chapter 36: The Reluctant Lover

Chapter 36: The Reluctant Lover

(JACE’S POV)

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I continued watching the footage, while Casey was busy on her phone. It was pretty off watching the mysterious man in front of Kira’s room. He had leaned against the door, giving the impression of a guest who was about to enter his hotel room, so that whenever other hotel guests walked past, they assumed that he was unlocking his door.

From the angle of the CCTV, I couldn’t make out any camera. So, it meant that it wasn’t a handheld device, maybe it was something that was fixed on his person, making it easier to control while keeping it out of sight. I knew that being seen with a camera would have immediately given the gig away, which showed that it was indeed an elaborately planned job. I wasn’t going to be surprised to find out that the camera that was used was one sophisticated and expensive device.

I went through the entire footage, even watching the clips of the stalker leaving the hotel. I was certain this was after Kira’s lover must have left the hotel room, it looked like he was following said lover out. As I watched, I noticed that the stalker made a phone call, however, the footage didn’t come with audio, so I had no idea what he was saying or who he was talking to.

While I watched, Casey was busy on her phone, she seemed to be busy in correspondence with Liam, her assistant at work. She had already made a few calls, and so far, all I could hear was her making major changes to the dinner plans that had already been in place.

By the time I was done with the video, I closed the laptop and watched her work. She was typing furiously on her phone, her sexy fingers flying over her screen. I felt a stirring within me as I watched her in her element. she looked so enthralling.

She must have felt my eyes on her because she looked up at me, "what is it?"

I slid the laptop across the dining table to her, "I’m done."

"Thank you," she sighed. "There’s a mail I have to send before tomorrow. I need to figure out how to apologize and also ask for a favor in as few words as possible."

"Uhm..." I muttered as I leaned over the table, "I couldn’t help but listen in on your calls, you seem to be changing a lot of things on the dinner."

"I’m not changing anything," she replied. "I’m simply increasing my order. Considering how late it is, many of them won’t be too happy with me."

"I know," I said. "But what do you mean by ’increasing’? I thought we were only going with 150 guests for the dinner. I thought that was settled. These numbers I’m hearing are for way more guests."

She shook her head, "That’s correct, Kira has increased it to a thousand guests."

"What?"

"Her uncle messed with her and now she has all but declared war on him. This is one way she’s doing it. She’s also revamping the guest list, changing the entire thing."

"Wow... I guess she’s taking charge of the situation."

"What are you gonna do?" She asked me, "You don’t care about some dumb dinner, do you?"

I scoffed, "Of course I do. If they mess it up, that would also affect my company, so I very much care about how it goes. I don’t like this feud between Kira and her uncle, but no worries, I’m taking measures to ensure that I’m not affected."

She slowly looked up from her laptop, "what does that mean?"

I thought about my visit to Thorne and the amendments that had been made to the contract, but I shook my head at Casey, "It doesn’t matter, I’ll be following up with the issue and make sure that it doesn’t escalate."

"Kira is focused on making sure her uncle doesn’t get his way, and I know her very well. She would do anything and everything she can to win."

"I guess time will tell," I told her. "But for now, let’s focus on what is more important; Maven, Joan, and the deception of Royale Hotel."

"What’s there to focus on? We’ll simply go over there and talk to them, we already know that they were involved and we’ll get them to tell us who the stalker is. It’s not that hard."

I nodded at the idea, "Uh-huh... first thing tomorrow morning though, I’ll go to Ethan’s place. I have to tell him about us, and he’ll go with me to the Royale tomorrow after all is said and done. He’ll want to watch the footage as well and I’m sure that he’ll find something that we missed out on. He has an eye for such things."

"I want to be there when you talk to Joan tomorrow," Casey said.

"What?" I stared at her in shock. "Don’t you have work to do? Planning the dinner and stuff?"

"That’s one of the perks of having an assistant, I’m sure that Liam will have it all under control. Besides, Joan spoke to me throughout today and even this night, but she refused to tell me that it was all an inside job. So, I want to be there when we question her and twist her arm."

"Come on, she was doing what she could to protect her company."

"Are you defending her?"

"What?! Fuck no!" I sat back in my seat, "I’m just telling you that I understand why she did what she did, that’s all. But that is not going to stop me from being hard on her tomorrow, I’ll stop at nothing to get the answers that I need."

Casey relaxed in her seat and closed the laptop, "I’ve not seen you go hard on someone before."

"How will you? You refuse to spend quality time with me."

"For obvious reasons! What we shared, while beautiful was doomed from the beginning, and now this Maven issue only makes it worse. See Jace, can we not talk about this right now? I’m sorry for changing the subject. Let’s just move on."

"Move on?" I got up from my seat and made my way over to her, I took it as a good sign when she didn’t scuttle away as she had been doing ever since I arrived. It was as if she was scared that a single touch from me would disarm her and place her under my spell. "You might find it easy to do, but how the fuck can I move on? How the hell are you doing it so easily? I’m in love with you, Casey. I want you! I can’t stop wanting you! Don’t you get it?"

"No!" She got up and moved away, "I’m not talking about this."

"Yeah, of course!" I rasped as I leaned against the counter. "This is exactly what you do, run off and refuse to acknowledge your feelings!"

"Well, I’m sorry if my wanting to protect us is making you uncomfortable! Why don’t you get the severity of our position? You don’t get the severity of my position! Why don’t you see the risk having an affair with you puts me in? This is not just about me falling in love with you, it’s about me falling in love with my best friend’s fiancé! If news of this gets out, no one will hire me as their planner. After all, if I could fuck my best friend’s man, then I can fuck theirs as well."

I stopped short, "Oh fuck... is this what has been going on in your mind all this time? Babe... you need to stop worrying about the future. We’re keeping it secret for as long as you want. I’ve already told you that we’ll take all the precautions necessary to make this work. TYou can’t give up on me now!"

"All the precautions? They were not enough to protect Kira, were they? She still got stalked and now she’s being blackmailed!"

"Casey..." I walked up to her, she was about to scurry off once more but I blocked her with my body and boxed her into a corner. I took her hands in mine, they were warm and comfy, "babe, should I remind you that Kira was not being as careful as we were? The reason Maven has not contacted us is because he has nothing on us, we were careful and it worked. Kira wasn’t, despite having a secret relationship. She let down her guard and Maven took advantage of it. I’m not gonna take the blame for that. What you and I share has nothing to do with Maven blackmailing Kira."

She looked at me, then looked away, avoiding my eyes, but I gently took her cheeks in my hand and guided her face back to mine.

"Look at me, babe." I said quietly, "You and I, we’re meant to be. I know that the situation may not be ideal at the moment, but that shouldn’t stop us from finding happiness, should it? Not Maven, and sure as hell not Kira who is also having the time of her life with her lover.

"My love, let us just be happy," I concluded.

I leaned in close then and gently laid my lips over hers. I kissed her deeply. It was as if this was the move she had been waiting for all night because at once, her body came alive. She kissed me back with fervor, our tongues clashing in a passionate dance as she wrapped her arms around me. I ran my hands over her body, cupping her soft and succulent buttocks as I lifted her off the floor and sat her on the counter.

She moaned as I grazed the nape of her neck with my teeth, while she ran her fingers across my chest, I was aroused beyond measure and all I could think of at the moment was burying myself deep inside her. As we kissed, I fondled her breasts through the thin material of her nightie, feeling the familiar weight in my hand. I wanted more.

I lowered my head towards her breasts, and she lifted her chest towards my face, giving me better access. Just as I freed the breasts from the nightie, I felt her freeze up.

"No!" She gasped, "I can’t do this."

"What?!" I gasped in shock as I stared at her. "Come on, Casey. Not now..."

She pushed me away, slipping her exposed breasts back into her nightie as she got off the counter.

"I need to go to bed," she said feverishly as she packed up her laptop and phone, holding them defensively to her chest. "We have a long day tomorrow, you should leave as well."

"I’m not going anywhere, it’s too late for me to be out and about."

"Then, you’ll sleep on the couch!" She snapped as she hurried off to her bedroom.

"Casey, can we at least talk about this!" I said as I followed her, but she slammed her door in my face. "Come on, Casey!"

A few seconds later, the door opened again, but before I could say a word she threw some sheets and a pillow in my face before slamming the door shut once more. I knew then that she was serious about it. She didn’t want this at all.

With a sigh, I made my way back to the living room. My cock was still hard and it was throbbing, but there was nothing I could do. With a sigh of frustration, I lay on the biggest couch, using the sheets to cover my body.

As the silence of the room descended on me, and sleep slowly began to creep in, I remembered my meeting with Thorne. It had been an eventful one indeed. I knew that Casey wouldn’t like it when she learned about it, but everything I was doing was for her. Even though she was focused on pushing me away at the moment.

The amendments to the contracts, the new deals for Beacon studios... it was just sad that Casey didn’t know what I was willing to do for her.

And I didn’t care if her best friend, Kira, got hurt in the process.