Read Breathe: A Billionaire Romance, Part 1 for Free Online

turn off that annoying alarm?” she asked, still not taking her eyes away from the television.
    “You could have come in and turned it off yourself,” I snapped, a little irritated by the fact that she had stayed up all night only to sleep all day.
    “Hey now, girlie,” she shot, finally looking away from the game. “Don’t trip out. It’s all going to be okay.”
    I sighed. I didn’t even know what to do with myself. I was happy, though, that I actually felt rested, unlike in the dream. It was no wonder I felt sluggish and kept harping on my horrible breath.  That’s how I felt when I went to bed, and I was likely feeling it throughout the dream, but I finally felt rested. Well-rested —despite the unsettling dream.
    In fact, I was so well-rested that I was actually happy going into work.
    And dare I say it, I was actually... almost looking forward to it.
    I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know how to explain it, but it was like the dream fueled something inside me.
    I had always found him attractive, but that dream... it made me wonder if he really was all bad. Did I just have some sort of Big Bad Wolf complex? Was he really that horrible? Had I really delved deeply enough?  If I could dream something that incredibly hot about someone I didn’t think I could stand, then obviously there had to be something else, right?
    Or was it just looks? Hell, I guess if it was just his looks that I was interested in then he was at least good eye-candy to feed myself for the day, a day in which I finally felt rested up.
    I mean the one thing that it always did was help pass the time a little better than if he had been different, like a fat ol’ geezer with an equally bad attitude.
    As shallow as it was, his looks definitely helped the situation.
    He could be an asshole all he wanted. Sure, every piece of me wished that he was more than just an asshole with good looks, but I supposed it was better to be an asshole with good looks than an asshole without them.
    And I tried to keep that fact in mind as I pulled out of the parking garage next to my apartment. Part of being his new go-to was going into work early—and that meant meeting the jackass at his house. As if I wasn’t there enough already after work and on days he wasn’t in the office. I felt like I lived in the extraordinary mansion-esque penthouse, but I didn’t receive any of the actual benefits of it.
    I sighed, almost in a daze, trying to put the night’s crazy dream behind me. I just tried to remind myself to focus on how good I felt having had gotten off early the night before. And not focus on the antics I participated in—through the dream. So with my eyes on the road, my mind on everything else, I aimed my car towards his downtown penthouse apartment.

Chapter 6
    “G ood morning!” I yelled, as I bypassed Jim, Derek’s apartment building’s morning doorman. 
    “Good morning, Zoe!” He waved. Jim was always pleasant and recently seemed almost pleased to see me. “You’re here early.” He was tired, I could tell, but in the couple months that I had passed him, he had never seemed to let it get to him.
    “I am.” I sped on the way and took my breakfast to go. “How was your night?”
    “Same ol’... I just can’t wait to get off and go to sleep.”
    “Did you not sleep before you came into work?”
    “Took an extra job,” he said and sighed. I could tell by his tone that he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. And what’s more, he seemed a little less thrilled about telling me, embarrassed even.
    I stopped in my tracks and looked at him. I had no idea what to say, but all I could think about was his circumstances, and I wondered how he did it.
    “What about Abigail?” I asked. Abigail was his daughter. She was five years old and still hadn’t started school. His wife passed away the year before, and he had been raising her on his own, but I had no idea how he did it.
    “The overnight babysitter is almost as much as this job.” He