Billionaires Meet Millionaire (A Steamy Romance) Page 13

  "Hello, where have you been? NiallFoy allowed you, some new girl to sit at his table, after knowing you just one day. That gets tongs rolling around here." Now Josie sounded just a bit exasperated.

  "Not quick on the uptake, are you?" Olta glared at Sam. Could he be any more condescending? He did have a point though. Apparently she was anything but a non-entity. That was a strange epiphany

  "Apparently not, no." Olta shook her head wearily.

  "Now, this roaming. How about we show all the good spots?" Josie asked. She seemed shy all of a sudden. Sam even gave her a small smile.

  Surprised but pleased by the offer Olta smiled.

  "Please do."

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  Niall parked his car in the school parking lot. He took his meds out of his bag and swallowed them down with some discarded Gatorade. Then he banged his head very lightly on his steering wheel. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. But then again, his life just wasn't going his way.

  The idea had been simple. Send Olta a text message and pick her up. This would serve several purposes. It would make clear to Olta that his cowardly exit the night before had nothing to do with her. Because after that kiss, which really hadn't been more than a good peck on her lips, he knew for once and for all that he had it bad, truly bad. Hopefully the message had been able to convey everything he felt about her, even if he hadn't said in so many words.

  And then there was the matter of making sure that everybody in school, Daniel first and foremost, understood that Olta was the truly his friend and no longer some sort of assignment. And well, that she was his. Although he figured that was an established fact by now.

  However, the plan had pretty much been shot out of the water when Olta hadn't been home.

  Sandra had clearly been surprised to see him and had informed him that Olta had already left, on foot. Apparently she had assumed that he wouldn't able to drive.

  Admittedly, forgoing his meds in favour of driving was a painful affair. Matilda had shaken her head in bemused dismay when he had declined her offer to give him a ride.

  Tapping on the windshield brought Niall out of his reverie. Looking up he saw Bailey grinning at him broadly.

  "Didn't get enough sleep?" Bailey joked, loud enough for Niall to hear him through the window.As Niall looked up at him, Bailey’s face clouded over. He had noticed the bruises.

  Niall got out of his car slowly. It would a good time for his meds to start kicking in.

  "We couldn't agree on a movie." Niall said without preamble. Bailey looked skeptic.

  "Sure." Bailey's tone amplified his incredulity tenfold. Niall knew the excuse sounded lame but as long as they just went with it, all would be well.

  "So where is the movie, sorry, Olta then?" Niall winced at the words. Why was everybody being so fucking difficult about it? And why did the guy have to choose today off all days to be astute?

  "She walked." Niall snapped. The throbbing pain was incessant, his plan had been foiled, Bailey wasn't cutting him any slack and he hadn't even seen Olta or Daniel yet. Today was going to be a bad day.

  Perhaps he should have taken the good doctors advice and never gotten out of bed.

  "And she wasn't supposed to do that, I take it?" Bailey asked lightly. Niall groaned inwardly.

  "I kissed her." Again Niall groaned. Now his mouth was committing treason.

  Bailey stopped dead in his tracks. Niall walked on, trying to pretend he hadn't said anything.

  "Oh no, you don't. You're going to spill." Bailey smirked, holding out his arm to prevent Niall from walking along.

  Niall looked at his friend wearily. He really didn't want to discuss this or anything else right now. Had he mentioned the fact that this was a very bad day?

  "Ry, I'm in no mood to discuss my pathetic attempts at getting a girl." As briskly as possible Niall moved around Bailey's arm and continued on his way inside. After a few steps Niall turned around. Bailey hadn't yet moved.

  "Look, Ry, sorry. But really, not now, okay." He gives his friend a wry smile.

  The sympathetic nod Bailey gave him were enough to take the edge of his foul mood. Silently they made their way inside.

  Niall hadn't missed the looks he was getting. In his bathroom mirror he had seen just how bad the bruises on his face still were. Hell, they were still there, so they were bad. Before lunch everybody in school would have a theory on how he had gotten them. Throw Olta and the state of Daniel's face into the mix and all the gossipers were bound to have a field day. He wondered how many theories would be close to hitting the nail on its head. Quite a few, probably.

  "So, Peter is hkipping first period again?" Niall smirked as he got his things out of his locker. Bailey shrugged but matched his smirk. Right then a girl, who Niall recognized vaguely, walked by and obviously caught Bailey's eye. She smiled shyly at him and Niall noticed Bailey's smirk turning into a shy smile as well. Shy and Bailey weren't usually things that went together. Niall leant into Bailey.

  "It seems that I'm not the only one who needs to spill." He said with a knowing smirk of his own.

  Bailey looked at Niall like he did when he accidentally broken Niall' favourite Action Man some years ago. It only served to improve his already rapidly mellowing mood. His meds were kicking in, no doubt about that. Now if only Olta would turn up at her locker and life would just be dandy.

  "It's nothing." Niall heard Bailey mutter and now it was Niall' turn to look skeptic.

  Just then the bell rang. Niall patted Bailey's shoulder.

  "Sure.Whatever you say,man." And with that Niall took off for Took, unfortunately without Olta by his side.

  As Niall entered Took's classroom he spotted Olta immediately as she was chatting amiably with Josie and Alice. It was an odd sight.

  At seeing Niall enter the classroom both Olta and Alice looked up at him but they're faces darkened immediately as their gaze moved to something behind him.

  Niall was knocked forward. Daniel.

  "Oh, hey bro, didn't see you there, sorry." Even if Daniel had actually managed to sound apologetic Niall wouldn't have cared. As he righted himself he caught his brother's eye and was shocked by what he saw. Outside of their private encounters, Daniel had never before looked at him with such blatant hatred . But at least his face was bruised too. As Daniel walked over to his seat, he looked from Niall to an unaware Olta and back at Niall again. Niall felt the hairs in the back rise at the small twisted smirk Daniel gave him. Well, let the games begin.

  Niall gave Olta a small smile as he made his way to his usual table. Just as he was about to his books on the table Alice slipped into the seat.

  "I think you should take my seat. Too much light isn't good for eye, slows the healing process." Alice said in her mothering voice but a wink contradicted it. Niall looked at her confused until he realized that it would mean he'd be sitting behind Olta instead of next to her.

  "Why, I didn't know you cared." He purred with a smile. Alice swatted his arm lightly.

  Niall turned and took his seat behind Olta. She seemed to have forgotten all about his presence as she was scribbling something on a piece of paper. Niall followed her movements as Olta took the note and leant over to Josie.The girl accepted the note with a grateful smile.

  Then Olta turned around in her seat and cocked her head at him thoughtfully. Niall only smiled while he regarded her face. A strand of hair which had fallen forward was particularly entrancing.

  "How are you?" Olta asked. Her voice was laced with concern but there was something else too.

  "I'm okay." Olta smiled at his answer.

  "Good. I thought you might have had a bad night's sleep." Now there wasn't any concern in her voice. Niall saw a twinkle her eye. She was teasing him. He wondered just where she was going with this.

  "No, I slept very well. Very pleasant dreams, it was a pity to have to wake up, really." Niall said as he took and twirled the
loose strand between his fingers. Olta started to blush but thankfully she didn't pull away.

  "Yeah, I slept very well too." She said with a coy smile and her blush deepened.

  "Until some git thought it funny to send me a wake-up message, that is."

  Niall looked up from his fingers and into Olta's eyes. He couldn't help but notice how green they were today.A slight blush creep up. Niall was about to say something bordering an apology but was cut off by their teacher.

  "Miss Mehmeti and mister NiallFoy, if you two could disentangle yourselves from each other. I really would like start right now."

  Olta spun around in her chair and Niall knew she was thoroughly embarrassed right now. Niall wasn't exactly embarrassed, he felt more proud, relieved and downright giddy. But that was due to the drugs. Niall didn't do giddy.

  He leant back in his seat and couldn't help but grin widely at the girl in front of him.

  Today was going to be a very good day.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Olta only felt two sensations going through her body. Actually it was only one sensation, originating from two places. Her mouth and cheek tingled and the feeling spread through her entire body.

  Niall had kissed her. He had kissed her. And she stood in doorway staring after him dumbfounded.

  It was more like a peck on the lips really and actually not all that different from the pecks Sam and Dean gave her occasionally. But it was Niall who had done the pecking and between the kiss and the caress it was a completely new experience.

  She liked it, a lot.

  But it still was only a friendly peck, wasn't it? Even with his thumb and the look in his eyes. The whole thanks bit had only confirmed that.

  Niall was grateful to her. For what exactly Olta didn't know and she didn't particular care.

  However, Olta was convinced that Niall did consider her his friend. And he had implied that his other friends considered her such as well. NiallFoy, whose few friends all dated back to primary school had accepted her into their midst within a week.

  And he had kissed her.

  It was a kiss out of gratitude, Olta reminded herself. Not unlike those Sam had given her for doing his Greek translations or the ones Dean had given her for explaining the more intricate workings of certain historical processes. And not unlike the ones she had given them for helping her out with any subject which had to do with formulas and numbers.

  Olta sighed deeply as she resigned herself to the facts. Part of her was elated by the turn of events and part of her was saddened by them. Still, it was better to be friends with Niall than to be just one of the countless girls who made moon eyes at him every time he passed them in the hallways. Now she could just do that while she sat beside him, jolly.

  Olta smiled as she touched her lips. He had kissed her.

  "Are you okay?" Olta nearly jumped as she suddenly heard her mother beside her. She looked up at her mother with her index finger still lingering on her lips.

  Her mother smiled down at her. She wore her understanding smile and Olta withdrew her finger self consciously.

  "Come on, I think he's home by now." Her mother gently tucked Olta's arm.

  Olta regained the movement of her limbs and she turned inside and closed the door behind her.

  "We've just put Dr. Strangelove on, want to join us?" Olta's mother asked as they made their way to the living room. Olta shook her head in denial.

  Then she remembered Maggie's behaviour during dinner. She had promised not to bring up anything that could be remotely considered embarrassing, which in Olta's case was everything. Yet she had gone out of her way to try and tell about Olta getting drunk on school parties, Olta's monumental failures during the Easter Tournament, and Olta being stoned during French class.

  "No, but I'm going to kill your youngest child. Want to join me?" Olta said with fake cheeriness as she passed her mother into the room.

  "Now Olta." Her mother said and Olta stopped in front of the couch. Maggie looked up at her with big innocent eyes but the smug smile she sported gave her away. Olta glared down at her sister as her mother continued.

  "I think that might be a bit excessive. So no, I don't want to join you."

  Sitting herself down next to Maggie, her mother eyed both her daughters before returning her attention to the movie.

  "You." Olta breathed.

  "Ah, come on. I was not trying to put you down, I was building you up." Maggie said not taking her eyes of her sister.

  "Right." Olta snorted. "And I would believe you because?"

  "Because I chose to tell cool stories about you. I mean even mamma thought so, didn't you?" Maggie looked at mother for confirmation.

  "I wouldn't say cool but yes, it was funny. Nothing you should try, though, and probably not something to brag about." Their mother said, not taking her eyes from the screen. Olta gave her sister a smug look.

  "Too much." Her mother added and Olta's smugness faded.

  They were doing it again, the teaming up against her. Couldn't they see that there was no such thing as a cool Olta story? Niall apparently liked her enough to be her friend and all this story telling would only destroy that.

  With a frustrated cry Olta left the room.

  She went into the reading room and picked up the book she had been reading. Reclining on the sofa she started to read.

  Three hours later Olta was in bed, wide awake. Trying to sleep turned out to be just as much a waste of time as trying to read had been.

  Her mind was on the lingering touch on her cheek and lips. Olta imagined it had been more than just a friendly peck. That even if the kiss hadn't been deepened, it had lasted just a bit too long for an ordinary peck. And then of course there had been his thumb on her face, before, during and after the kiss. She knew she hadn't imagined that or the look in eyes. Those beautiful eyes. Damn NiallFoy.

  Olta was awoken by an unfamiliar bleeping sound. Dazed she looked around room trying to determine the origin of the sound. Finally she figured it came from her sitting corner.

  Getting out of bed the bleeping stopped but Olta figured she might as well check it out.

  Beside her love seat she found her cell phone. It showed her that she had received one text message and that it was six thirty. Her alarm wouldn't go off for another half an hour.

  If this was Maggie's idea of a joke, she was going to pay dearly. For once Olta had been having very pleasant dreams and she had wanted them to continue just a little longer.

  The message wasn't from her sister, though. It was from Niall.

  'Rise and Shine, Tirana, Rise and Shine.'

  Olta sat down on her seat staring at the display.

  What in the world had possessed him to send her a message? For that matter, how had he gotten her number?

  Olta smiled as she remembered parts of her dream. Niall had not just been her friend in her dream, oh no. Olta knew this friendship thing was going to be hard, to say the least. But those kind of dreams made it just a little harder.

  And Niall sending her text messages wasn't really helping.