A Second Life With The Billionaire

Luna was used to men staring at her by now. She was a successful woman in her late twenties, beautiful with- as it's all men seem to be capable of thinking about- a great body.

So she was used to the stares. She didn't let it bother her, because in her opinion, the ones who actually have the guts to walk up to her were the real men. If staring was all a man does at a beautiful woman, then he probably didn't deserve her.

She kept her head high and her gaze focused ahead as she walked into the conference room. There was a long mahogany table in the middle of the spacious room, office chairs lined both sides to the other door at the end of the room. Fluorescent lights shine over the flat surface, making the glass in the middle of the table, glimmer.

Men in suits were seated on both sides of the table, their laptops open in front of them. Some of them were typing on their laptops, while some were idly discussing. They all turn to stare at her as she walked into the room. Idle chatter dies down, open stares were pinned on her.

Again, Luna ignored the stares, she turned to the intern hovering beside her. He was a young fresh-faced kid, just a few months out of college, and jumped slightly every time she spoke to him. He did so again as she turned to him, she ignored it.

"The CEO is not around?" she asked.

"Um, no, um, no, not yet, ma'am," he stuttered.

As Luna processed the information, a smile threatened to spread over her face.

Oh, Justin, she thought to herself. This was a classic move he used, arriving fashionably late to meetings to assert control. She had studied him while they were together and she had seen how effective the move had been then.

A small smile tipped around Luna's lips. The intern's face flushed red, but she didn't notice as she turned away from him to look back at the room.

"Um, do you want me to, um, place a call to his secretary? Ma'am?" he added.

Luna waves the suggestion away with a careless flick of her wrist.

"No, it's fine," she said instead, "we'll just wait for him. He's the one who'll be receiving the shock of his life, after all," she murmured, adding.

At her words, a feeling of glee ran through Luna's body. She had worked hard at the surprise she was going to be unfolding today, for months. She had been meticulous in hiding her identity from Justin's executives all while they'd been discussing the terms of the contract with her own executives. And now today, she was going to reap the fruits of her labor. She was going to enjoy seeing the look on Justin's face when he walks in and sees her. Oh, she was going to soak in every moment of it.

The smile spreads a little.

"It's fine," she said again, absently to the flushed intern, "we'll just wait for him."

As she walked over to the first vacant seat to her right, the intern rushed forward to pull out the chair for her.

"Thank you, Jaden," she said as she took her seat.

She heard the intern suck in a breath beside her. Did he think she didn't know his name? Luna's lips tip wryly as she thought about it. There was no one working for her she didn't know. She might not know each and every one of their history, or family, or life, but she at least knew their name.

By now, some of the executives seated around the conference table had stopped staring at her, the idle chatter had picked up again, but there were still some staring and giving her the side eye.

It really was easy to ignore them, Luna thought to herself, because she knew the real battle she had come to fight today wasn't some random men stares. It was Justin Lucius.

Justin, tall, dark, handsome and dangerous as sin. And her ex-husband.

That was the real battle she came to fight today. Seeing him for the first time in six years was bound to wreak havoc on her entire system. She knew that, and she hoped she was mentally prepared for it.

Justin wasn't the only one who was going to be experiencing a whole range of emotions in the meeting today, the only difference was that she knew what was coming.

Luna took a deep breath as the seconds ticked on. She resisted the urge to check the time, she knew it couldn't have been more than a few seconds since she had sat down. It only felt like hours because of the anticipation thrumming through her.

Just then, the door to the conference room opened behind her. The men, who had been staring at her before, all turned their head towards the door. Luna could feel the change in the air, like a higher presence than a human being was entering the room. That was the effect Justin had on people, he exuded command and dominance like a regular man exuded cologne.

Luna found she couldn't turn her head to look at the door, a tingling sensation was running through the tips of her fingers and her heat was hammering so loudly against her chest it felt like-

"Mr. Lucius is on his way," a voice said from the doorway.

Luna's head snapped toward the entrance. She stared hard at the man standing at the threshold like he had two heads. That's not Justin, she thought to herself.

Her heart pounded hard against her chest as she realized what just happened. It wasn't Justin that had come in, it was just some random executive announcing Justin. Just the thought of Justin had made her freeze up like that! What would happen when he finally came in? Could she handle it? Could she keep-

And then Justin stepped to the doorway like a figment of her worst fear.

Luna's heart, which had started to settle, jackhammered again at the sight of Justin. She watched, barely breathing, as Justin's eyes scanned the room. Somehow, his gaze passed over her head for the duration in which he looked at the entire room. And Luna used that time to blink, to stop staring at him so hard, and to let air into her lungs.

People start to move, there were mumbles of 'Good morning, sir's' and Justin moved away from the entrance to walk further into the room.

As he made his way toward the chair at the head of the conference table, his eyes strayed to Luna briefly. And then he did a double-take. His black eyes narrowed sharply on her face, and the rest of the room faded away.

Luna was suddenly back in six years ago, still married to Justin, but on the brink of it all falling apart. Her heart was breaking with Justin's indifference to his mother's maltreatment of her, and filled with the pain of loving a man who didn't love her back. One look into his midnight black eyes, and she was back to the agony of losing the one thing she had hoped would bring Justin closer to her. His son.

Luna swallowed past the lump of pain in her throat, and resisted the urge to rub a hand against the tightening in her chest. Instead, she kept her gaze on Justin's, and met his stare head-on.

"What are you doing here?" he finally asked.

Hearing Justin's voice for the first time in so long sent a shiver down Luna's spine. She glanced at the enraptured audience around them and looked back meaningfully at Justin. But he didn't seem to care that all his executives and hers were staring openly at the both of them, his gaze never wavered from Luna's.

The man standing beside Justin, leaned forward a little to whisper in his ear. From his position, Luna surmised him to be Justin's assistant, and he looked to be more experienced and efficient than hers.

"Sir, she's the CEO of Green-ish Food, the healthy food company we're partnering with for the program."

Only then did Justin's gaze waver from hers. He looked at his assistant, confusion written all over his face.

"What?"

"Yes, sir," the assistant replied.

Justin looked back at Luna and she realized that that was the moment. The moment she had been dreaming of for months, when she revealed who she was and Justin looked at her with the shock that was currently plastered all over his face.

And she was pleased to realize that it was even better than she had imagined.

Yes, Justin, it's me. I made something of myself. After you left me broken and shattered, I picked up the pieces and made something of myself.

Deciding that they had put on enough of a show, Luna cleared her throat and looked at Justin.

"I think we should get on with the meeting now, don't you?" she asked him.

Justin just stared at her for a full minute without replying, and then without taking his eyes off her, he talked to the rest of the people in the room.

"Everyone, out, now."

There was a slight pause, as if the men didn't understand English. And then, the assistant looked between Luna and Justin and comprehension dawned on him.

"Yes, sir," he said. And turned to herd the rest of the men out of the room. Even Luna's assistant, who sputtered something about asking for permission from Luna.

The door closed behind Justin's assistant, the last man to leave the room, leaving just Luna and Justin.

Licks of nerves threaten to flitter through Luna's fingers, but she covered it by calmly interlocking her fingers in front of her.

"Hello, Justin," she said, calmly too, even though she had work at it. "It's been a while."

"What are you doing here, Luna?"

Luna wanted to flinch at the blandness in Justin's tone. That indifference, that blandness, had been the most infuriating part of Justin when they were together, Luna remembered. He had mastered the art of looking so totally unbothered by a situation, had perfected it to the point where the other person in the situation starts to wonder if they were the one who was crazy.

Luna felt the familiar feeling of frustration start to pass through her, but she refused to let it spread. So she shook it off internally.

She smiled a little. "I know you hate when people repeat themselves, so I'm sure you heard what your assistant said." She paused. "But I'll humor you. I'm the CEO of Green-ish Foods,a green food initiative. And I'm one of the companies your company is partnering with for your upcoming gala week."

Justin's brows furrow in confusion.

"But-"

Luna cut him off. "I know it's a big surprise for you to see me here, and more, in the position that I am in. Given the way I was the last time you saw me. But six years have passed between then and now, and that is a lot of years. I got busy." She paused, clocking her head slightly to the side. "Still, it was no reason to be rude, sending your employees out of this place that way."

Justin's eyes narrow slightly, a little surprise showing in them for a second, and then they clear.

"First of all, I don't give a damn about being polite," he said. "And second, yes, I see you got busy."

Two things happened to Luna as Justin talked. First, when he said he didn't give a damn about being polite, a dark thrill had run through her body at the arrogance in his words. And secondly, when he said he saw that she got busy, his voice had deepened and his eyes had raked all over her body. And that had set off a tingling from the base of her spine up to the back of her neck.

Oh boy, Luna thought to herself.

Hours later, Luna walked out of Justin's company building and towards her parked car, waiting for her in the parking lot.

Jaden opened the door to the backseat and Luna got in, she closed her eyes just as Jaden closed the door. She let out a breath she hadn't even been aware she was holding, her breath coming out on a shaky tremble. After their little private reunion, Justin had called everybody back into the conference room and the meeting had progressed.

All through the meeting, Luna could feel Justin's eyes on her, even though she had been careful to not look at him. And she had had to remind herself every few minutes to breathe, when she realized she was staring at Justin's assistant- who was laying out the objectives of the gala- with bated breath.

She had almost jumped out of her skin when someone spoke beside her, and that had made her realize that she was on pins and needles throughout the entire meeting.

But now it was over. Luna threw her head back on the headrest and opened her eyes to stare up at the top of the car.

She had known, going in, that the first meeting with Justin wasn't going to be easy. After all, it wasn't everyday you came face-to-face with the man you once loved with all your heart. There was bound to be some heart shaking, some body igniting, some hand trembling. Luna knew that, and she had been prepared for it. Or at least, she had thought she was. But nothing had prepared her for the reality of it.

She was still affected by him.

Luna scoffed as that thought passes through her mind. She couldn't believe she was still affected by Justin, after all these years. Although that had been part of the reason why she had carried out her little experiment of seeing Justin again.

One had been to show him what she had made of herself over the years, to make him see that she hadn't just wasted her life away after he left her shattered. That he hadn't completely broken her. To also show herself all that, because she had felt like that was the last piece of the puzzle she needed to finally move on with her life.

The other reason had been to see if he had the power he had over her six years ago, still. And that had been a private reason of hers, a reason she hadn't shared even with her best friend.

Today's reunion had shocked her to very core. Because not only did he still affect her, but he still affected her strongly. Her body was still trembling minutes after she'd seen him.

"Oh God," Luna muttered to herself, covering her face with her hands.

"Is everything all right, ma'am?" Jaden asked, closing the door as he got into the car beside her.

Luna waved a hand to gesture his concern away without looking at him.

"I'm fine," she said. "Just drive."

At this, the driver in the driver's seat started up the car and pulled smoothly out of Justin's company's parking lot.

As the car moved seamlessly though the streets of New York, Luna's mind replays her meeting with Justin over and over again.

Moments later, they pull up in front of a high rise building, the driver navigates the car into the parking lot. Just then, Luna's phone rings in her hand. She glances down at the name flashing on the screen, she swipes right on the call.

"Hello," she said.

"Hey," Rita, her best friend's, voice, comes through the phone speaker. "How did it go? You still in the meeting?"

Luna rubbed a hand over her forehead, feeling a tiny headache beginning to throb there.

"No, we're here, we actually just pulled into the parking lot. I'm coming up now."

"Okay, I'll be waiting for you," Rita said.

Luna ended the call and sighed wearily as she turned her head and looked out the window of the car. And then as she looked up at the tall building, the glass windows gleaming in the daylight sun, the weariness that was starting to gather in her bones suddenly slipped away. The words Green-ish Foods were installed in big block letters across the front of the building, people-employees- walk in and out of the building. Numerous cars were parked in the parking lot, some bikes, some scooters.

I did this, Luna thought suddenly to herself. I created this, I built a whole company from scratch. I am responsible for hundreds of people's jobs, their livelihoods, the paychecks that feed their families. I did all that.

And now, just because she'd met the man who broke her six years ago, again for the first time today, she'd suddenly forgotten about all of her achievements. Luna felt a stirring of anger at that, and determined, she shook off the lethargic feeling and opened the door, getting out of the car.

She made her way towards the entrance of the building, Jaden behind her. She responded to greetings as she made her way to the elevator. Riding the elevator up to her office, Jaden went over the key points of the meeting with her.

Moments later, the elevator doors slide open to reveal a hallway. Rita was there. The two women looked at each other, and an understanding passed between them.

"Jaden, go organize the files," Rita said to Jaden without taking her eyes off Luna.

"Uh- wh- what files?" Jaden stuttered.

Rita gives him a look.

"Oh, oh, okay, I'll just-"

He disappeared.

"I should have been there," Rita started. "God, I shouldn't have- I should have been there."

Luna shook her head. "It's fine, you were needed here." She looked at her best friend. "But, God, Rita, it was not easy. I am still attracted to him."

"Oh. That's a problem," Rita said.

The two women started walking towards Luna's office, arms intertwined.

"Yeah," Luna said. "A big one."