The Brazen Billionaire

by Elana Johnson

  “And it might be later. Like eight or so.” Tawny glanced up, a question riding her brows now. “Is that a good time?”

  “We’re pretty dead by eight in the winter,” Sasha confirmed. “We sometimes get a rush about nine, once people finish dinner, but eight should be okay.”

  Tawny nodded and bit her lip as she kept typing. She finished and said, “I have to talk to my staff. And it might be later, like eight or so. And I can probably only sneak away for an hour or so. Doable?”

  “He works at night,” Sasha said. “I wonder what time that will be wherever he works.”

  “He’ll make it work,” Tawny said.

  “How do you know?”

  She turned her phone toward Sasha. “That’s what he said.” She beamed as she swept the phone in front of Esther and Stacey. “Oh.” She brought the phone back to her eyes as it finished chiming.

  “He’s looking forward to it.”

  Sasha took her phone back to make sure the messages weren’t pranks. Genuine surprise ran through her and she allowed herself to smile. “You know what?” She glanced around at her friends. “I’m looking forward to it too.”

  “Okay, so here’s the next bet,” Esther said.

  “Next bet?” Sasha froze halfway through turning to leave. “I have to get going.”

  “Oh, you’ve got five more minutes.” Esther grinned at her, those mirrored sunglasses doing nothing to disguise the mischievous quality of her gaze.

  “I already asked him out.”

  “Yes, and now you’ve entered the next stage.” She looked at Stacey, who grinned wolfishly too.

  “I’m not taking another bet.” The money she’d already collected from her friends felt like a brick in her pocket. “I have to go.” She stared to walk away.

  “I’ll text you the bet!” Esther called after her. Sasha lifted her hand to indicate she’d heard, but she didn’t stop or turn back.

  Ten minutes later, she stood at the payment counter at the electric company, all the money she’d just gotten from her friends in front of her. “What do you mean it’s not enough?” She was tired of going home in the dark, using the flashlight on her phone as a warped version of candlelight.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. You owe more than one hundred and seventy dollars.”

  “How much do I need to get my service turned back on?”

  She tapped, a semi-genuine look of sympathy on her face. “Three hundred and four dollars and sixty-one cents. That includes the twenty-five dollar reconnect fee, and all the current charges on the account.”

  Three hundred dollars. It might as well have been three thousand. Sasha eradicated the thought, because it wasn’t true. By Friday, she’d have all of that and more. “Okay, thank you.” She picked up the bills and stuffed them back in her pocket.

  “Would you like me to print you this so you have it?”

  “Sure.” While the woman did that, Sasha’s phone chimed. A text from Esther that said: New bet. $100 if you get Jasper to tell you the name of one of his ex-girlfriends during your coffee date tonight.

  With Winnie’s fifty dollars and that one hundred, Sasha could have her electricity back by tomorrow morning. She pressed her teeth together and took the printout from the woman showing how much she owed, determined to win another bet in just a few short hours.

  Chapter Four

  Jasper left his car with the valet and buttoned his suit coat as he stepped through the double-wide automatic doors of Fisher’s hotel. While Jasper had lived on the island and enjoyed Getaway Bay for the past decade, things had definitely gotten more interesting since Fisher DuPont had showed up.

  He’d brought the billionaires in the bay area together, and Jasper hadn’t realized how isolated he’d become in the big house on the hill. Well, maybe he had. But he hadn’t known what to do about it.

  Now he had friends, and a reason to leave the house during daylight hours, and business partners that had strengthened his own company. Contacts outside of his own. He’d tried dating Lexie Keller, a fellow member of the Hawaii Nine-0 Club, but there was simply no spark there. He caught her eye from across the lobby, and she lifted her champagne flute in hello and quickly turned her attention back to the man she stood beside.

  The lobby swarmed with activity, as per Sweet Breeze’s usual—in the summer. But in January, this was most unusual. A large sign advertising where the optometrist dinner was being held caught his eye, and it all made sense. Fisher had wanted to expand his facilities to include a conference center, and he’d obviously booked his first group.

  Jasper maneuvered through the people and waited for an elevator. His friends were meeting in a private room in the aquarium, where dinner would be laid out. Jasper hoped Lawrence would be there already, and he’d have a few minutes to talk to the man about how to move money without drawing government attention.

  Not that Jasper needed to do anything nefarious. He just needed to be able to put money in the smartest places possible, and hopefully avoid the wrath of his father once the man found out about the blunder Jasper had committed on Monday.

  He and Lexie stepped off the elevator together on the fourth floor and the attendant standing at the entrance of the aquarium lifted a blue velvet rope on the right side of the doorway and gestured them down a hall.

  “Enjoying the new year?” he asked her, ever the gentleman and having nothing of importance to say to her.

  “It’s been great,” she said, flashing him a tight smile. “You?”

  “Great,” he echoed, stepping in front of her to open the door. The scent of browned beef and salt and something sweet met his nose as she walked past him. He entered after her, relieved when he saw Lawrence talking to Ira, both of them with drinks already in their hands.

  Another woman hovered nearby, clutching a glass she wasn’t sipping from. She was new, and Fisher had been sniffing out the new additions to Getaway Bay that had enough zeroes in their bank accounts.

  He caught up to Lexie just as she paused in front of the new arrival. “Gabi?”

  Gabi’s relief was like a scent on the air, mingling with the smell of roasted baby carrots and saffron rice. “Lexie. So good to see you again.” The two women embraced quickly, and Lexie indicated him.

  “This is Jasper Rosequist. He deals in diamonds. Gabriella Rossi, cruise ship heiress.”

  “Gabriella.” He shook her hand, again, not a spark anywhere in sight though she was beautiful and elegant and rich.

  So there really was something special between him and Sasha. Something he probably shouldn’t ignore, or deal with for a single hour over coffee. His brain worked through possible ways to get her to go out with him while small talk was made between the women.

  When it seemed polite enough to do so, he eased away from them and joined Lawrence and Ira. “Hey,” he said, meeting both of their gazes.

  “Jasper.” Lawrence grinned at him hugely, the man more of a shark than Jasper liked to admit. “How are you?”

  “I need some advice, actually.” He glanced at Ira, who owned real estate in thirty-one of the fifty states. There was some real money in real estate. And finance, as evidenced by Lawrence’s wealth.

  “Oh, advice.” Lawrence kept the smile on his face as he threw back the rest of his soda. “Shoot.”

  Giving advice was Lawrence’s favorite thing to do, and maybe for the first time, Jasper was glad for it.

  “So let’s say you’ve got a large sum of money in an account in Belgium, and you’d like that money to move through Switzerland to be taxed. Can that happen?”

  “Depends on when the money is paid,” Lawrence said. “From your company to another based in Switzerland? Sure, it’s subject to Swiss taxes.”

  Jasper nodded. “And if it’s just moving from bank to bank in Belgium before that happens?”

  “You don’t pay taxes until the money is paid,” Lawrence said.

  “That’s what I thought.” Jasper frowned. “But I got a notice on Monday from the Belgium Tax
Commission, and they insist I owe them millions on unreported income.”

  Lawrence sobered and tossed his can in a recycling bin nearby. “That’s not right. Do you have documents? I can come look at them with you. See what’s going on.”

  Another dose of relief spread through Jasper. That was the offer he’d been hoping for. “Thanks, Lawrence. That would be awesome.”

  “Tonight? After this?” He swept his hand toward the buffet as the door opened and Fisher and Marshall walked through it.

  “Oh, I can’t tonight,” Jasper said. As it was, he’d have to eat and hope Fisher wasn’t feeling particularly loquacious tonight. “I have a date.”

  He might as well put his mouth on a microphone and screamed the last sentence. It felt like every eye in the place—and there weren’t that many—landed on him.

  “A date?” Lawrence laughed and clapped Jasper on the shoulder. “I didn’t know you left that hideaway of yours for more than dinner and these meetings.”

  Jasper laughed off the assessment, even if he was right. His sister’s words flowed through his mind again, and he said, “Well, I’m trying to mix things up a little.”

  Marshall planted himself directly beside Jasper and leaned in. “You’re going out with Sasha Redding tonight?”

  “It’s coffee.” Jasper straightened his suit coat though it was already perfectly perpendicular. “Does that count as a date?”

  “You just said it was a date,” Lawrence said as Fisher popped the top on a diet cola and joined them. “Before you know it, you’ll be flying to Belgium to pick out one of your own diamonds for a woman, just like Fisher and Marshall.”

  “And Tyler,” Fisher said, though the man wasn’t engaged. A fake engagement hardly counted, but Jasper knew the circle of people who knew about Tyler’s fake fiancée was small, and apparently, didn’t include Lawrence.

  Jasper expected Tyler to walk through the door at that moment, but he didn’t. “Is he coming tonight?” he asked.

  “I doubt it.” Fisher watched the door too. “He’s pretty broken up about Tawny. We’ll have to get over there soon to make sure he’s still alive.”

  Jasper nodded, wondering if starting something with the gorgeous Sasha was such a good idea. After all, Tyler had had his heart carved out by the first woman he’d dated since coming to the island.

  Who’s to say that wouldn’t happen to Jasper too?

  He arrived at Roasted with fifteen seconds to spare, if his expensive German watch really did adjust to the international clock the way he’d been told. The place wasn’t terribly busy at eight o’clock on Tuesday evening, but he couldn’t see Sasha anywhere.

  She’d said she’d have to check with her staff and that she could only get away for an hour. He wondered what she did that required her to work in the evenings, and he was reminded how little he knew about her.

  He unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat at a table facing the door, ready to wait. He’d never felt a great pull to be buddies with people. They could do their jobs, and he’d do his. Jacqueline was friendly, but he wouldn’t classify them as friends.

  And he certainly didn’t want to put Sasha in the friends category when he saw her sweep into the coffee shop, her reddish blonde hair flowing behind her. She was tall, toned, and tan, and he wanted to kiss her more than he wanted to keep breathing.

  Which was absolutely ridiculous. He needed to find out a lot more about her before he even entertained those kinds of fantasies. He’d made that mistake in the past too—in fact, he’d come to Hawaii to try to rectify falling in love too fast with a certain brunette in Denmark.

  He rose, a smile pulling at his mouth. She spotted him and came over, wiping her hands down the front of her shorts. “Sorry I’m late. We got hit with a rush.”

  “Oh, I’ve been here five minutes.” He gestured to the chair opposite of where he’d been sitting, but she pointed to the back of the shop.

  “Do you want to get some coffee?”

  Coffee. Yes. Yes, they were here to get coffee. A furious heat hit him in the chest and he said, “Yeah, of course,” in an even voice. Thankfully.

  He let her go first and she ordered some concoction he’d never be able to remember or replicate. He wasn’t even sure what it was, but he said, “I’ll have the same,” and stepped halfway in front of her to pay.

  “I got it,” he said, pulling a bill from his wallet. He handed it to the cashier amidst Sasha’s protests. He twisted toward her and said, “It’s our first date. Are you going to argue with me about paying?” He felt flirty and brave, and he was beyond pleased to see the sparkle in her eyes too.

  “Our first date?”

  “I sure hope so.” The first of many, he wanted to add, but he bit back the traitorous words.

  “Then I want a blueberry muffin too,” she said, nodding to the girl behind the counter.

  “Yeah. Blueberry muffin,” he said.

  “It’s not a date if there’s not food.” Sasha lifted and lowered her eyebrows, all in a single heartbeat.

  “Noted.” He looked at the cashier, who held out his change, and said, “Put that in the tip jar,” before he nudged Sasha down the counter so they could collect their coffees.

  She picked up her cup and took a sip, and he copied her, getting a strong dose of vanilla and caramel but not a hint of coffee. He coughed, not expecting that flavor combination at all.

  Sasha’s twinkly eyes landed on him. “What did you get?”

  “Same as you.” He cleared his throat, trying to work up the gumption to take another drink.

  “Do you even know what it is?”

  “No idea.”

  She tipped her head back and laughed, and Jasper smiled at the happiness in the sound. He wanted to make her laugh like that every time he saw her. So he followed her back to the table where he’d been sitting, and she wrapped all ten fingers around her cup.

  “So, tell me where you work,” he said. “You got slammed? Must be a restaurant or something.”

  “I own The Straw,” she said, searching his face.

  “Oh,” he said. “I know it. The drink place in the east bay.”

  “Right.” Something shuttered over her eyes for a moment, and then she came alive again. She didn’t give him anything to work with, so he flailed for another topic.

  “Do you like it?” he asked, sticking with the same one while he searched for another.

  “I love it.” A closed-mouth smile accompanied the statement. “What do you do?”

  He opened his mouth to say, but promptly shut it again. “I work with people overseas. Europe, mostly.”

  She watched him for a moment past comfortable, then switched her gaze to someone or something behind him. “Doing what?”

  “Diamonds,” he said. “I work in the diamond business.”

  “Oh, are you a jeweler?”

  That would’ve been a much simpler life. He shook his head. “Sadly, no.”

  “Then what?”

  “Why does it matter?”

  She picked a sugared piece of her muffin top off and popped it into her mouth. Jasper stared, mesmerized by the movement of her mouth.

  “Because,” she said. “Jasper Rosequist, man with a home theater in his basement. You just paid for two cups of coffee—one of which you won’t drink—and a blueberry muffin with a hundred dollar bill.”

  “Did I?” He hadn’t even looked at the bill. Jasper did watch her, so he saw the pucker against her mouth, like she’d just tasted something sour. He watched the displeasure sweep over her before she erased it from her eyes. He saw everything, and it looked very much like this might be their last date.

  “Well, I’ll have to be more careful next time.”

  “You realize I can search for you on the Internet, right?” She lifted her phone.

  “What’s the fun in that?”

  A smile touched her lips and she shook her head. At least she set down her phone without even swiping it on.

  “I’ll make you a deal,�
� he said.

  Her head shakes became more violent. “Oh, no. I’m done making deals.”

  It was his turn to lift his eyebrows, sensing a story. “What does that mean?”

  She waved him away and took another bite of her muffin top. “Nothing.”

  “Can I propose my deal?”

  She swallowed and sipped. “If you must.”

  “I must,” he said in a proper British accent. Hey, it brought back the smile, and that encouraged him to continue. “I’d like you to come to the party I’m having this weekend.”

  Chapter Five

  Sasha stared at Jasper. Tall, blond, annoyingly handsome Jasper. He did more than “work in the diamond business,” and they both knew it. He wore a power suit to get coffee at eight PM, for crying out loud.

  “I’m sorry.” She shook her head, seemingly the only thing she could do tonight. “Did you just ask me to a party? At your house? That I clean?”

  If only that was the bet Esther had tasked her with.

  “Well, so far, you’re the only guest.” He ducked his head, his short, spiky hair doing nothing to cover the adorable blush staining his cheeks. Could he really like her? Could he be interested?

  Why wouldn’t he be?

  Memories washed over Sasha so quickly, she became disoriented. Couldn’t find her way back to the surface, and when she finally managed to, she sucked in a big breath as if she’d been underwater for far too long.

  “You okay?” he asked, the blush gone. How long had she been freaking out?

  She nodded and pressed her lips together. “Will you be inviting other people to the party?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  She narrowed her eyes, trying to figure him out. “What would help you decide?”

  “If I knew if you were coming.” He smirked at her, and she actually liked his brazen approach.

  “Depends,” she said. “Weekends are pretty busy at The Straw.”

  “Do you work there full time?”