The Brazen Billionaire

by Elana Johnson

  If you say so, her next text read.

  Jasper looked at the words and decided to randomly change the subject. I’m afraid to fly, he typed out. The thought felt incomplete, but he sent it anyway.

  You are?

  “Deathly afraid,” he whispered into the darkness as he put on the message. So afraid I have to arrive really early just to get myself through all the security checkpoints on time.

  Only his mother knew this, and he wanted to share everything about himself with Sasha.

  I’ve never told anyone but you.

  Several long heartbeats passed, where he thought maybe he would be able to fall asleep again. Then his phone buzzed against his chest.

  Thanks for telling me. Travel safe, and I’ll be there to pick you up at the airport.

  I have my car.

  I’m picking you up.

  A slow smile arched his lips. Why? Miss me too much?

  Terribly.

  The single word made his heart swell three sizes. Don’t you have to work?

  See you tomorrow, and Jasper chuckled at her finality. He also couldn’t wait to see her, and he used her to get himself through the lines, checked in, and onto the plane.

  He pressed his eyes closed and played his memories of her in slow motion as the plane took off, and before he knew it, the aircraft was landing, and he was getting off.

  His body knew he’d been on a very long journey, but his brain didn’t seem to care. All it wanted to do was find Sasha and kiss her.

  When he heard his name, he spun toward the sound of it and saw her. His beautiful, strawberry blonde girlfriend waved at him, and he broke into a run toward her. They laughed together as he swept her off her feet and hugged her.

  “Hey,” he said, setting her down. “Wow, it’s good to see you.” He hadn’t realized how incomplete he felt in Switzerland, without her. He bent down and kissed her, right there in the crowded airport. She didn’t seem to mind, holding the sides of his face as she kissed him right back.

  “How was the flight?” she asked as she stepped back. Her dark honey eyes searched his face. “Not too terrible, I hope.”

  “They’re all terrible.” He grabbed the handle of his carryon. “I hate airplanes, airports, all of it.” He headed for the exit, glad for the humid air as he stepped outside. The pent-up tension in his muscles started to seep away, and he sighed. “Solid ground. That’s the way to go.”

  “Don’t you fly a lot?” She dug her keys out of her purse.

  “As little as possible,” he said. “For a while there, I thought about moving back to Europe, to Belgium. But….” He trailed off, not quite sure how to articulate what he had here in Hawaii that he didn’t have there.

  “But what?” she asked. “Your sisters are over there.”

  “And I only get along with one of them” he said, seizing onto Danni as the reason he didn’t want to move back. But she wasn’t the reason, and Jasper knew it. Sasha didn’t say anything else as they walked to her car.

  “So.” He blew out his breath and closed the trunk of her car where he’d stowed his bag. “You’re not working today. I’m exhausted and need to get my dog from Tyler’s place. How about we then go to my place? Lay by the pool? Take a nap? Order food?”

  She wrapped her arms around him and tipped her head back to smile at him. “That all sounds perfect.” She separated herself from him and said, “You can tell me about your overseas girlfriend on the way to pick up Frankie.”

  Jasper choked, his mood darkening despite the idea of spending hours with Sasha, the sun, and his dog. “She is not my girlfriend, and there’s nothing to tell.” He marched around the car to the passenger side.

  “You sure about that?” Sasha slid into the car and he followed suit. “She’s posting about you all over social media. With heart emojis.”

  The headache Jasper had been fighting since the previous evening finally won, pounding through his temples and infecting his blood. “Sasha,” he said in a weary voice. “Just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s true.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sasha felt about two inches tall. “No, I know,” she said. Jasper closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the headrest. Foolishness snaked through her, but she couldn’t stand to see that raven-haired beauty all cuddled up to her boyfriend.

  He wore a happy smile on his face in all the pictures she’d seen, and he’d been dressed in his billionaire suits, his hair perfectly sculpted, and his eyes twinkling. Everything looked staged, right down to her diamond bracelet and the bright red lipstick she wore. So sickeningly, sweetly perfect.

  Sasha’s stomach coiled on itself. She didn’t like the jealousy romping through her, or the way she couldn’t seem to swallow properly. Jasper’s breathing evened, and as she didn’t know where Tyler lived, she headed toward Jasper’s house in the hills. Once they arrived, she gently extracted his phone from his fingers and found Tyler’s text string. She let him know that he’d pick Frankie up in the morning if that was okay, and Tyler came back with Sure thing, man. He loves it here.

  She felt like a snoop with his phone in her hand, so she set it in the cup holders between them and looked at Jasper. He wore no concern in his face while asleep, and she reached over and gently ran one fingertip along his eyebrow. He was so handsome, and so hardworking, and she could see why Dominique from Zurich wanted to post about him non-stop.

  “Hey,” she said gently. “Should we go in?”

  Jasper stirred, but didn’t wake. She couldn’t very well leave him in the car to roast. Though it was only mid-February, the sun could still do some damage in Hawaii. So she leaned over and kissed him.

  His lips stayed still for a moment, and then he woke. She pulled back, but he threaded his fingers through her hair and kept her close. “Mm.” He moaned, and brought her mouth to his again.

  “We’re home,” she whispered, realizing what she’d said a moment too late. Jasper didn’t seem to catch the slip, because he just kept kissing her. Sasha let herself get swept away in the moment, because she didn’t want to think about what it would be like to live here, in this huge house, with Jasper. As his wife.

  Her heart beat faster and faster, though, reminding her that it was something they needed to think about sooner or later.

  Later drifted through her mind. Right now she was kissing her boyfriend who’d been gone for a week.

  She pressed her lips together after he finally pulled back. “Should we go inside?”

  “Yeah.” But he made no attempt to move. His eyes opened and he gazed at her, the moment soft and pliable. She liked it. Liked how comfortable she was, how they seemed to be the only two people on the planet, how he wore power suits and business smiles for everyone but her.

  She straightened and opened her door, collected his bag from the back, and followed him up to the garage. He keyed in the code and the big door rumbled up. Four cars sat inside, in various sizes and colors. Sasha tried not to think about how just one of them would solve all of her financial problems.

  “Do you have your suit?” he asked as he entered the mudroom off the kitchen.

  “Nope.” Sasha wheeled the bag inside. “It doesn’t matter. I can just sun in my clothes.”

  His mouth opened like he might say something, but then he closed it again. She gave him a smile and said, “I know where the towels are.”

  “I’ll get drinks.” He stepped over to the fridge, and she wondered if he expected a fairy to provide something for him to drink. After all, he’d been out of town for a week.

  She left him in the kitchen, the atmosphere between them suddenly more tense than she liked. Maybe because she was imagining him in his swimming suit—and perhaps he was doing the same thing.

  She stepped onto the pool deck and took a deep breath. Several loungers bordered the pool and she chose one in full sun and draped a towel over it. Sitting on the edge of the pool, she put her legs in the cooler water, the peacefulness of this private oasis so relax
ing. Her condo had a pool too, but there were always dozens of people there, many of them with little children.

  Sasha’s pulse pinched for a moment. Children. Did Jasper want kids? They hadn’t spoken about it yet, and their relationship still felt pretty new to Sasha. He didn’t come down for at least ten minutes, and when he finally joined her on the pool deck, he wore a pair of swim trunks the color of peaches and a dark gray rash guard that accentuated all the muscular ripples in his torso.

  Sasha stared, unable to help herself.

  “Sorry.” He swept a kiss across her forehead as he sat next to her and took her hand in his. “I had to let my parents know I made it back safely. Well, my mom really. She’s the only other one who knows how I feel about flying.”

  A frown sat between his eyes, even when Sasha reached over and touched him there. He met her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not quite sure.”

  “Something with your parents?”

  “Maybe.” He gazed across the pool and absently stroked his thumb over the back of her hand. “It’s so good to be back here. It’s cold in Switzerland right now. Snow and everything.”

  “Wow, snow.” Sasha swung her legs in the water. “I think I’ve only seen snow in pictures.”

  “You’re not missing much.” He squeezed her hand and she laid her cheek against his bicep.

  “Jasper?”

  “Hm?”

  Words crowded into Sasha’s mouth, each of them jockeying for position to come out. She didn’t want to tell him so explicitly how she was feeling about him, so she asked, “Do you see yourself as a dad?” instead.

  “Yeah,” he said immediately. “I mean…yeah. I’d like a kid or two.” He bent his head to look down at her, but she kept her eyes on the fence in the distance.

  “Me too,” she said.

  He put two fingers under her chin and lifted her face toward his. “So we’re talking about serious things now.” He wasn’t asking, though his expression carried a question.

  “Are we not being serious here?” Because Sasha felt two breaths away from falling in love with him, and she needed to do some serious backpedaling if he wasn’t feeling the same things she was.

  “I’m being serious here,” he whispered.

  “Good.” She nodded and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “Me too.”

  Several seconds passed before he said, “Wow, kids. Should we talk about where we might live when we get married?”

  Sasha sucked in a breath, and Jasper chuckled. “Okay, I can see that’s off the table for now.”

  “It’s just—” She wasn’t sure how to finish. He’d said when we get married. When. Not if.

  “It’s just what?” he asked.

  “What makes you think you want to marry me?”

  “I like spending time with you,” he said, holding up one finger on his free hand. “I like kissing you.” Another finger. “When I think of who I want to share my life with, it’s you.” A third finger. “We both like dogs, and want kids, and the beach, and I don’t know. I think…maybe we won’t get married right away or anything, but I can definitely see it happening.”

  He’d said so much, and Sasha took the time she needed to sort through it all. “Have you ever thought about getting married before?”

  “To you?”

  “To anyone.”

  “No.” His voice was barely loud enough for her to hear. “No, Sasha. I’ve never met anyone I’ve thought about marrying…until now.”

  Until now.

  The words seemed to echo in the sky above her, around her, inside her mind. Until now. Until now.

  Sasha knew she wasn’t quite ready to be married. The jealousy over Dominique’s social media posts alone proved that. She also didn’t want to bring any debt into the relationship, and right now, she couldn’t do that. She didn’t want Jasper’s money to fix her problems.

  But she kept those worries and admissions quiet and snuggled deeper into his side.

  “What about you and Newt?” he asked. “Were you guys talking about getting married?”

  “No,” Sasha said. “Newt isn’t the type to commit like that. When he told me as much, I thought….” She let her mind flow back to that time to truly try to figure out how she’d felt. “I thought I was okay with it. Like, I didn’t need a diamond to feel loved.”

  “It’s not the diamond that does that,” he said.

  “I guess you would know,” she teased. “Being the diamond king and all that.”

  He chuckled. “I’m not a diamond king.”

  She straightened and looked at him. “I do want a diamond though. I mean, not right now or anything. But the more I think about it, and with what happened with Newt and all that, I know now that I do want to get married. Have a family. The fairy tale perfect ending. All of it.”

  For the first time in her life, Sasha felt like she deserved all of it.

  “And I’m sure you’ll get it.” He pressed his mouth to her forehead and tucked her back into his side without promising anything else.

  A few minutes later, they both moved to a lounger, where Jasper slathered sunscreen on the bare skin he showed and promptly fell asleep.

  Sasha closed her eyes, wondering if this could be her reality one day. If this could be her pool. Her lazy afternoon alone with Jasper, her husband….

  Her thoughts followed her into her dreams, and in those, the man, the money, the babies, the happiness hovered on the horizon, just out of her reach. No matter how she strained, stretched, or prayed, she couldn’t touch them.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jasper could accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Well, his money could. Even when the florist insisted she couldn’t get an arrangement put together for Valentine’s Day—which was the very next day—she suddenly could when he mentioned a price tag in the thousands.

  He didn’t care how much it cost to get him the table he wanted at Sasha’s favorite restaurant, or if he had to fake sickness to get out of his business dealings. He wanted everything on February fourteenth to be absolutely perfect.

  Jacqueline made heart-shaped pancakes, scrambled eggs, and orange juice and then conveniently disappeared with Jasper’s envelope of money mere seconds before Sasha keyed in the code to the front door.

  He hadn’t put a list of chores on the table today, and instead, he leaned in the archway leading to the kitchen to watch Sasha put her bag down and gather her hair into a ponytail. She seemed tired, yet she was still so beautiful.

  In those slow seconds while she searched the table, before she looked at him, he wondered if the pittering in his pulse and the softness in his expression was what love felt like.

  “Hey,” she said when she found him loitering in the doorway, still dressed from his conference calls the night before. “There’s no list.”

  “Nope.” He held out his hand, a clear indication for her to come with him. “I thought we’d have a romantic breakfast. Then you can shower and get over to The Straw. I’ll sleep. And then I’ll come hang out with you this afternoon before we go to dinner.”

  She inched toward him, her smile spreading across her whole face. “Oh, you’ve got plans, is that it?”

  “Mm.” He received her into his arms and kissed her. “Big plans.” He laced his fingers through hers. “And they start with pancakes and juice. So come on.”

  The flower arrangement sat on the end of the counter too, and she gasped when she saw it. She went over to it and plucked the card from the blooms. The tropical arrangement was the most popular, according to Betty-the-floral-lady, and Jasper had gone with hit.

  “I love orchids,” Sasha said, selecting a bright pink one and leaning over to smell it. “These are for me, I assume.”

  He stood behind her, and wrapped his arms around her waist as she opened the card. “They’re for you.” He breathed in the soft, fresh scent of her skin, getting a hint of lemon and other citrus with it. They swayed together and the rush of affection cascadi
ng through Jasper’s whole body could only be described as love.

  Right?

  He’d never felt like this about anyone before, but as she read his card, leaned her weight into his chest, and let him nuzzle her neck while she giggled, he was sure he was in love with Sasha Redding.

  And if not, wow, love must be a powerful thing that few ever felt.

  “Thank you.” She turned and kissed him fully on the mouth, and Jasper enjoyed the moment, glad he had someone to share Valentine’s Day with. He usually ignored the whole holiday and had Jacqueline make something for dinner the night before that would last so he didn’t even have to leave the house.

  “You wanna eat?” he asked after she’d kept her arms around his neck and leaned her forehead against his for several long seconds.

  “Yes.” Her voice sounded a bit rough around the edges, but he decided not to ask about it. She’d tell him what she wanted to tell him, when she wanted to say it.

  She laughed when he pulled the heart-shaped pancakes out of the oven. “I’ll be sure to tell Jacqueline thank you,” she said with a flirtatious glint in her eye.

  “How do you know I didn’t make these?”

  “Because you can’t even make toast.”

  “Yes,” he said. “Yes, that’s one thing I can make.” He chuckled. “And I happened to make the orange juice this morning too.” He pulled the bottle out of the fridge.

  “That doesn’t need to be made,” she pointed out.

  “Fine. I bought it.” He grinned at her and dished up some food for the both of them. “Tell me how you feel about gemstones.” He didn’t look at her though he could feel the weight of her gaze on him.

  “Gemstones?”

  “Yeah. Jewelry is a completely appropriate gift for Valentine’s Day.”

  “Oh, the flowers—”

  He pinned her with a look then. “Are you going to tell me I can’t buy a gift for my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day?”

  A blush filled her cheeks. “No.” She drew the word out. “But it’s really not necessary. I’m not the kind of woman that needs a gift for everything.”