by J. S. Scott
ALSO BY J.S. SCOTT
The Sinclairs
The Billionaire’s Christmas (A Sinclair Novella)
No Ordinary Billionaire
The Forbidden Billionaire
The Billionaire’s Touch
The Billionaire’s Voice
The Billionaire Takes All
The Billionaire’s Secrets
Only a Millionaire
The Billionaire’s Obsession
Mine for Tonight
Mine for Now
Mine Forever
Mine Completely
Heart of the Billionaire – Sam
Billionaire Undone – Travis
The Billionaire’s Salvation – Max
The Billionaire’s Game – Kade
Billionaire Unmasked – Jason
Billionaire Untamed – Tate
Billionaire Unbound – Chloe
Billionaire Undaunted – Zane
Billionaire Unknown – Blake
Billionaire Unveiled – Marcus
Billionaire Unloved – Jett
Billionaire Unchallenged – Carter
The Walker Brothers
Release!
Player
Damaged
The Sentinel Demons
A Dangerous Bargain
A Dangerous Hunger
A Dangerous Fury
A Dangerous Demon King
The Sentinel Demons – The Complete Boxed Set
Big Girls and Bad Boys
The Curve Ball
The Beast Loves Curves
Curves by Design
The Curve Collection Boxed Set
The Pleasure of His Punishment: Individual Stories or Complete Boxed Set
The Changeling Encounters
Mate of the Werewolf
The Danger of Adopting a Werewolf
All I Want for Christmas is a Werewolf
The Changeling Encounters – Complete Boxed Set
The Vampire Coalition
Ethan’s Mate
Rory’s Mate
Nathan’s Mate
Liam’s Mate
Daric’s Mate
The Vampire Coalition – The Complete Boxed Set
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2018 J.S. SCOTT
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781503905474
ISBN-10: 1503905470
Cover photography and design by Laura Klynstra
This book is dedicated to my fabulous friend, Judy.
Thanks for being there during the bad times, and the better ones.
True friends are hard to find, and even though we don’t see each other often, I always know you’re there.
I miss you. I think it’s time for a vacay.
Love ya!!
XXXXXXX Jan
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PROLOGUE
JADE
Five months ago . . .
“Just a few more minutes, Ms. Sinclair,” the secretary informed me as she hung up the phone. “Mr. Stone is running somewhat behind today.”
Somewhat behind?
I’d been waiting for close to an hour. I’d pretty much read every magazine in the waiting room from cover to cover, even the articles I wouldn’t normally bother to read. Did women really want to know how to attract a man, or how to get the attention of one of them who didn’t want to be with her?
Pretty weird articles, really. Or was I the one who didn’t really understand? Judging by my not-so-exciting dating life, maybe I should have paid more attention to all those women’s magazines. I didn’t exactly have men beating down my door to go out with me. But then, it had always been that way.
Can I have a dating slump when I never really had an incredible dating life in the first place?
Because of work and school, I hadn’t been able to try out a lot of different guys, and to be honest, they hadn’t wanted to date me, either. I’d made one major mistake in college. I had to either blame that one on complete exhaustion and stress, or admit to myself that I’d let somebody use me for two years.
I preferred the former excuse.
I don’t really want to attract a guy who doesn’t notice me the first time he meets me.
Wasn’t there supposed to be some kind of spark, some unknown recognition that somebody was my soulmate? And wouldn’t they realize it, too?
I certainly hope so, otherwise I’m waiting for something that’s never going to happen.
Unfortunately, thanks to the score of women’s magazines in the room, I now knew how to get a man who didn’t want me, and what the moon and stars had in mind for my future mate, according to the horoscopes.
Maybe the article about improving my orgasms would have been useful if I had any, but I could have skipped the piece on giving a guy a better blow job.
Not exactly something I’d normally peruse, but I’d had an hour to kill, and after I’d read the interesting stuff like National Geographic, I’d still had time on my hands, so I’d pushed my way through the women’s magazines, too.
I was pretty sure I wasn’t better off because I was now armed with the wisdom on how to deal with a commitment-phobic male, and I was getting restless.
I smiled and nodded at the secretary politely from my seat in the plush outer office of billionaire and business mogul Eli Stone. It wasn’t the elderly assistant’s fault that her boss had left me waiting for way longer than anybody should have to wait for a scheduled appointment, even with a billionaire.
I’m a billionaire, too. Isn’t there some kind of unspoken courtesy thing among the megarich? Does one billionaire leave another one waiting for an hour to see them?
Unfortunately, I hadn’t been rich long enough to know the rules.
Mr. Stone had a net worth a lot higher than mine, but once somebody reached billionaire status, did it really matter?
I dropped the last magazine I’d finished on the table with a sigh.
I’m completely out of reading material, even the ridiculous stuff.
I tapped my foot impatiently, wondering if this was the way billionaires treated each other.
Truth was, I’d only been a billionaire for a matter of months, and I still had no idea
what I was supposed to do with my newfound wealth. To be honest, all my money and investments terrified the hell out of me. I was a science-and-wildlife geek. Ask me any question about conservation or animal behavior, and I could go on for hours. But I had no idea what to do with a fortune.
I only knew how to live poor, so I was basically paralyzed with fear every time I glanced at my bank account and my investment portfolio. I knew I should be happy, but for some unknown reason, I wasn’t.
Through an accident of birth, and because of the father I’d never known, I’d suddenly become one of the richest women in the world. I was now a wealthy and powerful Sinclair.
Well, I’d always been a Sinclair, but the wealthy part of it—not so much. Never in a million years would I have guessed that I was related to the super-rich Sinclairs on the East Coast.
Me, my twin sister, Brooke, and my brothers, Noah, Seth, Aiden, and Owen, had gone from being dirt poor our entire lives to having more money than God because we’d discovered that our father had been a bigamist. My father was a man who had acquired two wives and two separate families on opposite coasts.
My siblings and I had kind of gotten the bad part of that deal. Well, financially, anyway.
It’s not that I wasn’t grateful that the East Coast Sinclairs had found our family on the West Coast. My half brother Evan had brought us all together as one very large family. But our inheritance, which had made me and all of my siblings ridiculously wealthy, was still something I just wasn’t used to.
I’d invested the majority of my legacy with Evan’s help, and he still assisted me by managing my overwhelming portfolio, even though all of my half brothers and my half sister were on the East Coast. He’d set up my money to make more money, and I sometimes got dizzy watching it grow. And that was pretty much all I did. I watched my fortune increase every single day. I felt too intimidated by all those zeros to do anything else.
Unlike my brothers, I didn’t much care if the money continued to multiply, and I didn’t have big plans like they did.
I wish I did. Maybe it would be easier if I was constantly busy and planning out my future.
The only major purchase I’d made was a waterfront cottage in my hometown of Citrus Beach. Again, Evan had made that happen. I’d picked out a home I’d love to have, like my half brother had requested, and he’d pushed the sale through at a pace I found mind boggling. Really, it was a lovely house I’d much rather have been enjoying right now instead of waiting on Eli Stone in the middle of downtown San Diego.
Glancing at my watch for about the millionth time, I hoped Mr. Stone would give me what I wanted, and I could make it home in time to watch the sunset. But if it took much longer, I was going to get stuck in San Diego traffic, and I wouldn’t see my house until it was already dark.
“He’s ready for you, Ms. Sinclair.” The secretary stood up as she spoke.
I rose and grabbed my purse. I was probably underdressed to be inside the Stone corporate headquarters, but at least I’d been comfortable waiting in my well-worn jeans, sandals, and a baby-blue top.
I nodded at the woman, who opened the enormous double doors and then closed them behind me like a gatekeeper.
I moved forward and perched on the edge of one of the massive chairs in front of Eli Stone’s desk before I finally looked up at the man I’d waited an hour to see. I gaped at the guy I’d only seen on television or on the cover of a magazine in the supermarket.
He cleans up good.
Most of the time, Eli Stone had only gotten my attention because of the outrageous hobbies and challenges he pursued. If there was an element of danger to an activity, this man always seemed to be up for trying it.
Race-car driving.
Big-wave surfing.
Skydiving.
Extreme water-sport challenges.
Hang gliding.
Rocketry.
For God’s sake, the guy had purchased his own rocket company and was planning on sending unmanned flights out into the Milky Way shortly. From what I’d heard, Eli Stone was way ahead in the private space game, so he obviously took that pursuit seriously.
“Mr. Stone,” I said in a modulated tone. “Thank you for seeing me.”
I was pretty sure I’d never seen him in a suit, since he seemed to enjoy flashing his half-naked body in his photos and videos. Personally, I found the gray suit and elegant gray-and-navy tie much more appealing.
Not that he didn’t look good half-naked, too. But it was pretty hard to take somebody doing an insane stunt all that seriously.
But this Eli Stone, the one sitting in front of me, had my complete attention.
He looked aloof, but he was watching me like an eagle eyes potential prey from the air right before it finally strikes. And I really didn’t like being the rabbit that he’d just spied from above.
Starting at the top of my head, he assessed me slowly. “Ms. Sinclair,” he acknowledged in a smooth baritone. “What can I do for you?”
Many things came to mind as I stared back at him, but I answered, “I sent you a proposal on the property I’d like to buy. Have you had a chance to look at it?”
I really had to stop staring into his cool gray eyes, thinking about how well his suit matched his eye color.
I didn’t know why, but I was completely fascinated by this Eli Stone. Unlike his television persona, this man was all too real.
He made me nervous for reasons I couldn’t explain. There was tension in the air between us, even though we had never met. And I wasn’t at all comfortable with the heat that was pooling between my thighs.
I’d never been struck with instant lust. But there was something about Eli Stone that completely captivated me.
Maybe because the guy in front of me isn’t at all what I expected.
He was a clown on television, and he was always smirking arrogantly in his photos. I’d expected to meet a person who took almost nothing seriously. Instead, I’d gotten a man who commanded attention just by being present in the room. And he looked like he had absolutely nothing to smile about.
I could practically smell his earthy scent, although I knew it wasn’t really traveling from his body to my nose all the way across the big desk.
I watched as he casually opened his jacket and leaned back in his chair. I swallowed hard as I waited for his reply, but he didn’t seem in any hurry to give me one.
I knew that he had a droolworthy body. Generally, I wasn’t big on tattoos, but the tribal markings that I’d seen on his arm had always looked good on him.
Funny, but I’d never been hit with the primal urge to screw him when I’d seen his ripped body in magazines or on TV. But being up close and personal was . . . different.
“I didn’t read it,” he said sharply. “I’m not interested in letting go of that piece of property. It’s been in my family for decades. It’s not developable right now, although it could be in the future. My question to you is—why do you want it?”
Shit! Since the land near Lucifer’s Canyon was pretty much useless, I’d been hoping to easily convince him to part with it. Compared to the businesses, vast properties, and the land he owned, that acreage in the backcountry was less than nothing.
“I’m a wildlife genetic conservationist,” I explained. “A portion of the land is an important wildlife corridor. I’d like to make sure it’s always preserved.”
Who knew what Eli Stone would do with the land in the future? For all I knew, he’d turn it into a launching pad for his spaceflights. It was important to me to see that the passage leading from one open space to another was kept intact.
“Ah, yes,” he said in a condescending tone. “The wildlife conservationist and primitive survivalist who suddenly became a Sinclair, right? I had my people check you out before I accepted your appointment. You have an interesting history.”
“I’ve always been a Sinclair,” I said through gritted teeth.
Jerk! Why in the world did he need my life story just to tell me he doesn’t want
to sell some property? It has to have been the most boring report he’s ever read.
Maybe I hadn’t always been part of the high-profile Sinclairs, but my siblings and I had faced a lot of challenges, and we’d always gotten through it. I was pretty proud of that.
“Just not one of the wealthy ones until recently,” he pointed out. “The Sinclairs on the East Coast have been a powerful family for generations. How did you say you became part of that family?”
“I didn’t,” I snapped. It was none of Eli Stone’s business how I was related to the Sinclair dynasty. And my father’s bigamist behavior wasn’t something I wanted to talk about, especially not with him.
The West Coast and East Coast Sinclairs shared the same father. That’s all anybody really knew. My brothers here in California had made it a point not to turn the tragic story into a tabloid scandal. My twin sister, Brooke, had been on the East Coast recovering from her own trauma, and none of us wanted her to find out from the gossip papers that she was going to inherit a fortune. She needed time to heal from losing her friends and coworkers in a bank robbery where she’d nearly lost her own life as well. Brooke didn’t even know about the money yet. My siblings and I had all agreed to give her time to deal with the tragedy before throwing anything else on her.
Honestly, I was surprised that Eli had been able to dig up any information about me or my family. My half brother Evan had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure nobody got to the truth until Brooke was emotionally healed and back on the West Coast again.
Evan had obviously been successful, since Eli Stone apparently hadn’t been able to get access to all the details.
“I might be willing to bargain on other properties, but not that one,” he said thoughtfully.
I folded my arms in front of me. “Since that’s the only one I’m interested in, then I guess we’re done here.”
Maybe I was disappointed that I couldn’t secure the wildlife corridor, but I had the sudden need to get out from under the intensity of his gaze. I was pissed off about him digging into my personal life, but I was squirming from his blatant stare. I quickly came to the conclusion that my need to escape was currently more important than my outrage.
Before I could get up, he said casually, “You’re really quite beautiful, Jade.”
That stunned me into silence, and I gaped at him as my palms began to sweat. “I don’t understand.”