The Risk: A Billionaire Romance (Wagered Hearts Series, Book 2)

by Calista Kyle

  I’d already had to turn away several reality stars and tabloid favorites from the front door. It wasn’t a job I relished, and their loud and angry protests as they were denied entrance only made the situation worse. Paparazzi were lined up right outside of the velvet ropes, gleefully snapping shots and filming video of all the arrivals and denials. I actually felt bad for the people that got turned away. You could see how desperately they wanted to get in and to feel accepted. But having lots of money wasn’t enough.

  My mother prided herself on being discriminating and throwing the most exclusive parties for only the best of the best. It was why everyone was so desperate to get in. She had a certain talent for making people either feel like they were on top of the world, or like the shit on the bottom of a shoe. This was just another way for her to wield her power over people.

  I remembered back to last year, when I’d finally gotten an invitation to one of her famous parties—the Eichendorf Gala. As a little girl, I had always dreamed of going when I grew up. I begged my mother for years to allow me to go, but she’d always say I was too young or too unsophisticated, and she didn’t want to babysit me all evening.

  By the time I graduated college, I had all but given up hope that she’d ever let me attend. Even though I was her only daughter, I think she was particularly reluctant to show me off in public. She told me once that as her daughter, I was a reflection of her, so she wasn’t going to ‘trot me out’ in front of her friends and colleagues unless she was sure I was not going to embarrass her.

  When I finally got the invitation, I couldn’t believe my eyes. That night was everything I’d ever hoped it would be. It was the night I met Chad. I felt a dull ache in my chest as I thought about it. At the time, I felt like Cinderella, finally being able to attend the ball. Everything was new and exciting and I was ready to take the world by storm. When Chad walked up to me and smiled at me in that disarming way he had, I really thought I’d met my prince charming.

  Lily had warned me at the time to be cautious and take things slow, but I just brushed off her concerns. What did she know? I told myself. I was young, and in love, and I just knew Chad loved me. Why not jump in head first and damn the consequences? As usual, I’d been wrong.

  I was so sure he was the one. We had hit it off right from the start and he even got my mother’s approval. It just seemed meant to be. How could I have been so wrong? I wasn’t even really heartbroken anymore. What really upset me was the thought that my judgment could have been so faulty. Was I destined to always pick the wrong men and end up alone?

  I shook my head trying to brush those thoughts aside. Now was really not the time or place to be reminiscing about my failed relationships. It was only making an already bad situation even worse.

  “How much longer you have to stay out here?” Candace asked as she emerged from the building and walked towards me.

  I glanced at my watch and groaned. I’d already been standing out there for two hours. Most of the guests had already arrived, but there were still some stragglers. I’d been tempted several times to hand the clip board over to James the bouncer and head back into the warmth of the venue, but I knew my mother would blow a gasket if anyone not on her guest list somehow managed to sneak in. That meant I had to personally make sure that didn’t happen.

  Scanning down the list, I cursed these late comers. They’d already sent in their RSVPs, so it would have been the height of rudeness not to show up. My eyes paused on one name in particular. I noticed that Ryan still hadn’t arrived. A part of me had been looking forward to seeing him tonight and was disappointed that he hadn’t showed up yet.

  “Probably until the last guest arrives,” I said.

  She widened her eyes in surprise. “That’s crazy. It’s freezing out here,” she said, crossing her arms across her chest tighter.

  “Tell me about it,” I said.

  “Here, why don’t you let me take over the guest list while you go inside and get warmed up,” she said, reaching over and grabbing the clipboard.

  I didn’t put up any sort of a fight. “You mean it?” I asked.

  “Of course. Fifteen more minutes out here and you might get hypothermia,” she joked.

  “That wouldn’t be a good look,” I laughed. “Here you might need this.” I pulled off my parka and threw it over her shoulders before running into the venue and out of the frigid air. Once inside, I rubbed my hands together to get the circulation going again. It felt so nice to be in a warm heated environment and away from the glaring lights and flashes and inane catcalls from the paparazzi outside.

  The first thing I did once I entered the ballroom was to flag down a server and grab a handful of whatever it was they had on their trays. I didn’t realize how hungry I was standing out in the cold, but now that I was inside, my stomach began to growl. I hadn’t eaten all day.

  Just as I had shoved a couple of small canapés into my mouth, I watched as Ryan entered the room. On his arm was a gorgeous woman, tall and lithe with raven black hair that shone almost blue under the lights. The food suddenly tasted like sandpaper in my mouth and I had to swallow it in a gulp.

  I suddenly felt the urge to go hide away. I didn’t want him to see me. He obviously wasn’t kidding when he said he’d find another date for the party. Somewhere deep inside, I thought he had been joking. Maybe it was naive or conceited of me, but I thought he was just trying to make me jealous. If that was his plan, it worked. It surprised me that I even had those feelings. It wasn’t like we were dating.

  Ryan was occupied chatting with another couple, which gave me time to discreetly look them over. He looked amazing as usual in a perfectly tailored black tuxedo. His hair was combed back and he wore a carefree devilish smile on his face. He looked like a throwback to the days of Clark Gable and Cary Grant—all old school glamour and gentlemanly refinement.

  My eyes moved from him to his date. There was something about her that was familiar. Upon further inspection, I realized that I recognized her. Cara Galanis! She was exactly one of those people my mother absolutely forbade from attending. She was a famous socialite—her father was the heir to a shipping empire. She’d also been in the tabloids recently for starring in a sex tape. Even though she denied it, everyone knew she’d had a hand in leaking it to the press. I knew if my mother caught sight of her, she’d find a way to blame me for it.

  It didn’t matter that there was absolutely nothing I could have done about it. As the date of one of the stakeholders in Titan, even my mother couldn’t deny her entrance. I felt my annoyance at Ryan rise. What was he playing at? Was he just looking to cause a scene?

  I racked my brain trying to think of a way to salvage the situation and maybe keep my mother from finding out. That fantasy was shot to hell the moment I saw Jimmy Stone walk over and introduce himself to Cara. Jimmy was the biggest gossip queen in town and once he got done with her there wouldn’t be anyone in the whole building that didn’t know Cara Galanis was here.

  Thankfully, my mother was nowhere in sight just yet. That bought me a little bit of time to do damage control. Perhaps if I went out and got Candace she’d be able to come up with a way to get Cara Galanis out of here? I turned around to head towards the exit when I ran smack dab into what felt like a brick wall. Two strong hands grabbed a hold of me to keep me from falling back. When I looked up, I saw a pair of ice blue eyes staring down at me.

  “Hello Mel,” he said.

  I pulled myself out of his grasp, ignoring his greeting. I was glad to see the smile slip from his face as he stared at me in confusion. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

  “You could say that again. Where’s your date by the way?” I asked bluntly. I was still annoyed with him.

  “Been keeping tabs on me?”

  “Hardly.”

  “And yet you knew I came with a date?”

  “It’s pretty hard to ignore when you show up with Cara freaking Galanis,” I snapped, finally losing my patience with him. “It’s probably all anyone
is talking about right now. Did you bring her here on purpose, to thumb your nose at my mother? Cause I promise you, you’ve achieved your goal. She’ll do nothing but bitch about it and throw a fit once the party is over. And I’ll be the one who has to deal with it. So thanks for that!”

  I looked up to see his stricken face and I instantly regretted my outburst. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I had no right to say that. I didn’t mean to insult you or your date.”

  “No, you’ve got nothing to apologize for,” he said. “I’m the one who should apologize. I had no idea—I mean I didn’t think about what it would mean for you if I brought Cara.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, a bit deflated. “I’ll manage. I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that. I don’t know what’s gotten in to me.”

  “Please stop apologizing. You were right. I did bring Cara just to get under your mother’s skin. I knew she’d be upset by it, but I didn’t realize you’d get blamed for it.”

  “Why would you want to get under my mother’s skin?” I asked.

  He waved his hand in front of him in careless dismissal. “Oh, she just said some things that rubbed me the wrong way and I thought I’d be petty and immature and get her back for it.”

  “What did she say?”

  “It’s nothing important,” he said.

  “Please tell me what she said,” I insisted. I wanted to know what my mother could have possibly said that would get Ryan so riled up. He normally seemed so carefree and unruffled.

  “She just made a suggestion about who I could bring as an acceptable date and I didn’t take too kindly to that,” he said.

  “Ah, now I can understand,” I said.

  “If I knew that she’d go and try to blame you for it, I never would have done it,” he said. He looked at me intently, almost willing me to believe him. And I did. I suddenly felt a little bit of my black mood lift.

  “I know,” I finally said. “Don’t even worry about it anymore. What’s done is done. Let’s move on. So, how are you enjoying the party?”

  He looked like he still wanted to say more on the matter but then thought better of it. “I’m enjoying it a lot more now,” he answered.

  “Don’t try to flirt with me. I’m on duty tonight.”

  “And that means you’re immune to compliments?”

  “I’m not supposed to be enjoying myself. That’s only reserved for the distinguished guests.”

  “Hmm that sounds like a challenge to me,” he mused, shooting me a lopsided grin.

  “Don’t. I don’t want to monopolize all your time. Besides, like I said, I’ve got to work.”

  “You work too hard. You should enjoy yourself. Everything looks amazing by the way. I know you had a large part in that.”

  I blushed at his compliment. “Thanks, you’re probably the only one who’ll say that. But it was mostly Paola’s vision; I just helped bring it to life.”

  Paola was the special events director at Chère, and in charge of overseeing the party. I had been her right hand woman, helping her plan it since I started working there months ago.

  “Don’t sell yourself short. I’m sure you had more input than you give yourself credit for.”

  Before I could reply, I saw my mother approach us out of the corner of my eye. Judging from her frosty demeanor, she had probably just found out that Cara Galanis was here. I shot Ryan a quick warning look before she finally reached us. He turned around to face her head on. That stopped my mother in her tracks for just a moment.

  “Cora,” Ryan said in greeting.

  She gave him a curt nod, but her eyes were glinting. “So good of you to show up,” she said.

  “Yes, thank you. I was just telling Melanie here that everything looks amazing. You’ve really outdone yourselves this time,” he said. His voice was calm and almost perfunctory. He gave no hint that he was agitated or in any way alarmed. He probably wasn’t. My mother would never turn her ire on to him. Even she wouldn’t dare piss off someone in Ryan’s position, at least not to his face.

  “Thank you. You know I always pride myself on throwing the best parties,” she said, giving him a slight smile before turning her gaze to me. “If you’ll excuse us, I need to speak to Melanie for a moment.”

  “By all means go ahead,” he said, but he didn’t move away. Instead he stood right where he was, almost daring my mother to say something. She narrowed her eyes and frowned at him before she took my arm and spun us around, hissing in my ear.

  “Melanie, what are you doing in here? I thought you were supposed to be outside making sure only the people on the guest list were allowed inside.”

  “I was,” I answered. “But I came back in to warm myself up for a little bit.”

  “That’s no excuse. You were given a specific task and you failed. Now we have the likes of Cara Galanis here and I specifically blacklisted her from attending. I give you one simple task and you can’t even get that right!”

  Before I could reply, I heard Ryan clear his throat. “It wasn’t her fault,” he said. My mother turned back to face him looking as surprised as her botoxed face would let her.

  “Pardon?” she said, her voice dripping with ice.

  “Cara came tonight as my date,” he explained. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault since not even you, Cora, could have kept us from attending.”

  I shot Ryan a worried glance, but I couldn’t help but feel a growing respect for him. I’d never seen someone stand up to my mother and put her in her place.

  “I see,” my mother said through thinned lips. If it were possible to kill someone with looks alone, I was sure Ryan would drop dead at any minute. I held my breath, watching the scene unfold with grim fascination. After a moment of charged silence, my mother finally decided to walk off, taking all her impotent rage with her. Once she was gone, I let out a loud breath.

  “Holy shit, that was sexy,” I blurted. I felt my face flush in embarrassment and hurried to explain myself. “I think that’s the first time anyone’s ever stood up to her. People usually cower in fear.”

  “I’m not afraid of your mother,” he said.

  “I can see that. I just hope you know what you’re getting yourself into. She’s a nasty enemy to have.”

  “So, she’ll ban me from some of her overrated parties,” he scoffed. “That doesn’t mean anything to me.”

  “It’s more than that. She’s got the dirt on pretty much every person worth knowing. Why do you think everyone scrapes down to her? Twenty years in the magazine industry and you learn a few things,” I said.

  “I’ve got no skeletons in my closet. Let her do her worst,” he challenged.

  “I hope you’re right about that. Anyways, thanks for coming to my defense,” I said.

  “Don’t mention it. It was the least I could do after instigating the situation.”

  “Yes, yes it was,” I laughed.

  “Why do you put up with it?” he asked, suddenly sounding serious.

  It wasn’t the first time someone had asked me that question. People looking in on the outside probably thought I was a glutton for punishment. And maybe I was. All they saw was an overbearing, hypercritical mother picking apart everything her daughter did. I couldn’t look at it like that.

  I’d always believed that deep down my mother wanted the best for me and was only hard on me because she expected better of me. She was never one to settle for less than perfection and that was what I strived for. Once I looked at it from that perspective, I could overlook her more hurtful comments and seemingly frigid attitude.

  “It’s just a part of the job,” I finally answered. “She’s never been the easiest person to work with, it’s not just with me that she can get so…” I paused trying to find the right word.

  “Bitchy?” Ryan supplied.

  “Yeah, that among other things.”

  “But she’s your mother. Shouldn’t she be a little bit more…oh I don’t know…nurturing?”

  “That’s just not in her nature. B
esides, Chère is the premiere fashion and entertainment magazine in the country. You said so yourself and that’s all thanks to her. She’s the best at what she does. I just have to separate my expectations and feelings as a daughter and just look at her as a boss.”

  Ryan remained silent and stood there pinning me with an unfathomable expression. I didn’t know why I’d told him half the things I did, but it was just so easy to open up to him. Even when I was with Chad, I had never felt as comfortable talking about my past or my relationship with my mother. It was a startling realization and I didn’t know what to make of it.

  Looking at Ryan now, I almost regretted blurting out my feelings. He looked almost stricken with some undefined emotion. Was it pity? I shuddered to think about that. The last thing I wanted or needed was pity. I wasn’t a victim and I didn’t need anyone to feel sorry for me.

  “Well I should probably get back to work. It was nice chatting with you and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening,” I said stiffly.

  Ryan seemed surprised by my abrupt change in attitude, but he schooled his features quickly and put on his best charming smile. “You’re right. I’ve been holding you up. I should actually get back to my date and make sure she’s not causing too much trouble,” he said.

  I gave him a curt nod and walked back over towards the front doors. It had already been an hour since I left my post and I was sure Candace could use a break. I shivered as a blast of cold air hit me when I stepped outside. My arms were clutched around my chest and I walked towards Candace and James.

  “Hey Candace, James,” I called out.

  “You should head back inside,” Candace said, eyeing me in concern. “We’re pretty much done out here. I mean, I am anyways.”

  “Has everyone arrived?”

  “Just about. It’s already three hours since the party started. That’s no longer fashionably late, just unforgivably rude. We can leave the rest of it up to James. Come on,” she continued, pulling me back towards the doors. “You’ll freeze your ass off out here. Even Ms. Abelgard can’t complain about us heading inside now.”