One Night With The Billionaire Too

by Cross, Cassie

  “You get to keep that apartment,” she argues. “The person who cheats retreats. I just made that up but it’s a tried and true sentiment.”

  “I don’t really want to live there,” she admits. “He’s probably had sex with Julia on every surface. They probably banged on the counter where I made him focaccia on his birthday. That I took a class for! Fucking asshole.”

  That’s not exactly the best visual, Amber thinks, but Sasha’s heartbroken so she keeps quiet.

  “Someone’s lighting up your phone,” Sasha says as she picks it up off the end table and hands it over. “There must be some kind of an emergency.”

  “Chase is probably inventing an emergency. He hates it when I’m ten steps ahead of him, and likes to keep me on my toes.”

  “Just bang already and get it over with,” Sasha says, her voice tinged with exhaustion.

  It’s not that Amber hasn’t thought about it. Sometimes, when he’s in his office with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled up, his tie loose around his neck? It’s all she can think about. But she’s been harboring this crush that’s bloomed into a gentle kind of love, and if she has sex with him, she’ll never get over it. Chase has always been a ladies’ man, even if his schedule has made him calm down over the past couple of months. She knows that if she really let herself fall, really let herself think that they could be something, it would only end in heartbreak.

  The flirting is fun, and it’s enough for her.

  “You should see what he wants, just in case it’s important.”

  “You’re important, Sasha.”

  “I barged into your apartment, I’ve been drinking your champagne and crying on your shoulder all night. You missed work to sit here with me and day drink while I blow my nose off and hide on your couch. If there’s something your boss needs you for and I’m keeping you from it, I’d feel terrible. Please just see what he wants.”

  Amber begrudgingly looks at her phone and scrolls through the texts. They’re basically all a cryptic lead-up to him asking if he can stop by for a quick chat. That gets Amber’s attention, because he very rarely ever comes over. There must be a legitimate emergency.

  The shock must be easy to read on Amber’s face, because Sasha picks up on it.

  “What does he want?”

  “He says there’s an urgent issue he wants to talk to me about in person. He wants to come by on his way home from the office.” She starts typing away on the phone’s screen. “I’m going to ask him if he can wait until tomorrow.”

  “No!” Sasha says as a flurry of used tissues tumble off her chest. “Tell him to come over. I need an excuse to peel myself off this couch and try to enter the land of the living. Having a handsome gazillionaire stop by is reason enough.”

  Amber can’t help her amused chuckle. Sasha’s always been vocal about her appreciation for Chase’s good looks, but she’s convinced he’s in love with Amber and in denial about it. It’s been Sasha’s go-to in the elder sibling teasing arsenal for a while now.

  “Okay.” She types out:

  * * *

  Come on over.

  * * *

  Sasha gets up, gathers her tissues and throws them away. If she notices that Amber sneaks away into the bathroom and puts on some make up, she doesn’t mention it.

  Chase knocks on the door and Amber swallows down all the nervous butterflies flitting around her digestive system. She fluffs her hair and smooths her clothes before she opens the door.

  “Hi,” he says, with a warm, panty-dropping smile. She knows it’s not an intentional thing, he just has this natural flirtatiousness about him that really seems to work on women.

  It works on Amber, at least. And all the models and socialites he used to go out with every night of the week. She recalls the sinking feeling she’d get in the pit of her stomach whenever she’d stumble across one when she’d read the news in the morning.

  Not important.

  “Come on in,” she says, taking a step back so he can enter. He immediately notices Sasha sitting on the sofa, looking a little more put together than she had when he asked if he could come over. The pile of tissues is gone, her formerly red nose is more of a pinkish shade, but it’s still obvious she’s been crying.

  “Hi Sasha,” he says gently.

  It’s pretty clear now what Amber’s family emergency is.

  “It’s good to see you, Chase,” Sasha replies. She’s all congested from the crying. “How have you been?”

  “It’s good to see you, too. I’ve been well. And you…”

  “I’ve been better,” she says.

  Chase always appreciates someone who gets right to the point, so he smiles. “I can see that. Everything okay?”

  Amber purses her lips because she knows her sister is getting ready to go on a roll.

  “Well, I walked in on my boyfriend having sex with Julia on my brand new sheets, so…I’m homeless and have to live with completely wasting the last six years of my life. Other than that, everything’s great.”

  Chase takes a moment to absorb that. “I can ruin his life if you’d like.”

  He’s such a charmer that even Amber isn’t sure if he means it.

  It gets a laugh out of Sasha either way. “I don’t think I want to go that route, but if you know a good rental broker, I could definitely use that help.”

  “You can stay here as long as you want to, Sash,” Amber offers. She doesn’t have a ton of room in this one-bedroom apartment, but whatever she has, it belongs to Sasha, too. “No need to hurry.”

  Sasha rubs her face. “I want to get into my new normal as soon as I can. Camping out here on your couch probably isn’t what’s best for me.”

  Amber can understand that.

  “I know the greatest broker in the city. Let me know what your price range is and what you’re looking for. I’ll give her a call and get you two in touch.”

  “I would really appreciate that,” Sasha says gratefully. “Thank you, Chase.”

  “Anytime. Anything you need, let me know.” He turns and looks at Amber. “Do you think we could talk for a minute?”

  The tilt of his head toward her hallway indicates that he’d like this conversation to be a private one.

  “Yeah, sure. We can just go in here,” she says, leading him back toward her bedroom. She doesn’t miss the amused look on Sasha’s face as they walk that way.

  “I always thought that guy was an asshole,” Chase says of Trey once Amber has her bedroom door closed.

  “You had him pegged the moment you met him,” Amber agrees. It had been at a charity gala Chase had invited Sasha and Trey to attend because Amber told him about her sister’s desire to attend any kind of black tie event at The Peninsula hotel.

  While Amber and Sasha were saying their goodbyes at the valet stand that evening, Trey asked Chase if he could borrow his Bentley for a guy’s weekend upstate the following weekend. They’d known each other for all of three hours at that point.

  Chase expressed his concern to Amber the next morning, but Amber didn’t see the need to let Sasha know. She couldn’t blame Trey for getting wrapped up in Chase’s exorbitant lifestyle; sometimes it’s hard for her to separate herself from his world when she’s with him.

  Looking back, maybe that was an early warning red flag. Maybe she should’ve listened to the man who had a lifetime’s worth of experience weeding out opportunists.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he says. “You were right not to say anything.”

  As good as Amber is at reading Chase, he’s just as good at reading her when he wants to be.

  “Maybe you’re right,” she concedes. There’s still the unease of doubt in her belly.

  “Asking a rich guy if you can borrow his car isn’t an indicator of future infidelity,” he argues. “Don’t beat yourself up over this.”

  She nods. If she’d been willing to sweep it under the rug, there’s no doubt in her mind that Sasha would’ve done the same.

  “What was so im
portant that it couldn’t wait?”

  He sighs as he shoves his hands in his pockets. He’s wearing Amber’s favorite suit; she’s wondering if it’s a coincidence or if he’s noticed the way her looks linger on the days when he wears it.

  “I need a favor,” he explains. “A big one.”

  “Does it involve hiding a body?” she teases. Chase’s face crumples up.

  “No. But I can’t tell if you were hoping the answer was yes?”

  “There are certain lines I won’t cross, even for you. But I figured this had to be pretty urgent considering you came over. You never come over.”

  He looks around her room, eyes traveling over the wrought-iron bed frame, the pictures she has of her friends and family hung up everywhere, clean clothes she never folded piled up and strewn across the chair in the corner.

  Shit.

  He wisely decides not to comment.

  “I had a meeting with Jason this morning.”

  “About the Pearson deal. I know.”

  “Pearson’s having a retreat at his house in Connecticut next weekend.”

  “Okay,” she says, drawing out the word as she tries to figure out how she fits into this scenario.

  “I want to take you with me.”

  Instinctively, she laughs. It’s not like he hasn’t taken her to other business meetings, but this is different. This is a full weekend. A full, casual weekend. It’s more of a private life thing than a work thing, even though it involves closing a business deal.

  “Why me?”

  “Pearson hates my guts, but he likes you. So does his wife. After that smart wearable mess, this deal is important. Jason and I thought that you might be our best chance to persuade him onto our side.”

  There isn’t much she wouldn’t do for Chase or for his company. The smart wearables disaster was an absolute mess, and if there’s a way to help him out of it, she wants to do that.

  She’s just not sure she can risk it. She knows what happens on these retreats. They’re just a bunch of rich power couples talking business over cocktails and low-impact recreational activities. Even though she and Chase aren’t together, they would be treated like they were.

  Despite their workplace flirting, she’s always maintained a very strict professional line between them. Even when she dares to cross that line in her dreams, every time she does it she takes two steps away in reality.

  A weekend retreat with him would blur it all to hell. The fact that he’s standing in her bedroom is pushing that boundary enough as it is. She has to get things back in order, has to get those walls all the way back up.

  “I’m sorry. I…I just can’t.”

  “Name your price,” he says in that typical rich guy way, like he can buy his way into convincing people to do things they don’t want to do.

  Amber hadn’t expected it. “What?”

  “Whatever you want. Agree to this? It’s yours.”

  And just like that, the line is blurred again.

  Chapter Three

  Name her price? Chase might come to regret that offer.

  “You’re ridiculous,” she says with halfhearted laugh.

  “What’s ridiculous about it?”

  Oh god, he’s totally serious.

  “Buy this apartment for me,” she replies. She figures it’s a big enough ask to make him understand how utterly insane he sounds right now.

  He doesn’t even flinch.

  “Done.”

  Ugh, rich men. Amber rolls her eyes. “I don’t want you to buy this apartment, Chase.”

  “Then what do you want? You should recognize a desperate man when you see one. Take advantage.”

  “What I want is for you to accept no for an answer. You saw Sasha out there. It’s not the best time to leave her here by herself.” Family has always come first for Amber, before everything, even her job.

  “We’ll leave on Friday afternoon and be back by Sunday evening. Whatever she wants to drown her sorrows in while we’re gone, I’ll provide it. You know me. You know I wouldn’t ask unless I thought this was the only way. I don’t ask you for much, Amber.”

  She laughs sarcastically.

  He smiles with this warm kind of affection that she’s noticed he only aims at her. She tries not to look into it, but sometimes it’s right there, written all over his face. She thinks it’s just because he knows he can’t live without her. Not many people would put up with him. He’d been through five assistants when she stepped in.

  Getting this job had changed her life. It had changed his, too.

  Amber takes a deep breath. If he’d caught her in a moment of weakness, there’s no doubt in her mind she would’ve said yes. He doesn’t know this, but her heart’s on the line here. The more time she spends with him, the more time she wants to spend with him. It’s a cycle that she’s having a hard time breaking.

  At least on the weekends she gets to go home and not smell his cologne, not see him through the windows in his office with his sleeves rolled up, looking annoyingly gorgeous.

  This trip? She’s not sure that it’s the best idea for her heart.

  “Please Amber,” he says softly, reaching out and taking her hands in his.

  When he looks like that, she wants to say yes to everything.

  “I have to think about it,” she says. She’s weak, she can’t help herself. She’d never be able to live with herself if she could help him but opted not to.

  Chase’s brows crease for a moment, but he decides not to press her on it, recognizing a win—even if it is only temporary—as a win. “Can you give me an answer by tomorrow? If it’s a no, then I’m going to have to come up with another strategy.”

  “I’ll think on it tonight and give you an answer first thing in the morning. I’ll even text you when I wake up if you want.”

  Chase lets out a breath of a laugh. “That works,” he says, taking one last look around, his eyes focusing on her closet. He makes his way to the door.

  When he walks out, he leans in close and whispers, “You have a little something dangling off the doorknob there.”

  Amber looks over and wants to die of embarrassment. Her sexiest, laciest black thong is haphazardly hanging there.

  Her cheeks redden as she looks over at her boss, who just winks at her as he leaves, delighting in the fact that he’s left her speechless.

  Sasha manages to make it until dinner before she gets curious enough to start demanding information about Chase’s visit.

  She’s napped, showered, and is getting ready to eat. Chinese has always been the Reid women’s favorite comfort food, and Amber and Sasha have a truly obscene amount of takeout on the table between them. They’re both in yoga pants and t-shirts, ready to stuff their faces.

  Amber is eating her feelings, taking out her indecision about this retreat on a heaping serving of pork fried rice.

  Sasha notices, because she plants her chopsticks into a container of chow mien, swipes her egg roll into a dollop of hot mustard, and begins the inquisition.

  “Are you ever gonna tell me why Chase wanted to go into your bedroom to talk?” she asks before taking a bite. “This is torture.”

  “He didn’t specifically want to go into my bedroom,” Amber argues. “He just wanted to speak privately. It was there or in the bathroom, and the bedroom seemed more pleasant.”

  Sasha rolls her eyes. “You two are slower than molasses. Anyway, can you get to the good stuff? What was the emergency?”

  Amber considers whether or not she wants to let her sister in on Chase’s request. It would be nice to have someone to debate the pros and cons with, but on the other hand, Sasha’s so desperate for them to get together that Amber doubts she can be objective.

  In the end, Amber decides her sister is going to get it out of her anyway, so might as well give up the information willingly.

  “Well?”

  Amber takes another bite of fried rice to buy herself just a few more seconds of time. “He wants me to go to a retreat with him i
n Connecticut this weekend.”

  Sasha drops the egg roll. By the look on her face Amber can tell this is the last thing she expected to hear. “You said yes, right?”

  “I said no. I can’t leave you here by yourself. Well, I said no first, and then he was a little more persuasive so I said I’d think about it.”

  “First of all, you can and should leave me here by myself,” Sasha argues. “I’m not going to stick my finger in a socket or drown in the bathtub if you turn away for a few seconds. This is why I want to find my own apartment as soon as I can. I don’t want you putting your life on hold for me.”

  Amber takes offense to that. “I’m not putting anything on hold. I’m your sister. You’re upset; you need me. It’s not like this is a regular work thing; It’s an extracurricular work thing. I usually spend my weekends here, not off at estates in Connecticut.”

  “An extracurricular work thing that seems to be a big emergency.”

  Amber nods. That much is true. It’s an emergency to Chase, at least.

  Sasha reaches over and takes her hand. “I do need you. But I don’t want to be a hindrance.”

  Amber pushes a pea across her plate. “What if you were an excuse?”

  “An excuse?”

  “I don’t want to go. I mean…I do want to go, but I don’t. You know how I feel about Chase.”

  “I think even Chase knows how you feel about Chase,” she teases. “And if the way he looks at you is any indication, he feels the same way.”

  Amber tilts her head up and looks at the ceiling. Great.

  “I don’t understand what the issue is, Amber. He’s gorgeous, he’s rich, and he’s clearly very into you.”

  What Amber doesn’t want to say is that there was a time not too long ago when it seemed like he was very into a different woman every night, and that if she opens up her heart to him she just knows it’ll end in a mess. And it’s not just her heart on the line here, it’s her job. She has to be careful, and being careful means showing some self-restraint.