Freedom (Billionaire Secrets 2)

“Well, Linda yelled at me.” Heather sighed. “But she calmed down long enough to ask if we were okay. Then she said she’s going to do everything to kill the story. I doubt she’ll be able to do it, but she did also promise to try to give the board the runaround over the weekend while she figured out how to fix this.” She buried her face in her hands and let out a groan. “She said something about trying to remember the past and then arguing that the picture was photoshopped from high school. I doubt that’s going to work.” She sighed. “Why does the press or anyone care so much about this?”

“You’ll have to stay here for the night,” he said gently, not sure how to answer. Probably the last thing she wanted to hear under the circumstances, but he wasn’t about to let her go home now.

“Oh.” She lowered her hands. “I don’t want to get in your way.”

“I own the whole building,” he reminded her. “If you don’t feel comfortable sleeping in this apartment there are at least twenty other furnished apartments to choose from.”

A soft chuckle escaped her, and her gaze landed on the glass of vodka in front of her. “Sometimes I still think of you like you’re the same person from ten years ago, but then I’m reminded of how ludicrously wealthy you’ve gotten since we then.” She reached for the glass and downed its contents in the blink of an eye. “I needed that.”

He swirled the scotch in his glass. “Would you like another?”

“No, thanks,” she replied with a wave of her hand. “One is more than enough for me.”

“I’ve got some takeout in the fridge if you’re hungry,” he offered.

“Thanks.” She gave him a shaky smile. “We have really screwed things up, haven’t we?”

“This is why I don’t let people in,” he said after a moment. “After Neil screwed us over tonight, it’s easy to remember why I choose to be alone. When you keep people at a distance, you don’t get stabbed in the back and used to make a quick buck.”

That came out harsher than he’d intended, but his old classmate Neil turning out to be two-faced was a reminder of why he rarely let people into his life. He trusted no one. Because after things began to change for him in high school all anyone cared about was getting whatever they could out of him. At first that had been attention and popularity. But after he struck it rich, fame and money had been the goal of so many unscrupulous people.

It was why he didn’t do relationships. And why the only woman he had ever been interested in for any length of time was Heather. She had always been the only person who didn’t want a piece of him. That was why he was so captivated by her. So enthralled with her. She was everything he had ever wanted, and everything he could never have. It wasn’t just that she had ended things between them. It was that now, with tonight’s disaster, Dover was in so much jeopardy that if they were ever caught alone in the same room together they’d be ripped apart for the good of the company.

Which was why being alone with her now was such a risk, even if he was trying to guarantee her safety.

“Do you want to turn in for the night?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. You can go ahead and get some rest, but I’m too jumpy to sleep right now.”

“I’m not tired,” he said. “I was trying to be a good host.”

“Well, you’re doing a good job.” Heather smiled. “How about another tour of the place? I never did get to see the indoor pool.”

STEAM ROSE UP FROM the placid blue water to caress her skin. They were standing side by side at the edge of the heated swimming pool in the basement of his apartment building. The pool was enormous, ripples of blue light bending and reflecting on the walls and the ceiling. It felt like she was standing underwater with Simon and her heart started fluttering.

“Do you come down here a lot?” she asked.

“All the time,” he said. “Swimming helps me to think. Doing laps in the quiet really clears my head. I get my best ideas down here.”

She smiled. That much hadn’t changed since they were kids. Simon would always have his flashes of genius when he tuned out the world. “I don’t think I’ve ever swum in a heated pool.”