Reading Online Novel

Seducing the Billionaire's Wife(10)



Blake raised a brow. “I want your number one, Andrew. The one above all others. The one who you can’t help but remember when times are tough. Or when you’re feeling particularly sentimental.”

Drew shook his head. “There’s no one.” Yet, there was one woman. Or, rather, a girl. Tiny little thing. With big, gray eyes that dominated her face. He smiled.

“Ah-ha! Who is she?”

“I haven’t spoken to her in years. A decade at least.”

“Then she doesn’t know what an insufferable bore you’ve become. Brilliant.” Blake pulled out his phone. “Let’s text her.”

“I don’t have Hannah’s number.”

A wicked gleam entered Blake’s blue eyes. “Hannah, eh?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Why not? Are you serious?” Drew shook his head, his lips twisting slightly. “What am I supposed to say? Hey, Hannah. It’s me, Drew. I don’t know you if you remember me, but I think it would be swell if we were to marry.”

“That’s the most beautiful proposal I’ve ever heard.” Blake mimed wiping away tears. “Perfectly lovely.”

“I thought you were supposed to help me.”

Blake stretched his arms along the back of the leather sofa. “I am. We know who the woman you should marry is. All you have to do now is figure out how to get her to agree.”

“I have forty-eight… no, forty-seven hours to make it happen.” Could he make that happen? He’d thought of Hannah more times than he cared to admit over the years. And more times than he really cared to admit, he’d checked up on her. Nothing too personal… just a little social media investigation to find out who she was dating, who she was friendly with, and where she worked.

He never went beyond that, and he respected the parts of her life that she didn’t share on the Internet.

But he had wanted to. He had wanted to so badly that he would force himself to go months without clicking on her Facebook profile.

A large part of him wanted to keep her enshrined in his memory, tucked away for safekeeping. This perfect, summertime girl he’d grown up with had, for lack of a better word, enchanted him. She’d never treated him any differently because of his family’s money. Best of all, she had always looked at him with stars in her eyes, even when she’d called him out for being an asshole.

He’d coveted those stars, but he had the sense and willpower enough not to take them. Somehow, at nineteen, he knew if he were the one responsible for those eyes to dull that he would never be able to forgive himself.

People like Hannah Miller hadn’t exist in his world then. Hell, they rarely existed in his world now. For all he knew, Hannah might not be that girl anymore. She probably didn’t ever remember him, anyway.

And even if she did, would she recognize him now? Would she want to spend time with Andrew Montgomery… or the boy he used to be? Or would she only see dollar signs?

Guilt pricked at him for even letting that thought take shape in his brain. It would never work. He wouldn’t give it a chance to work. Hannah didn’t need his baggage or the temporary marriage he could offer her. Besides, what woman in her right mind would marry a virtual stranger?

“Let’s look her up, shall we? Perhaps she has some debt, student loans, medical bills, or a penchant for gambling. I’ll send a text to—”

“There’s no need.”

“There is every need,” Blake disagreed. “I’ve already sent the text.”

“Send another one to cancel the first.”

“Ah, a response already.” A frown pulled Blake’s mouth down at the corners. “Damn. There’s nothing you could offer her—outside of a pure money exchange. You’re not above that, are you?”

“How in the hell did you get Hannah’s information? I didn’t give you a last name.”

A cocky smile kicked up the corners of Blake’s mouth. “We archive the search history of every computer in use at MI, including yours.”

Shit. “Fine. But I refuse to—”

Blake leaned forward. “I’m going to be extremely honest with you, Andrew. You have to make a decision, and you have to make one now. The forty-eight hours William gave you… it started yesterday when he sent the email.”

“Fuck.” Drew scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’ll call Alexis. She’ll understand.”

“Five years of Alexis George. Think about that. Five. Years. She won’t agree to a prenup without millions of incentives.”

“Money isn’t a problem. But time is,” Drew grudgingly admitted. “Five months of dating her was more than enough for me.” The woman was clingy and self-absorbed. In fact, she’d barely changed since they were teenagers.