The Billionaire Game(14)

“This is so adorbs!” she squealed, when she looked at the finished product in the mirror. “Oh wow, this is literally the best thing that has ever happened to me!” She shimmied out of the lingerie and back into her jeans, peeking over the screen. “Asher baby, I gotta jet to this shoot. Can you pay the nice lady? I left my wallet in my other car.”

Great. More time with God’s gift to the blonde and bereft of brains.

As Julie blew him a kiss, Asher counted bills into my palm. I tried to take my hand back as soon as he was done, but he closed his fingers over mine, caressing my skin. “Any particular reason you’re so grumpy today?”

I raised an eyebrow and yanked my hand away. “Any particular reason you’re going for blondes? Entering a dog show later, maybe?”

Asher just chuckled, leaning against the wall in a way that accentuated the muscular ripple of his shoulders under his tight T-shirt. I licked my lips without meaning to. “I hear they have more fun.”

“Well, gingers have plenty of fun too,” I shot back, silently cursing myself for not managing a better comeback.

Asher leaned in. His voice was a low, intimate rumble. “Well, you’ll have to show me sometime.”

We were just a few feet from my bedroom…I would just have to drag him in there, and throw him down on my bed, running my hands under his shirt and across that broad chest, letting his elegant fingers unbutton my skirt, our passion letting me forget his girlfriends and how terrible I felt about Stevie and the job and my whole life…

No. I was not going to be just another one of his conquests. Not even the sole redhead.

“Not a chance,” I told him.

He shrugged, nonchalant. “If you don’t, I might just assume you’re blonde after all.” A wicked grin split his face. “After all, how do I know that the carpet matches the drapes?”

“Dude, if your lady’s ladyhairs look like a carpet, then I think you have bigger concerns. Like, maybe a shampoo.”

“Why are you so obsessed with my girlfriends?” he said, lounging against the wall in a way that would have incited riots if he’d been in public.

“I’m not obsessed! You just keep bringing them around here and throwing them in my face!”

“You should be happy,” he said. “I just recommended you to another girl last night! Your designs are the best I’ve ever seen—and I’ve seen a lot of lingerie.” He winked. The nerve.

“I’m surprised you have time before they kick you out the door,” I shot back.

“Are you in stores?” he asked, suddenly serious. “I know a hundred more women who’d love to wear them.”

“Gee, only a hundred?” I rolled my eyes, ignoring the compliment. “Dude, if you haven’t already, maybe think about getting an STD check.”

Asher looked nonplussed for a second, as though he’d been startled out of a pose. “You never do let up, do you?”

“It’s one of my most sterling qualities,” I snarked.

“It is,” he said. He caught my gaze and held it, and for a moment—

And then he pulled out his card and pressed it into my hand along with the money, and took the opportunity to slide close enough to me that we were breathing the same air, and I realized it was just another move in his playbook.

“If you ever want any…business advice…” he murmured, maintaining eye contact.

“Business advice?” I chirped. “Wow, thanks. You sure are sweet to offer that to little old me—”

He leaned even closer, encouraged. “We could meet up sometime and…talk. I know a nice little Italian place…elegant, intimate…”

“—who definitely didn’t found this whole business herself without no help from anyone or anything,” I finished. “What an altruist!”

And smiling as sweetly as apple pie, still keeping eye contact, I tossed his business card right out the window.

You could have framed the look on his face and sold it for a million dollars.

“Goodbye, Mr. Young.”

As he slunk away, I went back to my designs with a vengeance. So he liked them? Well, that meant they needed to be even better.

Ha, ‘business advice!’ Not if he were the last man on earth.





FIVE




“No freaking way!”

Lacey slammed her appletini on the table in disgust, and then shot the waiter an apologetic look as he rushed to mop up the results of her indignation. Then she got right back to being indignant.

“That’s just completely unnecessary!” Lacey said. “It’s a complete overreaction! I can’t believe they fired you, I’m calling HR right now—”