Page 9 of The Billionaire Babe

“Fuck me, she looked like she bathed in money. Now I know why,” Cody says, as Jimmy and I stare at each other. I can’t say I have heard of her before, but Jimmy seems to know exactly who she is. She did look good. Different from all the other women in the club. Her dress was perfect, her hair was perfect, her lips, nails, shoes, body, everything about her was fucking perfect.

“Fuck. I didn’t even get a photo for socials,” he grumbles as he runs his hand through his hair. “She can literally make or break this club. If she puts it out on social media she was here, the lines next week will be double. Now, after you threw her out, the opposite will probably happen, and the club will go under, and we will all be without a job.”

“Fuck,” I murmur, as the last half an hour finally settles in.

“Fuck is right.” Jimmy sighs.

“What can we do?” Brady asks, stepping forward, all three of us now knowing what is at stake.

“I’m not sure there is anything we can do. But I will try to call her or her friends this week, see if I can get them back so you can apologize to her,” he says, looking at me.

“I am not fucking apologizing,” I mutter. I don’t want to see her again. I can’t see her again. The vision of her is now permanently burned into my eyes and the feeling of her in my arms felt too fucking good.

“If you want this fucking gig, you will. Now get out of here,” Jimmy dismisses us, and I don’t wait before I bolt out the door. Angry at myself. Angry at Jimmy and angry at Little Miss Perfect.

But I know I don’t need to worry because she won't be back. Women like her never come back.

As I step onto the main floor, the music is louder and the people appear drunker. It is past midnight and nothing good ever happens after midnight. Rolling my shoulders, I crunch my knuckles. Four more hours until I can call it a night, then sleep for a few hours before heading back to the gym. Because when you come from nothing, you work for everything.

There is no driver coming to take me home. I need to look after myself.

5

VALERIE

“Valerie dear, it was so lovely to see you,” Mrs. Alderman says, shaking my hand limply and giving me her pursed-lipped smile.

“Lovely to see you as well. Please drive safely,” I tell her as she glides around me and out the door. I take a breath. This fundraising luncheon on behalf of Van Cleef Corp is now almost over, and I can’t wait to head home and kick off my heels. It has been a long week. I had meeting after meeting, signed a new deal for office space, reviewed the contracts on a new property development the company is looking into, and prepared some reports for the next board meeting. I have also spoken to George. He had no idea of my father’s plans to marry me off and he didn’t like it at all. We have agreed to meet to discuss things further.

“Thanks, Val. A great event, as always,” Lucy Hamilton, owner of Bloomers Books, says, walking up to me, and I grab her in for a hug.

“Lucy, tell me something good…” I whisper to her, and she chuckles. She knows how draining these luncheons are. We have become firm friends over the past year. Ever since I started helping her with raising money for the literacy programs at Bloomers Books.

“You looked hot getting thrown out of that nightclub on the weekend.” She giggles, and I huff a laugh as I pull away from her but don’t let her go.

“Well, trust Society News to ensure all the latest Valerie Van Cleef news is widely available.”

“Are you okay? What happened?” Lucy asks, looking mildly amused and slightly concerned.

“It was a misunderstanding. Nothing too dramatic.” I wave off her question. For this entire luncheon, I have had people talking to me and behind my back about the photos of me that Society News published, being escorted from Club Vine. I’ve been mortified. I thought about sending a legal letter, threatening them with slander, but I know it won’t do any good. They would probably report on that as well and the whole thing would blow up again.

“I got invited to Chloe's new showing. Please tell me you will be there?” she asks me.

“I will be. It has been too long since I saw you, though. We should catch up properly soon.”

“Why don’t you come by the bookshop?” her brother, Ben Rothschild, says as he approaches us.

“She is always at the bookshop!” Lucy says, grinning. It’s true, I am there a lot.

“Hey, Ben. How’s the firm?” I greet him with a smile. Ben runs Rothschild Law, one of the biggest law firms in the country. He mainly manages all the legal for their other businesses, but it is still a huge firm, nonetheless.

“The firm is great. Growing. I wanted to talk to you about business, actually,” he says, and I tilt my head, intrigued. It isn’t often opportunities like working with the Rothschilds come up, and it is something I would love to explore. I realize in this moment that this is what I will miss if I am married off. This business networking, collaborating with other like-minded people.

“Hmmm, you want to talk to the competitor? Really?” I tease, raising an eyebrow. I get along well with all the Rothschilds, but our parents never did. My father hated their parents, and Mrs. Rothschild was well known for her diabolical choices when it came to her boys. Our parents were always competing. It is something all us kids now hate.

“We are wanting to collaborate locally, and we were wondering if Van Cleef Corp would be interested?” he says with his trademark smirk. I would personally love to collaborate with the Rothschilds, but just standing here talking to Ben will make my father angry. At the thought, my eyes dart around the room, looking for him. Ben is vague, but I get the bubble of excitement in my stomach that tells me this could be something good. This is soon met with the new feeling of dread when I think that this could all be taken away from me in an instant. I don’t have the weight of a ring on my finger, but it feels heavy just the same.

“I’m absolutely interested, although my father…” I start to say.

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