Page 50 of Pucking Billionaire

“Oh.” Sophia shifts in her seat. “I?—”

“Here’s your onion tart.” Helena sets the cake-like appetizer in front of Sophia. “And your starter salad.” She gives me a plate with two pieces of romaine lettuce and a single cherry tomato.

“What were you saying?” I ask Sophia as soon as we’re alone again. I have a feeling that maybe she’s started feeling bad about keeping the team from me, especially since we both know it’s not a financial decision on her part, but pure spite.

“Nothing,” she says, grabbing a piece of her appetizer. “I believe you owe me some interesting facts about Estonia.”

I inhale my “salad” in half a bite. “Estonia is the birthplace of the Christmas Tree,” I tell her. “Did you know that?”

“It is?”

I smile. “Unless you ask a Latvian. They believe it’s their country, but they’re wrong.”

She grins. “Yeah. Sure. What else?”

I scratch the back of my head. “Taxes are flat in Estonia. That makes filing them so simple you can do it in ten minutes.” Or so my parents would lament every time they had to do the same thing here in the States—but I don’t mention that part because I don’t want her to ask about my family.

“Flat taxes.” Sophia fakes a yawn. “How fascinating… if I were an accountant.”

I shrug. “It’s one of the least religious countries in the world.” Which makes the situation with my parents tragically ironic, but there’s no way I’ll go into that.

“That’s a little more interesting,” she says teasingly. “Especially if I were running a census.”

What would be considered an interesting fact? “Estonia has the cleanest air in the world?”

Sophia shakes her head.

“There are tons of forests that have wolves, lynxes, and brown bears.”

“That’s a little better. But not much.”

“Estonia was the birthplace of Skype,” I offer.

She frowns. “Skype didn’t originate in Silicon Valley?”

“Nope. It was Estonia—which is also the country with the highest number of good-looking people in the world.”

“Is that so?” she says with an eyeroll.

I give her a cocky grin. “I didn’t say I was included in that, but yeah, Estonia has the highest ratio of supermodels in the world.”

“No, no way.” She demands my phone, types something in, and frowns at the result. “Huh,” she says, looking up. “Makes me wonder why you aren’t dating an Estonian supermodel.”

“I don’t date,” I say, repossessing my phone. “But if I did, it wouldn’t be someone from the fatherland, that’s for sure.” It’s what my parents would have wanted if we still spoke, so fuck that.

“I don’t date either,” she says challengingly.

I’m torn between a weird sense of relief and concern. “Why not?”

“Men can’t be trusted,” she says with evident sincerity. “Present company very much included.”

I cock my head. “I approve of the attitude toward others, but what did I do to you to warrant mistrust?”

“All you want is your team,” she says. “I doubt you’d be here otherwise.”

I open my mouth to reply, but Helena shows up with our main courses.

After she leaves, Sophia narrows her eyes at me. “What were you about to say?”

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