Page 30 of The Billionaire's Beauty

“Wow. This is beginning to sound like bad luck or carelessness.”

“Agreed.”

“So what time will your driver be here to take us back? Because I know you always have a lot of work to get done on Saturdays and Sundays.”

“Would you believe I gave him the day off too?” he says.

I work hard to smother my smile.

“On the very day that both choppers are down for maintenance and we need a ride back to the city?”

“There’s that bad luck again.”

“Luckily, between you and your brothers there are, like, twelve luxury cars out front. I assume we’ll take one of those?”

“That would normally work, but someone slashed the tires,” he says gravely.

This time I can’t stifle my laugh, so there’s no point even trying.

“Someone?”

“Me. I slashed all the tires.”

We’re grinning at each other now.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d start to think that someone doesn’t want us to leave the Hamptons anytime soon,” I say. “Thank God we still have the jitney.”

“Right, but our schedules don’t line up with the jitney. We’ve got too much to get done around here.”

“Oh, yeah?” I raise a brow. “What will we be doing?”

“Fucking,” he says, staring me in the face. “Getting to know each other. More fucking. Maybe some eating. We’ll have to see.”

A shiver of anticipation ripples through me. “Ah.”

“Unless you have other plans,” he adds.

“This is tough,” I say, frowning. “Normally I spend my Saturdays doing fun things like washing my clothes and picking up my dry cleaning and grocery shopping for the week. You expect me to drop all of that just for you? That strikes me as very entitled behavior.”

“Not at all,” he says, those amazing dimples bracketing his mouth. “Looks like I’ll have to get AAA out here to replace some tires so we can drive back to the city and fuck and get to know each other in your apartment.”

“So we have a workable plan.”

“Get over here,” he says as we laugh together. “You need to kiss me good morning and thank me for this delicious breakfast I just made for you. I don’t bite.”

I’m already on my way.

“Actually, you do bite,” I say, reaching for him. “And I love it.”

He sweeps me into his arms, still laughing. I tip my face toward his smiling lips, undone by the rightness of this moment, which feels as natural as slipping into my soft bed to go to sleep at night. Our kiss is tender. Sweetly lingering. When he finally loosens his grip on me and pulls back, he’s taken my breath with him.

“Stay here,” he murmurs with the velvety brush of his lips across my forehead. “Spend the weekend with me.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

“Will your little dog be okay?”

“Yeah. He’s at the kennel. Which he considers a spa vacation.”

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