Page 18 of The Billionaires

Wow, dude. That’s a big wave. Radical.

“I’m glad you like it.”

Dude! At this rate, I’ll totally flower in a week or so.

As the water absorbs into El Duderino’s soil, I feed the cat and check for new job prospects. There are none. Today was my big opportunity, and I blew it. Or the elevator did.

Dude, I’m totes cool on the agua.

I check. Yep. Soil is just right. I remove the saucer.

Thanks, dude. Drowning is a totally uncool way to go.

“Okay. My time for nourishment,” I say and start on my own dinner.

Afterward, I watch some TV, pet Atonic, talk to El Duderino one last time, and head to bed. As I fall asleep, I make it a point not to think of—or dream about—a certain man I was stuck in an elevator with.

No matter how tempting it might be.

A doorbell startles me awake.

Grr. Lucius was just licking my?—

Wait. Maybe it’s good I was awoken from that.

As usual, the cat is sleeping on top of my head, probably pretending to be one of those wigs the nobility wore in yesteryear.

I carefully move her aside and rush to brush my teeth before sprinting for the door.

When I open it, Pearl is standing there, green eyes wide and excited.

“You’re famous!” She thrusts her phone at my face.

I rub my eyes. “What are you?—”

And then I see it.

A picture of me and Lucius underneath a headline:

Billionaire Recluse Finally Gets a Girlfriend

What the saguaro-fucking fuck?

CHAPTER 9

LUCIUS

I spend a couple hours dealing with the fallout from the fire before I’m able to grab a conference room with Eidith to talk about the Novus Rome land clusterfuck.

“Smithson left after a half-hour wait,” Eidith says without preamble. Then, for some odd reason, she puts her hand on my elbow as she adds, “He said he had another offer, and that he’d take it.”

I resist the urge to shake off her hand and smash my palm on the conference room desk. “Why? He has to know I'd offer more.”

She pulls her hand away, thankfully, and shrugs. “Your being late hurt his ego. Probably thought you weren’t serious.”

Fucking real estate moguls and their egos. “You couldn’t talk him down?”

As she shakes her head, not a single hair falls out of place on her sprayed-into-submission hairdo.

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