Page 172 of The Billionaires

“Was that okay?” she asks, looking self-conscious. “I promise I’ll chew the next morsel a bit more.”

I look at her with a confused expression, until it hits me. “You mean my misophonia?”

She nods.

“I completely forgot about that,” I say, awed. “The first time that’s ever happened.”

CHAPTER 24

LILLY

His admission makes me feel more special than the Green Berets—and not for the first time.

Still, just in case, I take the smallest stuffed tomato and eat it with as little chewing as possible. Then, mostly to get his attention away from my eating, I ask, “When you said a billion is a much bigger amount of money than a million, I got to wondering… Why do you need so much money in the first place?”

He considers this over a crostini. “I know you think there’s income inequality here in the U.S., and I won’t argue that point, but if you look at the world as a whole, that’s where a much bigger inequality comes into play—and I’ve been wanting to do something about that. Doing something, however, requires wealth in the billions rather than the millions.”

I’m speechless. The guy I thought was the human equivalent of Scrooge McDuck actually cares about income inequality? “What exactly are you going to do?” I find myself asking.

He tells me. His explanation gets kind of technical, but as best as I can understand, he’s soon going to release a cryptocurrency into the world, one that will allow people who don’t have access to banks to pay electronically where they couldn’t before. More importantly, the crypto will allow wealthy individuals to donate money to people directly—something Bruce is planning to pioneer.

“But isn’t there cryptocurrency already?” I ask. “Bitcoin and the like?”

“Mine will be more ecofriendly,” he says. “And hopefully more stable.”

“Wow,” I say. “This puts your workaholism in an almost angelic light.”

“Well, then I should give you the full disclosure,” he says. “I do expect that in the end, I’ll end up getting even richer—assuming I don’t decide to donate the new money I’ll make off this initiative.”

“How?”

He proceeds to explain it, but I only vaguely understand and am too embarrassed to admit it.

“How about you?” he asks when he’s finished talking in crypto-jargon. “Do you have a big goal that you’re trying to accomplish?”

I’m not sure if it’s the nice day we’ve spent together, or the fact that I feel us vibing in a major way, or the memory of that kiss, but I put all my cards on the table—or rather, blanket. “I want to train service dogs.”

Frowning, he halts the path of a tiny cucumber sandwich that was headed into his mouth. “I thought that’s what you do now. Didn’t you tell me about training your cousin’s dog to sniff out infertility?”

“The dog smells when someone is fertile, and yes, I did do that, but that has been my only service dog so far. Sorry if I made it sound like I’ve trained more. Using the money from this job, I plan to attend a specialized school and get a bunch of certifications.”

He nods approvingly. “Let me know if you need any money up front to pay for said school and the like. Also, now that Colossus is socialized, I can make it so that someone from the household staff watches him as you study for a few hours a day.”

By Anubis, if he’s going to experiment with being nice, and during such a romantic picnic no less, I can’t be held responsible for my actions (or panties coming off).

“Oh, and if you can think of a service dog specialization for Colossus, I’d be very interested to hear it,” he adds.

The idea comes to me in a flash. “What about your misophonia?”

Shit. My stupid reminder seems to evaporate his good mood. “How could a dog help with that?”

“You tell me,” I say. “He could provide emotional support when you need it, or I could teach him to bark at anyone caught chewing in your vicinity. That way, you’re not the only one bothered by an annoying sound.”

He perks up. “You could teach him that?”

I nod. “Food already gets his attention, and we know he can bark from earlier, so combining the two shouldn’t be that hard.”

A mischievous gleam enters his eyes. “How quickly can you do it?”

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