Page 37 of Playboy Billionaire

Her cheeks grew warm and her skin burned where he touched her. It felt so natural…warning…warning…little alarm bells started going off in her head. She cleared her throat and slipped her sunglasses back on.

“I’ll have a vodka and tonic please…with a twist of lime.”

“Go sit, you two, I’ll be right out with those.”

Griffin led her to the deck adjacent to the marina and they sat at a table big enough for all of them. Penelope looked around, “This is really nice. I didn’t get to fully appreciate it the first time.”

“Yeah, my favorite drinking hole.”

“You’re so lucky to have family.”

“You don’t?”

“Nope. My mom passed two years ago, and my dad has never been in the picture. No siblings.”

“I’m sorry.” He covered her hand that rested on top of the table and unconsciously stroked it with his thumb.

She lifted one shoulder in a shrug, “I am too. I miss her.”

“We were raised by nannies and boarding schools, but my brother and sister were always there for me. My parents not so much. How’d your mom die…” Seeing her pained expression he quickly said, “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“It’s okay, it’s probably good for me to talk about it. I tend to bottle everything up. She died of breast cancer. She was only fifty-four.”

“That really sucks.”

Faye set their drinks and plates down and plopped in a chair next to Penelope. “How do you like our little seaside town?”

“I honestly haven’t explored much. It becomes a bit of a management problem at times.”

“That would be so hard. The loss of freedom.”

“It is. Nobody can prepare you for it.”

“Did you always want to be an actor?”

“Yeah. I just didn’t know there would be such a big price to pay. I’m really not complaining though. It has certainly given me many opportunities most people don’t get.”

“Am I really sitting here having a normal conversation with Penelope Winters?” Faye said laughing.

Jesse appeared with their pizza and sat down next to his fiancée, planting a sweet kiss on her lips.

Penelope felt a yearning that she quickly tamped down. It wasn’t her destiny. The natural gifts that had been bestowed upon her were also the very things that kept her from finding her one true love. It was a trade-off, but it had to be enough. She’d thought she’d found it twice and both times she’d been gutted.

She had vowed to herself after Noah that she’d focus on herself and her career and be thankful for what she had. If she had an occasional twinge of longing, that was only to be expected. She’d learned the hard way that most men weren’t to be trusted or counted upon.

She concentrated on managing the cheese that was scalding her tongue and let the warm glow of conversation and alcohol numb her to the niggling voice reminding her of how lonely her life was.

* * *

They rode home with the windows down and the song “Capital Letters” by Hailee Steinfeld and Blood Pop blasting through the speakers. Penelope danced in her seat, singing along. “But then there was you…coming out of the crowd.”

“I love this song,” she yelled over the music. “The sound system is amazing,” Penelope said. When he smiled at her like that, she melted a little more each time.

“It’d better be,” he said, laughing.

She grabbed his hand and squeezed it, “Thank you.”

“The pizza wasn’tthatgood.”

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