Page 26 of Billionaire Devil

Because Ihavebeen scared. For a long time. I work until I’m exhausted so I don’t have to think too much about how alone in this world I really am.

Sure, I have Jessie and she’s always been a rock to me, but she also has her mom and six cousins and the busy, hectic schedule of a person who has a family who are involved in her life. And now she’ll have a husband. And ababy. There’s Sloane, but it’s not the kind of friendship where you’d call each other up out of the blue and talk about how worried you are about maybe not being able to cope with all the stuff you have to cope with.

I find myself taking a deep breath and exhaling it in that way you do when you’re sort of overwhelmed with relief.

I hardly know Colton Maddox, but he already feels like a buffer against the harder edges of reality. Which is crazy.

I don’t analyze it and I know it’s very short-term, but right now it feels ridiculously good to just be…cared for, if it could be called that.

Watching him as he drives, humming along to a Waylon Jennings oldie, his forearms are muscular and hair-dusted as he grips the steering wheel. I can’t help but notice that he’s incredibly…masculine. Big and well-built. His hands are tan and strong-looking. His thighs, in his jeans, are sculpted and solid, filling them out like…well, sort of ideally. Like he’s a living, breathing work of art.

His profile is somehow romantic against the backdrop of the colorful fall landscape. His jaw is square and his neck is corded. His thick hair?—

“Damn, girl. You’re checking me out like you want your first lesson now.”

Here we go again with the smug smirk.

The man sure knows exactly how to push my buttons. “You can stop with the ‘lessons’. There aren’t going to be any lessons.”

“Too late to back out, Bailey. We shook on it.”

“You obviously rate your own sense of humor very highly, Maddox. You could get a side hustle as a stand-up comedian if the stock market ever crashes. But hopefully itwon’t because you might find you’re not as funny as you think.”

Colton bites back another smile. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for the tip, gorgeous.”

“Anytime.”

Even though he’s clearly trying to ruffle every single one of my feathers—and I’m not entirely sure why—there’s something almost comforting about squabbling with Colton Maddox. He’s incredibly easy to be with. There’s no awkwardness in our teasing banter, even though there probably should be.

It doesn’t make sense at all, but I already feel like I know him better than most people I’ve known for years. I can’t help feeling that weclickin a way that’s rare—even if he is without a doubt the most maddening man I’ve ever met.

“So, do you have business meetings in L.A.?” I ask him, reclining my seat. “You still haven’t told me why you decided on this spur of the moment drive across the country.”

He stares at my painted toes for a few seconds, until I almost remind him to keep his eyes on the road.

Colton ignores my question, concentrating on passing a slower car.

“Colton?”

“Yeah?”

“You have meetings in L.A.?” I ask again, in case he didn’t hear me over the music and the acceleration of the motor.

“Affirmative.”

It’s a joke that doesn’t seem to get old and we both laugh, but something about the way he dodged my question makes me wonder if he’s lying. And why he would.

“So,” Colton says, pulling his sunglasses down over his eyes. “Since we’ve got all the time in the world, I want to hear the entire life story of Lila Bailey. Make it juicy.”

“I already told you all the juicy parts last night. Sadly, that’s as juicy as it gets.”

“Are your parents still in Venice?”

I open one of the bottles of water already propped in the cup holders and hand it to him. Then I open the other one and take a long sip. “So we’re getting real now, are we?”

“We’ve been real all along. Answer the question, please.”

He’s right about that. We have been real the whole time. We can’t seem to help ourselves. “I never knew my dad. He and my mom had, like, a two-week relationship that ended before my mom even found out she was pregnant with me. I never met him.”

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