Page 42 of Billionaire Devil

“Affirmative.”

There it is. Her gently exasperated smile.

“It’s snowing in Aspen,” I tell her.

Her eyes glimmer in the moonlight.

“We can take the gondola up to the restaurant at the top of the mountain. I’ve rented us a ski-in condo further down. With a hot tub on the deck and a snowmobile we can take down to the resort.”

She’s watching me. “Wow. You sure know how to…arrangestuff.”

It’s a good sign, that I’ve managed to revive a fraction of her sass. You can’t be sad and sassy at the same time, I figure.

“Colton?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you doing all this?” she whispers.

I turn onto my side so I’m facing her. I think about making a joke to try to make her laugh but instead I hear myself telling her the truth. “I don’t know. I think it might be because you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and I can’t actually believe you’re real. I want to spend time with you and get to know you.”

She’s still watching me, her little white teeth gently sinking into her bottom lip, which fully revives my hard-on. I ignore it.

“And the more time I spend with you the more beautiful you get. I don’t know how you do it, Sunshine.”

Lila’s quiet for a few seconds. I wait for her to say something. “Did anyone ever tell you you’re dangerous, Maddox?”

“I think you’re the one who’s dangerous.”

Softly: “Well, I think you’remoredangerous.”

“Well, all I’m going to be doing tonight is staying right here, watching over you while you sleep so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

Her silver eyes are inky and soulful. “Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Saying the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me.”

“You can ignore Sloane, by the way. She thinks she knows everything about me but she doesn’t. She doesn’t know what drives me.”

“What drives you?”

It would sound cheesy as fuck to say it, but the only word that comes to mind in the moment is…you.You’ve become the only thing I can see. I’m fucking obsessed with you. And all I’ve had is one taste.

This sudden addiction feels more feral than anything ever has. Like everything suddenly has meaning and it’s all magnetized toward this little moonlit goddess with her smooth skin and her wild curls and the light bruises under her lightning-bright eyes.

I have no idea what’s happening to me but whatever it is, it’sfuckingsure of itself.

I’m going to ease those bruises and fix everything that’s ever felt broken.

11

Monday

Roanoke, Virginia

And so we keep going.Colton orders us an early room service breakfast that could feed several armies and I pack some of it up for a picnic for lunch.

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