Page 25 of A Billionaire Gentleman

“Shit! Dek, are you telling me you haven’t had sex with her?”

I was thoroughly annoyed with this conversation, but I wanted to be honest with my brother. “We haven’t even kissed,” I admitted, lowering my voice. “Didn’t you hear me saying Grandad is cockblocking me with my fiancée?”

My brother stared at me, shaking his head. Finally, he blew out a breath and ran both hands through his hair. “Look, I get that you want to do this for Dad, but you have to do this for you. You deserve to have someone you love. Not just a friend.”

I shook my head. “You don’t get it. Being friends now doesn’t mean what we have won’t become love.”

He sighed. “All right, little brother. If you won’t do it for you, do it for her. Doesn’t Aurelia deserve someone who wants to marry her because they love her?”

Shit.

Fifteen

Sofi

My visitwith Dallas had gone well, and Ms. Stanton complimented my cooking, both of which should have made for one of my best days in a long time, but my stomach had been too twisted into knots for me to have enjoyed it as much as I should have. What I was doing was monumentally stupid, but it was the only option I could live with.

And that was what I kept telling myself as I walked into the restaurant where I was supposed to meet Royd and his client. It wasn’t the fanciest place in Vegas, but it would’ve been far out of my price range even when I was married.

I was wearing my nicest outfit, one I’d gotten for job interviews back when I’d thought I still had a chance to work somewhere decent, but my simple pencil skirt and plain blouse made me look more like a waitress than a patron.

“Can I help you, Miss?”

Clearly, the man with the handlebar mustache and bad combover was thinking along the same lines.

“I’m meeting someone,” I said. “Two people, actually. One of them is Royd Kichner.”

“Oh, of course. Right this way.”

The man’s sudden change of attitude made me feel better about the likelihood of Royd’s client being able to pay what I’d need to make this worth doing. With that concern at least being put to bed –for now anyway – I followed the host to a secluded table at the back of the restaurant where two men sat waiting. One of them was Royd, so I turned my attention to the other.

If I looked like I wasn’t quite fancy enough for this place, Royd’s client looked like he was slumming it.

Kichner had said that his client had wanted to hire me for his grandson. Both of my grandfathers had died before I was born, so I didn’t have anyone to compare this guy to, but I had a feeling not many people would’ve pictured him when thinking the wordgrandpa.

He was tall and lean, distinguished-looking but not a snob. He clearly could’ve had me come to one of those places that needed a year-ahead reservation, but he’d chosen one that was nice enough to let me know he had the means to pay me, and at the same time, not so fancy that I felt like he was bragging. With a grandson in his twenties, he had to be over sixty, but he looked good for his age, and it was definitely from good genes rather than plastic surgery.

Both men stood when I reached the table, and I blushed, taking the seat Royd pulled out for me. After giving the nearby waiter my drink order, Royd introduced me to his client.

“Miss Brennan, I’d like you to meet Jude Holden.”

“Sofi, please,” I said as I held out my hand. “Though I do appreciate you using my maiden name. I’m only keeping Stafford so it’s the same as my son’s.”

“Royd tells me that you’re recently divorced and are in the middle of a custody battle with your ex,” Mr. Holden said. “He also said that your ex doesn’t play fair.”

I gave Royd a startled look. “What do you know about Mead?”

“Nothing I can prove, unfortunately,” he said, a muscle popping in his jaw. “Not with the basic research I did. But I did more than that on you personally, and you’re by far the more credible of you two, which leads me to believe that your ex is using his connections to discredit you.”

“That’s…” Hope sprang into my heart. “That’s exactly what he’s doing.”

“I’m willing to pay you enough to hire the best family attorney in the city and have some left over,” Mr. Holden said.

This sounded too good to be true, and if my life had taught me anything, it was that if something seemed too good, it usually was.

“What, exactly, is it you want me to do?”

“I want you to seduce my youngest grandson, Deklin. I want you to make him fall in love with you, or at least fall enough in lust that he breaks off his engagement.”

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