Page 66 of The Billionaire Player

“He wanted us to be together.”

I laughed. The idea that my father would want to set me and Lexi up and that he would use her writing an article about me as a way to do it was ridiculous.

“Think about it. He’s done it before. You said as much with Walker and Morgan and with Mac and Hope. It fits a pattern that he would want to do the same thing with you. He was the one who pushed for the article right?” she asked.

“Bailey mentioned it a few months ago and I told her I wasn’t ready, but yes, Dad was very persistent, which was unusual for him as he likes to keep things private. I figured he was just trying to help out his friend.”

“You weren’t for it initially. You didn’t want to talk to me,” I said.

“I was busy running a restaurant. I didn’t have time for you, nor did I trust reporters.”

“Your father told you I wouldn’t bother you, right? It put you on edge when I came to see you. When I pushed to talk to you, it caused a rift between us. There’s a fine line between love and hate and he played with it. He played us,” she stated.

“He had no idea how we would react to each other or that anything could happen.”

Though the more Lexi talked the more sense she made and a sinking feeling formed in the pit of my stomach. It was exactly something that my father would do and had done, and something that I would easily fall for. Lexi was everything that I could want in a woman and like no one I had been with before. I could see my father slipping her in my life under the radar knowing that I would be intrigued by her.

“It was a risk, certainly, but the man has spent his entire life taking them. If it didn't work out with us, he would have sent someone else. If it did, all the better. Which it looked like it did. Somewhat,” she said.

“We have no idea what he was thinking. I’m not saying he did or didn’t. But, there’s one way we can resolve this, right now,” I said

“How do you suggest we do that?” she asked.

“Simple. We ask the man himself,” I said.

Chapter 28

Alexandria

“Do you honestly think that your father will tell us what he did?” I asked.

“We’re about to find out,” JD said and started to walk towards the door.

“You don’t seem overly shocked by any of this.” I turned and blocked him from going into the door. I crossed my arms and glaring at him

“Should I be?” he asked with an innocent smile on his face.

“Your father is possibly controlling your life. Our lives. Deciding who you should be with, or putting them in your path. If I were you, I would be pissed,”

“Let’s get to the bottom of this before I get upset about anything,” he said.

“Did you know about this?” It was the one question I had been afraid to ask but the one that I needed to know. There was a big part of me that didn’t think for a second that JD would have gone along with it. I wanted to believe he was just as much in the dark as I was. But I had expected him to be more upset, more annoyed by the thought of what his father had done. It bothered me that he wasn’t, and it made me think he did know.

“You think I knew that my father was doing this and I was okay with it?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.”

“How could you think that about me? I thought you knew me better than that,” he said.

I could see he was upset, even a little hurt that I would even ask. “You aren’t answering the question.”

“No. Of course not. Yes, I can actually see my father doing this, but no, I had nothing to do with it. I would never do something like this to you. I wouldn’t play that sort of game. You saw how I was when we first met. I didn’t want to have anything to do with you.”

“Trying to flatter me now, are you?”

“Actually, I am. Only you could have pulled me out of my rut. Only you could piss me off, challenge me, and make me want you so much that I would throw caution to the wind. The last thing on my mind when you walked in the door ofBennett’swas sleeping with you. Though it might have been the second,” he said.

I could feel myself blushing. He had a way with words and making me forget that I was mad at him. I could see the sincerity in his words. Not only that he didn’t know anything about his father trying to set us up, but that he did care about me and was as shocked about how well we work together as I was.

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