Page 24 of The Billionaire Player

“I figured as much. As I’m sure you are aware, I’m not overly fond of reporters. I had one try and almost succeeded in ruining my reputation and my future with one misplaced article. It left me a little gun shy about every trusting one again.

“Soon after, I left town, to get away from that among other things, which I will get to eventually, but not tonight,” he said when he saw that I would ask what those things were.

“I thought I had put my past behind me. I thought enough time had passed that people would forget about my transgressions and let me live my life. I’m starting to see that isn’t the case. I’m still of interest to people, even some ex-girlfriends.”

“Ah, Lizbeth Angelo,” I said.

I hadn’t expected him to bring her up. He certainly hadn’t made any reference to her in the past, nor had he responded to any of her social media posts. I had thought he was immune to her ways, but I could see by the look in his eyes that he wasn’t. She was a problem that he needed to deal with. Strangely, I knew that he wanted my help to do it.

“Yes, the one and only. She seems to be a thorn in my side I just can’t seem to get rid of. I think I have found a way, and that’s where you come in,” he said.

“Do you want me to do an article on her? Will you give me dirt on her in exchange for giving you control of how the story goes?”

“What? No. I would never do that to anyone, not even her. Plus, she would love the publicity. I would never give her that satisfaction.”

“Fair enough,” I said with a nod.

Though it made me like him a little more. Even if he didn’t like Lizbeth and what she was doing to him, he wouldn’t stoop to such a level to make her life worse, or to go down to her level by getting the media involved.

“Have you tried talking to her and getting her to go away?”

“I did when I broke up with her after we got back together when I got back into town. I realize now my mistake was getting back with her to begin with. I have tried reasoning with her, I’ve tried ignoring her, I’ve tried getting others to flood the social media posts so that she wouldn’t have the publicity. You can see how well that turned out,” he said with a shrug.

“Do you want me to talk to her? Tell her that you’re through with her? Do you think she would listen to me?”

“No. The woman doesn’t listen to anyone if they aren’t saying exactly what she wants to hear. After trying everything else, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to get through to her is to show her that I’m not interested in her,” he said.

A slow shiver went down my spine as I understood what the man was getting at. “Why don’t you just tell me what you want me to do?”

“I need to get Lizbeth off my back, or at least to leave me alone long enough to move on to some other chump. I need a way to get her to understand that I’ve truly moved on from her. I need her to know there’s no chance for us.”

“You think that I’m the answer?”

“You could be. I need someone to help me with Lizbeth, you want to get access to me. This is a way for both of us to get what we want.”

“What do you plan on doing? Parade me around like some sort of prize?” I asked.

“You’re really not that much of a prize,” he muttered.

I resisted the urge to throw my drink in his face. Two things stopped me, one, the smug look on his face that told me he was just teasing me and two, the drink was exceptional and I didn’t want to waste it.

“With the restaurant opening, I don’t have time to deal with a jilted woman who hasn’t realized our relationship is done. I can’t do that alone. You want to do a story on me and I really don’t have time to give to you. But, if you were with me at some of the functions I need to go to, then Lizbeth would hopefully see I have moved on and leave me alone. By doing this, it would give you a chance to see me in my natural environment, observe me, and ask me questions for your article.”

“Are you proposing I pose as your girlfriend so I can do a story on you?”

“You’re going to do the story either way. This allows you to do a better story. Something I think you would want to do,” he countered.

“What would my duties include?” I asked and slid my empty glass over to him.

He smiled and made me another drink and one for himself. I could tell they weren’t as strong as the previous ones. I wanted to ask him if that was just something he did as a bartender or if he was making sure we weren’t too drunk so that we couldn’t discuss our business arrangement, as he liked to call it.

“What do you want them to be?” he asked slyly as he put my drink in front of me.

“I would like to have complete access to your credit card and spend all your money on lavish clothes and jewelry,” I said.

JD reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and put a black credit card on the counter. “This one should get you started.”

“I was joking.”

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