Page 24 of The Billionaire's Obsession

Just then, the door opened.

“It’s ok, David, good man. I’ve got it from here,” Cole’s deep voice floated in from outside. I pushed myself out of the car, and onto the street with some difficultly. Cole swept me into his arms without so much as a word of warning.

“What are you doing?” I nearly shrieked, butterflies dancing in my tummy.

“Making sure you don’t injure your ankle even more. HR would be right on my ass if you sued,” he said, with a perfectly straight face. He kicked the car door closed behind him.

“My coat is in there.”

“You can get it back later,” he said, uncaring.

“What? Where are we going?” I protested mildly, as I looked around the neighborhood. It was so quiet and clean, it felt stately somehow and safe.

“Like David said, home.”

“I don’t live here,” I pointed out again.

Cole hit me with a lopsided grin that made my heart pound. Fuck, why’d he have to be so handsome?

“You do now. Welcome home, Riley.”

Then he started forward, deaf to my follow-up questions and demands for an explanation. He carried me through an enormous gate and up a gravel driveway. A house sat in perfectly manicured gardens. It was beautiful and the view beyond it was of sprawling LA, lit up like constellations.

“So, it’s not got much personality, but that means you can do what you want with it,” Cole was saying as he punched a number into the keypad and pushed open the door.

“I don’t understand what’s going on.” My voice was faint. Too many feelings were rushing through my chest as Cole carried me through a beautiful open-plan kitchen where a wall of glass was pushed open to the night. Out the back, an inviting swimming pool glowed. He carried me down the steps.

“Here, this will feel good for your ankle,” he said, placing me carefully down by the pool edge and pushing my skirt up a little. I watched the side of his face. How had this crazy, controlling, brilliant man worked his way so effortlessly into my guarded heart? I’d never stood a single chance against him. He was right. The cool water felt amazing against my swollen ankle. I leaned back and studied him as he sat next to me, and put his feet into the pool.

“You know, all the time I’ve been in LA, I’ve never ventured out of the same three-mile radius until going to Napa with you. I was working too hard in New York. My world had become too small. So I moved out here and did the same thing.”

“What’s going on? You need to tell me.”

He sighed and swished his powerful legs through the water.

“I thought about what you said. I considered your concerns and issues with me, and the way I do things.”

“And?” I prompted, when he fell silent.

“And, I don’t agree.” His words jolted me. He was looking out at the magnificent view. He looked relaxed and at ease, like he had at his uncle’s house.

“You don’t agree,” I repeated.

“I considered what you said, and have concluded that I don’t agree. I won’t let you struggle to make rent, or work in a crappy area in a badly secured studio at night. It’s not going to happen.”

I stared at him, dumbstruck by the audacity of his words. “It’s not your decision to make!”

“Debatable, but I’ve also decided that I don’t care.”

“You don’t care? You don’t care if you’re a pushy, control freak billionaire with no regard for other people’s opinions.”

He shrugged. “Nope.”

I turned back to the pool, outrage and the urge to laugh warring inside me. His words pissed me off, but they also made me lighter in a way I wouldn’t have imagined.

Then I did the only thing I could think of right then, to act on the indignation rising in my chest. I pushed him into the pool. One minute he was sitting, looking at the stars beside me, the next he was disappearing under the water.

Laughter, thick and infectious, filled the air as he surfaced a few metres down the pool. It was the lightest I’d felt in days.

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