Page 27 of A Billionaire Gentleman

“Go ahead,” Royd said quietly, as if he knew what I was thinking.

I nodded and peeked at the check. My heart nearly stopped. I couldn’t be reading that correctly. There were way too many zeroes. This couldn’t be only half. It was more than I’d imagined for the whole thing.

“We can renegotiate if that’s not enough,” Mr. Holden said. “I’d rather not have to use Royd’s back-up.”

“No!” I said quickly. I put the envelope in my purse and resisted the urge to keep the cheap leather bag on the table. “No. Thank you very much. It’s more than generous.”

Mr. Holden smiled. “Good. Now, finish your dinner, and we’ll discuss scheduling over dessert.”

“I do have one question before we get to that,” I said. “What happens if Deklin realizes that it’s all fake?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll have a plan in place for every possible contingency.”

I doubted he could think of everything that could possibly go wrong, but I didn’t really have much choice but to trust him. He was my best hope of getting Dallas back.

Sixteen

Deklin

I shouldn’t have takenthat last shot, but when your big brother double-dog-dared you to take another shot of tequila, then you took another shot of tequila and damned the consequences.

Damning the consequences, however, did not actually make said consequences go away.

Which was why I was downing my second bottle of water and hoping the aspirin kicked in before I got to the restaurant for breakfast. Just the thought of eating made me queasy, but if I didn’t eat, Grandad would want to know what was wrong, and I didn’t want him thinking that I couldn’t be trusted on a business trip. Granted, I’d been out with Damon, not a client, but if everyone was looking for a reason to bench me, I doubted it’d matter who I was with.

Maybe that was why Grandad kept pulling me away from Aurelia. Maybe he was trying to get me so frustrated that I’d do something stupid.

As soon as I thought it, I felt bad. Grandad wasn’t that kind of person. He wasn’t sneaky or passive-aggressive. That was honestly why I thought it was weird of him to keep taking me on trips rather than just coming out and saying it if he had a problem with Aurelia and me.

Then again, maybe he just didn’t want me to think he was trying to control my life like Dad sometimes did. Considering the engagement was one of those controlled “decisions,” I couldn’t exactly brush aside how much influence Dad had over my choices.

I leaned against the elevator wall and closed my eyes, the cool surface soothing my pounding head. If I was going to be honest about last night, I had to admit that it’d been more than Damon’s dare that had made me take that last shot.

I’d hoped that it would have done what all of the other ones hadn’t: made me forget about Damon’s comments about my engagement. He’d dropped the subject after asking me if Aurelia deserved better, but I hadn’t been able to get that question out of my mind.

She did deserve better. She deserved someone who loved her and who she loved, but just because she loved someone didn’t mean he wouldn’t break her heart. Wouldn’t it be better for her to marry someone who would protect her and take care of her? Wasn’t that also love? Maybe not the romantic kind, but maybe that shouldn’t matter.

I was still thinking about it when I walked into the restaurant that I almost sat down without realizing that Grandad wasn’t alone at the table. A pretty woman with short, raven-black hair and baby blue eyes sat on the opposite side of the table. She looked to be around my age and well-dressed, even if her clothes weren’t expensive. Her smile was polite but a bit stiff, and I wondered if she was as surprised by me as I was by her.

“Hi.”

“Deklin, good morning.” Grandad was clearly at ease. “I’d like you to meet Sofi Brennan.”

“Stafford,” she corrected quietly. “I haven’t had it changed back to my maiden name yet.”

Her voice was low, but not in a rough way. More like…sultry.

“I apologize.” Grandad gestured for me to sit. “Sofi, this is my grandson, Deklin. Deklin, this is Sofi Strafford, my assistant.”

I didn’t bother to conceal my surprise. They both obviously knew that I had no clue who she was or why she was here.

The waiter had impeccable timing because, as he started with Sofi, I was able to lean over to Grandad and speak without her hearing.

“What do you mean, she’s your assistant? You came to Vegas to find someone for a job I didn’t even know was open?”

Grandad gave me that enigmatic smile of his. “I didn’t want the family name prompting applicants who aren’t actually interested in the job.”

That made sense, I supposed. When Grandad had married Cynthia, most people thought she was after his money. I could see women wanting to be his assistant thinking that they’d seduce him and be wife number four. What I didn’t understand was why he needed an assistant at all. Wasn’t that the entire point of me being here?

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