Page 9 of The Billionaire's Second Chance
“What, Charlie?” I asked. “You want to get brunch?” I slipped into the bathroom, closing the door before letting the sheet fall to the ground. I didn’t dare look at myself in the mirror, just dressed quickly. I ran my fingers through my hair, thinking of the long, hot shower I’d take when I got home. Still avoiding the mirror, I grabbed my clutch and pushed open the bathroom door. “I don’t think so.”
“I’m guessing you don’t want to get room service?” he grumbled. He’d pulled his tuxedo shirt on while I was in the bathroom, and it hung open over his bare chest, his hands by his sides. I stared at the hollow at the bottom of his throat, unwilling to look lower, unable to look higher.
“Thanks, but no,” I said. “I have–” The lie was halfway out my mouth before I realized, with a shock, that it wasn’t a lie at all. “A work meeting.”Shit. Ididhave a meeting. At nine. I fumbled to check my phone, dropping my clutch in the process. My underwear peeked out from the open zipper. I bent to grab it and spotted my heels, kicked half under the bed.
“Work?” he asked, incredulous. “It’s a Sunday morning, Sam. You havework?”
“Yes, Charlie,” I snapped. “I know you’re unfamiliar with the concept–”
“You know what, Sam?” he said, his voice rising, one finger raised at me, accusatory. Then his hand dropped, and his shoulders with it. “You’re right. My mistake. It’s only right for you to be working on a Sunday morning when normal people are with their families, or volunteering, or yes, getting brunch, or just fuckingsleeping in.I’m happy for you,” he added, buttoning his shirt up from the bottom. He stopped before he got to the top, and snatched his tuxedo jacket from the chair back. “I’m happy you have something that makes your life worth living, even if it iswork on a Sunday morning.”
“Right. Because you’ve been spending all your timevolunteering.That’s what they’re calling this now?” I asked, gesturing toward the rumpled bedsheets between us.
“Sleeping withyou?” he said with a bitter laugh. “Yeah, I think it is. That’s my charity work for the season completed.”
His words stung, my chest already rubbed raw by last night’s mistake, but I didn’t flinch. “You know, there’s a reason that James is happily married and you’re having one-night stands in hotels,” I said as I slipped on last night’s heels. I turned to leave.
“You’re god damn right there is,” he growled. “Have a great time at work, then, Samantha. Bye.” I was at the door when he continued. “And who knows, maybe while you’re there you’ll meet a nice investment banker who’ll give you the run of the house while he’s sleeping with his secretary.”
My hand gripped the doorknob. I twisted, wrenching the door open, but paused before passing through.
“Charlie,” I said.
“What is it now, Sam?” he snapped back.
There weren’t words to express exactly what I felt, so I was forced to settle on the closest approximation:
“Fuck you.”
I slammed the door behind me. It was unsatisfying; the sound was swallowed up by the hotel hallway’s plush carpet.
A five-starfuckingmistake.
CHAPTER5
Charlie
As soon asthe door fell shut behind her, I swore. Loudly. Damn it, between last night and this morning, we were going to get a noise complaint.
I ran my hands through my hair–sticky with the sweat of last night’s exertion–and sighed.
I thought, last night, that maybe…
When I woke up, my muscles feeling warm and loose in crisp hotel linens, the curve of her spine pressed into my chest, her sweet-scented hair tickling against my nose in a way sheneverwould have allowed it to do during daylight hours, I’d hoped…
I should have known better.
Samantha Scott was always,alwaysa mistake.
And it was all her fault, too, I grouched as I shoved my bow tie into my pocket, my feet into my dress shoes. She knew just how to goad me into giving her what she wanted, and then exactly how to infuriate me in as few words possible:this is why James is married and you’re having one-night stands with a woman who hates you, Charlie.
As if I didn’t alreadyknow. As if Ididn’t get it, hadn’t gotten it the very first time I was passed over in favor of James, the older of the two Martin boys. Ladies loved his wholebrooding artistthing. The billion-dollar inheritance didn’t hurt either. I thought, when we were all younger, that Sam probablywouldmarry him. She a literary agent, he a bestselling author and one of her brother’s closest friends, it was only logical. Our families had thought as much as well, I glowered. Obviously, that wasn’t how it worked out in the end: James had found his happily ever after with Edie, who adored him, and Sam… Well, Sam was still a frigid, infuriating icicle in a blue dress. EvenJameswas never good enough forher.
I grabbed my phone and wallet off the table at the entrance to the suite, pulling out a twenty for housekeeping. It was early still–damnSamantha–so I didn’t bother calling my driver. I’d get a taxi back to my place, shower, change, a quick breakfast… then my meeting. I hadn’t been lying, whatever that woman thought; some peopledidvolunteer on weekends, and I was one of them. I’d volunteered with the city’s schools for a few years now. At first, it had just been donations. Cash, stocks. Then, I’d seen the kind of outdated equipment that some of the schools were keeping in their media centers and libraries and hell, even on the desks of the teachers. Soon, my tech company was donating computers on a regular basis. We’d use them for a few years in the office, then take them over to the schools, where they lived out the rest of their natural lives teaching kids to touch-type and muddle through five-paragraph essays.
And then… Then there had been that kid, that little brown-haired girl who’d asked me if I couldreallytalk to computers, and I’d offered to come in and show the kids in her class a couple little tricks.Hello, World,that kind of thing. Just the basics. Not a big deal.
That had been a year ago, and I’d been going every Friday ever since. It got me out of the office a few hours earlier, after all. And kept my hands on the keyboard, my skills fresh, as my time grew increasingly dedicated to meetings with investors, the board, my C-suite.
