Page 31 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 8
“Fair point. What about the French Revolution?”
“I didn’t fight in it. But…” He gave a long pause. Too long of a pause…
“Oh God. Was Nigel Napoleon?”
Tanner laughed. “No. But he was fucking Marie Antoinette.”
“What?! For real?”
“Welcome to my home,” said Tanner as the doors slid open. He took my hand and guided me out onto a…bridge?
Yup. Instead of opening to a lobby, there was a legit bridge that spanned the distance between the elevator and a pair of heavy metal doors. Water gently swished six feet below the bridge.
“Do you seriously have a moat around your penthouse?” I asked.
“I do. Complete with flesh-eating piranhas.”
“For real?” I leaned over the railing to get a better look. I couldn’t tell if they were really piranhas, but there were definitely fish swimming around. “But we’re on the 89thfloor of a skyscraper. How is it even possible to have a moat up here? Wait, duh.Magic.” I shook my head. I was still trying to wrap my head around how crazy this all was.
“No,” said Tanner. “What’s magical about a fish tank with a bridge over it? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Well how should I know that?! This is all insane!”
He smiled at me. “I’m just messing with you. It could easily have been magic. But in this case, my downstairs neighbor just happened to have a gigantic fish tank. So I figured why not let it double as a moat? You can never be too careful when DODO is sniffing around. Especially now that two people know my secret.”
“You mean three. Me, Chastity, and Dr. Lyons.”
“Right. But as soon as I trigger my security system, this bridge is gonna tip to the side and dump you right into that tank of hungry piranhas…” He reached for a switch on the wall.
“AH!” I screamed and jumped off the bridge to safety. “HELP!!!”
He grabbed me in his strong arms to prevent me from escaping to the elevator.
Fuck! Fuck shit fuck balls!“Get off of me, murderer! I should have trusted my gut and let you rot in prison for the rest of your eternal genie life!”
Tanner laughed. “Ash, I’m joking. I would never dump you into my piranha tank. Or hurt you.”
“Then what does that big death switch do?!”
He flipped the switch. Hundreds of little ball lights strung above the bridge lit up. And the water was filled with swirls of colors. It was the most romantic death trap I’d ever seen. “I wanted to give you a proper welcome to your future home.” He swept me off my feet and carried me across the bridge.
When we got to the door a little piece of the wall slid away. A red beam scanned his face and then the heavy metal front doors slid open.
Holy shit.
It wasn’t the blue-veined white marble floors that surprised me. Or the polished onyx trim on the staircases spiraling around the grand, two-story foyer. And I was totally expecting the huge chandelier.
No…what really surprised me was the statue in the foyer of Tanner as a Greek hero standing triumphantly over the body of a slain dragon.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What?” asked Tanner as he set me down.
“You have a statue of yourself slaying a dragon. That’s like…the most extra thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Ew, don’t talk about yourself like that. But yeah,” I said and smiled up at him. “You’re not so rough on the eyes.”
