Page 46 of Dating the Billionaire
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
GRANTWAVEDTHEwad of thick red hair in front of her face and shouted, “Put on the damn beard and fly the billionaire wherever he wants to go!”
As arguments between business partners went, it was probably one of the most bizarre. But Blair didn’t feel like laughing about it. Instead, tears stung her eyes, but she furiously blinked them away. She never cried. And she was not about to start now.
“Stop telling me what to do,” she told her brother as, threat of tears cleared away, she stared up at where he loomed over her desk. “We are equal partners in this business.”
That was why Blair had been so adamant about contributing half of the money to start up the charter company—even though, unlike Grant, she’d had to take out loans to do that. It had been worth it so that she would have equal say in the running of their business, though. So far Grant had been good about treating her as an equal rather than a little sister. Until today.
He dropped the beard onto her desk before plopping himself in the chair behind his messy desk. “We may be equal partners in the business, but this mess is all yours. You’re the one who overreacted and wanted to teach him a lesson.”
“And you’re the one who told me to stop flying him around so he wouldn’t figure it out,” she reminded him. “Now you want me to put the beard back on and get back in the cockpit.” And she couldn’t do it.
For so many reasons...
The biggest one was that she had fallen hopelessly in love with the Italian billionaire, and she didn’t want to deceive him anymore.
“Because we’re going to lose a major client if you don’t,” Grant said.
“And what if we do?” she asked. “We must have had clients stop chartering flights with us before, but we’re still in business, still expanding.” They’d just bought another plane and were training more pilots, like Jean-Claude, in order to keep up with all the charters.
“We’ve never lost a client before,” Grant said. “In fact, we keep gaining them through recommendations.”
“So why are you so worried about losing this one?” she asked. “He’s not going to hurt our business.”
“He could,” Grant insisted.
“He’s not going to sue us,” she said.
“Only if he doesn’t find out about your little subterfuge,” Grant said.
“The only way he might find out...” Was if she finally got up the nerve to tell him.
But her desire for him had beat out her desire to tell him the truth the other night, and she’d chickened out. And like the coward she was, she’d sneaked out of his suite the moment he’d fallen asleep. She wasn’t going to tell him, and she was definitely not going to see him again.
“The only way he might find out is if I keep masquerading as a man around him,” she continued.
“This was all your idea,” Grant reminded her.
Those damn traitorous tears stung her eyes again, and she squeezed them shut to hold them in. “I know. And it was a terrible idea...” Her voice cracked as sobs choked her.
“Oh my God!” Grant exclaimed. He must have gotten up from his chair because his big hands awkwardly patted her shoulders. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
His uncharacteristic awkwardness and kindness brought on another wave of overwhelming emotion. The tears broke free of her closed lids, and the sobs slipped out of her lips.
Grant pulled her out of her chair and into his arms and patted her back with his large, clumsy hands. “What’s wrong?” he asked again. “Blair, I’ve never seen you this upset—not even when Dad died.”
A twinge of guilt struck her that she hadn’t been more upset over losing her father. But, like her mom, she’d never felt like she had ever had him—that he’d been interested in her or loved her.
As if he’d seen that guilt or felt it himself, Grant added, “I get that, though. Dad was Dad, but even when you were a kid, you sucked it up and kept it all inside.”
“I take it you preferred that?” she asked with a giggle that cracked into a sob. She wished she could suck it up like she had the hazing hell she’d been subjected to as a cadet. There wasn’t much that had ever fazed her—until now. Until Teo...
“What the hell is it?” Grant asked. “Did that billionaire do something to you? Is that why you don’t want to fly him around anymore? Did he hurt you? Because if he did, I’ll kill him.”
His overreaction and outrageous claim cleared her tears away, and she opened her eyes with a chuckle instead of a sob on her lips. But then she saw his face—his dead-serious face—and a frisson of unease raced down her spine. “Grant, it’s okay. You don’t have to kill anyone.”
She didn’t want to hurt Teo, which was probably why she was so upset. She felt so bad over how she’d treated him. Guilt and pain overwhelming her, sobs bubbled up again, making her shake.
