Page 1 of The Elusive Billionaire
CHAPTER ONE
SAVVY
Eight Months Ago
Awareness shoots up my arms—electricityracing across each tiny hair as though it’s a pinball bumping against every follicle. Even the damn air is thicker, more potent, alive.
Greyson Reyes is in the room.
I know it without turning around.
I feel it—a phantom itch I can’t, shouldn’t, scratch.
He’s a possession that invades every molecule and pore on my skin until pain and passion are braided together into a corset made just for me.
We fight to fuck, or we fuck to fight. I don’t even know which came first anymore, and my emotions for him run the gamut of hating to love him and loving to hate him.
Madi eyes me suspiciously and I quickly drop the thumb I was chewing the hell out of. My entire cuticle is probably bleeding, but I tuck it below my leg and hope that no one else notices.
My best friend’s future brother-in-law is so magnetic that every head in the Chug turns his way when he enters.
It’s as infuriating as it is mesmerizing, but the last thing he needs is one more person propping up his ego, so I intentionally don’t seek him out.
The Chug is Madi’s coworking space. Her grandfather owned the building, an old train station, for years, but she recently repurposed it, and it quickly became a gathering place for the residents of Happiness, Georgia.
“Geez, could you imagine having that kind of confidence?” Clover whispers.
Elle snickers. “If I looked like that, I’d be walking with much more swagger.”
“You’re married, Elle.” Damn. That came out harsher than I intended. Her smirk tells me she knows exactly what she was doing.
Dropping my head, I focus on the task before me—scheduling out the next three episodes of my podcast,Can We Talk About That?
I read the same sentence three times before Bethany’s voice digs at my spine with the finesse of a rusty knife.
“Oh, Grey. I didn’t know you’d be in here today.” Her voice drips with so much sex, I think I need another shower.
“Have a good day,” he says dismissively.
That makes me feel marginally better.
God, this is so bad. The last time I got this excited by another human being, I almost lost my life.
And isn’t that a depressing thought? But it’s one that hasn’t been far from my mind lately because I know Riley, my ex, will be out of prison soon.
My stomach cramps as old habits try to take shape in my subconscious.
It’s the reminder I need to keep the boundaries in place where Grey and I are concerned.
Fuck buddies, not friends.
Cinnamon fills my nostrils, telling me he’s entered my space, and since my podcast is doing a shit job of giving me a distraction, I grab my phone and open the app that is my current obsession. There’s no way ChasingColors42 hasn’t responded yet.
I’m not trying to lead this guy on. We’ve been talking through a surrogacy app for about two months, but I have no intention of becoming a surrogate if I can help it. Yet somehow, he’s become the friend I need.
Signing up with Ray of Hope last year had been a panic response after receiving the call from my attorney that Riley would likely get out of jail at his next hearing.
I have no idea what kind of fight Riley or his family will bring to my doorstep, but with only $4000 in the bank, I needed a way of getting a substantial amount of money should the time to fight come. Again.
