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Eli Stone was an enigma. One moment he was the quintessential aloof billionaire, and the next he was bluntly honest.
I still didn’t know what to make of him and his ten-day challenge. But I swore I’d have him figured out by the time we parted ways.
I let out a nervous sigh. “I guess sometimes having money overwhelms me,” I admitted. “My sister, Brooke, says I have some kind of Sudden Wealth Syndrome.”
He nodded and finished off his coffee. “She’s right,” he answered. “I’ve seen it many times. Not all of my friends were born wealthy like I was, and I’ve seen people struggle to deal with getting rich too fast.”
“Really?” I asked hopefully. “Does it go away?”
“Not always,” he mused. “But you’ll be fine.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because you have me to help you get used to it, and you have a good head on your shoulders. I know it’s hard when friends abandon you, and you’re stuck in a whole new world. But I’ll help you, Jade.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why do you care?”
He shrugged. “Because I want to.”
“Because you still want to sleep with me?”
He grinned. “You know I have ulterior motives, but I really do want to help.”
He looked a little bit like a mischievous boy, and my heart did an enormous flip-flop.
Eli Stone was the hottest man I’d ever seen, hands down. And it was almost surreal that he was actually at my house having coffee like we’d known each other forever.
I emptied my mug as Eli stood and said, “I think our ride is here.”
I put my cup in the sink and joined him at the door.
There was a helicopter overhead, and an enormous yacht that was getting close to shore, but I didn’t see a car.
“Grab your clothes,” he instructed as he walked outside with Charlie at his heels.
I hastily grabbed my things and locked the door, speechless as I turned around to watch the helicopter landing on the beach.
Eli held out his hand, but I hesitated.
I got the fact that we were leaving in his helicopter, now that I could see the Stone logo on the side of the aircraft. I tried to push down the panic that started to rise, the overwhelming feeling that all of this was some kind of dream, and I’d wake up very shortly.
I didn’t fly in helicopters.
I didn’t do impulsive things.
And I certainly didn’t fly away to places yet unknown with a billionaire.
This wasn’t me.
I wasn’t me.
After I took a deep breath, I looked at Eli.
I shuddered as I got the sense that he was trying to tell me that my whole reality had changed, and it was time to get on with it.
“Trust me, Jade,” he yelled over the sound of the helicopter.
My heart squeezed in my chest. I’d been lost for the last few months, unsure of where I was going or what the hell I was doing.
I’d been isolated and uncertain, emotions that I’d never experienced before because I never took a risk or stepped outside of my academic comfort zone.
But I was so damn tired of feeling misplaced and disoriented.
I needed to be me again without the fear and the panic. I needed to adjust or risk feeling this way for the rest of my life, and I refused to go down that road.
It’s time for me to trust someone again. It’s time for me to find myself, money and all.
The excitement of becoming fearless made me reach for Eli’s hand.
As he pulled me toward the beach, I let my negative feelings drift away.
It was hard not to be happy when I was going to be spending my time with a very rich, hot guy, even if it was just for a little while.
CHAPTER 9
ELI
I probably should have warned Jade that we were headed out to board a megayacht that was waiting for us in deeper waters. But I had to admit that the look of surprise on her face was priceless when we landed on the upper level of the vessel. So I wasn’t suffering all that much from remorse.
I reached for her hand, and when she gave it to me, I felt like somebody had slammed me in the gut.
Maybe I wanted to screw Jade more than I’d ever wanted any other woman, but I was also fascinated by her. And the fact that she was trusting me was sort of humbling.
She stumbled as she exited the helicopter, and I definitely had no problem with the fact that she fell into my arms, her body plastered against mine like we were lovers.
Hell, I wish.
“Are you kidding me?” she said as the helicopter flew away. “Is this monster yours?”
I smirked. “You don’t like it?”
My intention was to let Jade get used to the things and experiences that money could buy, but having her look at me like I had two heads was rather unsettling.
“It looks like a cruise ship,” she said in an awed tone.
“Not quite,” I answered as I took her backpack and led her downstairs. “There are people who have bigger yachts, but it suits my needs well.”
She didn’t speak as we started to get under way, and seated herself by the swimming pool on the back deck.
“This is crazy,” she said as she shook her head.
I flopped into the chaise next to hers as I answered, “It’s San Diego. Everybody likes to get out on a boat.”
One of my employees came to take our drink orders and then faded away.
Jade laughed as she continued to marvel over every single one of the yacht’s over-the-top features, and I let myself relax.
There was something appealing about experiencing my world through her eyes. My motive was not to impress her, but to let her realize she now lived in the same universe that I did, and that it wasn’t really all that bad.
For some reason, I felt compelled to lead her into the world of the super-rich gently. The adjustment could be good or bad, and Jade was so unspoiled that I didn’t want to see her change for the worse.
I just wanted her to realize the possibilities instead of experiencing the fear that she would never really know what people wanted from her anymore.
I could introduce her to the people who were genuine.
And steer her away from the people who could do her harm.
Eventually, I wanted to see her enjoy her money, and feel comfortable spending it. Fuck knew that she’d earned that right through poverty and deprivation.
I had to give Evan Sinclair a hell of a lot of credit for including siblings he didn’t know into the Sinclair legacy. The man obviously had a sense of fairness that I admired. Maybe he was protecting himself from a major lawsuit if the siblings had been discovered in the future, but from the way the billionaire had handled everything, he quite obviously gave a damn about what happened to the siblings that weren’t born into wealth. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t still be so closely involved with all of them. And he definitely wouldn’t have given the half-siblings a fair share. He would have paid them off for a lot less and been done with it.
I really wanted to see Jade do some kind of a fun buy to just get whatever she wanted for herself, something other than a beachfront house. The house was an investment, a roof over her head, and not really an indulgence.
To be truthful, I hadn’t planned on buying the house next to hers. If I really thought about it, I felt a little bit like a stalker. But I was pretty desperate to somehow talk Jade into my bed, and I wanted that bed close by when she finally caved in.
