Page 16 of Billionaire’s Promise

“Hell. Of course.” Wendy let out a laugh that made me think of the wicked witch of the west.

I sat down in the living room while Wendy made tea and coffee. Looking around the rather empty apartment, I noticed the furniture was clean and simple but expensive. Oh, empty might have been the wrong word – it was spacious, very much so. There was so much empty space and not enough furniture or personal belongings to fill it. It was entirely possible that the interior designer was going for a minimalist concept, I suppose.

I had redecorated my apartment not long ago and had spent far too much time looking through pricey furniture catalogs – so I could tell the furnishings here were far from cheap. My interior designer tried to convince me that price was often correlated with the time it would last. How could I know for sure? I guess only time will tell.

The high ceiling and large windows let in lots of natural light, although those windows could really do with a clean. I somehow didn’t think that this space belonged to Wendy at all. It was simply too macho for her. Knowing her fashion choices – rather radiant, feminine and creative – I didn’t think she would go for something so masculine and austere.

Even for an abandoned warehouse like this, it would have been really expensive to buy such a large building in New York. And to have bought it and not be fully utilizing it – it was almost a crime.

Kai came back to the lounge area after finishing up whatever he was doing with his team.

“Are you feeling better?” I had a feeling Kai didn’t know what else to say to me.

“Long time no see.” My sarcastic tone sounded more bitter than I had imagined, which wasn’t a bad thing. Bitter was good too.

I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. His eyes had the power to melt me, make my knees weak, and reduce all my logic to nothing.

“Yes, I just landed.” Kai volunteered that information. “I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch. Things have been crazy back home.”

Needless to say. Because the truth was, things had been crazy for everyone for the last few years.

Every. Single. Person. On. This. Earth.

On that note, I really had no reason to be mad at him for disappearing. I didn’t know why I was being so harsh when it came to him.

Fine. If I really had to spit out a reason, it was because three years ago he was kind of leading me on. And I thought we were going somewhere. Seriously. I even bought some sexy lingerie that’s still sitting in my wardrobe, tags and the original wrapping still on. I wanted to take them back to the shop, but I wasn’t going to let the shopkeeper think that I couldn’t keep a man. That might be true. But nope. I wasn’t going to let people talk.

“How are you?” I still sounded bitter.

“I’m fine. I’ve missed you.” He smiled and my heart skipped a beat. Damn him. “I’ve missed Link, and I’ve missed New York.”

Fuck. Of course. He didn’t really miss me. That was just something he said to everyone.

Stop being so pathetic. I really should work on that when it comes to him.

This man in front of me was my first ever crush. His smile alone could cure cancer, my cancer anyway. I didn’t think he would still have that power over me today, not any more after all these years, but how wrong I was.

I didn’t know if this was true for everyone. But sometimes you come across someone in your life who has the power to make you crazy, to make you an unreasonable bitch. Simply because they would never see you the way you see them, love you back the way you love them. Life could be so unfair.

Oh well, I tried to knock some sense into myself and reminded myself that I was no longer a silly teen crushing hard for my brother’s bestie.

Wendy broke my train of thought as she walked into the living room with a tray of refreshments – a variety of cut up fruit and some cookies. Yum cookies. “Where are your bodyguards?”

“Downstairs,” Kai replied without thinking. I could have bodyguards too if I wanted, and Wendy could have been talking to me.

“Right.” Wendy adjusted her robe awkwardly – seemingly having just gotten out of bed not too long ago. “I’m helping Trev with his warehouse project and staying here from time to time.”

Trev as in Trevon Smith? Lincoln’s other best friend?

I thought that it was strange that Wendy tried to hide her whereabouts during our call earlier. What was that girl hiding? “So, you planned for Kai to come here?”

“Oh no, that wasn’t planned. He came uninvited.” Kai cleared his throat, and I wasn’t sure what he did that for. Part of me was glad that they weren’t meeting here privately, using their friend’s place as some kind of love nest.

“I called the police of course. I just needed you to lure him somewhere quiet so the police could get to work.” I nodded. Sure. It made sense. But she still wasn’t telling me the whole truth, though it didn’t really bother me. She would tell me when the time was right, or not, completely up to her. It was never my right to nose in other people’s business.

Kai stood up and started wandering the hallway.

“Which bedroom should I take? I need somewhere to stay.” Wendy followed him around but didn’t say anything.