Page 57 of Billionaire’s Promise

“BDSM, bondage, or whatever you cool kids call it these days.” My face was practically melting now. I’d all but admitted I knew what she and my brother were into as well as Kai.

“And you know he has a reputation?”

I shook my head, no. “What reputation?”

“Oh, sweet girl.”

“What? Tell me!”

She took a deep breath in. “It depends on how you look at it.”

I could tell that Chloe was trying to find the right words, a nice way to put what she was about to tell me.

“You don’t need to protect me from him. I’m a grown up you know.”

She tilted her head slightly, giving me a sideway glance. Slowly, she nodded. “I mean a lot of those rich boys are the same, they kind of sleep around, you know.”

That didn’t really surprise me.

What surprised me was my brother’s devotion to her. I knew it was disrespectful to think of my big brother as a man slut, but I couldn’t help knowing full well that he was. Or used to be one.

“Unlike Link.” I smiled, but it wasn’t very nice.

“Yeah, but your brother is a weirdo. But I also heard that Kai’s looking for a bride.” Her eyes cut to me, soft and gentle, despite my cattiness.

My little heart did a little dance knowing that he was finally ready to settle down.

“And I met his potential bride. Lucy something.” I didn’t know what possessed me to say that. But it was a fact. And that also killed the little dance in my heart.

“Miss me, bitch?” Shouting at the top of her lungs, Wendy barged into the room without even checking who was inside. Chloe got up from her chair and hugged Wendy. Her eyes squinted as she looked at me, telling me that we weren’t done with our conversation.

I stood up automatically to welcome Wendy, and she gave me a hug even though we were never the hugging kind of friends.

Grabbing another chair for Wendy, all three of us sat in a triangle, like we were in some tight knit gossip circle. I wanted to stay with the girls as long as I could, and I had no intention to head outside.

Out there, I would have to do mindless chit chat about my campaign. Luring and sweet-talking people into parting with their money to support us. It was all for good cause, there was no doubt about it, but I found mingling tiring – and I had hired campaign managers for that.

Chloe went on talking about her pregnancy. Mostly the news of her carrying twins but nothing about her diabetes. Like me, Wendy wanted to hear everything that was happening in Chloe’s life. I knew that Wendy and Chloe were close, and I reminded myself that there was nothing to be jealous of. Wendy had helped her when I couldn’t. Wendy protected her from troubles back when Chloe was someone else. Roxie – the infamous pole dancing stripper. She seldom used the name Roxie anymore, except for her stage name. Wendy couldn’t help calling her Rox every now and then though.

“June, what the hell are you doing backstage. Everyone is looking for you. You’re up next!” Liam stormed into the room, hissing the words at me. I stared at the clock on the wall and realized that I had been hiding back here for half an hour. That’s the thing, when you are with the right company, time flies.

“What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean what’s wrong? Your event is coming up. You need to be out front on the stage.” Liam said matter of factly.

“No, I don’t. The presenter will handle everything.” I was no stranger to this kind of event. I knew that I didn’t have to be there. Our presenter, Amelia Anderson, whom our medical group had been using for years, was very experienced in handling events like this and never once in all that time did I have to be out there on stage with her. That was one of the reasons I chose to hire her again and again.

“Yes, but not when you’re selling your services.”

“Jeez, Liam, why do you have to make it sound dirty?” Wendy chimed in. I wasn’t sure if she was flirting with my brother, but it kind of felt like it. I thought she was dating my brother’s other best friend.

“Oh! Hi Wendy, nice to see you.” His tone changed completely, to a giddy school boy. “You look very pretty by the way.”

“You too.” Wendy showed no sign of shyness as her gaze scanned my brother up and down.

“You need to show your face.” Liam lowered his voice significantly, almost whispering or hissing at me.

Crap. I had completely forgotten that my auction item went missing and now I was auctioning my services. “I’ll be right out.”