Page 87 of Billionaire’s Promise

I added a pair of white heels, then left the room with a bag in hand. I went down to the parking garage, found the family car that was left there for any of us to use, and drove to Roxie’s place. She let me in with a scream of excitement and a hug.

“Girl, it’s been a month since I’ve seen you! How are you?” She offered me a drink, and we’d both sat by the time I got around to answering her.

“I’ve been rushed off my feet. I keep flying from place to place, and I tell you, I’m tired.” I sipped at the wine she’d given me and set the glass on the table.

Her living room was done in white, glass, and gold trimmings. Tasteful but not gaudy. I didn’t want to ruin her carpets with red wine if I got clumsy, so I’d asked for white wine.

“Why don’t you tell them to hire a nanny, honey? You can’t keep living like this.”

I looked at her with a little guilt on my face before I smiled. “I told Trent tonight that I needed more time to myself, and I wouldn’t be watching the kids so much. I need to be here to work on that project we’ve started, and I’ll be around, but I won’t be flying back and forth between Laura and Mason in Charlotte, and Kevin and Ember in Tennessee. I know they all want someone they trust around their kids, but you’re right, Roxie. It’s time for me to spread my wings.” I left out the part where I wanted her to help me do just that. For now.

“Okay! Good for you! I’m glad you finally did that. It will be nice to have you around.” She was two feet away on the other end of the white damask couch. I couldn’t help but compare myself to her.

She wore a black leather bustier type top and black leather pants, yet she still looked sophisticated. Maybe it was the black patent leather Prada kitten heels, the way her blonde hair was never out of place, or maybe it was the fact that Roxie never sweated, even in the heat, but she always looked so cool and collected, in control. I admired her. Those blue eyes helped too. They were so… bright.

I felt underdressed, and maybe a little trashy in my attempts at sexy but sophisticated. I looked down at my lace top, something I would never wear to any place my brothers or parents might see me, and wondered if it wasn’t a childish choice. Something someone pretending to be sophisticated would pick.

If it was frumpy but stylish, then I could pick it out. A suit that leaned a little to the too tight was about as risqué as I usually went. This outfit was my first attempt to fit into Roxie’s world, which was much different from my own. Even if her world was full of power, controlling that power, and money. Not so different from mine, but the power struggles flowed different ways.

“Right, girl,” Roxie said as she nudged me with her manicured fingers. “What do you want to do for your birthday? Where do you want to go?”

I looked at her, my breath caught in my chest. I had a plan, a cunning one, if she’d play along with it. “I, uh, I want a favor from you. Please.”

“Alright?” she said, a darkened eyebrow arched at me questioningly.

“I want you to take me to that club. The gentlemen’s club. I want to see what it’s like in there. What the men are like, what happens with the women. I really, really want to find out for myself.”

Her ruby red lips twisted into an amused smirk, and her eyes looked at me with pride. “Oh, girl. You want the birthday of a lifetime, then?”

“I do. Badly. Please, will you take me?” I waited, my hands clenched together as she looked me over. She just had to say yes. It was my birthday, and she was the only one who remembered!

* * *

Dylan

“You’re a descendent of Jesse James, aren’t you?” a woman at the end of the conference table asked.

My gaze flicked to the woman, and I noted round, out of date glasses, fuzzy hair, and a little too much fluff around the hips. She had a twisted little mouth that looked cruel, and I wondered who she was and how she’d come to be here.

“I am, yes, in a way. I’m adopted, but the man who became my father is descended from his son, as a matter of fact.” It wasn’t a point of pride, just something I’d had to learn to deal with over the years. Every now and then someone would crop up to ask me if I had special knowledge about the gunslinging outlaw from long ago.

I was born in 1986, so how could I know anything about a man who died over 100 years before I was born? It was a familiar question, though, and one I’d grown bored with long ago.

“He was such a handsome man,” she crooned from the other end of the table, and I tried not to roll my eyes. The man had been a murderer and a thief; his spawn had tried to live good lives, despite their ignoble birth, and to get on with life. We didn’t see him as a romantic hero, even if he had been handsome.

“I suppose if you consider murderous bank robbers handsome, well, I guess he was,” I muttered and looked away. The woman I’d been waiting on, Liz Kearny, came in to the meeting room at last.

“Dylan James, as I live and breathe, how are you?” Her wide, red painted smile greeted me and hid the lust in her eyes. At forty-two, Liz was still a fine specimen of a woman, but she was married. I wasn’t interested.

“I’m good, Liz, I’m good. I needed to speak to you about some property.” I sat and indicated the seat across from me. I kept my voice low so the woman at the other end of the table wouldn’t hear us.

“I know, your PA told us all about it. Excuse me.” She paused, turned her head to the woman who had asked me about my ancestry, and called out to her, “Imogen, what did you find out about that land for Mr. James?”

“The land has been bought out by the Thompson family. I’m afraid, we’re too late.” She didn’t even look down at the papers to verify what she’d said; she just knew her job and did it well.

“I thought that might happen. Liz, can’t you find me something to work with here? Some way of getting them off my back? Or lawn, so to speak?” I gave her my most charming smile and added a gentle tease to my voice.

Her eyes went soft, and her face relaxed as I allowed my head to lean a little closer to her. It was a stupid ploy, but when you want something as much as I wanted to expand my resorts, Sky B-n-B, out here to Myrtle Beach, well, you did what was necessary. I’d wasted a lot of time already because I’d had to deal with things at Pebbles, the resort chain my adopted father had left me in charge of when he retired.