Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
That was a fair question.
“It’s the one thing Ethan thought I wouldn’t be able to do,” I explained. “He thought it would put me off the bet. My friends don’t believe I can be in a relationship longer than one night.” I hesitated, wondering if I should elaborate. Knowing the truth about my intimate habits might be a deal-breaker for her.
“One thing that you can understand about me, Aspen,” I continued. “Is that I’ll never lie to you. Hence the background check in front of you and all the personal details I normally keep close to the chest. I’m not exactly a relationship person. I love sex, and I love women, sometimes more than one at a time. I always make sure I’m upfront about my relationship stance and everything is always mutually consensual and beneficial. But my friends love to give me shit about it.” I sighed. “Plus, I might have made a similar bet against my friend, and he’s delivering some payback, even though he found the love of his life out of it. You’d think he’d be grateful, not spiteful,” I said, and a flicker of amusement played over her features.
“Anyway,” I continued, getting back on point. “It’s not that I’m against the idea of monogamy, but it’s never suited me. I don’t like being tied down. I enjoy playing the field and I’m not shy about it. Most of my friends have been falling in love, getting married, or getting engaged, and they thought it would be funny to make me pay for the fact that I’m in my thirties and still behave like I’m in college.” I shrugged.
There were definitely times I wished I had someone I could count on. Someone I could trust. Someone who shared my passion for life. Someone who cared enough to notice when I slipped into one of those shadowy spaces—the ones where the grief of losing my parents and running their empire and constantly questioning if I was making them proud threatened to swallow me whole.
But I already had nearly everything I could ever want—an NHL team, numerous successful business ventures, amazing friends, and the best sister anyone could ask for. What more could I really expect from life?
Often, I wondered if losing my parents was the price I had to pay in order to have what I do. Asking the universe for a person to love me…really love me and understand the parts about myself that I couldn’t even get a grip on seemed like pushing it.
“Wait,” Aspen said. “This little deal of ours. How is it going to convince your friends if you just say I’m your girlfriend, but you’re out there having threesomes every other day?” she asked.
“Why just every other day?” I teased.
“Recovery time,” she said, eyes widening.
I laughed, shaking my head. “I don’t need that much recovery time.
“Jesus,” she muttered under her breath.
“And I have no intention of doing that while I’m with you,” I hurried to add. “I’ll take this as seriously as I would any other business venture,” I explain, and the declaration made me think about the other investments that my assistant had lined up for me to look at later in the day. While I loved my hockey team and my other franchises, I was getting restless. I was itching for a new project. This was certainly new.
“If you agree to this,” I said. “It’ll be purely professional between us. To the outside world, you’ll be my girlfriend. One I’ve been dating for three weeks already. You’ll attend events with me, hold my hand, call me darling or babe or whatever it is people call each other in relationships these days, and in return, I’ll pay you a million at the end of the three-month contract.”
Aspen chewed on her bottom lip as she looked through the documents again, scanning the information about my background. The little anxious move was cute as hell and this side of sexy. I couldn’t help studying her lips, all lush and kissable. And she was undeniably gorgeous, her colorful hair slightly chaotic as it framed her delicate face. And those eyes…they were absolutely killer.
I cleared my throat, shifting in my seat as my instincts took over. If she’d been anybody else, I would’ve already been working my charm on her and seeing if she’d be up for a little consensual no-strings-attached fun. But due to the nature of this deal, she was strictly off-limits.
Aspen closed the folder and looked at me. “No violence, no arrests. Squeaky clean, Crossland. That seems rare for a billionaire, doesn’t it?”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “I’m aware there are some wealthy individuals in the world who use their power to take advantage of people because they don’t have a moral or ethical bone in their bodies. That’s not who I am, and that’s not who my friends are. We have money, and we’ve worked for every dime, but we don’t abuse it.”