by Noelle Adams
Her Reluctant Billionaire
Noelle Adams
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Noelle Adams. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.
Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Epilogue
About Noelle Adams
One
Katie Ross was on the phone with her sobbing client for the twenty-five-minute drive from her downtown office to her little house in the mountains of Asheville.
She’d been a divorce attorney for three years, and each month that passed added more bitter, heartbroken clients to her list. Marla Hollis’s husband of thirty-five years had been supporting a mistress in her own condo for a decade, and even so Katie was having trouble getting around the most outrageous prenup she’d ever seen to win Marla a settlement even close to her due.
By the time she had pulled into her long, winding driveway, Katie was having trouble fighting a few tears herself.
She was a good lawyer, and she worked hard to maintain a professional attitude toward her clients. But she hadn’t been doing this for very long—she was only twenty-seven—and sometimes the stories she heard from women so completely broken by their marriages still got to her.
She blinked when she saw a dark blue Mercedes in her driveway and wondered what Logan Anderson was doing here. She hadn’t expected him for another hour at least.
Trying to wrap up the call, she got out of her own small SUV, juggling her bag, her phone, and her travel mug of lukewarm green tea.
Logan was sitting on one of the Adirondack chairs on her porch, working on his phone, but he grinned as she approached, jumping up to take the mug out of her hand so she could unlock her front door.
“I know it feels terribly unfair.” Katie was talking on the phone as she stepped inside and dropped her bag in the entryway. “But this is the way the process always goes. We have many, many more cards to play before we even think about folding. Just hang in there, and I’ll talk to you—”
Marla interrupted, still needing to vent some more, and Katie gave Logan an apologetic smile and nodded toward the bottle of Merlot on the kitchen counter to indicate he could help himself.
As Katie listened to Marla from a stool at the kitchen bar, Logan opened the wine, poured two glasses, and set one down on the counter in front of her. He took a sip from his own glass and flipped on the kitchen light. When it didn’t come on, he flipped it a few times and then went to get the stepladder out of her laundry closet.
Katie was half smiling as he started to change the light bulb for her.
That bulb had been out now for more than a week.
Katie’s best friend, Sarah, and Logan’s best friend, Chad, had gotten married four years ago. That was how she’d met Logan, and they’d been thrown together a lot during the year of their friends’ dating and engagement. They’d eventually become good friends themselves, and as Sarah and Chad became the parents to twins and fell deeper into domestic life, Katie and Logan had spent more and more time together.
Katie was close to calling Logan her best friend now instead of Sarah—although the fact that she’d known Sarah since childhood made her reluctant to switch labels, even in her own mind.
Her eyes rested on Logan’s body as he stretched up to unscrew the light bulb, and for some reason she was hit with the recognition of how good-looking he was.
He was a few inches taller than her own five eight, and his body was lean and compact. She didn’t normally think about him physically, but she couldn’t help but focus on the strong lines of his shoulders, the flatness of his abdomen, the firm contours of his ass. He had thick, wavy brown hair that always needed cutting, so it was impossible to keep neat. He also had a five-o’clock shadow, as he normally did at this time of day.
For a few seconds as she listened to Marla crying on the phone, Katie blinked in surprise as the sight of him screamed “Hot Man!” instead of just “My Friend.”
It was rather disconcerting, but she reassured herself it was natural.
Logan was a man. While she hadn’t been particularly blown away by his appearance when she’d first met him, perceptions like that were bound to change. It was surprising to have this response so powerfully out of the blue, but it wasn’t anything out of the bounds of normal.
It was nothing to worry about.
When the light bulb was changed, Logan returned the stepladder to its place and sat down on the stool next to Katie, pulling up email on his phone while she finished the conversation. She had to force herself to concentrate on her client instead of Logan’s warm presence beside her.
She hung up after ten more minutes and let out a loud sigh as she dropped her phone on the counter. “Remind me never to get married,” she said. “It might start with hearts and roses, but it always ends with custody battles and revenge plots.”
“There are kids with this one?” He took a sip of wine, and his brown eyes were sympathetic.
“Pomeranians.”
She smiled when he chuckled. Logan was one of the smartest people she knew—she suspected he could be classified as a genius—so it always felt like a victory when she could make him laugh.
“Since you haven’t dated in years,” Logan said after a minute, “I doubt I’ll need to remind you about your no-marriage rule.”
“It’s not a rule. It’s just a… a decision.” It had been years since Katie had dated. Three and a half years to be exact.
Despite her words, she had never actually made an intentional decision against dating or relationships. She’d had a few boyfriends in college and law school, but nothing had worked out. Then during her last semester of coursework and bar-exam prep, she’d been too stressed and busy to think about dating. And then she’d had the pressure of her first job. Then her mother had died, emotionally devastating her. And then the progression of bitter clients had started to get to her until she wondered if marriage was even worth it.
Hopefully one day she’d get to the point where she didn’t take all the relational angst she dealt with personally, but right now she wasn’t about to give her heart to a man who—ten, twenty, forty years from now—would just grind it into pulp under his heel in a divorce.
Her parents had divorced when she’d been eleven. She’d cried every night for months about it. It had utterly destroyed her.
She still had trouble remembering it without a sick feeling in her stomach.
“I guess it’s hard for you to think about romance when you’re surrounded by the ruins of relationships every day,” Logan said, breaking into her thoughts. “I can understand that.”
Something about Logan’s tone struck her as strange, like he was having to make excuses for her in his mind. It bothered her. “I told you it’s not a rule. It’s just where I am right now. Maybe I’ll change my mind in the future.”
“Yeah. I get that.”
She frowned, hoping he wasn’t thinking she was needy or pitiful somehow. “I’ve had plenty of chances to date, you know.”
“Have you?”
“Yes. I get asked out all the time.” That might have been a slight exaggeration, but she did get asked out somewhat regularly. Some of the men she might have been interested in if she’d been in a dating mood.
“Do you?” His frown deepened. “You�
�ve never mentioned anyone to me.”
“Am I supposed to tell you about every random guy who comes on to me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Aren’t we friends?”
“Of course we’re friends, but I don’t tell my friends every time I get asked out.”
She said the words automatically, but after she did, she realized they weren’t exactly true. She did tell Sarah almost every time someone asked her out, if only to giggle about it. She never told Logan though. She had no idea why.
His mouth was still turned down and his brows pulled together. “How many guys ask you out?”
“Oh, at least ten. Nearly every day.”
When Logan’s eyes widened, she burst into laughter. “I’m teasing. At the most, it’s maybe once a week. Why are you surprised I get asked out? I know I’m not your type, but I’m not that unattractive.”
“Unattractive? What are you talking about? You’re gorgeous!”
Her lips parted. When she’d processed his blunt words, she experienced a deep flush of pleasure. There was no way to disbelieve him. The words had burst out of him, clearly not planned.
“I mean,” he said, clearing his throat and taking an unusually large swallow of wine, “I’m not surprised guys ask you out all the time. You’d just never mentioned it before. So you’re not tempted to accept any of them?”
She shook her head, thinking about poor Marla, fatuously believing her husband had been faithful when he’d been screwing a mistress for years and was now trying to take her treasured dogs away, purely out of spite. “Not even a little.”
Logan’s eyes were now focused on his wineglass. “Oh.”
It still felt like something was going on in his mind—something he wasn’t telling her. She didn’t normally feel defensive around Logan. So often he seemed to understand her, even when she couldn’t articulate herself well. But right now she felt the need to explain herself further. “I didn’t have a very good example of a marriage, growing up.”
He nodded, something softening in his face. “I know you didn’t.”
“My parents fought all the time—for the whole time I was growing up. And then, when they finally got divorced, they still fought all the time.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I know. I can’t even imagine.”
“So it’s not just my job. It’s… it’s deeper than that. And I’m perfectly happy as I am. Why should I mess my life up when I have everything I need as I am?”
“I don’t think you should mess your life up. Why are you trying to defend yourself to me? I said from the beginning I get it.”
“It just feels like you don’t really get it.”
He met her eyes evenly, held her gaze without wavering. “Katie, this is me. Getting it.”
After a moment, a spark of amusement broke the strange intensity of their shared gaze, and Katie’s mouth wobbled slightly with suppressed laughter.
He smiled too, and the weird tension relaxed. She gave Logan a friendly nudge and asked, “What are you doing here so early?”
“Oh. Carl’s father had a heart attack, so we closed the office early.”
“Oh no! Is he all right?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard an update.”
Carl was Logan’s business partner. Just after college, the two had started an online tourism-and-hospitality service—originally for people to rent out rooms to travelers in different parts of the world but soon growing to encompass a variety of lucrative tourism opportunities—and it had become a huge success. A mind-blowing success.
Katie wasn’t exactly sure of the extent of Logan’s wealth, but he was richer than anyone else she knew. He didn’t live like it though. He worked hard and wore normal clothes and had a nice house but not a mansion.
He wasn’t an ostentatious person in any way, despite the money he had coming in.
“What are you doing next weekend?” Logan asked, surprising her by the change in subject.
“Next weekend? I don’t know. Why?”
“Do you want to come to the beach with me?”
She knew he was talking about visiting his family, who lived in Wilmington and also had a house on Wrightsville Beach. She’d gone with him a couple of times over the past few years when he was going home for a visit and she’d wanted a few days at the beach.
“I didn’t know you were going. Is your family okay?”
He had a large family. Both his parents were still living, and he had four brothers. When the whole family was present, it was a very full house.
“They’re fine. This club I was part of in high school is having a reunion thing, so I thought I might go.”
“What club?”
He slanted her a wry look.
“Tell me!” she demanded playfully, giving him a poke on the shoulder. “What club? The audio-visual club?”
“No.”
“The comic-book club?”
“No.” His eyes had narrowed, but she knew he wasn’t really annoyed.
“The science club?”
“I wasn’t that much of a nerd.”
Giggling, she reached out to give him a one-armed hug. “Yes, you were. I know you were. Tell me what club.”
He released an exaggerated sigh. Almost a groan. “It was a chess club.”
She dissolved into more laughter, and she experienced a warm tension in her chest when Logan chuckled too.
He’d always been able to laugh at himself. There wasn’t an arrogant bone in his body. It was one of the things she loved about him.
“So will you come?” he asked at last.
“I’ll have to check my schedule. Do you need me to come?”
“I don’t need you to come, but it would be nice not to go to the reunion on my own.”
“Why would that matter?”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s not so unusual to want to bring a date to a reunion, is it?”
Her lips parted. “You don’t think they’re going to see you as a loser, do you? My God, Logan, you’ve been so successful that you’re like a billionaire.”
“I’d still like to bring a date.”
“Then ask one of the girls who are always fluttering around you. You could have a date just by snapping your fingers.” Logan had more of a social life than Katie did, but he hadn’t had a serious girlfriend since the first year she’d known him. She assumed he was too focused on his career to take the time. He was thirty-four, so she’d always believed he’d settle down with a wife eventually.
She didn’t like that idea, so she didn’t think about it very often.
“I don’t want to bring one of them. I want to bring you. So do you think you can come or not? We’d need to leave midafternoon on Friday.”
She picked up her phone and checked her schedule. “I have an appointment at four on Friday, but I’m sure I can reschedule it. I wouldn’t say no to a weekend at the beach.”
His shoulders relaxed, which made her realize for the first time that he’d been slightly tense about asking her. “Good. Thanks.”
“Are we driving?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Well, I didn’t know. You could take a private jet if you wanted to.”
He rolled his eyes. “Why would I do that?”
“A lot of people would if they could afford it.”
“Sure, but this isn’t a very long trip. By the time we drive to the airport, board the plane, get everything ready to take off, fly there, de-board, get a car, and drive from the airport to my parents’ place, it will take nearly as long as just driving there ourselves. Why go through the hassle?”
She chuckled at his dry tone.
“Unless you wanted to take a private jet?” he added, his expression changing as he studied her face.
“Of course not! I don’t mind riding at all—as long as it’s in your car.” She meant the words, but she also felt a little shiver of pleasure. It sounded like, if she’d wanted to, he’d arrange a private jet for her.
Once that topic was settled, Katie went into her bedroom to change out of her work clothes and into a pair of cozy leggings and a long shirt. They made chicken with pasta in a cream sauce for dinner, and then they settled on the couch to watch a movie.
After about twenty minutes, she reached over for the cashmere throw she kept folded on the floor beside the couch since she was getting chilly. She spread out the blanket, holding up the ends as she turned to Logan. “Do you want to share?” She always offered, and he usually said no.
He hesitated just slightly. Then surprised her by saying, “Sure.”
She scooted closer to him, and they spread the throw over both of them. In order to get comfortable, she had to fold her legs up on the couch and lean against him, but he didn’t seem to mind. He put an arm around her, which was even cozier.
“Just tell me if this gets annoying,” she said.
“Why would it be annoying?” His body was very warm. Very firm. Very nice.
Very, very nice.
She loved the feel of it as she leaned against him.
“Well, I know you’re not the most touchy-feely person in the world. You might not want to snuggle all evening.”
“I can manage.” There was a smile in his voice that made her smile too.
She sighed happily and focused on the movie again. It had been her turn to pick, so they were watching a British mystery.
She had a very good life. She loved her career, even when it tore at her painfully. She loved her little house, and she loved living in Asheville. Her father and sister and nieces were all in town too. So were most of her friends.
Plus she had Logan to cuddle up with on a Friday evening.
She was just fine without a boyfriend, without a husband who would one day betray her.
Logan would never betray her. She trusted him with her life.
***
A few hours later, Katie was snapping the lid to a container of leftovers for Logan to take with him.
It occurred to her that he hardly needed their leftovers. He could hire a full-time gourmet chef to cook every meal for him. But he always seemed willing to take them, and she knew he ended up eating them. A day or two later, he would always return the empty containers to her, cleaned and emptied.
