“Yes.”
“Sleep in the next room?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Ever hear him having sex?”
“No!”
Caitlin looks suddenly dreamy. “I would. I’d listen until I heard it.”
“Cait, stop it! You know it freaks me out when you crush on Anthony!”
“The whole world crushes on Anthony.”
“You’re my friend. You grew up around him same as—”
“Exactly. I grew up around him, too. If I hadn’t moved before my boobs started to grow, I could have seduced him right into—”
“Caitlin!”
She looks at me. “I’m sorry. Would you prefer I stop talking about your hot older man’s thick, throbbing—?”
“Yes.”
“… veiny, hot, come-spurting …”
“Stop it!”
Caitlin shakes her head, acquiescing. She’s pretending this was just about goading me and mostly it is, but what she says is still true. Caitlin’s been hot for Anthony forever and, despite having a brain, she doesn’t understand why I won’t play her little game.
I know Anthony is attractive. But to me, he’s Dad.
“Fine,” Caitlin says in her you’re-no-fun voice. “Do you want to run around again like idiots?”
“If we do that,” I say, “I’ll puke.”
“And you don’t want to talk about Anthony’s hog.”
I roll my eyes.
“Fine. Then maybe you tell me what’s up with Aiden Page.”
“Nothing is up with Aiden Page. Except that he’s a predator.”
Caitlin bobs her head, apparently accepting this disparagement. Then she turns to face me. “Do you know Clive Spooner?”
“No.”
“Microdyne. English guy?”
“No,” I repeat.
“You don’t know who Clive Spooner is.”
“What do you want from me? I’m not a computer person.”
“What about Evan Cohen?”
“LiveLyfe’s founder?”
Caitlin nods. “My firm represents them both. I don’t know Evan, but I’ve talked to Clive a few times. He has this idea about a privacy chip. It’s sort of nutty, but the guy hasn’t been wrong yet.”
“Fascinating.”
“Clive has mentioned Aiden and Onyx. He’s also mentioned Evan, and he talks like Evan knows Aiden and Onyx, too. Tell you the truth? I think they’re in some sort of billionaire club together.”
“Imagine the dues,” I say.
“Anthony ever talk about any sort of a club? I mean, he must have a billion by now.”
“Are you making this up?”
“So he hasn’t said anything?”
Now that I think about it, he sort of has. I haven’t pried, but there was a time I remember Onyx inviting himself to a dinner I was having with Anthony and Mia, and their discussion made me think they were already friends. Or associates, at least.
I shrug.
“Clive’s doing some shit with Aiden, I think,” Caitlin says. “And with Evan owning LiveLife, I think they’re both doing something with him, too. And the things I’ve seen in their legal paperwork —”
“Aren’t you supposed to be, like, attorney-client privilege?”
Caitlin makes a psssht noise and waves the issue away. “I was just wondering, if you have your eye on Aiden Page —”
“I don’t have my eye on him. Not in the way you mean.”
“You could do worse. He’s fucking hot.”
“Do you think everyone is hot? You know, except for Rudy?”
Caitlin plays along. “Poor Rudy. He has no idea I’m going to end up in a group scene with all these hot guys. I’ll have Anthony behind me, Clive in my mouth, and Evan and Onyx’s cocks in my hands.”
“Onyx is spoken for.” I feel the need to clarify, for Mia’s sake.
“Whoever, then. This ‘Boys’ Club’ must be a room of rich guys to choose from. I wonder if they know Mateo Saint. There’s a dude I’d go down on all night.”
“You’re such a slut.”
“I’m just ambitious.” And that’s true; she is.
“I’ll handle those four. Or three. You’ll be over in the corner, fucking Aiden Page.”
“Aiden Page disgusts me,” I say.
“Mmm-hmm. So why does it sound to me like you’re stalking him?”
“I’m thwarting him.”
Caitlin puts on her disbelieving face. “You. Thwarting one of the owners of Forage.”
“Hey. I control access to Anthony Ross. I can thwart whoever I want.”
“Well, look … if you control access to Anthony Ross …”
“Stop it, Cait.”
Again, she glances at me with her you’re-no-fun expression.
We sit a while longer, then eventually stand up. We’ll go back to the kitchen, drink some more, then maybe continue our immature Girls’ Night In. There are giant rooms to explore. Enormous tubs to soak in. Views to absorb and crashing waves far below. Wall-sized screens, on which we’ve seriously discussed watching My Little Pony.
“Okay,” Caitlin says. “Back to your hot dad’s kitchen, then.”
I don’t take her bait. Instead I follow, knowing she’ll duck into each room to snoop.
In the third room she stops, holding up something I can’t yet see.
“Now, what the hell do you think this is?” she says.
Did you enjoy this sample chapter? Be sure to pick up your copy — TRILLIONAIRE BOYS’ CLUB: THE PHILANTHROPIST — available now!
SHIT YOU SHOULD KNOW
This book was a little different for me to write. In the first three Trillionaire Boys’ Club books, the billionaires have been assholes. They’re alpha in the boardroom, they’re alpha in the street, and they’re alpha (of course) in the bedroom. Ashton Moran in particular (The Clothing Mogul) was so alpha, I don’t think he could order a cup of coffee at Starbucks without calling someone “bitch” or asking them to shine his shoes while he waited in line.
Not that Ashton would ever go to Starbucks. Or deign to wait in line anywhere. But I digress.
Onyx is different. He’s a man who used to be a callous asshole and grew into sorta a callous businessman, but it’s pretty clear (to me, at least) that Onyx is better at heart than our average Joe Billionaire even at the start of this story. And that meant that writing Onyx was a shade divorced from what these stories are usually about.
Usually, the only major “relationship” story is about the couple. This time, it was also about Onyx’s relationship with Onyx.
I liked writing Onyx. I saw him sort of like Will Smith if Will Smith had a really shitty youth wherein he used to be a colossal dickbag. (Although I don’t actually know Will; maybe he was a colossal dickbag back when he was performing “Parents Just Don’t Understand” with DJ Jazzy Jeff.) We all know Onyx is actually a good guy at the start of the book even if he does agree to go after Mia for the benefit of Forage and the Syndicate. He’s heading back to Inferno Falls to manipulate something out of his old love, sure … but I think we all get that he’s not sure it’s right to do so, and that he’s never really lost his feelings for Mia, even though he won’t admit those feelings to himself.
Onyx’s story arc is one of self-discovery, like any good hero’s internal journey. But in Onyx’s case, it’s specifically about realizing not just how selfish he used to be, but how selfish he still tends to be — and ultimately deciding to overcome it by choosing Mia’s well-being (and love) over his own needs. The awareness of selfishness, in itself, makes Onyx different from this series’s earlier heroes. Ashton Moran, for instance, is fully aware that he’s selfish. He just doesn’t give a shit.
I can relate to Onyx. Looking back over my life, I can see places where I’ve been selfish. Plenty of them. The worst part of realizing such things is that you also realize how oblivious you were. If you can only see it in retrospect but couldn’t see it at the time, that means you were steamrollering people
who just thought you were being an ass rather than simply being unaware. Because you were an ass. Being unaware changes nothing.
There are things in my past I’d love to change. People I wish I’d been more considerate of. Times I’d chose to have been less selfish. And people, if I encounter them again, who I hope will forgive me. I was young. I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m sorry.
That’s where Onyx finds himself. He’s an adult now, and he thinks he’s moved on and changed his old ways. But he hasn’t, has he? He feels the pangs of regret from his past but still doesn’t feel the future pangs he’s causing right now … by choosing, again, to be selfish and oblivious about it.
I’m glad Onyx came around and saw himself as others do. It couldn’t have been easy for him. It’s one thing for an obnoxious “alphahole” to see the errors of his ways at least in regards to one special woman; those guys are so cold at the start that their transformations are almost magical. But the transformation needed for a guy like Onyx is more subtle. I’m doing fine, he thinks. I’m a good man. It’s only below the surface that he can hopefully realize he’s still carrying all that baggage from his past.
I guess there really are such things as ghosts.
Happy reading to you … and to all your baggage!
- Aubrey
P.S: If you’re not already following me and the happenings here at Aubrey Parker HQ (there’s not really an HQ), you may want to friend or follow me on Facebook and join my email list so you don’t miss anything. I promise not to be selfish about our reader-writer relationship.
Trillionaire Boys' Club: The Internet Giant Page 17
