by Cassie Cross
CONTENTS
One Night With the Billionaire: Book Four
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
One Night With the Billionaire - Book Four
Text copyright © 2016 Cassie Cross
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, weather electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Cassie Cross.
One Night With the Billionaire
Book Four
By Cassie Cross
CHAPTER ONE
Kaia wakes to the sound of muffled voices, roused from a light, gentle sleep. Disoriented, she rolls over, reaching for Jason, who isn’t there. Her hand slides across cool sheets, which tells her he’s been gone a while.
A quick panic rushes through her, and she sits upright, the sheets falling across her waist. Her heart pounds against her ribcage.
“Jason?” she calls. She doesn’t get a response. Instead, she hears more muffled voices. Jason’s, along with someone who sounds a lot like Elise.
She looks over at the clock on Jason’s bedside table.
It’s 3:27. Kaia had fallen asleep in his arms not even two hours ago, after she’d done her damnedest to distract him from the events earlier in the evening. She’d been haunted by the look in his eyes as he pressed her against the wall of the building, blocking his body with hers.
He’d been so shaken afterwards, that all she wanted to do was feel his skin on hers, and make him feel so good that he forgot the panicked helplessness she’d seen written all over his face.
He came three times before he finally fell asleep, exhausted.
Looks like it hadn’t lasted very long.
Jason’s raised voice reverberates throughout the apartment, and Kaia slides out of bed, slipping one of Jason’s old t-shirts over her head on the way out.
Muted light filters out of Jason’s office into the hallway, and Kaia follows the rumbling of voices. She doesn’t want to eavesdrop, but she also wants to be there for Jason if he needs her.
Elise’s loud, pleading voice is what makes her run to the door, desperate to see what’s going on.
Jason is standing on one side of his desk, his fingers threaded through his hair, his red-rimmed eyes looking at Elise in disbelief. She can feel his tension from all the way across the room. It’s written all over his body.
Elise sits in the chair across from the desk, looking completely defeated. Tears are streaming down her face, and her arms are outstretched, palms up, like she’s pleading. There’s desperation in her eyes, like her whole world hinges on whatever Jason does next.
“Jason?” Kaia says quietly, taking a tentative step forward. “Is everything okay?”
It takes him a few seconds to fully register Kaia’s presence, then his gaze flits to hers, and he looks like a drowning man. Completely, utterly lost.
Kaia slowly walks over to him, not wanting to do anything that will make him push her away, or retreat back into himself like she knows he’s accustomed to doing. The newfound openness with each other that they’ve shared since Jason shared his past with her is still so fragile.
Kaia doesn’t want to do anything to break it.
When she finally makes her way over to him, Kaia reaches out and slides her hand across Jason’s back. He relaxes against her touch; the tension that was there just seconds earlier melts away. Some is still there, but he’s more relaxed than he had been, and Kaia considers that a win.
“It’s okay,” she says softly, as her hand glides across his back.
When he looks down at her, still lost, he says, “It’s not okay.”
Kaia decides not to talk him out of it before she knows what’s actually going on. He and Elise have been arguing, that much is obvious. The tension in the air is thick, and she could hear them before she walked in here. Apart from how wrecked Jason looks, Elise seems ready to get down on her knees and plead with him at any moment.
“What’s going on?” Kaia asks.
“Elise was just leaving.”
Elise lets out a quiet sob, says, “Jason, please.”
Kaia is completely confused. The whole reason Elise is staying at the apartment tonight is because she wanted to keep an eye on Jason after what happened earlier. And Jason had told Kaia that he felt better having Elise near.
Clearly, a lot has happened since she’s been asleep.
Jason brings his hand up and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Just go, please, Elise. I can’t do this tonight. My driver’s waiting for you downstairs. He’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
Jason has no family left; Elise is the closest thing he has. Kaia can’t wrap her mind around what could’ve happened to make the situation change so suddenly, and she doesn’t want to let Elise go without giving Jason the chance to cool off. She doesn’t want him to regret anything he says or does here, and if she can possibly keep that from happening, she’s going to.
“I’m worried about you,” she tells him. “Let’s just go back up to bed, and sleep on it, okay? Don’t do anything you’re going to regret.”
Jason puts his arm around Kaia, and pulls her close, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“I just need some time.” He looks to Elise, who’s clearly gutted, and repeats the same thing. “I need some time.”
Elise gives the two of them a sad smile, and watches the way Jason’s hand slides across Kaia’s shoulder. “Okay. I can give that to you.”
“The driver-”
“Isn’t necessary,” Elise finishes. “I think we both know that now.”
“I don’t want you going out alone,” Jason says. “It’s late, and I’ll feel better knowing you got back to your hotel okay.”
Elise takes a deep breath, and nods. She stands, and gives Kaia a watery grin. “It was very nice to meet you, Kaia. I hope we’ll get the chance to get to know each other better in the future.”
Kaia nods. “I’d like that very much. I enjoyed meeting you, too.”
She pauses, like she thinks Jason might change his mind. When he doesn’t, she turns and walks out, shutting the door behind her.
Jason sighs heavily, and sits down on the edge of his desk. His shoulders are slumped, his head bowed. Kaia wants nothing more than to be there for him, to be someone he can lean on and talk to, but she doesn’t want to press him.
She’d really like it if he’d open up on his own.
She steps between his legs, and he grips her hips, moving her forward, close enough so he can rest his forehead against her chest. Kaia reaches up and slides her fingers through his hair, gently scratching his scalp the way she knows he likes.
“Are you okay?”
Jason lets out an unsteady breath. “No.”
Admitting it right away is something new. “Wanna talk about it?” Kaia almost immediately second-guesses herself, following that up with a quick, “It’s okay if you’re not ready, I-”
“She lied to me.”
Kaia expected him to say a lot of things, but that definitely isn’t one of them.
“About what?”
He swallows, running his hands up and down her sides, and the slide of the cotton against her skin is the only sound in the room for a long time.
“She lied to me about my parents. About why they were…about why they were killed.”
Kaia’s hands still in Jason’s hair as she absorbs what he just told her. He’s built his whole life around his parents’ death, around preventing something like that from happening ever again. He refused to let himself have relationships because of it. Hell, even once he opened up to her, his past had been one of the reasons he nearly lost her.
To learn that all of that was based on a lie…
“Why were they targeted?” Kaia asks.
Jason lets out a short, bitter laugh. “Turns out they weren’t the kind of people I thought they were.”
The way his voice breaks when he says it, the heartsickness in it, makes Kaia pull Jason a little closer. She remembers the look on his face when he told her about his mother and father, the sheer admiration in his eyes. The pain that they were both taken from him much too soon. She’s so glad she’s here with him. She’s happy he’s letting her in.
Kaia rubs Jason’s shoulders, then presses a kiss against the top of his head. He raises his head from where it was cradled against her chest, and she wants to do whatever she can to make sure she never sees this look on his face again.
“All these years I thought they were murdered because we were rich, because there were people out there who wanted what we had and were willing to do whatever they had to in order to take it.”
His voice wavers, and Kaia’s heart breaks. His eyes are watery, and even though she doesn’t know exactly what he’s getting ready to tell her, she thinks he’s doing a remarkable job of holding himself together.
“Why…” Kaia can’t bring herself to ask him outright why they were murdered, so she settles for an easier question. “What kind of people were they?”
Jason takes a deep breath, then answers, “Thieves.”
He must read the shock written on her face, because he doesn’t wait for her to respond to that, he just continues. “They built an empire on software that they stole from someone else.”
Kaia doesn’t need Jason to tell her that the ‘someone else’ he’s speaking about is one or both of the men who were in his house that night.
“The guy who killed them, it was his software. My dad hired him as a contractor, then stole the code. He made it better, my mom marketed it, and the two of them made unspeakable amounts of money off of it. This,” he says, motioning to the scars on his chest, “was part of the payment. My parents’ lives were part of the payment.”
Kaia leans forward, and wraps him up tight. Even though he’s so much larger than she is, he feels so small in this moment, in her arms.
And she hears what he doesn’t say. That him living his life in fear that everyone he loved was going to be taken from him was also part of the payment.
Kaia doesn’t know what to say to him. She doesn’t know what he needs or wants to hear. She feels completely helpless, and all she knows how to do is hold him, to kiss him, and to be here for him in whatever way he needs her to be.
“Did the mens’ families not have any claim on the estate, or…” Perhaps it’s not the right time to ask such a question, but Kaia can’t help herself.
“From what Elise says, they were both estranged from their families,” Jason explains. “So there was no claim on the estate. I’m not sure I believe her.”
Kaia decides to be the voice of reason. “Why would she lie at this point?”
Jason shrugs halfheartedly. “I never thought she’d lie in the first place, so…honestly, I don’t know.”
“She wanted you to have good memories of your parents, Jason. What they did professionally has nothing to do with how much they loved you. She wanted you to have that, even though you couldn’t have them.”
He looks up at her, utterly wrecked. Like he hadn’t completely understood her reasoning until now. He seems calmer, if not less upset.
“It makes sense, Jason,” Kaia whispers, sliding a soothing hand up and down his arm. “How long did she know?”
“She said she found out shortly before my parents were killed. She was stunned, too. I remember that Elise hadn’t come around much right before their deaths, but I never knew why.”
Knowing how betrayed she felt probably compelled Elise to want to keep it from Jason. Having her own memories of her friend ruined would’ve made her do whatever she had to in order to keep Jason’s intact.
Kaia knows this isn’t the time to bring that up, though.
“Why on earth did she decide to tell you this tonight?”
Jason wraps his fingers around Kaia’s, then brings the back of her hand up to his lips.
“I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that I’ve been a little closed off from her.”
From everyone, Kaia wants to tease, but she doesn’t. She understands now. “You told me you were afraid of losing her the same way you lost your parents.”
Jason’s quick intake of breath and the forlorn look in his eyes makes Kaia realize that this probably wasn’t the best time to bring that up. Still, he moves past it.
“Yeah. She knows that’s why. She understands that about me. And it’s been a long, long time since she’s seen me happy. You. You make me happy.”
Even though it’s an inopportune moment, Kaia feels happiness roll through her when she hears those words. A small smile quirks her lips. She likes that she makes him happy. She wants to be the person who does that always.
“Tonight she told me that she never thought she’d see me look that happy again. She wanted me to hold onto that. And after the car backfired, then she saw what happened…I think she thought maybe those fears would come back. That they’d take hold, and make me push you away. She didn’t want me to throw this away just because I was scared. I think seeing it in action freaked her out.”
Kaia understands that. “And she wanted you to know that there wasn’t anything to be scared of.”
He nods. “For a minute I thought maybe she was lying. I wanted her to be lying, because I thought I’d rather live in a world where there was a threat I could actively try to prevent than a world where my parents were liars and thieves. But…I know she wouldn’t do that to me. She’s telling me the truth.”
“Now which world would you rather live in?”
He squeezes her fingers. “I…I don’t know.” He pulls away from her, and walks a couple of steps away, his hands fidgeting at his sides. “I’m angry, I’m relieved. I’m…a lot of things.”
“It’s okay to be all those things,” Kaia assures him. “You have time to sort all of this out.”
He looks up at her with tired eyes and a soft smile, before closing the distance between them in two long strides.
He kisses her, short and sweet, then rests his forehead against hers. “I’m glad you’re here.”
She smiles. “I’m glad I’m here, too.” And even though she knows he’s not going to get much rest for what little is left of tonight, she holds out her hand and suggests it anyway. “Why don’t you come to bed and see if you can get some rest?”
He takes her hand, and lets her lead him back to his bedroom.
CHAPTER TWO
Dawn is breaking across the horizon, streaming in through the windows in Jason’s apartment. He’s sitting at the bar in his kitchen, and his eyes are sandy and heavy from exhaustion. He was awake all night, staring up at the ceiling while Kaia used him as a pillow, unable to turn off his brain and just sleep.
All he could think about was Elise’s face as she told him
the truth. The hitched, sobbing breaths as she told him the truth about his mother and father, the two people he’d always looked up to, both in life and in death.
And all of it was a lie.
It felt like a slap in the face.
Even though he told Kaia that he knew Elise wouldn’t tell him this if it wasn’t the actual truth, he still let those thoughts invade his mind last night as he listened to Kaia’s soft breathing, hoping her peace would quiet them down.
Elise told him that she’d been thinking about telling him the truth for years. That she was afraid his fear of letting people close was going to lead to a long, lonely life for him.
That fear of hers was always fighting her desire to keep his parents’ positive memory alive for him.
In the calmer moments that he’s had over the past few hours, he can’t really be mad at her for keeping up the charade for all these years. Especially when his childhood was ripped from him when he was all of twelve years old.
Jason doesn’t even know who he’s angry with. His parents. Elise. Everyone. It’s a heavy weight of emotion that’s settled in the pit of his stomach, and it gives him a new target every few minutes.
There’s another part of him that’s absolutely relieved to know the truth, and he hates it. He hates that the bright side of all this is knowing that he doesn’t have to be worried anymore, that he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder wondering who’s following him, who’s waiting to take everything he loves away.
It’s a relief he didn’t know he was so desperate for until he had it.
On the countertop in front of him is a box of old photos that he had tucked away in his closet. For so long it’s been too painful to open it up, and shuffle through the memories. It’s painful now, too, in a way that it hasn’t been before.
He looks at the pictures spread out before him, wondering which moments were true. Were they all really happy here? Were all the good memories that he had actually good, or were those lies, too?
His father took him fishing on Saturday mornings. He carefully taught him how to bait a hook, how to cast a line. How to cook a fish over the camp fire.
