Billionaire's Game

by Summer Cooper

  This ski race really had nothing to do with her as a romantic partner, but Jess hated to lose at anything and if she lost this race it was going to affect her confidence in other areas of her life. She realized this was an obsessive and unhealthy attitude, but she had always been that way. She wanted to win and win at any cost no matter what undertaking she decided to partake in. It was on.

  Chelsea was neck and neck with her at first, but then Jess easily pulled ahead of her. Jess shouted in victory as she passed Chelsea and left her far behind her, but Jess didn’t even think about slowing up or resting on her laurels; that was how you got beat in the end. You could never take your opponent lightly.

  Jess could now see that Alex and Dean were neck and neck, and neither one seemed to be in any danger of falling behind. They were pushing as hard as they could, both of them flying at breakneck speed. If one of them messed up just a little bit they could end up flying into a tree or at least wiping out and breaking some bones rolling down the hill.

  Jess tried to gain speed so she could see better, but they were both just too fast. They were strong, athletic men, and both were advanced skiers. It was impossible for her to even hope to catch either one of them, but she was going to try. At least it would give her something else to push for to make sure she stayed far ahead of Chelsea.

  She was tempted to look back to see where Chelsea was. She was pretty sure the girl had fallen off the planet, but she didn’t dare trust her skill level enough to glance backwards. She could just see that ending horrifically bad.

  They were almost at the end of the run when Jess saw it happen. Dean stuck his pole out a little bit, just enough to trip Alex’s right ski. Alex immediately went down as he tried to correct himself. He tumbled the rest of the way down the run, but luckily it was almost to the flat at the bottom when he fell and he landed on snow the whole way. There were no trees or jagged rocks in his path. If there had been he would have been in so much trouble.

  Had Jess really seen that? Did Dean really trip his friend and business partner so that he would lose a ski race? She still wasn’t sure she had witnessed that taking place. It was like waking from a strange dream where you didn’t know if you were awake or asleep.

  It was possible that it was an accident and even possible that it only looked like Dean tripped him. It might have just been close. His pole might have just moved a bit too far away from his body. They were too far away to tell what had actually happened.

  Jess came to a stop as Alex was standing to his feet.

  “Alex, are you alright?”

  “Oh, I’m just fine. I’m going to kill that bastard,” he said.

  Dean rode up beside them and came to a quick stop. He seemed genuinely shaken up.

  “Alex! Dude, are you ok? I have no idea how that happened,” Dean said.

  Jess actually found herself believing him.

  “What? Are you going to try to say you didn’t just trip me on purpose?” Alex was getting up in Dean’s face.

  “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about. You think I would do that?”

  “I know you would. I’ve seen you do worse,” Alex replied.

  “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” Dean asked.

  “What do you think? Do I need to come right out and say it? I was being coy about it,” Alex said as he turned away and began skiing towards the lifts.

  Dean was glaring at him with an intensity that Jess had never seen in him before. It was kind of a sexy smoldering look, but it was also scary as hell if you were the one he was focusing his stare on. Jess actually felt for a moment like Dean might actually go after Alex or at least he was plotting something for later. She wondered what sort of animosity had been brewing between the two men for a while. This couldn’t all be because of her, as flattering as the thought may have been.

  What was Alex talking about? What had Dean done? She was beyond curious now and she desperately wanted to ask, but knew he might bite her head off if she did. There were certain things that you just didn’t push with guys; buried secrets between bros were pretty high on the list. She had figured that one out long ago.

  Chelsea moved in line behind Alex, following him. Jess had not even noticed she had finished her run and was standing quietly a few feet from them. Jess stared at Chelsea’s impressively athletic and lean body. She sometimes wished she had a body like hers. She would be an even greater athlete than she was now. She wondered how she had beaten Chelsea. It had to be all a matter of skill, because Jess was a good forty pounds heavier than Chelsea and probably not much stronger. It made the win that much more satisfying.

  “We gonna go for another run?” Jess asked. She was hoping they would do a few more, but now she wasn’t so sure that Alex was in the mood. He had very nearly gotten hurt a few minutes ago and even though he wouldn’t show it or admit it; he was probably still a bit sore and shaken up.

  “Sure, let’s do it.”

  Dean was instantly cheerful again and acting as if nothing had happened at all. He had that look of a champion back in his eye and he was ready to roll. He moved off towards the lift. Jess paused a moment just staring at him. Who was he? How was he able to just change his whole mood and attitude that way? That was probably why he had such a great poker face. In his line of work you couldn’t compete if you got rattled easily. You had to have nerves of steel. Jess liked to think she had nerves of steel, but she knew that hers paled in comparison to Dean or Alex. The men were both superhuman. The way they were able to compartmentalize their emotions was staggering. She envied that; it was a rare talent.

  The next run turned out to be the last one of the day for them, but it was nonetheless fun. It actually was the most fun run of all, because it seemed that Dean and Alex both simmered down and just enjoyed themselves without getting all psycho alpha male and going crazy.

  Jess was even finding that she tolerated Chelsea for a bit, but she still hated the girl. She was the poster girl for all of the things that Jess was against as a woman. She was superficial, shallow, and lazy. She was a princess and she expected everyone to treat her that way because her rich daddy had. Jess hated those types of women because she knew they never appreciated anything and they expected everything.

  That night at the cabin Dean was rather quiet. As they sat on his couch watching some old John Hughes DVDs from the eighties, he didn’t utter a word. Occasionally he would grunt a laugh when something silly happened, but he was content to be quiet. He just sat and sipped his bourbon.

  Jess was absolutely beat. She had forgotten how much skiing took out of you and she was in very bad shape compared to the shape she used to be. I’ve got to start working out, she thought.

  She was starting to get a bit bored, so she decided to see if she could draw Dean out of his shell. He looked like he really did not want to be bothered, but she didn’t care. Sometimes it was fun to just push people to see how far you could get away with pushing them. It often ended badly, but it also sometimes ended splendidly. She was hoping it would end in the bedroom. For some reason she was really hot tonight and Dean was looking extra delicious.

  It might have been the way he was being all standoffish and aloof. She had always been attracted to the strong silent type. There was something about a man who was stoic and spent a lot of time inside their own minds, as if separating themselves from the rest of the world.

  “So, what’s on your mind?” Jess asked.

  Dean looked somewhat annoyed for a split second, but quickly popped a huge smile across his face as he looked over at her, flashing those sexy eyes at her. That was such a huge turn on, but she held her poker face. She had to make sure that he didn’t’ catch onto the game yet. She had to make him squirm a little bit.

  “Nothing, much. Just enjoying the flick. Have you seen it before?” Dean asked.

  “I’m not sure; which one is it?”

  “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s a classic,” Dean said. He was genuinely in love with the movie. Jess had only ha
lf watched it, so she had no idea if it was funny or not.

  “Oh, I may have seen it before. It sounds familiar.”

  “I tell you, they do not make flicks like this anymore.”

  “Really? You a big teen movie fan?”

  “No, just this era. The eighties movies had so much pizazz and fun. They were all about never growing up and avoiding responsibility, but at the end of the movie the kid always learned about responsibility anyway. It seems that no matter how hard you try to push it away, growing up happens whether you want it to or not.”

  Jess was taken aback. She had no idea that Dean could be that deep and introspective. She now had a whole new appreciation of him and of these goofy teenage movies he seemed to love. There was something so sexy about a man who was passionate and brainy about something that she cared nothing for, because he had just made her care about it too. She wanted to watch these films for herself and see what she would take from it.

  “Wow that is very interesting. I have never seen these movies in that light. How did you get into this particular era?”

  “I’m not sure. I guess they used to play these movies on spring break and winter break on television when I was a kid and these ones were the movies that just hooked me. They taught me a lot about life and how to make sure I never ended up like the geek who couldn’t get the girl,” Dean said with a wink that made Jess blush.

  “So, we aren’t getting much work done this weekend, are we?” Jess asked.

  Dean laughed. “No, I guess not. But screw it. We get paid no matter if we win or not.”

  For a while that might be true, until we end up with no clients because no one wants to go to jail so they never hire us, she thought.

  “How do you have such a cavalier attitude about life?” Jess asked. She had moved slowly closer to him, inch by inch. She wasn’t sure he had actually seen it, but she was going to be right next to him on the couch in just a few seconds. He was still too preoccupied by the movie.

  “I just don’t allow myself to get too emotionally involved in things. Getting bent out of shape never helped anybody. Like today, I was just about to break Alex’s neck, but then I stopped myself. It wasn’t worth it.”

  “So, you don’t really think he tripped you on purpose?”

  “Oh, that dick totally did it on purpose. I’m just saying I’m prepared to wait until the perfect time to strike to get him back.”

  “That sounds dangerous,” Jess said. She was practically whispering in his ear now.

  “It’s not. I can totally—"

  Dean stopped short as he suddenly realized that Jessica was putting a move on him. He looked her deeply in the eyes and his eyes widened with desire. For a few seconds neither one of them moved. No one blinked and no one breathed. They were just getting lost in the look. It was here and now. They were here together and they were sharing a moment.

  Dean grabbed her and pulled her close, pressing his lips to hers, hard.

  Jess smiled inwardly. This was turning out to be a great weekend.

  Chapter Seven

  Jessica was awakened by her phone vibrating.

  She rolled her head slowly to the side pretty sure that she was dreaming. It took a few moments and another round of buzzing for her to come to the conclusion that she was not dreaming and she had just received a text message. In the dark she could read that it was from Alex.

  She picked up her phone, noticed that it was three-thirty in the morning. What in the hell could he possibly want at this hour? She debated ignoring it and thought about just drifting back off to sleep. She darted her eyes to the left, making sure that Dean hadn’t heard the phone.

  He was dead asleep.

  She decided to ignore it. Whatever Alex had to say to her he could say in the morning. Now was the time for sleeping. She had been dreaming about something amazing, but she could not remember what. She hated when that happened. It was something that was going to bug her the rest of the day and she silently cursed Alex. Hopefully her subconscious would remember it and she could get back to sleep easily.

  A few minutes later she was on the verge of drifting back to sleep when the phone vibrated again. It somehow seemed to be louder this time. She couldn’t believe it. The man would not take no for an answer. She used to find that sexy, but now she was finding it totally annoying.

  She slipped out of the covers and grabbed her phone. She clicked on the first message.

  Hey, meet me outside the cabin. I want to talk.

  That is a very vague message, she thought. Why would she even take that bait? Come on, Alex. You are going to have to do better than that.

  She clicked on the second message.

  Come on, don’t be a chicken shit.

  Jess glared angrily in the dark. How did he know how to push her buttons? How did he know that being called that was the worst thing in the world for her?

  She tried not to give in. It was late and she was exhausted. She had actually thought about going into the other room to get some work done; she always worked much more efficiently when she was tired. She was not sure why. Maybe it was because her brain was moving at a slower pace and she could actually concentrate better. She had read an article once about the effects of limited sleep on overachievers and she believed one of the studies had proven that theory on its test subjects. She wondered why they had never contacted her. She would have been great for a study like that.

  It was going to eat at her if she didn’t go. Being called chicken shit or anything close to it had always had the same effect on her as telling her that she couldn’t do something or that she couldn’t be something. Jess had always been the type of person who could not stand being told what to do or being told that she was inferior in some way. She had gotten better with it and at times she thought she had even cured it, but then some idiot would say something to her and it would send her over the edge a bit. She hated to be treated that way and could not stand the idea of someone looking down on her.

  She knew that Alex was just teasing and he was trying to aggravate her. Well, it’s effing working. She knew as soon as she had read the words that she was going to be going out there tonight. It was stupid and he was probably going to try to get her naked or do some other weird shenanigans.

  On second thought, he was a grown man. She had dated far too many insecure little boys in her time who needed to grow up. Alex was many things and most of those things were shadowed in a negative light, but he was a strong, dominant man who was in charge of his own life. That was one of the things she found most intriguing about him. She had really been giving him an extra hard time of things and she wasn’t sure why.

  Maybe it was because Alex was the quintessential bad boy and she had vowed never to get seriously involved with one of those. This was precisely the reason that she had pulled herself back from him, she realized. She liked Alex way more than she liked to admit and that scared her. She was as afraid of him as she was turned on and drawn to him. It was a weird bad boy sickness and most women alive today had dealt with it and they either moved on or matured out of it or they clung to it convinced that they were right in assuming that these men could change. But they could only change a little bit. If they changed too much then they were no longer exciting and bad. There was no excitement, mystery, or danger. Some women thrived on it.

  Jess knew she was one of those women, but she had refrained from allowing herself to become too involved with that kind of man. She knew that if a man like that ever sank his teeth into her then she would be his forever and it would be hopeless. She would fall madly in love and then her heart would eventually become shattered into a million pieces, never to be repaired again.

  Jess took a deep breath, got out of bed, put on a pair of sweats and a hoody. Five minutes later she was standing outside of the cabin looking for Alex.

  She saw no one. The anger began to rise inside of her and she felt like screaming. Had he just sent her this text so that she would go outside for no reason? It was freezing ou
t and she wasn’t dressed that warmly. She didn’t think she would be out there that long. And she was right. Alex was nowhere in sight so she was going back inside.

  “Hey, looking for me?”

  Jess stopped mid step and spun around. Alex’s grinning face was standing there. He had been hiding behind a tree and now he stepped out into full view, his face lit up by the huge, bright full moon that hung low in the clear sky. He was clearly enjoying himself and his little trick on her. She was filled with a sudden urge to ram his face into a tree. But the way he was laughing was beginning to make her laugh. She held onto her straight face by sheer force of will.

  “What are you doing?” Jess asked.

  “I was out for a walk and I got bored. So I came up here.”

  “You walked all the way up here?”

  “It’s not that far. I’m at the resort about two miles down the road. It’s a pretty nice walk actually,” Alex said.

  “You take a lot of midnight strolls?”

  “I do when I’m this close to the beauty of nature,” Alex replied seriously.

  Jess was trying desperately to figure this man out and just when she thought she had him, he threw her another curve. It was exhausting but also very exciting. Oh, no--- those are two of the symptoms, she thought.

  “Ok, I’m here. What was so important that you had to drag me out of bed at four in the morning?”

  “I needed to talk to you. I need to talk to you about Dean.”

  “What about Dean?”

  Alex walked closer to her, his feet shuffling the snowy asphalt beneath.

  “Dean is dangerous,” Alex said.

  Jess laughed. “What do you mean dangerous? He is your best friend.”

  “Yeah, he is. I know him better than just about anybody. Trust me when I tell you the man is dangerous.”

  “Dangerous how?”

  “A few years ago he got a girl pregnant. She was one of our interns. The girl tried to blackmail him into marrying her. Her grandpa is Judge Williams. If you know anything about Judge Williams then you know that you never want to piss this guy off.”