“I came here to make a business deal, not to spend a night in a playboy billionaire’s bed.”
“I’m not playing, Jade,” he said in a low, dangerous tone.
“Not interested,” I said angrily as I opened the door. “And you really need to get a lot more interesting reading material in your office if making people cool their heels in your waiting room is a chronic thing for you. I’m pretty sure I lost a few points off my IQ from reading your fluffy women’s magazines.”
I didn’t look back as I rushed through the door, almost certain I could hear a very male laugh as I left Eli Stone’s office like my ass was on fire.
CHAPTER 1
JADE
The present . . .
“I’m not interested,” I said flatly into my cell phone just before I hit the “Off” button so hard I winced at the strain to my finger.
I glared at the electronic device as I tossed it on the kitchen counter. Right now, my phone was the enemy, and I wished I hadn’t dashed off my couch to answer it. But since it was the middle of the afternoon on a workday, I’d been hoping it was a request for a job interview. I had applications and résumés out everywhere. But I hadn’t exactly been bombarded by opportunities where I could really use my education.
I’m in a highly specialized field, and getting funding for new studies is difficult.
Eventually, I’d get the right opportunity. Until then, I’d be jumping every time my phone rang. Unfortunately, it was never a person I wanted to talk to right now. But if I didn’t recognize the number, I had to pick up.
The call I’d just cut off had been another local guy, somebody who claimed to know me from high school, who wanted to know if I would go out with him.
It was the third such call I’d had since yesterday.
And what felt like the millionth I’d received in the last several weeks.
I sighed. Yes, I’d wanted a more active dating life. But not like this. Word had gotten out that I was suddenly a very rich woman, and not one single guy who had called had been interested before I’d come into money.
Now, every unmarried male wanted to date me.
Okay, maybe not date me. They wanted to court my money.
Honestly, I was starting to hate being rich.
Before I could start dwelling on the fact that no guy actually wanted me for me, I strode back to the living room and flopped down on the couch.
“Job interview?” my brother Aiden asked from his seat in the recliner.
“It was nobody,” I answered. “Just another guy who wants to date my money.”
I looked at the TV. “What are you watching?”
“The new big-wave competition in Northern California that Eli Stone hosted. They caught some big-ass waves that were well over fifty feet. It was pretty crazy. Stone is up right now,” he replied.
I looked at the television, a big screen that my brothers had insisted I get, even though it barely fit on the wall of my small cottage.
“That’s the outer edge of the Channel Islands,” I said as I frowned at the TV. “He’s insane.”
“Not much room for error,” Aiden agreed. “If he doesn’t catch the wave, he’ll end up between a gigantic wall of water and the rocks.”
My heart was in my throat as I watched Eli paddling into the enormous incoming wave.
My brothers all surfed, and they’d tried to teach me and Brooke, but neither one of us had been nearly as enthusiastic as our male siblings.
“Well, fuck me,” Aiden exclaimed. “He made it.”
I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding as Eli rode the massive wave. “He’s going to kill himself,” I said anxiously.
“News flash,” Aiden said drily. “This happened last winter. He lived. These are just highlights.”
I made a face at my brother before I turned back to the television again to watch the interview that was happening with Eli Stone.
And there it was.
It was the Eli Stone persona that I was used to seeing. He’d already pulled his arms out of his wet suit, and it was bunched around his waist. His chiseled upper body was hard not to notice, and my eyes roamed over the signature tattoo down his arm.
But the thing that really stood out was the arrogant smirk on his face. And the lack of emotion in his gorgeous gray eyes.
There was nothing that told me he was flying high from his latest extreme-sports victory. The cocky smile was there, but it didn’t go all the way to his eyes.
My brother switched the TV off. “Let’s hit the pool.”
Aiden had dropped over to go for a swim. It wasn’t like he didn’t have his own pool, but I had a feeling he wanted to check on me.
None of my brothers liked the weird guys I was attracting because of the money I’d inherited. But I wasn’t sure what they planned to do about it. I’d changed my number twice, and it wasn’t like anybody was going to kidnap me. They’d need me alive if they wanted my money.
It was more of an irritant than fear-inducing.
I hadn’t really had any privacy for the last few months. Somehow, word had leaked to the public about my family’s inheritance, and if I wasn’t fielding men who seemed to be coming out of the woodwork, I was refusing requests from reporters for an interview about how we’d become connected with the rich, powerful Sinclair family on the East Coast.
Aiden and I didn’t talk much as we settled by the pool and did our laps side by side.
I stopped before my brother did, and took a rest.
When he came to a halt, he finally asked, “So who are you dating?”
For some reason, all my brothers thought they were entitled to know every detail of my personal life even though they never shared theirs.
“Nobody,” I said grumpily. “They all just want my money.”
“Obviously all of them don’t. What’s up with Eli Stone?” he questioned as he hefted his muscular body out of my swimming pool and went to dry himself off.
“What do you mean?” I asked as I floated on a small raft in the middle of the pool. The water was heated, and I wasn’t quite ready to get out yet.
“Come on, Jade,” Aiden said. “You had the speaker on when you listened to his message earlier. Are you dating him? The guy makes us look like paupers. You can’t say he’s after your inheritance.”
No, he’s after my body.
Really, Eli’s motives weren’t nearly as repulsive to me anymore. At least he’d been bluntly honest. Unlike other men who had started asking me out only because of my money. However, that didn’t make me any more likely to answer Eli’s phone calls or messages. He made me uncomfortable in ways that I still didn’t quite understand.
Honestly, I’d been surprised to hear Eli’s voice on my messages earlier. For the last several months, he’d been persistent, and he was still calling, even though I’d never answered a single one of his messages over the last five months. But since I hadn’t heard from him for almost a month now, I was pretty sure he’d given up.
Apparently, I was wrong.
And the current message from him had been the same as all the others.
He still wanted me to have dinner with him.
And I still wanted to avoid him, so I hadn’t ever called him back.