Billionaires Dollar Series

Oh yes, her circle. All the people who hung around her for notoriety or for fame. Because she’s often been the talk of the town-billionaire Cole Porter’s little sister, latest in a line of failed socialite entrepreneurs. Excellent friends indeed.

“If he’s so devastated, he shouldn’t have run his family’s legacy into the ground,” I say evenly. “He has only himself to blame. Well, and his father. And grandfather.”

Blair reaches up to run a hand over the back of her neck. Rising slightly from the water, the wet expanse of her chest and the curves of her breasts come into view. I force myself to look away and ignore the two black triangles that cover them from my view. “What will happen to all the employees you’re terminating?” she asks.

Good, I think. Keep taunting me about things like this and I’ll stop noticing your beauty in no time at all. “I don’t know. That’s not my problem.”

Her eyes narrow. There’s disapproval there. “They were your employees up until the day they were let go.”

“Yes, and they were let go with the same terms and conditions that they agreed to when they were hired by B. C. Adams. Severance and all.” My voice drops. “I’m not Thomas York. I don’t run a charity, Blair.”

“I know that.” Her cheeks flush further-I know she hates being spoken to like I just did, with the tone of voice that implies she doesn’t know any better.

“What you’re really saying is that you’re uncomfortable with the idea of working for someone like me,” I say.

“No. I get why you have to fire people. It’s just-”

“Immoral? Not the first time I’ve heard that.” I let my gaze wander from her to the giant pines that encircle us, my expression bored.

She drops the discussion, but I don’t feel the same rush of success as usual. Keep going, a voice whispers in my head. Challenge me.This is property © NôvelDrama.Org.

“You claimed to be a good skier,” she says instead. The tone of her voice is as cold as the nip in the air-the comfortable friendliness she’d shown me when I first sat down in the hot tub is gone. I did that, ruined her mood as surely as I ruin most things.

“I am,” I say. Like most things in life, I’d started skiing late, far later than Cole and Blair-their jet-setting parents had sent them off with a ski instructor before they could walk.

Blair doesn’t know that. “So am I,” she says instead. “I’m looking forward to racing you tomorrow, then.”

Ah. For some foolish reason, I’d expected Cole and me to go skiing together like we used to. Taunting each other to more daring pistes. The rush of reaching the bottom before him.

With Blair… I don’t want her to push herself to go as fast as me. Scenarios play out in my head, of her flipping or careening and ending up with a broken limb. Her beautiful face marred in pain. Of me, explaining it all to Cole.

She mistakes my hesitation and shakes her head. “Fine. Be scared, then.” But there’s genuine confusion in her tone.

Fuck. Whatever I do or don’t do with her is wrong somehow, and I know it’s my fault.

It’s always my fault.

“I’m heading inside.” She rises from the steaming water. There’s no hiding from the sight-from her body so very nearly unclothed. The black bikini hides almost nothing.

An expanse of dewy, honey-colored skin. A curved waist and full breasts and as she turns to climb out, long legs and a firm ass. Her body is as glorious as her face. I’d suspected that, for years. Having it confirmed makes my whole body tighten.

As if in a daze, I drag my gaze up from her taut stomach to the incredulity in her eyes as she catches me watching her. For a long moment, we just stare at each other across the steam of the hot tub.

Then she flushes, and this time it’s not from the cold.

“Well,” she says faintly, wrapping her towel tight around herself. And then she disappears inside, leaving me to my miserable thoughts and aching body.

Nick had checked me out. Practically ogled, and there had been no mistaking the hunger I’d seen in his gaze. It’s the first time in the eight years I’ve known him that I’ve ever seen him look at me like a woman-like something other than Cole’s spoiled little sister.

The look re-ignited my stupid old crush. Despite his words, the harshness of them, the constant comments. Do you ever have a thought you don’t speak? Or once, two years ago. Don’t you have another failed fashion line to launch? They’d hurt, and whittled away at my want of him. I’d thought it nearly gone.

But his gaze has brought it all back.

And more than that-I realize now that I have power where he’s concerned. Not power he’s willing to give up, but power all the same. A small part of him, at least, wants me.

The thought keeps me from sleeping. Lying in the giant bed in one of the guest rooms, I stare up at the pine-wood ceiling and ignore the stag horns mounted on the opposite wall. He’s in a bed in a room not far from here. What’s he thinking?

It’s a stupid question. Not once have I been able to predict what Nicholas Park thinks, and starting now will drive me mad. But still.

He’d looked.

Skye and Cole are already up when I drag myself out of bed the next day. They’re in the kitchen, Cole watching as Skye flips pancakes, her brown hair in a braid down her back. I watch them from the door for a moment. He’s taunting her-saying she can’t flip more than two in a row.

“My money’s on Skye,” I announce.

“Ah-ha!” she says. “At last, someone has confidence in me.”

Cole shakes his head at me, but his smile is wide. “Et tu, Brute?”

“Especially me,” I confirm. “Is Nick not up yet?”

“He’s already down in town, getting his gear,” Cole says. “He said something about hitting the slopes early. Is it all right if you two ski alone this morning? I’ll join Nick out on the slopes later today.”

“Of course. That means the afternoon is ours,” I add to Skye. “There’s a ton of non-skiing activities in Whistler, you know. We could go dog-sledding.”

Her eyes light up. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“Then you two should definitely do that.” Cole is already reaching for his phone. “Let me call them and set it up. We went there when we were what, eleven and eight?”

I nod. “I’d just seen the movie Balto. It was epic.”

“We should take Timmy dog-sledding when he joins us next time,” Skye says. “He’ll love it.”

Cole steps away to set it up. I grin at Skye, and find her grinning right back at me. “Have I told you that I’m happy my brother married you?”

“Yes,” she says, flipping another pancake high. Her smile is triumphant. “Including during your wedding toast. But I still very much like hearing it.”

“Good, because I’ll keep saying it.”

The rest of the morning passes in a kind of lovely, vacationy haze, one that makes my muscles ache and my heart happy. Cole’s chalet is staffed when he’s there, and one of the drivers helps me assemble all the gear I’ll need. I’m ready by the time Nick returns.

He takes a step back when he sees me waiting, leaning on my skis. We look like polar opposites-my trousers and ski jacket are sleek and white, his are form-fitting and black. The high neck of his jacket rises up to meet the cropped fit of his dark hair.

“You’re ready,” he says.

I nod. “Ready to race you to the end.” This is something I know I can do. Sunscreen on, hair braided, my body itching to hit the slopes. Cole and I used to race, too-but he has Skye now. I suppose Nick might feel the same way. Both of us discarded, forced to race against each other.

“Let’s go, then,” he says darkly.