Read Online The Billion Dollar Bad Boy by Jackie Ashenden - Free Book Online Page A

was a bonus. It was just that sooner or later it would all come crashing down, because that’s what happened with love. He’d witnessed it too many times to count over the years he’d spent as his father’s corporate spy, seducing the secrets out of his father’s business rivals, trading on his looks and the charm that would eventually get him his own PR company.
    Love was an illusion. A mirage. People were wrong about religion being the opiate of the masses. Love was the true opiate.
    Good thing he’d long overcome the craving because, as with any addiction, you could never get enough. God knew he’d spent long enough chasing fixes with his father.
    “No,” Donovan said, raising the tumbler of neat Scotch he held in his hand and taking a sip. The stuff was expensive but he barely tasted it. “Why do you ask?”
    “Because you’ve been standing there scowling at the crowd for the last ten minutes.”
    “Scowling? I’ll have you know I never scowl. I just crease my forehead in an adorable fashion.”
    “Who is it this time?” Jax said, unfazed. “The blonde in the corner over there?”
    “What blonde?”
    There was a silence from beside him. He glanced at his brother, met the other man’s surprised blue eyes. “What?”
    “I don’t know, you tell me. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen you be completely uninterested in a hot woman.”
    Red hair like a sunset. Sweet and hot and spicy against your tongue.
    Donovan’s fingers curled around the whiskey tumbler. “Yeah, well, maybe I’m not in the mood.”
    “Bullshit. You’re always in the mood.”
    What have you done to me?
    Christ, what had
she
done to
him
more like? He couldn’t stop thinking about her. About what happened between them. About that raw, naked look in her eyes as the aftershocks had gripped them. He’d never had it so intense, not with anyone, and God, he wanted more.
    She’d called it done. But they weren’t done. So not done. Not if he had anything to do with it.
    He took another tasteless sip of his whiskey. “No, I’m done with women. I’m thinking of taking up golf instead. I hear hitting balls with clubs is very therapeutic.”
    Jax eyed him.. “How did the meeting go?”
    Ah, shit. Trust Jax to remember the whole reason he’d been late to the party in the first place. Donovan forced a grin. “Extremely well.”
    “The De Winter offer’s good then?”
    “Almost.”
    “What do you mean, almost? You’ve been saying ‘almost’ about every damn offer we’ve had so far. We need that fucking thing gone, Van.”
    Anger turned over inside him, along with a good, healthy measure of frustration. “‘Oh, please, ‘we’ don’t need anything. It’s you that wants to sell it, not me.”
    His brother’s expression became stony. “We’ve had this discussion.”
    “Bullshit we had a discussion. You gave out a set of orders and that was the extent of the discussion.”
    “The land is a liability, Van, you know this.”
    “That land is my fucking birthright, Jax, and you have no right to sell it.”
    Donovan met his brother’s steely gaze and tension echoed in the air around them, sharp and hot.
    “Hey Van.” Pandora appeared suddenly out of the crowds, tugging on Jax’s arm and smiling at Donovan. “Do you mind if I grab my Prince Charming here? They’re playing our song.”
    With an effort, Donovan relaxed against the bar, hoping his smile didn’t look as forced as it actually was. “Sure. Be my guest.”
    Jax turned his glare on his fiancée. “We don’t have a song.”
    “We do now. Come on, I haven’t had enough dancing. Oh and FYI, quit it with the scowl. I was hoping to marry Prince Charming, not Grumpy the dwarf.”
    Jax rolled his eyes but let himself be led away. As he went, he gave Donovan a “we’ll talk about this later” look, which was pretty much par for the course with Jax and his big-brother shtick. The guy never took “fuck off” for an answer.
    As the pair of them left, Donovan