Page 4 of The Billionaire and the Nanny

I could just walk away and pray that he didn’t stick around for too long. He never did, I thought sarcastically.

True to form, Leo was scowling at me. I tried to ignore the feel of his hands on my arms as he set me away firmly, and took a deep breath to calm my nerves. As it turned out, that was a bad idea. I got the full effect of the special scent I’d always associated with Leo - something spicy and slightly musky, and very, very sexy.

My body reacted to his proximity like it had always done, even after three years of not so much as being in the same room as him. You’d think my body would have moved on. But eventhough I hated him with every fiber of my being, my traitorous body was still stuck on Leo Donovan.

When I looked up, his icy grey eyes were traveling up the length of my body, and I shivered in response. I didn’t know if it was a reaction to his nearness or the fact that the room was far too cold to be comfortable, but I became aware of my nipples poking through the thin fabric of my emerald green dress. Leo noticed it too; his stormy grey eyes darkened and lingered on my breasts. I felt a gush of wetness between my legs and sighed. It had been like this since I first met him. One touch, one stray glance hot enough to set me on fire, and my body responded to him immediately, as it never responded to anyone else.

I wasn’t a virgin, of course, but no one I’d ever been with affected me as strongly as this man who had made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with me.

I tried to cover my reaction to him by doing what I’d always done when I felt overwhelmed. I resorted to sarcasm.

I ran my eyes over his tuxedo-clad body and quirked an eyebrow.

“What’s the effect you’re going for? Beauty’s Beast?”

Of course, there was nothing beastly about him, except his temper.

Leo was tall and built like a tank. But he was beautiful. God, he was beautiful! His sharp cheekbones, square jaw, stern upper lip, and thick eyelashes made for a face that could tempt an angel into falling from grace just for one chance to kiss him.

“As always, it was a pleasure talking to you, Tia,” he said snidely before he walked past me.

I blew out a relieved breath and turned away. There was no point in torturing myself by staring after him like a love-sick idiot. I needed to focus. And then I felt it. A clammy coldness crept up my skin. I turned slowly and found Jeff Sabri standingacross the room, staring at me intently. When I met his eyes, he raised his glass in a mockery of a toast and winked at me.

I swallowed the bile that rushed up in my throat and forced myself to smile at him. It wouldn’t do to appear anything but malleable. If Jeff felt I was unwilling to meet the terms of the deal that he had struck with my brother, he would take what he believed to be his by force. And he’d revel in it. I refused to give him that kind of power over me.

An old friend hailed me and I turned away to greet her in relief. Everything about Jeff made my skin crawl. Whether it was the way he looked at me, the fact that he was old enough to be my father, or the whispers I’d heard about how he took pleasure from hurting women. All of it made him someone I’d avoid if I had a choice. But I no longer had a choice.

I hailed a passing waiter and grabbed a glass of champagne. The only way to get through tonight was to drink myself into a blissful numbness. If I survived the night, I’d deal with the truth of what I had become - trash. That’s all I was. And according to the men in my life - whether it was my brother, Arjun, or Leo - that’s all I deserved to be.

I was on my second glass of champagne and wondering when the buzz would kick in when my brother strode up to me with a scowl.

“Is this what you’re wearing tonight?”

I drained my glass before I turned to him.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

“You look fat! Are you trying to put Jeff off the deal?” accused my loving brother.

“I wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing,” I replied through gritted teeth, mainly because I knew there was nothing I could do. For some reason, Jeff Sabri wanted me and apparently, he was good at getting whatever he wanted.

“I’m warning you now, Tia. Jeff’s investment is all that’s saving the company from going under. All you have to do is make him happy for as long as he wants you. If you fuck this up, they’ll be fishing pieces of you out of the Hudson for the next twenty years,” he warned.

Arjun had taken my father’s healthy business and destroyed it with his poor decision-making, and now, all that stood between him and bankruptcy was Jeff Sabri, who was a very shady investor. He had offered to bail out Arjun’s company in exchange for one thing, and one thing only. He didn’t want shares in the company or a controlling interest, probably because he knew they’d be worthless. All he wanted was me. And my brother had no qualms about pimping me out.

Tonight was when Arjun had to deliver on his end of the deal, and if all went well, Jeff would transfer the rest of the money tomorrow morning. I grabbed a third glass of champagne as I wondered if it was better to be killed and thrown into a river than to prostitute myself to save my family business. And where would this even end?

Was this just the beginning of a long career as a high-class hooker? How many more men would my brother force me to service every time he sent the company into freefall? Which wouldn’t take much because my brother was more concerned about his nose candy than he was about the company.

Jeff came over to us, and I couldn’t help tensing. His smile widened when he noticed the stiff set of my shoulders.

“Relax,” he whispered, running one hand over my back gently. “I don’t bite… much.”

The champagne threatened to make a second appearance all over his shoes, and I almost wished it would.

I moved away from his touch on the pretext of setting my empty glass on a stand and looked up to see Leo’s furious gaze burning holes into me from across the length of the art gallery.He looked from me to Jeff meaningfully, and I knew what he was thinking. He probably thought I was a gold digger for sleeping with a man so much older than me.

Well, he could take his judgment and fuck off. I was doing what I had to do to save my life. I raised my chin and turned to smile at Jeff, who pulled me into a loose embrace as he chatted casually with Arjun, who kept an uneasy eye on me.