Page 31 of Her New Billionaire Bosshole

“I ordered bottomless silly pancakes from Pancake Empire when I was drunk, got sick, and puked purple for hours, all over their bathroom.”

Elliot twists around, looking me in the eye, a gleam of victory shining in his. “I bought the Bolts just to get back at this old college rival.”

I suck in a breath, eyes locked on him. Distantly, I think that this should make me mad, but after the night we’ve had, I don’t have it in me. It doesn’t matter why Elliot bought the team, but the reality does make me laugh. “No. You didn’t.”

He nods, laughs, drops his head back against the ground. The man here with me right now isn’t billionaire Elliot, or playboy Elliot, or even owner of the team Elliot — he’s just man, loose-limbed and red in the face from laughter, and I want to wrap myself up in him.

“I did,” he finally says, when the laughter subsides. “This guy,Clark,” he says it like someone might say syphilis,“he’s the worst. Arrogant, thinks he knows everything.”

I hum, jokingly, and Elliot ignores me, going on.

“Everything I did, he had to do. Every internship, every job — suddenly, he was applying for it, too. I played doubles in college — tennis — and of course, he found a partner and joined in.”

It’s mesmerizing, watching him talk, and when I say, “Did it ever occur to you that he might want to be your friend?” Elliot looks at me like I’ve just slapped him.

Holding his hands up in the air, he says, “No. Absolutely not — I don’t think Clark even has any friends.”

“That’s why he neededyou.”

Without warning, Elliot turns to me, poking me into the side until I curl up with laughter. “Just listen, Kendall, and stop interrupting.”

“I can’t believeyou just tickled me! That issounprofessional?—”

He reaches over, ticking me again more thoroughly, his hands on my sides, his palms hot against my skin. I’m laughing and gasping, squirming to get away — but not really. Because having him this close is intoxicating.

Finally, he stops, his face just an inch from mine. My breath catches in my throat, and for a moment, I think we might kiss.

Then he says, “Clark is truly awful, Sophie, and I need you to know that. I need you to be on my side for this one.”

His breath smells like champagne and strawberries. Though, more just strawberries, because it’s what we’ve been snacking on since we got back up here. We never even opened the bottle for the room.

“Okay,” I whisper back, eyes moving between his. “I believe you.” Then, remembering what Elliot just said, I add, “And he’s awful enough that you boughtan entire soccer team? A sport you knownothingabout? Why not just buy a tennis team, or something?”

Gently, he runs his hand down my side, sending flutters through my body. “There are no tennis teams, Sophie. At least not like this.”

“So, it was to get back at evil, nasty Clark,” I say, not wanting to do anything to scare him away from the moment.

Elliot sighs, “And now, to impress my dad.”

“He’s impressed that you bought this team?”

“No, he’s horrified. But that’s just the thing — I want to impress him by showing him that sports can be a good investment, and that I wasn’t just acting rashly by purchasing this one.”

“…but you were.”

“Yes,” Elliot says. “I find myself doing that a lot, lately.”

Our faces are close enough that if I lifted my head at all, our noses would brush. I feel his breath with every word he says. His hands are still on my sides, one of his thumbs drawing back and forth lazily, tracing a path of fire that tingles up and down my entire body.

I’m going to kiss him.

Maybe I knew it from the moment we left the bar. Or maybe, from the moment they brought the champagne.

But, if I’m being honest with myself, I probably knew it from the moment I turned around in the elevator bay and saw him there. That I knew he’d been trying to catch up with me, that I was the first person he wanted to see after the game today.

Or maybe I knew it on the plane. In the airport, when he apologized and said he wanted to work together.

In the next second, it doesn’t matter, and my mind is no longer in the past.