Page 5 of Big Billionaire

I worked so hard for this night. Every practice, every blister, every moment of telling myself I could survive the whispers…all of it was supposed to lead to something good. And in a second, it was gone.

I just want to disappear. To hide until the world forgets I exist.

The door creaks open.

I look up, and my stomach sinks as Logan walks inside.

He leans against the doorframe like he owns the place, like he hasn’t been the one trying to ruin me for weeks. “Well,” he drawls, smirking, “that was quite the performance. Didn’t thinkyou’d be adding a dramatic collapse to the routine, but…points for originality.”

I push myself up a little, keeping my back to the wall. “Get out, Logan.”

He ignores me, sauntering closer. “You know, all this could go away. The rumors, the whispers, the dirty looks. One word from me, and they’d be eating out of your hand again.” He tilts his head, that smug smile never slipping. “All you’d have to do is come back to me.”

I stare at him, my hands curling into fists. For weeks, I’ve kept my head down, swallowed my words, let him get away with it because I didn’t have the strength to fight back. But now, something in me snaps.

“No,” I say, my voice low but steady. “You don’t get to break me and then act like you’re the one who can fix me. I’m done letting you use me, Logan. You’re nothing without your father’s name, and you know it.”

The smile disappears, his eyes narrowing. “Careful, Lena,” he says, his tone sharpening. “You forget how quickly I can make your life hell.”

“I’m not scared of you,” I lie, though my pulse is thundering in my ears.

That stings his pride. I can see it in the way his jaw clenches and the quick flare of his nostrils. Hewantsme to be afraid of him.

He steps closer, grabbing my arm hard enough to make me gasp. “Maybe you should be,” he says, his face inches from mine. “Because you’re one bad move away from losing everything.”

I’m frozen, my mind scrambling for a way out, when the door swings open again.

And there he is.

Damien.

He steps into the room like he owns it—well, he does.

His eyes cut to Logan first. “Let her go.”

Not a request. A command.

Logan’s grip loosens, but his jaw tightens. “Dad, we’re just talking—”

“That’s not what it looks like.” Damien’s voice is low, even, but there’s an edge under it, sharp enough to draw blood. “You have two seconds to get your hands off her before I forget you’re my son.”

Logan’s eyes flash with an ill-concealed fear. “You’ve always been dramatic.”

“And you’ve always been a disappointment,” Damien says, stepping closer, towering over him. “Don’t make that worse tonight.”

The air between them is electric, the tension pulling tight like a wire ready to snap. For a moment, Logan looks like he might push back, but then Damien’s stare hardens, and whatever defiance was brewing drains from his face.

Logan lets go of my arm, his lips twisting. “Fine. She’s all yours.” He shoves past his father, muttering under his breath as he stalks over to the door, slamming it behind him.

His exit is followed by an echoing silence.

I swallow, looking up at Damien. “Thank you…for that, and um…for earlier.”

He doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he reaches down, takes my hand in his, and gently uncrosses my fingers one by one. His hands are big, warm, the skin rough against mine, his touch firm but gentle. The move shouldn’t feel intimate, but with his gaze locked on me like that, it does. It’s like he already knows my body, its tells, where it holds tension, how to make it feel good…

His eyes… God, they’re even more intense up close. Gray like a storm, rimmed with thick lashes, and so steady it feels like he can see right into me. Maybe it’s because he’s standing so close, but he feels taller than I always imagined, his broad shoulders filling the whole room, the faint shadow of stubble along his jaw making him look a little dangerous.

God, he’s so close.