Page 65 of The Rebel Billionaire

"Unless you stay at Winters House twenty-four seven, you'll still be exposed. You've got a solid security system here, and I'mnext-door."

"I don't want to move back into Winters House," I said, resting my head against the wall and closing my eyes. My voice wavered with tears and exhaustion. "I want tostayhere."

"Then you'll stay here. You need to be careful. We'll talk about taking precautions in the morning. For now, you need to eat, and then I'm taking youtobed."

Tears pricked my eyes again. Dammit. What was with all this crying? Lucas's gentle consideration when I suspected he'd rather just tell me what to do softened somethinginsideme.

I didn't know what to say, so I finished my meatball sub and stood so I could throw out thewrapper.

"You look like you're about to pass out standing up," Lucas said. He wasn't wrong. I could feel myself wobbling a little. Every muscle in my body wasdrained.

My brain was done.Justdone.

I didn't want to think about anything. I wanted tosleep.

Lucas wound his arm around me and urged me down the hall, stripping off my clothes and nudging me onto the futon. He disappeared into the bathroom for a few minutes before he came back and started toundress.

I don't know what I was expecting. My mind was too sluggish to consider sex. Watching Lucas strip through half-closed eyes, it occurred to me that it might not be time to pass outquiteyet.

Lucas wasn't my boyfriend. And I wasn't aclient.

He wasn't spending the night on a futon too small for him because it was fun. Our whole thing was about sex. That was why hewashere.

It was okay. I'd get into it as soon as he started touching me. With Lucas, it didn't take much. He slid beneath the blanket, lying on his back. I rolled into him, hiking one knee over his legs and pressing my palm to his chest, intending to let my hand driftsouth.

My fingers skimmed his warm chest, dipping into the grooves of his muscles, tracing the line of his abs. He caught my hand when it hit his hipbone, wrapping his fingers around mine and pulling them back up to press my palm over hisheart.

"Go to sleep,Princess."

"But—"

Lucas passed his hand over my hair, starting at my temple and sliding around the back of my skull and down my neck. "Go to sleep. If you're too wired to fall asleep, I'll fuck you.Promise."

I grinned into his chest and let my eyes close. I doubt it took more than another minute or two before I passed out, lulled by the heat of his hand stroking my hair and the pulse of his heartbeat echoing inmyear.

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

LUCAS

Iwas sucked into work,eyes focused on my laptop as I burrowed my way into line after line of code for a client. Beside me, my phone beeped an alarm. The security system. NotCharlie's,mine.

Proximity alert on thedriveway.

I tapped the app on my phone and watched Aiden Winters unfold himself from what I knew was a very expensive and almost impossible to get Aston Martin. Damn, that was a gorgeous car. One of the perks of being abillionaire.

Didn't bother me. I wasn't a billionaire, but I had enough money socked away to buy my own Aston Martin if I really wanted one. Someday, maybe. For now, my capital and my attention were on building my business and playing around with rehabbing houses. An expensive luxury car didn'tfitin.

With a sigh of annoyance, I logged out of my laptop and closed it. This particular client wasn't in a rush, but the job was taking longer than I'd estimated since Charlie's life had intersected withmyown.

I didn't have to guess why Aiden Winters was here. After William Davis's visit, I'd been expecting Aiden to stop by. If he thought he was going to roll in here and scare me off Charlie, he was very muchmistaken.

Charlie was mine for as long as she wanted to be, as long as this thing between us stayed good, and nothing her brother had to say would change that. I knew guys like Aiden Winters. Rich, entitled, used to thinking the world existed toservethem.

When you work in my business, you run into more than your share of men like him. I let him ring the doorbell and took my time answering it. When I swung the door open, I was taken aback by how much he reminded me ofCharlie.

In pictures, they didn't look that much alike. Her blue eyes were so striking, they overshadowed the features she shared with Aiden. It was disconcerting to see her lower lip and those defined cheekbones in amaleface.

Aiden met my eyes with a direct stare and said, "LucasJackson?"