Babysitting the Billionaire Read Online Free PDF Page A

startled glance at her. Beau interrupted.
“You like margaritas.”
    “Liked. Ten years ago. Bourbon on ice, please. Now.”
    Sadie jumped into action. She pulled May by the arm
toward the door, opened it and pushed her through. “I’ll get the drink. End
every sentence with ‘senator,’ remember?”
    The senator called from behind them. “Girl. May, right?
Come sit next to me. We’ll start with water.”
    Sadie pushed her back into the room, and May poured
three glasses of water. Placing one at the seat directly across from the
senator, she brought the other two with her as she went to sit as invisibly as
possible beside the politician.
    Lindell drank down half the water in one gulp. May was
rather glad they’d started with the water and not the bourbon.
    “Sit, Beau. It’s been a long time.” She sighed, as if
she’d rather it had stayed in the past.
    He sat, loosening his tie a bit as if it helped him
clear his throat. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me privately.”
    “I agreed to meet Sadie’s secret funder.”
    Beau Kurck took a breath in, and changed in front of
May’s eyes. She could have sworn he was three inches taller, his eyes steely
determined, and stranger still, that his smell and taste had charged the air
with something. Electricity? Power?
    “You told me I wasn’t marriage material. I was frail,
unambitious, not living up to my potential, weak. Looking back, I have to
agree. Let me finish. I’ll be short.”
    “I changed my body, my mind, and my career. I run a
multi-million-dollar company that brings work to my hometown and joy to
millions. I’ve done something with my life, as you put it. Still, something is
missing.”
    He leaned in, arms resting on the table. “You’ve done so
well, Jane. I was so proud when you ran for your late husband’s House seat, and
to be the youngest senator, how marvelous. But something is still missing in
your life, as well.”
    May saw that gaping hole in her own life. If only
someone like Beau Kurck wanted to help her fill it. She was melting for him,
and he wasn’t even talking to her.
    “So, Janey, I’m back. I haven’t been faithful, but
that’s probably an advantage. I know what I’m doing now. I can love you better.
I want to love you better.”
    He paused. Now was the time to ask, and May was sure he
didn’t want to ask. He wanted to tell Jane Lindell to say yes. May wanted to
tell her to, as well.
    Beau reached halfway across the table, palm up. “Jane
Lindell, will you marry me?”
    Yes, yes, May said silently, pulling her own hands in to
cover her heart. How blasted romantic! She pulled her gaze away from that outstretched hand and looked at the woman
beside her.
    Sen. Jan Lindell’s back was pressed into the back of the
chair. Her hands were clasped on the edge of the table. Her eyes spoke pity.
    Shit.
    “Boris. Beau. I am so proud of what you’ve done. I knew
you could do it, and if I was the prod that booted you in the butt, I’m glad.”
    He pulled back his hand, sliding it under the table.
“But.”
    “But I never felt the same way for you as you did for
me. We were in high school, for heaven’s sake. You know, that fumbling attempt
at sex when we were seventeen, it was actually good for me.”
    May’s ears were burning. Where was Sadie with that
drink?
    “So you could reject me with no qualms?” His voice was
flat, but with an effort.
    “Sweetie.” He winced. Even May hated to be called
sweetie. To call a man that—ouch. “Listen. This is the thing. It’s not known,
outside a few, but I’m gay. My time with you, that’s what finally forced me to
admit it.” She turned her hands, palm up, and shrugged.
    May made a noisy show of reaching the pitcher of
margaritas. She did not want to see his face. She concentrated on the glasses,
pouring out two, making sure the ice didn’t splash too loud. She pushed one
across the table and took a big swig of the second.
    He didn’t touch it. “But you were