The Billionaire Game Read Online Free PDF

in delighted contentment.
    Lacey had her man and her job, and she
loved them both beyond reason. It was the whole package.
    And sometimes I couldn’t help but
wonder if my whole package had gotten lost in the mail.
    I set my shoulders and told myself to
stop wallowing. I had more important things to focus on. It didn’t
matter if achieving my dream took years or even decades; I had set my
mind and heart on it, and I was going to do it.
    And hey, in the meantime, there was
always champagne. I snagged a glass off a passing waiter’s
tray, and he turned to me with a grin like electricity. Oh, hello,
cute waiter from before. Still looking twice as delicious and
intoxicating as the champagne he was carrying.
    “So,” he said with a
Louisiana drawl that had me contemplating how that voice might sound
coming from between my thighs, “what’s a pretty lady like
you doing in a place like this?”
    Well, if he was going to flirt with me
first, I definitely wasn’t going to cling to any reservations
about flirting with him.
    “Oh, nothing much,” I
answered back, coming forward and letting my hand rest lightly on his
arm. “Just…admiring the scenery.”
    Dreams were hard things to achieve. It
was a good thing life was stocked with so many pleasant distractions.

 

THREE
     
    “Hold, please!”
    I tried my best to keep my voice
chipper as I transferred the call, massaging my temples and wincing
as the last pangs of my hangover headache shot through my brain. Ow
ow fuckity ow ow. Sometimes distractions are just not worth it.
    The waiter hadn’t been much
better than the champagne. We’d barely started to get our flirt
on when his girlfriend appeared out of nowhere. It turned out she was
a waiter at this event too. What was with all the two-timing guys
lately?
    And so here I was, manning the phones
on reception, trying not to die of boredom and second-hand
entitlement from all the asshats who thought that ‘receptionist’
was an archaic English word for ‘person put on Earth to cater
to my every whim and whom it is appropriate to scream at if she does
not immediately divine my exact wishes through telepathy.’
    I could see one of those asshats
approaching, and it was with considerable relief that I saw one of
the phones light up. I grabbed at it like a lifeline.
    “Devlin Media Corp., front desk,
how can I help you?”
    “Hey, Kate, it’s Lacey,
time to gossip?”
    “Sure thing, ma’am, I’ll
walk you through that right now, it should only take about an hour,”
I said sweetly. Asshat made an annoyed face, but moved off looking
for someone with a more open schedule to harass.
    “That scare them off?”
Lacey asked. “I still don’t know how you do that job. I
had just one jerk yelling at me all day in my old position, and that
practically had me running for the hills.”
    “Like you ever ran for the hills
in your life,” I said. “I bet you don’t even know
where the hills are. Anyway, yeah, the hyena’s headed out in
search of different prey. What’s up, girl?”
    “I cannot believe Grant talked me
into a business trip right after the party,” she complained.
“I’m so hungover and jetlagged I can’t even get
excited about being in London yet. Thank goodness I have the week—I’m
going to make time around the meetings to see the Globe Theatre, and
Picadilly Square, and at least a few museums.”
    “You going to hang around the BBC
headquarters at all?” I asked. “Maybe see some of those
old spy-fi show stars you love?”
    “I wish,” Lacey said with a
sigh. “They tore down the old headquarters awhile back,
though.”
    We chatted some more about her travel
plans, with me occasionally going into fake professional-speak when
someone walked by, or putting her on hold when someone came up with
an issue that actually fell in my job description.
    Meanwhile I occupied my hands by
sketching some new designs, mostly things I was toying with for
Lacey’s trousseau. I didn’t usually work with