MARRY THE BILLIONAIRE
1
Time is king. It bothers me that I can’t control it, so I have to make do with controlling how I spend it. Each and every day, I prioritize and maximize, so if there’s anything I hate, it’s wasting time on idle chatter with business partners.
Which is why appointing my brother as my head of operations is the second-worse decision my dad ever made before retirement. Second only to leaving my mother for a woman a decade younger than I.
Not that our mother isn’t taken care of. She is. My brothers and I made sure of that.
Not that I have a horrible relationship with my dad or either of my brothers. I don’t.
But I do hate it when my brother Hudson interrupts my morning when he knows I have my routine and dislike interruptions.
Annoyed, I put down theBusiness Reviewarticle and hit the green button on my phone.
Hudson’s tanned face pops up on my screen. His green eyes practically sparkle. In fact, his entire face sparkles, and it’s tooearly for him to light up like this. He smiles widely, showing me all his teeth.
I return the smile while scanning the background on the video feed. I don’t recognize the bedroom. It’s not his.
“Blake, my brother dearest,” he starts.
“Hudson. On a scale from one to ten, how important is this phone call?”
“A nine.”
“And what do I consider a ten?”
“The death of either of our parents.”
I nod. “I’m listening.”
“There’s a charity auction tonight. I completely forgot about it.”
Not a level-nine emergency. Sighing, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Do you need a suit?”
“Nah, nothing like that.”
“A date?” I give him a blank stare.
“I need you to go for me.”
“I have a prior arrangement.” With a talented new Italian designer I intend to sponsor. I get publicity for it, so it’ll all work out in my favor. She’s picking her sponsors now, and I need to come out on top, and not lose to Helen, the other competitor.
“It’s a charity auction,” Hudson says as he reaches for a plate of eggs, hash browns, and pancakes. He’s in a hotel somewhere.
“I’ll have Aisha send money for the charity. Where to?”
“They don’t need money.”
“What kind of charity doesn’t need money?”
“The Italians. Well, no, the Russians, actually, but I can’t keep track of how they intermix anymore.”
“And how did you get involved with them?” Only I wheel and deal with our friends on the other side of the law. No need to get my older brother’s hands dirty too. If shit goes down, I’d rather be the one to take the fall.
“It was an accident. One thing led to another, and I got stuck with the auction.”
“Do I want to know the details?”
