Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(17)

“You’re an idiot.”

“Yep. When you say it like that, it sounds like an insult. But when you say it the way I did, not so bad, right?”

I shook my head. “I forget. Did I give myself the power to fire you?”

“One, you couldn’t run the company without me. Two, I’m not the one who smeared chocolate and icing all over my clothes. I’m also not the one who got verbally ass blasted by a high school teacher.”

“I didn’t get ‘ass blasted.’ It was just a misunderstanding.”

He laughed. “Actually, no, this is better than an ass blasting. You realize she was only talking to you because she thought you were me.” He punched my chest. “Bad news, bucko. We’re identical. That means you can’t even blame it on your looks. It’s just you that sucks.”

“Are you done?” I asked.

He scraped some frosting from my leg, some strawberry compote from my sleeve, and some more chocolate from my stomach. He squished the mess together into an impromptu sandwich and ate it with a satisfied sound. “Yes. Now I am.”

I let him wander back to the party, but I had no interest in following him. I wasn’t even trying to date Kira in the first place. The entire reason I endured the fake courtship with Stella was to avoid getting pressured into relationships by my parents. The only thing they cared about was playing an antiquated power game of family names and politics among friends. Women from the right families carried certain status, and that status would trickle back up to my parents. Stella was a Cartier, and the Cartier family was one of the biggest of the big. It was that simple.

I thought about Kira and the way she had looked just minutes ago. I couldn’t say if nostalgia was clouding my judgment, but I had felt a kind of lightness with her. Some of the burdens I’d gradually taken on over the years didn’t seem as heavy. I didn’t feel like I had to choose every word with absolute care.

I refused to acknowledge the way my heart had been pounding when the thought of kissing her had crossed my mind—when I’d wondered if I would taste strawberry or chocolate on her lips first.

I wouldn’t think about that, because it had been a mental glitch, like when you can’t stop yourself from thinking about swerving into oncoming traffic on the highway. You know there’s no way you’d ever do it, but some twisted part of the brain wants to explore the option—no matter how self-destructive it might be.

No. It wasn’t romantic interest with Kira. I was competitive to a fault. I’d come to West Valley with a few goals, and one of the smaller goals was to apologize to Kira. She hadn’t let me do that, and it was getting hard to think about anything else. That was all. I wanted her to accept my apology, even if she didn’t forgive me. Her blatant refusal irked me, and I knew I wasn’t even close to giving up.



I stepped out of the limo and took in our new headquarters for the first time. I couldn’t help wondering if the massive structure was nothing but a monument to the folly of my brothers and me—like some misguided offering to the three women we’d all left a piece of our hearts with. Misguided or not, I knew we had to get it right. Our company wasn’t so big that it couldn’t fail if we botched this project.

We’d built a technology empire out in California. In a few short years, our business model had done exactly what it was designed to do. We cannibalized the competition, used our custom software and training programs to make them more efficient, and then turned around to do what they already did, only better. We slapped the Sion name on them and watched the profits soar.

It had been a wild stretch of years since we left West Valley. Everybody we’d ever met had always seemed so sure that my brothers and I would go on to conquer the world. Whether we realized it or not, I think the three of us had bought into it. We drove ourselves so hard because anything less than extraordinary success would’ve felt like a massive failure. I’d always been driven to a fault. I set a goal to make a billion dollars, and I didn’t stop until it happened.

That part had almost felt easy. I’d always known where I was headed. I had a target, and I had the combined capabilities of my brothers and me at my disposal. And then, two years ago, we reached our goal.

I never stopped to wonder what I’d do or what I expected when we made it. For so many years, the idea of a billion dollars had loomed in the distance. It stopped being a goal with a purpose. I didn’t want a billion dollars to buy a yacht or build a mansion. It wasn’t to impress people. I wanted it because I’d decided to chase it. Maybe that was what made me so good at chasing my goals down so relentlessly. I distilled them into their purest, most basic form. I let nothing cloud my vision. I never felt tempted to stop or that I’d done good enough, because the only thing that counted was the full realization of my goal.

After reaching a billion, I thought the next thing would materialize before long. Some new purpose and drive would strike me like inspiration, and the next cycle of blind pursuit would begin. Except it didn’t. A month passed, then a year, then two. I was just going through the motions, and even as our wealth continued to grow exponentially, I felt numb.

Until West Valley. I hadn’t realized it until now, but I already had my next goal.

Kira Summerland.

The thought made chills prickle across my skin. I knew myself well enough to know how dangerous it was to set my sights on a person—a woman. But maybe I could control it. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I might need only her forgiveness. With that dark chapter of my past closed, maybe then I could finally put my full energy back into the company and move forward. Move on.