Only a Millionaire (The Sinclairs #6.5)(30)

“I missed you, too, Brooke,” Jade replied emphatically.

We’d already hugged until we were strangling each other, and blubbered like babies soon after she’d entered my apartment.

“I can’t wait to see my brothers tomorrow, but I have to get back to Amesport. I never really said good-bye to Liam,” I told her with regret in my voice.

“Are you going to say good-bye?” she pressed.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. We never really got that far.”

Liam and I had been happy living in the moment. Maybe we both realized that tomorrow was never a given, and we’d been okay just enjoying our time together. Unfortunately, I think I’d loved being with him way too much. I was completely addicted to him, and I was already feeling the pains of withdrawal. “I hope not,” I finally shared.

“You’re in love with him,” Jade pushed, trying hard to get more information from me.

I sighed. “I’m pretty sure I always have been.” I was in a safe place with a sister I trusted. If I couldn’t admit to her how I felt, I wasn’t going to tell anybody. “I’m not sure if it was just lust in the beginning, but it’s grown into something I never could have imagined. You know me. I’ve never been a big believer in happily ever after. We’re survivors.”

“People change,” Jade said softly. “I know we’ve always had to work hard to survive, but that doesn’t mean that we all can’t have our own happily ever after, too.”

“What about yours?” I ventured.

She snorted. “I seem to be plagued by rich men all of a sudden. Well, maybe not a lot of wealthy guys, since I avoid them if I can. They’re not all as nice as the Sinclairs. But just one is more than enough.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You met somebody?”

She paused a moment before she reluctantly answered, “Eli Stone. He’s a complete asshole.”

I knew the name. She didn’t have to say another word. “The Eli Stone? The crazy-hot, crazy-rich Eli Stone?”

Most people knew the billionaire by name, especially women. He made tattoos look sexy, and I wasn’t all that crazy about tats, except for Liam’s because they had purpose and they were beautifully done. Since Eli Stone had so many physical hobbies, it was pretty easy to see a photo of him without a shirt.

“He’s a spoiled, uptight prick,” Jade said venomously.

I’d rarely seen Jade react negatively to anyone, so I was more than a little surprised. “That bad?”

“We’ve . . . butted heads a few times.”

“You have a pretty hard head,” I replied in an amused tone.

“I wanted to punch him in the face, but I had to remind myself that he’s rich, and I’d probably get arrested for assault, so I had to hold myself back,” she said with disappointment.

Having been raised with three older brothers, Jade and I were perfectly capable of fighting dirty when we had to.

“He always seemed like a laid-back kind of guy,” I mused, thinking about the things I’d read and seen about the young billionaire.

“Take my word for it, he’s not,” Jade said in a clipped response.

“You could always sic our older brothers on him,” I said with a laugh.

“I wouldn’t. The bastard would get revenge. He’s not a pleasant kind of guy.” Jade hesitated before she changed the subject. “Forget Eli Stone. So what are you going to do about Liam? I’m dying to meet him.”

I knew she was deliberately changing the subject, and I let her. Her dislike for Eli Stone seemed to put her in a bad mood, something I wasn’t used to seeing from my sister. Jade pretty much liked everybody, and she never held a grudge.

Apparently, Eli Stone wasn’t the type to apologize.

“I’m going to fly back to Amesport in a private jet that our brother owns and apologize to Liam for leaving so abruptly. Then I guess I’ll see where we end up after we talk.”

“Maybe you should just seduce him,” Jade contemplated. “Guys like that.”

I had no doubt that if I pushed Liam, he’d break his promise not to have sex with me in a hot minute, but we’d developed a trust between us, one that I didn’t really want to mess up. “I think we’d better just talk first,” I answered.

Jade nodded. “And then you can have sex.”

I rolled my eyes at her. She obviously had sex on the brain, and I had to wonder if her hatred for Eli Stone ran all that deep. I’d never seen her react with this much anger toward a guy.

I stood up. “I’d better get some sleep. I think we both need it, and I’ll obviously be dealing with our brothers in the morning. It’s late.”

I’d see my three elder siblings tomorrow. Apparently, they’d let Jade be the one to explain. Right now, I was exhausted. I wasn’t sure if it was emotional or physical, but I felt like I’d reached the limit to what I could absorb in one day.

Jade hopped up and hugged me, and I held her a little longer than I usually did. Since the robbery, I held everything I loved a lot dearer than I had before, maybe because I learned just how fast it could all be gone.

Once I’d closed the door after my sister had departed, I wandered around my small one-bedroom apartment, feeling disconnected.