Tempting the Billionaire by J.A. Low
Stirling
Turning to where my brother is sitting beside me, I say, “Don’t think Nell was happy to see you?”
“She never is.” My brother chuckles while taking a sip on his whiskey which is a little excessive for nine a.m. in the morning. I shake my head at him. “So, Audrey’s single again.” He looks at me over the lip of his glass.
“I know. What a dickhead. Rhys and I were ready to fly to Bora Bora and kick his ass for what he did to her.”
Remi’s eyes narrow on me. “Just to help Rhys out? No other reason?” My brother pushes me.
“She’s like a little sister to me,” I argue with him.
“Please, Audrey is a smoke show. There are no little sister vibes there whatsoever. But I get it; you have to tell yourself whatever you need to, to get through hanging out with her.” He grins at me knowingly.
“It’s not like that and you know it,” I argue.
“You’ve always gotten along. And now Rhys isn’t here you can hang out.” Remi grins.
“We’re friends, just like you and Nell.”
Remi bursts out laughing. “Nell and I are not friends. She tolerates me because of her family.”
“And what about you? Do you tolerate her because of her family?” I ask, pushing him. This has him laughing again.
“I tolerate her because she’s hot.”
“You’re a dick.” I punch him in the arm, which makes me burst out laughing even harder. “No wonder she can’t stand you.”
“Look, Nell is upset because I am the one that continues to rock her world and not Miles, the brother she wants.” Remi shrugs but I can see the tiny crease of disappointment on his face over it.
Looking dumb founded at my brother, I say, “Are you insane? You know messing with the boss’s daughter is a huge problem. How long has this been going on for? What the hell are you thinking? You could lose everything you have worked for if he finds out,” I explain to him.
“You don’t know anything about us.” My brother points his finger at me seriously. “There’s a long history there.” Remi’s face drops. “She isn’t even interested in me anyway. Not when Saint Miles is around.” He shakes his head. “I don’t understand what she sees in Miles anyway?” Remi huffs.
“Maybe because he’s a successful doctor, and you’re a polo playing playboy?” I answer his rhetorical question with a chuckle.
“You’re a dick, you know that?” He glares at me. Oh, shit. He was being serious with me. It’s hard to tell sometimes because Remi is always the joker, the one leading the charge for fun and mischief, so when he is serious about something sometimes it takes me a little while to catch on.
“Miles isn’t interested in her.” He pouts.
“Maybe not. But why are you interested in her?” I ask him point blank. “And do not say it’s because it’s just a little fun.”
“You wouldn’t understand.” He turns away from me.
“Try me, Rem.” He shakes his head and takes a sip of his whiskey cutting off the conversation entirely. There’s an age gap between Remi, and Miles and me. He’s only twenty-six, so there’s eight years between us and six between him and Miles. Growing up we were at different stages, so of course Miles and I naturally would confide in each other while Remi had no one because we had all moved out to college by the time he was old enough to hang out with us. Then he moved in with the Garcia family at seventeen to pursue polo and that created even more of a divide between us. It’s not until recently that we’ve reconnected with Remi as an adult, and it’s been good, even if it’s a little rocky sometimes.
I must have fallen asleep at some point because I’m woken up by loud music and screaming. Am I in a club? Rubbing my eyes trying to work out what the hell is going on? The three girls are dancing around the plane. They each have a bottle of champagne in their hands as they wave them around. What the hell happened while I was asleep?
“You woke up just in time.” Remi turns to me with a grin. “Maybe I should have brought some dollar bills with me.”
I elbow my brother for his dick comment.
“How long have they been going at it?” I ask Remi.
“Started off as a couple glasses of champagne. Then Audrey asked for shots and now we here we are. Do you think I should ask Nell for a lap dance?” Remi grins.
“Once you put on a parachute because she will push you out of this plane if you do.” This makes Remi burst out laughing. “Do you think we should stop them?” I ask, looking over at my brother.
“Are you fucking insane?” He stares at me. “Stirling, they are grown ass adults. If they want to bump and grind on each other it’s their prerogative to do so. They are letting off some steam.” Maybe he’s right. I just know that Audrey is hurting after what David and Dior did to her and this isn’t her. I mean I know she likes to party, but I never thought dancing on tables was her thing, or maybe it is. I’ve never seen this side of her before. I guess we don’t hang out in the same places so maybe this is what the girls do together.
“I’m going to go freshen up,” I tell my brother, who raises his glass up to me while keeping his eyes on the show. I make my way down the aisle to the bathroom area. I open the door and lock it shut before splashing my face with cold water. This is going to be one long ass flight if they continue this for the next however many hours there is left. I take a deep breath and head back out again. Pandemonium has ensued.
“Stirling!” Audrey squeals when she sees me walking back to my chair. Remi’s moved over to where the girls are sitting enjoying watching Nell and Rain dance together on the chairs. “We’re playing truth or dare,” Audrey informs me. “It’s your turn.” She grins.
“I’m okay.” Waving my hands up at her. “You guys play it amongst yourselves.” Audrey pouts then tries to give me some kind of puppy dog eyes to get me to join in.
“Stirling’s no fun. But I am,” Remi adds which makes the girls giggle. I shake my head at him.
“I’ve got emails to catch up on,” I explain to them, shaking my phone in Audrey’s direction. Audrey rolls her eyes and heads over to where her friends and Remi are seated. I try and concentrate on my emails, but the squeals and giggles are too much.
“I dare you to give Nell a lap dance,” Rainn tells Remi. My ears prick up at this.
“Ewww. No.” Nell squeals while crinkling up her face.
“She’s worried she’s going to like it,” Remi quips back.
“Doubt it,” Nell teases.
Rainn fiddles with her phone and next thing you know the Magic Mike anthem “Pony” starts blaring throughout the plane. Remi jumps up and starts to gyrate around. I shake my head at his antics.
“Go Remi, go Remi.” The girls chant, not that my brother needs the encouragement. I look over and he’s ripped off his shirt and is now gyrating himself all over Nell’s lap and surprisingly she looks like she’s enjoying it. Honestly, this is beyond anything I thought would be happening when I stepped on this plane this morning.
Guess it’s not a boring flight.
“Now it’s his turn.” Remi chuckles pointing in my direction.
“No. No. No,” I stammer as the girls look over in my direction.
“Audrey give that man a lap dance!” Rainn screams out while Remi and Nell holler after her.
“No.” I wave my hand in Audrey’s direction but she’s a little to tipsy to notice my objection. The next thing I know “Toxic” by Britney Spears starts playing, and Audrey is on me.
Shit.
Her hands rest on my knees while she rubs her ass against my crotch. No. This is too much. Of course, my dick twitches to life in this moment and I’ve never wanted someone to knee me in the balls more in my life than now to make it stop sitting up and taking notice. I’m only human and when a beautiful woman is giving me a lap dance biology takes over and I can’t stop it. Think of something real quick Stirling, otherwise you are going to embarrasses yourself. Audrey then turns around and places her hands on my shoulders and then straddles me, she then presses her boobs into my face. Right, that’s enough. I don’t care if everyone else thinks this is hilarious. Rhys will murder me. I place my hands around Audrey’s waist and pick her up, she whoops and hollers thinking I’m getting into her routine until I drop her back down on the seat opposite me. The music stops and the entire plane goes quiet.
“I think that’s enough, don’t you?” I ask, looking down at Audrey, and it is in that moment, I see her face crumble. Her blue eyes well up with tears and her cheeks turn bright pink. I feel like the biggest dick. Audrey gets up and rushes to the back of the plane where the toilets are in a flood of tears.
“You’re a real jerk sometimes,” Remi sneers at me.
“How am I the bad guy here?”
“She was just blowing off some steam that’s all.” Remi’s eyes narrow. “You’re an uptight asshole, aren’t you?” He slumps down beside me, clearly upset with me.
“Rhys would kill me if he found out,” I explain to him.
“Fuck Rhys.” My brother throws his hands up in the air. “This was nothing but a bit of fun. It’s not like you’re fucking her in front of everyone.” Trust him to take it to the next level. Silence falls between the two of us, before he slowly turns his head in my direction. “Unless you want to fuck her?”
“What? No. And keep your fucking voice down would you?” I hiss at him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I see the way you look at Audrey,” Remi bites back.
“I don’t look at her in anyway.” My voice raises, getting angry with my brother.
“Shut up, bullshit. You want her,” Remi argues. I still at my brother’s observations, my stomach drops at the thought that maybe I haven’t been hiding the way I see Audrey all these years well. “And it’s getting harder for you to hide it.” My heart is beating uncontrollably through my chest. “Well from your brothers anyway,” he adds that last caveat to his comment. I relax a little.
“Nothing will ever happen between Audrey and me.” My words are firm and succinct I need my brothers to know whatever bullshit conspiracy theories they have going on in their heads they need to stop it. “I promised Rhys.”
“When you were fucking teenagers,” Remi grumbles.
“I have too much to lose. I can’t.” Remi gives me a side eye.
“Even if she’s worth it?” he pushes.
“I won’t ever find out if she is,” I add.
“Fair enough.” My brother shrugs his shoulders and pulls out his phone and begins playing on it, cutting off our conversation.