hotel since it’d been left to him and his brothers. His parents had been divorced for years. But Luke gave her a percentage of the profits every month. She’d been left to raise three rowdy sons while his father lived his dream in his fancy Manhattan hotel.
They wanted their mother to live the high life now. When Laney was in bad shape, his mom had spent more and more time in New York. Luke bought her a townhouse a few blocks away from the hotel where he, Luke, and Tristan all lived in penthouses.
Last he heard, Luke had an offer on a house in the Hamptons. A six-bedroom colonial on the water where they could enjoy weekends away from the city. All of them.
His brother was building them a real estate empire. Owning up to their new billionaire status. Houses all over the country. And everywhere his brother bought a house, a room for Gray popped up.
Nice, but it felt hollow because he didn’t earn any of it. Sure, inheriting the hotel was cash handed to them on a platter, but Luke and Tristan worked there now. Left their dream jobs for the good of the family. Luke had been a successful lawyer and Tristan was a marketing and finance genius. Now they were the CEO and COO.
After Lexi had negotiated the deal with Chevalier, an elite partner program, bookings skyrocketed. More money, great, but again, not his doing. Nothing felt like it was really his.
His.
Sabine could be his.
That soul defining moment claiming a woman as his would sear her into his memory forever.
But he didn’t want to live in L.A. and she was hell-bent on making a life for herself in California. Jealousy soared through him. To have a goal where all he needed was money and some hard work? And not the kind of work he did in the gym, but just sheer luck to be in the right place and time to land a part.
If that Netflix role didn’t come through, he had some serious thinking to do.
Who was he?
It made him admire Sabine even more. She was everything he wasn’t. Or at the least the better version of him. Strangled by family expectations, she gave them all the finger and did her own thing.
Could he...live in L.A. permanently?
Do something else?
He scoffed, it would be torture. Every other person was in the movie business. It would eat at him. Fear of missing out was a bitch with an ice-cold pussy.
Sabine’s fresh lime scent turned the corner before she did. Damn, this would be awkward. He’d turned her down. At least he’d done the right thing which suggested he wasn’t the complete mess he thought he was.
“Ready?” he asked with a warm smile showing the respect he had for her and hoped that came across more than anything.
“Can we stop for some breakfast?” she asked, her voice light and friendly.
“Yes. And no, not a dozen donuts.”
She shook her head, those pretty red waves dancing on her shoulder. “I almost pity ye, denying yerself the sweet pleasures of life. For what? Two minutes on the big screen.”
Laid out in those terms, she was right.
“It’s about being healthy.”
“My ma eats bacon every morning and drinks whiskey every night. She’s sixty. And in perfect health.”
“Perfect health? You sure about that?”
“Ye gotta live yer life. Didn’t ye say that to me?”
“I did.” He nodded and took her bag.
“And my maimeó lived to ninety-seven. Now, she was a woman who could show ye how to live.”
“I give in! What kind of donuts do you like?”
“I never met a donut I didn’t like.” Her smile crawled inside his chest, grabbed his heart, and squeezed. Just goddamn squeezed. Until there was nothing left of him.
The fun they could have together. Maybe just not in L.A.
If he...
If he took her virginity and then...
His eyes bulged in his head when his mind barreled down a road covered in slick oil.
He could marry her.
He could take her back to New York.
He could keep her in his penthouse.
Mine.
Jeez, he needed something stronger than a donut.
ALTHOUGH, THAT CINNAMON sugar fritter he devoured at a roadside Krispy Kreme didn’t exactly suck.
“So where are we going? Ye never said.” Sabine licked her fingers.
Yeah, I found out you were a virgin, and that kind of mashed up my brain.
“Austin,” he said, shifting in his seat, swatting away at the sugar flakes.
“Are ye looking to be dragged into the supreme court by yer agent?” Sabine leaned over and there she was picking the fritter