His Princess - Stacy Gail Page 0,5
been studying the markets for a couple years—mainly because I’m good with numbers, which helps me see trends that everyone else seems to overlook, and I seriously fucking love the control money brings to a life. So, when I was working on the computer system at St. Ambrose where I was staying, I set up an account for both the church and myself as soon as I was legally old enough and made my first trades.”
Her brows went up. “Why were you staying at St. Ambrose?”
“It was that or the streets. I’ve been on my own since I was fourteen,” he expanded with a vague shrug. “No family, no home, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to give my fate over to the system and let some overworked social worker place me somewhere that wasn’t of my own choosing. St. Ambrose ran a teen shelter, and once I had that place scoped out I knew it was where I wanted to be. That’s when I decided to make sure I was indispensable to them by becoming their IT guy, then their money guy when I started investing for them.”
Dazedly she shook her head. “I can’t believe they let you do that with their money. You were just a kid off the streets.”
“The money I invested for them wasn’t theirs. I was sixteen and just old enough to get a job, so I got work down at the shipyards. Eventually, when I was old enough, I put a third of my paycheck into an account for St. Ambrose, and when their portfolio finally began paying off a few years later, I donated it to them with the proviso that I got to oversee its growth. To this day I still look after their portfolio, a fact which got me a lot of attention a couple years ago, when St Ambrose opened up some private school.”
“They didn’t just open up some private school, as I recall,” she said, shaking her head in growing amazement. “St. Ambrose opened up both a college-prep school and a private university in Cabrini-Green, right on the river with adjacent campuses that are absolutely stunning. I did an article about their school uniforms last fall, and did a photoshoot on their grounds.”
“Yeah? Did you go to the student union?”
“Yes, the Augustus Bl—oh my God, the Augustus Bloch Student Union!” She yelled it right in his face, but seriously, she couldn’t help it. It didn’t help matters any when he burst out laughing, while several dancing couples around them gave her dirty looks. “Holy cats, that was you? That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Augustus Bloch is my name,” he said between fits of laughter, looking at her like he’d never seen her species before. “The money I’ve made for them built those campuses, a fact that’s put me on the map as a financial consultant. But even though I now have a dozen or more clients, I still view myself as a day-trader, looking for that next big thing.”
“Wow,” she said faintly, ignoring the quick beat of the music to sway gently in time with him. “You weren’t kidding when you said you’ve climbed some personal mountains. From an orphan on the streets to having a student union named after you, that is one hell of a climb.”
He lifted a shoulder. “I guess.”
It was adorable how he looked almost embarrassed. “I know this is probably going to sound ridiculous since we just met, but I’m really proud of you, Gus. You’ve made this world a better place. I hope you know that.”
By degrees, his smile faded as his gaze played over her face, and an almost palpable hunger took its place. Heat flushed her skin all over her body, filling her with a feverish kind of delirium, and she couldn’t ignore how that heat gathered between her legs. Had any man ever looked at her like he wanted to devour her? Not just hold, or kiss, or even screw. Devour.
Who knew a mere look from a man could be so exciting?
Slowly, the air evaporated from her lungs as she returned that look in spades. Her heart began to pound as if she’d just run a mile, and she wondered if he could feel it as her breasts pressed against his chest. Lust throbbed through her like a drug, and she couldn’t help but lean into him more, so that she could drink in the friction their swaying bodies created—
“Jo, in case you haven’t noticed I’ve done everything you asked