THE LOVE OF THE BILLIONAIRE

li

t want t

room looked like they belonged on a magazine cover. I stood near the window with a drink I had not touched, wearing a dress Anne had forced on me an hour ago,

Anne said, appearing beside me with two

bout to

ed my face the way she had been studying it for three weeks now, careful, watching

ctly why he had cheated on me, loud enough that even the professors heard every word. I had not fully recovered from the humiliation, and Ann

hour. Then I am goi

arm through mine anyway, smiling like she had already

definitely

r gaze slid past my shoulder, and her whole f

ore I could

there he was. Drake. I knew the name before I ever cared to learn it, because it was plastered across billboards and the side of race cars and the mouths of every sports commentator in the count

annoyed, like the whole party was an obligat

he look

ed there, across the whole width of the floor, long enough that my skin started to prickle. I expected him to lo

did

e from very far away. "Lil

lf, turning back toward the window like the city view had

know who

knows wh

to three of these things with Michael and Drake barely says two words to a single person who is not on his team. But he w

ect on arrogant men,"

I let myself believe the night

was

down, texting Anne to tell her I was ready to leave, when I walked straight

," a low voice said, more

he was worse: a sharper jaw, colder eyes, the kind of face that m

and pressing it against the ruined fabric. "You ar

g still. You w

ne. You are the one who does no

ise maybe, like nobody had spoken to him t

ice flat and final, like he was ending a conv

hree weeks ago in front of a room full of people who had laughed at me. My throat tightened

lf," I snapped, "for even five minut

I turned and walked away, weaving through the crowd with my ruined dress and my burning face, and I did not look back once. I found Anne b

at the doors

spent an entire semester finding excuses to walk past the art studio just to catch a glimpse of him bent over a canvas, I had memorized the exact way he held a pencil between two fingers, had ne

he cool night air and did not sto

, quiet for a moment, and then she glanced

outside. He is standing by the entrance and he