Power Play: Jodie and the Billionaire Read Free

again. He’s been texting me every hour how
sorry he is.”
    “Well…
maybe he is?” Lauren offered.
    “He
hasn’t stopped talking to her on Facebook.” Jodie made a face, closing her
clutch. “I have his password but he doesn’t know.”
    “Ah.”
Lauren glanced up as a woman in a very short-skirted uniform—one of the
waitresses—came into the bathroom. “So what are you going to do?”
    “Get
drunk and try to forget about him.” Jodie headed for the door.
    “That’s
a good plan for now,” Lauren agreed, following her out.
    The
casino’s cacophony of noise and lights invaded Jodie’s senses as she came out
of the bathroom. What she really wanted to do was go back to her room and
sleep. The alcohol had made her tired and dealing with Jason every hour, along
with trying to keep her secret from Kimber, was exhausting.
    “Hey,
please don’t tell Kimber,” Jodie said as they weaved their way through the
tables.
    “Oh
I won’t.” Lauren jogged left, pointing. “Come on, let’s get one of those Long
Island Iced Teas. They’ll give you a nice buzz.”
    “That’s
okay, I’m already buzzed.” Jodie followed her anyway, halting at the bar when Lauren
stopped to slide up onto a stool. “Besides, the margaritas are free.”
    “Oh,
I’m paying.” Lauren smiled at the bartender as she ordered two Long Island Iced
Teas, handing him over her credit card when he put them down on coasters in
front of them.
    “So
what do you do?” Lauren asked, sipping her drink through a straw.
    “I’m
an editor.” Jodie played with the little umbrella, ignoring the buzzing from
her clutch sitting on the bar. She couldn’t believe he was still texting her.
Glancing around the casino, she wondered what Jason would think of
Vegas—neither of them had ever been—and kicked herself for thinking
it.
    Stop
thinking about him!
    Might
as well ask herself to stop breathing.
    Her
gaze skipped over the slot machines, past the big roulette wheel, coming back
to rest on Lauren, who was almost done with her drink. Jodie had barely
started. She sipped through the long straw, people-watching. There was a young
couple at the end of the bar that made her think of Jason. She ignored them.
There was a guy in a suit sitting alone just a few stools from her on his cell
phone.
    “Oh
yeah? Freelance?” Lauren asked.
    “No,
for Simon and Schuster.” Jodie watched the guy pocket his cell phone, calling
the bartender over with a snap of his fingers.
    “Wow,
really?” Lauren perked up, clutching Jodie’s arm. “Oh my god, I bet you hear
this a lot but… would you read my book?”
    “You
write?” Ugh, of course she does. And here Jodie had thought Lauren
actually liked her.
    “I
used to write in college. But then, you know, school. And the wedding. And then
the baby.” Lauren gave a nervous laugh. “But now that my daughter’s a little
older, I picked it back up again.”
    “What
genre?” she asked, watching the bartender deliver a martini to the guy two
stools down. She glanced at Mr. Martini, trying not to be obvious. He had
answered his phone again, giving low, one-word answers. Yes. No. Two weeks. He had turned slightly toward them and he caught her eye, raising an eyebrow
when he saw her looking at him. Jodie flushed, sipping her drink.
    “Young
adult,” Lauren told her.
    Oh
right, they’d been talking about books.
    “I
can take a look,” Jodie offered. She didn’t really want to, but she felt kind
of backed into a corner.
    “You
don’t have to.”
    “It’s
the least I can do for someone who loaned me a fifteen hundred dollar dress.” Jodie
smoothed her skirt self-consciously, somehow feeling Mr. Martini watching her.
She glanced over and found her intuition had been correct. He was still on the
phone but his gaze was definitely pointed in their direction.
    Lauren
laughed. “My husband is going to kill me for buying it. We don’t make the kind
of money they do.”
    “Yeah,
neither do we…” She swallowed,