The Billionaire of Bluebonnet Read Free

pace, and he grunted as he burrowed in Risa’s arms. She scratched his back, rubbing him.
    Travis just stared. This was why the local shelter wouldn’t take the damn thing.
    Well, goddamn. What the hell was a CEO supposed to do with a pig?
    To say that Travis Jesson wasn’t pleased would have been an understatement. Risa knew the moment he laid eyes on the pig that he’d never known that his grandmother’s beloved pet was porcine rather than canine. But that couldn’t be helped—Risa loved the pig but she couldn’t keep him. And Pearl had wanted Travis to have Gregory.
    â€œThat boy works too much,” Pearl had said time and time again. “He needs something other than work to occupy him.”
    Of course, Pearl always assumed that everyone would just do what she’d wanted. She probably hadn’t anticipated the enormous scowl on Travis’s handsome, unsmiling face.
    It was a face that Risa had dreamed about ever since she’d met Pearl Jesson four years ago. Travis Jesson had interviewed her before Pearl had, and she’d been too intimidated by his brusque manner to really pay much attention to him. Pearl, however, had been one of the nicest, friendliest people she’d ever met. She needed an assistant, she’d explained, because her grandson worried about her, especially after she’d broken her hip. They’d instantly clicked over a comment about daytime television, and Risa had the job.
    She hadn’t been Pearl’s assistant for more than a week before Travis had swung by again to see how his grandmother was settling in with her new assistant.
    Risa had been dazzled by the handsome man this time. Now that she wasn’t being interviewed by him, she could relax and study him from across the room. And Travis Jesson was gorgeous. He was cool, and self-assured, with a strong jaw that never seemed to smile and a serious, almost stern mien. She’d half fallen in love with him that day, watching him as he fussed over his grandmother, making sure that she had the best of everything available to her. Insisting that she rest and get well.
    He was kind and thoughtful and devoted to Pearl.
    Of course, he hadn’t even known that Risa existed. She wasn’t surprised. Back then she had been a size eighteen, tall and a little too curvy. She was freckled and wore glasses, and kept her long black hair loose around her face. And since she’d been tending to his grandmother, she’d worn her usual wardrobe of jeans and a T-shirt. Travis Jesson, a divinely handsome man, hadn’t even glanced at her except to inquire about his grandmother’s health.
    To him, she was a vague, uninteresting piece of equipment at his grandmother’s house. Back then he’d no more strike up a personal conversation with her than he would the toaster. She’d realized that after blushing and stammering over her words the first time she met him, only to be crushed when he’d paid her not the slightest bit of attention.
    And on his next visit, he’d brought a girlfriend.
    After that, she learned, his business had blown up. His Web innovation company had developed a new piece of coding essential in online networking, and it had been bought for a ridiculous amount of money. Travis Jesson was no longer just a CEO—he was a billionaire.
    He’d turned right around and started developing new technologies. Something about tablets or SmartPads or something. She didn’t know much about it—just that he’d started another company and his visits to Pearl had become less frequent.
    Pearl had noticed his absence, though she’d never chided him for not having the time to visit. He was successful and driven, and she understood it even if she worried about him. It wasn’t his fault, she’d explain, that she was an old lonely woman. He was a busy man and had better things to do than to look in on his grandmother.
    Still, Pearl had been