Billionaire Best Friend [Complete]

16. Sutton

Tell me how you want me to act for you, Sutton.

A ball the size of a goddamn golf ball took up space in the back of my throat. A fury of flames licked up the back of my neck. My hands secretly quivered like a leaf in the breeze at Gracie's voice. At her statement.

I was at war with myself, wondering how far I should go. Was this one huge fucking mistake bringing her with me? Because now that we had to put action behind our deal, my stomach twisted in ways that weren't good for either one of us.

It liked the way those words left her mouth.

And it liked all the images that popped into my head as soon as they did.

She stared me down with those big blue eyes of hers. I did everything in my power to stay as still as I could. We were kicking into second gear, and as much as I wanted her seated in my goddamn lap this second, I also knew we needed to move slow.

Gracie wasn't a sports car you could go 100MPH with in less than 1.6 seconds. She was a classic, which meant you had to go easy and be careful if you didn't want to fuck up the motor or scratch the paint job.

Her palm ran over her leg. She was tense. Ready to get off this plane.

I couldn't say I blamed her.

"You want your first lesson now?"

Her hands stopped. "Pretty sure that's what I said."

I brought my hand up to my face and scratched next to my ear. I wasn't sure how this was going to go but did I have a choice? It was time to suit up and dive right in.

"First lesson."

Her eyes sparkled. "Okay."

"Always be yourself."

Her forehead wrinkled. Disappointment swept over her features. "Always be yourself? Seriously, Sutton? I could have come up with that." She got up from her seat and started pacing in the center aisle. Back and forth, she went, and I knew that I had her right where I wanted her.

"What's wrong with that? It's the truth. Every man in the world wants to know that the woman he's dating is the same woman he'll marry."

She ran her hands through her hair. "If I wanted that kind of advice, I would've asked Rosie. Or better yet, I would've just googled it." She groaned and tilted her face to the ceiling of the aircraft. "We are screwed, you know that? There's no way we'll ever convince the jury we're going up against."

I stifled a laugh. "We're not going to trial, Goldie."

"We might as well be. Maybe this was one giant, humongous, colossal mi—"

She was fucking beautiful when she carried on. Even in that sweatpant suit she wore, something tugged in my chest to be closer to her. I knew I was playing with fire, but I was also well aware that things would come to a head eventually.

The thing was...I wasn't like the rest of the men in the world. When I wanted a woman, I wanted her. I craved her every second of the goddamn day and did everything to keep her close. I turned into an overprotective, obsessive asshole when I was enticed.

I liked being in control, having my way, and loved watching my needs be catered to. But I also really fucking enjoyed dragging a woman off her pedestal, so she could give into all of her own needy, sultry desires. And I had a feeling Gracie had a lot of those. Hell, she'd practically admitted to it when she said she wanted nothing left off the table.

She was out of her goddamn mind if she thought we wouldn't be able to convince Taryn, and whoever else needed to know, that what was between us was undeniably real.