The Valentine Billionaire (The Billionaire Princes Book 5) by Serenity Woods

Author:Serenity Woods [Woods, Serenity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Alex

For some reason, Lucas’s words shock me deeply.

I thought I’d been careful to hide my feelings from everyone. And to a certain extent, I think I’ve been successful. But in the short space of time that Luc has been around me, he’s unwrapped the facade I’ve carefully constructed, and exposed the soft, chewy caramel me that exists inside.

“I’m sorry,” he says again. “Tell me to fuck off if you want. I’m sure you have friends to confide in, or a therapist. You don’t need me.”

“I don’t talk to anyone.” I concentrate on the way his fingers are laced through mine. “I’ve lost touch with a lot of my friends. And my therapist is a friend of Mum’s. Obviously she wouldn’t tell Mum anything I said in confidence, but even so, I don’t tell her everything.”

“What about Kai?”

“He’s got enough on his plate with Taylor and the All Blacks. I don’t want to worry him.”

“Well you can always talk to me.”

I glance up at him. He looks gorgeous tonight. He wore a gray morning coat to the wedding, but he’s now shed the jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeves, and loosened his tie. His previously smoothed-down hair is ruffled and a little rakish. He’s the most handsome guy at the wedding by a long shot, and that’s saying something when most of the All Blacks team is there. But there’s something about him that fires all my cylinders. I think it’s his insouciance, his rebellious, devil-may-care attitude. He doesn’t give a fuck what anyone thinks. After a lifetime spent worrying about what everyone else thinks all the time, it’s refreshing and liberating.

“Was I wrong?” he asks me.

“No.” I look through the forest to where the lake glimmers in the moonlight. “I mean, I do need to work harder if I want to win the Olympic gold. I know that. But I already push myself pretty hard. I’m not sure how much there is left in the well, you know?”

I stop talking and swallow. “This isn’t easy to talk about. Mum hates it whenever I talk like this. She sees it as defeatist. She truly believes you can achieve whatever you want in life if you work at it hard enough.”

“So doesn’t she believe talent plays a part in it? I wouldn’t win a gold in sprinting at the Olympics no matter how hard I trained.”

“I think she accepts that some people have a predetermined skill for certain things. But she doesn’t believe that takes the place of training and dedication. She thinks the body is a machine that needs to be put through its paces and kept, um…”

“Well-oiled?”

That makes me laugh. “Kinda.”

“I’m happy to volunteer for that.”

I warm through at the thought of Lucas Prince giving me a massage and proceeding to keep me oiled in other, sexier ways.

“I’m distracting you,” he says. “Sorry, you were saying?”

“Mmm. Yeah. Anyway. She thinks success is all in the mind. And to a certain extent I think she’s right.”

“Me too. But we also all have different skills and also, more importantly, different limits.

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