The Merry Billionaire: A Sweet Christmas Romance (Newport Billionaires Book 5): A Newport Billionaires Novella by Amy DeLuca

Author:Amy DeLuca [DeLuca, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford South Press
Published: 2019-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

Six

Honesty in Return

Thank you thank you thank you Lord.

Hap wouldn’t normally feel gratitude for a power outage, especially when it was frigid out. And he was definitely bummed he wouldn’t be able to watch his show air live on TV tonight.

But the plus side of this situation was huge. Fifteen minutes ago, he was staring down the barrel of a long night alone while Rachel stayed holed up in her room. Now she was sitting with him in the firelit living room, looking all kinds of adorable in her mismatched comfy clothes.

She was perched on the hearth of the enormous fireplace, leaning to one side and running her fingers through her hair to help it dry.

The red locks were like fire themselves, their auburn color glinting with sparks of gold, and the flickering light played over the smooth skin of her neck and face. It was mesmerizing to watch.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked, yanking him out of his daydream.

“Nothing. Why?”

“You just had a look on your face. I don’t know... I’ve never seen it before.”

Hap’s pulse kicked up to a higher gear, and his mind scrambled for something other than the truth, which was, I was thinking of how much I want to run my hands through your hair.

“I was just thinking about the show, wishing I could have seen it.” There. That was a safe topic.

She gave him a squinty smile. “You’ve seen it already though. Probably a whole bunch of times. I mean, you made it. Is it really so different to watch it from home?”

“Yeah, I mean I’ve seen it, but it’s different watching it in this context, outside of the production facility. And I like to watch the credits.”

“The credits? You mean all those names that speed by at the end?”

He nodded, suddenly feeling sheepish. “Well, one of those names is mine.”

Rachel laughed. “But you must have seen your name on the screen a zillion times. You’ve been a star since you were a kid.”

Though he knew Rachel wasn’t exactly laughing at him, Hap felt something shutting down inside. How could he expect her to understand? No one did.

People had always considered him lucky because he’d had money and fame from an early age.

But no one knew the price he’d paid for it—the loss of a normal childhood, the devastating blows to his self-esteem when his little-boy “cuteness” had been replaced by the acne and awkwardness of puberty and the producers and directors had suddenly lost interest in him.

The crushing experience of being “loved” and then completely unwanted. It had taken him years to overcome.

That was the main motivation behind his current career behind the camera. He’d determined to never be that vulnerable again, to be the one with all the power, the one pulling the strings—and he’d do it in a way that didn’t hurt people.

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter,” he said to Rachel. “I’m going to get another log from the back.”

He stood and moved away from her as quickly as he could.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.