Rocked by the Billionaire: A Billionaire's Club Story by Mandy Baxter

flat, her hand resting in his, Luke knew that he was in love with her.
    “I don’t sleep much anymore.” He sat down beside her, his back against the tree and angled away from her. He’d been nothing more than a cocky, horny asshole with her since the second he’d laid eyes on her. He missed the ease with which he could talk to her. The way he could lay his soul bare to her without the threat of judgment. Talking to Kayleigh was like going to confession: just by listening, she lifted a burden from his soul. “Not for the past year, anyway. I can’t get my brain to quiet down. It just runs and runs until I feel like I’ll fucking explode if I don’t do something to make it stop. I tried pills but all they did was give me fucked-up dreams and make me feel like shit. I haven’t written anything in as long. I feel like everyone wants a piece of me. Wants to tell lies about me. The guys told me that if I didn’t get my shit together that they were going to replace me.” A bark of disdainful laughter erupted in his chest. “Can you believe that shit? I founded Riot 59 and they’re going to kick me out?”
    Kayleigh remained quiet beside him, but he didn’t need her to talk. He knew she was listening and that’s what mattered. It’s what loosened the knot that had been lodged in his chest for months.
    “My manager suggested one of those spas where celebrities go to get over exhaustion. Meditate. Get two or three massages a day. Live on apple and kale juice for a couple of weeks to ‘cleanse my system.’ I stayed at one place for a full forty-eight hours before I started to unravel. All the meditation did was give me more time alone with my thoughts. And I can’t live on juice.” One thing would never change and that was his love of a perfectly grilled T-bone. “Food fads and new age bullshit weren’t going to center me.”
    Luke let the sound of the breeze in the grass fill his ears and his eyes drifted shut. It felt so damned good just to sit beside her. There wasn’t a drug on the planet that could calm him the way she did.
    “And you thought that after almost ten years, you could come home and everything would be the same?”
    The words weren’t much louder than the breeze, but he heard them. “Not at first.” His hand found hers and Kayleigh let him twine his fingers with hers. “But then I saw you crossing the street …” How could he possibly explain to her that by simply seeing her, she’d set his careening world right? “No one knows me like you do. Nothing can calm my mind like you can. I missed you, Kayleigh.
Every fucking day
. It damned near killed me to walk away from you.”
    Her fingers twitched as though she wanted to pull away. “It seemed easy enough for you at the time.”
    The lyrics of the song he’d finished last night left his lips, not quite singing, not quite speaking: “Part of me stayed behind that day. The part that couldn’t bear to let you get away. Through the noise and the chaos, you found me. And I was a fool not to see that everything I’d ever needed was right here in front of me.”
    When the last word faded into silence, Kayleigh pulled her hand away from his. “Don’t do that do me, Luke. It’s not fair to use your pretty words against me.”
    Maybe not. But since when was life fair? “Every song I’ve ever written has been about you. You’re my muse.”
    A strangled sound escaped her throat and Luke glanced over to see Kayleigh push herself up from the ground and take off at a near-run. “Kayleigh, wait!” Luke used the tree for leverage and sprung to his feet to chase after her.
    “That’s the problem, Luke!” Kayleigh whipped around to face him, her eyes full of fire and her cheeks flushed. The breeze stirred the loose curls of her hair, sending strands across her face. God damn she was fucking breathtaking. “I’ve
been
waiting! For years! Waiting on fantasies. Memories. For something that was never going to happen. You didn’t show up out