The Billionaire's Price (L.A. Players #1) - PREVIEW ONLY

Chapter 7 : Moonlight

Victoria remembered her first time in the ocean. It was on a cruise with her parents, a trip her father had won at a company raffle during a Christmas party. Her mother stayed with her as she stood on the deck, looking at the vastness of the sea with the wonder-filled eyes of a 10-year-old for the first time. There was a feeling of getting cut off from the world, losing anchor, heading to somewhere unfamiliar, strange, and exciting.

She felt that now. While she knew exactly where Sebastian was taking her, spending this moment with him — a curiously intimate moment considering they were almost strangers from different worlds — was unnerving and unreal. Reality felt like a distant memory.

She knew it would never happen again. In a moment of weakness and guilt, Sebastian offered to take her home. In a beautiful car, under a magnificent moon. She would recall this moment on the nights when she'd be alone and lonely or bored. It would be a good memory, but that's as far as this would go.

It was funny, really. She wasn't meeting any eligible men because she was desperately looking for a job. Now she's found a job, and this gorgeous man was taking her home.

He wasn't even her type. She preferred warm men. Men who smiled. Men who would look at her like she was the only woman in the room. Sebastian only acknowledged her presence when she did something to make him angry. It seemed like most of the time, her existence barely registered in his consciousness.

"Sebastian Chase seems flakey," Nicolette had said, when Victoria had told her about inexplicably getting offered the job despite being turned down the first time. "Are you sure he's the actual CEO and not some crazy Mattheson nephew they gave a VP position to because no one would hire him?"

"I looked it up right after my interview," Victoria said. "It's him, Sebastian Chase, CEO of Mattheson Bank. Apparently he's the son of old man Mattheson, the guy who founded the bank from old Texas oil money."

"Why is his last name Chase, then? Is he one of those wildly enlightened men who take their wives' last name?"

"I don't know." Victoria really couldn't find a definitive answer to that question. She did find out that Chase was Sebastian's mother's maiden name. He hadn't said anything on record, and the media speculation varied: he was adopted, he was an illegitimate son, he was disowned at a young age and accepted back when his brother died and there was no other heir left.

She couldn't bring herself to ask him. Not even when it was just the two of them driving through the quiet night together. It was an intimate space, but she feared she could break the moment with the wrong word.

"Don't fall asleep on me now," Sebastian said. His voice was almost a whisper.

"Oh no," she said. "I'm not tired." Victoria sat up even more straight, as if to prove she was wide awake.

"Really? That must have been a good long nap you had back at the house."

"Sorry. I don't usually just doze off like that."

She felt herself blush, grateful it was probably not bright enough for him to see her face turn red. She could have been drooling in her sleep. Or snoring. Or mumbling things from her dream he probably didn't want to hear.

"You could've switched channels, you know. The other channels have programs that are actually in color."

"Oh no, I watch that channel a lot. I love old movies."

"You're 25," he said. "Is that a hipster thing?"

She laughed. "Do you even know what that is?"

"I assumed it was someone who only liked things that existed before they were born." He turned to her, frowning slightly. "Am I terribly out of touch?"