One Night With the Billionaire: Book Four (A Billionaire Romance) (2 page)

Kaia decides to be the voice of reason. “Why would she lie at this point?”

Jason shrugs halfheartedly. “I never thought she’d lie in the first place, so…honestly, I don’t know.”
 

“She wanted you to have good memories of your parents, Jason. What they did professionally has nothing to do with how much they loved you. She wanted you to have that, even though you couldn’t have them.”
 

He looks up at her, utterly wrecked. Like he hadn’t completely understood her reasoning until now. He seems calmer, if not less upset.
 

“It makes sense, Jason,” Kaia whispers, sliding a soothing hand up and down his arm. “How long did she know?”
 

“She said she found out shortly before my parents were killed. She was stunned, too. I remember that Elise hadn’t come around much right before their deaths, but I never knew why.”
 

Knowing how betrayed she felt probably compelled Elise to want to keep it from Jason. Having her own memories of her friend ruined would’ve made her do whatever she had to in order to keep Jason’s intact.
 

Kaia knows this isn’t the time to bring that up, though.
 

“Why on earth did she decide to tell you this tonight?”
 

Jason wraps his fingers around Kaia’s, then brings the back of her hand up to his lips.
 

“I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that I’ve been a little closed off from her.”
 

From everyone
, Kaia wants to tease, but she doesn’t. She understands now. “You told me you were afraid of losing her the same way you lost your parents.”

Jason’s quick intake of breath and the forlorn look in his eyes makes Kaia realize that this probably wasn’t the best time to bring that up. Still, he moves past it.

“Yeah. She knows that’s why. She understands that about me. And it’s been a long, long time since she’s seen me happy. You. You make me happy.”
 

Even though it’s an inopportune moment, Kaia feels happiness roll through her when she hears those words. A small smile quirks her lips. She likes that she makes him happy. She wants to be the person who does that always.
 

“Tonight she told me that she never thought she’d see me look that happy again. She wanted me to hold onto that. And after the car backfired, then she saw what happened…I think she thought maybe those fears would come back. That they’d take hold, and make me push you away. She didn’t want me to throw this away just because I was scared. I think seeing it in action freaked her out.”
 

Kaia understands that. “And she wanted you to know that there wasn’t anything to be scared of.”
 

He nods. “For a minute I thought maybe she was lying. I wanted her to be lying, because I thought I’d rather live in a world where there was a threat I could actively try to prevent than a world where my parents were liars and thieves. But…I know she wouldn’t do that to me. She’s telling me the truth.”
 

“Now which world would you rather live in?”
 

He squeezes her fingers. “I…I don’t know.” He pulls away from her, and walks a couple of steps away, his hands fidgeting at his sides. “I’m angry, I’m relieved. I’m…a lot of things.”
 

“It’s okay to be all those things,” Kaia assures him. “You have time to sort all of this out.”
 

He looks up at her with tired eyes and a soft smile, before closing the distance between them in two long strides.
 

He kisses her, short and sweet, then rests his forehead against hers. “I’m glad you’re here.”
 

She smiles. “I’m glad I’m here, too.” And even though she knows he’s not going to get much rest for what little is left of tonight, she holds out her hand and suggests it anyway. “Why don’t you come to bed and see if you can get some rest?”
 

He takes her hand, and lets her lead him back to his bedroom.

Dawn is breaking across the horizon, streaming in through the windows in Jason’s apartment. He’s sitting at the bar in his kitchen, and his eyes are sandy and heavy from exhaustion. He was awake all night, staring up at the ceiling while Kaia used him as a pillow, unable to turn off his brain and just
sleep
.
 

All he could think about was Elise’s face as she told him the truth. The hitched, sobbing breaths as she told him the truth about his mother and father, the two people he’d always looked up to, both in life and in death.
 

And all of it was a lie.
 

It felt like a slap in the face.
 

Even though he told Kaia that he knew Elise wouldn’t tell him this if it wasn’t the actual truth, he still let those thoughts invade his mind last night as he listened to Kaia’s soft breathing, hoping her peace would quiet them down.
 

Elise told him that she’d been thinking about telling him the truth for years. That she was afraid his fear of letting people close was going to lead to a long, lonely life for him.
 

That fear of hers was always fighting her desire to keep his parents’ positive memory alive for him.
 

In the calmer moments that he’s had over the past few hours, he can’t really be mad at her for keeping up the charade for all these years. Especially when his childhood was ripped from him when he was all of twelve years old.
 

Jason doesn’t even know who he’s angry with. His parents. Elise.
Everyone
. It’s a heavy weight of emotion that’s settled in the pit of his stomach, and it gives him a new target every few minutes.
 

There’s another part of him that’s absolutely relieved to know the truth, and he hates it. He hates that the bright side of all this is knowing that he doesn’t have to be worried anymore, that he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder wondering who’s following him, who’s waiting to take everything he loves away.
 

It’s a relief he didn’t know he was so desperate for until he had it.
 

On the countertop in front of him is a box of old photos that he had tucked away in his closet. For so long it’s been too painful to open it up, and shuffle through the memories. It’s painful now, too, in a way that it hasn’t been before.
 

He looks at the pictures spread out before him, wondering which moments were true. Were they all really happy here? Were all the good memories that he had actually
good
, or were those lies, too?
 

His father took him fishing on Saturday mornings. He carefully taught him how to bait a hook, how to cast a line. How to cook a fish over the camp fire.
 

Jason’s mother always told him to follow his passion in life, not to do something because he thought he should, but to do it because he wanted to. That’s how he ended up working in investments, instead of following in his parents’ footsteps, taking up the family business.
 

Jason wonders now if his mother’s advice was completely on the up-and-up. He wonders if she gave it to him because that’s what she truly believed and wanted for him, or if she told him that to steer him away from the family business.
 

To keep their secrets hidden.
 

How long did they expect to keep it up? Did they think the past would never come knocking?
 

Elise told him last night that his parents gave the original creators of that software a small stipend. Were they dumb enough to think that they would always settle for pennies when there were millions to be had?
 

Jason pulls another photo out of the box, and feels an unsettled knot in his chest. These are all questions that he’s never going to have the answer to, and he’s going to have to accept that.
 

Just the thought of going through the rest of his life never knowing is unnerving.
 

“Good morning,” Kaia says, as she sleepily strolls into the kitchen.
 

She looks as tired as he feels. He doubts she got much rest, but she did at least manage to fall asleep, and he’s glad for that. Her weight on his chest, and the feel of her breathing kept him anchored. It kept him calm despite the chaos in his mind.
 

“Morning,” he replies.
 

She shuffles over to him, and wraps her arms around his neck. Jason never bothered to get dressed, so he’s sitting there in a pair of sweatpants. Kaia’s still in one of his old shirts. He loves the sight of her in it, the way she looks so at home here while she’s wearing it. He loves the feeling of the old, worn cotton as it slides against his skin when she hugs him from behind.
 

He turns in his chair, and wraps her up in his arms, burying his face in her hair. He wants this all day, wants to lounge around just the two of them. It’s been so long since he’s let himself have a Sunday of doing nothing, and he knows he won’t be able to work. He can’t focus on anything too taxing today.
 

He just wants Kaia to stay right here in his arms, and help him make sense of the new world as he knows it.
 

She gives him a quick kiss, then leans over and steals a quick sip from his coffee mug, her nose wrinkling at the bitterness.
 

He likes it black, she likes a little cream and sugar.

He loves that he knows that about her now.
 

“Whatcha looking at?”
 

“Some pictures,” he replies, even though that much is obvious. Kaia sidles up to him, and he wraps his arm around her waist, letting his hand rest on her hip. It’s moments like these that make him wonder how he managed to live so long without
this
.

Just a touch of her hand makes the weight of the world on his shoulders so much easier to bear, since he has someone to share it with. She helps lighten the load.
 

Jason pulls Kaia up onto his lap, and wraps an arm around her middle to keep her where she is. He uses his free hand to slide the group of pictures across the counter, where Kaia will be able to see them better.
 

“Is this you?” she asks, taking a photo by its edges.
 

Jason laughs. She’s going to see all the good, all the bad, and all the ugly this morning.
 

“Yes,” he replies. “It wasn’t my best look.” Cowlick. Braces.
Definitely
not his best look.
 

“I think we all go through ugly phases. I think the whole point
 
of them is so that nasty teenagers can pick out our biggest weaknesses and make us insecure about them for the rest of our lives.” Kaia sighs, and brings the picture closer. “At least, that’s what happened to me.”
 

Jason smiles, and presses a kiss against Kaia’s neck. “I can’t imagine you going through an ugly phase.”
 

She playfully slaps his arm. “Flatterer. I’ll show you my middle school yearbook. Sixth through eighth grade were a nightmare. I looked like a frizzy-haired rail.”
 

He doesn’t believe her. “I bet you were beautiful then, like you’re beautiful now.”
 

His voice is soft and earnest, and it makes Kaia give him this gentle smile that lights up her whole face. She turns and kisses him, before focusing on the pictures again.
 

“You and your dad really liked to fish, huh?”
 

She picks up a photo of him and his father. Jason’s giving the camera a goofy grin. That was the summer that his two front teeth fell out, right before he and his father caught the biggest bass Jason had ever seen.
 

His father is holding it in the picture; it’s taller than Jason.

“It was our thing,” he replies. “He’d wake me up early on Saturdays, at the crack of dawn, and we’d drive down to his favorite lake. From sunrise to about ten, it was just the two of us. Our time. It made me feel…”
 

Emotions clog his throat, making it impossible to get the words out. He doesn’t even know what he’d say if he could, and maybe that’s for the best.
 

“He made you feel special,” Kaia says.
 

And yes, that’s exactly it. He leans forward, and rests his chin on her shoulder. “Yeah,” he breathes.
 

“No matter what your parents did professionally,” she says, sliding her hand across his forearm where it’s wrapped around her middle, until her fingers twine with his, “that doesn’t change the fact that you’re their son, and they loved you.”
 

Despite all the doubts that are niggling at the back of his mind, he believes her. And with that, he’s had about his fill of wallowing for today.

“Have any plans today?” Jason asks.
 

“Depends.”
 

“On what?”
 

“On what you’re doing. I kind of wanted to hang out with my guy,” she replies. He likes the sound of those words on her lips. “I think he needs me.”