What Matters Most: The Billionaire Bargains, Book 2

He can buy anything he wants…except the thing he needs the most.

The Billionaire Bargains, Book 2

Things come easy to Tony Steele. Money. Women. A good time. It’s all a piece of cake. Until that cake turns into the wedding cake of Tony’s best friend and the woman of Tony’s dreams, Reese Chaplin.

Tony can’t fix this problem by writing a check. And when Tony finds out his “friend” has been cheating on the woman who’s stolen his heart, he doesn’t hesitate to steal her away. Even if it’s her wedding day.

Nothing about Reese’s big day goes according to plan. She walks down the aisle to marry one man, and winds up in a Vegas wedding chapel with another. After a hot night with Tony, the only thing Reese regrets is that her new husband doesn’t remember anything about it.

Reese suspects the marriage is going to end badly, especially when Tony offers her a million dollars a month to stay married—who does that? But walking away from him turns out to be harder than she’d thought. Especially as she starts to know the man behind the wallet.

Warning: Contains a billionaire playboy who can’t handle his tequila, a Vegas wedding, hot phone sex (and other kinds of hot sex), and a woman who knows how to make a point—even if it requires jumping out of an airplane.

What Matters Most

Erin Nicholas

Dedication

To Lindsey, who changed my life with the first book in this series, to my family who lets me do this and to my parents who always knew I could.

Chapter One

“You’d better have a damned good reason that I’m climbing the steps to St. Luke’s church in a tux when I
should be
boarding my jet to Vegas.”

Of course, since Tony was talking to Jeff’s voicemail, he knew he wasn’t going to get that damned good reason until he found his best friend.

Tony Steele pocketed his phone and swore
before
stepping into the church. He needed to find Jeff and drag him outside so he could swear a whole lot more. What the
hell
was going on?

He glanced toward the cross at the end of the long aisle leading to the front of the church. He needed to get his temper under control. He didn’t want to be on the receiving end of any lightning strikes today.

Jeff deserved all of those.

Tony stubbornly ignored the fact that the aisle was the one that Reese Sutherland was scheduled to walk down in thirty minutes.

“Oh, my God, Tony, there you are.” Jeff’s mother, Nancy, swooped in, looped her arm through his and turned him in the opposite direction. “You’re running so late. The men are gathered in the prayer room. Come on.”

Uh, huh. He was running late because he thought the wedding had been canceled. That had been the plan last night anyway when he’d dropped Jeff off at his condo with stern instructions to make a pot of coffee and call Reese. In that order.

“Is Jeff in the prayer room?” Tony asked, trying not to let on to his best friend’s very sweet mother that he was on the verge of killing her son.

“Jeff is taking a few minutes to himself in the garden,” Nancy said. She stopped in front of an arched wooden door, knocked and then opened it to reveal the four other groomsmen.

They were all dressed in tuxedos as well. They were all also wearing smiles.

Not at all the picture Tony would have expected at a wedding that had just been called off.

“The best man appears!” Josh, Jeff’s cousin, greeted.

“Hey, Josh.” Tony grasped the other man’s hand in his and gave it a firm shake. He repeated the gesture with the other men, trying to keep his smile in place. Tony was the laidback one. The good-time guy. He didn’t get pissed off easily or often.

But he’d been feeling generally pissy since Jeff had met Reese.

“We wondered if you were having second thoughts,” Josh joked.

Tony made himself chuckle. Second thoughts. About Jeff and Reese getting married. Right.

“So, the big guy’s out meditating or something?” Tony asked lightly.

“He went out to the garden,” Josh confirmed. “Said he needed some air and some time to himself.”

He was hiding out. Tony knew Jeff almost as well as he knew his own brother. They’d been through a lot together. They’d done a lot of stupid stuff together.

And now that Jeff was on the precipice of the most stupid thing of all, he was hiding from Tony.

Well, Jeff could only hope that Tony didn’t find him before there was a minister present.

“I’m going to go see if he needs anything,” Tony said casually, starting for the door.

“Tell him to hurry up,” Josh said. “We want to do a quick toast before we go out front.”

Right. A toast. Sure, that was exactly what Tony needed to find Jeff for.

The toast and dumping his fiancée before it was too late.

Tony headed for the gardens, carefully keeping his expression pleasant as he passed Jeff’s grandmother, an aunt or two and two men that he assumed were related to Reese.

Reese. God. Somewhere in this church she was preparing to walk down the aisle and marry the man of her dreams. The man who didn’t deserve her and, if Tony had anything to say about it, would be breaking her heart before the day was over.

Fuck. Jeff was being such an ass. And this was
before
he’d dumped Reese.

Tony hit the door leading to the garden with his hand harder than was really necessary. The door swung open to reveal a tranquil courtyard filled with flowers in a variety of colors that perfumed the air and made Tony pull in a long breath. The low buzz of bees and the sound of water bubbling worked to release some of the tension across his shoulders.

Dang. There was something to the peaceful garden thing.

And then he remembered why he was there. “Jeff! Dammit, I know you’re out here.”

“Shit.”

The mumbled curse came from Tony’s left and he stalked to the trellis of climbing roses.

“Get out here.”

His childhood friend rose from the stone bench behind the roses and turned to face him.

“
Why
am I wearing a tux in a church instead of jeans in a casino?” Tony asked. “We talked about this.”

Jeff pushed a hand through his thick blond hair and sighed. “I fell asleep last night before I could call her. And then this morning, I woke up and…” He pulled in a deep breath and met Tony’s eyes. “I looked at the picture of her on my desk and I couldn’t do it.”

“You should have been looking at that picture a month ago. And four months ago. And the weekend after you met her,” Tony told him. “Then maybe you wouldn’t have been able to
cheat on her
.”

Jeff shook his head, looking miserable. “I don’t know what to do.”

“You need to tell her.”

“I know.”

Tony didn’t really want Jeff to tell Reese anything.

It would kill her. The idea of Reese being hurt the way Jeff was going to hurt her was like a knife to Tony’s gut.

But he really did want Jeff to tell her. Because that would end this whole thing.

He could admit that the idea of her saying I do to Jeff had been making his stomach hurt for a few months now. And knowing that Jeff had cheated on her made Tony want to hurt his best friend. Like a broken nose. Or a rib or two. Maybe a finger. And typically fighting seemed like a lot of effort.

Tony’s plan to take Jeff to Vegas had not been about drowning Jeff’s sorrows or celebrating Jeff’s intact bachelorhood or getting Jeff’s mind off of things. It had been about getting Jeff the fuck away from Reese. It had been about helping him leave her at the altar. It had been about getting him out of town and drunk before he could change his mind and convince her that he was sorry.

Tony didn’t think Reese would forgive Jeff’s infidelity easily, but Tony wasn’t willing to take that chance. This was the first glimmer of hope he’d had since he had introduced Jeff to the gorgeous bartender at his club. Tony had known Reese, had talked and flirted with her for almost two months before Jeff had come to the club to play cards.

Tony hadn’t done anything about his attraction or intrigue. He’d been content to see Reese every Tuesday and Thursday, make her laugh, make her blush and tip her big. Then Jeff had come in one night, and the minute Tony had introduced them, he’d seen the interest and intent in Jeff’s eyes.

It had been a long six months since then. Six months of him kicking himself and simultaneously hoping that Jeff would screw up and Reese would break up with him.

And Jeff had screwed up. He’d cheated and fallen in love with another woman. A woman smart enough to tell him to take a hike when he’d revealed he was engaged to someone else. But he’d hidden the whole thing from Reese. And Tony. Until last night.

Damn. Tony should have arranged to send
Reese
on a trip. To Hawaii. Or Italy maybe.

She was the one who deserved to get out of town. She was going to need to drown a few sorrows.

Because of his spineless, lying, cheating best friend.

“Let’s go find her,” Tony said. He turned and started for the door.

“Man, I
can’t
. She’s too…sweet. And beautiful. And smart. She’ll never forgive me.”

Good. “You have to start with the truth. And an apology. Then see what happens,” Tony said. Then he swung back. “I can’t fucking believe you
cheated
on her.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to say fucking in church.”

“We’re in the garden.”

“It still counts.”

“You’re lucky that’s the only sin I’m committing,” Tony growled. “I’m guessing murder in a church is also frowned upon.”

Jeff had the intelligence to look uncomfortable. “I don’t think I can do it.”

“You’re going to marry her anyway? Without telling her? And what about Anna, the woman you supposedly fell in love with?” Tony stalked back to his friend, staring Jeff down, making sure the other man knew that Tony was dead serious. “No. If you don’t tell Reese, I will.”

Jeff shook his head. “I don’t deserve her.”

“Of course you don’t.” Tony couldn’t believe this. He knew Jeff. Knew him well. Trusted him even. What the hell he was doing messing everything up with Reese, Tony didn’t know. “But you have to come clean. Tell her what happened. Tell her how you feel. It’s not fair to go through with a wedding—a
marriage
—you don’t want.” Tony turned his friend and pushed him toward the door leading back into the church. “Go.”

He watched Jeff walk through the door and turn left. Tony had no idea if the bridal room—or whatever it was called where Reese was getting ready was to the left—but he had to try to trust his friend at least that far.

Tony paced along the stone walkway, the tension in his neck and shoulders ratcheting back up in spite of the gurgling fountain and sweet-smelling air.

It was the right thing to do. Jeff needed to confess. It had nothing to do with the fact that Tony wanted Reese. He was
not
pushing his friend to come clean with the hopes that Reese would dump his ass and be available again.

Okay, he wasn’t
just
pushing his friend to come clean for those reasons.

Reese deserved to know. Jeff had made this mess and he needed to clean it up.

It was the right thing to do even if Tony couldn’t help but want to give a big loud
hell yeah!

It wasn’t like he was going to make a move on Reese. At least not
today
. Or any time soon. She needed a chance to adjust, a chance to grieve, maybe a voodoo doll of Jeff, maybe some tequila.

But eventually, Tony would tell her how he felt. He’d fucked up by not telling her before this. He’d kept it to himself, assuming that it would work out just like everything else in his life did—without much effort from him. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.