In the Billionaires Club (3 page)

“Excuse me?” Gin frowned.

“Sorry. I was just teasing you back. I apparently have no boundaries.”

“It’s a filter you don’t have, Vinnie. Not boundaries. You have boundaries.”

Vinnie smiled and looked at Gin. “Well, there you go. I have no filter, so it’s not my fault.”

Gin kind of liked Vinnie’s goofy enthusiasm, but she didn’t want to get caught in a lengthy conversation with him just to have an awkward talk later about just being friends. It happened way too often with her, and Gin hated it.

“Well, I have to go. Maybe you can develop a filter between now and the next time I see you.” Gin waved the card.

“Doubtful,” Vinnie replied, his dimples an exclamation point for his cute smile. “What’s your name, by the way?”

“Gin.”

“For Virginia, I assume.”

Gin nodded but had to turn away to hide her pleasure and shock. He was the first man in her entire life to not joke about her name when he met her.

chapter three

Gin had to admit that the visit to the Billionaires Club had gone to her head. All she could think about was dating a billionaire. She kept fantasizing about being with Phillip, who was not only rich but handsome and had the kind of snarky attitude she loved. She desperately wanted things to work with him.
 

The next night Lisa handed Gin a glass of cabernet and sat on the couch, pulling her legs up under her. “Okay, tell me
everything
. What was the club like. What was Phillip like. Did he like you? Were the billionaires jerks? Was it really glamorous?” Lisa took a sip of her wine. “
Everything
.”

“Well, there’s not much to say. The club is just this old dark and kind of smoky thing. It’s like one big room with a huge bar on the left and some tables and booths. That’s it.”

“There aren’t Monets or Rembrandts hanging on the walls?”

“Seriously, Lisa. It’s not fancy at all. You’d be more likely to find a velvet Elvis on the wall than an old master.” Gin stretched her legs and took a long drink from her glass.
 

“That’s so weird. Okay, so it’s kind of a dump, but what were the dudes like? Was it full of really old wrinkled guys or hot new guys with bulging… wallets.” Lisa laughed. “Actually, that’s really all I want to know about—the big wallets and the hot guys.”

“It was a mix. Most of the guys were kind of older, but there were only a few really old guys, although one of the really old guys was with this beautiful woman in a tight red dress.”
 

“Oh yeah, now we’re talking. I bet she is in love with his gentle nature and his rugged yet wrinkly good looks.” Gin laughed and took a drink. “Nah. Who am I kidding? She wants his money!”

“Well, yeah. But that was the only other woman in the room. It really seemed like a place for them all to just relax more than anything. A couple dudes were on their laptops, but most were just talking. In fact, the day bartender—who was super hot, by the way—was sitting at the bar in his jeans and t-shirt just having a drink and talking to the night bartender.”

“That actually sounds kind of awesome.”

“Yeah, it was chill.”

Lisa pulled her legs out from under her and leaned toward Gin. “Okay, tell me about Phillip. He looked so smarmy at the Orion.”

Gin explained the short evening with him and Steve and Glenn. “And then they all had to leave for some kind of board meeting preparations thing.”

Lisa nodded while she refilled their glasses. “Okay, they sound like typical boys with all the sophomoric jokes and posturing.”

“Pretty much.”

“Did he ever reveal how much money he makes?”

“Jesus, Lisa. How was I going to ask that?”

“I don’t know. It’s the Billionaires Club. Did you ask him if he belonged?” She smiled.

“No, because I don’t care how much he makes.”

“Shut up, you liar.”

“Okay, okay. I did find out one thing.”

“Ooh, what is that?”

“His name is Phillip Rogers, and he is the CEO of Inky.”

Lisa just about dropped her drink. “Inky? The company that just sold for like a kazillion dollars?”

“It wasn’t sold. It raised four billion dollars in an IPO.”

“Whatever. The key point being that Phillip is—“

“A billionaire. Yeah. At least on paper.” Gin couldn’t help but smile as she said it. She still couldn’t quite believe it. She had been on a date with a billionaire, and she knew it was a date, because that’s how he had described it.
 

Lisa put her wine down on the coffee table and held her hands together. “Okay, we need to strategize this. How long do you think you have to date him before he’ll propose?”

“Jesus, Lisa. I’ve had one date with the guy, and for most of the time I didn’t even know his last name.”

“That’s the point. We need to make sure you don’t fuck this up.”

“What if he’s an asshole, and I don’t like him?” In response, Lisa gave Gin her best
you have to be kidding me
look. “Seriously, though. I’m not a whore.”

“You’re not an idiot, either.”

That made Gin laugh. “That’s true.”

“So, Phillip wasn’t a total asshole, and you think he’s kind of cute, and he gave you a kiss. I think wedding bells are in the future. The question is: What’s the next step?”

Gin drained her glass and held it up for a refill. “I was thinking a second date would probably be a good start.”

Later that night Gin joined Inky. It was like a stripped down Facebook, with nothing but short text, links, shared images, and videos allowed. No games. No apps. No advertisements. Its main draw was that it allowed for some kind of integration with Facebook, Instagram, and Google Plus, so users didn’t have to abandon their other social networks. In addition to being easy to navigate, Inky’s main selling point was its data policy—It wasn’t going to sell out your behavior to advertisers.

Gin friended Phillip, apparently along with half the US, as he had a hundred million friends. Less than a minute later she was added to what was something called a “close friends” list. There were over six hundred of those. A message popped up from Phillip:
 

Phillip

Hey, I was hoping to see you tonight. Bummed you didn’t show up. How about tomorrow? Oh, and thanks for joining Inky!

Virginia

I was busy! Definitely tomorrow. Six again?

Phillip

Yeah, definitely. That works.

Virginia

How’d the board meeting go? Were you able to stay awake through the entire thing? And, ugh, how can I change my profile name to “Gin.”

Phillip

Ha! Board meeting is tomorrow. I’ll bring extra coffee. And just go into your profile settings and fill in the nickname. It will populate through your whole profile. Oh, and upload photos. Lots of them. That’s 90% of what Inky is all about.

Gin

Oh, much better. Okay, I’ll add a photo or two. I don’t have any bikini shots, though, so you’ll have to wait for that. ;)

Gin cursed herself.
Why did I mention me in a bikini? I need to be more subtle!
For a long time Gin didn’t really worry about dating and sex. If she was comfortable with a guy that she thought he was hot, she’d happily fuck him. But after one bad relationship after another, she had changed her approach. She had spent the past six months holding off on sex until after the relationship had at least some kind of foundation.
 

Yet here she was going back to her old self, flirting with Phillip about her bikini body. As Gin was beating herself up, Phillip replied.

Phillip

Damn. Okay, looks like I’ll have to see you in a bikini in real life then. Maybe on a beach near Bordeaux! Gotta run. Glad you got your profile straight. See you tomorrow.

Gin stared at the screen.
Did he just say a beach near Bordeaux? Like in France?
The entire concept of flying off to France to visit a beach made her legs go weak.
Who does that? Billionaires do that
, she answered herself.
 

She couldn’t resist and looked up “best beaches near Bordeaux.” The results made her shake her head. Apparently the beaches near Bordeaux were mostly topless or nudist.
 

Y
ou fly me to a French beach, and you can totally see my naked
. It helped that Gin knew she looked better naked than in clothes, but she struggled with her thoughts. She loved sex, so she was thrilled at the whole idea of being nude on a French beach with him, but that went entirely against her recent strategy of playing hard to get.
 

It was even more important for her to think about these things with Phillip. He was a billionaire and was obviously used to women throwing their bodies at him for trips and presents. She had to build the relationship first.
 

She looked up Phillip’s profile. She was now a “close friend,” so she could see all of his posts and videos and photos. She browsed the photos and her stomach clenched.
 

There was photo after photo of Phillip with beautiful women—on a red carpet, at parties, on a yacht. Phillip didn’t seem to show up anywhere in public without a beautiful woman at his elbow. It didn’t help that they were all a lot prettier than Gin. Having a pretty face and a body with hot curves and nice tits didn’t seem quite so compelling when the guy you were going out on a date with was used to gorgeous models with perfect figures.
 

And they were all dressed in designer gowns and clothes. Gin thought of her wearing a sun dress to an evening date at a club and felt sick. She closed the browser and walked over to turn on the TV. She had to distract herself. The billionaire could have had any woman in the world, and she had the gall to play hard-to-get?
Am I crazy
?
 

She had no idea what to think. She wasn’t gorgeous enough to play hard-to-get, yet if she did sleep with him, what if he just wanted to fuck her and move on? Why else would he choose her?

Gin fell into a fitful sleep. She wanted to win him over, but she just wasn’t sure how to do it.

chapter four

Before she left for the Billionaires Club, Gin spent the afternoon looking for the perfectly fitted little black dress. She went to higher end stores that she generally avoided as being outside of her budget. At her wits end, she opened her phone and found a boutique with the perfect name of The Hourglass.
 

As she entered she realized two things: She had finally found a store made for her, and she was way out of her league in terms of price. She grabbed a black dress that looked perfect: It was cotton and hugged her curves without having the awkward fit around her midsection and top.
 

In the fitting room she almost cried. It looked
so
good on her, but
 
it cost as much as her rent. She’d have to completely wipe out her emergency funds credit card to buy it. She spun around one last time and knew she had to have it. It made her look beautiful and sexy without shining a spotlight on her tits and ass in the process.

She placed her credit card on the counter and took a deep breath.
He has to see me as more than someone he wants to see in a bikini.
She raced home and got ready for her date, the black dress hanging on the shower rod until she was ready to leave.

Dave smiled at her as he took the card and dropped it into the slot next to his stool. “Nice to see you back, Gin.”
 

“Thank you, Dave. Nice to see you, too!” She walked through the door and into the Billionaires Club. The room was more crowded than her previous visit. There were more twenty-somethings and more women. The women were tall and thin and gorgeous. A few were dressed in tight, slutty dresses and miniskirts, but most looked like wealthy women who were there with their wealthy boyfriends and husbands.
 

Gin smoothed down her dress and walked around, looking for Phillip. After her second time around the room she started getting nervous. She couldn’t find him.
Maybe he’ll be late. After all, he’s a busy CEO
. She went over to ask Rich, the bartender, if he had seen Phillip. He was talking to Vinnie, the day bartender, who was in the same spot and wearing the same exact uniform as two days earlier—jeans and a white t-shirt.

“Vinnie, have you even moved out of that barstool in the past two days?” She sat down in the stool next to his.

“Gin!” Vinnie smiled widely. “How wonderful to see you. Here, let Rich buy you a drink.” The bartender rolled his eyes and wandered off to make Gin her drink. He presumably remembered she drank rum and Cokes. Vinnie looked Gin up and down. “You look fabulous. Love the dress!”

It was odd, Vinnie had a way of being so disarmingly natural that she didn’t feel self-conscious as his eyes looked her up and down. She just
knew
he wasn’t staring at her tits. He was truly appreciating her outfit.

“Thank you, Vinnie. Your outfit looks… familiar.” She smiled.

Vinnie laughed. “Well, this is kind of my thing. I think everyone in the room would faint if came in here wearing anything else.”

“Must make it easy to get dressed in the morning.”

Vinnie shrugged and took a drink from his glass. “Fringe benefit,” he replied as he put his empty glass down.
 

Rich approached and handed Gin her drink. It was a rum and Coke. “So I’m waiting on Phillip. Have either of you seen him? I was supposed to meet him at six.”

Rich shook his head. “Haven’t seen him, but I’m sure he’ll be in soon.”

“Yeah, he’s not the type to leave a beautiful woman waiting.”

Gin’s breath caught as Vinnie, a drop dead gorgeous guy, described her as beautiful. She knew she was considered hot, but
hot
was different than
beautiful
in her mind. She took a quick drink to cover her awkward reaction, and then said, “So what type is he?”

Vinnie stared at her for a long time. Gin felt like his intense blue eyes were piercing directly to her soul. Eventually he turned away. “He’s just a guy. Forget I said anything.” He tapped his empty glass on the bar and Rich hurried over to fill it.