The Billionaire's Desire (A Billionaire BWWM Steamy Romance) by Mia Caldwell

more bourbon, I need it." Rita grabs the bottle and
mutely pours us two more shots. I watch her warily, expecting her to start
hollering at me any moment. In fact, I would relish it. Then I would know I deserved
to feel as shitty as I do. Tricia leans back on the couch, pursing her lips,
her eyes unreadable as she stares off into the distance.

 
    I wait.

 
    Then I
wait some more.

 
    "Tricia,
if you don't say something, I'm going to self-combust."

 
    She
turns to me, slowly. "Okay then. I have one question for you."

 
    I
swallow hard. "What?"

 
    "How
was he?"

 
    "What?!"

 
    "In
bed? Was he any good?"

 
    “Why do
you care?” I said, laughing.

 
    “I’m
just curious!”

 
    I slump
back, suddenly boneless at the memory. "Best I've ever had," I half
moan, half sigh. "And then in the morning he offered to make me poached
eggs...right before I had a mental breakdown and ran out of there."

 
    Tricia
is speechless for possibly the first time in her life. But I suddenly can't
stop the words from coming.

 
    "Tricia,
oh my god. I like him. I do. He's got this weird duality to him, where one
moment he's all formal and holding open doors for me and the next moment he's
tearing off my clothes." I ignore Tricia's shocked sound and plow on, the
words coming in a stream of conscious ramble that I couldn't contain if I
tried. "But it's just...bad fucking timing. Like, literally the worst.
Nothing is going according to my plan, not the business stuff, not the family
shit, none of it, and when I got the Camilla Easton wedding I thought, holy shit this is it, I finally have made my
break! I wanted everything to go flawlessly from start to finish so that I
could use this as a launching point, get Felicia to fucking call me back and
then I'd be able to focus on fixing my personal life afterwards. I don't have
time for a man to complicate my life! I mean, I planned on taking some time off
once the licensing process was over, maybe I can wait until that...."

 
    Tricia
speechlessness is finally broken when she practically explodes off the couch. "Yahya,
this isn't the kind of shit you can plan, girl! You know what your problem is? I'll tell you, because I see you doing it
to yourself over and over again. You want the world to follow your rules when
the world is just doing its own thing with you in it. You're not in control,
and that's a fucking beautiful thing, don't you see? You gotta roll with it and
when gorgeous guys who make your parts tingle tell you they want to make you
breakfast, you fucking stay for breakfast. I'm a fucking lesbian and if he's
half as sexy as you make him sound I would have eaten his eggs from here until
next week.

 
    Rita chucks
a throw pillow at her. Tricia puts up a soothing hand and grins lasciviously.
"Baby don't be jealous, you know I only eat your
eggs."

 
    "Gross,"
Rita laughs and I am filled with another flood of sadness. I love these two
more than is sensible, how am I going to be able to handle it when they move?
The sadness spreads through me, a level of grief that doesn't make sense with
my happy surroundings. I don't understand where it is coming from...until the
text message alert goes off on my phone. I look down, already knowing what I am
going to see.

 
    "Yahya?"
Tricia sees me staring at my phone in mute sorrow.

 
    "It's
my mom," I explain. "Otis is in the hospital."

 

 
 
    Chapter Twenty-Three

 
 
 
    Sanniyah

 
 
 
 
 
    Shock
is supposed to sober you up, isn't it? That's what I have always heard. But I'm
stumbling through the hospital entrance, still reeling like a drunken sailor.
Tricia and Rita insisted on coming with me, with Rita somehow sober enough to
drive. Tricia is clutching me right now. I know she is trying to hug me,
support me, but she is leaning so hard I fear we both might fall over.

 
    And
when I see my mother's exhausted face, I know I'm going to crumple to the
ground.

 
    She
unfolds herself from the