Free One Night With the Billionaire: Book One by Cassie Cross

CHAPTER ONE

    “Shut the laptop. Have some fruit.”  
    Kaia Richardson looks up from her computer, which is perched on the sliver of free counter space in the kitchen of the cramped apartment she shares with her roommate, Janine. She rolls her eyes.  
    “Is there something wrong with wanting to make sure that this presentation goes well? I really need to hang on to these clients. If they like my work, then I’ll get more exposure, which means that I’ll make more cash, and the first of the month will be a more pleasant experience for both of us.”  
    Janine smiles as she polishes a granny smith apple with the sleeve of her shirt. “We like more cash,” she says with a smile, handing the fruit to Kaia.  
    “We love more cash.”  
    Kaia takes a bite of the apple, relishing in the bitter sweetness against her tongue. She wasn’t going to eat anything at all—she usually doesn’t when she’s nervous—but doing a presentation on an empty stomach probably isn’t a good idea.
    After she graduated from college four short months ago, Kaia had decided not to pursue full-time employment, opting instead to start her own business as a freelance graphic designer, even though her friends and family thought she was a little crazy to attempt that in today’s economic climate. Every time she lands a new client, every time she impresses someone with her portfolio, she proves the people who doubted her wrong.  
    She likes proving people wrong.  
    So this presentation has to go well. It has to. She isn’t willing to leave anything up to chance. If that means polishing each and every one of the logo designs she’s presenting to her clients right up until it’s time for her to leave for her meeting, then so be it.  
    “Of course it’s going to be perfect,” Janine replies. “Those logos are already perfect, and you’re going to wear out that laptop if you keep changing them.”  
    Kaia looks up with a crinkled brow. “You have no idea how technology actually works, do you?”  
    “You know I had a flip phone until recently, and therefore know that my tech savvy is pretty much nonexistent.”
    Kaia knows that her roommate has a point there. She still has to explain to Janine how text messaging works occasionally. As far as Kaia is concerned, Janine is a twenty-two-year-old in looks, and an eighty-year-old in technological knowledge.  
    “You really need to stop fussing with that.” Janine reaches over the kitchen counter to push Kaia’s laptop closed, but Kaia swats her hand away.  
    “I’m just backing this up to the cloud, in case.”  
    Janine is looking at Kaia like she’s speaking in a foreign language, which…well, Kaia supposes that she is.  
    “It’s just a little CYA, my friend.”
    “CYA?” Janine asks through a yawn.  
    “Clearly you need more coffee.” Kaia reaches for the coffee pot, and brings the spout to the lip of the mug that Janine is holding out toward her. “CYA. Cover your ass.”  
    “Oh. Yeah.” She brings her mug to her lips, then pauses to speak. “You think your morning commute is so dangerous that you need a backup?” She takes a sip of her coffee, then smiles at Kaia. “That’s one of the reasons I love you so much.”  
    Kaia’s commute consists of a short walk to the subway station on the corner of the block, and a single train ride downtown. Still, she says, “Can’t be too careful.”  
    Kaia shuts down her laptop and gently closes the lid. She slides it into her computer bag, then dumps her leftover coffee into the sink.  
    Across the counter, Janine huffs out a little laugh.  
    “What?”  
    “It’s nothing,” she replies with a fond smile.  
    “It’s not nothing. Spill.”  
    “I just think it’s funny that you spent so much time on those draft logos, went to the trouble of backing it up in two places, then put your precious laptop in a bag that looks like that.”  
    Kaia glances down at her threadbare messenger bag. There is a hole