Free Southern Charmed Billionaire by Kristin Frasier, Bella Bentley

body. Why did I give out my last name like that? I wasn’t thinking straight.  
    “Claire, is there anything about my father? I can’t let people find out about my past. I stupidly talked to a woman who I just thought was being nice to me. Turns out, she was tag-teaming with the other reporter. Which, I mean, never in a million years did I ever think I had to watch what I said at an event because of some gossip writer.”  
    “Sweetie. A, that is what happens when you run in these circles. You have to watch everything you do, say, and how you dress very carefully. B, it’s not your responsibility, nor is it your past. None of that was your fault. You need to let that go here in your new life.”  
    “Yeah, well. This may be turning into a circus, and I don’t know if I can handle this drama.”  
    “Well, as someone who is currently living in the middle of this circus, I can give you a few pointers. But I still don’t understand what’s going on. I never got your message last night about the Air B&B bill. So have you just not sent it yet…or were you at Atticus Branch III’s home?”  
    Warm, gooey feelings covered my body as I just lay there for one moment in my life and felt pampered, felt looked-after, felt like I had hardly any cares at all. And it felt pretty damn nice. I had cares, sure. But those were laced with ambition with building blocks and steps to take next.  
    Getting a taste of what it’s like as a one percenter’s lifestyle. Sleeping on a mattress that probably cost more than my yearly salary, yeah these small tidbits can elicit such tantalizingly exciting feelings.  
    “Hello? Are you?”  
    “I’m…at corporate housing for Branch enterprises.” I said feeling strange saying it like that. It sounded so formal.  
    “You’re what ? What the hell is going on? Are you some secret escort and never told me? How the hell did you meet him? Dish now. No, wait.”  
    The phone cut her off, and I sighed nostalgically again at that moment of my life. The high pitched ringtone alerted me that Claire was Facetiming me. The infamous sound connected us.  
    “I’ve got to see this for myself. Let me see.”  
    I smiled at her perplexed face  
    “I don’t see you wearing any lingerie. Show me the floor.” I shot the phone’s screen to the floor to reveal only my slippers I brought from her apartment.  
    “So what is this? What are you doing? What exactly is your job there?”  
    “I’m…his assistant?” I said, baffled, running my fingers through my hair.  
    “His assistant?”  
    “He has these fancy functions he has to attend at night, and he needs a woman on his arm all the time. We met during the meltdown behind stage.”  
    “That must have been one heck of a meeting. What did you do, suck his dick behind the curtain?  
    “ No !”  
    “Well, have you sucked his dick?”  
    “No!”  
    “Oh my god, you should. You may get some extras out of it.”  
    “You are so dirty.”  
    “Just sayin.’ ”  
    “I’m not in this for ‘benefits.’ Not those kinds, anyway.”  
    “You could be a rich sugar baby if you played it right.”  
    “Yeah, well—” The doorbell rang causing me to stop talking mid-sentence. “Um, let me get that. Hold on?”  
    “I’m not going anywhere. Flip the phone around and let me get a look at this place.”  
    I couldn’t hide the smile on my face as I flipped it around, letting her take in the white wooden floors, the wooden beams in the ceiling, the all-white pillars. It was a beautiful home.  
    “And that’s just the kitchen! I’m breaking that in today.” My voice echoed off the high walls. I finally made it to the Mediterranean door. A man in a business suit stood there with an envelope.  
    “Kate Longhouse?”  
    “Yes?”  
    “This is for you.”  
    God, please don’t tell me I’m being served. I waited for it…waited for it.  
    “Have a good day, mam.”  
    Phew. I exhaled and looked back down at