Free Unrequited (Books Like Fifty Shades of Grey) by Aya Fukunishi Page B

and they dated for three months. One morning he'd returned to his Malibu beach house after a meeting to find her stealing a hundred dollar bill from his bedside table. A hundred dollars, in a house worth twenty million. She could have just asked for it, and he'd have given her ten times that amount. He'd thrown her out along with the bill, which he'd told her to keep as a souvenir.
     
    Since then he'd sworn off women. Six months without so much as a date, and he'd never been happier in his life. He missed the sex, of course, the closeness of another person, but the lies, uncertainty and mistrust had stolen any joy from it long ago. The constant doubt whether the woman laying beside him would still be there if it weren't for his fortune, his private jet and his homes had plagued his every waking thought. It had all become too much to bear.
     
    Now, though, he was faced with a new problem. He knew Arn was right, of course. John lived a high risk lifestyle. Every weekend he found himself BASE jumping, mountain climbing and performing insane aerial stunts in the old Cessna he'd bought with the proceeds from the sale of his first business.
     
    More than once he'd come dangerously close to death. He'd lost his oxygen in a sudden blizzard on Annapurna, only making it back down to camp by blind luck. Just the previous month his primary chute had failed to open while jumping into a thousand foot deep cave in Costa Rica, and it was only quick thinking that had spurred him to pull his backup moments before hitting the icy water deep within the earth. He'd staggered out with nothing more serious than a broken wrist, but Arn had yet to shut up about it.
     
    In any case, he knew there was a strong chance he wouldn't die peacefully in his sleep at a ripe old age, and he knew he'd have to take Arn's advice if he wanted to prevent the nightmare scenario he'd laid out back in his office. If only to save his brother, John would need a child.
     
    But how? He found it impossible to trust any woman he dated. He'd been burned too many times. How could he hope to find someone he could trust to raise a child. Come to that, how could he find a woman he could trust not to fight for his fortune herself?
     
    Unless... Do I dare ask her? What if she says no?
     
    John slid smoothly into the back seat of his limo, the door held open by his attentive, elderly driver Carl. His young assistant, Amy, set down her phone and poured him a drink from the minibar.
     
    'Good meeting? How's Arn?'
     
    John laughed, taking the scotch gratefully. 'Still a loveable teddy bear. Let's get hot dogs.' He tapped on the glass behind the driver. 'Gray's Papaya, Carl, and don't spare the horses.'

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
    Amy had come to work for John fresh out of college. After studying electronics for four years she'd become interested in his tech company, Trent Enterprises, and when the opportunity arose for an internship in his New York headquarters she'd jumped at the chance, despite the fact that she couldn't afford an unpaid position and had to work a night job just to pay the rent.
     
    Three months later John had visited and she'd sat in on a meeting about the latest release, an imaging system that would allow brain surgeons to train on 3D projections. Amy hadn't slept in days, and she'd just come off the night shift at her telemarketing job. The meeting had been heated from the moment John had announced he intended to donate one of the million dollar systems to every major hospital in the US.
     
    Amy shouldn't have been there at all. The discussion was way above her pay grade, but when the boss of her boss made a remark about the technology that was just plain wrong - even to her addled, sleep deprived mind - she couldn't help but correct him.
     
    She was ordered angrily out of the room, and ten minutes later she received an email to inform her she'd been reassigned. She went home for the weekend depressed, and it wasn't until Monday that she realized she'd