Free Sleepless: (Billionaire Bound: Part 2) A Dark New Adult Romance by Ella Slade Page A

newspapers and magazines… Hey, you could get one of those online places to make you menus you have delivered every month. Yeah, the money will run out faster, but you’ll drum up business. Has anything picked up since the party? I heard quite a few comments about how good the cupcakes were.”
    “It’s been better,” Beth agreed. “Certainly better than it was before, but I’m just worried that if I spend the money on stuff like that, and then it tanks… Well, then what? I’ll be right back where I started before he came into my bakery, broke and struggling. No, I need to carefully consider what to do with it before I actually do anything with it. This is a chance to actually get through the next few months in one piece.”
    Kylie frowned at her a little bit. “You know… If he really did like your stuff, he might consider being an investor. Like, a real one. Give you… I dunno, five grand to get advertising off the ground.”
    “No,” she answered too quickly; green eyes narrowed at her suspiciously. “Again, can I make a return investment on something like that?” A smooth recovery, she thought sarcastically, very smooth. “If I can’t, then that’s five grand I’d feel I owe him.” Not to mention that no matter how much he haunted her every waking moment, she couldn’t honestly consider talking to Ciaran again after everything that had happened. What had happened that night had been after a few glasses of champagne, and Beth knew that very well.
    “Alright, alright, missy, you are clearly not telling me something that happened between you and Ciaran at the party. You completely disappear after talking to him, you’ve been totally distracted, and now you want to avoid him. If nothing happened, you wouldn’t be so reluctant to talk about it with me. Spill it! I am your best friend,” she told her firmly, again ignoring the topic of the fate of her bakery.
    Beth froze from where she was opening a new roll of quarters and stared at Kylie. “My best friend? Kylie, you abandoned me to stand in the corner completely out of my element and not knowing anyone there! You made me dress up in that ridiculous dress with those awful shoes, and then you’re the one who disappeared. Leaving me alone to fend for myself against some very mean girls, I might add, and you’re wondering why I don’t really want to talk about this with you?” In the middle of her speech, during which a startled Kylie had actually fallen into flabbergasted silence, the bell over the door chimed; Beth almost didn’t notice, until there was a soft sound of someone clearing their throat.
    She took a deep breath and plastered a smile to her face as she turned to face her customer. “Hi, welcome to Bethany’s Brownie Bakery, we’re having a special on—Mr. Cavanaugh?” Beth froze, staring at him in disbelief as his gray eyes focused on her intently. Almost instantly, she felt her heart leaping into her throat, and her arousal dampening her panties beneath her skirt.
    “A special on me, hm? Well, it is an unusual marketing strategy, I’ll admit, but perhaps an effective one,” he mused lightly, and she flushed. How much of that had he heard? For just a moment, her gaze flickered to his tie, and very slightly a smile twitched at the corner of her lips to see the familiar Eldredge knot, this time in crimson silk.
    “Sorry,” Bethany recovered after a second, looking up at his face again. She had well and truly believed that she would never see him again. Now, her heart was pounding in her chest, and she really wished Kylie weren’t here. “I’m just surprised to see you. We’re having a sale on my signature double dark chocolate caramel brownies, though, if you care to give yourself diabetes.”
    Ciaran chuckled. “Perhaps I will take you up on that. May I borrow you in private for a moment, however? I have a business arrangement I would like to discuss with you, if you don’t mind.” His gaze flickered to Kylie, who had