CHAPTER ONE

July 4, the present

C ADE L ANDRY WRAPPED a towel around his waist, ready to head into the sauna behind his squash buddies, Zane deMarco and Adam Courtney. They met every couple of weeks to thrash out their frustrations on the court. But that wasn’t the only reason he was here today.

Courtney had suggested a meet-up to discuss... something ?

Being a cagey Brit, the guy hadn’t specified what, but Cade could make an educated guess. He had his suspicions both deMarco and Courtney were involved in the recent spike in the share price of Helberg Holdings. Courtney probably wanted them both to give him a free run... But no way in hell was that happening.

Helberg was a heritage brand—old-school, traditional, with a legacy which went way back. The company also had a real estate portfolio to die for, which Cade knew Landry Construction could bring back to its former glory.

Now Reed Helberg was dead, the company and all its assets were up for grabs. Owning that name, that history, that legacy would prove Landry Construction had class, something money alone couldn’t buy, and would finally allow Cade to reclaim a miserable memory from his childhood, which Helberg had incidentally been a part of.

No way was anyone taking Helberg away from him. Not even his squash buddies...

But as Cade went to shut his locker, his phone buzzed. A text from Dan Carmichael, the CEO of the PR consultancy he had hired to work on brand management for the planned Helberg buyout, appeared on screen.

He lifted the phone back out of his gym bag. And scowled.

Cade, we have a problem. Have you seen the puff piece in Blush about you and deMarco and Courtney? It’s getting a lot of traction on social media. I’m not sure being called out as one of the #OneDateWonder billionaires is what we want for the brand atm.

OneDateWonder? What the...?

He clicked on the link Dan had added, because he had never heard of a magazine called Blush . He scoured the headline, then the piece itself—which was illustrated with a host of snapped shots of him and Adam and Zane at a string of events in the last couple of months with a lot of different dates. And cursed. Loudly.

His chest tightened and his blood pressure spiked, his fury matched by the frustrating sense of impotence, as he scanned the comments on social media which Dan had also flagged.

Apparently, he, deMarco, and Courtney were at the centre of a gathering viral storm, featuring a bunch of insulting hashtags— #OneDateWonders , #billionaireblueeyedboysclub, #mancandysummer and #catchthemifyoucan among them.

The internet debate, focussed exclusively on their sex lives, made all three of them look like jerks.

Could this derail what he wanted to achieve with Helberg?

Making Landry Construction respectable, aspirational, and the leading brand in high-class luxury properties was his life’s work. But just when he was about to take the next step, the final step, some dumb magazine article had decided to turn his private life into a dirty joke.

He slung his cell in his gym bag and slammed the locker door.

He could take a joke as well as the next guy, but having his private life ridiculed reminded him way too forcefully of being mocked as the only kid in senior high who didn’t have a prom date—because he couldn’t afford a corsage, let alone tux hire. He wasn’t that cast-off kid any more. He could buy whatever he wanted now. But he’d be damned if he’d let anyone laugh at him for clickbait.

He walked into the sauna and dropped onto the bench opposite Courtney. The view of the Manhattan skyline through the treated glass reminded him of how far he’d come since being shunted around a string of small towns in Louisiana—a the foster kid nobody had wanted to keep.

He cut off the pity party in his head as he picked up on the conversation between Zane and Adam. Didn’t take long to figure out his hunch had been right about Courtney’s motives for calling this meeting when the Brit added, ‘I need you both to back off...’

‘Helberg? Not happening...’ Cade said bluntly.

‘No can do,’ Zane added, making Adam Courtney frown.

‘It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, y’all,’ Cade drawled.

He didn’t let on he had personal skin in this game. Revealing how important it was to him to buy the company would make him look weak. And while he liked these guys well enough, they weren’t that close. Plus, he knew they both had a killer instinct—from the way they played squash.

‘Then we have a problem,’ said Courtney with a gravity Cade had come to expect from the guy. After all, he’d inherited his family’s business at twenty-eight.

He certainly had a lot more gravity than his kid sister, Charlotte, Cade thought ruefully, recalling something he’d discovered a couple months back.

Adam Courtney was the older brother of the poor little rich girl he’d crossed swords with in Vegas four years back and had never been able to forget...completely.

The family connection had been a surprise. Cade would not have put the measured, well-spoken, close-lipped guy sweating manfully opposite him together with the wild child who’d been shaking her booty on a table. Cade had never spoken about that long-ago encounter with Courtney because he’d been trying to forget the girl’s luminous green eyes, her fragile beauty, and her inappropriate come-on ever since.

So why the hell are you thinking about her now?

‘Actually, we have problems. Plural,’ Cade said. He needed to focus on that article and not his close encounter with Courtney’s sister—which was ancient history.

‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Adam replied, with just enough frustration to rile Cade.

‘Clearly you don’t read Blush ,’ Cade growled.

‘The women’s magazine?’ Adam looked nonplussed, clearly not as clueless as Cade about trashy celeb culture. ‘You read that?’

‘No, I don’t read it,’ Cade snarled...because... really ? ‘But my PR consultant does. He just texted me. Did y’all know we are the star players in their latest dumb article? “The Billionaire Bachelors Least Likely to Marry.” Apparently, we three have been tagged the One Date Wonders... The guys with the longest odds, and they’ve already started a tally on how many dates we’ll have racked up by Labor Day.’

‘You’re kidding?’ Zane said, looking more amused than outraged. ‘Who I date is no one’s business but mine. And I’m not going to stop—I’ve no plans to settle down. Ever.’

‘Neither do I,’ Adam added, not sounding remotely amused.

Me either , Cade thought but didn’t add.

‘They’re turning our sex lives into a joke—and getting a lot of traction,’ Cade continued. ‘And that’s not the kind of media attention I want for my business. Do you?’ he finished.

He hadn’t worked his butt off his whole life to be taken seriously only to garner this kind of attention.

‘Exactly how much traction are we talking about?’ Zane asked, the smug grin gone.

‘The hashtag One Date Wonders is the top trending topic in the US on most of the main apps today. That much,’ Cade answered. ‘And just about every American female online seems to have an opinion now about our sex lives... We’re basically the red meat at the centre of a social media feeding frenzy.’

Adam winced. Zane looked thoughtful for once.

‘My PR team are freaking out about it,’ Cade continued. ‘Personally, I don’t give a damn what a bunch of clickbait junkies and their enablers think of my dating habits...’ Except he did, kind of, or the article wouldn’t have made him so mad. ‘But no way in hell am I letting anyone make me look like a jerk who can’t keep his junk in his pants.’

‘We need to find a way to shut it down,’ Courtney said.

Silence fell. But as the temperature in the sauna rose, so did the hackles on the back of Cade’s neck...

Maybe deMarco and Courtney weren’t as pissed about the hit to their reputations, but then, they’d never had to fight for respect the way Cade had. Courtney came by it naturally, being from old money in the UK, and deMarco was enough of a bad boy not to give a damn what anyone thought about him.

But Cade did give a damn. And somehow, the more he thought about it, the more furious and frustrated he became.

‘What if we take ourselves off the market?’ Zane offered, with the reckless twinkle in his eyes Cade recognised from when he was about to make a killer shot on the squash court.

‘Forget it,’ Cade said. Was deMarco nuts? ‘No way am I actually getting hitched to shut this down.’

‘Absolutely not... It’s out of the question,’ Adam concurred.

At least two of them hadn’t gone to the dark side.

‘Did I say anything about getting hitched?’ Zane said, as if they were both fools. ‘This is a countdown, right? So how about we stop the clock before it even starts. All we have to do is date one woman—and one woman only—from now until Labor Day. Simple.’

‘You’re kidding. You actually want to pander to this garbage?’ Cade said, a little astonished. Having his sex life ridiculed on social media was bad, but having to curtail it to suit some glossy rag’s clickbait agenda was worse.

‘Not particularly, but I’m betting you two are going to break long before I do,’ Zane said, with that feral glint still in his eyes.

‘I’ll take that bet, because the last time I looked, you’re a bigger serial dater than the both of us,’ Cade replied wryly.

‘You don’t even know what the stake is,’ Adam pointed out. As if they were actually going to bet on their sex lives...

‘My Helberg shares,’ Zane shot back, surprising the hell out of Cade, but also making his heartbeat slow—the way it did whenever he was about to close on a sweet property deal.

‘Hold on a minute. You’d bet on Helberg?’ Cade asked, sure he could not have heard that right. ‘Are you serious?’

deMarco’s feral grin answered the question before he did. ‘Sure. Why not? It’s Independence Day today,’ Zane continued. ‘What if we meet back here on Labor Day. Winner takes all accumulated shares and has an unimpeded run at Helberg.’

Cade frowned. Damn . Despite how uncomfortable it made him feel letting the press dictate his sex life for the summer, the bet was mighty tempting. It provided a way for the three of them to square off over Helberg without driving the share price up any higher—while also nipping all the unwanted social media attention in the bud and minimising the hit to their reputations.

And best of all, Cade could totally win this bet.

Given deMarco’s track record with dates, he was at least as much of a hound dog as Cade. Courtney was a dark horse who also had a lot more class than the two of them, but Cade would still take his chances.

Especially when Courtney hissed, ‘Have you completely lost your mind?’

And it occurred to Cade that if Courtney was anywhere near as reckless as his kid sister, keeping it in his pants wasn’t going to be any easier for him than his buddy Zane.

The arrogant thought had the picture of those stunning emerald eyes swirling through Cade’s memory again... But now, instead of the fragile strung-out kid, he couldn’t help wondering...

What would she be like now? Because he’d heard whispers she had cleaned up her act and stopped modelling a while back.

He cut off his curiosity, though, along with the strange surge of adrenaline.

Get a clue, Landry.

Charlotte Courtney might be four years older, but she was probably just as much of a handful. There was a reason why he preferred women who were sophisticated, mature and predictable. Something he suspected the former British bad girl would never be...

Zane hitched his shoulder in a confident shrug. ‘This Blush business is an annoyance, right? But I’m more interested in sorting out which of us gets Helberg. This is a good way to take you guys on and beat you once and for all. Two birds, one stone.’

‘It’s nuts,’ Cade had to admit. ‘But it also makes sense.’

Could he do it, though? More than two months, dating only one woman?

The prospect didn’t fill him with joy. He liked sex. It was one of the few recreational activities he allowed himself. And he enjoyed the thrill of the chase even more...

‘It’s ridiculous.’ Courtney did not sound happy.

Okay, so now Courtney sounded like he was protesting way too much.

Cade rarely dated the same woman twice—because it tended to give them ideas of the eligible bachelor variety—but he could make an exception for a few months. There had to be a woman who could hold his interest for more than a couple of dates. And not every woman was looking for a commitment. All he had to do was find the right one.

‘You got a better idea?’ Zane fired back. ‘Because the likelihood of us stepping out of each other’s way just because you asked nicely is... what ?’

Cade couldn’t help it, he laughed. ‘Afraid you’ll lose, Courtney?’

He found himself relishing the challenge of going up against these two, already calculating the logistics of how to win the bet.

He was headed to the Bay Area this afternoon, to check out some of the properties in the Helberg portfolio on the West Coast which were ripe for redevelopment—in the hope of closing this deal soon. Why not scope out suitable dating options over the weekend at the same time? Seeing as he was going to be based mostly on the West Coast for the summer, it made sense to hook up with someone on that side of the country.

Plus, he’d had an invite tonight to the lavish Fourth of July bash tech billionaire and fellow Louisiana native Luke Broussard and his wife, Cassandra, hosted every year on the estate Landry Construction had built for them and their ever-expanding family in Marin County. Cade hadn’t intended to go. With three children at the last count, the Broussards tended to invite a lot of families to their events and, as a rule, Cade didn’t do families. But the evening bash was an adults-only affair—which had a reputation for being exclusive and private as well as fun and informal. The perfect place to start looking for a woman who was engaging enough to hold his attention until Labor Day in early September, but who was also as commitment-phobic as he was—without getting caught on camera before he had made a choice.

Thoughts of Charlotte Courtney popped up again, reminding him of a rumour he’d heard that she was a friend of Broussard’s wife, Cassie, another aristocratic Brit and a successful entrepreneur. Hadn’t Luke told him Cassie had bought a dress from her because the former wild child had started some kind of fashion brand?

He frowned. Why the heck had he even remembered that?

Okay, maybe he was a tiny bit more than just curious about how that kid had turned out, and whether or not she had really managed to turn her life around, but that was it. The last thing he needed for his summer date was someone volatile or reckless or confrontational—even if she was pretending to be a businesswoman now, instead of just a bratty kid.

‘Not at all,’ her brother, Adam, replied, with a tiny hint of superiority which probably came with all that stellar breeding, something his sister sure as hell hadn’t inherited. ‘Quite the opposite,’ he added. ‘So, just to clarify: we date one woman each, between now and Labor Day. Anyone caught dating more than one woman in that time relinquishes their claim on Helberg?’

‘Right. I’m in,’ deMarco concurred.

‘You’re on,’ Cade replied, shoving the unhelpful thoughts of Adam’s kid sister out of his head. He doubted she remembered him with much positivity either, given the expression on her face—angry and devastated at the same time—when he’d given it to her straight about her behaviour four years ago. So the smart move would be to give her a wide berth if she did happen to turn up at Luke’s bash. And Cade prided himself on always making the smart move.

Adam stared at them both. Then a smile curved his lips. ‘May the best man win,’ he declared.

Cade nodded and smiled back—because he intended to do whatever it took to ensure the best man would be him.