Mr. Hired Boss (Alphalicious Billionaires Boss #4) - Lindsey Hart Page 0,3

freak ton of money a couple of years ago, selling programs to a few big names out there, but same difference, right?

You know how it goes. If it makes you happy, you should go for it.

What does not make me happy is pretending I’m having a good time. Sebastien knows me better than I know myself, so he can tell I’m edgy. That I’ve been edgy since he told me he was dragging me out of my house because I’m alone too much, and it’s not healthy. He wants me to meet someone, have some fun. Just for the night. He says there are lots of single women who aren’t gay who do still go to gay bars.

He probably just wanted a DD since I hate having more than a casual beer here and there. I never did like the taste. Might have something to do with the fact that our father was a raging alcoholic who liked to beat the shit out of my mom before he did us all a favor and left for good when I was four. Still, those four years imprinted themselves on me in a big way. Thank god Sebastien wasn’t born then. After my real dad left, my mom worked hard to provide for us. She ended up working at a diner as a waitress, and she met the cook there. Ted is a good guy. He didn’t just fall in love with my mom. He fell in love with me too. He might officially be my stepdad on the books, but I don’t think of him that way. To me, he’s just dad, and as for Sebastien, we’re close-knit brothers even if we don’t share the same father.

“Hey, I know you think I just want you to drive my drunk ass home, but that’s not why I dragged you out. Seriously. You have no fun, and your eyes are going to pop out of your head if you keep staring at computers all day. You’re thirty-two. It’s time you do some actual living. Have fun just for a night.”

“And make sure you get home safe and sound and don’t take anyone inappropriate back?”

“Define inappropriate.”

I roll my eyes. Sebastien is six years younger than me, and he’s far from ready to settle down. He goes out fairly regularly, and he has dated, or I guess I should say, had a few one-night stands where the guys were questionable at best. He’s actually had shit stolen from his house. One time, it was just the cash out of his wallet. The other time, it was his whole wallet. And a few times, it was random shit like DVDs or a fucking game console. Who steals a game console? There was one guy who refused to leave after Sebastien sobered up and decided he wasn’t in the mood, and he had to lock himself in the bathroom and call the cops when the guy got violent about it. My brother is an adult, certainly, but I do feel, as the older brother, that I should protect him. When I hear those stories, it makes me furious. Furious that people used my brother. Stole from him. Threatened to hurt him. Seriously. Who the fuck does that?

“Can we please just go?” I ask, instead. “You want me to have fun? Fine. I’m game. Let’s go play pool or darts or something.”

“Pool or darts?” Sebastien studies me incredulously.

We look completely different even though we share the same mom. We both took Ted’s last name, but as far as similarities, that’s where it ends. Our personalities are different for sure, but physically, we look nothing alike, either. Unfortunately, I know I got my bronzed skin and olive undertone from my dad. He had dark black hair and dark eyes like me. But I’m taller than he ever was, at least from what I remember. I’m a few inches over six feet and built like I could be a football star, although I never played since I was always busy ‘fooling around with computers and doing boring shit’, as Sebastien used to say. Sebastien has paler skin, blue eyes, and sandy blonde hair. He looks like Ted more than he looks like my mom. He’s tall like me but slimmer—not built like an athlete at all. Despite that, he’s very good looking, and he can rock a pair of jeans and a button-up shirt far better than I can.

For the record, we’re pretty much matching tonight, outfit wise, except Sebastien