Chance (The One More Night Series) by Christina Ross Read Free Book Online Page A

Chance?”
    He sipped his drink.
    “It’s not as if I can’t Google it.”
    “Touché.  I own businesses.  Corporations.  Patents.  That sort of thing.”
    “But you’re so young.”
    “How young do you think I am?”
    “That’s a loaded question.”
    “I can take it.”
    “Early thirties?”
    “Good guess.  I’m thirty-one.”
    “My God—how have you accomplished everything you’ve accomplished so far?”
    “Hard work—and a lot of luck.  It’s a long story.  A boring story.”
    “Otherwise known as none of my business?”
    “Otherwise known as things that aren’t important to me and hopefully aren’t important to you.”
    “I was just curious,” I said.  “And for a good reason—I came to this city to prove my parents wrong.  Especially my mother, who feels that the city will corrupt me somehow.  They’ve only ever seen me as this ‘simple girl from the country,’ and not someone who could possibly make it ‘in the big city’.  They thought I’d fail and come running back to Vermont.  But I haven’t yet, have I?  I only asked because I’m trying to make it myself.  There was no other motive.”
    His face softened.  “I’m sorry,” he said.  “That was pretty knee-jerk of me.  I have no reason to lump you in with the rest of them.”
    “The rest of whom?”
    “Let’s just say that they don’t matter.  Honestly.  And I’m not putting you off right now—they really don’t matter.”
    Who doesn’t matter?  
    “All right.  I get that.” 
    Otherwise known as ‘I don’t get that at all.’
    “You know, I remember that feeling of wanting to make it.  There are even times when I wish that I were just starting out again.  It was fun when I was on the cusp of breaking through to the other side because I was creating things.  Useful things.  Things that would make people’s lives better and easier.  But when I achieved that, life took a different turn.  I don’t create things anymore—I just sustain things.  Buy things.  Keep the ship afloat.” 
    He paused, and then he seemed to reconsider what he was saying.  “I don’t mean to complain because I have no right to complain.  I’m very fortunate.  Just be careful when you do make it, Abby.  Everyone is going to want a piece of you, but not for the right reasons.  It’s tough to find people whom you can trust.  I mean really trust.  I think that’s the worst part.  And the loneliest.  Disappointments that come from family and friends are the toughest to face, and to swallow.  But you move on from them.  You have to.”  He stopped short of going any further and then held out his free hand to me.  “And there you have it—my sorry story of woe.  As if I have any reason to have one.”
    “Just because you’re successful doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily happy, Chance.”
    “No, it doesn’t.  But it also doesn’t mean that I should run my mouth and bitch about it either.”
    He finished his drink, and what I saw in his eyes was a wealth of confliction.  This man was more complicated than I’d thought he was.  I don’t think he was expecting to share so much with me, but sometimes talking with a stranger is like talking to a priest—you never know what you might say.  Still, it was clear from his expression that he regretted revealing as much as he had.
    “It’s weird sitting over here,” he said.  “I’d rather sit next to you.”
    And that was that—our conversation was over.  But at least we’d talked.  At least whatever happened between us now wouldn’t feel so cheap—or so rushed.  At least I had an idea of the person I was about to sleep with.  That counted for something.  At least it did to me.
    “Then why don’t you?” I asked. 
    When he stood, I was struck again by how tall he was.  And how fit.  His dark hair shined in the dim light, as did his light blue eyes.  I thought the stubble on his face and the cleft in his chin would do me