The Billionaire's Ballet: A Contemporary Billionaire Friends to Lovers Romance (Friends with Benefits) by JJ Knight, Deanna Roy, Lucy Riot Read Free Book Online Page A

any harder than it already was.

Chapter 8

    Even if Pearl hadn’t announced the upcoming party, I would have known about it the next day. The bustle on the estate increased tenfold. The landscapers unloaded equipment to spruce up the grounds. And new patio furniture arrived and cushions were replaced.
    The exterior windows were cleaned and the circle drive power-washed.
    These were always the services that came out in the days leading up to one of the big events.
    Mother spent a lot of the day sleeping, so I wandered the grounds in distinctly non–New York clothing, digging cutoff shorts and tank tops from the dregs of my closet. They fit differently now. I was leaner and more muscled, yet my hips were wider. I looked like something from a Jessica Simpson music video. But why not? Nobody saw me anyway.
    I took long walks. Despite my vow not to sit on the wall, I sometimes did, lying on my back, watching the workers make an already-perfect-looking lawn even more perfect. I laughed out loud when I spotted a man spraying a brown spot in the corner with green paint. How ridiculous!
    I told myself I wasn’t watching for Quinn, justifying my watchdog position because I wanted to find Bennett. I needed to thank him for looking after Mother. She would be in a real lurch if he hadn’t been kind enough to keep her on. Even taking ballroom lessons himself.
    I admitted my heart warmed at the thought of it, and wondered if he was any good at dance.
    But Bennett was seriously scarce. I hadn’t seen him come in last night, and he must have left so early this morning that he beat my sunrise run.
    I shifted to lie on my side on the wall. Being up here felt comfortable and familiar. Maybe I was wrong to think I should even try to belong inside the estate. Very few people lived a lifestyle like the Claremonts and most were perfectly happy without it.
    And truthfully, I wasn’t sure how happy the people inside the wall were. Pearl definitely looked miserable.
    Quinn came out to the back patio, and I sat up straight, then realized he might see me and collapsed back down on the wall.
    He wore tennis gear and held a racket zipped up in a case. The courts were inside the wall, off in the far left corner from the French doors, beyond the pools and gardens. He headed that direction. He had a little bounce in his step, as though everything was going his way. Despite everything, my heart squeezed.
    About that time, the back gate opened and a young woman with a black ponytail hurried across the lawn. She also carried a racket and wore a sunny yellow tennis skirt and tight white shirt.
    This must be the tennis pro.
    I watched her smooth her skirt and adjust her visor before calling out to Quinn. She seemed to have more on her mind than practice. And why wouldn’t she? It wasn’t every day you got called to live on an estate and train a hunky charming billionaire.
    He turned around and smiled at her, hand uplifted in greeting. My stomach dipped as it always had when I watched Quinn with the dozens of women he’d entertained inside the walls. It was seriously silly that I had even imagined that he’d seemed interested during the ride yesterday.
    Although he had ridden out to find me. In shorts.
    Still, the proof was there. Quinn waited while the girl caught up with him. Then he draped his arm around her shoulders.
    That didn’t look too professional.
    Plus, he was throwing a party for her. And no small one, by the looks of it.
    She gazed up at him with the usual oh-how-I-adore-you look, and I had to stop torturing myself. I lay on my back, eyes on the branches overhead. Eventually I started hearing the distant pong-plink of the ball on the court.
    God, I was so stupid.
    And now I couldn’t leave. Not with Mom so sick. I would just have to tough out the month. Maybe we could find something else for Mom to do. Choreography. Or studio management. Something that wouldn’t tax her.
    Except it was easy for her here. And she had people looking after