Chapter 13

“You don’t need any of it?” Kay’s voice rose to fever pitch.

“No. I…it’s all taken care of,” Savannah replied, as she narrowly avoided treading on Jacob’s Marvel fighter plane. She picked it up and remembered that this was the toy Tobias had bought for her son for Christmas.

“How come? Did your parents help out?”

“Uh-no.” Not exactly. “I meant to tell you. I’ve got a permanent job now.”

“You have? That’s fantastic news, Sav. Well done!”

“It is,” she agreed, walking around the living-room and picking up Jacob’s coloring books and pencils from the floor while he lay on his stomach on the sofa watching TV. “They made me a permanent member of staff there, at the same place where I’ve been contracting at since before Christmas. Sorry, I should have called and told you sooner but everything happened really quickly.” The weeks had rushed by like wildfire and all of this week, just as Briony had predicted, had been madly busy. Tobias had returned from his weeklong trip with a million things for Briony to work on, and in turn, she had barely seen Briony much either.

“That’s okay,” replied Kay, wearily. “I know all about being busy. My social life is practically non-existent now that I’m enslaved by the bank.”

“It’s not like you to allow anything to get in the way of your social life,” Savannah remarked, “Even if you’re working fourteen to sixteen hours a day.”

“Yeah, well. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to go into investment banking.”

“You shouldn’t have made such an impression when you landed your summer internship.” Kay was clever and gorgeous and was a lot of fun to be with. She also had a lot of fun. Sometimes, Savannah envied her, though she would never trade that life for one without Jacob.

“Where are you working?”

“At Stone Enterprises. Have you—” She was about to ask her cousin if she knew of the company but judging from the way Kay squealed, she clearly had. “Stone Enterprises? Get out of it!” Kay shrieked so loudly that Jacob looked up at her.

“It’s only Aunty Kay,” Savannah whispered to him. “You know how she gets excited.” She traipsed out of the living-room and wandered into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. “You did well to get a permanent position,” Kay replied. “I’ve heard it’s difficult to get a job there.”

“This is nothing high up or important,” Savannah assured her. “It’s only an admin role.”

“Even so, I’ve heard that college grads find it hard to get temp work there. Oh my freaking god…tell me, tell me, tell me!”

“Tell you what?”

“Tell me about Tobias Stone. Have you seen him yet? Oh my god, you lucky woman! What I wouldn’t give to be in the same building as that man.”

Savannah contained her smile.

“What’s he like?”

“Who? Tobias…Stone?” She tacked on the surname in case Kay became too suspicious about her familiarity with the man. She wasn’t ready to tell Kay about Tobias yet. Come to think of it, she wasn’t sure there would be anything to tell, with the way things were going—or not going—between them.

“Yes, Tobias Freakin’ Stone. Can I come and meet you for lunch or something when I get back? Oh god, just to sneak a look at him. Do you know he’s always on the hottest new bachelors list every single freakin’ year?” Savannah let her cousin drone on. She sat back on her bed with her legs spread out in front of her and continued to listen to Kay’s fan girl outpourings. How would Kay react if she found out that Savannah had kissed Tobias Stone?

“Have you?”

“Have I what?” Savannah asked. She’d let her mind drift off again.

“Have you seen him yet?”

“Uh—I’ve caught a few glimpses of him, yes.”

“You probably don’t work anywhere near him though. Do you know he has holiday homes in Miami, Barbados and the Hamptons? That’s just a few of them, and he’s got a private jet. And he has a team of security guards following him around everywhere.”

He had no such thing, not the security guards, anyway. “How do you know all that?” asked Savannah, curious. She felt sure Tobias would be shocked to discover that a person whom he knew nothing about, had the full details on him.

“It’s not hard to find out. Come on, Sav! We have the number one hottest guy living in the city. It would be a sin not to stalk him. Online, I mean.”

“Hmmmm.” Savannah murmured in reply.

“So how come you don’t need me to loan you any money?”

“The company advanced me a few months’ salary. I pay a little back every month.”

“Freakin’ generous,” gasped Kay, the envy dripping from her voice. “Maybe I need to get a job there. Now there’s a thought.”

“Don’t you need to work in an investment bank?”

“It’s finances. If it meant working near Tobias Stone…I’m sure I could find something to do.”

Savannah laughed. “You’d change your career just to be in the same building as him?”

“To work for a gorgeous, single and currently unattached billionaire.” Kay corrected her. “Damn right I would.”

“How do you know he’s single?”

“You never see him with anyone and he’s never reported in celebrity columns or magazines with anyone.”

“Clearly you’ve researched him thoroughly.”

“What I wouldn’t give to search him thoroughly.” Kay gave a dirty laugh. “Do you know he trains downtown at a local gym? Hangs out with normal people?”

“I’m sure he’s a normal person himself,” replied Savannah.

“I bet he’s got a glorious body. Hard, and firm and …ummm,” Kay let out a moan that would have made Savannah blush, were she not already preoccupied in her own heated thoughts about Tobias’s body. “I’m getting excited just thinking about him,” Kay whispered. Savannah clamped her lips tightly together to stop herself from laughing. If only Kay knew…

“I hear he was at The Oasis on New Year’s Eve.”

“I have no idea,” Savannah replied. How the hell did Kay know that, all the way in Hong Kong?

“Social media. Someone posted a photo of him leaving the club. I can’t believe you don’t know this.”

“It’s…hardly news worth knowing.” Savannah replied, dumbfounded by her cousin’s obsessive level of interest. And to think, she’d put her arms around his neck and felt that gloriously hard chest against her body.

He was a great kisser, too.

But she kept these thoughts to herself. “Thanks, Kay. For offering to help me, but I think I’ll be okay for now.”

“You stay put until I get back. I’m going to be meeting you for lunch and after work at the Stone building. It makes me very happy to know you’re working there.”

Savannah smiled to herself as she hung up and lay back on her bed. How was she going to find a way back to Tobias Stone?