The Billionaire's Jackpot: Betting on You Series: Book Four
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Authors: Jeannette Winters
Tags: #Contemporary, #Romance
Betting on You
by
Jeannette Winters
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An original work of Jeannette Winters.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book is dedicated to my sister Ruth Cardello who has mentored me throughout this journey. Everyone should have a baby sister like her!
I am also supported by a team of beta readers who aren’t afraid to tell me the truth. Thank you for that!
Karen Lawson, Janet Hitchcock, E.L. King and Marion Arche, my editors as well as Nicole Sanders at Trevino Creative Graphic Design for my cover, you are all amazing!
To my readers who brings joy into my life with each and every message.
Always keep romance in your lives!
Drew Navarro believed life was a gamble and he was all in. When it came to money, he’d lay a fortune on the table without hesitation. He’d risk anything to win big. That excitement was all he craved until he met Kathrine.
Katherine O’Malley spent most of her adult life caring for others as a trauma nurse. After suffering her own tragedy, and losing all she had ever loved, she was left feeling broken and lost.
To have her, he’d have to break his own rules and put more on the table than he could walk away from—his heart.
To be with him, she’d have to believe a player was worth the gamble.
Together they discovered they could have the ultimate jackpot—true love.
Other books by Jeannette Winters
‡
T
his can’t be
good.
Being woken by a call at three in the morning could only mean one thing: someone was in trouble.
Think positive, Drew.
Trent and Elaine had come by earlier that night.
“Doctor said five more weeks, but I feel like I could deliver this baby now,” Elaine had said as she’d struggled to get off his low couch. He’d encouraged her to wait till she got home, suggesting that delivering a baby in his living room was going to permanently ruin the bachelor pad feel to his place. Maybe her woman’s intuition had been correct and his friend was now a father.
Better him than me.
Searching for his cell phone on the nightstand in the dark was a poor choice. It crashed to the hardwood floor.
Dammit.
Throwing the covers off, he turned on the lamp.
Really?
He dragged himself from the bed and retrieved the phone that had landed almost ten feet away. He’d missed one call.
His original concerns quickly vanished.
Katherine O’Malley.
Not someone he expected, but her sweet voice was definitely worth waking for. Drew had been haunted by her soft laugh and enticing crystal-blue eyes ever since he’d met her at the event in Napa Valley a few weeks ago.
They’d exchanged numbers when he’d walked her to her car, and he’d had every intention of calling her before he returned to New York, but as usual, something had come up and the timing had not yet seemed right. He knew that had only been an excuse. He was his own boss, and timing was what he made it to be. No, it wasn’t anything so shallow. Drew knew himself very well, and someone like Katherine deserved a man looking to settle down and give her a family. No matter how his body reacted to hers, how easy it would be to enjoy her for a short time, he couldn’t bring himself to do so. How he was with other women wasn’t going to be enough for her.
Don’t start what you can’t finish, Drew.
She was unlike any woman he had ever met. Not only had she been sexy as hell in that tight pink T-shirt and blue jeans that had hugged her round hips, but she’d carried herself in a way that challenged him like no woman had ever done in the past. She was . . .
unforgettable.
And he’d spent many nights unsuccessfully trying to do just that.
Wondering why she would call him, he returned her call. “Good morning, Katherine.” A failed attempt to contain the yawn escaped as he crawled back under the sheets and propped himself up on his pillows. “Sorry. How have you been? I’ve been meaning to call you.”
Best you got, Drew?
“I know it’s late, but I would have bet you were a man who would be up till at least midnight,” she answered.
“You would’ve won that bet; however, I’m on the east coast.”
There was a moment of silence followed by, “Oh my God. For some reason I thought you were from around here. Not Napa but I thought somewhere in California. Let me call you back tomorrow, I mean later . . . in the morning at a reasonable time,” she stammered.
“Katherine, you have my full attention. And I meant it when I said I’ve wanted to talk to you. So unless you have any objections to talking to me while I’m in bed, now works for me.” The last thing he wanted to do was disconnect the call so quickly. Thoughts of how she would look lying naked next to him, her long blonde hair sprawled on his pillow, ran through his mind.
Don’t torture yourself.
“Okay, as long as you don’t mind.”
“Believe me, I don’t.” There was no way he was going to be able to sleep now, so he might as well enjoy what he could—the sound of her voice.
“Drew, I still can’t believe you are a businessman from New York. They are usually so . . . stuffy. You know, like they are all made from the same mold. You, on the other hand, well you look more . . . relaxed.”
What does that mean?
He wore his hair longer than the others and always had, but by choice. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t have the same insecurities as his friends. Conforming wasn’t something he did, let alone planned on doing. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Thank you.” She laughed softly, and it echoed through him.
“It was meant as one. After twelve years in the Marine Corp the last thing I want to look at is another buzz cut,” she teased.
Good, ’cause this is as short as it gets.
There were a lot of topics he wanted to discuss with her, but most would only cause more physical frustration than he already felt. He still didn’t know why she’d call, but he wasn’t sorry she had. She was a welcomed distraction.
“How long have you been out?”
This should be safe.
“A little more than two years.” Her voice drifted off a bit as she spoke.
Was that sadness he detected in her voice? Did she miss it that much? If so, why had she quit? He wanted to know, but he wasn’t sure he was ready for the answer.
She had been a trauma nurse. God knows what she had experienced.
His heart ached for her, for what she must carry with her every day.
Another reason why she doesn’t need someone like me.
He could offer her a sweet distraction from reality. After all, he had mastered that daily for himself. “I hear adapting to civilian life has its challenges.”
“Everyone experiences change throughout their life. Good and bad. It can’t be avoided.” Katherine’s tone was controlled.
He was excellent at reading people, and it seemed there was a lot she wasn’t saying, yet possibly yearned to share. Was this why she had called? Was she woken by a nightmare and needed to talk to someone? And she’d chosen him? He was used to listening to his friends and giving them advice. He actually enjoyed hearing how fucked up their lives got and letting them know what a dumbass they were. But a woman who needed to share, that was going to involve a skill he had never mastered and had no interest in obtaining.
“I probably should get to why I called.”
How I wish it was because you couldn’t stop thinking of me any more than I could you.
“Here I was thinking you only wanted to hear the sound of my voice,” he teased.
“That too.” She chuckled. “I also called because of your friend Ross.”
What the hell?
His body tensed like a bucket of ice water had been poured on him.
Ross. Really?
The call just took a turn in the wrong direction if she was about to tell him she was interested in one of his best friends.
“What about him?” he reluctantly asked.
After a short pause she continued. “It’s more about Jill really than him. It’s really confusing, so maybe I should start from the beginning.”
Much better.
He was already aware that Ross was on a bumpy ride with Jill. Nothing would surprise him anymore. “I think that would be a good idea.”
“Jill’s asleep on my couch right now.”
“When did she go to Napa?”
Katherine spent the next thirty minutes explaining Jill’s last-minute arrival and her plan to get Ross’s attention. He could see how another woman may have found Jill’s initial plan flawed, but a man thinks differently.
Or not at all.
He wasn’t about to correct Katherine that Jill’s initial plan of texting Ross a hot, sexy naked picture of herself probably would have had instantaneous results without all the fluff Katherine thought was needed.
Women
. Sharing his honest opinion would not prove beneficial to his relationship with Katherine,
or whatever this is,
so he opted to stay neutral. Times like this needed diplomacy.
“That all sounds very interesting.”
Not really.
“Why exactly are you telling me all this?”
“Drew, how could you have missed that part?” A heavy sigh could be heard over the phone.
Thinking back, he recalled her saying something about his role.
What the hell was it?
He had been lost in thought about what he would do if Katherine decided to text
him
naked pictures of herself.
Oh, I wish.
“I think I got it.”
Not at all but it really isn’t my problem.
“Really? That doesn’t sound very confident. Don’t overthink it. You said it was easy. All you need to do is somehow make sure Ross looks for Jill.”
I said that?
He didn’t remember saying one word as she’d shared the entire plot. Katherine was more of a sweet distraction than he had realized if she had got him to commit to actually participating in this fiasco. Letting something slip by him like that was extremely unusual, but then again, so was she. This entire thing was getting too complicated for him to follow.
Hence, the sexy picture would have worked.
“And what exactly do I get out of this?”
“He’s your friend, Drew.”
“That’s the reason why I
shouldn’t
get involved,” he stated. First Jill had met with him, digging for information on Ross, now Katherine was trying to play matchmaker and recruiting his help.
How did I get in the middle of this?