What Matters Most: The Billionaire Bargains, Book 2 (32 page)

Tony couldn’t believe it. How did he not know this? It was like he was looking at someone he’d just met.

“When did you have time to do all of that?” he finally asked.

“When you’re in Vegas. Or Steamboat Springs. Or Barcelona. Or…”

“Okay,” Tony interrupted. “Got it. You’ve had some free time.”

Will grinned.

“And the money? How can you afford to buy all of this?”

“I have a fantastic job with great benefits,” Will told him. “You pay me very well and I have very few expenses.”

“I need to start charging you rent, clearly,” Tony grumbled.

“I thought you were trying to have
less
money,” Sebastian pointed out.

“And you knew about this?” Tony asked, turning on the other man. “All along?”

Sebastian nodded. “I’ve been up with him.”

“Up with him?” Tony repeated. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“I’ve gone up in the plane skydiving with him,” Sebastian said.

“You skydive too?”

Sebastian nodded. “Nothing like Will, but I’ve done about thirty jumps.”

Tony couldn’t believe this. “So when I
didn’t
jump,” he said. “And when I bought this damned business, you didn’t think of mentioning that this is a passion of yours?” he asked Will.

“It didn’t really have anything to do with me,” Will said. “I wasn’t there when you went up to attempt your first jump. And I never used your business because you charged too damned much.”

Tony shook his head. “And what if you had been up there with me? Would you have made me jump?”

Will stepped forward and put his hand on Tony’s shoulder. “I would have jumped with you.”

Tony thought about that. “You can do that?”

“Tandem jumps? Absolutely. It’s a great way to do your first jump.”

Tony looked at the plane, then back to his assistant—the man he’d been underestimating for a long time. “Will you be my instructor?” he finally asked.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Will told him with a grin. He clapped his hands together. “Let’s go.”

“Wait—
now
?” Tony asked, looking at the plane again. He could have sworn he heard maniacal laughter.
That
was how crazy he was going.

“No time like the present,” said Will.

Tony was sure he could come up with at least seventeen times that were better than the present. Tomorrow, for instance. Or never.

“You want to do this,” Sebastian said. “Trust me.”

Easy for the I-don’t-even-know-how-to-spell-consequences guy to say. But wait, that was
Tony
. At least, that’s what everyone thought.

“There’s no plan B here,” he said. “You jump, you fall. There’s no going back.”

Will turned back. “You’re looking at it wrong, man. You jump, you
land
. And you have a hell of a story about the trip down.”

Tony took a deep breath.

Then Will said, “I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.”

That
Tony could trust. Will had never let anything bad happen. He’d gotten Tony out of more tight spots than anyone. And he’d stuck around. After some of the stuff Tony had done, most people would have bailed.

“Okay,” Tony finally said. “I’ll do it.”

Sebastian slapped him on the back. “There you go. Let’s get up there.”

Tony Steele was a lot of things, and full of shit was one of them. But he was not a liar. Not even to himself.

He was nervous.

Jumping out of an airplane. This was sort of a big thing.

He was in the seat behind the pilot and could barely hear himself think. Which was probably okay. His thoughts hadn’t strayed much from
what the hell am I doing?

Today someone else was flying the plane so that Will could jump with Tony, but apparently, Will enjoyed flying as much as he did jumping. Tony hadn’t known that his assistant was an adrenaline junkie.

Sebastian had his basic license that said he could jump solo. Apparently, they were all going down.

“I think we’ll just go up to about nine thousand feet,” Will said.

Tony felt a little dizzy. That was pretty fricking high. “Don’t need the details, man.”

“That won’t give you as much freefall time but—”

“And how about we
never
use the term freefall again?” Tony said sharply.
Freefall
. As in falling freely—with nothing to stop it or catch you… Jesus, that was a scary word.

Will patted him on the back. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

Sure, sure. Tony wouldn’t even mind hearing an I told you so when they were safely back on the ground. But right now, nothing could make him feel better.

“Oh, by the way, we have one more jumper today,” Will said to Tony.

Tony’s attention had been glued on the airplane door. Not the ground outside, not the beautiful blue sky or the wisps of white clouds floating lazily in that brilliant blue…but on the door through which he was going to plummet within a few minutes.

“Okay.”

What did he care if there was another nut ball up here?

“Oh, there it is! Look, you guys!”

The voice was not only much more feminine than he’d expected from his fellow let’s-jump-out-of-a-moving-plane-at-nine-thousand-feet-with-nothing-but-silk-and-strings-to-stop-our-untimely-deaths skydiver, it was also very familiar.

He turned on his seat.

Reese sat on the bench seat about eight feet behind him.

There was no way she’d been sitting there when he gotten on the plane. Unless…he vaguely remembered Sebastian standing right in front of that spot to get his gear on. And Tony had been completely engrossed in watching Will suit up and then help Tony with his stuff. Especially the parachute. He’d had about a thousand questions about the parachute.

Yeah, okay, so he could have missed her sitting there.

“What are you doing here?” She was so beautiful, he ached.

“Look out the window,” she said with a huge smile.

All of the guys leaned over—Tony with a death grip on the seat and on Will’s arm. If he suddenly went plunging out the door, he was taking Will with him.

On the ground, there was a huge white circle filled with simple black letters that said,
“Tony Steele will you stay married to me?”

Tony was speechless.

Will slapped him on the back. “There’s your target buddy. That’s what you’re jumping for.”

“No plan B,” Tony said gruffly.

“No plan B,” Will agreed.

Tony pivoted to look back at Reese. “You’re jumping too? All in? No going back?”

Her eyes brightened and she pressed her lips together as she nodded. “All in.”

A surge of power went through Tony. Confidence. Excitement. He could do this. And he probably wouldn’t die.

“Let’s go,” he said to Will.

“You ready?”

He glanced at Reese again. “Oh, yeah.”

All that he remembered between the plane and the ground was that he was surprised it didn’t feel like his stomach was dropping like on a rollercoaster. He’d been expecting that. Instead, it was like he was floating.

After that, his impressions of the jump were more a series of words and phrases—
holy shit, wow, gorgeous, holy shit, amazing, that fucking parachute better…oh, thank God.

By the time he was on his feet and apart from Will, Reese was on the ground.

By herself.

A few moments later, Sebastian dropped behind her.

“You jumped alone?” Tony asked, stalking toward her.

“We both hit the target!” She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.

There was something to be said for adrenaline rushes. She was hot and greedy with her kiss and Tony quickly tunneled a hand in her hair while she grabbed his belt loops and pulled him close. The kiss was sweet and sexy and full of need and love. He could feel it. And that was a bigger rush than any plane or parachute could ever give him.

They pulled apart and stood staring at one another. Reese’s eyes were big and bright, her smile full of all the emotions Tony couldn’t put a name to but that he was feeling rushing through him.

“You jumped by yourself?” he repeated.

She nodded happily. “Will’s been giving me lessons for two weeks. I’ve got my A license. I’ve done twenty seven jumps now.”

“In two weeks…just so you could…” He was stunned. He wasn’t sure anyone had ever done anything as meaningful—or over-the-top—for him in his life.

“Is that a yes?” she asked breathlessly.

“A yes…” He glanced down. They stood on the circle that asked if he would stay married to her. “That is a
hell, yes
.”

She stepped back, still smiling brightly. “Here’s the thing,” she said. “We seem completely different. You’re carefree and reckless and larger than life. I’m careful and responsible and am just fine behind the scenes. You spend. I save. You want everyone to be happy and will do whatever you can to make it happen. I want people to help themselves and take pride in making their own good decisions. Alone, you’ve got more charm than common sense and I’m bitchy and demanding.” She stepped forward and put her hand against his jaw. “But together we balance all of that out. Together, I think we can do
anything
.”

Tony put his hand against hers, his heart pounding so hard it almost hurt. “You should know that I’ve tried to get rid of my money, but I can’t do it. It’s like I’m a magnet. I think I have more now than I did when I started trying to give it away. I’m sorry.”

She laughed. “Sebastian told me. Surprisingly, I’m okay with that.”

“Sebastian told you?” he repeated.

She nodded, her smile softening. “We’ve been talking. He really wants us together.”

“He’s a smart guy.” Tony pulled her closer. “You’ll help me get rid of some of my money? Make me more like a normal guy?”

She nodded. “Absolutely. I promise I can give it away and make it stay away.”

“Good.”

“But,” she said, stretching up on tiptoe and wrapping her arms around his neck, “I don’t want you to be anything or anyone but exactly who you are.”

He brought her hips to his. “Well, there is just one more thing I need to say then.”

“I’m listening.”

“What I’m good at is exactly what people need sometimes—fun, laughter,
not
taking things seriously. The world is full of people, like you who can take it seriously enough for all of us.”

“I think—”

“But,” he went on, “You need to lighten up. You need to get off my ass a little. And you need to let me be what
you
need too.”

She pulled back, but a smile teased one corner of her mouth. “What do I need?”

“Someone who thinks that calling you his wife for the rest of his life is the best fucking thing that could ever happen. Someone who knows that he’ll never deserve you but that trying will be the best time either of you has ever had. Someone who will do it the hard way if needed but who can make being in love the easiest thing you’ve ever done.”

She was quiet for a moment and then said softly, “Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“I hope you remember all of that.”

“Ha, ha.” He pinched her butt.

She giggled. “No seriously. You should just say all of that when the time comes.”

“When the time comes?”

She turned them both. “Be sure to say it loud enough for them to all hear it too.”

Tony felt his jaw drop. Adam, Jaden, Emily, Will and Sebastian were all gathered around. As were Sylvia, Connie, Vincent, Holly, Molly, Max…and Maggie.

Tony had known she was out of the hospital and at home doing well, but he hadn’t seen her. It took a moment for him to catch his breath.

“What’s all this?” he asked, hugging Reese against his side.

“We’re renewing our wedding vows,” she said.

He grinned at them all. “This is turning out to be the best airplane jump I’ve ever made.”

She laughed. “Thank goodness you feel that way,” she said. “Because a good girl like me probably shouldn’t have all the hot, naughty sex we’re going to be having if I’m not married.”

Heat and want flooded through him and his voice was more of a growl when he said, “Then let’s get on with it.”

“And by the way,” Reese said as they started toward their family and friends. “Sebastian is videotaping this so you’ll be able to remember every detail this time.”

“Smart ass,” Tony muttered, love and anticipation for what was to come filling him.