Banking Her: A Billionaire Bad Boys Novella (Book 2.5) (Bad Boy Billionaires) (9 page)

I jerked my chin toward Georgia. “Little Georgie. Working for the NFL and still no concept of sports.”

“I know about football,” Georgia muttered.

Cassie added, “Sort of,” and we all laughed.

My interest returned to Winnie quickly enough, scanning from her crossed legs all the way up to her eyes. “What happens when none of your brothers can watch her?” I found myself asking.

What the fuck, Wes? This doesn’t sound like ignoring the existence of the kid to me
.

Winnie answered me, but she looked at Cassie as she did. “I have a regular nanny. But she’s also a full-time student, so my brothers fill in the holes.”

“I bet they fill lots of holes,” Cassie said to everyone’s amusement but Winnie’s.

She groaned. “Don’t you dare put that goddamn picture in my head.”

“We’ll watch her sometime,” Cassie volunteered once she stopped laughing. “We could use the practice.”

“She’s not like the sample cart at the grocery store,” I grumbled. Three very active sets of eyes swung to me again.

Shit.

But Winnie’s eyes—openly surprised and unexpectedly warm—were the only ones I could seem to see.

I
stared out the window, watching the white, bubbly clouds float past as we slid through blue sky. The sun had already set over the horizon, highlighting my aerial view in hues of reds and oranges and pinks. With Georgia and Cassie running the gab show, the flight had been nothing short of entertaining, despite my mind’s incessant need to fixate on every single thing about the tall, handsome, irritatingly surly man sitting across the aisle. It felt like every two minutes or so my brain urged my eyes to chance a glance in Wes’s direction.

I’d never considered myself anything less than intelligent, but on this matter, the one that revolved around my hidden desire for Wes Lancaster, I was two more secret glances away from being a certified idiot.

He was not the kind of man a woman with a six-year-old daughter should ever want to get involved with.

But he is the kind of man you enjoy mind-numbing, wild, hot, insanely dirty sex with…

Before I let myself board that train of thought, I checked the time and realized we would be landing in Phoenix shortly. Since I knew the pilot would be calling for everyone to turn off their mobile devices in the next ten minutes, I made a quick call to Remy to see how things were going back home.

The phone rang three times before he picked up, and I glanced around the cabin to find everyone else pretty much occupied with their own devices.

“Hey, Win,” he greeted.

“I figured I’d call and see how things were going. How’s Lex?” I asked and tapped the screen to put his voice on speaker because, yeah, no one was paying attention to my boring conversation, and I was too damn lazy to hold the phone up to my ear. First world problems, right?

“She’s good, Win. I just put her to bed, and she was out before I finished reading the Mavericks’ offensive stats for their game against Phoenix last year.”

I laughed and shook my head. “I told her no football stats at bedtime.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, well, Uncle Remy didn’t tell her that, and Mom’s not home. Anyway, I’m pretty sure she knows more about football now than I do. When did she get so interested in the NFL?”

“Since I took the job with the Mavericks,” I explained. My six-year-old daughter had a tendency to fixate on things. Once she had the voracious urge to learn something new, she’d use all of her brainpower to absorb and devour anything and everything related to it.

“I’m still trying to figure out how half of Nick’s genes make up Lexi. She’s so fucking smart, Win. Are you sure she’s Nick’s daughter?” Rem asked with a teasing tone.

There was no denying my brother Remy—actually, all four of my brothers—despised Lexi’s father with a passion. But it was par for the course, considering our nasty breakup and Nick’s tendency to be MIA.

I laughed. “Unfortunately, yes. And you act like her dad is a moron. He runs the neurosurgery department at one of the most prestigious hospitals in the country, Rem. That’s about as far from moron as you can get.”

“Don’t defend him.”

I sighed. “I’m not defending him.”

“Yeah, you are.” His voice had taken on a serious edge. One that was very uncalled for, but it was expected when it came to anything related to Nick Raines. “Are you guys dating again or something?”

Deep down, me getting back together with Nick was Remy’s biggest fear. I honestly thought he’d be happy if I just remained single and focused on my daughter and work for the rest of my life. He was ridiculous, but I knew he was just worried and trying to live up to the role of protective older brother.

But I wasn’t a child. I was a grown-ass woman who could handle her own shit, and considering I’d managed to finish my residency while pregnant with Lexi, I’d say I had been successful so far.

“Win,” he added sternly. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“Jesus, Rem. Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m not dating Nick. That ship sailed about six years ago.”

“Oh, really? So what about last year? Why did
that
happen, knowing that
ship had sailed?”

My face flamed red, and my jaw damn near fell into my lap. How in the hell did Remy know about that one wine-fueled night with Nick?

I chanced a glance around the cabin to see if anyone caught that part of our conversation, but luckily, Frankie, Cass, and Georgia still had their earbuds in, and Wes’s nose was buried in his laptop. I flipped the phone off speaker and held it to my ear. “Who told you about that?”

“Ty.”

“What?
When did he tell you that? Seriously, how did that subject even manage to come up?”

“Tonight, when he stopped by to hang out with me and Lex,” he explained. “Nick called to say hello, and Ty hopped on the phone and gave him a piece of his mind.”

Thanks a lot, Ty. Consider yourself officially scratched off the one and only brother I can confide in list.

“You guys do realize I’m not sixteen, right?” I sighed heavily, and my eyes rolled skyward. “I swear to God, I’m never telling you guys anything. You’re like a bunch of gossiping high school girls hopped up on steroids and ready to join the wrestling squad,” I muttered into the receiver.

“Look, Win, I’m not trying to be a dick here. I just don’t want to see you or Lexi get hurt. A man who can’t even make it to his daughter’s birthday,
two years in a fucking row
, is a moron
and
an asshole. Lex doesn’t deserve that bullshit, and neither do you.”

I couldn’t disagree with him there, but Remy’s tendency to protect us was unwarranted. I wasn’t their teenage baby sister anymore. I was an adult who could make her own decisions, and my track record of making the right decisions for my daughter was spotless.

“Good thing she’s got four uncles who more than make up for it,” I said, trying my best to lighten the tone and direction of the conversation. The last thing I felt like doing was discussing my sex life—
or lack thereof
—with my brother. “And even though it’s really none of your concern, I have zero plans for letting something like that happen again, Rem. It was just one night, fueled by too much wine, that happened a very long time ago.”

I breathed a sigh of relief when the pilot announced over the intercom that we were about to land. I was more than ready to cut this phone call short. “Hey, we’re about to land. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? Give Lexi a kiss for me.” Before Rem could interrogate me further, I ended the call and slipped my phone back into my purse.

As our plane started to slowly descend toward the ground, I looked across the cabin to find Wes staring back at me. Our eyes locked for a brief moment before I looked away and silently prayed he hadn’t heard the part of my conversation that insinuated nefarious things with my ex-boyfriend Nick. Why I even cared about that was still open for debate. Because honestly, why did I care what Wes heard? Frankly, it was none of his business either.

“Your brother has a fuckhot voice, Win.” Cassie’s comment pulled my eyes away from the window and back toward the cabin.

“What?”
I asked with a laugh.

“Remy has a sexy as fuck voice,” she answered with a smirk.

My nose scrunched up in disgust. “He’s my brother, Cass. There will never be a time in my life where I equate the word sexy with him.”

“But what about your other three brothers? For the love of God, tell me they sound just like Remy.”

Georgia groaned. “Here we go.”

“What? I can’t acknowledge a sexy voice?”

Georgia pointed in Cassie’s direction. “This has zero to do with his voice and everything to do with the fact that he’s Win’s
brother
.”

Cassie tilted her head to the side. “You think I’ve got a thing for brothers?”

Georgia nodded. “Yes. My brother Will is Exhibit A for that case. It should also be noted that I think you need to stop reading so many stepbrother romance novels.”

I laughed at that, not the least bit surprised Cassie had a thing for that romance trope. Her book choices generally cracked me up. If they weren’t BDSM-based, they were quick and dirty—
one-handed
reads, if you know what I’m saying.

The plane jolted a few times as the wheels hit the runway, and the brakes squealed when the pilot worked to bring all of our forward momentum to rest.

“Wait… Stepbrother romance novels?” Wes asked while the plane taxied down the runway. “That’s a thing?”

“It’s a thing, Wes,” Cass explained. “A very hot thing.”

Georgia’s nose scrunched up. “It’s gross.”

Cassie rolled her eyes. “They’re not related. It’s not incest.”

“You’re deranged. A total fucking pervert,” Georgia teased with a smirk.

“Thank you.” Cass grinned and then looked at Wes. “You got a brother, Wes?”

He shook his head and laughed. “Nope.”

“Damn,” she muttered.

“You’re with Thatch, you freak,” Georgia said. “And you also happen to be knocked up with his child.”

Cass smirked. “Pregnancy makes me horny, and I’m traveling so much I barely get to see him. Spank bank material is needed. Anyway, I know Thatch jerks off to Margot Robbie when I’m not home. He can’t get e-fucking-nough of her since we saw
Suicide Squad.”

“She was so badass as Harley Quinn,” I tossed out.

“Right?” Cass agreed. “You should be her for Halloween, Win. You’d make a hot Harley Quinn.”

I laughed. “Pretty sure my neighbors wouldn’t be thrilled with me strolling around in booty shorts while Lex goes door-to-door.”

“Yeah, but you could wear that costume to Brooks Media’s big Halloween bash,” she encouraged with a waggle of her brows.

“Oh, yeah! You have to go to that, Win. It’s a blast,” Georgia exclaimed. “Plus, my usual drinking partner got knocked up, so I’m looking for a new one.” She flashed a wink at Cassie and earned a middle finger in return.

“When is it?”

“Three weeks from this Saturday,” Georgia said. “We’re playing Baltimore at home, so we’ll be in town.”

I glanced at the calendar on my phone and noted zero prior obligations. “Count me in. I’ll find someone to keep Lexi overnight.”

Georgia fist-pumped the air as the pilot announced our successful arrival in Phoenix over the intercom and instructed us that we could now get out of our seats and depart from the plane.

Everyone stood, and Georgia made a point of glaring at Cass. “By the way, Cass, that was total TMI about your spank bank. I’d like to keep my appetite for dinner, thank you very much.”

Cassie just laughed it off and grabbed her purse from beneath her seat. “Speaking of dinner, where are you taking us, Wes?”

He scrunched his brows together. “Huh?”

Cassie slid her purse over her shoulder and confidently announced, “You’re taking us to dinner tonight, Lancaster.”

He tilted his head to the side, and an amused smirk kissed his lips. “I am?”

She nodded. “Yep. You’re paying, and you’re also taking us somewhere I can eat a steak the size of Thatcher’s head.”

“You have to get your steak well done, Cassie,” Georgia chimed in.

“Fluffing pregnancy police,” she mumbled and walked down the aisle and off the plane.