Heiress, p.1
Heiress, page 1
HEIRESS
ELLA GOODE
CONTENTS
Summary
Chapter 1
Leo
Chapter 2
Tinsley
Chapter 3
Leo
Chapter 4
Tinsley
Chapter 5
Leo
Chapter 6
Tinsley
Chapter 7
Leo
Chapter 8
Tinsley
Chapter 9
Leo
Chapter 10
Tinsley
Chapter 11
Leo
Chapter 12
Tinsley
Chapter 13
Leo
Chapter 14
Tinsley
Chapter 15
Leo
Chapter 16
Tinsley
Chapter 17
Leo
Chapter 18
Tinsley
Chapter 19
Leo
Chapter 20
Tinsley
Chapter 21
Leo
Chapter 22
Tinsley
Epilogue
Also by Ella Goode
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Heiress Tinsley Grayson is in a fix. In order to keep her fortune, she needs to marry. Her best friend offers up her hot brother. Tinsley adores Leo but he’s made it clear that he doesn’t like her one bit. How can they be married when her husband doesn’t want to spend a moment alone with her?
Leo Williams lives a simple life. He works at the docks during the day and secretly fights at night to bring in enough money to pay his sister’s way through NYU. He wants a better life for her. It would be all good if it wasn’t for his sister’s roommate. Leo hasn’t a minute’s peace since Tinsley showed up in his life. He knows that they have no future together but he can’t let her go either.
CHAPTER 1
LEO
“There’s a fight on Thursday night. Do you want in?”
I look down at my boots where the toe is almost worn through and then back to the face of my best friend, Logan Davis. “No, but thanks.”
His mouth flattens out in disappointment or maybe disapproval. “It’s easy money.”
“Sol hates it. She might not let me in the apartment if I come home with another bloody nose and then what would I do? Crash at your place?” It’s a joke, but not really. Sol, my sister, does hate my fighting. The last time I taped up and entered the ring, she didn’t talk to me for a week. Plus, no one is crashing at Logan’s basement hellhole. It smells—and looks—like a ruined meth lab.
“Does your sister think her tuition money to NYU grows on trees?”
I shove the hard hat onto my head. “No. She thinks it comes from this job, and I’m not telling her differently.” I snatch my threadbare work gloves out of my back pocket and start toward the loading dock. About two steps away, another thought pops into my head, and I turn around. “If you and anyone else says differently, I’m gonna bash your head in.”
Logan rolls his eyes but tips an imaginary hat which I presume means he’s not going to say anything. I get back to work and try to ignore the little voice at the back of my head that tells me I’m an idiot for turning down a quick grand. A smart man with bills like mine would let a random guy in the subway slap him for a full hour for that kind of money.
“Watch out!” someone cries.
I look up to see a 50-ton steel beam headed my way. I drop to the floor of the scaffolding and slide off the edge. The beam hits the side of the shipping container with a giant boom and then swings back. Another guy drops beside me. I reach out and catch his hand. Ten gives me a grateful look as he scrambles to get his own grip.
A piece of metal drops from the sky, and I swing back out of the way. There are screams and horns blaring, loud cracks and screeches as metal bangs against metal. A shadow passes over my head, and without looking up, I know it’s not a cloud covering the sun. Down is my best option. I unhook my safety belt and release my hold on the side of the scaffolding. Fifteen feet down, I catch myself on the second tier of the metal support and then drop another story to the ground, rolling into a ball to soften the landing.
“Move it, Williams!”
I do as I’m told, and pop up and start running. Beside me is Ten. We sprint forward toward a foreman waving his arm, directing us away from the harbor and toward the parking lot. The warning came just in time because the entire scaffolding collapses behind us.
Ten and I reach safety, winded but unhurt.
“You okay?” I gasp out between breaths.
He nods, unable to form the words.
“Scared the shit out of me,” I half laugh to relieve some tension.
“Same,” he says.
We survey the disaster. A steel beam was being moved by an automated crane, but something must’ve gone wrong because it crashed into a container and then took the whole operation down. Dread prickles the hairs on my neck. The dock is ruined and will have to be rebuilt before any more receiving and unloading can be done. The last time there was an accident like this, I was out of work for six months.
A minute later, my foreman, Davy, confirms my worst fear. “Best go home, boys. This mess will need to be looked at by the insurance suits, and then I don’t know what will happen.”
“What about this week’s pay?” I don’t know why I’m asking since we don’t even get paid on days that it rains and we can’t work.
Davy gives me a sheepish shrug. “You know you’re an hourly worker, Williams. Can’t pay you if you’re not working.”
“I’m not working because of this shit. Not because I don’t want to. Let me clean up if I can’t do unloading work.”
“We’ll see, but no one’s touching anything until we figure out who is at fault.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Go home and enjoy the unexpected vacation.”
“I don’t want a vacation.” A vacation doesn’t pay the bills.
“Too bad.” He walks off, having delivered his shitty news.
Logan makes a snicking noise and flings an arm across my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, man. Come over to my place tomorrow and hang with me and the boys. We’ll have a Halo tournament or something.”
“I can’t. I need to work. Thanks anyway.” I pull away and jog toward the bus stop before he can come up with more reasons why I should be happy about my forced period of unemployment.
Sol’s tuition payment is coming up, and so is rent and all the fucking utilities. I know what I’m going to have to do, and it pisses me off to be backed into this corner. The question is whether I’m up front with Sol or lie.
By the time I reach the apartment, I haven’t made up my mind. It’s nearing five, so Sol should be home by now. The music is on inside when I open the door. A girl spins into my arms, laughing. I catch her just as she’s about to whack me with an elbow.
Her pretty lips form a perfect circle. I blink once and then twice, trying to get rid of the filthy thoughts that spring to mind. This is Sol’s friend, Tinsley. She’s 19. She’s ungodly rich. All reasons why she’s off limits.
I push her away and scowl. “What the hell is going on here?”
A hurt look crosses Tinsley’s face, which I pretend not to see. “We’re making dinner.”
“It sounds like you’re trying to raise the dead.” I walk over to the speaker and yank the cord out of the wall. “I’ll eat later,” I say to Sol, whose happy face has turned dark. “I got shit to do.”
“Like what?” Sol yells. “I’m making dinner for you!”
Without answering, I walk into my bedroom and slam the door shut. Of all the people that have to be at my apartment on this crappy day, it’s Tinsley. I snort in unhappy amusement. What shit to do? Well, since Tinsley turned up, jacking off for one. I haven’t known a minute’s peace since Sol turned up with her. Why does my sister’s best friend have to be a woman I can’t have?
CHAPTER 2
TINSLEY
“Maybe I should go.” I worry my bottom lip between my teeth. It was obvious by Leo’s reaction that he doesn’t want me here.
Since the very first day I met Leo, he’s had an utter dislike for me. I’m not sure why. Or what I did to bring out those feelings in him. I try to be nice, but I barely say a few words to him before he walks out of the room, not caring what I have to say.
I should be used to it by now. In the world I come from, what a woman says doesn’t matter. It goes in one ear and out the other. Sometimes you’ll get a little pat on the head for an idea or suggestion but it’s never really considered. I don’t know why it burns when Leo does it to me, but it does.
I guess it doesn’t matter what circles you run in. Men are always jerks. I’ll never forget the first time I laid eyes on him, though. It had been late, and I was hanging with Sol on the sofa watching movies. I'd planned to spend the night wanting to get away from home. He came in the door at one in the morning.
His bottom lip was split down the center. A bruise had already begun to form on his jaw. Yet it hadn’t taken away one bit from how utterly hot he looked. When Sol leaped off the sofa and started shouting about him taking part in underground fighting, I had noticed his raw angry knuckles. His hands are as big as the rest of him. I felt a bit sorry for whoever’s face it was that made his knuckles look like that.
I’d almost been thankful for Sol’s outburst because I couldn’t even seem to form words. Once I locked eyes with his icy cold blue ones, I was struck speechless. For a second, I thought he felt it too. That the world had stopped for both of us. Only he and I existed at that moment. That I’d been right all along and love at first sight was real.
Then he all but sneered and asked who the hell I was. My heart shattered into a million pieces at that moment. Silly, I didn’t even know the man’s name, but somehow he’d claimed my heart that quickly. So I thought, at least. I was a silly girl with silly dreams. What the heck did I know about love? At least that's what my father often said about me. He might have been right. I tend to be too naïve for my own good.
“No way. You bought all this crap, and I promised to make you my enchiladas.”
“Are you sure?” I flick a glance toward the hallway that Leo disappeared down before he slammed the door.
“He’s in a mood. Ignore him. He’s probably hangry.”
“Is he always hangry?” I ask, making Sol snort a laugh. I can’t help but smile. Sol has one of those laughs that’s contagious and is always quick to get a smile from me.
I’d been drawn to her since she plopped down in the chair next to mine in our Sociology course at NYU three months ago and offered me some gummy bears. I’d been drowning in the grief of losing both of my parents two months prior.
She helped clear some of the fog I was living in. She was refreshing and so unlike all my other friends I’d gone to boarding school with. It was so easy to be friends with her. She’s the most real and closest friend I’ve ever had. She also gives killer hugs. I know that might sound stupid to some people, but I swear they can work wonders.
“Did you see how big he is? He needs a lot of food.”
“I think everyone sees how big he is.” I laugh.
Leo is hard to miss. The man is made up of pure muscle and well over six foot tall. I’m barely five foot three. I have no clue how I ended up so short. My mother had legs for days. She was a runway model when she was my age. Until my father plucked her off that runway.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know why he’s been so moody lately. I swear he’s not always like this.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask if it’s only when I’m around. Because there hasn’t been a single time that he’s been in a good mood in my presence. I told myself I would stop caring, but that hasn’t worked out for me.
“It’s fine.” I give her a reassuring smile. “Can I help?” I offer.
“No, sit here.” She points to one of the two chairs at the breakfast bar. There is no dining room, so we eat here most of the time when I’m here or on the sofa. I’m here more often than not, preferring it over my place, which Sol doesn’t understand.
My brownstone townhouse is five stories and almost six thousand square feet. It’s a whole lot of lonely and filled with reminders of my parents. I don’t have a million memories in the home. I went to boarding school, and in the summers, we were always somewhere outside of the States. Still, the place is all them. I haven't changed anything since they passed.
“All right.” I put my hands up. “I won’t help cook.” I can’t fault her for not wanting my help. I can barely make toast without burning it.
“That was the deal. I cook to cheer you up, but you’re supposed to tell me why you’ve been all mopey.” She preheats the oven before she starts pulling out the things she needs.
“I got a call from Grant today.” The second I say his name, Sol does a dramatic eye roll. She’s not a fan of his, and I can’t say that I blame her.
Grant was always my father’s right-hand man. They even owned a few businesses together and I think a couple of properties. Grant is supposedly one of the best financial planners in the city. He’s in high demand. People beg him to manage their money. I guess I am lucky that I have him because I don’t know crap about investing or managing my assets.
When my father’s lawyer, Mr. Edwards, started to lay out the contents of my parents’ will and everything that I was now the owner of, my head wanted to explode. The whole Grayson Trust was mine. There was so much crap. I was overwhelmed with it all.
My father even owned two minor league baseball teams. I’d never known him to watch any kind of sports or go to a game. It goes to show you how little I really knew about him. It’s not as though he ever talked to me about his work, either. It was his mindset that women had no need to know those things.
“What did that little nerd want?” I burst into laughter. I love how straightforward Sol can be about crap. I hope in time some of that will rub off on me.
“Me,” I finally say. Sol stops chopping the tomato.
“I fucking told you! When he showed up that afternoon I was at your home, I saw it all over his face. Gross.” She fakes a gag. “He’s old enough to be your father.”
I suppose he is, but he’s not my father’s age. My father had me when he was in his early forties. The age gap between Grant and me is actually the same as it was between my parents, now that I think about it.
“You tell him you wouldn’t date him if he was the last man on Earth?” she asks.
Grant isn’t a terrible-looking man, but he does remind me of every other boy I went to boarding school with. He has this way of talking down to me. Like everything he does for me is a favor when I have no doubt he’s making a killing off me.
“He didn’t ask for a date.”
“He just asked to fuck you?” she screams.
“No!” I rush to say before she loses it. “He suggested we get married.” That gets her. Sol stares at me. Her mouth opens and then closes. That’s not good. I’m actually afraid that she's at a loss for words. Usually, she’s so expressive.
“You’re nineteen. You’re not getting married,” a deep voice bellows, causing me to jump. My head lifts, and I lock eyes with Leo. Where the hell did he come from? And why does he think he can tell me what to do? He barely talks to me, and now he thinks he can hand out orders to me.
“That’s where you're wrong. I found out shortly after my parents passed—”
“When did your parents die?” Leo takes a step out from the hallway. His eyes flick to Sol. “You didn’t tell me her parents died.”
“They died right before I met her. It’s not something that comes up in random conversation. Plus it’s a sensitive subject. Tins doesn’t talk about it much.”
It’s true, I don’t, but one of the reasons Sol and I got so close so fast is because she knew what it was like to not have parents.
“Shit. I’m sorry, Tinsley.”
“It’s okay.” I try to shrug it off.
“It’s not, but that said, what does them passing have to do with you getting married?” He takes another step closer. I try not to fidget. His closeness always affects me.
“My father didn’t think women could do more than be wives and make babies.”
“Don’t say that, Tins. He loved you,” Sol says, trying to comfort me.
“He did. In his own way,” I agree. “But he never thought I’d be able to handle the Grayson legacy, and he might have been right. Considering I’ve been avoiding this whole stipulation in the will about me having to get married within three months of his passing or it all gets handed over to Grant.”
“No fucking way,” Sol shouts again. “See, it’s not just about the money. Little shit wants you. He gives me the creeps.” Sol has said this from the very start. She always thought Grant was up to no good. It didn’t help that when he showed up to the house, he let himself in. I didn’t even know he had a key. My father must have given him one, which isn’t surprising.
He never really bothered me before, but I didn’t see him much until recently. I’m also not great at judging people. Leo is a perfect example of that. I thought we fell in love on sight. I was so wrong and naïve. It’s not surprising that on more than one occasion I’ve found myself getting used by people. I’m lucky to have Sol; she can spot jerk-offs at twenty paces out.
