Prescribing the Billionaire

A hand shot out and tore my boarding pass in half. Then in half again, and let the pieces drift to the floor.

Cassius Ashford looked down at me like I was something he'd already paid for and was deciding whether to return. Here's the short version.

I'd spent months working the most unattainable man in the city: a cold, bottomlesspockets heir who looked at women the way normal people look at furniture.

I worked him for exactly one reason. His mother was paying me ten million dollars to make him fall. Job done. I took the money and ran. I made it as far as the gate.

He caught my wrist and turned me to face him, unhurried, like he owned every second and had decided to spend a few on me. "You took my mother's money," he said. "To make me fall for you." Not a question. "Job's done, Winnie." His mouth curved.

It wasn't a smile. "Now you're not going anywhere." Chapter 1 I was at the campus gates, dropping corn dogs into a vat of hot oil, when three men in black bagged my head and hauled me into an SUV.

When they pulled the bag off, I was sitting across from the most expensive woman I'd ever seen. Mrs. Ashford. Old money, the kind with the family name carved on buildings.

Her son, Cassius Ashford, was our university's crown jewel. The face every freshman screenshotted. The heir every professor pretended not to fawn over. Tall. Cold.

The kind of beautiful that made people forget their own names. "You're the corn dog girl." Not a question. "Winnie." She looked me over like she was pricing produce. "My sources on campus tell me my son looked at you, at those gates, for sixpointthreesevenfoureightthree seconds." She let it land. "That's the longest he's looked at anything that wasn't a spreadsheet in two years." I waited. "He won't date.

He won't marry. He works like something's chasing him. And I would like a grandchild before I'm in the ground." She folded her hands. "Your job is to make him fall. For a woman.

Preferably you." I blinked. "Ma'am, respectfully, that man looks like he was carved out of a glacier.

You want me to melt him?" Behind her, a man built like a loading dock cracked his knuckles. My neck went cold. Right.

I now knew a richpeople secret, which statistically meant I could be made to disappear. But I'm a working girl. I have principles.

So I stood up to the machine. "Ma'am, you can't just insult me like this. I am not the kind of woman who beds a man for—" "Ten million," Mrs.

Ashford said. "Ten thousand's generous, I'll give you that, but I really couldn't just take money to..." My head snapped up. "Wait. Ten what?" "Ten million." I shot to my feet.

Chin up, heels together, and threw her a crisp salute. "Ma'am. Consider it done. I will not let you down." Look, people say you should have dignity.

But what's dignity going for these days? Because I checked, and folks like me can't afford it. Ten million, and I'd never drop another corn dog in oil.

No more coming home smelling like a county fair. I got back to my dorm and watched makeup tutorials for three days straight.

When I walked out done up, my roommate snorted. "Big chest, empty head. Cute look." My eyes lit up. She was right. I had a chest. How had I forgotten my single greatest asset?

I grabbed her hands. "Thank you. Truly.

An angel, right here on my road to riches." My roommate: "...what?" I showed up to the outdoor courts in a pushup top and a skirt that quit around midthigh.

Our campus runs thick with pretty girls. But a baby face over a 36inch chest? Undefeated. Every guy on the court was looking at me. And I was looking at my ten million dollars.

Because there he was. Cassius Ashford, standing out of the crowd like he'd been lit on a different setting.

Broad shoulders, long legs, a white Tshirt doing nothing to hide the cut of him. A cold, sharp face built to make you nervous. Then his eyes landed on me. And stayed.

And then he started walking over. My heart slammed. Oh my god. Had my chest already closed the deal? Was this love at first cleavage?

He crossed the court like the wind owed him money.

I cleared my throat, reached for my sweetest, breathiest voice, and— Chapter 2 "Cassius," I purred. "Were you looking for m—" "Two corn dogs," he said. Damn it.

Even glaciers crave junk food. I fried his corn dogs with murder in my heart and watched him from the side of my eye. One hand in his pocket, head down, scrolling.

Bored of the entire world. I handed them over and made my move. "So. You're gorgeous. Girlfriend?" "No." "Ever thought about getting one?" "Not interested." Called it.

Ice all the way to the core. I wasn't discouraged.

When he headed for the Maybach idling at the curb, I hoisted my whole corn dog cart and scrambled after him. "Health inspector's coming. Can you hide me? Please?

Pretty please?" I leaned into his window, batting my eyes for all they were worth. "You wouldn't want to be the kind of man who leaves a girl to get shut down midfry, would you?" He gave me a look that could freeze a lake.

Then his gaze dropped, to where leaning over had pulled my collar open. His throat worked, once. For a beat he didn't move at all, jaw set like he was holding something down.

Then he looked away, a fraction too fast. "Get in." Cold as ever. "Don't come near me." I opened my mouth to thank him, sweetly. "And don't talk." I followed him into a bar.

He dropped into a booth with a pack of glossy friends. I planted myself and my cart at the edge, shameless. ...and moved a solid dozen units while I was there.

Small money handled, I kept one ear on my ten million. "Blaine didn't mean to burn you, man," one of them was saying. "He had a bad moment. That's all it was." Burn him?

Somebody burned the ice prince? I snuck a look. Cassius had his glass in a whiteknuckle grip, jaw set hard in the low light.

The exact face of a man who'd been wrecked and never climbed back out. "Come on," the friend pressed. "Back when it was you and Blaine, the books were clean. Nothing ever leaked.

Nothing to expose. Just—" Clean books. Nothing leaked. So the ice prince had a past. Some Blaine had gotten in deep, blown it all up, and left him frozen solid ever since.

Poor baby. Which actually made this simple. Riddle me this: what's the fastest way to fix a man whose heart got shredded by someone he can't stop thinking about?

Answer: hand him someone new to think about. I launched a full campaign. Saved his seat, brought his lunch, bribed his roommate with a month of free corn dogs for his number.

Good morning, good afternoon, good night, plus a curated file of the deadliest pickup lines the internet had to offer. Cassius never wrote back.

Looked straight through me every time. Ice, ice, and more ice. Two months of this. Whether he was moved, I couldn't tell you.

What I can tell you is I ran clean out of grocery money. So one afternoon, for the first time, I didn't go watch him ball. Didn't send a single line.

I just set up my cart and fried. My phone buzzed. From the contact I'd saved as $10 Million: [?] Huh. Wrong number, Your Highness? Didn't matter. I had oil going.

And then a guy from my class walked up, cheeks pink, holding out a single rose. "Winnie. I really like you. This is for you—" I froze. But then, what girl doesn't like flowers?

Chapter 3 I reached for it. A long, elegant hand shot in from behind me and plucked the rose clean out of the air. "Hey! Who's grabbing my flow—" I looked up.

The flower thief was Cassius Ashford. Still in his basketball jersey, sweat at his hairline, one long finger crushing the stem, his face like a gathering storm.

Was this... jealousy?! My pursuit campaign was WORKING. I already had his lines written for him. Something like, You're playing with fire, little girl. Or, Damn it, she's mine.

So I struck a pose and went all bashful. "Oh my. Cassius, you're so possess—" "I'm on student council," he said, flat. "That flower's from a protected campus bed.

Write an incident report and take it to the admin office." The guy from my class took one look at him and vanished like grease off a hot pan.

Cassius clicked his tongue and finally looked at me, brows drawn. "What did you say. Possessive?" "...You misheard." I cleared my throat. "I said impressive.

You're so impressive, catching a flower thief like that. Really. Thank you." He kept the donotapproach face on. "Next time, don't accept a protected flower.

It's a credit penalty." "...Cool." What the hell. Where was my sweet little love story? How did this turn into a public safety segment about landscaping?

I coughed and tried again, sugar in my voice. "Cassius. You came out here in the middle of your game.

Did you come to find me?" "Yes." I leaned in. "So you—" "Two corn dogs." Eat, eat, eat. That's all this man does.

I slapped sauce on his corn dogs with feeling and refused to fold. "Cassius. That text you sent. One question mark.

What did it mean?" "You sent me a lot of texts." My whole face brightened. "You read them—" "My phone glitched. They came through as garbage.

I was asking what they said." His brows pulled together. "Were you masstexting spam? Don't. It's illegal." Something in my chest pinched.

I stamped it flat and marked it down as a rounding error on ten million dollars. "I saved your seat! I brought you lunch!

I've been this good to you, and you really don't know what it's FOR?" He raised a brow. Then, like a lock turning over, he seemed to get it, and his mouth tugged, impatient. "Ah.

Understood. Fine. Done." I nearly heard the deposit notification. I almost jumped. "Really?!" "Yes. I'll have a word with the health inspector.

Your cart can stay out an extra half hour." A beat. "Will that finally get you to stop?" "..." I looked into those clear, calm eyes. Not one flicker of want in them. And I knew.

Time to change the game. Chasing him at this temperature, I'd land him in eighty years, by which point Cassius would be too old to lift anything, me included. Besides.

The man had walled himself off so completely he wouldn't let a single soul near. So I pulled an allnighter and speedran a hundred billionaire romance novels.

The distilled wisdom came down to one word: seduction. Bedroom business is like a game of pickup. You can't just let a man watch the ball.

You have to make him want to get his hands on it. I looked down at my 36 inches, squared my shoulders, and marched out chestfirst.

His roommate slipped me the intel: private party at an estate tonight. I walked in, and I spotted Cassius in a heartbeat. Chapter 4 He was too goodlooking.

Just standing there, he turned everyone around him into backup dancers. Women angled for his attention from every direction.

He ignored all of them, and chose instead to talk to one tall, thin guy. The worst part: I heard someone call the tall guy Blaine. Blaine. The one from the bar.

The one who'd wrecked Cassius. Oh no. Were they getting back together? Was the ex crawling back for round two?! Every alarm in my skull went off at once. I crept closer.

The room was loud, but I caught their conversation in pieces. Blaine, low and urgent: "Cass, I didn't mean to cheat you. I got played. That woman took the money, I swear it.

We've been in this together for years. Just give me another chance. Let me come back to—" The music swallowed the rest. Come back? He wants to come crawling back? Unbelievable.

This twofaced snake burned him, and still has the nerve to beg for a second shot. And Cassius, his mouth pressed thin, looked, horribly, like he was wavering.

Sure enough, his voice came out low and cold. "You can come back to the books. But there'll be terms—" He'll take him BACK? Oh my god. The man is a hopeless case.

Furious, half panicking, I shoved my way between them. "Cassius, do not listen to a word this snake says! It's all lies.

A guy who stabs you in the back once will do it twice—" Blaine blinked. His gaze dropped to my chest and stalled there. Cassius's face went dark.

He caught my arm, pulled me behind him, and planted himself between us. Then, to Blaine, flat and final: "Get out." "Yeah!

Get out!" I propped my hands on my hips from the safety of his shadow. "I'm the one he's with now, thanks." Blaine stared at Cassius, hard. "Your new partner. Right.

So you found someone to take my place. Don't need me anymore." His jaw worked. "My mistake, Cass. I misjudged you." He turned and stormed off.

Cassius set his glass down with a sharp crack, turned on his heel, and walked deeper into the estate, his face like ice. Perfect. They weren't a cracked mirror anymore.

They were a bag of broken glass. Nobody's gluing that back together. I let out a long breath. God, money is hard to make. Anyone could see Cassius was furious. Didn't matter.

I was thrilled, and that was what counted. Wait. Something underneath that thrill I didn't look at too closely. I priced it out and moved on.

I trailed after him, beaming, feeding him wisdom about how nobody, not even a stray dog, takes back a reformed cheater. "Can you be quiet?" He stopped dead.

I slammed into his back, chestfirst, and it HURT. "You almost flattened me!" I rubbed my chest and glared. His jaw tightened.

His breath went uneven, and he pulled it back under control a second too late, and bit the next words out harder to cover the lapse. "Follow me one more time. See what happens.

Stay away from me." I was gentler than a customerservice rep working for tips. "Aw, hun. After a snake like that, the moods, the short fuse.

Completely understandable." They say heartbreak leaves a person at their softest. Their most moveable. A onceinalifetime opening.

So I decided to drop the big one. "Cassius, listen. I know you've got yourself sealed up tight, still circling whoever it was that hurt you. You're twenty years old. Think about it.

Isn't it time you let yourself move on? Let someone new in. Start over. Come back to life a little." The longer I talked, the darker his face got. By the last line, he laughed.

The furious kind that isn't a laugh at all. "Tch.

Aren't you forward." Chapter 5 "What, you're the expert now?" His voice was silk over ice. "Full of advice about opening up, letting people in." Heat crawled up my neck, but I kept my spine straight. "Oof course I am.

I know exactly what I'm doing." I lifted my chin. "You... you want to try me and find out?" Cassius's eyes glinted, amused and cold at once. "Try you how