One Night With the Billionaire (Men of the Zodiac) by Sarah Ballance Page A

you?”
    After a tense moment, he turned and walked toward the window. “Yeah. That.”
    “And what exactly does that mean?”
    “It means I have responsibilities,” he said, spinning to face her. The Caribbean stretched behind him, its tranquility a sharp contrast to his tension. “It means I can’t want you, but I do. It means I’ve spent too much time wondering what would happen if I gave in. If one night would make the wanting go away, or if it would just make things worse.”
    “You’ve already established me as one night stand potential?” she bit back. “Classy. And yet not entirely unexpected.”
    His eyes flashed the color of a summer storm. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know what I’m risking just by being here with you.”
    “Then why don’t you enlighten me?”
    “Because I can’t,” he said quietly.
    “Can’t or won’t?”
    “I signed a non-disclosure agreement.”
    Oh. He didn’t have to tell her what that meant. The NDA meant legal consequences for whoever broke it. But… “What could I possibly have to do with your people and your NDA?”
    He shook his head, a humorless smile toying with his lips. “Does it matter?”
    “If I pose some kind of risk…” The words faded. None of it made any sense.
    “Not just a risk, Zoe.” He pushed his hand through his hair, drawing her attention to the throbbing in one temple. To the resolve on his face. In his eyes.
    “Then what?”
    “Giving in to this—being with you—could cost me everything.”
    She stared at him, unsure she’d heard him right. A thousand questions formed in her mind, but none crossed her lips. They didn’t have a chance.
    Because after a long moment, the entirety of which she remained speechless, he simply turned and left.

    R yder hadn’t exactly been honest with Zoe.
    Every word he’d said was true, but he’d left a lot out. Like that he’d completely violated her privacy by digging into her life. He didn’t stir anything up, at least not anything more than the interest of his friend, Senator Knox Hamilton of Virginia, whose wife was a beltway reporter. He’d known Knox would undoubtedly have heard details a Google search wouldn’t turn up on a local scandal big enough to send a woman on the run. What Ryder learned had set him on his ass. Zoe’s ex was one of the biggest names on Capitol Hill, and that influence didn’t stop in the District. The scandal he’d gotten himself caught in would do a lot to derail that influence. And if Ryder got his name attached to that whole ordeal, it could give Zoe’s father the ammunition he’d need to start looking into Ryder’s relationship with Zoe—and how he could use it to legally wipe Ryder out financially.
    But still, he wanted her.
    He’d placed a call to his lawyer, who’d listened to the whole sordid story without a single interruption. Then the lawyer had shot him down with three words.
    “Assume it’s enforceable.”
    “It’s ridiculous.”
    “It may be, but you were of age and signed it in front of a notary. And no disrespect intended, but it’s not as if Davenport went in for the jackpot. The odds of him breaking even back then if you went after his daughter were slim to none. He couldn’t have realistically expected to get his money back, let alone a billion-dollar profit.”
    Nothing his attorney said surprised Ryder, but that didn’t mean he was happy with the response. “What judge would hold that up?”
    “Doesn’t matter. Davenport is a top Washington attorney, and his daughter was engaged to a Senator who had White House potential until he got caught sexting and giving interns rides on his shiny desk. This guy makes Anthony Weiner look like a junior high school nuisance. Granted, the media is running out of new things to run on this story, but if this hits the headlines, what happens in court would be moot. You’ve done a good job of keeping a low profile, but something like this would paint you in an