Page 4 of The Deal Breaker
Henry laughed. “Iris is one of the strongest women I’ve ever met.”
“She doesn’t date much.” Dash wasn’t sure why not, but he hadn’t wanted to pry into her dating habits. They’d never discussed that part of her life. “The way you go through women—”
“I’m only trying to help her.”
“By kissing her?”
“Still hung up on that New Year’s Eve kiss?” Henry sounded amused.
Kisses, but who had been counting? Still, Dash didn’t—couldn’t—say anything.
“I don’t blame you.” Henry appeared more smug than usual. “Iris kisses better than she cooks.”
Dash swallowed around the grapefruit-sized lump in his throat. He’d never kissed Iris. Once, they’d come close in high school. Thankfully, he’d come to his senses before ruining their friendship.
Just friends.
He hadn’t thought about kissing her since then. But seeing her with…
Henry laughed. “Your eyes are turning green, Wonderkid.”
Dash crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you seeing other women besides Iris?”
“Are you proposing to Raina?”
The non sequitur made him do a double take. “What?”
“Are you planning to ask your girlfriend to marry you?” Henry clarified.
Dash let the question sink in. That left him with one of his own. “Why would I do that?”
“You’ve been dating Raina for months.” Henry didn’t mask his disapproval. He stepped closer to Dash until he was almost in his face. “You spent Christmas with her family back east. She keeps dropping hints.”
Dash rolled his eyes. The guy had it all wrong if he thought the last of the Silicon Forest Billionaires would get down on bended knee with a million-dollar engagement ring in hand. He took a step back. “Now that it’s down to me and Wes, she’s been obsessed about the bet. We haven’t discussed marriage.”
And wouldn’t if Dash had his way.
Not appearing convinced, Henry rubbed his neck. “I should have joined the bet. There’s no way I would have lost.”
I won’t, either.
More than five years ago, the six of them known as the Billionaires of Silicon Forest made a bet—the last single man standing won. Adam, Blaise, Kieran, Mason, Wes, and Dash each put ten million dollars into a fund that Blaise used to beta test a new investment algorithm. Since then, the money had grown to over six hundred million. Only two remained single—Dash and Wes, who got engaged on Christmas Day, but a wedding date hadn’t been set.
“We asked you,” Dash reminded. “Your answer was an emphatic no.”
“I must have had a reason, but that’s not what we’re discussing. The bet is about you tech guys getting married, so are you proposing?”
“No,” Dash admitted. “Marriage isn’t part of my near-term plans.”
“Define near-term.”
Not ever.
His parents’ divorce had not only thrown his stable world into upheaval, but fifteen years later, his mom and dad still used Dash as a pawn. They’d been so in love, but that had disintegrated into a battle no one could win. To this day, he continued to be a casualty of their war, and he never wanted to be like them.
That meant staying single.
Not that being unmarried was a hardship. He had Iris, who was better than a wife. She cooked, cleaned, shopped, did his laundry, laid out his clothes each night, and whatever else he might need without him having to make compromises or mess up his schedule. No woman, including Raina, could ever take care of him and his house as well as Iris did.
