Longing (Billionaire Venture Capitalist #7): A Billionaire Romance Read online

  Ainsley St Claire

  VENTURE CAPITALIST

  Book 7

  Longing

  A Novel

  Copyright 2019 Ainsley St Claire

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a production of the author’s imagination. Locations and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions or locations is completely coincidental.

  Venture Capitalist: Longing/Ainsley St Claire—1st edition

  Contents

  About Longing

  Other Books by Ainsley St Claire

  chapter one

  Chapter two

  Chapter three

  Chapter four

  Chapter five

  Chapter six

  Chapter seven

  Chapter eight

  Chapter nine

  Chapter ten

  Chapter eleven

  Chapter twelve

  Chapter thirteen

  Chapter fourteen

  Chapter fifteen

  Chapter sixteen

  Chapter seventeen

  Chapter eighteen

  Chapter nineteen

  Chapter twenty

  Chapter twenty-one

  Chapter twenty-two

  Chapter twenty-three

  Chapter twenty-four

  Chapter twenty-five

  Chapter twenty-six

  Chapter twenty-seven

  Read an excerpt

  Enchanted

  Chapter TWO

  Thank you!

  Where to find Ainsley

  Also by Ainsley St Claire

  Coming Soon

  About Ainsley

  About Longing

  She's a biotech researcher in race with time for a cure. If she pauses to have a life, will she lose the race?

  Bella works horrific hours to find a cure for the disease that is killing her father. She doesn't have time for a social life or love. When a hacker threatens to tank the business, she turns to the one man she thinks can help. But, is he the one distraction she can't afford?

  With his future riding on this deal, Christopher will pull out all the stops. But venture capital is all about risk and reward. He knows the reward of Bella is worth the risk to his job. When her life crumbles, he must somehow find a way to save her, regardless of the consequences.

  As Bella and Christopher navigate illness, chaos, and a stalker, can they find the cure together?

  Longing is book 8 in the sizzling Venture Capitalist romantic suspense series. If you like white-hot passion, burning mysteries, and smoldering bachelors, then you’ll love Ainsley St Claire’s steamy novel.

  Other Books by Ainsley St Claire

  If you enjoy Longing, you might enjoy the other sensual, sexy and romantic stories and books she has published.

  In a Perfect World

  Venture Capitalist: Forbidden Love

  Venture Capitalist: Promise

  Venture Capitalist: Desire

  Venture Capitalist: Temptation

  Venture Capitalist: Obsession

  Venture Capitalist: Flawless

  Venture Capitalist: Longing

  (June 2019)

  Venture Capitalist: Enchanted

  (July 2019)

  Venture Capitalist: Fascination

  (September 2019)

  Venture Capitalist: Gifted

  (November 2019)

  Chapter one

  Isabella

  “Hey, chica!” Ellie, my best friend, says through the phone while I wrap up my day, hoping to get home soon. “You ready to go out tonight and party?”

  “You know I’d love to go out with you and your latest boy toy. However, I really have this paper to finish by next week for peer review, plus grade papers from my students, in addition to all the work I need to get done for my paying job. The weekend will be short as it is, and we have someone coming in next week about investing, and I have a heavy role in that.”

  “Oh, come on, you can take one night off. It’s going to be a girls’ night out. No boy toys. You work 365 days a year. You can take a day off now and again.”

  “It’s not that easy since I’m trying to get my PhD before I’m thirty-five while working full time, teaching classes at the university, and starting a company. I need to concentrate. I’ll have plenty of time for fun when I graduate.”

  “Pretty please with a cherry on top? Please come out with me tonight? It’s my birthday.”

  Guilt sits like a lead weight in my stomach. I should be with my best friend on her birthday. “Where are you thinking of going?”

  “I was thinking about The Church. It’s that new club in the Tenderloin neighborhood.”

  “Nice name. Do we go there to confess our sins?”

  She giggles. “Maybe just to commit a few. Please? Will you come with me?”

  She’s wearing me down. I haven’t been out in ages, and as my best friend, Ellie always supports me. I think about all the work I have to do and realize nothing is so important it can’t wait until later. I can go for a short time. “Okay, fine. What time do you want to meet there?”

  “Oh no, we’re not going to meet you there. We’re going to pick you up to make sure that you actually come and not fall into a book. Do you want to grab a bite first?”

  “No. I really can’t. I’m giving you three hours max.”

  “You can get your work done before we pick you up at your place at ten o’clock. Wear the shortest dress and the highest heels you’ve got to show off those amazing legs.”

  I quickly end the call and mentally calculate everything I can accomplish in that time span.

  “Ms. Vargas, do you have your report ready?”

  My head jerks up at the unexpected question, and I spot the person looming in the doorway. “Yes, Dr. Johnson. I’m just printing it now.”

  “Sounds to me like you were making plans to go out tonight.”

  “It’s my best friend’s birthday. The report was emailed to you and the rest of the team about a half hour ago. I’m printing my report now, and our assistant will have it bound so you have hard copies for you to give to the investors.”

  “Ms. Vargas, the investors will be here next week. You’ll need to be prepared to speak with them.”

  “Of course, Dr. Johnson. I have my teaching partner prepared to cover my lectures, and once you know the day and time, I’ll be here.”

  “If we don’t get this funding, then you can kiss your PhD goodbye.”

  “I understand, sir. I’ll be here on Monday morning nice and early.” I pack up my things for the night. I have a few more things I can do after I do my obligatory drink with Ellie.

  “Have a good night,” I say as I wave to the receptionist and walk out the door.

  I know when this is all over and I’m awarded my PhD, this will all be worth it. I’m tired of working underneath grouchy curmudgeons like Dr. Vance Johnson. Just because his technique was awarded a Lasker Award for his approach on how to introduce new medications to the brain doesn’t mean he can treat me like shit. I believe in this project with or without him. If we don’t get this funding, I will do whateve
r it takes to get it on my own.

  When I walk in the door of my studio apartment, all I want to do is crawl into my bed. Hiding under the covers and sleeping for a few hours sounds so appealing, but I have papers to grade and more research data to go through if I’m going to go out with Ellie tonight.

  Sitting down, I pour myself a glass of white wine and start grading. Sometimes drinking is the only thing that keeps me from losing my cool with these students. I’ll never understand how some of them got into as prestigious of a university as Berkeley, and others seem to be just pissing it all away. When I get through the papers, I glance at the time. Ellie will be here in a little more than a half hour.

  I heat up the curling iron and put some spiral curls in my long dark hair and make a smoky eye and add a deep red lipstick to go with my little black dress and high-heeled shoes. They have a red sole, but I’m fairly certain that the street vendor I bought them from isn’t a licensed vendor of expensive come-hither shoes, but I love them nonetheless.

  I’m just finishing when I hear the horn sound outside the apartment, and my cell phone pings my friend's arrival. I grab the small gift from the table and head out the door. I’m going to have fun tonight.

  Chapter two

  Christopher

  Lying back and watching SportsCenter with my buddy Ryan from undergrad, we’re drinking beers and debating the important things in life.

  “I think the Cubs may just do it again this year,” I say out loud probably more wishful thinking than a possibility.

  “From your lips to God's ears, man.”

  “How did your job interview go today?”

  “It went okay,” Ryan shares. “I think they’ll offer me the job, but I may want more equity than they are willing to give me.”

  “I guess you’ll just have to determine how bad you want to move out to the coast and give up those Chicago winters.”

  “I know I’m ready for some warmer weather, but I have a good gig at Merck.”

  “You don’t have any equity at Merck, so it wouldn’t be much of a difference,” I stress.

  “But Merck is established. Coming to work at a start-up could mean that I spend years at a no-name company and then, in the end, have nothing.”

  “Man, I told you, my company funded that start-up. If they fuck up and go under, it isn’t because they have a bad idea. They just have bad management. And let me assure you, we don’t like to lose money, so we will swoop in if we need to save a company from their management.”

  “Why can’t you get them to give me equity?” he says with a slight whine in his voice.

  “Not my client company, and you’ve got to do this on your own. I have enough to worry about with my own job.”

  “What could have you stressing out? You have a sweet deal. You’ll clear a great salary, and you live in a city where the number of females far outnumbers the straight men. You’re golden.”

  He’s naïve to think that I can just sit back and enjoy my salary and not perform. You are only as good as your last deal, so there’s a lot of pressure. “I don’t know about golden. I have a good job, but all I have to do is have a bad investment, and I’m out of a job, and yes, there are a lot of hot chicks in San Francisco, but sometimes they’re too much work.”

  “I hear ya, man.”

  An alert on Ryan’s phone interrupts our conversation. He stares at it for a moment and then looks up at me. “I just got a text from that girl we met at lunch today. She says she and a bunch of her friends are heading to a club called The Church. Do you know it?”

  “I think it’s the new one in the Tenderloin.”

  “Is that close?”

  “It’s a neighborhood not too far away. We can take a rideshare over if you want to meet up with her. I can give you a key if you decide you want to stay longer than I do.”

  He focuses on his phone for a second and then says, “She and her friends will meet us around ten.”

  Looking at the clock, I see it’s after nine. “Guess I should get dressed then.” I head to my room to look through my closet.

  Ryan was a good buddy when we were undergrads, and I wouldn’t have gotten through my stats class without him, but he’s not found his niche, and I’m not sure if working for one of SHN’s investments is going to be his answer. When he called and asked what I knew about Caring Technologies, I was floored.

  SHN invested in Caring last year before I joined the company. It’s a pet project of Cynthia’s. I told Ryan what little I knew and stressed that it would hurt him more than help him if he told them he knew someone at SHN. I work in biotechnologies, and my job is to talk new pharmaceutical and biotech companies into allowing us to invest in them. While it may seem counterintuitive to need to talk a start-up into taking money, there is a lot of competition for the companies that we believe have a good product. And, while SHN may have one of the biggest success rates, we also take a little more equity for our money, and we provide help from our operations team with things such as recruiting, accounting, and other areas that can distract them from what they’re looking to create. Our attitude is for them to concentrate on what they do best.

  The company is ten years old, and I’m the newest business development analyst and partner. I’m looking for some strong biotech companies for us to invest in. My goal is to get a few up-and-coming drug companies. It’s the low-hanging fruit in the biotech world. The cost of research and development is so high for large companies that it’s created a market of start-ups. These small companies are more nimble and able to create winners. They may be more expensive since they buy them after they have some proof they’ll work, but they also don’t have to invest in concepts that fail. The right company is extremely profitable. It’s why I got into venture capital. It’s a form of legalized gambling, really.

  Putting on a pair of nice dark black jeans, an expensive light blue houndstooth dress shirt, and my brown Cole Haan Chukka boots and matching belt, I add a bit of gel to my unruly curls, and I’m ready to go.

  “You got protection?” Ryan holds up a half dozen condoms and wiggles his eyebrows at me.

  Internally, I roll my eyes. “I’m good. You think you’ll need all of those?”

  “Hell, yeah! She’s into me.” He stuffs them in his pocket.

  “You don’t think that giant bulge in your pocket might say you’re a little anxious.”

  “You’re probably right. Here, take two, and then if I need them, I’ll get them from you.”

  “Whatever, man. I’d be shocked if you used even one of them.”

  Grabbing a rideshare, we head over to The Church. The girls have left our name on the list, so we bypass the line. The girls already have a table, and I take a chair in the corner, where I can watch the patrons dance, drink, and have fun. Ryan doesn’t need a wingman, so I sit back while he and this girl chat. Her friends are cute and friendly, and one leans over and introduces herself.

  “Hi. I’m Jennifer.”

  Jennifer is a petite redhead. She’s a little bubblier than I like usually, but I’m not rude. “Nice to meet you. I’m Christopher.”

  “What do you do, Chris?”

  This is my least favorite question, and I’m highly annoyed that she truncated my name. I’m done. That’s three strikes in my book, but I’ll still be polite. “I work in finance. What about you?”

  “I’m a lawyer.”

  “Wow.” I like that she’s smart. “Who do you work for?”

  “I just graduated, and I’m still looking. What about you?”

  “Sullivan Healy Newhouse. Where did you graduate from?”

  “I put myself through law school online while working. You want to dance?”

  “I’m good.” I need to escape, but I also don’t want to screw it up for my buddy. I should play nice with this girl. “Can I get you a drink?”

  “I’m good.” And that’s the end of that. I’m grateful she didn’t recognize the name of my firm. Usually, women will try to latch on to me once they find out
who I work for, but most people know it as SHN. We are the most successful venture capital fund in the Bay Area, and recently we’ve had some publicity that makes us more popular than we’d like.

  I turn my attention back to people watching as I drink my scotch. People grind against one another in their mating dances as the drinks flow freely. Then I spot her. She’s tall with dark brown hair, big brown eyes, and legs that seem to go on forever. Her dress leaves little to the imagination, and I can tell she’s perfect in every way.

  I don’t approach her. I just watch. She seems to be celebrating something with a group of girlfriends. Paying close attention, I notice she’s drinking white wine and isn’t wearing a ring on her left hand.

  When she and her girlfriends head to the dance floor, I notice I’m not the only man enthralled. They’re attracting a lot of male attention.

  Chapter three

  Isabella

  “What do you want to drink?” the birthday girl asks.

  “Just a glass of white wine.”

  “What? You need to let loose, girl. How about a cosmo or a whiskey? Not a glass of watered-down wine,” my best friend Ellie yells over the pulsating music.

  “What are you going to drink?”

  “I’m going to start with a shot of tequila and then have a paloma.”

  “Isn’t that tequila and grapefruit soda?”

  She nods and grins widely.

  “I’ll get it,” I offer.

  Ellie heads to the reserved table with her other friends while I squeeze myself up to the bar, where I find the bartender is very attentive—my cleavage helps. He checks me out while drying his hands on a towel attached to his waist. “What can I get the beautiful lady?”