Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I gave her a look as I lifted Termite gently out of my bag and set her down. Like a good girl, she squatted to pee and looked up at me for approval immediately. I scratched under her chin and told her she was a good girl. “Let me guess,” I said. “You’re telling me this because you think that’s what I’m trying to do with Mr. Stone. But you guys both don’t get it. I’m not interested in him like that. Hell, I’m not interested in him. Period.”
“You know what happened with the guy?” Paisley asked, ignoring me. “He pretended to change just long enough to get in my pants. Once he got bored, he went right back to being exactly who he was.”
I sighed. “I get the point. Don’t think I can change him, because even if he pretends to change it’ll just be so he can use me.”
“No,” Paisley said with a smirk. “The point is that you can enjoy getting banged by him while he’s on his best behavior and get back to your life when he gets bored of playing nice.”
Cassie laughed. “You’re so bad, Paisley.”
I couldn’t help grinning. “I’m pretty sure if I let Mr. Stone ‘bang’ me, I’d wind up with a case of frostbite in my vagina.”
They both laughed.
“I hate to break it to you,” Paisley said. “But I would bet my life that he would leave you in a sweaty pile of orgasmic bliss. There would be no frostbite involved.”
I shook my head, collecting Termite and giving the woman working the bar an apologetic smile. She winked at me and mimed zipping her lips.
“Well,” Cassie said. “I need that fucking smoothie. These dried tilapia chips taste like death.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Paisley said. “But they smell like it, too.”
Cassie gave her the finger and headed for the bar.
I took a look around the patio while we waited and spotted a glistening black orb just above the door. A camera.
Maybe I should’ve felt a pang of fear, but instead I just felt insolent at the thought he might be watching. I looked up at the camera, put on my best smile, and waved.
A few seconds later, my phone chimed from a new email.
15
CHRISTIAN
Lola came into my office a few minutes after I emailed her. Yes, I was watching the cameras again. Yes, I was pissed at my lack of control. But I’d reasoned that keeping an eye on her kept me from feeling so uncontrollably tempted to drag her up to my office and interrogate her every fucking day.
But this morning I’d watched her bring her bag to the twentieth floor, let out some little dog, and then have the nerve to wave at the camera with a smile. She’d known I was watching, and once again, I found myself doing exactly what I shouldn’t.
She was wearing a black and white dress made out of thin, silky fabric. The sun streaming through the windows behind me cut straight through the material and showed the outline of her thighs and hips behind it. I shifted in my seat, trying to remember what the fuck I’d been planning to say when I called her up here.
“This has to stop,” I said once she was seated.
“You stalking me through the cameras all over the building? Good. I was thinking the same thing.”
I clenched my jaw. Her insolent comebacks had a disconcerting way of making me want to take a fistful of her hair and kiss her mouth until she remembered who was her fucking boss.
Not for the first time, I wondered if this was how it happened with my brothers. Did they try this hard to fight their feelings for employees, or did they roll over and give into temptation? Hector had fallen for his secretary, Candice. He walked away from the company so they could pursue a relationship and he sold all of his shares when he left.
Then there was Lance. He had always been more rash and impulsive. He’d started fucking a girl from HR at work. She convinced him to grant her access to confidential company files, and she used the information to extort money from people until she was eventually caught and thrown in jail, along with Lance. He’d sold off his shares when he found out he was going behind bars, which meant my brothers had handed majority control of our own company to a board of directors voted in by our shareholders.
In short, they’d fucked me in more ways than one.
I could just imagine how happy it would make Trisha if I followed in the footsteps of my brothers.
“Well?” Lola asked. “Did you just call me up here to glare at me? Because as fun as this is, I am supposed to be upstairs with Max in a few minutes.”