Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“They just put a supply on the cargo ship, so that delivery can’t be reversed. After that, they’ll cut them off. So, we have two weeks.”
“Good.” I chewed a large bite, loving the taste of steak with coffee.
Bleu sat there across from me, looking out the window like he thought it was rude to watch me eat. “Still think this is a good idea?”
“Absolutely.”
“What will you do once the Skull King knows his supply is being cut off?”
“Ask him to sell my drugs instead.”
“And you don’t think he’ll figure all this out?”
I shrugged as I cut into my steak. “It doesn’t matter if he does. He has no choice. Either work for me or go out of business. That simple.”
I sat in the bar, talking shop with one of my distributors. The night was young. While people had their dinner, I hadn’t even had lunch yet. We smoked cigars and drank, talking about the millions of pounds we moved through France and out of Eastern Europe that week.
“Our infiltration into Croatia has been very successful. Our product is also superior to what Roan had before, so we’ve managed to increase the market price.” He drank his scotch until the glass was empty, and he left it on the table.
“Maybe we should move through Germany and then Russia.”
He gave a quiet chuckle. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
“Am I?” I asked, releasing the smoke from my mouth. “Or am I the only one thinking clearly?”
“Russia is a whole different ball game. Mean motherfuckers.”
I gave a shrug. “We’ll see.”
A woman caught his attention at the bar, inviting him over with a wave and a smile. Seemed like they already knew each other.
“If we’re done here, I’d like to get my dick wet.”
I raised my glass and clinked it against his. “Go for it.”
He left me sitting there alone, and I finished the rest of my glass before I opened my wallet and threw the bills on the table.
A hand gripped me by the shoulder. Long nails dug through my jacket, the touch possessive like this wasn’t the first time she’d touched me. Then her legs came into my view in that short dress, and she helped herself onto one of my knees like I was fucking Santa Claus. Her arm hooked around my shoulder, and she looked down at me. “Long time, no see.”
“I’m a hard man to pin down.”
She took the cigar out of my hand and took a puff. She tried to be sexy, but then she had to cough a little because she couldn’t pull it off. She dropped it into the ashtray. “Want to get out of here?”
“As tempting as that is, Chloe…I have somewhere to be.”
“But you’re the big boss man, right?” she asked. “You don’t have to be anywhere you don’t want to be.”
I started to stand up, forcing her to get off my knee and balance on her heels. “True. But I’ve made a commitment to someone—and I keep my commitments.”
She narrowed her eyes as she studied me, trying to solve a puzzle without any hints. “What kind of commitment are we talking here?”
“Monogamy.”
Both of her eyebrows moved up her face. “Bartholomew is committed to one woman and only one woman?”
“My dick is, at least.” I started to walk away. “Have a good night, Chloe.”
Want to stop by?
Just reading that message made me hard. I had a hot little woman sit in my lap in the bar and I felt nothing, but reading Laura’s words was like foreplay. Damn right I do. I had a couple things on the schedule tonight, but I delegated them to Bleu and others so I could swing by her apartment and make her come.
When I reached her apartment, I let myself inside because I knew the door would be unlocked. She sat at the small dining table, enjoying a bottle of wine by herself. She was in the same little black robe she’d worn before, and she made that piece of fabric sexier than the skimpiest lingerie.
I took the seat across from her and poured myself a glass. I preferred the stronger stuff like gin and scotch, but I’d come to appreciate the palate of a wine drinker. All those subtle differences in the harvest, of the bold reds and the sweet whites. It was a little fancy for my taste, but being a billionaire had inadvertently made me a little fancy.
As I studied her face, I noticed the small changes, differences that her closest friends probably wouldn’t notice. Her skin was a little fairer, her eyes were more guarded but also more vulnerable at the same time. While she was dressed for business, her mind seemed elsewhere.
She wanted me here for a different reason.
So she could talk about her problems.
And I could listen.
That was not what I’d signed up for. I came to fuck—not to play therapist. But instead of being an asshole like I always was, I patiently waited for her to start. A part of me was curious what had brought her down, because she was as still as a mountain when she told me what happened to her seven years ago. “What is it, sweetheart?” I couldn’t be patient any longer, needing to know what would faze a woman like her.