Page 25 of Save Me

“What’s that?” Taehyun asks.

“Don’t you know?” Jersey answers. “It’s the start of his aquarium installation.”

“Fuck, that’s right,” he answers. “I forget you’re a day behind.”

I snort. The time difference means Taehyun is often up in the middle of the night for these calls. Not that he sleeps anyway.

“With the crown jewel of your home complete, you’ll finally be ready to move in.”

“Eventually,” I say in a low tone. “Jersey, in our proposal, I want you to pay special attention to our corporate fair wages and competitive employee packages, reduced turnover year after year, but don’t touch the charity work,” I instruct.

“Will do,” she replies. Jersey’s background is in public relations. She’ll pull it off.

“If the group wants to increase public image, show them we’re still the best investors to grow in that arena,” I add.

Taehyun agrees to keep an eye on our international interests.

We’ll reconvene in two weeks about this. I’ll speak to each of them before then, but it’s a reasonable timeline to gather the necessary intel and develop a more robust proposal.

After the call, I head upstairs to watch over the aquarium installation. This process, indeed, has been long in the making.

Every move I’ve made and every step I’ve taken has been for one reason.

Her.

My little warrior.

To be the man she deserves. I tried to make myself wait until all the chess pieces I placed on the board long ago were positioned correctly. But now that I’ve had her so close, my patience is wearing thin.

Two nights ago, when she was close enough that I could feel her breath brush against my skin, and it was fucking torture not to claim her right then and there.

Then there’s this situation with Blackmon that she’s investigating. I’ve been so blinded by my desire for her that I haven’t even taken the time to figure out what she’s investigating exactly.

I pull out my phone to make another phone call.

“Yes, Mr. Kim,” my new assistant at the Black Opal answers on the first ring.

“I need you to put in a call with the driver,” I tell her.

It's time for my second date with Kennedy.

CHAPTER 9

Kennedy

“Good, you’re still here,” I say as I enter Riley’s office.

“Hey,” she greets, smiling at me from her desk. “Yup, still here. I let Charlotte head out early, but I have some files to work on before leaving. What’s up?”

Even though I sit in the chair across from her, I say, “If you’re busy, I can leave.”

She waves me off. “Never. Whatever I don’t get done today, I can do tomorrow.”

“If you insist. I brought these.” I pass her a bag with two chocolate croissants and an iced passion fruit tea I bought at a café on my way from work.

“Mmm. How did you know I’ve been craving chocolate lately?”

I shrug. “You mentioned it at lunch last week.”