Page 8 of Three Rugged Bosses and a Clueless Girl

“Yes, Henry Ali.”

"Ali, as in Ali’s Chandeliers,” she asked.

“That’s the one. So, I can definitely get you that chandelier. It will send my father into a tailspin. He’ll be so fucking furious, he’ll disown me. Again.”

“Show me the chandelier,” she said, all businesslike.

“This way, beautiful,” he said, and she followed him around the massive building into the darkness of the warehouse before he switched on a light.

For a brief moment, she accepted the fact that maybe this was how she got into situations where the mafia was going to chop off her fingers. She just blindly went into situations without thinking things through, like following a total stranger into a dark warehouse.

“My name is Carl Ali, by the way,” he said. “What’s yours?”

“Michelle Carter,” she said.

“Well, Michelle Carter, bring out that fancy credit card and get ready to swipe,” he said as he switched on more lights and pulled off a silk curtain that had been covering a chandelier. The Duchess in all her diamond and crystal glory. It was magnificent.

“Why did Jerry not want to sell this to me?”

“I don’t know. Something about a feud my father had at school with the fathers of the owners of JKS—it’s ancient history. Who the fuck cares? He’s going to sell The Duchess to a rival construction company, building another hotel on the other side of the city. Everyone wants The Duchess for its fine craftsmanship and hand-hung diamonds. But he’s a prick, and it’s your lucky day today that you found me here, and I’m feeling very generous. So what do you say, beautiful? You want it?”

“I’ll take it.”

“Brilliant. But first, you have to give me your panties.”

“What? Are you insane?”

“I mean, do you have any idea what my father is going to put me through when he finds out who I sold this chandelier to? He’s going to burst another vein. But if you don’t want it, I guess I’ll be delivering it to The Tomlin Group. Nice meeting you, Michelle Carter. Deals off. Have a nice life.”

Nope. No. No.

She had discarded her jacket and left it in the car, and now she bit her lip, put her hands on her hips, and contemplated her life choices yet again.

Dammit.

She was walking out of this building with that freaking chandelier, even if she had to carry it on her back, it didn’t matter what she had to do in order to tick that task off her list.

“Fine,” she called after his back. Oh, but she had him.

If he thought she was wearing Victoria’s Secret under her clothes, all silk, satin, and sexy, all alluring and sultry and sensual, so he could get off on them later, he completely misjudged her.

The joke was totally going to be on him. Also, it was just a pair of underwear. What harm could it do? No one would know it belonged to her anyway, and who was she to judge someone else’s kinks when she herself didn’t even have any to start with? She hadn’t even had a boyfriend. It was one pair of underwear.

“Sweet,” he said gleefully.

They made arrangements for a direct switch; she would hand him over her panties the instant he hit the enter button on his credit card machine to complete the transaction.

Mission accomplished. And this was definitely not a case where it was about the journey and not the destination. This was all about the destination. She was going to be okay. And from this day forward, every decision she made would be the absolute right one. No more chaos for her.

Chapter Seven

How the fuck did she do it?

Jake Knight and his business partners, Marc and Evan, stood in the drop-off zone of the construction site and stared at the stunning beauty as she hopped from one leg to the other in excitement, her face flushed pink and her eyes sparkled like diamonds.

“One chandelier, coming right up,” Michelle beamed. “Ta-da,” she said, gesturing with her hands as the delivery guy from Ali’s Chandeliers opened the back of the truck to reveal a chandelier. “Oh, and that’s Carl,” she said, introducing the fucking kid driver.

The Duchess. There she was, the very chandelier their client demanded to have in the foyer of the hotel they were building because it was the first and last of its kind; their client had once met the creator before he died. Except Ali had made them jump through hoops to try to get it, and they still failed.

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