Page 4 of Billion Dollar Mistake

He sits down across from me.

“Is this normal?” I ask.

Bentley frowns with confusion.

“Conducting business meetings on a yacht while drunk?”

“I’m not drunk…”

With his lie, I tighten my grip on the glass.

“Just had a few drinks while I was waiting for you.”

More lies.

I decide to get straight to the point.

“I want to discuss having your eye speculums in all of my hospitals.”

He shuffles in his seat. “Ah, yes.”

“I’ll need all new speculums for each operating theatre,” I add.

He nods repeatedly. “Yeah. We can do that.”

I lift a brow at him. “You can?” My voice totally giving my lack of confidence in him away. But the way he’s been acting, can you blame me?

“Definitely. You give me a number and I’ll deliver.”

“Do you have a pricing contract drawn up?” I ask. Even though he doesn’t have a single piece of paper out, I’m not here to mess around. And I need his words in writing. I’ve been around long enough to have been fucked over in business once before…I’m not letting it happen again.

“No, but—”

I run my tongue over my teeth. “How about you draw one up and send it over tomorrow?”

He sits forward and pulls open drawers to find paper. “I can write one up quickly.”

“No. You need to draft a proper contract. I take this seriously, Mr. Spencer, and so should you.”

“I am,” he rebuts quickly.

I want to argue back, but I won’t waste my breath.

“I can wait twenty-four hours. Enjoy your party and we can talk tomorrow.”

He’s still looking around in the desk drawers for something before he sighs and closes them again. “Yeah, that’s probably best.”

Knowing the chat is over, I can’t bear the thought of going upstairs with him, so I ask, “Can I wait here until we pull in?”

“Are you sure you don’t want to head back up and have another drink?” he replies, standing and eyeing my almost empty glass.

I shake my head. “No, thank you. I prefer to keep my mind sharp.”

He looks taken aback, but I don't apologize. I quietly stand my ground.

He thrusts his hand out. “Thank you for coming today, Mr. Lincoln. I’ll have the pricing contract drawn up immediately and send it over.”

I want to fire back, you should have done that a week ago so it would be ready right now, but I don’t.

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