Page 3 of Seductive Hearts

“Watch it.” I could barely see his eyes, they were so narrow. “I was still running the business at that point. I built it from the ground up. Yes, I played hard, but I worked twice as hard. You keep this up, and that trust fund of yours might just be revoked.”

A shock wave rolled through me at the threat. Of all things, I never expected that. “You would cut me off?” I asked, stunned. I always knew he was a self-important prick, but this was a new low, even for him.

He shook his head firmly. “I would never cut you off. I would, however, restrict your access to the assets. There’s a reason the trust is revocable versus irrevocable.”

He had me by the balls. The worst part was he knew it. That smug little grin he wore as I processed this and searched my brain for any way out told me so.

I could either fall in line and do as I was told or be cut off. If not exactly cut off, as good as. When I tried to imagine living in some shitty studio apartment in Brooklyn, bile began to rise in my throat. I would have to start budgeting and buying groceries rather than going out for all my meals. I would have to live like a so-called normal person, and the idea repulsed me almost as much as the idea of working.

He sighed before placing the glass on the desk. “It’s time to push you out of the nest and force you to fly. I only want the best for you, son.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. The back of my neck prickled, but I gritted my teeth to fight off any obvious reaction. “Meaning?”

A slow, taunting smile spread across his face. “You’re going to work in the family business, and I’ve already set up your first project.”

Fuck me.

2

ROSE

“He’s going to be late.” I rechecked my watch and frowned. We were supposed to meet at eleven thirty, and it was already 11:25. What a surprise. The spoiled little rich boy couldn’t be bothered to show up on time.

“Pumpkin, relax. You have nothing to worry about.” It was easy for my father to say that, sitting at his desk, completely secure in his position, not only with the company but in the world. He was settled and established. Me? I was stuck with no choice but to hand the most important project of my life so far to a man whose presence I couldn’t stand. He was the symbol of everything I hated most about the spoiled little boys I had grown up around. The fact that I gave him my first kiss made me want to go back and strangle that version of myself. Then again, how could I have known?

It took experience to understand that there were selfish, irresponsible, lazy men who could also be charming and fun to hang around. I couldn’t understand, back then, how toxic those men could be.

“I want this to go perfectly,” I admitted to Dad as I slowly crossed his office. The biggest of them all, of course, was situated in the front corner of the floor. Manhattan stretched out stunningly on two sides of the room with floor-to-ceiling windows that used to almost scare me when I was little. I didn’t like heights or being so close to the clouds.

Instead of admiring the view, I gazed up at the portrait of my great-grandmother Dad had hung in his office. They’d had a very special, close relationship. She was more of a mother to him than his mother ever was. It was only since Farrah’s passing that the two of them had gotten a little closer, but at least five years had passed since I had seen my grandmother.

“What are you thinking?” Dad’s voice was low, full of the fatherly affection he had shown me all my life.

I glanced his way over my shoulder before turning back to the portrait. The woman staring down at me was self-possessed. Almost regal. Impeccable. I recognized the curve of my own mouth in hers, and the steely blue eyes reflected back at me every day in the mirror. “I’m not really thinking,” I admitted. “Sometimes, I like to look at her. She reminds me how far I could go if I really wanted to.”

“Hell, I could tell you that much,” Dad said with a laugh. “Just ask me. I’ll tell you you could rule the world one day. You can do anything.”

“Isn’t that something all parents say to their kids?” I asked with a skeptical smirk, turning toward him.

“Maybe,” he allowed with a dip of his chin. “But I mean it. I’ve known since you were a little girl that you could lead an army into battle if it came to that. Whatever you set your mind to, it’s yours.”

“Sure, but nobody lives in a vacuum, do they?” Folding my arms, I pointed out, “We have to rely on other people to, you know, make it to a meeting on time.”

His phone rang, and he picked up the receiver while holding up a finger. “Yes? Wonderful.”

He checked his watch, smirking. “Send him right in,” he said before hanging up and buttoning his navy suit jacket.

11:29. Colton Black liked to cut things close. My blood pressure was beginning to rise, and every thud of my heart against my ribs made my head throb. He was going to be the death of me, and we hadn’t started work yet.

Relax. You can handle him. It didn’t matter who he was. His past didn’t matter, neither did ours. Not that we had a past.

Only one kiss.

The brief memory turned my blood to ice and made my stomach churn. I looked down at my suit and brushed off lint that probably wasn’t there.

It had taken a solid hour to decide what to wear today before I’d spent another hour on my hair and makeup. I needed to be impeccable. I needed to set expectations from the jump.

I was in charge.

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