Page 17 of Sweet Surrender

Sienna laughed lightly. “What an honor,” she announced. “But come on now, Benjamin. You know better than to put somebody on the spot like this. You’re such a rascal.”

The worst part was he fucking loved it. The man ate it up with a spoon. It’s probably the only time a beautiful woman had ever teased him.

“All right, but the opportunity is there,” he insisted, barely able to pry his eyes from her long enough to glance at me. “I’m sure everyone here is sick to death of hearing me speak.”

It was all too much. There was a reason I didn’t bother with shit like this. Let me hold court in a busy club, surrounded by fawning women? I was in my element. I could talk for hours, for days. Ask me to get up in front of several hundred people who hadn’t stopped watching my every move since I walked through the door. An entirely different story.

“I’m over this,” I murmured in Sienna’s ear once Benjamin was pulled away by an old crone, probably his wife. The blistering look she gave Sienna confirmed that as if Sienna gave a damn about her husband.

She turned to me, scowling. “Are you serious? We haven’t been here thirty minutes. They haven’t even served dinner, and you want to run away?”

I didn’t know whether she said it to goad me. I only knew it was for the best that I got the hell out of that room before I blew up and took hundreds of people with me. On my way out, I somehow managed not to plow through the crowd and send people flying like bowling pins. Bolting down what was left of my champagne, I handed the empty flute to a server before retreating to the lobby.

“Where are you going?” Sienna’s heels tapped against the floor behind me, her voice like a snake’s hiss. That was what she was. A fucking snake, like Drake Thomas and half the people in that ballroom. Soothing their guilty consciences, at least I didn’t pretend to give a shit about the underprivileged while comparing the square footage of their vacation homes.

“Where do you think I’m going? Anywhere but here.” She let out a strangled, panicked sound, but she didn’t need to bother. There was nobody around to hear, most of the guests having retreated inside to drink, sip subpar champagne, and pat themselves on the back for being such wonderful, caring citizens.

The rain had turned to a light mist that swirled through the air by the time I made it outside beneath the protection of the awning. The air was cool and crisp and went a long way toward easing the burning sensation in my chest. I wasn’t exactly calm when Sienna grabbed my arm, but I could breathe more freely. There was no longer the sense of an overturned hive of bees buzzing around inside my skull.

“Excuse me, but I had to kiss a lot of ass to get a last-minute invite tonight,” she grunted out, her face flushed, teeth bared. “And you haven’t spent nearly enough time showing your face.”

“Haven’t you heard? I’m the man of the hour. I’m dumping a shit ton of money into the foundation.”

“That’s not enough. Why don’t you get that?” she demanded. “I thought you wanted to turn all this around and salvage your reputation. The first challenge you come up against, you fold.”

“You know what? I’m beginning to regret ever calling you.” She stared at me, incredulous. “I mean it. Let’s stop pretending this is about doing your job and call it what it really is.”

Her head snapped back like she was honestly surprised, which I could not believe. “Illuminate me. What is this really about, Noah?”

“It’s about you having me where you want me… under your thumb. Don’t pretend you’re not getting off on this,” I insisted when she scoffed. “I see straight through you. You love watching me squirm.”

“You really, and I mean this, need to get over yourself.” But I wasn’t fooled. I saw the way she blushed. I heard the tremor in her voice.

“You can manage this with no help from me,” I decided. “Hand over my hard-earned money to whoever the hell you think would look best in the press. But I’ll be damned if I let you parade me around like a fucking dog on a leash.”

I was halfway to the curb when her voice rang out behind me. “I hope you and your ego are happy together because that’s all you’re going to have to your name.”

I tuned her out, hailing a cab at random. I couldn’t remember the last time I got into a cab, but it mattered more to be away from those judgmental fucks as quickly as I could. I wasn’t running away, no matter what Sienna thought. This was self-preservation.

Yet somehow, though I knew damn well it was smart to take myself out of the equation before I made a bad situation infinitely worse, it wasn’t enough to believe I was making the right choice. I wanted her to believe it too.

There was nothing to do but sit with that frustration through the drive home, wondering how long it would take to burn a hole through me.

9

SIENNA

“Do yourself a favor and at least try to relax.” I checked my phone to be sure the reporter hadn’t sent a message saying she was running late while Noah paced like a restless animal, crossing his SoHo penthouse living room for approximately the hundredth time since I’d arrived early for his interview.

“It had better not be a hit job,” he warned in a growl while adjusting his large, flashy, probably worth-a-mint watch. He was pulling out all the stops today to look impressive.

“Am I supposed to be intimidated right now?” I asked with a sigh. “Because really, you should be practicing what you’re going to say.”

“Why do I need to practice when you already have a list of talking points for me?” he retorted. This again. He’d been complaining about my preparation for the past two days since I sent the questions and answers over to him.

“If I didn’t know better, I would think you’re not grateful for all the work I’m putting into this,” I said with a sigh. “For what it’s worth, this is a play from the same playbook I’ve used a thousand times. It works.”

“I’m not a child. I can speak for myself.” He turned to face me, his hands on his slim hips. With the light from floor-to-ceiling windows hitting him from behind, he made a pretty impressive picture. I had to remind myself not to stare at his body for too long, the way I’d avoid staring at the sun for fear of getting burned. His crisp, white button-down was open at the collar, making him look roguishly sexy.

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