Page 19 of One Wild Ride

“You sure do like to get naked.” He laughed and it was the sexiest thing in the world.

He had laughed a few times since I met him, but they weren’t intense belly laughs—the kind that came from deep within your soul. That was what he was doing now and it was mesmerizing.

“Only in front of men.”

His laughter stopped. But it was how he stared at me that caused my smile to fade too. Those hypnotic eyes drifted to my lips and stayed. They sat so long glued to some imaginary string attached to my mouth that it wasn’t until Bradley entered the room that Alex moved.

“Alex, a fax came from your mother.”

He glanced up as Bradley walked over. Bradley’s eyes bounced between us and I couldn’t tell if he was surprised to see me here with Alex or worried.

“Yes, the lease. Here you go, Aria. You can read the bylaws about what is permissible here.” Alex slid the paperwork over to me. When my fingers grazed his as I took the document, I was caught off guard. The spark shot up my arm and straight to my mouth, causing me to gasp.

“Alex, can I have a word with you?” Bradley said while staring at me.

“Of course. I’ll be right back, Aria.” Alex gave me a soft smile before he stood and walked off.

Once the two men left the room, I wiped my hands and lips with the cloth napkin from my cannoli show. The food we had for lunch was delicious. I figured Alex would order pizza but when he told me he had a personal chef, I almost swooned like a Victorian woman who wore her corset too tight and was prone to fainting.

I had to take advantage of that. When it came to food, I was a whore. There’s no food that I would turn down. I had no shame as to what went into my mouth—from a cheap, street corner dirty-water dog to a tarted up steak at a classy restaurant, I didn’t discriminate.

Sitting back against the surprisingly comfortable wooden chairs I massaged my belly as if it contained a precious baby and not a three-course meal. After reflecting wistfully at the empty plates, I grabbed the lease and perused it while Alex was out of the room.

Most of it was standard contract jargon that I was familiar with. I may only be an artist but my father was a lawyer. When my sister and I were young, we would play in his home office and he gave us old contracts to entertain ourselves. After a while we asked him what certain words or phrases would mean. I retained a lot of what he told me.

I also remember a lot of the terrible things he showed me.

I stopped when I noticed one paragraph in particular. It made me wonder about Mrs. Hawthorne’s words from earlier. But before I could ponder more, Alex came back into the room. He reached a hand toward me.

“My mother wanted my lawyer to look at the lease. I wasn’t meant to hand it off to you, Aria. Sorry.”

I reluctantly lifted the contract and placed it into Alex’s hand. “But she told me to look at it so I knew what not to do to the walls.”

Alex glanced down at the papers in his hand. “That’s my mom for you. She will tell you anything you want to hear to your face, but make everyone else force you to do what she really wants. Bradley just got confused when he handed over the lease.”

He was about to walk away when I stopped him. “Do you own this building?”

Alex turned back to face me and lifted his arm to rest on the doorframe. The fabric of his shirt tightened around his bicep and I couldn’t keep my eyes off it.

“No, actually, my mother owns the building. My mother is the one with all the money. When my father died twenty years ago, she got the bulk of his estate and money. That’s why I can’t do anything without her approval.”

I shook my head confused and tried to piece together my thoughts. “But you’re a billionaire. You’re famous for being a billionaire.”

Alex walked back over to the table and sat back in his seat, throwing the paperwork on the table. “Again, that’s my mother. She wants the world to think I am the most eligible bachelor. She likes to control people, even me, and she controls how the world sees me. I’m surprised she let you and Tiffany in here today. As far as I knew, my mother didn’t know about you.”

“She knew who we were.” I chuckled, turning my head toward the table.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I shook my head and turned my attention back to him. “Alex, this may be none of my business but have you read that contract?”

“No. I have a lawyer for that. That’s why I have to send it over to him.”

Alex leaned forward about to get up. He placed his hand on top of the lease, hesitating when I gently laid my hand on top of his.

“Your lawyer has seen this lease before?” I don’t mean to sound annoying asking so many questions but the more he answered them the more confused I became.

He nodded. “Of course. There have been small revisions over the years for building upgrades to meet city code regulations, but most of it has stayed the same. He has seen this many times.”

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