Page 33 of Sweet Wicked Vows

“For how long?” Kilroy gaped. “I have a meeting with the publisher next month. I need to draw up a plan of action, and if I even considered you over Reynolds… the risk is too high.”

I stood, setting my business card down on Kilroy’s office table. It was cluttered with files, random pieces of paper, and several half-drunken cups of tea. “Don’t make any decisions yet. Give us the month.”

Outside the building, I checked my phone again. Why was I expecting a message? And why did I find myself a little disappointed that she’d gone radio silent?

“I thought Noah told you to stop?” Frederic eyed the motorcycle parked nearby. “He’s going to go kill you when he finds out.”

I pocketed my phone. “Unless you tell him, which I know you’re dying to, he’ll never know.”

Frederic’s lips twitched. “How’s married life treating you,frère cadet? Can I expect my invite to the wedding party soon?”

“Don’t let Kilroy give that advertising space away. The second Evelyn is announced as interim CEO and that I’m her husband, pounce on him.”

“I know how to do my job.” He started to walk toward his waiting car. “Don’t forget the point in all of this, Jaxon. Don’t go and do something stupid like fall in love with her.”

“Va au diable,Frederic.”

Falling in love was never going to be an option. I’d tolerate Evelyn until she was no longer of any use to me. She was a stepping-stone to her father’s demise, and then she’d be nothing more than a distant memory.

There was a gray fluffy demon staring at me.

No matter where I went in the house, Evelyn’s pet demon followed me. It scratched at closed doors, driving me to distraction and interrupting both my meetings with the COO and CFO with its cries and meows, forcing me to allow it in.

Whenever it entered the room, it sat and stared at me. Big and unblinking eyes. I swore the creature could see into my very fucking soul.

No amount of shooing it away did the trick. It was dead set on sitting and watching me.

It wasn’t like I didn’t like animals. Contrary to my lie, I wasn’t allergic to them. It was an easy excuse and something people believed without question. The issue was that I simply didn’t feel anything for them.

They were an unnecessary drain on resources, and their limited lifespans turned people into weepy messes when they died.

My last assistant asked for a week off whenever her hamster died. A whole fucking week for an animal no bigger than my thumb. She was swiftly told if she needed the week then she could spend it looking for employment elsewhere.

Seriously, a fucking hamster.

The cat suddenly moved, darting across the room I claimed for an office, and jumped onto the desk beside my laptop. I recoiled in horror as the beast tried to slide its body along my keyboard and nudge its head against my knuckles.

Grabbing all my things, I retreated from the room and stormed into the other makeshift office on the second floor. Evelyn’s head whipped up from her screen, her cheek’s pink and a strand of hair twisted around one of her fingers.

“You need to lock that thing away,” I said.

Evelyn’s eyebrow arched. “Have you ever heard of knocking?”

“It’s a nightmare and I can’t work with it walking freely around the house.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That creature. It’s taken an unwelcome liking to spending its time in my office, and no matter how much I try and keep it out, it finds a way back in. There are actual claw marks in the door from its constant scratching.”

“It’s her home as much as it’s ours.”

“It’s seconds away from being an outdoor animal.”

“Firstly, Bell is not anit.She’s ashe.” Evelyn slammed her laptop closed. “Secondly, she likes your office because it gets the sun for most of the day. It’s the perfect room for her to curl up in the sunshine, and thirdly, it’s not her fault that she hasn’t learned you’re a massive, heartless jackass who doesn’t like animals.”

A strange sensation settled through me. Hearing her talk back, the unwillingness to balk away, and her ability to stand up for herself, it ignited something foreign in me.

“Fine, then I am working in here away from it…herconstant staring and strange noises.” I settled into the armchair beside the wall-to-ceiling bookshelves. “You can take my office and be with the terror.”

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