Page 49 of The Bourbon Bargain

“I will never say it again if this is how you react. It’s not becoming of a proper lady to gloat.” Despite her words, there is a small smile playing on her lips and I can feel her mood lighten.

I pull her into an embrace and put my chin on her shoulder. I will savor this moment, even if I have to do it silently. “Thank you, Mama.”

“Oh, stop it or I’ll start crying again. Who knew all you needed was to be told you were doing something right to get you falling all over yourself to hug and thank me.”

I let her go and laugh. “Just goes to show you how little it takes to make me happy. Now, why don’t we go terrorize your assistants downstairs? I have a ceremony I need some help with, and you brought all the creative help Savannah has to offer to this very house.”

I know this is a turning point in our relationship. We’ve finally found even ground to stand on as partners, rather than adversaries, and I’m determined to maintain it going forward. There is no going back to the wilting wallflower she usually turns me into now that I know what I want. My happiness has to come first, now. And that happiness is with Hayes.

twenty-five

Hayes

Istandatthelarge factory-style windows of the Elysium Garden overlooking Savannah at The Abyss, nursing a glass of Underworld Spirits bourbon. Paige is off somewhere down there having her bridal portraits taken in preparation for the giant wedding her mother is insistent on throwing, and I’m here wondering how the last month could have changed me so irrevocably.

A month ago, I wouldn’t have thought twice about what a gorgeous twenty-one-year-old woman was doing somewhere in this city.

A month ago, I wouldn’t have been anxious to get home—to an actual home here in Savannah rather than the small flat I have here in the nightclub—so I can hear about her day.

A month ago, all I cared about was getting my hands on the hotel chain of a prominent family here in town. A family that I now belong to, for better or for worse.

A month ago, I wasn’t planning to get married—let alone do it again—two days from now.

A month ago, I hadn’t met the sweetest woman who would irreparably turn my life upside down and have me begging for more.

I must be feeling particularly sentimental to be having these thoughts, and a part of me wants to shut it all down and feelless. Yet, I’m willingly recounting each of the weeks since I met Paige right here in this garden, thinking about what it will be like to see her walk through it again when she’s coming to recite wedding vows to me, in front of our closest friends and family members this time.

I take a sip of bourbon and let the fiery liquor roll over my tongue before swallowing. I turn to the tree next to me and reach into the boughs, finding the leathery skin of a ripe pomegranate and plucking it from the branch. I’ll take this home and feed it to Paige, aril by aril, until she’s coated in the sticky sweet-tart juice, then I’ll lick it off her skin and turn her into the same burning need that I have become because of her.

I am infatuated with the woman. She haunts every thought, bewitches me with every word, beguiles me with a single look. I am obsessed with her, and my desire is fathomless. I want to wrap myself around her, worship her body, and claim her soul. I want her to know every aching need I have for her, and for her to make me feel even more in turn. I have an unhealthy fixation with my wife, and I’m damn pleased about it.

Heavy, pulsing beats of music reverberate against my feet, letting me know that the club has opened for the evening, and it’s time to leave The Abyss in order to find my wife.

As I turn toward the private door to my office and flat, I hear the main door to the garden open, and I pause. For a moment, I wonder if it’s Paige come to find me, but that thought is quickly doused and my smile slips from my lips when I hear a masculine voice call out.

“I know you’re up here. Where are you hiding, Hayes?”

Tavi. No, Tavi was your friend. This is Rex, your rival in all things,I correct myself.

I step out onto the path that winds through the greenhouse and slowly walk toward Octavius Rex, who stands at the French doors separating the greenhouse from the elevator vestibule that leads to the main floors of the club.

“What do you want now?”

“I heard you own this place and thought we could have a chat. I saw your pretty little wife was busy having photos taken at The Mansion, so you had to be available.”

I tighten my grip on the tumbler in my hand. I have to remind myself to keep a loose grip on the pomegranate in the other so as not to crush it, despite wanting to do just that.

“I told you to stop following my wife, Rex.” The growl in my words carries a warning. I’m one wrong word away from carrying out the threat.

“I’m staying at The Mansion, so technically she came to me,” he says, hands in his pockets and shoulders scrunching up in a shrug. “I just happened to see her walking the property with a photographer and knew she was busy. Can’t fault me for taking the opportunity when it was handed to me like that.”

I can and I will. I don’t like him anywhere near Paige. I don’t trust his motives, and know he has plenty of reason to want to hurt me. Obviously, Paige is my soft spot, and someone like him, with an axe to grind, would want to hit me right where he knows it would hurt most.

“Stay away from her. If she shows up somewhere you are, turn the other fucking way and get the hell out.”

Rextsksand shakes his head. “See, you can’t dictate what others do in real life, Hayes. That’s some weird billionaire bullshit you’ve got going on there.” He takes a hand out of his pocket and gestures around the greenhouse garden. “Speaking of which, this is some place you got here. Never took you for a plant lover, but I can certainly see the appeal.” Rex changes tack and I grit my teeth.

“What are you doing here? I assume you have a reason, so out with it.”

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