Page 41 of Sensual Games

“I can think of worse ways to start a day.” I kissed her as I withdrew, noticing the slight touch of regret when I did. What was she doing to me?

There wasn’t any time to think about that. Thanks to our quickie, we were running late, not that I minded. “Don’t worry,” I reminded her once we finished washing up and stepped out of the stall to dry off. “I won’t get mad if you’re late today.”

“Thanks a lot, but I won’t be.” Still, though she sounded confident, she frowned. “Great. I’m gonna leave here in a cocktail dress at seven-thirty in the morning. What’s that going to look like?”

With a grin, I said, “It’s going to look like you had a good time, Poison. I’ll send you home in my car and have you dropped off at the office too.”

She paused in the act of collecting her clothes. “We can’t do that. Maybe to go home, but not to go to the office. What if somebody saw?”

I doubted anyone would notice Ivy climbing out of the back of a Rolls-Royce Ghost and somehow connect her to me, but I decided to let it go. “Whatever makes you comfortable. You’d better get moving, not that I want to let you go.”

There was something bittersweet about kissing her goodbye once she was dressed, her wet hair pulled back in a ponytail, and her face makeup-free, unlike last night. She would have laughed and rolled her eyes if I told her she looked better than she did when she climbed out of the limousine, but it was the truth. She had never been more beautiful.

I knew what was happening. There was no point in denying it as I shaved and got dressed. I was falling for her. It was unexpected, to say the least, and no one could’ve been more surprised than me. That didn’t change the way I craved her day in and day out. Not her body alone, her smell, or her taste, but Ivy herself. She was poison, after all, like the strongest heroin corrupting my system. It didn’t seem like I would ever shake her.

I didn’t think I wanted to.

It was Wednesday morning, and there was no time to waste. I would already be a few minutes late for my breakfast meeting with Dad at eight, but it wouldn’t kill him to wait. I wasn’t in any hurry to see him after his performance in my office. I could only hope he had calmed down for both our sakes as I headed out to the attached garage and got behind the wheel of my spare car, a Rolls-Royce Spectre.

It took a lot to get me to drive myself anywhere when I had a perfectly good driver who needed to earn his salary, but then he was already working. And Ivy was worth it.

Goddamn, when did I fall for her? I hadn’t been paying attention, but it was getting increasingly obvious she was becoming part of me. I didn’t know how to navigate this—I had never been here before. How could I know she felt the same way? Would I have to ask my cousin, Colton, for his advice, being married and on the verge of fatherhood and whatnot?

No, something tells me it’s the kind of thing I’ll have to figure out on my own.The thought sent chills across my skin.

A thought that was still on my mind by the time I reached Dad’s office. “Thank you for keeping me waiting,” he announced when I walked in.

So that was the way it would be.

“I’m eight minutes late,” I pointed out, grabbing food from the tray delivered earlier. Today, it was breakfast wraps and fresh fruit. “I hope you didn’t call the police to report me missing.”

He grunted behind me. “All right, let’s save the smart-ass comments for a day when I have the time. There’s something we need to discuss this morning.”

Turning, I asked, “Don’t we always have things to discuss? I hope it’s not about my personal life this time.”

He ignored my quip. “It’s time to start thinning the herd.”

His choice of words made me stop halfway to the table where he waited. “Meaning?”

“Meaning, the redundancies we discussed weeks ago. I’ve discussed it with the heads of the other divisions, and they understand we need to make decisions on who stays and who goes. It’s been long enough since the buyout for that to be established.”

There went the rest of my good mood. The redundancies. Had I forgotten about them, or did I simply not want to think about them? Either way, I had lost sight of where this was going. “I see,” I choked out, taking a seat and looking down at food I was suddenly not hungry enough to eat.

Was Ivy one of them? No, Dad had told me she wouldn’t be. Or had he? I took my time sipping my coffee, trying to claw the memory back. Had he confirmed anything either way?

“So?” he prompted, finishing a wedge of pineapple like a man without a care in the world. “I’m going to need your list.”

“My list?”

Rolling his eyes, he sighed, “Lucian. I’m not in the mood to play games. Yes, your list. You are the vice president of the digital media division. These are your people. Who can we cut free?” The nightmare got worse. When he explained it, it made sense. Of course, I would be the one to handle this. But how was I supposed to do it?

“Being a leader isn’t all about being everybody’s friend. There are times when decisions need to be made for the sake of the company.” He softly snorted while I stared out the window, struggling to grasp what was in front of me. “Don’t worry, they’ll receive severance benefits. We can afford to be generous, especially considering the boom in ad revenue you’ve brought in.”

“They brought it in,” I replied without thinking. “If we’ve brought in this new revenue, why not expand the division to include everybody?”

Normally, his exasperated sigh would have made my blood pressure skyrocket. I was too far past the point of shock for it to register now. “Here’s a business tip,” he explained in his patented condescending tone. “When your revenue goes up, the idea is for profits to follow suit. What’s the point of keeping everybody on the payroll indefinitely other than wasting money and drowning in inefficiency?”

I barely heard him, gazing out over the skyline but seeing none of it. Instead, I saw people laughing at the lodge, dancing during the party, chatting over coffee at Ivy’s desk.

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