Page 59 of So Close

There was both interest and caution in her expression. She was very still, her eyes moving over his face, falling to his mouth. A wave of heat rolled through him.

And of course, just then, his phone vibrated and tolled in his pocket.

She stepped back.

Damn it.

He pulled it out. Doug.Shit.This was going to be one hell of a call. “I have to get this,” he said apologetically. He swiped the call and headed for the edge of the party, where he leaned against one of the porch pillars. “Hey, Doug.”

“Any news, man?”

“I think I have a solution that will take care of our problems.”

“Yeah?” Doug said eagerly. “I like the sound of that.”

“I’m going to sell the inn to Auburn Campbell.”

He heard Doug take a breath on the other end of the phone. “As in, the woman who’s been making your life miserable since you got there?”

“She’ll quit making my life miserable if I sell her the inn.”

“True,” Doug said. “True enough. She have the financing lined up? Because you don’t have time to fuck around. And the Royal Life Group people are going to bepissed. You’ll have burned that bridge to the ground and then some. They’ve been calling me twice a day to try to get the deal inked.”

“I can’t afford to worry about that,” Trey said. He had managed, somehow, not to answer Doug’s other question, but Doug was too smart for that kind of evasion.

“The financing, Trey,” Doug said quietly.

“Not yet, but—”

“Then I’m not going to burn the Royal Life bridge yet,” Doug said. “Let’s call it Plan B. If she doesn’t get the financing—”

“She’ll get the financing,” Trey said shortly.

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

“Xavier.”

“Yes?”

“Who is this woman?”

“She’s—”

“Are you fucking her?”

Trey squeezed his phone so tight he could feel it flex. “No.Asshole.”

“Do you wish you could fuck her?”

“Step the fuck off, Doug.”

“Because when I said everyone had a price, I didn’t mean you should sell your body.”

Trey took a deep breath. Losing his temper with Doug, who wanted the same thing Trey did, wouldn’t help anything. “She’s the reason my grandfather won’t back down. That’s what this is about. It’s about doing what’s simplest and most expedient. Selling to her is the fastest, most elegant solution to a complicated problem.”

He’d never lied to Doug before.

That last part was true. But it wasn’t the whole reason he was selling to Auburn. It wasn’t even the biggest reason he was selling to Auburn.

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