Page 546 of Savage Bosses

She thought I was mean, a bully, and had no heart. Yeah, maybe she was right. I was all those things and more.

But there was no way in hell I could be anything else. Not around her. If I showed the slightest hint of the man I was underneath, she’d see my weakness. She was the only woman who could make me give in to her demands. If I gave one inch, I knew she’d take a mile. And I would be only too happy to let her. Nyla was the only woman who has made me want to give her more over the years.

To keep control of this situation, I had to do everything in my power to make her hate me. It’s possible I had done too good of a job with that.

The women I chose to date were paraded in front of her—dozens of them over the years. Only half of them had tasted my dick. The other half… fuck ‘em, they got nothing. But Nyla didn’t know that. And I knew she watched the revolving door of women I took on dates or to fancy dinners.

When I dropped them a few weeks later, Nyla was the one to send them their goodbye gift.

Flowers. A diamond tennis bracelet. And a note. “Thank you for spending time with me. Good luck.”

Cold? Maybe. But they had only been used to pass the time until I was able to get the woman I truly wanted.

Too many years had passed watching her ass walk away from me. The scent of her favorite perfume lingered in the air around the office. When I heard her laughing and talking to her colleagues, I wished it were me. Those smiles she so freely gave to everyone else were never pointed in my direction.

The incoming call on my private line gave me pause. “What the fuck does she want? How did she get this number in the first place? She should know better than to call me,” I hissed into the quiet of my office. I decided to answer so I could figure out what the fuck she wanted. As soon as I heard her voice, my day spiraled into the hell it usually became every time she came back into my life.

Three hours later, I had a raging headache and needed a drink. One of my main rules was no drinking before five o’clock during the week, especially when I was at work. Nothing came between me and my company, and that included anything that would dull my senses. I was so focused on reading the business proposal sent over from a company in the United Kingdom that I was caught off-guard when my door opened.

“’Sup, Mighty King,” my brother called out as he walked into my office without knocking. Again.

Sparing him only a brief glance, I continued looking at my computer screen. “Why are you walking into my office unannounced? Where’s Nyla?” She never lets anyone get past her and to me without announcing them. Some people tried to test her, but she never let that shit happen. Not on her watch, which meant Jagger had snuck by her, or she was away from her desk.

“She’s not at her desk. Even if she were, do you really think she’d stop me? Come on, man. I’m a foot taller than her and more than a hundred pounds heavier.” Jagger walked over to my fully-stocked bar and poured himself a drink. “Want one?”

“You know I don’t drink before five. Now what the hell do you want? I’m busy.”

“James Donnally keeps reaching out, trying to get a meeting with you. I guess Nyla told him to fuck himself.”

“What?”

Jagger laughed. Fucker. “Not literally, dude. What the fuck? You know your ice princess isn’t going to lose her shit on a client.” Grunting, I motioned for him to continue. “He’s taken to reaching out to anyone who’ll pick up his calls. He managed to get Jeremy in marketing. Jeremy came to me. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but didn’t want to mess up something by not getting the message to us.”

I leaned back in my chair with a sigh. “What the fuck is that dude’s issue? I already told James I wasn’t interested in his little proposal. It’s small beans to us, and I don’t have time to babysit some senator’s kid because he’s not used to hearing the word no.”

The guy, James, had been after us for almost a year. He would attend events we attended, join the golf club where we held memberships, and even show up at our favorite restaurants. He never got off our dicks, but this shit was becoming too much. Soon, I’d have to make sure he knew that we were done playing games.

“Is that what you came down here to tell me?” I asked. Jagger had a sneaky ass smile on his face, so I knew there had to be more.

“Your mother called me. Says you’re avoiding her calls.”

Not this shit again. “Stop, Jagger. I’m not doing this shit. I love mom, but I can’t take her shenanigans right now.” My mother has been pushing my buttons lately. Usually, she was the most laid-back woman he knew. I loved her more than anything, but she was having grandbaby fever or some shit due to all her friends becoming grandparents. Who really gave a shit if I wasn’t married or had a wife who popped out kids every two years? Plus… “You’ll never guess who called me today.”

He laughed. “Oh, I can imagine.” At the look on my face, he laughed louder. “Want to know why? Because I got a fifteen-minute lecture about why you need to forgive and not hold grudges. I don’t know what the fucks mom expects me to do about it. It’s your life. It’s your decision. I remember how fucked up things were back then. You can make up your own mind about her. I’m not getting involved in that shit. Not now. Not ever.”

I said nothing as he spoke. Instead, I just looked over my brother’s shoulder. The thought of allowing that conniving, cheating woman back into my life had my blood boiling. She was everything to me at one time. When I wasn’t focused on building my business, I was trying to make her happy. Maybe I pushed so hard because I was always trying to prove to her, her family, and even myself that I was good enough.

Never in a million years did I expect to have this conversation in the middle of my office. After all these years, Marysa, my ex-fiancée, was back in town.

“How long’s it been since you last saw her?” he asked.

Sighing, I stood from the chair. It was rare that I broke my own rules, but this moment called for something stronger than water or coffee. “Ten years. Right before we got that big contract that finally opened doors for us. Seems like a lifetime ago.” Jagger took a long swallow. “Yeah, she called me earlier. Tried to make small talk. I told her never to call me again.”

Jagger nodded. “Mom said she moved back to town. She lives right outside of DC. Divorced. Two kids. She went to see Mom this past weekend. I don’t know what she’s trying to do man, but she seems to want to see you.”

Jagger’s words felt like a knife slashing against my heart. It wasn’t that I loved her anymore. I didn’t. Any feelings I had for her were long gone. It would be a cold day in hell before she would ever have that kind of hold over me again. She killed any future we had together when she cheated on me.

If there was one thing I valued more than anything else, it was loyalty.

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