Page 113 of The Love Losers

“Oh, hell yes. He tried to tell me that I didn’t have a choice, and I had to point out that kidnapping is illegal. He made me promise I’d think about it for a day. I guess he’s not going if I'm not going, so it’s become a whole thing.”

“Don’t you want him to be at the wedding?” I can’t bring myself to call it our wedding, although I’m not sure why. I want to marry Rosie. I’m desperate to marry her. But I would have done it differently if the money weren’t on the line. I would have waited longer to ask. I would have known she wasn’t doing it out of a sense of obligation or, worse, of need.

She scrunches her nose. “Yes, if he’s not going to be a dick. If heisgoing to be a dick, I’ll ask Seamus to walk me down the aisle. Or, actually, screw that. It’s a sexist tradition anyway. I can make my own way down the aisle, thank you very much.”

“Maybe Joy can walk you down the aisle,” I say, tracing my fingers over her cheek, through her hair, finding that purple section and running my thumb against it.

She leans into my touch, grinning at me. “You raise an excellent point, sir.”

“Call me that again,” I say, my voice coming out husky, like a stranger’s.

“Sir,” she says with a glimmer in her eye as she grinds her ass against my half-hard dick. “I can see you like it.”

“I do,” I admit, my hand gripping her hip.

“But I also have it on good authority that you haven’t eaten a single thing since breakfast. So I left and came back with food. And you’re going to eat everything in that bag before I let you bend me over this desk.”

A strangled groan escapes me. “You’re going to kill me.”

“So you keep promising,” she says with a grin over her shoulder, then grabs the bag from the desk and shoves it at me. I take it from her. “Eat. You’ve been up here starving yourself.”

I have no idea what’s in that bag, other than it smells greasy and only delicious because she’s right—I haven’t eaten since breakfast. But I’m about to eat it. I’m about to eat as quickly as I’ve ever eaten anything in my life, because there’s nothing in this world I want more than to bend my future wife over this desk and slide home. Nothing. Except…

“I…I’ve been updating my business proposal for The Ware,” I say. “The one that’s been sitting on my hard-drive for seven years.”

She gets up, beaming, and says, “Were you really?”

“I was really,” I say wryly, my dick still very ready to take over. But I want this more. I want to know that I’ve pleased her. “I’m going to send it to Simon later. It’s a Hail Mary, I guess. But if he’s not open to taking a new direction at Smith Investments, then I’m still going to do it. My mother said she’ll invest. And, I’d like…” I swallow. “Would you give me your opinion on it?”

She’s gripping my collar, wrapping her fingers around it. Then she leans down and kisses me hard, sucking on my bottom lip. When she pulls back, I’m alarmed by the way her eyes glisten, as if she’s close to tears.

“People have been bored by my business talks before,” I say wryly. “But no one’s ever cried before.”

“The man you’re becoming, Anthony. You’re even more beautiful. Your eyes are soalivenow.”

“Were they dead before?”

“Flat. Like a statue’s.”

A smile lifts my lips slightly. “That’s what Nina used to call me.”

“That’s what Nina helped make you,” she retorts hotly. “But I’m not going to let it happen again.”

I tuck her hair behind her ear, a deep, sucking feeling filling my chest. “I believe you. Only someone very foolish would mess with you.”

Her lips tip up. “I texted you back, you know.”

“My cell phone?”

“I saidsee you on Thirsty Thursday, Nina. And sent her a link to skincare products. Shockingly, you haven’t responded yet.”

I laugh and shake my head. “Like I said, only someone very foolish would mess with you.”

“I hope you remember that,” she says with a smile. “Because you still haven’t eaten your food.”

I get up with the bag, relinquishing the chair to her. Then I watch, helpless to do anything but, as she sits and pulls the chair up to the desk. As she starts reading…

“Eat,” she says over her shoulder, and I smile to myself, chagrined, as I sit on the broken bed and do just that. It’s a burger and some fries, and suddenly I’m famished.

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