Page 25 of Knight Life In Vegas

Ava hummed thoughtfully. “That’s a fair point. So the alpha from last week is a scent match,andthe one from tonight?”

“Both from tonight,” I said sheepishly.

“Damn, girl.” Ava laughed. “I’m so proud of you. Okay, yeah, two attempts resulting in three scent matches definitely sounds like fate is trying to send a message.”

I sipped my tea, trying to let the sweet minty flavor relax me. “Can’t a girl just get railed in peace?”

“I guess not. You’re really sure you don’t want to explore that?”

I sighed, trying to relieve some of the tension in my body by rolling my shoulders. “I have too many trust issues to put that on anyone.”

Ava nodded slowly. “Well, that sounds fair. Do you have a plan?”

“Not at all. I practically army crawled out of the hotel room tonight when I realized who they were.” I grimaced, guilt, self-loathing, and longing kicking me in the chest. If I was a little less fucked up, I would still be asleep in their arms instead of crying at the kitchen table of my one friend in the world in the middle of the night. Talk about pathetic.

“I bet it’ll all look better in the morning. Everything is too fresh.” Ava tapped my cup. “Why don’t you finish your tea and stay here tonight? We’ll have a nice breakfast in the morning, and when you’ve had more time to think about everything, we can have another talk, see if there’s a way to keep fate on a leash so you can have some more worry-free fun.”

“I could definitely use some sleep. Panicking the night away uses up a lot of energy.”

Ava smiled and squeezed my hand. “The other guest room is all yours.”

“Thank you.” We finished off our cups of tea quietly in the kitchen, and when she had yawned one too many times, I sent her up to bed and disappeared into the guest room, to wash up in the en suite before collapsing onto the blankets. My life was fucked. Hopefully it wasn’t going to get any worse.

Iwas in hell. That damned lemon meringue pie scent haunted my waking moments, invaded my dreams, and twisted me up so tightly I couldn’t think of anything but Charlotte.

“Sir, your ten o’clock is here.” My executive assistant, Autumn, popped her head into my office and the pencil in my hand snapped. Her eyes widened. “Are you all right? You’ve been a little on edge this week.”

On edge didn’t even begin to describe it. I’d been a fucking monster. I kept trying to rein myself in, but my nerves were rubbed raw and it seemed like anything and everything was capable of setting me off.

“I’m fine, Autumn. Thank you for letting me know. Take yourself out for a long lunch on me.”

Her face brightened. “Thank you, sir.”

She deserved a whole fucking cruise for putting up with me this week. Maybe I would send her on one. “Wait.”

Autumn paused. “Yes, sir?”

“Book me a flight to Las Vegas.”

“For when?”

“The soonest first-class flight there is. I need to visit my son this weekend.”

Autumn looked slightly surprised, but bobbed her head and disappeared to do that while I tried to collect myself for my next meeting. I hated them at the best of times, but ever since meeting Charlotte, getting through them was an exceptional ordeal.

I wasn’t even that old yet, but competitors were sniffing around, trying to offer me incentives to retire early and sell off the company I’d spent my entire life building. I’d rather die outright than hand it over to them.

Mostly I took the meetings to fuck with them. Let them get their hopes up. They weren’t getting anything out of me.

This company was all I had.

I slipped into the meeting room where the rep from the interested party bolted to his feet, nearly tripping over his chair.

“Mr. Carlton, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I wish I could say the same. Are they just going to send a new one of you every time they want to make a new bid?”

He swallowed. “We’ve been refining our offers, trying to find some common ground.”

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