Page 3 of To Catch A Rook

“Oh, not just the opposite sex. I enjoy pleasure in all of its forms, Blondie.” He winked his thick brown lashes before rolling his neck back in a sensual muscle stretch, exposing his Adam’s apple and a strong jawline.

A delicious heat unfurled in my belly as the visual of this naked man taking part in a debauched orgy flashed through my mind.

Dear god, I need to get laid.

Fortunately, my poker face was better than most. Lauchlan couldn’t possibly see the effect he was having on me. I cocked a brow and coolly took another sip of my martini, enjoying the smooth sting as it slid down my throat.

“So, you have the habit of disappointing all genders. That sounds like a poor strategy, Lucky.”

Lauchlan clutched his heart and turned back to Jeremy, who was pretending to be busy on the other side of the bar, but undoubtedly listening in on our chit-chat.

“Jeremy, I think I’m in love. Are you notarized? Can you marry us now before she comes to her senses?”

The dignified man rolled his pale blue eyes. “Make him sign a prenup first, Miss Lane. I have a feeling he’s of the ‘starter-husband’ variety.”

To my surprise, high-pitched giggles erupted from my chest and I clapped my hands over my mouth to keep them contained. I didn’t giggle, not unless my best friend and I had drunk too much wine while watching re-runs of our favorite trash TV.

Lucky-the-leprechaun was turning me into a giggling, silly school-girl. How … refreshing.

It stuck in my throat as my gaze caught on a familiar set of forms making their way toward a rear booth behind the bar. The lightness in my stomach disappeared; a roiling mass of anger and acid settled into the pit of my stomach instead.

Frederick Lawson, my lawyer, and Aaron Rodriguez, my business associate and sometimes friend-with-benefits, were here together, their heads bowed in apparent deep, quiet discussion.

Frederick wasn’t supposed to be having any discussions with Aaron without me present. Our merger was too sensitive, with too many eyes watching—everything had to be handled with extremely delicate care. I needed to be a part of every single statement.

My heated anger froze into shards of ice when I glimpsed Aaron’s parents, Veronica and Vincente, and their lawyer, Charles Beckwith, walking at a leisurely pace behind them.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Lauchlan held up his hands in a surrender motion as I slipped off the stool, my mouth set in a murderous grimace. “We went from smart-mouthed angel to death-demon in a matter of seconds. What happened?”

“If you’ll excuse me.” I brushed past him, a flirty night of sex no longer my concern or priority. “I have some business to attend to.”

I stomped off to the corner booth, my black Louboutins clacking with menace as I stalked my prey.

I knew my schedule like it was imprinted on my soul, and there hadn’t been a single ‘emergency’ text, call, or email to cross my phone about a meeting today. If they’d reached out to Martin, my executive assistant, he would have been in my ear within seconds—the man was extremely tenacious and valued his job. The audacity of the Rodriguez family to call a meeting without me.

If Frederick hadn’t been with me since college, I would fire him on the spot. His retainer was probably the biggest in the city, and there had better be a thorough and believable explanation for this betrayal, or he would find himself out of this job and entire roster of clients.

You didn’t fuck with Hillary Lane and get the chance to do it to anyone else.

“Excuse me.” I interrupted, not pretending I wasn’t out to kill. Five heads snapped up from their conversations and stared at me.

Frederick’s cheeks bloomed with a sheepish pink. Charles’ crooked teeth flashed in a pompous smirk, while Veronica and Vicente maintained their haughty, pretentious air. Aaron had the intelligence to look somewhat apologetic. For a man with few facial expressions, I would take that for what it was. A caught man and his conniving company.

Billionaires walked a silk tightrope between our friends and enemies. In the years I’d known him, Aaron had become a friend, but his family sat firmly in the enemy camp. Family loyalties were hard to walk away from—I had the jagged scars to prove it—and it was silly to think Aaron would have that luxury.

This move, however, was an act of war.

“So sorry of me, I must have forgotten the invitation to this meeting!” I exclaimed, oozing all the cheerful falsetto I could muster, maintaining my deadliest stare in the process. “How convenient that I was here with a friend when you arrived. I couldn’t imagine what this would look like otherwise.”

I sidled into the booth, next to a very uncomfortable-looking Frederick. “Now, what is it we are all here to meet about?”

I stared expectantly around the table, daring them to speak first. They were now on the chopping block, and they knew it.

I wanted this merger to go through; it would mean hundreds of millions of dollars in shared assets, and push forward a better way of doing business. Aaron’s family was the second richest and accomplished in the state next to the Lane fortune. This deal would be in both of our best interests.

But I wasn’t a desperate fool. If I walked away, I’d find other opportunities. I didn’t need them to continue my business efforts and grow my enterprise. But they needed me—and it was time they were reminded of that potent little detail.

“No one?” I asked innocently when not even Charles leapt to speak up. “Frederick, why don’t you start? Why did the Rodriguez family call a meeting again? I seem to have forgotten.”

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