Page 77 of His Fury

“But?”

She glanced at me, her words stalling as I pushed my pants down, stepped out of them, and laid them over the chair.

“Do you have to look like that?” Isla suddenly demanded. “It’s so distracting, especially in the morning.”

I looked down at my body and looked back up at her. “This is what you get,” I said with a shrug.

“Well, you need to cover it up.”

I slept in shorts or nothing. With Isla in the bed beside me, it was often nothing. With a sigh, I got into bed beside her, still wearing my boxers. “Happier?”

“Well…” she mumbled. She twisted in the bed until she was facing me. “He said he was fired,” she started with the determined gleam in her eye, I knew very well. “But it’s his company. How can he be fired?”

“It’s his name above the door,” I corrected. “Doesn’t mean he still owns it or part of it.”

She pushed her hair back from her face, watching me as she thought about it. “His partner bought him out?”

“No.” I watched her as I leaned back against the pillows. “I did.”

Isla gaped at me. “Why? When?”

“Few years ago. Julian’s a messy gambler, and he needed cash. I was looking for a new investment.”

“You’re hisboss?”

“God, no. Nothing so regimented. He and what’s-his-name still run it. He draws a salary from it instead of dividends and shares. What’s-his-name and…” I hesitated. “Whatishis name?”

“Kevin Shepherd.”

“Shepherd! Thank you, babe.” I leaned forward and kissed her. “He gets financial security in that his partner isn’t going to gamble his business away, and Julian gets to turn up to work every morning without the strain of owning the business.” I shrugged. “It works for everyone.”

“Then why did Kevin fire him?”

“If he fired him, I suppose it would be for the same reason most people would let someone go who wasn’t pulling their weight, because they got tired of them fucking up their business.”

Isla looked away, trying to mask her sadness. “I didn’t know…”

I felt her pain. She was too soft. Too innocent.

“He’s got a problem, Isla.”

She turned back to me in confusion.

“He’s addicted. Taking risks he knows he shouldn’t take. You can’t help him until he wants to help himself.”

Tears spilled over, but she nodded slowly, the look in her eyes changing from soft to determined. “Then we get him somewhere that can.” Isla leaned forward as she spoke, my shirt dipping low on her body, giving me the perfect view. “We put him into a program or something.” She saw my look and shook her head. “I’m not asking you to pay for it. I have money that I can put towards it.”

Over my dead fucking body. If he was involved how Isuspected he was involved, she wasn’t spending one dime on his miserable ass.

“Let’s put that on hold.” I pulled her closer and pushed her T-shirt up her body. “You’re flashing me and looking far too fucking delicious.” I dipped my head into the crook of her neck, tasting her. “I’m awake, you’re awake, why waste a perfect opportunity?”

“We can’t have sex all the time.” She giggled as her body scooted down the bed to make way for me. “Promise we’ll talk about this more?”

“Okay.” I captured her lips with mine and stopped any other protests.

Later, as we lay exhausted, the only sound in the room our heavy breathing as we both calmed down from the highs of our morning sex session; I almost expected her to pick up her train of thought.

Instead, she lay curled in my arms, my eyes closed in contentment, and we stayed like that for a long time. Her heartbeat steadied against mine. My mind was quieter than it had been in days.

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