Page 23 of Don't Lie To Me

“My medical concerns are none of your business.” I glare back at him. Is he actually kidding me?

A server arrives with our meals, placing the eggplant parmigiana down in front of me and a porter house steak in front of him. The smell of fresh basil and parmesan fills my nostrils and makes my stomach grumble.

I thank him and glance back to Romeo, wondering why he picked this for me. I didn’t tell him I was a vegetarian last night, and since he got himself the steak, I feel like this was done on purpose.

“Something wrong with your meal, doll face?” He wastes no time in slicing into his steak.

“How did you know I was a vegetarian?” I snap, thrown off balance.

He shrugs. “Just a hunch.” His eyes roam over me like it’s obvious, but we both know it’s not.

Bullshit. Something in the way he looks at me as he says it makes me really uneasy. I feel like he’s playing me. Like he knows way too much about me, when I know very little about him, and I don’t like it. “Why am I here?” I growl.

“Eat your meal, Sloane, we can discuss the details later.”

“I want to know what the fuck is going on now. No more messing around. Last night you tricked me, manipulated me into sleeping with you.” I say the last part more quietly so the couple next to us can’t hear me. “I want to know what exactly you want from me.”

He leans forward, watching me with interest. “Eat your meal. You already fainted once today. I don’t want it to happen again when we start discussing business.”

Oh, the fucker. I want to toss the knife I’m holding across the table at him. God, it would feel good to knock that smug-as-shit smile off his face. I grip it tightly in my hand, stroking my thumb over the shiny handle.

“Stop having evil thoughts about what you want to do to me with your knife, Sloane, and eat up. The sooner you do, the sooner we can get down to business.”

I pick up my fork, sinking it into the roasted eggplant, slicing my knife through its flesh. The parmigiana’s smoky aroma fills my nostrils as I lift a generous portion to my mouth. Chewing, it’s delicious, and I wish I could enjoy it more, but the man watching me from the opposite side of the table has left such a bitter taste in my mouth, I just can’t.

“How about we place a wager on this evening.” He smirks cheekily.

“I’m not playing games, I already told you.”

“You give me what I want without any fuss, and I will let you come home with me tonight,” he continues as if I didn’t speak.

The cocky asshole. I blink back at him in total shock. Who the hell does he think I am? I place my knife and fork on my plate and collect my glass of wine, polishing off the remainder of the glass. “What in my attitude toward you makes you believe I want to come home with you ever?”

His eyes light up, and I feel like I just took the bait he was dangling for me. “Everything about you.” His shoe brushes up against the inside of my foot, in a deliberate move to touch me, sending a trail of goosebumps in its wake. He swiftly knocks my leg out to the side, followed by the other one so he can run his shoe up the inside of my leg.

I sit up a little straighter, trying to close my legs, crossing one ankle over the other to force him out. Fuck him for thinking I would let him toy with me again.

“We might have only had one night together, but I can read you like a book, Sloane. Every little desperate inhale as you try to get your racing heart under control. Every subtle glance my way. Every time you moisten your lips, I know you’re imagining what it felt like to have my mouth on yours. Even the way you smell, I know I turn you the fuck on. One night wasn’t enough for you.”

My heart races, knowing how true his words are, even if I don’t want them to be. I thought last night was something different to what it was, and my needy body got her first taste of how good sex can be. I want more, but I won’t let him in like that again, not now that I know he has an agenda. Once was a mistake, twice… twice isn’t an option. “You’re wrong,” I whisper, the words getting caught in my throat.

“I’m not. I have studied you for long enough to know every little detail about you.”

I stare back at him, the silence heavy between us. Does he mean last night? The sinking feeling in my stomach tells me he doesn’t. He waswatching me before yesterday. Last night was all some elaborate set-up. I straighten my shoulders, feeling a surge of confidence. “You have five minutes to tell me exactly what you want with me or I’m leaving.”

“I want to offer you a partnership deal.”

My eyes lock with his. “Excuse me?”

“I will allow you to run The Raven’s Nest alongside me.”

“Alongside you? What in the fresh hell are you on about? I own that club, I have since Syd left this planet. I run it alone. It’s mine, and you won’t take any of it from me.”

He runs a hand through his stubble, assessing me. “Your father secretly used your club as collateral to pay off his rather large debt to my papa. Unlike yours, his club was a piece of shit that my family didn’t see as worth anything until earlier this year when I was tasked with cleaning up all of his acquisitions. The impressive growth of your club is evident in the significant profits you’ve made in recent years, a testament to your hard work and shrewd management. Your success also means I now have an interest in what I’m entitled to. I will be claiming part ownership. Our parents’ deal was forty percent your way, sixty mine.”

I stand in a rush, my heart feeling like it’s going to pound right out of my chest. He has to be kidding me. “Even if this bullshit is true, you were entitled to sixty percent of the shithole the club used to be when Syd owned it, not sixty percent of what it is now,” I shriek.

“Sit down, Sloane, so we can talk about this without causing a scene.” He nods toward the older couple to my side, making it look like I’m the one being unreasonable here, when really it’s him. He can’t just come in here and demand this from me. I have spent years building that club up to be what it is now.

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