Page 5 of Handsome Devil
She was, sadly, a remarkable beauty.
And that remarkable beauty was staring back at me, looking like she wanted to do very ugly things to me indeed.
“Why are you wet?” she asked, the first to break the stunned silence.
No alarm betrayed her voice, merely irritation. She was the only human alive who wasn’t terrified of me.
Up close, her boyfriend was tall, dark-skinned, and striking. He wore a Thom Sweeney jacket and an adequate watch, so I gathered money wasn’t an issue.
Keeping his girlfriend, however, was about to be.
“You are not in a position to ask any questions.” I smoothed a hand over my coat. “In fact, you should feel so lucky to keep your job after ghosting me. Come.” I hooked my index finger in her direction, swiveling on my heel and striding back to the Rover. “You’re needed at the office.”
“Now?”
“No time like the present.”
“I could think of a better time, and that time is not two in the bloody morning,” she countered in that defiant manner of hers, which reminded me that no matter how hard or far I pushed her, how unbearable or unreasonable I was, I still couldn’t, for some reason, break her.
And I tried.
Oh, I tried.
I was trying this very second, in fact.
She bent and she pretzeled—she even cracked sometimes—but she never fucking broke.
“Mate,” her boyfriend groaned. “Come on. It’s herbirthday.”
Grabbing the door handle to the back seat of the vehicle, I threw it open and glided inside.
I knew she’d come. She always did.
See, what I lacked in interpersonal skills I made up for in an astronomical, $600K-a-year salary, before overtime and bonuses, a generous health insurance policy, holiday vouchers, and a Centurion card I allowed her to take for a quarterly spin.
From the curb, I heard Gia explaining to her boyfriend in a measured, apologetic tone that she needed to join me. He didn’t seem too happy about it.
Poor fella still hadn’t realized there was no room in her life for a man who wasn’t me.
In the five years and some change she’d been working for me, there’d been a string of hopeful Ashleys. I always ensured she was unavailable for them. It helped that the headquarters of my company was in New York while our second-largest branch was in London. Made tearing her away from suitors easier. Some had been easy to shake off, while others proved more difficult. In the end, though, there was always something. A Tate-made catastrophe she needed to tend to.
An emergency.
An excuse.
If I couldn’t have her, no one else could. And I wanted her. Oh yes.
Her body anyway.
Not that I ever gave her the slightest indication I was attracted to her.
Gia downed her entire cocktail in one go, winced, and joined me in the back seat of the car, still wearing the stupid sash under her unbuttoned coat. She knew better than to ask if she could say goodbye to her friends inside.
I scanned her face for emotions. As usual, there were none.
“Office,” I ordered the driver.
I yanked out my pocket book ofAlice’s Adventures in Wonderlandand scowled at one of my favorite lines to soothe my anger.
