Page 58 of The One Night Match
Lexi giggles, her head falling back as she slides into the back seat before I follow her. “Don’t let him hear you say that, Ben.”
“I tell him to his face daily.” He chuckles, carefully closing the door behind us and sliding into the front seat.
One of the things that has struck me as strange since I first met Cruz is how different he is with various people in his life. With me, his mom, and sister, and even Ben, he’s kind and almost juvenile. While every other interaction I’ve seen him have has been cold and callous. I can’t quite reconcile how he so easily slips in and out of his different personas.
I pull my phone out of my bag and can’t stop the smile that tugs at my lips at the message waiting for me.
Cruz: My credit card doesn’t seem to be getting much of a workout. Spoil yourself, Kitten.
“I want to be disgusted at the way you’re smiling at what I’m assuming is a sickening message from my brother, but it’s too goddamn cute!”
My cheeks heat, but I don’t bother trying to defend myself. I always thought this was the part of a relationship I was bound to miss out on because my marriage would be arranged. The part where butterflies run rampant in my stomach. The part where just seeing their name on my phone screen makes my heart skip a beat. The part where I genuinely miss them when we’re apart.
But here we are. Cruz, once again, giving me what I didn’t realize I needed.
Riley: On our way home now. Sorry to disappoint you with my spending habits.
Cruz: That’s okay. Lexi will teach you her ways before long, I’m sure.
I shake my head and drop the phone into my lap, meeting her eyes across the seat.
“I’m happy for you, Riles.”
“I think I’m happy for me too,” I admit. “I didn’t know it would be like this. Falling for someone for real.”
Her grin takes over her entire face, and I ignore the heat that spreads across my cheeks.
The sound of screeching brakes tears my attention from Lexi a moment before we’re both thrown forward against the partition that separates us from Ben.
“What the fuck?” Lexi groans.
“Seat belts on, ladies,” Ben barks from the front seat. “We’re being ambushed.”
THIRTY
CRUZ
I’m in the middle of a meeting with Dennis and one of his cronies, lies falling from their lips like they think I’m stupid, but I can’t stop checking my phone like a lovesick teenager.
It makes me more uneasy than I want to admit having Riley and Lexi out in the city today, but my wife’s independence means a lot to her, and I don’t want to be the one who stifles that, even if every second she’s out of the safety of our home makes me murderous.
“Are you listening to me?” Dennis snaps, his elbows resting on the edge of my desk while Vernon stands behind him, his arms crossed over his chest.
I stare at him across the desk, not a hint of amusement in my features. “Yes, Dennis. You’re telling me that the shipment was short for the second month in a row, even though I had an independent contractor check the stock as soon as the boat docked, and his report tells a very different story.”
His eyes widen slightly, the only sign that he knows that I’ve figured out his current plan to overthrow me.
To make me look incompetent, like I can’t deal with our suppliers, losing us money, and making our organization look weak.
Too bad for him, I’m not the same kind of idiot my father was, and I don’t believe in waiting for problems to become too big for me to deal with.
“So tell me, where did the extra cocaine go between the initial count and a few hours later when you and your guys did their checks?” I raise a brow at him.
“What are you implying?”
“I’m not implying a damn thing, Dennis. I’m asking you a question and expecting you to answer me. And before you try to tell me that someone must have snuck in and stolen it, I’m going to save you from that mistake because I had a team of security on all entrances and Colten watching the cameras like a hawk.”
I lean back in my seat, folding my arms over my chest.
