Page 15 of Bitter Desire
Perfect didn’t mean bad was coming, or that it wasn’t going to last. Not with a man like Law. He was at his desk now, the profile he cut stunning. More suited to a fashion magazine than his office. He wore a dark charcoal grey suit, with a light gray dress shirt, and a black tie. All of it was clean and crisp looking. Austere, but beautifully so, just like my boyfriend. I smiled thinking about the word.
Lawson Sokolov was my man. And that felt good.
Chapter Six
LAW
My computer went off with about five emails from Katie Wren, representative of the Yakahama Corporation. They were big in Europe, but just getting their footing here on the East Coast. Good job, Katie. You did a bang up job on your first assignment. I’d decided to hear her out, at least for a minute or so, when she’d snuck into my office. That had balls behind it. I could respect it.
She’d made a pass at me and flashed me the red silk of her panties when she crossed her legs taking her seat. I hadn’t been a fan of that, but I’d ignored it, choosing to listen to what she had to say rather than focus on what was between her legs. But then she’d gone after Honey? I didn’t put up with that shit.
The Yakahama Corporation was a promising venture, but I had enough money to toss Katie out on her ass, so I had. No one disrespected my girl. Not when I wasn’t there, and sure as fuck not when they were standing in my office and trying to get me to consider a deal.
What the fuck had even been going through that woman’s mind?
I sighed, glancing at my email when yet again another desperate message pinged from Katie. I was going to have to have Addie set up a filter for this shit. If the woman wanted to do business she needed to learn some fucking manners. Why she thought she could talk to a stranger, a stranger in my building no less, the way she had, made zero fucking sense. If it had been anyone in my employ that she had spoken to like that, I would have been pissed, I didn’t care if she’d done it to the custodial staff. But she had pulled that shit with Honey?
Not fucking happening.
Katie Wren could go fuck herself, and any deal she was trying to broker between me and her corporation was dead in the water. I glanced over at Honey to see that she was on her phone, fingers tapping away with a look of concentration on her face. She had her bottom lip between her teeth, brow pinched together while she looked at her screen. I bet it was one of the games she seemed to enjoy. Some bakery game, or gardening maze thing she loved so much. She tapped her screen with a little too much force and let out a whoop of victory.
Definitely a game.
I smiled in a mirror of the one on my girl’s face, watching her for a second longer before I was back to work. I had to get through another contract proofread before we were free for the day. I had a plan to take her somewhere I knew she would like. In fact, I had planned to take her away for the entire weekend. I knew for a fact she hadn’t taken any new jobs on her app, not with the way the weekly gigs were uploaded on it, and I’d made sure to talk to Tiffany about keeping Honey off the schedule for the next two days. My girl needed rest. She needed a change of scenery, and I knew she wasn’t one to take trips.
Not with the hours she worked.
Which were often and long, though since we’d started seeing each other a few weeks ago Honey was resting more. I liked that she did that. When I met her, it’d been plain to see she’d been burning herself out. The past I didn’t know about, the one that I saw in glimpses through Honey’s behavior, the way she shied away from attention, how she’d been at the club, the way she approached her home—her aversion to putting down roots.
How she worried she would be too much for me.
I knew she thought I didn’t notice, but I’d been trained to notice the details. Sometimes details were the only thing that had kept me alive and the other guy out of the fight. So I watched my girl, monitoring the emotions on her face, her tells, the way she lit up when she was happy. I knew what made her happy, sad, mad, all of it. Right now, she was scared and nervous. Anxious to a tee, the little interaction with Katie hadn’t helped calm that shit down. Honey needed to get out of the city and that was exactly what we were going to do the second I was done here.
Addie had been ecstatic when I told her I was going away mid week.
“But it’s only Monday, boss.”
“I know. Got shit to take care of.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “That why you had me book a romantic dinner and a show? That mountain getaway you had me rent out, that trendy little cabin in the Catskills?” Addie paused and then said, “You know, I didn't even know the Catskills were still a happening place, but I picked out a really nice spot for you two.”
I huffed out a heavy sigh. “Addie…”
She waved her hands at me. “Fine, fine, don’t spill the deets on your girlfriend, but I just want to say that I like her, okay?”
“Okay.”
It was easy to like Honey. She was likeable. The very essence of what people liked. But somehow when she was in my world things went sideways for her. I didn’t like that. I tapped my pen on my desk, the thought that was taking root in my mind something I didn’t like a whole fucking lot.
‘You owe me and I’m going to take everything from you’
Yeah, it might be some fuck off from Honey’s past, but was this because of me? Was this because she wasmygirl now? The texts hadn’t begun until we’d started seeing one another. She’d said it herself. They had been coming for a few weeks now. The night she’d been at my place had been the worst. She’d been scared out of her brain that night, and I didn’t blame her. The texts were unhinged.
I glanced over at Honey. She was still happily playing her game. She wasn’t scared or worried now, just focused on winning. Good. We were going to take that happy she had going on right now and pour it into a getaway. Charlaine should have the information I needed by the time we got back. I’d have Honey settled and calm after a couple of days away from the city, and then when I got back... I’d handle this shit once and for all.
I hit send on the email I’d been writing and stood quickly from my desk. The rest of it could wait. I didn’t care about any of that right now.
Honey looked up at me with a smile on her face. “Are you done?” she asked, setting her phone down on the couch beside her.
