Page 557 of Most Eligible Billionaire CEO

I shake my head. “Not like that. It was so intense.” I close my eyes for a beat as my balls tingle at the raunchy memories.

When I open my eyes again, I read Holt’s shock loud and clear.

“It’s never been like that with a woman,” I say. “The first night… it wasn’t even a consideration for her to leave my bed. After that, it was a given.”

“Is it still as intense since you got back?”

“I threw a bucket of ice-cold water over the flames.”

“Why?”

I let out a long sigh. “I should’ve been looking forward to the next conquest, but when we got back last night, all I wanted was to spend the night wrapped around her.”

“Why put the brakes on?”

“Holt, I’ve never been with a woman multiple nights in a row. And I sure as hell have never missed a woman when I wake up in the morning, nor have I spent all day thinking about her.” More like obsessing, but that’s beside the point.

Arianne Buchanan has done a number on me.

For a few long seconds, neither of us says a word.

“Why are you wasting my fucking time, Beckett?”

My eyebrows hit my forehead.

“Are you shitting me right now?”

“I’m not,” he says. “You told me you wanted to come by my house because you had a problem. What you just described isn’t a problem.”

“The hell it’s not.”

“Beckett, you’re making this unnecessarily complicated.”

“It is complicated.”

Holt rolls his eyes. “You see something. You want it. You go after it. That’s how you’ve operated since birth. You’re the one who pushed us to take our garage band to superstardom. In doing so, you became a rock star sensation in your late teens. By the time you were a young adult, you were already a rock star god. Then it all slipped between your fingers. You hit rock bottom and ended up—like so many in our industry—in rehab. When Jace and Rod came out of rehab, they were without a compass for many months, lost and uncertain of what the next phase of their lives would look like. A lot of people leave rehab in the same predicament. Not you, little brother. You walked out of there like the undefeated champion of the world—with a solid business plan and a trustworthy partner. Who does that? Only you. Today, you’re sitting on a multibillion-dollar company—that’s on top of the billions you made from selling your StreamCloud and StreamTunes shares. You’re by far the most successful member of our family. And that says a lot considering how many successful family members we have.”

“Are you lecturing me?”

“You asked for it.”

“No, I didn’t. I asked for help.”

“You sound like a child.”

“You’re irritating the hell out of me.”

“You’ve known me your entire life. I don’t bother sugar-coating things,” he tells me. “Arianne isn’t your usual buffet of socialites, starlets, wannabes and brainless fast women. Wanting to spend time with an attractive woman of substance isn’t a problem, Beckett. It’s just an opportunity for you to man up, little brother.”

He’s throwing a lot at me.

“If you’re unwilling to go there with Arianne”—his eyes move away from the screen and scan the distance—“why aren’t you balls-deep inside another woman?” His gaze meets mine again. “Is Dark Compulsion closed?”

“I was just there.”

“How come you’re sitting talking to me, then?”

I shake my head.

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