Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 40311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
I adore the man, but I can’t give up everything I worked for at the drop of a hat. That makes no sense. It’s like giving up your dreams in life for love. But what was love? What were we doing here exactly? It wasn’t supposed to be love, that was for sure.
So I shook my head resolutely.
No, definitely not.
I needed to keep my head on straight.
But you can’t, the internal voice whispered again. You’re falling for the billionaire. Be honest, you’re already up to your eyeballs in love with him.
No! That couldn’t be true. No way. This was a business deal, and a short term one too. Falling in love with him would only end with me getting screwed, and not in a good way.
God. The screwing though. I shifted my thighs.
This morning, I’d rushed out his apartment, late already. My panties had been impossible to find, so I was commando today, nether parts bare and airy. But oh god. After being with Evan, no panties were a bad idea because juices ran hot and free down my thighs. Heated tingles flickered deep within. God, I wanted to rub one out so bad. I imagined how it would feel to have him deep in my hot snatch as I moaned luxuriously, arching and clamping hard.
But my thoughts were interrupted.
“Are you okay, Maggie?” Dr. Reynolds asked, popping his head around the corner.
My face turned fire red.
“Of course, Doctor. I just...I pricked my finger giving the puppies some vitamin shots.”
“Okay. Be careful now. We don’t want to lose you to a preventable accident.”
“Of course not, Doctor.”
He’s right. I didn’t want to lose myself and my dream to a preventable accident. I had to talk to Evan about wearing a condom next time.
Because at eighteen, I had to be fertile. I was teeming with youth and vitality and Evan’s the only one I’ve ever been with. But what kind of Cinderella story would that be? Because in the fairy tale, the prince goes around looking for his princess, brandishing a glass slipper. And when he finds her, he whisks her off into the horizon, the love birds united at last.
But if I were pregnant, Prince Charming wouldn’t be so interested. I’d be barefoot and huge, hair messy and face dirty. There’d be no happy ending. There’d just be me and my pumpkin.
So no, pregnancy was a bad idea. I couldn’t afford an accident. And definitely not by a prince about to leave his Cinderella behind.
10
Evan
“Can I get you anything else, sirs?” The waiter put my whiskey on the table and stepped back.
“Another one for me too,” my dad said. “And make this one a double.”
The server practically clicked his heels before turning and trotting away to do my father’s bidding.
But it was fine. The downtown steakhouse was crowded for seven p.m. on a Thursday night. We managed to snag a relatively quiet corner table in the back but the noise from the restaurant was almost too much, filled with businesspeople getting drunk.
It was sad, really. In New York, a lot of these people were hoofing it back to their offices after the last bite of their steak. The work day in this city doesn’t end until midnight a lot of the time, and we were no exception. Lincoln works its people hard, and Henry and I were probably going to hightail it back upstairs afterwards as well.
Fuck my life.
Is that what we were about?
Working, working, working, until death knocked at your door?
I’d be the richest guy in the cemetery, but what good was that?
“That waiter better bring my drink back quick,” my father said, knocking back the last swallow of his gin and tonic. “We’re empty over here.”
“Chill, Dad. If the waiter ran back here he’d spill your drink and you’d only be even more pissed.”
My father grunted, even more bull-doggish than usual.
All week, we’d been wrestling with a merger. Well, I was wrestling with it and handling all the important pieces of the puzzle while Dad sat back and just asked the occasional question. It was surprising. He wasn’t even hovering over my shoulder like usual.
Instead, Henry relaxed and barely said a word while I took the reins, guiding the conversation and subtly pulling out aspects of the pending deal. Usually, my dad’s on top of this shit like white on rice, so this was a nice change.
Plus, it was about time. I’m forty-five now, I’ve been to the rodeo a couple times.
Besides, this plan with Maggie was going real well. Somehow, she gave me an aura of responsibility and respectability, a seal of approval that only came with being a family man.
No time like the present to probe.
“You were real laid back in the meeting today, Dad,” I drawled casually. “Are you feeling all right?”
My father gripped his empty glass and opened his mouth to say something. Just then the waiter came back with his drink and whisked the empty glass away. Waiting until he was gone, Henry took a sip of his fresh cocktail and leaned back. He tapped his fingers on the table and looked me in the face like he was making some sort of decision.