Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
I’ll have to think on it, but I know I don’t have long. Maybe another idea will come to me, something that doesn’t involve destroying the whole company.
The truth is my mind only wants to stay focused on Emmaline. No matter how much my company and personal life is in peril, she keeps returning to the front of my thoughts. I want to make her better. I have an idea of a way I can start, but the shit with Ronnie and now Dean is making that more difficult. Fuck it though. I have the perfect idea, and I’m not going to wait any longer. My small army of private investigators can call me if they find something. Emmaline should be through with her meeting soon, and I’ve got the surprise of a lifetime for her.
20
Emmaline
“Thank you so much for your time,” I say, nudging Scarlett to get her to stand up. We’re both carrying armfuls of samples that neither investor bothered to look at.
The stern woman in a pantsuit and her partner, a balding man with a perpetual bored look on his face nod politely.
“You have my card, so you know where to reach me!” I say a little too cheerily.
The woman forces a smile that doesn’t touch her eyes. “I do have your card.”
“Right. Thanks again,” I say.
Scarlett follows me outside the Kolcom building. I expected the investors to meet us in some airy office upstairs, but they just came down to speak with us in the lobby, like they didn’t want to even let us upstairs. I turn around on the sidewalk and look back to the huge building, sighing.
“They didn’t seem impressed, did they?” I ask.
Scarlett squeezes my shoulder. “There will be more investors. This was just the start. Screw ‘em.”
“You think they’d invest in us if I did?” I ask, grinning.
Scarlett chokes out a laugh, looking at me with such a surprised bulge of her eyes that I laugh too. “Damn, girl. Working at that club has really upped your dirty joke game. I’m impressed.”
I notice a black car with silver trim move slowly from a parking space on the side of the road and roll to a stop in front of us. The door opens and Logan Steel steps out. He looks so sexy as he pulls off his sunglasses and buttons his suit that it’s almost laughable. A woman bumps into a man’s back because she was staring so hard at him. He walks toward me, every movement a seduction. A promise.
Scarlett tenses beside me. She tries to sound casual, but her voice comes out a little strangled. “Mr. Fucking Steel. Wow.”
“Emmaline,” he says. “I need you to come with me.”
I step toward him, letting him slide his strong arm around my back and lead me toward his car. I give a quick apologetic wince to Scarlett over my shoulder. We had plans for coffee and I’m totally blowing her off, but she reassures me with a wink and a smile and then an incredibly crude thrust of her hips. I love that woman.
I’m acutely aware of the way every woman within a hundred yards is watching me enviously as Logan guides me around the front of his car and opens the passenger door for me, helping me inside. He doesn’t notice a single one of them. His eyes are on me, protectively guiding me, as if every crack in the pavement could catch me off guard and send me toppling, but the only thing in danger of making me lose my footing is him.
I wait while he walks back around the front of the car and slips into the driver seat. He opens the center console and pulls out a black piece of silk. “Do you trust me?” he asks.
I look at the silk and back to his dark gaze. Something lingers in those eyes. A promise. Whether it’s a promise of pain, pleasure, or something in between, I have no way of knowing. Do I trust him? He’s asked me before in different ways and I’ve always spat out the answer I knew he wanted to hear. I’ve fantasized about trusting him and let myself believe I did, for as long as I needed to get off. But trust? Do I really trust him? Can I trust him?
“I don’t know,” I say.
To my surprise, he smirks. “We’re going to fix that. Put this on.”
I take the silk from him and cover my eyes, tying it behind my head. I swallow as the blackness takes over. It’s only when the car starts moving and a few moments have passed that I realize how distracting it is to look at him. I’ve never really just been around Logan without being nearly blinded by how sexy he is. It’s nice. I start to hear sounds I wouldn’t have noticed before. The deep, smooth sound of his breaths. The creak of the leather steering wheel beneath his strong hands. The rubbery clicks and thuds of the gearshift. Even the slight rustle of his slacks against the seat as he moves his leg to use the brakes.