Total pages in book: 235
Estimated words: 224334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1122(@200wpm)___ 897(@250wpm)___ 748(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 224334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1122(@200wpm)___ 897(@250wpm)___ 748(@300wpm)
Drew groans. “I’m going before I put a stool over his head.”
I laugh and hold out my hand. “Evening,” I say, watching Drew leave hastily.
“I’ve gotta tell ya,” Chris says, shaking. “It’s been a great night.” He leans in. “And it’s about to get better.”
“I’m happy for you.”
“So,” he says, definitely swaying. I look past him to Sarah, who nods, catching my drift. Watch him. “Who’s the beauty on your arm this evening, Ward?”
“That’s Ava O’Shea.” Soon to be Ava Ward. “She’s the interior designer of Lusso.” He didn’t meet her?
“Of course,” he muses. “I never had the privilege. I saw her at the launch but didn’t get an opportunity to introduce myself. She was there one minute, not the next. I suppose she was busy.”
I nod mildly, smiling to myself. “Yes, busy.” Being fucked in the bathroom. By me.
“Are you going to introduce me?” he asks as I observe him observing Ava.
“Yeah, I’ll introduce you.” I see Ava looking this way. “Ava, this is Chris.” Let’s keep it brief. “He was the acting estate agent of Lusso.”
I see realization ping into her eyes a moment before she slowly leans back on her stool. No, baby, I don’t like him either. “Hi,” she says politely, offering a hand. I wish she wouldn’t. We don’t know where Chris has been, and when he accepts, he takes one step closer to her. He’s getting this all so very wrong, and as I look at their hands again, I roll my shoulders. “It’s nice to meet you.” Ava smiles, and as a result, I smile too. Liar.
“It’s an absolute pleasure.” Chris takes another step closer. My smile falls. “I love this dress.”
Yeah, that’s enough. I grab Chris’s shoulder and haul him away, moving in and taking Ava’s stool, putting her on my lap. “Chris, you’ll do well to keep your hands and your eyes to yourself,” I say, seeing John in my peripheral talking to someone but his attention is split, half on me, making sure I’m not about to make a bloodbath of the bar. “Do that and I might not break your fucking legs, understand?”
He looks between Ava and me, his drunk eyes clearing, sobering as he spits an apology. “I assumed she was fair game.”
“Excuse me?” Ava splutters.
Fucking hell, mate, shut the fuck up, or it’ll be the missus making a mess of you.
But he’s right. Historically, every woman to walk the rooms of The Manor are usually fair game. “I suggest you fuck off now,” I warn him calmly, working to relax my muscles, at the same time ensuring I keep Ava on my lap for everyone’s sake.
I watch as Chris slopes off, tail between his legs, and Ava peeks back at me. “Murderous?” she asks, much calmer than I know she feels.
“Deadly,” I growl, worshipping her face, hoping every man left in the bar sees it.
“Are all the women fair game?”
And here we go again. Little Miss Curious who so desperately doesn’t want to be curious. “You don’t join The Manor if you aren’t sexually adventurous.”
Her face screws up slightly, her gaze passing across the bar where what remaining members there are downstairs all laugh and chat, kiss and stroke. “How much is the membership?”
I smile to myself. Miss O’Shea is about to comprehend just how wealthy her old man is. “Why, do you want to join?” I ask, biting at her neck.
“I might.”
“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you, lady. Forty-five.”
“A month?”
“No,” I say, laughing. “Grand a year.”
“Shit,” she breathes, pushing the side of her face onto my mouth, squirming when I nibble at her ear and flex myself up.
“Mouth.”
She becomes stiff on my lap, trying to push back the building lust, like it would be forbidden to get turned on in my manor. It’s too late for that. Then she stills, and I know exactly what’s coming. “Does Kate pay that?”
“What do you think?” It would be anarchy if any paying members found out others were, to put it bluntly, getting their kicks for free.
“Sam. Sam paid.”
“At mate’s rates, of course.”
“I wish you had refused.”
“Ava, what Sam and Kate do is their business.” And Drews at the moment, apparently.
“How many members are there?”
I study the back of her head, amused by her twenty questions. It’s a conversation I never dared dream I’d have with Ava and be as comfortable as this. I need to see her face. Her eyes. So I direct her head back to my shoulder, waiting for her to look up at me. “Someone is very nosey, considering they hate the place.”
She shrugs as I peck at her cheek. “I’m not nosey.”
No, not at all. Just curious, and I like it. Perhaps one day she might even accept The Manor. Perhaps not. Would it be such a terrible thing if she didn’t? I consider her flat tummy. This is no place for a child. This isn’t even a place for the father of a child, especially one who’s married. Or a mother, for that matter. And, as Coral and Mike have proven, it’s no place for a couple. So what the fuck am I doing here? I look around the bar. I see Carmichael lounging on a velvet couch in the far corner, a drink in one hand, a woman in the other. He was like a piece of the furniture. Lived the life seamlessly. Except he didn’t need to depend on alcohol to do it.