by Marni Mann
But none of that mattered.
Because, at this moment, she hated me.
And I needed to change that.
* * *
The following morning, Tina texted me at ten minutes before six, and she sent all the information I’d asked for. The only thing she didn’t know was if Scarlett was still at the hotel. Her source didn’t start her shift until eight, so I’d be blind for the next two hours.
I called Scarlett at six.
And then again at seven.
She didn’t answer either time, and I didn’t leave a voice message. She was likely not going to listen to it, so after I hung up the second time, I opened her last text box, and I began to type.
Me: We need to talk.
Me: At least let me explain myself, Scarlett.
Me: If you keep ignoring me, I’m going to come to your hotel.
Scarlett: Like I told my attorney last night, all correspondence must now go through him. I won’t accept texts, emails, or phone calls from you, your assistant, or your three clients. Please delete my number.
Me: I’ll be at your room in fifteen minutes. Answer the goddamn door when I knock.
Scarlett: I’ve already checked out…asshole.
Jesus fucking Christ.
I left my phone on the kitchen counter and walked to the patio before I threw my cell through the goddamn glass door.
When it came to business, I always got what I wanted.
Scarlett wasn’t letting that happen.
For someone who had given up so much control in that private room, she certainly held on to it everywhere else.
I’d get to her, and I’d get her to listen.
Because, personally, I wasn’t done tasting that woman. I wanted so much more of her in my mouth. And the farther she ran, the faster I wanted to chase her.
I was going to.
I just needed to try it a different way.
Seven
Scarlett
This was my first day back at work since I’d returned from LA, and for the fifteen minutes I’d been at my desk, I couldn’t take my eyes off my phone. More specifically, the last set of texts that I’d exchanged with Hudson the morning after Lush.
He must have thought I was an idiot.
Because an idiot would stay in the same hotel and not immediately check out.
Only an idiot would think it was a coincidence that we were both at the club that night and that he didn’t have eyes all over me, tracking my every move.
I’d needed space. Privacy. And I’d needed to lose the tail.
So, I’d rented a house on the other side of the city, and that was where I’d spent the rest of my stay, holed up in a cute villa where I immersed myself in work and several bottles of wine.
Once I’d calmed down, I’d called Pepper. Initially, she hadn’t wanted to tell me anything, as it was betraying client confidentiality. But, after I’d explained everything to her, she’d informed me that Hudson’s membership was paid in full the night I saw him at Lush. To gain access so quickly, he had bypassed the typical registration period, and his approval had been expedited. There was a two-year waiting list, so it was unclear how this had happened.
Hudson knew someone. That was the only explanation.
Pepper just wasn’t sure who that someone was.
She’d assured me she would talk to her employees and get to the bottom of it.
But it didn’t matter at this point.
Hudson had already seen me naked.
He’d dominated my body.
He’d eaten my pussy.
Our professional relationship was severed with no chance of being repaired.
That wasn’t to say I hadn’t dated someone who worked with The Agency. Vince was a client of Jack’s and had been the whole time we were together. But I didn’t work directly with Vince, and I certainly wouldn’t have slept with him to get him under contract.
What Hudson had done was premeditated.
He’d wanted to soften me, get me to a place where I’d agree to anything.
Fuck his way into closing this deal.
I despised him for it.
Part of me was mortified enough that I wanted to cancel the whole partnership. Walk away. Pretend as though Jayson, Shane, and Blake had never emailed me.
The other part of me wanted to bury Hudson, to use this experience as fuel and make him pay for his mistake.
Either way, I had to be careful. This wasn’t just about me. This was about the four of us, what the partnership could do for our business, our clients, and our future.
I couldn’t let Hudson ruin that.
I’d given him control for one evening. Now, it was mine, and he wasn’t getting it back.
I lifted my cell phone off my desk and carried it down the hall into Brett’s office. Jack and Max were already in there, and the three of them were waiting for me.
“Good morning,” I said.
“Morning,” Jack and Max replied.
Brett nodded toward his desk where there was a Styrofoam cup sitting on the end of it. “I grabbed you a coffee.”
I stepped through the doorway, took the coffee into my hand, and sat between Jack’s and Max’s chairs.
I hadn’t seen my boys in several days. It had been even longer since I hung out with Max now that he was living in LA.
The three of them looked tired. Being on the road caused that, and lately, that was where they’d been spending most of their time.
But, after this past trip, I imagined I looked much worse than them.
“I hope you have some good news for us,” Brett said.
I took a sip of the coffee and set it down, and my eyes connected with Brett’s.
I’d weighed the different options during my walk to his office, and I kept reminding myself that what had happened with Hudson shouldn’t affect them.
I had to take my personal life out of this equation.
I had to make this deal work.
Since we were kids, the guys had always told me everything. Even their deepest, darkest secrets. I knew all about the women they’d slept with, the ones who had turned into something more. I had seen the rings before they landed on any of the girls’ fingers.
We’d been friends for almost my entire life.
They were my family.
And, when it came to me, they were extremely protective.
So, I had to lie and say, “We’re close.”
“How close?” Jack asked.
Because of the deadline I’d given our attorney, I said, “Less than a week.”
Since I’d sent him that email from LA, telling him not to call unless the contract was ready to be signed, I hadn’t heard from him.
That made me a little nervous.
“What happened in LA?” Brett asked. “You’ve told us nothing about your meeting with Hudson Jones.”
The guys didn’t know that I was a member of Lush. It wasn’t something I was comfortable discussing with them. Even though I heard all about their sex lives, I never talked about mine. Therefore, I couldn’t go into detail.
“There isn’t anything to tell.”
Brett looked at Jack and Max, and then I felt all their eyes on me.
They knew me too well.
Besides, I was a horrible liar.
They knew that, too.
“What we discussed isn’t important,” I clarified. “What matters is that we’re at the end of the negotiations, and we should have a decision soon. Isn’t that what we all want?”
Silence filled the room.
And then, several seconds later, Brett finally responded with, “Sure.”
I had to get out of here before they started asking questions.
“I’ll be chatting with our attorney today,” I lied. “I’ll let you know if he says anything important.”
As I shifted in my seat, Jack said, “I thought you were communicating directly with Hudson now?”
Brett must have told him that, which was fine. It just
made me realize how messy this was becoming.
“I am,” I answered, feeling the heat start to spread across my face. “But, now that we’re at the end, I think it’s better that the communication stays between both attorneys. That way, everything is documented.”
Max’s eyes bore through me when he said, “Right.”
It was time to get up and leave and get my mind off Hudson.
If we continued talking about him, they’d know something had happened between us. They’d be able to see it all over me, if they couldn’t already.
Just as I went to stand, my phone vibrated in my hand. I felt my face redden even more as I read the text on the screen.
Hudson: We need to talk.
“Scarlett?” Brett said.
Hudson: I’m calling you in five minutes. Answer your phone.
“Scarlett?” Brett repeated.
I finally looked up from my cell, annoyed with myself that I hadn’t blocked Hudson’s number. “Yeah?”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Brett asked.
He knew something was bothering me.
As I glanced around at the other faces, I saw that they knew, too.
Damn it.
I held the phone against my chest, so they couldn’t see the screen. “I have to make a call. I’ll catch up with you guys in a little bit.”
I walked out of his office and went straight into mine, locking the door behind me, giving no one a chance to barge in. Then, I set the phone on my desk and stared at it.
I wondered what he needed to talk to me about after I’d made it clear that I wanted nothing to do with him, that he needed to delete my number off his phone.
I should have known Hudson Jones wasn’t the type of man who listened.
As my cell vibrated, indicating a call was coming through, his name appeared on the screen.
Maybe the guys were able to see right through me, but Hudson didn’t have that advantage, and he wasn’t here to read my face.
If he thought he was going to break me, he was about to get one hell of a surprise.
Eight
Hudson
“Hudson,” Scarlett said as she answered my call. “I thought I’d made myself clear.”
I placed my razor on the counter and wiped the rest of the shaving cream off my face, smiling from the sound of her angry voice.
I’d been craving her for the last few days.
Her begging.
Her body.
Her pussy that I hadn’t been able to get enough of.
Her presence.
I liked being around that girl a little too much.
“We need to discuss the partnership,” I said.
“No, we don’t. If there’s something that needs to be worked out, you can go through my attorney, like I told you before. But there shouldn’t be anything that needs to be worked out. We’re not budging. If your clients want to close, then they’ll sign the paperwork. If not, we’re prepared to walk.”
“There’s no reason for me to discuss anything with your attorney. This is between us.”
When she laughed, I pictured her face. The way her neck tilted back to expose her throat. The way her lips spread over her perfect teeth. How the carefree noise warmed the color of her skin.
“You have no boundaries,” she said. “I don’t trust you. Not to mention, at this point, you’ve crossed so many lines, I’m not sure you’re capable of seeing the real picture, so let me paint it for you, Mr. Jones—”
“Mmm,” I growled when she said my name.
I wanted to hear her say it when I had a fucking clamp around her nipple, and I was flicking the end of it with my finger.
“Did you just moan?” she snapped.
“I love it when you’re pissed.”
“I’m going to hang up.”
She could be as strong as she wanted, but I could still tell that I affected her.
“No, you’re not,” I said, tightening the towel around my waist as I went into my closet.
Since I’d be traveling today, I grabbed a pair of jeans and a button-down and brought them over to my bed. I pressed the Speaker button, so I could get dressed at the same time.
“You’ll want to listen to what I have to say because whatever is in that head of yours is all wrong, I promise you.”
“Hudson, let me give you a tip. If you want me to do something, don’t start by telling me I’m wrong. That will never go over well.”
“Then, how about I tell you how good your pussy tasted?”
“Now, I’m really hanging up.”
I’d found her weakness.
It was sex.
“And how hard you groaned when you came on my tongue.” I paused, waiting for her to respond. There was only silence. “And the look on your face when you asked for my cock.”
“Good-bye, Hud—”
“Something tells me you’ve been thinking about me as much as I’ve been thinking about you.”
She said nothing.
“Why don’t you stop threatening to hang up, so I can break it all down for you, and we can end this bullshit?”
I had her.
And it felt so fucking good.
“Let me tell you something, Hudson.” Her voice turned even sharper, and it made my dick hard. “I’m not on a bed right now, tied by my wrists and ankles. The days of me being submissive to you are long over. So, instead of saying cherry, I’m going to do this…”
There was a click.
And then the phone went dead.
I finished buttoning the shirt and lifted my cell off the bed, sliding it into my back pocket.
She could hang up all she wanted.
But she couldn’t hide.
Nine
Scarlett
“What a dick,” I said as I hung up on Hudson and dropped the phone on my desk.
That man really had some nerve to tell me I was wrong, that I needed to listen, and then start demanding things from me. He’d lost that privilege the second he manipulated me into believing his name was Andrew and brought me into the private room to blackmail me.
If he explained his reasoning, it would only cause me to hate him more.
The thing that pissed me off the most was that Hudson was extremely attractive, he had the most talented tongue, and his hands knew how to hurt me just right. While I’d stood with him at the bar at Lush, I’d considered coming back the following evening just to see him again.
He was that good.
That attentive.
That enticing.
Now, the thought of him made my skin crawl.
I sighed, ignoring the screen of my phone as it lit up with different messages, and I turned toward my computer. I wasn’t even through the first email when there was a knock at my door.
“Yes?” I called out.
The handle jiggled. Whoever it was, was trying to get in and couldn’t with the door locked.
“It’s Brett,” the knocker said.
He would have called from his office if he wanted something quick.
Therefore, I knew this was going to be a long conversation.
I walked over to the door and unlocked it, so he could come in.
He shut it behind him and followed me over to my desk where he took a seat in front of me. “You know why I’m here.”
I appreciated him getting straight to the point. There was nothing worse than small talk when there was a motive behind it.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Were you elected, or did you draw straws?”
His grin was small but warm. “We didn’t think you’d like all three of us coming in here to question you.”
“You thought correctly.”
Brett certainly wasn’t the softest of the three guys. That would be Jack. But I understood why Brett had been chosen. He had a way with words, and he was the smoothest. And, even though I was very close to Max and Jack, Brett and I always had a little stronger connection.
“What the hell is going on with you, Scar
lett?”
My thumb pressed against the side of my mouth, and I chewed the skin around my nail. “My meeting with Hudson didn’t go the way I’d intended.”
His brows rose. “Explain.”
I couldn’t be honest with him. There was just no way. If I were, I feared all three of my boys would be on our plane, heading for LA, and it wouldn’t be pretty. What Hudson had done was wrong on so many levels, but ratting him out wasn’t my style.
This was my problem, not theirs.
“Things didn’t exactly stay professional,” I told him.
His leg crossed, his shoe resting on his other thigh. “Is this going to fuck up the deal?”
I’d been asking myself the same question since I left Lush.
“Brett, I honestly don’t know.”
I watched him process what I’d just said.
“How did you leave things with him?”
I shook my head. “Not in a good way.”
I could tell there were more questions he wanted to ask. Before he went there, I needed to redirect. The last person I wanted to protect was Hudson, but I feared Brett was taking my side, and I didn’t want there to be animosity if we were all in a conference room together.
It would be better if the guys blamed me than Hudson.
I was forgivable.
He wasn’t.
“Brett, this is my fault, and I take full responsibility. It was a bad judgment call, and it shouldn’t have happened. I promise I’m going to do everything I can to make sure things go through the way we want them to and that my situation with Hudson won’t affect the partnership deal.”
As he stared at me, I knew he was analyzing every word that had come out of my mouth.
It took him a while before he finally said, “This isn’t like you.”
He was right.
It hadn’t been like me to hook up with the attorney representing the other side. And, had I known who he was, I wouldn’t have let him touch me.
But Brett wasn’t getting the real story.
“Listen, I’m fine, so before you start asking if I want to talk about it, you don’t have to.”
