So far, she had managed to keep herself in check since there was rarely a time we were fully alone through days of meetings, traveling, touring the properties, and learning the ins and outs.
Staying in the presidential suite at each property meant sharing a space but not a bedroom.I noticed in passing that she was always careful to make up her bed in the morning after she got up.She didn’t want anyone to know we didn’t share a room.
I didn’t love the subterfuge, but in the grand scheme of things, it hardly seemed like a dealbreaker.We could smile at each other, have moments of contact in passing—a hand against the small of her back, or earlier when she’d reached up to brush lint away from my shoulder.
In those moments, our eyes would meet, and there would be a time, no longer than a heartbeat, when I could imagine us being friendly.Being more than friendly.
It was one thing to know someone was devoted to their work, but another to witness it firsthand.She knew her shit.Every detail, every bit of history.She almost glowed with pride as she described past guests, improvements that had been made, and even the occasional memory of the time she’d spent there in the past as a kid.That was when she came alive, and it was during those moments I could see myself liking her.
A lot.
Until she would close herself off all at once like she had forgotten she was supposed to hate me.
It wasn’t that I cared.I had been hated, detested even, by many women.Whose fault was it they weren’t clear on the meaning of a one-night stand?If I had a hotel for every hurt or annoyed look I’d seen after asking someone to leave when our time was up, I’d own two empires.It’s not like we didn’t both know the score or enjoy ourselves while it lasted.
There was no room in business for being a nice guy, not when a man wanted what I did, the size I wanted it, the empire I envisioned.I already had friends, and there was a reason our business world rarely intersect beyond surface-level shit, like offering a location for one of Lex’s wrap parties after a movie finished.
Still, it struck me as unfortunate that Mira hadn’t begun to come around.After a week of spending time together, she was still brittle, only pretending for the sake of keeping up appearances.
Her phone sat face down on the table, close to her water glass, and the water rippled when the device vibrated.I watched her gaze cut in that direction, saw her teeth sink into her lip before she corrected herself.“You might as well see what he wants,” I murmured, sitting back with a glass of wine once it had been poured.I was pleasantly surprised, but I shouldn’t have been.Of course, they would have an excellent wine cellar in Sonoma.
“Would you please mind your own business?”she whispered, sipping from her glass.Candlelight danced off her sensuous features, highlighting her cheekbones and bringing out the gold flecks in her eyes.
“I’m just saying.You don’t need to keep the poor sap hanging.He’s obviously going out of his mind.”And her little boyfriend was starting to irk the shit out of me.No matter where we were or what we were doing, he would inevitably try to get in touch with her.Her cell was almost always ringing or buzzing with a text.When it had to do with business, she answered, but most of the time, she frowned or clicked her tongue and sent the call to voicemail.
Not always, though.Swirling the wine, I continued, “It sounded like there was trouble in paradise when you were talking to him upstairs before we came down for dinner.”
“You really need to get a life if my private conversations are that interesting to you.”
“There’s interesting, and there’s intrusive.And that lovesick fool is starting to become an intrusion, princess.”Yet another reason I had no desire to get emotionally involved with a woman.I would’ve rather stuck my balls in a vice than turn into a whipped little bitch who didn’t know his place.I had my pride.
A flash of anger touched her features, but she caught herself, smiling over my shoulder at someone.Behind those clenched teeth, she gritted out, “Do us both a favor and stop acting like a prick in public.”
“Acting like a prick?”I scoffed.“I thought marriage was supposed to be based on communication.I’m communicating with you.He needs to give it a rest.”
The top of her head would pop off if she seethed much harder.“This might come as a surprise to you, but the entire world doesn’t turn at your command.He’s a grown man, I’m a grown woman, and this is one thing you are not going to control.”
She could have spent the rest of her life actively trying to choose the exact combination of words to set me on fire, and she couldn’t have done any better.There was nothing I couldn’t control.No matter how long it took.
My boxer briefs were a little tighter by the time I muttered, “Your so-called friend is going to make us look?—”
“Like the liars we are?”she hissed, cutting me off and lifting her glass in a sarcastic toast.“You think I don’t know that?But I willnotcut him off,” she vowed.
“You will,” I gritted out, using everything I could to keep things in check.“Because you know better than to let the rest of the world know what’s happening here.”
We both fixed our faces when Bridget reappeared tableside.“We put together an amuse-bouche for our special guests.”I was starting to hate this woman.Now, she lowered a platter of small bites onto the table.“Chef asks that you please hang around long enough for him to come out and say hello and congratulate you on your wedding.”
Mira looked pained.“Oh, that’s not?—”
“I would love to meet him,” I interjected, giving Bridget my biggest smile.I could almost hear her panties melting.“Thank you so much for making this such a pleasant meal so far.”She giggled softly, heading to another table where a couple had recently been seated.
God, my wife hated me.Her nostrils flared, and her eyes flashed dangerously.She could very well have been the hottest thing I’d ever seen.A volcano ready to erupt, a bomb seconds away from detonation.One thing I rarely did was take chances, but at this moment, caught up in a pleasant buzz and the intoxicating scent of her vanilla-tinged perfume, I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to set her off.
“Do not speak for me,” she warned.“In fact, there are a lot of things I don’t need you to do.I think once we’re finished down here, we need to set some actual ground rules.Day-to-day type things.I would have insisted we do it before now, but there hasn’t been a lot of time.”
Negotiations, I could do.We were speaking the same language again.I could forget the tension in the air and the tightness in my shorts.“Sounds perfect.”I had a few rules I wanted to set myself.To begin with, she was not allowed to look so fucking delectable ever again because I wasn’t sure how long I could go without forgetting what this was all about.It would be the worst kind of mistake to touch a match to her fuse and make her explode.No matter how fantastic her tits looked in the V-neck dress she was wearing or how her thick, dark hair begged to be pulled.The chocolate-brown waves gleamed enticingly in the candlelight, sending a sweet scent across the table when brushed over her sculpted shoulder.
No more wine.It was going to my head, twisting me up.I slid the glass away from myself, a gesture she noticed.Aside from an arched eyebrow, she gave no other reaction.
