Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 980(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 980(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
I glare at the bedroom door, then at my phone.
Fucking hell.
She is bait. And I just took it.
Of the thousands upon thousands of women in this city, the fact that one from Westwood pulled me in so quickly? It’s the nail in the coffin of these harassment claims. I’m being set up, hard.
I may not take an active role in the running of Westwood, but it’s in my portfolio. Worse still, it’s located in the exact same building where I’m setting up my philanthropic venture. I’ve been careful not to be seen going in or out, but clearly not careful enough. This is too much for coincidence. I have a silent fifty-one percent ownership of Westwood itself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have power over the operations if I so choose.
So what is this then? She’s going to just lie outright and say that I used my position to blackmail her into sex?
Daddy.
Baby girl.
I don’t want to believe it. But history plays on repeat. That’s a fact.
No, I can’t believe it. If she’s the trap, then it must be because someone else is pressuring her. She needs to know she’s safe with me, that I can protect her from whoever is behind this.
My hand clenches into a fist as I run through potential candidates. It has to be a business rival, someone who is either out to bring me down or out for revenge.
Fuck.
I’ll admit I’ve screwed a lot of people in my career. I’m not proud of it but it’s what it took to win. Maybe I screwed with the wrong person…
I drop the lanyard back on the counter.
Whoever it was, how did they find the perfect, sweet bait they knew I’d take? Who else could know my hidden proclivities? I’ve never acted on them, never spoken to anyone in a way that would raise an eyebrow, not until tonight.
I fight the groan as the pain ravages my newly vulnerable heart. Chastity has taken a hammer to the hard shell I’d built around it long, long ago.
By morning, I’ll no doubt have another potential harassment suit to contend with. I glance around the room, wondering if there are hidden cameras or microphones and I’m already fucked.
I’m getting paranoid but the clues are there.
That ’Uber’ driver hitting my limo was no accident.
I push my phone back into my pocket, punch my fists into the sleeves of my jacket while taking the few short steps to the front door, turning for one last look. I stare at the crazy laundry laying everywhere. The stuffed animals. The unfinished red velvet cake.
Red velvet cake.
“I bake,” she’d said. All a fucking set up. Too perfect. When something is too good to be true, I should have known better.
The chance meeting at the bar, the friend calling her away so I’d seek her out and crave her. She even knew which drink I preferred so she could order the same one and strike up a conversation.
The conveniently drunk driver, the damsel in distress, the offer for a home-baked slice of cake. A cake that is my mother’s specialty. She won ribbons in the county fair, the women’s club…easy info to dig up if the right people were on it.
She hit me in my weak spot. A spot I thought I’d kept hidden. Someone close to me has betrayed me, the only other person who could know…
Fuck. Alice?
No, it can’t be. My housekeeper has been like a second mother to me. She wouldn’t. We’re more than just employer and employee, we’re friends. I trust her. And she betrayed that trust. It adds up. I hate that it does, but it does. She’s the only one that’s had access to my bedroom, to my computer. Sure, there are locks, but I’m sure she knows where to find the keys. There are passwords, but they can be cracked.
Clearly, she’s seen my journals, found my things and she’s sold me out to the highest bidder, all so that this whole thing could be set up. Or maybe she’s as innocent as Chastity, forced to betray me under threats against her or her family. The thought just makes me angrier. What kind of monster uses two innocent women in this kind of sick scheme?
And why wouldn’t Alice come to me for help? How could I have made it clearer that I would always protect her?
It doesn’t matter. In the end, the plan worked.
Chastity gave me everything I wanted so I’d fuck her, so I’d give her a glimpse into the world I keep secret and have some damn juicy evidence against me. And who can blame her? She doesn’t know me, and no doubt whatever danger she’s in from whoever is after me is a more pressing concern in her life.
I don’t know whether to go in there and spank her, go in there and fuck her, or just get the fuck out.