Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
“Hey,” I say. I move beside her and put my arm around her. And, no, I’m not comforting her because I want to fuck her. I feel bad for the girl. I want to help her. Once she’s back on her feet, then I can think about getting her off them again. In my bed. “We’re going to figure this out, alright? You’re not stupid. You trusted a guy because you cared about him. Happens all the time.”
“How often does it lead to someone spending a year on a book and basically handing it over to their exes’ new girlfriend?”
“Admittedly, probably not that often,” I say.
She groans and leans into my arm, letting her head fall on my shoulder. “How can I even fix this?”
“The agreement may not be legally binding, for starters. It’s pretty clearly deceptive by intent. He’s burying the real meat in a bunch of fluff with hopes that you would never read it.”
“I don’t have the money to deal with a legal battle.”
“Lucky for you, I do. We have an entire, overpaid legal team.” I pull out my phone, attach a copy of the agreement, write up a few lines explaining the situation, and tell them to move it to the top of the priority stack. “There,” I say. “Ten legal dweebs are now on the case. Feel any better?”
“A little,” she says. “Except I don’t know if you’re the kind of man I want to be in debt to.”
“Hey, when you’re drowning, a hand is a hand, right?” I know I should tell her that she doesn’t owe me anything, but I’ve never claimed to be a saint. The truth is she has two things I want. Maybe a few more than that, actually.
“Yeah,” she says quietly.
I don’t speak for a while. Honestly, that’s a bit of a rarity for me. But I’m enjoying the feeling of having my arm around her and the way she feels snuggled up against me. I thought Charli McBride had slipped out of my life back in Arizona. I also can’t remember the last time a woman stood me up like that. First, Nolan tries to tell me I can’t have her. Then she shows me I can’t have her?
I’ve been in a downright foul mood ever since. But I feel better now. She’s back, and I’m presented with an opportunity to use her unfortunate circumstances to help me deal with a problem of my own. It’s quid pro quo. Or maybe it’s not. I don’t know latin for shit.
I have my secretary, Jenna, bring a blanket for Charli. I send our intern to pick up fresh coffees with lots of sugar and an extra cup of ice, because I’m a good listener and remember how she liked her coffee at the hotel.
I get up from the couch while we wait, partly because the moment passes and she seems to suddenly feel weird about sitting so close to me. That’s fine, though. I’m a patient man, and I really do want to help her out of this jam. It just so happens that all my motivations in this case can play perfectly well together. No conflicts of interest. No issues.
Saving Charli also means screwing Vaughn and Landmark. If I get her book back, Landmark has egg on its face for trying to steal it and being exposed. If I’m working closely with Charli while we try to get the book back, Vaughn will be furious and jealous. Sabotaging Vaughn, enjoying Charli, and simultaneously saving my company and my partnership with Nolan all in one fell swoop? It almost seems too good to be true. All I need to do is make sure she doesn’t skitter off on me again.
The intern brings our coffees and leaves. I hand Charli a coffee and she looks up, thanking me. She sits curled in on herself, sipping the coffee with a distant look in her eyes. It’s hard not to go to her again and try to put my arm around her. I really don’t seem to have any tolerance at all for seeing this woman upset.
“What are you thinking?” I ask.
She looks up over the rim of her coffee cup. Suddenly the distant look is completely gone.
Her innocent, big eyes don’t look like sad pools anymore. They look like ice. Like she’s imagining violence, ruin, and retribution.
I don’t know when she went from kicked puppy to John Freaking Wick, but she went there and I’m all for it. “I’m thinking about how you said you could help me get revenge on Vaughn.”
8
CHARLI
The coffee cup is warm against my hands, but it’s nothing compared to the heat I feel racing through my insides.
Revenge.
That’s what I want. It’s not enough to be the bigger person, move on, and live my own life. Not anymore. Because Vaughn Vanderprick took it too far. He tried to steal my goddamn novel. I was willing to walk away and suffer my lumps quietly. I was even willing to forgive the girl he was with, because she might not have known he wasn’t single.