Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Nobody went in to talk to her?” I ask, unlocking her door.
“Con told me not to.” He shrugs.
I roll my eyes. The freaking cowards.
Allison’s standing in the middle of a wrecked room, breathing hard. The couch is torn to shreds, pillows and stuffing everywhere, the TV cracked and shattered, light fixtures torn down, bulbs burst, minibar bottles cracked and alcohol splashed all over the rug.
It looks like an eighties-era hair band had a coke-fueled bender in here.
Instead, it’s only some nineteen-year-old girl throwing a fit.
“I want to leave,” Allison says, her calm, normal voice a strange juxtaposition to the chaos of the room.
“What happened to staying for a little while?” I stare around, honestly impressed by the carnage. “And how the hell did you do all this?”
“I want. To leave.” She enunciates clearly. “Right now.”
“You can’t.”
“I don’t care what Conlan says. I really don’t care what my father thinks. I need to get out of here.”
“Allison—”
“Don’t pretend like you know me.” She stares at me, her expression flat and emotionless. It’s the most frightening thing I’ve seen in a while. “I am going to destroy this entire hotel unless you let me go. Tell Conlan I said so. Tell him he’s a fucking coward for not coming in here himself.”
“Well, we can agree on that last point,” I mutter and shake my head. “Can you just tell me why you feel like this? Did something happen?”
She sits down on the couch, gingerly brushing away some broken glass. It crunches under her shoes. “He has an hour to let me go before I start again.” Then she looks down at her phone and it’s like I no longer exist.
I ask her a few more times if she’ll talk, but she completely ignores me until I finally give up. I glance at the guard on my way out, but I’m too frazzled to say anything. Besides, I don’t think my orders matter.
Conlan’s made it abundantly clear where I stand.
Though what did I expect? Yes, we’re married, but nowhere in our deal did he say we’d suddenly become equal partners.
He’s always treated me like an assistant, so why should that change?
Only it pisses me off. For years I’ve avoided babysitting his freaking dates, and now suddenly I’m stuck with a bratty, over-the-top psycho.
I find Conlan in his office. He’s hunched over some papers, reading intently, making some marks in the margin. I can tell it’s some kind of contract, but I don’t ask which project. Instead, I shut the door and put my hands on my hips.
“She says you have an hour to let her leave.”
He looks up, eyebrows raised. “Who did?”
“Don’t be an asshole right now.”
He leans back with a smirk. “She doesn’t have much say.”
“Right now, that girl’s destroying your best suite. And I mean it, you’re going to have thousands of dollars’ worth of damage in there if you don’t stop her now.”
“We can afford it.”
“That’s your solution? You call me, tell me to get out here, and you just don’t care anymore?”
“You can handle it.” He looks back down at his documents.
Frustration reaches a boiling point. “I dropped my stuff off at your house today. Remember how we got married?”
Remember how you kissed me?
“That’s good. I told you to, and you did it. That’s how our relationship works.”
I could scream. “You’re seriously going to keep treating me like your assistant, even though I’m putting my life on hold to help solve a problem you created?”
“Let’s not kid ourselves here.” He stares at me, face serious. “You’re my employee. You’re doing this for money—for a lot of money, I’ll add. This isn’t some altruistic endeavor.” Where’s the guy that pulled my lips to his mouth back in Vegas? It’s like he’s gone, replaced by the old Conlan again.
He hasn’t changed and he never will.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Yeah, I’m doing it for money, but I’m also doing it for you. But you can’t understand that, can you?”
He cocks his head. “I don’t believe you.”
“Yeah, I know, because you’ve never done anything for anyone but yourself. Here’s the truth for you, Conlan. I’m doing this because I feel bad for you. I’m doing it because I can tell you genuinely regret sleeping with that girl, which you should, by the way. I’m doing it because I caught a glimmer of a decent human being.”
“Is that why you defended me in Adler’s office?” he asks.
“Yes, that’s exactly why. I had hoped that making a really shitty mistake like having sex with that girl would knock some sense into you, but here we are, back to the same old dynamic. You do whatever you want and I just eat it.”
“What do you propose instead?” he asks, leaning back in his chair, running one hand through his hair. I hate that I glance at his forearm. I hate that I like the veins and the muscles.