Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 90448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
I sighed. “I can do three months.”
He targeted me with his eyes. “If you have a problem, you do everything to let me fix it.”
“Okay.”
“You date a guy for two months at least before having sex with him.” Chase’s hands formed into a fist.
“Okay.” Two months wasn’t a big deal. I tended to wait that long to do anything intimate anyway. At least, that was before Chase and his fingers.
“Stay in Willow Park.” He held up his hands before I could say anything. “My estate is a huge mansion converted into five two-bedroom apartments. You’ll have your own living room, kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom, and guest suite. There’s a burglary alarm on your apartment with a locked entrance where only you will have the key and the security code.”
“We all live in our own apartments,” Lucy added. “They’re gorgeous, too.”
“Even I have my own apartment,” Chase said.
“I don’t know. I have my own place.” My teeth caught my bottom lip.
“Give me one month. I’ll pay your rent at the place you’re at now,” Chase said.
“A month is too much. One week.”
“Three weeks,” Chase countered.
“Only if it’s just one week of each of the three months. I’ll need a break. And seriously, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to live with everybody.”
Chase knitted his fingers together. “Okay. A week of each month and then we revisit this at the end of three months.”
“How far is Willow Park from the office?” I tucked curls behind my ear.
“It doesn’t matter. You’ll ride in my limo with Lucy and me.”
“No. That’s too much.” I shook my head. “I’ll already be living with you all. I’ll need a break some of the time, so I will drive myself.”
I raised one finger. “And no more dressing me. The hair weave goes, by the way. I’ll have that evil Fantino do something else.”
“Fine. I’ll take you anyway I can. I don’t care. The hair styling is just something I like to do for my women.”
I cringed at my women. In that moment, Chase snatched my cards from my hand, browsed through them, and laughed.
“I don’t have cameras and microphones in your apartment’s ceiling. So there’s no need to discuss any of these.”
“Then how did you know Troy was in my apartment the night you sent a tuxedo for him?”
“I have security monitoring your apartment building. They scanned his face and checked it within their records system. His uniform size is logged in the system, by the way.”
“Then end the monitoring.”
“No.” He pierced me with his eyes. “You mean too much to me. And since you insist on being out in Knightson, thirty long minutes away, I’ll be adding more security.”
He switched to another card. His lips widened to a huge smile. “Why can’t I give you an allowance?”
“I’d rather not be financially dependent on you. I’ll also be sending out my resume for other companies. I don’t like that you’re signing my checks.”
“Will you work for me until you find another job?”
I nodded.
“I agree to all of your rules on here. They’re minor limits to what I desire.” He flipped through the rest of the cards and then handed them back to me. “Okay. You’ll give me three months, part of it with you under my roof. No sex with anybody else until they’re investigated and no running off through back doors because you’re freaked out about something.”
I nodded.
He’d agreed with more than I figured he would, but still my hands shook and my heartbeat increased.
“So are you officially my girlfriend?” He hit me with a look that drowned in fear and intensity. No confidence stirred in his eyes as he kneeled in front of me, waiting for my response.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“You’ll tell me if anything is wrong, right?” He stood up as I nodded. “Then let’s celebrate.”
He headed off and left me there, shocked.
“He took my limits well in the end.” I rose with Lucy.
She leaned my way and whispered, “He anticipated everything except the condoms and financial independence.”
I snapped my face to hers. “What?”
“He actually thought he could only get you to agree for a month and that you would never live with us.”
“He cheated.” I set my hands on my hips.
“Nope.” She wagged her finger. “Those were just lucky guesses. You know he negotiates for a living.”
“You still helped him.”
“Nope. I refereed.” She put her arm on my shoulder. We followed him as he headed for the party, snapping his freaking spoiled fingers. “You do know he’ll figure out a way to undermine any date you have?”
“Figures,” I muttered.
“And there’s no way he’ll let you work somewhere else. No one will hire you if he spreads the word to stay away from you.”
Chapter 15
Drunk on Lust
My feet ached from dancing all night in six inch heelless shoes.
Chase slung me over his shoulder as I sang the lyrics to Techno Heads' Robotic Machine.