Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
“I know.” She doesn’t add to that statement, but her cheeks flush a pretty pink before she admits. “I need help.”
And there it is, the reason for her visit, which sadly is not to just go get naked and fuck again. “What kind of help?” I ask, caution in my tone.
“I know that you’re a near billionaire now. Or maybe you are already. I know that you did all this yourself and you have no reason to look beyond here.”
Tension zips down my spine and I push off the desk, intentionally towering over her petite height and frame. “What kind of help?” I repeat, because I don’t jive well with anyone bringing up my money and the word “help.”
She must read my reaction because she holds up her hand, a hint of panic darting through her eyes. “I don’t want money, oh God, no. I’m handling this so very badly. I just need the kind of help someone as obviously financially savvy can offer.”
I fold my arms in front of me. “I’m listening.”
“We just had our second recall at Kingston Motors and this time after two people died in our cars.”
“I read that.”
“Something doesn’t add up,” she says, sounding earnest. “Nothing has changed in our process and on the books and inside our operations, everything looks right, but it’s not.”
They’ve grown too fast, I think, but I don’t voice that opinion. “What does Isaac say?”
“For me to leave it alone. He has it handled, but our stock is down and I’m not you. I don’t have the same head for numbers but I have a decent aptitude. There’s money moving in unpredictable ways. I need your help, Eric. Please. It wasn’t easy to come here. Not after you left, but I’m here.”
After I left.
She keeps saying that like she expected me to stay and while I could find all kinds of pleasure in this woman wishing she’d had more time with me, I’m just too damn jaded myself to see this that simply.
“I really need your help,” she repeats.
If this was that cut and dry, she’d have my attention, but it’s not. There’s more to her visit. There’s more to this story. I sense it. I see it in her eyes. I lean forward again, and pin her with my full attention. “What aren’t you telling me?” I narrow my eyes on hers and lean forward, my hands on the desk again, pinning her in a stare. “No,” I amend. “Let me rephrase. What don’t you want me to know?”
Chapter six
Harper
Iknew coming here was trouble but I didn’t expect to stare into this man’s blue eyes from across the desk and melt all over again. He is every fantasy I’ve ever owned—sexy, power, confidence. I’d been certain that I’d built the attraction up into more than it was over time, certain I’d turned it into more than it was, but I was wrong. He affects me and not just physically. I mean, yes, he’s one hell of a good-looking man and he wears that expensive suit he’s got on like he owns it and the world, but it’s more with him. There is something raw and dark about him that reaches beyond his sharp cheekbones and jawline. Something in his eyes, something I feel in every part of me, that I hunger to understand. Which of course, I won’t, considering why I’m here and who I am.
“What aren’t you telling me, Harper?” he demands again.
Too much, I think. So much. I focus on the only part of any of this that might matter to him. “People died, Eric. I’m here to make sure no one else does.”
“And whose idea was it for you to come here?”
“I wanted to come after the first recall,” I say. “I did. I should have.”
His eyes narrow. “Who sent you?”
And there it is. The question I hate with the answer that he’ll hate. “Gigi, but—”
“Holy fuck,” he growls, pushing off the desk at the mention of his grandmother’s name. “You should have left that part out. No to anything and everything she wants, now or ever.”
I lean on the desk. “Eric.”
“Don’t look at me with those big blue eyes and say my name and expect anything but another orgasm. And if you came here thinking the fact that I already gave you one influences me, you were wrong. I can want, and do, when it comes to fucking you, and it changes nothing.”
My body reacts, raging for this man, and just plain defies the level head I’m trying to have right now. It remembers that orgasm. Remembers his hands. It wants more, but he’s trying to rattle me and I understand why. I know his past. I know why Gigi is the plague to him. I push off the desk. “I don’t think an orgasm, or two—since you had one as well, in case you’ve forgotten—influences you. I’m just asking that you hear me out.”