Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“No. Get out.” He was merciless. Entirely cold. I’d never heard him speak like this before and it gave me the shivers. “Now.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I—the only reason I’ve wanted to stay on here is because I’m falling for you, Jax. I’m so in love with you I can’t see straight. I—I’ll show you. I’ll show you how much you mean to me. You just sit back and relax, OK? Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.”
My blood ran cold. Chills spread across my skin.
“Cherry, get off the—”
I grasped the doorknob and turned it, entered.
Oh. My. God.
Cherry Vanilla was half-naked and crawling across Jax’s desk, her breasts out, and her ass in the air. “I’ll suck your dick for you, Mr. King. I’ll do it better than that other bitch can, you’ll see. I’ll suck it so hard you’ll come instantly. You’ll forget all about her once you’re in my mouth.”
Fury transformed Jax’s usually cocky expression. He lurched out of his leather executive chair, snarling. He hadn’t seen me yet. “Cherry, I won’t remove you myself, and security won’t be gentle with you. Bear that in mind,” he managed, through gritted teeth.
“I love you, baby. I love you. We were meant to be together. We can go to Paris or Italy for the wedding and the Bahamas for the honeymoon, and we can get pregnant right away.” She gripped the edge of the desk and leaned toward him, swiping for his crotch.
Jax stepped out of reach and hit a button on the wall, finally lifted his gaze to the office entrance. The anger dissipated. His eyes widened. “Riley,” he breathed.
Footsteps thundered on the stairs behind me, and I darted out of the path of two burly security guards.
They entered, spotted Cherry, and tore her from the desk. She shrieked and kicked her legs and clawed at them, spitting, a wild animal in her desperation to get nearer to Jax. She passed me and kicked out, her heel missing my abdomen by inches.
She was gone in a flash of red and a racket.
A vacuum filled the office after her departure. I didn’t shut the door but folded my arms across my breasts.
Jax sighed. “Sorry you had to see that,” he grunted. “Just another Monday morning in Club Queen.” Was that supposed to be a joke?
“And that’s exactly the problem,” I said, measuring each of my words and thoughts.
He quirked an eyebrow at me.
“Jax, how do you expect me to live with you, to be around you, with this type of thing happening at your clubs?”
“It’s not usually this crazy,” he said.
“I—no, it is this crazy. Everything about this last month has been crazy. It’s like you’ve stolen all my rational thoughts and buried them somewhere because I can’t think when I’m around you and I don’t make good decisions. This is the opposite of what I wanted for this year. For my life.”
He walked to his desk and leaned his palms on it. “What the hell are you talking about, Riley?”
“Are you kidding? This! This is not normal. None of this is OK, and I’m to blame for it too. I slept with you a day after we met. I’ve been—” Nope, couldn’t say it. Couldn’t say I’d fallen in love with him or I’d never leave this office. I’d fall back into his arms again. “This is not the life I want for myself. This wasn’t part of my plan.”
“Screw your plans,” he growled, shaking with intensity now. “Screw all of it. You’re mine. I have you, and you’re not going to leave. You can’t go back to sleeping in your studio.”
“Studio?” I bit back tears. “I lost the studio, Jax. I handed over the keys this morning.”
His shoulders softened, and those diamond-sharp blue eyes did too. He pushed off from the desk and circled it.
I put up my palm. “No. No, don’t come near me. Don’t touch me.” It’d taken this moment, this total breakdown of everything I’d thought would be my life for me to realize how wrong I’d been to do this. Veronica had been right. “I have to go, Jax. I can’t be with you anymore. I can’t be around you.”
“Riley.”
“You’re everything I don’t need in my life. I’ll never fit into your world. I’ll never get my life back on track while I’m leaning on you like this.”
“Riley.”
“No. I don’t want you anymore,” I said, emotion burning in my throat. I gulped it down but the lump didn’t budge.
“You cannot leave.”
“I cannot?” His attitude made this a little easier. I’d never seen this side of Jax before. “Then how come I am?” I walked for the exit. I halted and turned back to him, nearly lost my resolve.
Jax’s fists were balled up at his sides. His face had shut down. It was impassive, etched out of steel, the patrician nose and refined lips, the beard, everything. He was a sculpture of what a man should be. But not my man.