Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
She turned back to the shelf, but not before I caught a twitch of her lips. Just like that, my irritation spiked, renewing my annoyance with the gloating princess. “Thursday at noon?”
“I can’t,” she answered without turning around. “I have to meet with a potential client.”
I sighed and clicked through the days, mentioning any availability. One after another, she turned them all down. “What about next Thursday?” I offered through clenched teeth.
“Can’t.”
“Why not?” I ground out.
She hesitated and tipped her head to the side, as if trying to think of an answer. It was then I realized that I could have tried to schedule something four years from now, and she’d already have “plans.” Probably the same “plans” she’d used as an excuse to not see her father to go over the contract.
“If you refuse to cooperate, I will be happy to pick someone on my own,” I offered, calling her bluff. “I’m sure Daddy would be thrilled to hear that the princess—who so desperately wanted the company—doesn’t even care who runs it now, as long as she gets it in the end.”
She turned with her lip curled, rewarding me with a slight scrunch to her nose, creating the faintest dips along the ridge.
Ding. Ding. Ding. Direct hit to her false, cold, unaffected stoicism.
“Next Monday or Tuesday,” she bit out.
I gave my biggest salesman smile. “Good. Let’s do Tuesday afternoon.”
“Fine.”
She headed toward the door, and my gaze trailed down her ram-rod straight spine to the plump curve of her ass. That sight mixed with the victory encouraged me to push at another possible button. “One more thing,” I called.
“What?” She shifted to look over her shoulder, keeping her butt in perfect view.
“Maybe don’t be so rude to the man who is basically handing you his empire. Maybe take the time to have dinner with him and show some gratitude. It’s one thing to be a princess and another to be a bitchy one.”
Her eyes grew wider with each word.
A hint of red colored her cheeks.
Her fists clenched, and I waited for the explosion.
I held my breath and anticipated the heat of it.
I prepared for the victory to wash over me as I imagined watching her expressionless face crease with anger.
“Fuck. You,” she snapped, her face wrinkle free. She whipped back around and stormed out, slamming the door so hard a frame toppled from the wall.
The reverberation wasn’t the flood of victory I expected, but it still stroked down my spine to my dick.
I tried to remember that Aspen Quinn wasn’t a challenge, but goddamn, did she make it hard to not rise to the bait. And now that I knew how good it felt to win these little battles, trying to ignore them was going to be impossible.
CHAPTER 5
ASPEN
“We’re skipping the chairs and going straight for the couch today?” Shiloh joked when she entered my office.
“I’m trying to find my calm and brace for impact.”
She stood over my body stretched across the white chenille couch. She was the picture of zero empathy and all judgment with her hands on her hips, a bored stare, and pursed lips.
“Ugggghhh,” I groaned, going for full dramatics.
“Jesus,” she muttered. She nudged my hip with her knee. “Make room, drama queen.”
Like a sloth, I peeled myself up and kicked my shoes aside before pulling my legs to crisscross. “How am I supposed to spend the entire afternoon with Mr. D&D when I can’t even spend more than five minutes without hearing his condescending comments and wanting to murder him?”
She collapsed beside me, sinking back into the cushions. “I don’t know, but you better figure it out fast because the first interview is in thirty minutes.”
“God, what if he undermines me in the interview? I may snap. I’ll just black out and kill him mid question.”
Shiloh laughed, dropping her head back. I shifted, ignoring her pointed stare after. Instead, I studied the dark cloud of ringlets around her head.
“I doubt he will. It’s one thing when it’s just the two of you and another when it’s a professional setting. I’ve been around him a handful of times, and he’s always been polite.”
“Lucky you,” I grumbled. “He must really hate me if I’m the only one he demeans.”
“I doubt he hates you. He’s probably just threatened because you stand between him and his masculine urge to win. Which also means he’s just as invested as you in finding the best person for the job. Literally.”
“Don’t remind me.”
She sighed and paused. “What does Mr. D&D mean? His last name is just Daire, right?”
Shit.
I’d taken to calling him Mr. Dark and Dangerous in my head, or Mr. D&D for short, and I hadn’t thought it through when I said it out loud. I could only imagine the thoughts Shiloh would create if she knew I called him that, so I scrambled for an alternative.