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The elevator chimed, and the door opened to the top floor. The lust didn't leave Luke's eyes as he dropped his hands from me and stepped back.
* * *
Luke paced the hotel suite.“Did anyone call?”
“You asked me that. No.”
Things between us were tense lately, mostly due toLuke's refusal to bend the rules.
Just fuck me already.
“Why hasn’t he called?”
I watched him, my eyes flicking from the toned skin peeking out from his shirt to his eyes. I didn’t know what to tell him. “He’ll call. Maybe he’s busy.” I knew that my assurances meant nothing to him, but I didn’t know what else to do.
Luke looked at me with heat in his gaze as he ripped off his shirt and threw it on the floor. “He’s busy harassing the nurses, I’m sure. This is just another way for him to screw with me.”
Aloud ringing filled the hotel suite and Luke stood shock still. It was coming from the office. Wow, that’s creepy. He stared at me
“Well, answer it!” I yelled as the second ring jarred the air.
He sprinted toward itand I followed swiftly, hanging near the door, which Luke left ajar. Should I stay here?
“Luke Pardini."
I peeked inside and saw Luke hunched over the desk, shirtless, looking as though he wanted to throw up. He saw me watching and pressed the speakerphone button.
“Hello, Luke,” said a wizened, male voice. “I see you’ve been very busy this past few weeks. A new girlfriend and a drunken brawl already?”
“Hi Dad,” he saidgrimly. “I wasn’t drunk. Someone was in a fight and—”
“I’m not interested in hearing your excuses. I’m more interested in the girl. She doesn’t look like the tarts you usually date.”
I yanked my necklace chain against my skin.
“Well, her name is Jessica.” Luke gave me a worried look. “She has a BA in English—”
“Useless degree. What else?”
A ripple of anger went through me. Useless? Well, I had heard it before.
“She—um, she volunteers at a soup kitchen every week and wants a job in editing.”
“How quaint.”
I was astounded at how demeaning he could sound in the few words he spoke.
The speaker of the phone let out a garbled sigh. “Luke, I called because I’m removing you from VP of Acquisitions for a few weeks.”
Luke’s shout of rage was enough the make the walls tremble. “You’re what?”
“I can’t afford to get any more bad press on the company. You know that you’re a magnet for it, right? I don’t know why you like to make my life so difficult.”
“Dad, you can’t believe everything you read in the press!”
The explosion of anger that erupted from the speaker made me back away.
“Do you think it matters to the shareholders? What about the board members? They see you as a loose cannon. You’ve attracted so much negative attention to the company and I want nothing impeding the Hilton merger. I am sick and tired of our name being dragged through the mud because you can’t fucking grow up!”
