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I stared at her silently, raging on the inside. I wanted to smash something, scream in her face, but I knew that throwing a tantrum wasn’t going to fix shit.
Fact of the matter was, I was tied to these fucking corporate suits whether I liked it or not. I didn’t much care about their money, but I needed it anyway. I couldn’t let them cut me out, otherwise I’d be fucked on too many levels to count.
“Looks like I’m screwed,” I said.
“Just behave and you’ll be fine.” She looked back at her phone. “Now, let’s go over the itinerary.”
I half paid attention as she ran through what we were doing for the rest of the day. The book tour was still on-going, but I was ready to call it quits then and there. Suddenly, I had some assholes in a boardroom telling me how to act, telling me what I could and couldn’t do. I could break their spines with my bare hands, kill them all without blinking an eye, and yet I was supposed to be their proper little fucking American hero.
I hated that shit.
I was my own person, my own man. Maybe I’d gotten tangled up in this book business shit, but I’d never really asked for it.
Fucking bastards had me by the balls and they knew it.
I shook my head, staring out the window, plotting my next move.
I wasn’t going to be cowed, made to bow down.
I’d play their game. But I’d play it my way, and to fucking win.
3
Selena
I climbed out of the Uber, feeling incredibly out of place.
It wasn’t often that I put on one of my most expensive dresses and went to meet a stranger at a nice bar. Actually, as far as I could remember, I hadn’t worn this dress since a wedding a few years earlier. It was short, black, and tight, showing off way too much cleavage, but it was the best I had on such short notice.
I frowned as I walked into the restaurant. Butcher And Singer was an upscale steak house, the sort of place where I couldn’t afford a drink, let alone an actual meal. The place was quiet inside, dimly lit and expensive looking. The woman standing at the hostess station looked like she could have been a model, all angular thin lines and tall legs.
“Can I help you?” she asked pleasantly.
“Yes, hi. I’m supposed to meet someone here.”
“Name?”
“Nash.”
She glanced up at me, and I couldn’t help but notice the brief moment of surprise that crossed her face. She quickly looked back down at her book and nodded. “Right this way.”
I followed her into the main space. She led me through the main dining room, around a corner, and into a small private booth.
Sitting against the wall was Nash Bell. I stared at him, a little surprised that he was there. I had fully expected him to flake out and not show up as some stupid prank, but there he was, grinning at me and motioning for me to sit.
He was wearing an expensive-looking suit tailored perfectly to his body. He looked almost out of place wearing it, since he was normally in jeans and a tight T-shirt.
“Selena,” he said. “Didn’t think you’d show.”
“I was curious, I guess,” I said.
The waitress showed up a minute later. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Just a glass of wine, please.”
The waitress looked at me. “We have a large selection of wines, miss, if you’d like to look at the menu?”
I blushed. “House white is fine.”
“Very good.” She disappeared.
“Snob,” Nash snorted.
I smiled at him. “She’s not a snob. Just doing her job.”
He shrugged, sipping his drink. I guessed it was whisky, but I couldn’t tell.
“Hungry?” he asked.
“I could eat.”
He nodded at the menu. “Get whatever you want. It’s on the publishing house.”
I laughed. “Seriously?”
“Sure. They expense my meals. One perk of writing a fucking bestseller, I guess.”
“You don’t sound too convinced.”
He made a face. “Has its downsides, too.”
I nodded, taking my small notebook from my purse. “What kind of downsides?”
He stared at me and laughed. “You fucking kidding?”
I cocked my head to one side. “I thought this was an interview.”
“Put the notebook away,” he said, laughing and shaking his head.
“Okay.” I slipped it back into my purse. “If I’m not here to interview you, what am I here for?”
“We’ll get there.”
I bit my lip, staring at his handsome face. My stomach was a mess of nerves. I couldn’t figure out what he wanted from me if he didn’t want me to interview him. Was this some sort of weird sexual thing? As far as I knew, Nash Bell was a relatively harmless person, aside from his deadly training and his partying. He wasn’t a criminal or anything like that.
But he was intense, that was true. The second I sat down at the table was the second I felt like a spotlight was shining directly on me. He had that amazing way of making me feel like his entire attention was on me, even if he was gruff and short.
