With my mind bogged down on the past, I stop Tina’s prance out of my office mid-hip swing. “Perhaps a few hours of solid work won’t kill me. It is, after all, the business owners willing to get their hands dirty who have the greatest success.” I don’t mean stained with the controversy my enemies shroud their entities in. I mean true-to-the-bone hard work. My empire was founded by bloody knuckles and sweat, so I’ll never be afraid to put in the hard yards.
“What about yourguest?” Tina spits out the word ‘guest’ like she knows where my focus has been the past four hours. I’m not surprised. She is incredibly perceptive. She also hasn’t seen me leave with a ‘date’ for the last six days.
This will make me sound like a chauvinistic pig, and rightfully so, it should, but the past six days of abstinence is a new record for me. I don’t bed women with the hope of replacing the horrid memories in my head. I’m with them to get off. Plain and simple. That hasn’t been my focus the past week, however. Not even my empire has had the top spot in my head. That position is solely reserved for one person.Isabelle.
“We will reconvene when she arrives.” My lips quirk, surprised about my fortified tone. My intuition is warning me I’m hours away from being disappointed. My stubborn resolve is on the opposite end of the field. It doesn’t understand the word ‘no.’
Tina’s face congeals with annoyance at my confirmation my guest is a female, but she plays it cool, aware of what she brings to the table, and willing to remind me at every possibility. “Sounds like a plan.”
Smiling, she tosses an apron into my chest. It isn’t the dowdy ones Catherine gets around in when she’s stocking my refrigerator with home-cooked meals and toothache-guaranteed desserts. It only goes from the waist down, is black, and its pockets are filled with nip-measuring instruments, lime cutters, and all those other good things bartenders should have access to. “We’ll do an even share of the tips this time around… since you now know what you’re doing.”
I don’t have the heart to tell her I could mix a drink long before she showed me, so I keep my mouth shut. It’s for the best. Anything I could have said would have been gobbled up by the music pumping out of the speakers above my head anyway. It isn’t music I particularly like, but Spencer, the lead DJ for this nightclub, knows what gets the patrons’ hearts pumping. The more they sweat, the higher my profit margin.
My clientele is entertained, my business is thriving, and both those subjects give me a great excuse to ignore Tina’s gaga eyes for the next several hours.
It’s a win-win for me, but unfortunately, I still feel as if I’m losing.
“Wow. That was just like old times.” Tina props her sweaty hip onto the counter next to me. She wasn’t deceitful when she said the bar staff was run off their feet. We’ve been pulling beers, serving cocktails, and kicking out the patrons who happily pay twenty dollars for a cocktail just to sniff the perfume of the well-to-do customers my businesses attract since the heavy security presence guarantees no date rape drugs will be slipped into their drinks for the past seven hours and twenty-four minutes.
How do I know the exact amount of time I rolled up my sleeves and worked next to my staff? Being snowed under didn’t hinder the number of times I glanced at my watch. I saw every second tick by for every hour that has passed. It’s been a woeful waste of time, my annoyance firming the longer it occurred.
I was so convinced Isabelle would arrive tonight, I cleared my morning meetings and requested Catherine not to arrive at my home until late in the afternoon. She was as shocked by my request as I was that she wasn’t scheduled to exterminate the apartment I take my standard ‘dates’ to. She was to arrive at my home only hours from now—the private sanctuary I don’t take anyone to. Not even Hugo has been invited inside, and he is one of my closest confidants. That alone shows how perverse Isabelle’s hold of my senses is. She knocked down my defenses in an instant, and even quicker than that, cleared my astuteness.
Exercising control during volatile times is all I know. I’ve wheeled and dealed with mobsters, billionaires, and folks born into wealth you wouldn’t believe, yet it feels inconsequential when I consider what I’ve given up to achieve what I have. I have more money than I’ll ever need, businesses dotted across the globe, and a reputation that is feared as much as it is revered, yet I have no one to share it with. Not a single soul.
I’m thrust out of my negative thoughts when Tina asks, “How do bagels and fresh coffee sound?” She undoes her apron before tossing it in the sink I just finished wiping out. “There’s a cute little bakery around the corner from here. She’s a little overpriced compared to her competition, but when you’re downing carbs like they won’t kill you, you don’t care how much they cost.”
She peers up at me with hopeful, wanton eyes, their gleam slackening when I shake my head. “I still have a stack of acquisitions to finalize.”
Mistaking my strong work ethic as the only reason I brushed off her underhanded invitation into her bed, she garbles out, “Well, how about I grab the bagels and coffee and bring them back here?” Not waiting for me to answer, she snags her purse out from underneath the bar, then spins away from me. “I won’t be more than a few minutes.”
“I don’t want any bagels.” I work my jaw side to side when my tone comes out more brusque than intended. I’m frustrated, but Tina isn’t the sole cause of my annoyance, so she shouldn’t be stung with all its wrath. She’s more than willing to give me someone to share my millions with, but I don’t want someone who’s infatuated by my wealth. I want them to like me for me, not the funds in my bank accounts. Isabelle knew nothing about my status when she let me grip her throat. She had no clue about the money I’ve earned or how many businesses I owned when she licked her lips in preparation for our kiss. It truly seemed as if she only saw me.
That’s what I’m seeking.
That’s what I crave.
And although my wish to be someone’s equal could see me dying alone, I’d still choose it over the loveless, one-sided relationship my parents had. My father loved my mother, he gave her everything he could, but it still wasn’t enough for her. She craved possessions more than love, and for now, they’re keeping her heart colder than the dead.
Although my mood is dismal, my tone doesn’t come out as snappy as it did earlier. “I’m going to take the acquisitionshomewith me.”
The way I say ‘home’ should get my point across. Tina is smarter than the other women I’ve taken to my penthouse. It only took her peering into the almost empty refrigerator to know I don’t live there, so I won’t mention the discontent that hardened her features when her yearning eyes drank in the monstrous-size mirror above my bed.
In case you’re wondering, the mirror was not my idea. Hugo and Hunter are known for infuriating wagers that often see one of them being handed the short end of the stickthe following month. The final week of my apartment build saw my name thrown into the mix. Their main wager centers around how long it will take me to have the mirror removed. The second, more substantially-funded bet focuses on the women I take back to my apartment. If they leave within ten minutes of seeing the emasculating piece of gleaming material tacked to the roof in the master suite, Hugo must pay Hunter one thousand dollars. If they stay longer than an hour, Hunter pays Hugo.
Now I understand why Hugo doesn’t cash my checks. He’s making a killing off Hunter’s belief women don’t watch porn. That might have very well been the case if they were spectators instead of participants. Alas, Hugo hasn’t paid a dime to Hunter the past almost two years, and I’m too stubborn to ever let on that the mirror drives me crazy.
Besides, the longer I maintain my ruse, the longer their one-hundred-thousand-dollar pot is locked in my investment account. I get a great amount of satisfaction knowing I’m forcing them to invest without them realizing they are.
The smirk itching my lips higher sags when Tina once again mistakes it as an indication that I’m interested in what she’s selling. “Are you sure, Isaac? From what I’ve heard, Harlow’s Scrumptious Haven is on its last legs. You might not be able to get her famous treats for much longer.”
While hiding the fact I’ve heard about the bakery she mentioned previously, I reply, “I’m sure but thank you for asking.” Eager to cut her off before she falls to her knees and shamefully begs, I add, “Enjoy the rest of your morning. I’ll see you late this afternoon.”
Confirmation I’ll be here when she arrives later today sees her accepting my rejection. She is displeased by it, but she’s aware she’ll face more than a declined invitation if she continues pushing me. I’ve reached my quota for insolent people today. I can’t handle another.
With that hot off the press, I gesture for Travis to join us at the bar. He is the head bouncer at the Dungeon. “Make sure Tina gets home safe.”
I dig a hundred-dollar bill out of my wallet before passing it to Travis, not only tipping him for the number of drunken fools he had to handle today, but for making sure Tina can walk the three blocks to her apartment building without hindrance. He will get a portion of the tips jar tonight, but it’ll be a pittance compared to what Tina and the other three bartenders will get. Tina was flirting when she said my presence increases the customers’ generosity, but she was also honest.
