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“A pleasure to see you again, Mr. Hawthorne,” one of the bankers greeted me. Others chimed in with similar vacant greetings.
“Looking forward to getting this settled smoothly, it’s always a pleasure doing such efficient business with Hawthorne.”
“Well,” my attorney answered for me. “Once Ms. Simmons arrives, we can get started and be out of here before lunchtime.”
“She’s halfway across the parking lot,” I spoke. I usually kept my speaking to a minimum at these meetings.
As expected, my sudden interjection made everyone pause and look my way briefly before exchanging nods with each other.
It was true, Haley was making her way across the parking lot, looking flustered and hurried. I frowned. This wasn’t right. I could tell she was doing everything she could to handle her business well--she was no amateur, but it would take a seasoned veteran to be able to handle the mess that her father had left Peppertree in, and no matter how brilliant and charismatic she was, her inexperience and lack of resources worked against her.
I took a few slow, deliberate steps over to my chair and stood behind it. It would be a minute at most before she made her entrance. I took a few deep breaths and glanced among a few of the withered old men before turning to my attorney.
“Most of this deal is already settled, so can I assume we can keep negotiations over the details to a quick minimum?”
“If all goes well, yes, sir.”
“Good.”
No sooner had I finished speaking than the door swung open. Haley entered. She was wearing a crisp, professional outfit in black and gray that clung to her figure. Under any other circumstances, my first impulse would be to think about getting her to the office bathroom and ripping it off her before pinning her against the wall, impaled on my cock.
But for now, I only had a split second to appreciate the way she looked in her professional look and demeanor before she turned, and we locked eyes.
Her face was already sullen, given the nature of this meeting. But when she recognized me, saw me standing over my chair at the end of my table and realized what that meant I was doing here, those gorgeous cheeks went ashen.
I might as well have been driving the knife into her back with my own hands.
She was a businesswoman, though, and she was experienced with the basics of how to carry one’s self in a meeting like this. The emotions flitted over her face so fast that I never would have noticed them unless I knew what to look for.
There was shock written all over her, and it quickly melted away to utterly crushing disappointment, a kind of sadness I wished I’d never have to look in the eye. I knew that wouldn’t last long, though. Her jaw set and her brow leveled just enough to see the intense anger that was blossoming in her.
She must have thought that I was planning this from the very beginning, as if this was all part of some sick, twisted joke to humiliate her. The purest form of insult to injury.
She had surrendered to me last night, physically and in some ways emotionally. It had been sweeter than I could have possibly imagined, and I knew it was for her, too. But every ecstatic moment we shared together turned to bitter ash the second we exchanged that look.
When she made her way to her seat, it was a brisk, restrained motion that told me just how much willpower it was taking to keep her from tearing into me right then and there.
She could have, too, and if she chose her words carefully, she could have really humiliated me in front of some important business contacts here. But of course, it would tarnish her name too, stooping to the level of a personal attack. And more likely than not, these old codgers would not even believe her unless I admitted to it.
But she did no such thing. She sat down, smoothed out her outfit, and glared at me from across the table.
“Mr. Hawthorne,” she pronounced in an icy tone.
“Thank you for joining us, Ms. Simmons.” One of the bankers was using a vaguely condescending tone, implying she was late, and my jaw clenched.
“We’re in no rush,” I retorted. He looked a little surprised, but he was successfully cowed and said no more. This was very bad for her, but I would at least keep these vultures from humiliating her any further.
But I knew that what she really needed was some concrete help, and I had to think of something fast. I cleared my throat.
“Let’s begin, shall we?”
12
Haley
I could not believe this. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Last night, I had literally been sleeping with the enemy, and I didn’t even know. A maelstrom of emotions was spinning inside me, wreaking havoc and destroying all my logic and reason. How could I have been so stupid? So trusting? How could I have let Chase hurt me again, and this time, much worse than before in college? How did he hide this from me so deftly? So completely? Why didn’t I see the deception, the lies, the malice in those beautiful green eyes when he looked at me? How could I have fallen for him yet again, only to be hurt yet again?
