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I swirled my glass of wine again and took a drink. “I don’t have a problem with arranged marriages. I don’t have a problem with regular marriages either. I just wish I had the option to never marry. Marriage seems to be a prerequisite in order for me to have any hold on our hotels…which shouldn’t matter. My marital status shouldn’t make me more or less qualified. It’s sexist and idiotic. You run your own business. You aren’t married.”
“But I’m a man.”
“And that’s sexist,” I snapped.
“It’s not. Most men are assholes, and assholes only respect other assholes. Your mother’s concern about your ability to run your line of hotels isn’t unfounded. People will try to push you around, to make you so miserable that you quit in tears. Having a strong husband whom they fear will make your life a million times easier—even if he has nothing to do with the business. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not saying it’s fair. But that’s the world we live in.” He drank from his glass then turned his head when he spotted someone he recognized. He straightened in his chair and set his glass to the side, a slight smile on his lips.
“They let you show your ugly face in here?” A tall man of similar age approached our table. With dark hair and a slimmer build, he was equally handsome, just in a different way. Behind him was a beautiful woman in a skintight purple dress, her hair done and earrings hanging from her lobes.
“Only to scare you off.” Hades rose to his feet and greeted his friend with a quick hand grasp. It wasn’t a formal handshake, just a gesture of affection between two guys. “Who’s your lovely friend?”
He turned to the woman that must be his date. “Pritchet? Pruitt? I can’t pronounce it.”
The woman in purple shook his head. “Pruzovoski.” She spoke with a Russian accent so thick, it seemed unlikely she spoke English.
“Pleased to meet you.” Hades moved to my side of the table. “Sofia, this is my friend and business partner, Damien.”
Damien took my hand, smiled, and then kissed the back of my wrist. “Pleasure to meet you.” When he dropped my hand, he turned back to Hades. “Nobody, huh?”
Hades ignored his comment. “Would you guys like to join us?”
Was this a double date? Did that make it more or less formal?
“Yes.” Damien pulled out the chair for his date. “As long as you’re buying.”
Damien’s date couldn’t say two words that we could understand, so she stayed quiet most of the night, feeding Damien pieces of bruschetta and anything else that was small enough to shove into his mouth. Once he finished chewing, she always kissed him like she wished they were somewhere private—without two people sitting across from them at the table.
Hades rested his arm over the back of my chair, his fingers lightly slipping into the back of my hair. Sometimes he would get a handful and give me a gentle tug, a preview of what he would do to me later when we got back to the hotel.
Damien turned to Hades, his girl all over him. “So, what’s new?”
“I see you every day. There’s never anything new.” Hades was still the cold guy he was all the time, but he seemed to have a special softness for his friend. His tone was much less aggressive, and he was actually playful.
“Well, you didn’t tell me about her.” Damien nodded to me. “That’s new.”
“That’s because there’s nothing to say.” His fingers moved under my hair and felt the skin of my neck. He grabbed on to me gently, holding me as his thumb brushed against the softness of my skin.
“You tell me about all your girls,” Damien said. “The fact that you didn’t tell me about her is new.” He opened his mouth so his date could shove another appetizer into it. Another kiss ensued, where she whispered in Russian against his ear.
“Do you have any idea what she’s saying?” Hades asked.
Damien shrugged. “No. I think that’s why I like her.”
Dinner was finished after an hour of talking, and since there was no tab to pay, we were free to go whenever we were ready.
I leaned into him, eager to get his clothes off so we could do what we did best. This dinner only proved to me that we had nothing in common, no connection. I knew he operated a bank and the hotel was one of his clients, but other than that, he was an enigma. According to Damien’s comments, Hades was as much of a playboy as I assumed he was, having different women every time they spoke. That didn’t make a difference to me, but that made me want to skip these dinners and get down to business. I kissed his neck then brought my lips to his ear. “Take me to the hotel and fuck me already.”
