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“No. I’m mad at you, so you’d better make it up to me.” He pulled me in close and kissed me, giving me a hard embrace that would leave my lips swollen for the next few hours. When he pulled away, he opened his wallet and tossed tons of bills onto the bed. “Your bag better be full of lingerie.”
15
Hades
I’d just risen from my desk to leave the office when Damien walked inside.
“The new cook is good.”
“I know—I picked him out.” I left my laptop and documents behind, intending to take care of it after the weekend. The bank I’d founded wasn’t competitive in the market. There were a lot of other places that offered better returns. But mine had special services those other banks couldn’t provide. The government would have to be stupid not to notice the red flags, but since my establishment held money for a lot of high-profile criminals, it was smart to look the other way.
It was a war they couldn’t win.
“You want to hit a strip club tonight? Or better yet, a brothel? Throw some cash around and make two women roll around together.” A dreamy look came into his eyes. “Man, I love being rich.”
I adjusted my watch under my cuff link and rounded the desk. “I have plans this weekend.”
“Good.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “You found someone else.”
“No.” I leaned against the desk and faced him. “Same woman.”
The corner of his mouth rose in a smile. “She came back?”
“On her knees,” I said with a nod.
“Good for you. Make her work for it?”
“She still is.” She was the one who’d had all the power when this relationship began, but she’d fucked that up when she left me. Now, I was in control—and I wasn’t going to let go. Once she laid her cards on the table, I beat her hand and would never let her forget it.
“Ooh…that sounds hot.”
“She’s coming over this weekend.”
“Good. Now you’re headed in the right direction.”
I shrugged. “She still wants the same thing. But now that she can’t walk away from me, I’ll just change her mind.”
“Not a bad plan. You can pull it off.” Damien would normally tease me for being so hung up on a woman, but since he knew this was real, he was only supportive. He was all jokes most of the time, but when I was serious, he was serious. “I don’t know how to make a woman fall in love with you, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
Damien was with me that day the gypsy read my future, but he didn’t hear a single word of her message. He’d been outside the tent, and when he asked me what happened, I’d never answered. I’d been thinking about that night often, paranoid that the superstitious bullshit could actually be true. “Remember when we went to Morocco eight years ago?”
“For your twenty-first?” he asked, his eyebrow raised. “Absolutely. I got my best blow job there—and it was dirt cheap.”
“Remember that gypsy we saw?”
“In the purple tent that smelled like a skunk’s ass? Definitely. Why?”
“You remember your fortune?”
“Uh…I think so.” He squinted his eyebrows as he tried to remember. “Something about me being rich…which did come true. And then some bullshit about a woman loving me for me…but then I leave her? I can’t remember it word for word. Why do you ask?”
“Has that happened to you?” I was a grown-ass man who had made my own path in life. I wasn’t successful and respected because of destiny. I made this shit happen—it didn’t happen to me. So I refused to believe that some supernatural force in the world was actually punishing me for all the crimes I committed to get here. That I wouldn’t have the woman I loved because the universe wouldn’t allow it to happen. But then Sofia came into the picture…and made me question everything.
“Well, you know I’m rich.”
“What about the other thing? About the girl.”
“No,” he said with a laugh. “Come on, that’s all bullshit. You don’t actually believe that, right?”
Maybe it just hadn’t happened yet.
“Hades?” he pressed. “What’s this about?”
“I’m just curious, that’s all.”
“What was your fortune?”
I lowered my gaze to the floor. “It doesn’t matter. You’re right. It’s all bullshit.”
“Hades.” He stepped closer to me, cocking his head to the side so he could see my face. “I’ve never seen you like this before. I’ve never seen you scared of anything. But now you’re scared of something, and I don’t even know what it is. I’m your best friend…so tell me.” He grabbed my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. “Come on.”
My hands gripped the edge of my desk as I lifted my chin once more. I didn’t make eye contact, choosing to stare at the closed door to my office. “She told me that I would be punished for everything I’d done.”
