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Especially now, when she was alone in a bathtub with no one to share her day with. At times like this, she missed Lance like crazy. Walking down memory lane was a torture she couldn’t resist, not that she ever tried. The saddest part of all was that life hadn’t brought them back together. If anything, it just pushed them farther apart, which was probably for the best. They were two very different people and they never would have worked, but he was the only man she’d ever been serious enough about to look back on when she had a bad case of the mopes.
Lance was probably married now, highly successful and happy. Maybe he even had kids. And here she was with only an overly expensive condo, a fat bank account, and a sleek feline to show for all her hard work.
Maybe Sabrina took life too seriously. She often wondered about that, but at this point, where was the incentive to change? If she slowed down even for a moment, she’d just have more time to hate her life than she already was beginning to.
What she needed was a night out with a couple of girlfriends. None of them were the partying type, but they still knew how to have a good time. She’d call them, she decided as she soaped up her purple loofah. Janet always had some fun idea up her sleeve that she wanted to try out, and Sabrina was in the mood to be her guinea pig.
As soon as she finished her bath, she found her phone and dialed, eager to find out what kind of mischief she had to look forward to.
***
Drake played over the sound system that was bumping against Sabrina’s ears. She wasn’t old, but damn, she wished they’d turn it down a notch. She couldn’t think with all this noise. But that was a club for you. They specialized in loud music and booze, and this place that Janet had dragged her to was definitely an expert in all of that.
Of her many options, Sabrina had chosen to stick with screwdrivers for the night, figuring the shot of juice would supply her with a bit of energy for the night and the morning ahead. She didn’t give a lick that it was Monday night because her first meeting wasn’t until eleven the next morning, which meant she could sleep in and be fully refreshed when she walked into the office tomorrow.
“Hot guy, three o’clock,” Janet shouted in her ear.
Sabrina casually turned her head and searched the throng, until she caught the eye of the sexy stranger across the bar. Except he wasn’t a stranger at all. “Ugh.” Her lip curled involuntarily at the sight of one of the Hargreaves sons, despite how good he looked in the open white dress shirt and black slacks. She found the semi-casual outfit hotter than hell on a man, and with his dark hair and features, he was delicious. Or, she’d bet he was.
“Ugh?”
Sabrina leaned into her friend so she could hear her better. “Not interested. He’s all yours.”
Janet appeared startled for a moment before recovering with a sly smile. “In that case, I’ll be right back.”
Sabrina watched her friend slip into the crowd and make her way around to the other side of the bar, and then she looked away before her friend reached him, not interested in seeing the man accept her friend’s indecent proposal.
Forcing herself to get lost in the music, she sipped her drink, and when it was gone, ordered another.
“Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you shouldn’t drink alone?”
The male voice was deep, dark, and smooth like honey, and it sent an involuntary shiver down Sabrina’s spine and ignited a flame between her legs that shocked her. Turning on her barstool, she looked up at the man hovering over her right shoulder…and curled her lip again.
Another one. “Mr. Hargreaves. I just spotted your brother. I assume that means you’re all here tonight.”
He nodded as he claimed Janet’s empty seat. “We’re like wolves. We travel in a pack.” Those dark eyes that he shared with his brothers captured hers, and she recognized the hunger in them. It was the same look they’d given her in the office, but this time it was amplified.
“Do you hunt in a pack too?” she asked somewhat snarkily. Their confidence could easily be mistaken for arrogance, except it wouldn’t be a mistake. The Hargreaves men had been bred for dominance. It was etched into their every look and move, an unmistakable power.
Except that power had been transferred to her today when they’d come to her for help with their business, so Sabrina wasn’t dumb enough to think that this guy was interested in her for her brains or beauty. More like they wanted revenge of some kind for their inability to succeed in the business world without help from a woman.
“Only when we see something we like and have to have,” he answered, his gaze openly roaming over her body.
She rolled her eyes. “What do you want, Mr. Hargreaves?”
“Mr. Hargreaves is my father. Please, call me Conner. And my brother over there”—he pointed to where Janet was standing, trying to hold the other man’s attention—“is William, and Oliver is floating around here somewhere…” He cast a glance around the room, but came up empty and smiled down at her instead.
“Funny how you three just happen to be in the same club at the same time as me,” she mused.
“You think we followed you?” She cocked an eyebrow, indicating that’s exactly what she was implying. “Actually, it was purely coincidence. But what isn’t coincidence is that my brothers and I have the same taste in women.” Again, his eyes scanned her form, and he ran his tongue over his bottom lip.
Sabrina laughed and held up a hand. “If you say that taste happens to be me, I may have to actually kick you in the balls.” She was not a woman prone to flattery. In her position, she was met with daily male advances and the only thing they did for her was harden that shell she kept around herself to protect her from men who would only do her harm.
“You were great in the boardroom today. We were impressed with how well you handled our father. He’s known to be a real bastard.”
Sabrina had been taking a drink and choked at his declaration. He patted her on the back as she doubled over and hacked out a lung. With tears in her eyes and burning in her throat, she said, “You can’t talk about your father that way.”
“Why not? It’s the truth,” he said with an expression as straight as a ruler. “My father is rigid and cutthroat. The only weakness he has is to my mother. Anything beyond that, he’d never admit to.”
