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“I work part-time at a dive bar. It’s ingrained in me to enjoy it. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, you know?”
“Where at? I’d love to come hang out while you—”
My intercom beeps. “Miss Evans, I’ll take my coffee and agenda if you’re finished.” We both jerk at hearing Theo’s phone slam onto the base from behind his closed office door.
“Sorry. I gotta go. Catch up later.”
“Yeah, sure thing.” I shoot out of my chair. Shit. I don’t have his coffee. I inwardly groan knowing what I need to do.
Chapter eleven
Theo
“Notnow,Theo.”
“I’m telling you, Alana practically admitted she lied.”
“I told you to drop it. Where are we at with the litigation? I asked you to look into the holdup with the shareholders—”
“Fuck the litigation! Are you listening to me? This is all a scam. Blackmail. And Charles and Alana are both in on this. What’s your real connection to the Hills?”
“Theo, this will be the last time we speak about this. What’s done is done. Be the man I raised you to be and accept your role. Nothing will change. Once this matter is cleared, the merger will go through. You will marry Alana, and life will be good. Oh, and before you leave, that woman you’re entertaining at the Peninsula? End it. Alana knows about it and isn’t too pleased.”
“What? How’d you find out about her? Are you having me followed?”
“I’m protecting my investments. Your carelessness is a liability. Now, I need to be updated on the case. The lawyers will be in shortly.”
I was barely out of my mother’s womb before Alfred Monroe was grooming me for my future.Hisfuture. I couldn’t even tell you what the hell I wanted to be when I grew up because I only knew this.
I played the sports he wanted, made friends with the kids in the families he chose, and went to the Ivy League school he picked. I’ve been prepped my whole life to become the next CEO of his company. Carry onhislegacy. And I didn’t argue. Mainly because you didn’t say no to a man like Alfred Monroe. His path offered a life of wealth and power, and no one was stupid enough to turn that down.
He always instilled in me that power requires sacrifice. I just never expected it to be this. A contract that will bind me to my future wife.
That night with Alana still haunts me. I was young, horny, arrogant, and didn’t know any better. She was attractive and determined and knew exactly who I’d be to her one day. It wasn’t a coincidence we met that night. It was an arrangement cooked up with someone as power-hungry as my father. Charles Hill knew exactly what he was doing when he brought his daughter to that dinner. And my father, whose thoughts were never far from the next deal closing, was happily along for the ride. He didn’t care that I would be victimized. He was more concerned with the merger happening. Even if it was using me as his pawn to achieve it.
I should have told him to go to hell when he called last night and demanded my attendance at dinner like I was a child. I knew exactly why he wanted to speak with me. The engagement. The merger deadline was getting closer, and I had yet to make a move.
The thought of being engaged to Alana boils my blood. My mind shifts to Claire. Someone I truly wanted to be engaged to but never had the chance. God, I didn’t even get to explain. My father made her disappear before I could. At first, the rage consumed me. It was almost enough to give it all up. I refused to bow down to the insane notion that I was going to marry a woman I could barely stand. My father saw it differently. I should have known better than to think he would let me just walk away.
After removing Claire from my life, any other woman I brought around was gone shortly after. It became clear that my father would not allow me happiness. He was set to sabotage any relationship I attempted to create. And he succeeded every single time.
“You will do this, son. This is your legacy. And until you realize that, you’re just wasting your time on these charity cases that do not belong in our world.”
His words still ring in my ear. He was right. They didn’t belong. Because I wouldn’t subject anyone to the misery of my family. Of him. And in the end, I became the exact person he groomed me to be—a cold, heartless bastard.
I needed to be smart and shut down this little game of temptation I was playing with Fay. All it would take is the most innocent of glances between us for my father to start asking questions. I refuse to let him near her. His patience is finally near nonexistent, and he won’t take no for an answer. Last night, I got his final ultimatum: propose to Alana before my birthday, or he will take matters into his own hands.
My birthday is in two weeks.
I fought not to throw myself over the table and wrap my fingers around his neck, squeezing until his last breath left him. This world would be a better place without him in it. But I kept my composure because he gets off on pissing me off, took the contract he handed me, and left before the first course arrived. He didn’t stop me. He smiled and sipped his cognac, knowing I wouldn’t say no. I wouldn’t walk away. He had me cornered. He knew it. And I knew it.
My thoughts immediately went toher. If I had a different life, I would make her mine. Bend her to my will and devour her until she knows nothing but me. Eventually, though, she would become a pawn to my father. And he would ruin her, just as he’s ruined everyone else I’ve selfishly brought into his game.
I consider the comment my father made when I arrived at the restaurant.Thought you were calling back to decline. I knew you knew better.He had me at a loss until he explained the hang-up. Since I was already in my car, someone else made that call. A little someone I left in my office, confused when I left without a word. Seems she went to find her own answers and checked my call log. It was bold of her to call the number back, though. Either way, it gave me a reason to scold her. Hear her voice.
But when she answered, she was the one to givemethe earful. That little brat was getting herself off, and I could tell she’d been drinking. But the way she answered each question. . . Her husky voice and the soft, breathy sounds morphed into deep pants. I wondered who she was thinking about when she fucked herself. My cock hardened with each reply. God, I wanted to be in that room with her. Watch her touch herself. Smell her arousal. Memorize her face as she came. I was tempted to wrap my fist around my dick and jerk off to the beautiful sound of her masked moans.
By the time she orgasmed, I was parked outside her new apartment. Not sure what the hell I was doing there. I knew better. I knew what my father was capable of. But she was becoming my weakness. And if I didn’t let go of this obsession with her, I would be her demise.
