AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The look Henry sent her told her she wasn’t getting any more details, but her imagination filled in the rest.
“Oral? Blowjob? Hot powder room fucking?”
He frowned in disapproval. “Language.”
“Well?” she persisted. “What is it?”
“Let’s just say we both left past closing time—and the date was an afternoon date. We were quite satisfied with the deal and it went on to flourish successfully for our families.”
Pearl gaped. She opened her mouth to tease him that he probably didn’t have the stamina for it, but the memory of him running toward Moon and back toward her family cottage floated in her mind—fast, powerful, a brute force ready to be used if necessary but resorting to clean-cut actions that eliminated risks just as effectively. It had been a glorious display of studied control, and Henry on the verge of…not being Henry. She remembered being stunned, protected by his power…feeling hot and bothered, which spilled over to the present.
She bit her lip, looked away, and rubbed her thighs together. She bit her lip harder when a sound threatened to come out, one that would have mortified her if it did. Men got hot and bothered over her, not the other way around—andnotover Henry, who proved time and time again that he was immune to her charms and wanted nothing but a professional relationship.
“Good for you,” she managed softly, willing her body to stop feeling anything. “Successfully closing deals left and right.”
“Does that satisfy your curiosity, Miss Bold?”
“Sure, Mr. Prim.”
“Good. It’s my turn.”
“Hmm. Ask away.”
“What did my brother do to your family?”
Just like that, the electric jolts scurried away, leaving her with coldness. She whirled on him fully, uncaring that she was disturbing the bubble and wondering if it was a joke. But the expectant look on his face nagged at her suspicion that…was this real? Was it possible that Henry didn’t know what his brother did?
“What do you know?” she shot back cautiously.
There was a long pause.
“Nothing much. I just know he changed after what your brother did and it’s connected. He became withdrawn and didn’t laugh as much, didn’t party as much. You could say he became a bit lost, and I had to take drastic measures so that the others wouldn’t notice until he got back on his feet.”
The insults quivered in her throat, ready to shatter. The blatant concern over Gunther when Emerald had experienced ten times worse made her want to hurt someone, but something inside her understood that Henry wasn’t part of the equation. So, she fisted that need to hurt and tucked it deep inside, wanting to be fair, even when pettiness ran in her bones.
“I have two things to say. One, ask Gunther. Two, you might have upgraded from asshole territory, but he’s still a jerk in my eyes and that’s not going to change anytime soon. I don’t care howlosthe was.”
Silence.
“That’s it?”
“Yes, that’s it,” she said stiffly.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Gunther will. And I don’t appreciate you ganging up on me like that when we were only talking about surface-level stuff.”
“Me revealing my family history and my sex life weren’t surface-level to me, but okay.”
Something changed in his tone, prompting her to drop a bit of her indignance.
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Let’s just stop talking,” he said.
The shutting-out was fast, brutal, and cold, and she could feel it sinking into her bones. Dismay cruised in before indignation returned twice-fold.
“No, let’s not.”
