For His Honor (For His Pleasure, Book 4)(6)

“So, what else is new?”

Well, you’d probably be interested to know that a very wealthy man is trying to bribe me to spend a few nights with him in the Cayman Islands. I might not even have to fuck him—we’re still working out the details.

She smiled, imagining how her mother would react to such a description.

Instead, Nicole talked a little about all the work she was doing for Edward and about how she and Danielle were spending a lot of time together. She tried to keep her tone upbeat and light.

But of course, her mother knew. Mothers always know, Nicole thought.

“I’m glad you’re keeping busy, honey.”

Translation: I’m glad you’re finding it possible to stay away from Red Jameson.

“Thanks Mom. How’s everything there? How’s Dad?”

“Things here are fine. The same. Although your father’s prostate is acting up again.” She launched into a long story about how dad had gone to the doctor last year after being uncomfortable for months on end and then been told he had an enlarged prostate. Not cancer or anything, just an enlarged prostate. Only, the discomfort had continued and continued and he’d resisted going to the doctor for so long. Finally, Mom had forced him to go and it turned out he had an infection.

“But he’s feeling better?” Nicole said. Now she really felt guilty for not calling back. Her dad had been sick and she hadn’t even known.

“Yes, he’s doing much better. That man just hates going to the doctor. I swear, he drives me crazy sometimes.”

“Yeah, men can be difficult, can’t they?”

“Some men more than others.”

Nicole knew exactly what that meant too. Sure, her father might be stubborn and wear his jeans until the knees were ripped and threadbare and mom had to practically fight him to let her throw them away—but he was still a good, dependable man. Red Jameson on the other hand, he was of a different breed. He was undependable, unstable, and totally unsuitable husband material.

Red Jameson might replace his jeans when they needed replacing, and he might go to the doctor if he needed to, but it didn’t make up for everything else that was wrong with him.

“I should go,” Nicole said. “I’m still really swamped at work. With all the changes and everything, it’s incredibly hectic.”

“You’re okay, though? You’d tell me if something was wrong?”

Nicole was surprised her mother had come out and actually asked. For a moment, she almost told her everything. It would have been nice to just go outside and spill her guts to her mom over the phone, tell her how hard things had gotten. But she knew it was impossible. She didn’t want to sit there and listen to her mother badmouth Red in order to try and make Nicole feel better. That wouldn’t help anything.

So in the end, she just nodded her head. “I’m fine, Mom. I swear.”

“I’m sure it’s confusing right now with all the changes at your job,” her mother said delicately. It was the closest she could come to saying she was sorry about Red.



***

Nicole should have known that Kane Wright would track her down again. He wasn’t going to wait for her to come to him.

She shouldn’t have been surprised then, when the dark limousine pulled up next to her and Danielle as they walked down Fifth Avenue later that night.

It had been Danielle’s idea to get out of the apartment and go spend some time in Manhattan together. Nicole had complained that she’d just spent the day in Manhattan.

“That’s not the same—you were working. Sitting in a tiny cubicle is not spending the day in Manhattan. You could have been in Hoboken.”

“But I wasn’t.”

“Still.”

Nicole was too weak too fight. So she and Danielle had taken the train into the city and walked around, and surprisingly it was actually fun. Maybe it was all the walking and the fresh air, but Nicole found herself smiling and joking around for the first time in ages.

It couldn’t last though, and it didn’t last. The limousine pulled up beside them on the street and they turned and looked at one another.

“Is it…?” Danielle asked, her eyes wide with fear.

Nicole’s first thought was that it was Red. Red had come back to rescue her, to love her again. But that thought only lasted a moment because she knew it couldn’t be him.

This was the other billionaire, the one she never wanted to see again.

“No, it’s not Red,” Nicole said, as the limo door swung open and Kane Wright looked at the two of them from inside.

“Let’s have a chat,” he said.

Nicole glanced uneasily at Danielle.

Kane looked at them. “You and your lovely friend,” he said. “Please, I promise I won’t bite.”