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King of Wall Street(43)

By:Louise Bay


“This is perfect,” Amanda said. “Like Scarlett says, it’s fate.”

“You shouldn’t listen to everything your aunt says. Use the eighty-twenty rule. I’ve told you about this before.”

Scarlett punched me in the arm and I caught a reaction in Harper’s face that I couldn’t quite place. “Harper, this is my sister, Scarlett.”

Harper’s beautiful brown eyes softened slightly as she smiled. “Nice to see you,” she said.

“You poor thing, having to work with my brother. I expect he’s a total tyrant, isn’t he?”

Harper shrugged and Scarlett said, “She’s got you pegged, brother.”

“He’s not a tyrant. He lets me have anything I want,” Amanda said.

“I may not be a tyrant, Amanda, but neither am I an idiot who can be easily manipulated by flattery. I do not, and will not, let you go to your eighth grade dance dressed like a twenty-five-year-old.”

Amanda ignored me. “That’s why this is perfect.” She smiled and turned to Harper. “Are you busy tomorrow?”

Harper squinted, trying as hard as I was to keep up with my daughter’s train of thought.

“You don’t make her work on a Saturday, right, Dad?” She didn’t wait for my response before releasing my elbow and putting her hands together in a prayer position. “Pretty please, will you come shopping with us tomorrow? We can find one of those dresses we saw online. And I haven’t even begun to find shoes. Please? If I’m on my own with dad, he’ll have me go in sneakers—”

What was she asking? I needed to spend less time with Harper, keep my worlds more separate.

“Amanda, you can’t just impose on people like that,” I interrupted. “Harper doesn’t want to spend her free time schlepping around New York trying to find you a dress. And Scarlett’s coming with us.” Spending the day trying not to touch Harper was the last thing I had on my agenda for the weekend.

“I told you I can’t come tomorrow, didn’t I?” Scarlett asked. “I have to get the first train back because I’m taking Pablo to the vet.”

“Seriously?”

Scarlett just shrugged. Why hadn’t she told me she wasn’t coming? In fact, why was she in Manhattan at all?

“Sorry,” Scarlett said. “I thought I told you. The vet called me this morning. He hasn’t had one of the injections he was meant to have.”

Amanda slouched against the wall of the elevator just as the doors opened into the lobby. “There’s no point in going tomorrow if Scarlett’s not there and I can’t ask Harper. We’ll just end up fighting,” she said.

“It will be fine,” Scarlett said.

I ruffled Amanda’s hair. “Come on. We’ll find something, I promise.” I stepped off the elevator after Scarlett, holding out my elbow for Amanda, glancing at Harper who was staring at my daughter, her eyebrows pulled together.

“Please, Harper? Come with us? I promise I’ll take no more than an hour. Just two stores, maximum.”

Harper inhaled and the elevator doors started to close with Amanda still slumped against the mirror.

“Come on, Amanda,” I said as I held the doors open. “I’m sure Harper’s busy.” I turned to Harper. “I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. “It’s fine . . . I . . . want you to have a great dress and I have a couple of hours tomorrow morning.”

“You do?” Amanda clasped her hands together. “You’ll come?”

My palms started to get sweaty. It was the last response I’d expected. Working with her this week had been difficult enough. I’d been haunted by flashes of her bent over the conference room table, me pushing her skirt up to reveal her high, tight ass.

“Amanda,” I barked. “You can’t expect people to just drop everything and do whatever you want.”

“Why not?” she replied. “You do.”

I caught Harper trying to stifle a giggle. “I don’t mind. Honestly. We’ll have fun.” She grinned at Amanda. “But now I have to go to the gym.”

Amanda shot out of the elevator. “And you won’t change your mind?”

“If she does, then—”

Harper cut me off. “I won’t change my mind. I promise. Have a good night.”

Harper glanced up at me as the elevator doors closed, and I had to fight the urge to peel them open, push her against the wall, and press my lips against hers.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. The thought of spending time with Harper on a Saturday with Amanda had given me a headache. What would I say to her? I didn’t want my employees to know any other side of me other than the one in the office. And although Harper and I had fucked, it wasn’t as if we’d had dinner and I’d confessed all my secrets. Despite being gorgeous, sexy, ballsy with a hint of sweetness to add to her sour, she was my employee. And Vegas was behind us—we were in Manhattan full time now.