Now, Please(26)

Bruce barked out laughter. “Your honesty is refreshing. With the way he looked after you last night, I saw a different man than the one I’ve met in the past. Completely different. Made me think a little harder about what he was saying.”

“Preaching to the choir. His driver wanted to punch him in the face a few times. But he’s still there and happy as a clam.”

Bruce tilted his head in that way people did when they resigned themselves to a different way of thinking. “You oughta know.”

“Yep.” I pulled my computer back in front of me.

“I’ll email you all our notes with a list of things we can tackle immediately before we plan the next leg.”

“Please remember that when you find yourself with entire days to fill, I’ll still have a fifty- to sixty-hour-a-week job…”

He shouldered his computer bag. “No promises.”

I opened my first email and groaned immediately. “Hunter, give me a break!”

Bruce’s laugh boomed as he walked away.





Chapter Seven





Hunter and I found ourselves at a Thai restaurant at the far corner of the hotel complex. The food was much better than the steakhouse, but had very few diners. It seemed all the businessmen wanted steak, regardless of quality, and that was that.

We’d talked about nothing much since he picked me up from my room. I’d had the connecting door closed again, needing some time to reflect. As much as I hated to admit it, Rodge had affected me. I needed to reaffirm what I was doing with Hunter, and that required talking to myself. I really didn’t need Hunter overhearing my rambling. Especially when it was about him.

Hunter laid down his chopsticks after he’d cleared his plate and looked at me with heavy, delving eyes. “Bruce mentioned you’d been speaking to my father.”

Suspicion rang in his voice. It seemed I wasn’t the only one affected by Rodge.

“Yes. All the golf carts were gone. I had to walk to meet Bruce, and Rodge was right there to take advantage of it.”

“What did you talk about?”

My stomach turned, both because of my doubt, and because of the way Hunter was interrogating me.

There goes my appetite. I put my chopsticks down and pushed my plate away. “He knows you use your admins for sex, and came to the conclusion that I’m happy being used.” Heat prickled my eyes, threatening tears. I bit my lip and looked away, trying to hold back the emotion that had been threatening me all day. “Who knows. Maybe I am. It’s better than the alternative.”

Hunter’s voice softened. “Which is?”

“That I let you use me for money.” Tears flooded my eyes. “He offered to buy me. Since you had. I felt about this small.” I offered up my thumb and index finger to demonstrate before looking away.

Hunter stood and came around the table. He pulled me up and quickly walked us from the restaurant. On the way out, he told the hostess his name and room and said to bill the dinner. We turned to the right and pushed out through an exit. The chill of the night brushed my face, helping to dry the streaks of tears. Hunter shrugged out of his jacket and draped it across my shoulders as he led us to a bench secluded in darkness.

“You were willing to try the job for a month without the stipulation of sex,” Hunter said in a soft and smooth voice. He put his arm over my shoulder and drew me into his side. “I wasn’t supposed to touch you, remember? And I tried not to. I really did. Every day I had to hold myself back. But then you wore that sexy outfit, and you were so close—I touched you before I knew what I was doing. It wasn’t because you offered yourself; it was because I pushed myself on you.

“You have to remember—my father manipulates. That’s what he does. He must know you can’t be bought, or he’d be working that angle with all his charm. Instead, he’s making you feel like…this. Like someone of little worth and moral value. He knows exactly what he’s doing here, Olivia. You aren’t the girl he’s trying to say you are.”

“I signed the contract.”

“It wasn’t because of the sex. We both know that. I know the sort of person you are, Livy, which is why I give you the warnings I do when the guilt starts to eat away at me. I’m the monster here, not you. I’m the one preying on you, not the other way around.”

“You’re not preying on me,” I murmured, burrowing into him.

His arms tightened around me until he moved me onto his lap and hugged me into his chest. He put my arms around his shoulders and rested my face against his neck. He said, “Some women take my father up on his offers. His second wife, for a start. And his third. His fourth will, too, whoever she turns out to be. She’ll be half his age and less than that in IQ, and she’ll give up happiness for his bank account. I knew you wouldn’t—in my heart, I knew. I know, I should say. But old wounds make it hard not to question. I shouldn’t have accused you like I did. I’m sorry.”