“Loyalty is hard to find.”
“Which is why it’s so valuable.”
He rested his elbows on the table as he looked at me. “I have a charity thing to go to on Saturday night. Would you like to be my date? It’s black tie.”
“Your date?” I asked in surprise. “Have you ever publicly had a date?”
“Not for over five years now. But I don’t care what they print about me.”
So he’d had a public date before that?
“My company gives a big donation to the police department. So we’re one of the big sponsors of the night. There will be dinner, drinks, and I’ll give a speech. Nothing too exciting.”
“You’ll give a speech?” I asked. “That sounds fun.”
“Is that a yes?”
“No,” I said. “I want to know why you’re asking me first.”
“Maybe seeing me give a speech in my best suit will turn you on.”
“So that’s the only thing you care about?” I asked with a laugh. “Any opportunity to get laid?”
He didn’t show any shame when he gave his answer. “Yes. That’s all I think about every time we’re together. Our hot, sweaty bodies moving together on the sheets as I rock my big dick inside you over and over. I think about the drops of blood of your innocence staining my sheets. I picture the tears that fall down your cheeks. I imagine the moans you make when it starts to feel good…then I picture the screams when you come. Yes, sweetheart. That’s my end game. I want you to let me have you.” He blurted out his thoughts so fluidly, telling me exactly what was going on in that big brain of his. “So, will you come with me?”
Now, when he described our evening together, I didn’t feel the same trepidation I once did. My thighs tightened under the table, and I remembered the way my palms felt against his hard chest. I couldn’t forget the orgasm he gave me without even being inside me. When I pictured our naked bodies moving together, it turned me on. It didn’t scare me, not the way it used to. I’d always felt a connection to him, that he wasn’t just some stranger I hardly knew. I’d started to see him as something more, as someone who actually meant something to me. “Yes. I’ll go with you.”
13
Slate
TO CELEBRATE COEN’S ENGAGEMENT, we had dinner at my mother’s place.
My mother wasn’t stupid. She was aware of the rift between us, the obvious tension that emerged any time we were breathing the same air. But she had no idea how bad our relationship really was, that we despised each other to our very cores. My mother’s funeral would be the last time we got together for a family event. After that, we would live our lives separately—with the exception of work.
My mother had a beautiful penthouse with an enormous living room, a perfect location for her Christmas parties and charity events. She had two butlers, one for cleaning and one for cooking. Since she was unemployed, she probably didn’t need the help, but she wanted the company.
We sat at the table together, the three of us along with Simone—the enormous ring on her finger.
Sometimes it bothered me that my mother never reprimanded Coen for how he betrayed me. I didn’t need my mother to defend me, but I thought she would at least voice her disappointment. Like everything was perfectly fine, she pretended Simone and I had never been together.
“So, when’s the wedding?” Mother cut into her pot roast, sitting gracefully like a queen with diamonds in her ears. She wore a white blouse with a string of pearls around her neck. She’d had plastic surgery, so her appearance was unnaturally youthful. But the doctor did great work because it wasn’t obvious she’d had anything done to begin with.
“We haven’t decided,” Coen said, hardly looking at me across the table. “But something sooner rather than later.”
“We want to start a family right away,” Simone said, smiling at my mother and kissing her ass. “I’m not getting any younger.”
“A family is the greatest thing you can have,” my mother said before she sipped her wine. “It’s the one thing I’m most grateful for.”
I wasn’t grateful for it, not when I had a shitty brother.
“We were considering doing something small,” Simone said. “On the beach out in the Hamptons. Something before the summer is over.”
I was about to drink from my glass, but I had to stop myself. “That’s in a month.”
“Yes.” Simone looked at me, a smile plastered on her face but evil in her eyes. “Fall is beautiful but unpredictable. And I already have my dress, so that’s been taken care.”
“Who gets a wedding dress before they’re engaged?” I countered, knowing this was all just a ploy. She wanted to get married as soon as possible. The quicker she tied the knot, the less time my brother had to figure out he was making the biggest mistake of his life. “That seems desperate.”
Coen glared at me. “Slate, come on. Can’t you not be an asshole for one dinner?”
“You think I’m being an asshole?” My eyes moved to my brother, a man who didn’t feel like family at all. “Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet.” I turned to my mother. “Coen doesn’t want to sign a prenup. He wants Simone to share his half of the company. On top of that, Simone has already started barging into meetings like she has any right to be there.”
Coen threw down his napkin. “Slate, what the fuck?” He was pissed I’d told our mother the truth—that he was being an idiot.
I held his gaze with no remorse. “Now I’m being an asshole.” I turned back to our mother. “You need to talk some sense into your son. If Simone gets power over the company, it could jeopardize everything I’ve built—and it could affect your monthly allowance. You really want this gold digger to have access to something that doesn’t belong to her?”
Simone looked like she wanted to scratch my eyes out, but she was powerless while my mother was there.
“She’s not a gold digger,” Coen snapped. “Stop calling her that—”
“Then sign the fucking prenup.” I turned back to him. “You already backstabbed me once, and now you’re going to do it again? This is our family’s legacy. You’re going to gamble it on pussy? Pussy I’ve already fucked—”
“Slate.” My mom silenced me just by saying my name. “Enough.”
The only reason I shut up was because she was my mother. If it were anyone else, I’d flipped the table by now.
Mother turned back to Coen. “Tonight is supposed to be a celebration, but your brother is right. We need to have a family discussion about how you handle this. If this were just your company, it wouldn’t matter. But half of it belongs to your brother.”
Coen looked like he wanted to strangle me.
Simone hid her disappointment, but not very well.
“But now isn’t the time for such a crude discussion.” Mother set down her utensils. “I hate to be rude, Coen, but could you and Simone excuse us for the evening? I’d like to speak to your brother alone.”
“Gladly.” Coen exited the room and took Simone with him. The butler escorted them to the door, and then they disappeared in the elevator.
When we were alone together, Mother sighed as she stared at me. “It’s been five years, Slate. I thought this would be behind you.”
“It’s not about her.” I stared straight ahead, where my brother had sat just minutes ago. There was a picture hanging on the wall, the four of us gathered at Christmas time. “Couldn’t care less about her. Coen stabbed me in the back. That’s what I care about.”
“He told me you were okay with it.”
I turned back to her, my eyes wide open in shock. “He lied. I never said that.”
“Really?” she asked, sighing in disappointment. “Oh, dear.”
“Mother, Simone only wants him for his money. She came after me first, tried to pressure me into marriage. When I wouldn’t cave, she started sleeping with him. She played me for a fool, and now she’s doing the same to Coen. How can you not see it?”
“It doesn’t matter if I can see it or
not. Your brother is almost thirty. You think I have any hold over his actions?”
“No. But you have a lot of influence. I’m telling you, Simone only wants him for his cash.”
“Then why has she been with him for five years?” she asked. “That’s a long commitment.”
“Because the company kept growing. Now we’re valued at over a billion dollars. Of course she’s going to stick around for a payout like that.”
“People also change, Slate.”
“Not that cunt.”
“Slate.” Her eyes narrowed.
I wouldn’t apologize for what I said. “If he wants to marry her and give away half his wealth when she leaves him, that’s fine with me. He deserves every bad thing that happens to him. But he can’t risk the company.”
“She would only own twenty-five percent.”
“And that’s too much. She would be making twenty-five percent of our profits every single day for the rest of our lives. She could be remarried, and that money would still be going to her. And if Coen dies while they’re married, she would inherit the full fifty percent. And then I would have to deal with her…as an equal partner. So you need to get him to sign that prenup. I’ve already tried to persuade him.”
“You have valid points, Slate.”
“I know I do.” It was difficult for me to be in the same room as Coen because it was impossible to forget what he did to me. Every time I looked at his face, I remembered the day I found out about the two of them, a picture in a tabloid of the two of them going into his penthouse together. Simone didn’t owe me anything, but my brother owed me his complete loyalty. He threw away our brotherhood, our friendship, over a woman. There were millions of women in the city, and he could have any one he wanted—but he picked her. She was the only girlfriend I’d ever had—and he had to pick her.
“I’ll try to talk to him.”
“You better.” My words meant nothing to him, but my mother’s opinion still mattered.
“And you’re sure your hatred has nothing to do with Simone?”
“Does it matter?” Whether she’d hurt me or not was beside the point. It was the betrayal that seared my veins, that made me stop believing in loyalty. I lost my best friend and my brother because he was a selfish idiot. “I hope she breaks his heart. I hope she ruins him. I hope she makes him look like a fool for the entire world to see.”
My mother placed her hand on mine. “I know you think you mean that…but we both know you don’t.”
14
Monroe
THE BACK DOOR OPENED, and a man helped me to my feet. We’d arrived at the entrance to the Plaza Hotel, Central Park directly behind us. I stepped to the side so Slate had plenty of room to get out of the car.
He was in a black tuxedo, looking even more handsome than he did in a suit. He’d shaved his jawline before he picked me up, so his face was as clean as it’d ever been. There were people gathered on the sidewalk, so Slate gave them slight nods in acknowledgment. He turned to me and circled his arm around my waist.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He pulled me closer. “You’re my date. And I’m treating you like my date.”
“But people might think we’re together.”
He leaned down and kissed me softly on the mouth, not caring about the photographers and the onlookers. “Then let them think that.” He brushed his lips across mine before he pulled away.
We entered the hotel then the ballroom where the event was held. The second we stepped inside, the white lights were bright in our eyes. To go along with the underwater theme, there were splashes of blue and gold. It was so elaborately decorated it seemed like we were at a celebrity’s wedding rather than a charity event. “This is fancy…”
“They like to show off a bit.” He grabbed two glasses of champagne from a tray and handed me one.
I let the bubbles drip down my throat and fizzle in my belly. “Even the champagne is fancy.”
He pulled me away from the entryway so we wouldn’t be crushed by the new arrivals. “You look beautiful, by the way.” He looked me up and down, not caring if anyone saw the vulgar way he addressed my body. “I like that dress.”
It was black and backless, stopping just inches above my crack. His fingertips gently moved over the bare skin, his hand warm. “I would assume so…since you bought it.” I couldn’t afford a dress appropriate for an evening like this, so he had one of his shoppers pick it up for me. I didn’t want his charity, but I also didn’t want to look terrible for the evening.
“Money well spent.” A group of men approached him, ready to mingle. “This is gonna take a while, just so you know.”
“I figured you were a popular guy.”
Slate spent the next hour mingling with people he knew, police officers, judges, and other donors. The people he knew the best were from other successful companies, probably because they had more in common. He was charming, funny, and he always introduced me and kept me included in the conversation.
When it was time for dinner, Slate guided me to the reserved table close to the stage. There was already a couple sitting there, and judging by his nearly identical features, the other man was his brother. Slate pulled out the chair for me.
I sat down, feeling his brother eye me like I was the last thing he expected to see. There was a blond woman with him, and she also wore the same expression. It was innately unwelcoming, like I had no right to be at that table.
Slate sat beside me and rested his hand on my thigh under the table. He’d been perfectly polite the entire evening, making everyone laugh and introducing me to people I would never meet again. But now he didn’t say a single word.
Neither did his brother.
The mutual hatred between them was palpable. I could feel it slide over my skin like a slithering snake.
The woman didn’t make nice with me either, even though she and I should have nothing to do with this feud.
They served dinner, and still, there was no talking.
I felt awkward not introducing myself, so I went for it. “I’m Monroe…by the way.”
Slate’s brother gave me the same look of annoyance he gave his brother. “Coen.” All I got was a one-word answer.
“I’m his fiancée, Simone,” the blonde said beside him.
Then it returned to silence.
“THAT WAS the best steak I’ve ever had.” I wiped my plate clean and not because I was starving. It was just that good. The sauce they poured over it, along with the grilled mushrooms, made it the most delicious meal ever.
“I’m glad you liked it.”
“Did you like yours?”
“Yeah.” He rested his arm over the back of my chair and leaned close to me, behaving like his brother wasn’t just a few feet away from him.
“Are you nervous about your speech?”
“The only thing I’m nervous about is turning you on.”
“Well, if you’re that concerned about it, you could just take off your clothes. That works pretty well.”
He brought his face close to mine, wearing a slight grin. “I turn you on?”
“Did my orgasm not make that clear?”
“You can make a woman come without turning her on.”
“That makes no sense.”
“You’ll see what I mean, eventually. My goal is to make you so hot that you beg me to fuck you.”
“You already do make me hot…”
“Not hot enough.”
“Sleeping with a man for the first time isn’t about hotness.”
“But it’ll definitely help.” His hand moved into my hair, and he kept it out of my face as he looked at me, ignoring all the other people around us. His face was so close to mine that he could kiss me. Everyone else in the room could see the chemistry between us if they looked in our direction. All the women probably hated me, wondered what I had done to catch the focus of this beautiful man. If only they knew my secret…
The man on the stage kept talking about t
he work of the charity and how it benefited police officers who’d fallen in the line of duty. It was just background noise now that Slate looked at me like that.
I held his gaze and remembered how it felt to sit in his lap, to feel that impressive dick rub me to a climax.
He moved in and kissed me, his palm flat against my head as he kept me close. We were in public, but he didn’t seem to care about the affection, kissing me in such a sexy way when everyone could watch.
That was when the man on stage announced Slate. “Slate Remington from Remington Resorts, our biggest donor, is here to share a few words. Let’s welcome him to the stage.” Applause sounded.
Slate finished the kiss instead of pulling back immediately. He let his lips linger a second longer, like he didn’t care that the entire ballroom could see him kiss me. Then he left my embrace and buttoned his jacket as he took the stage.
I watched him move up the stairs, his body so thick and powerful. I started to clap and noticed the way his brother and his fiancée barely tapped their palms together. I had no idea what started their bad blood, but I assumed Coen was the one responsible. I couldn’t picture Slate doing anything to cause such tension. He was an asshole most of the time, but not unbearably so.
My eyes moved to the stage.
Slate took the podium like he was at his best when a crowd of people were staring at him. “Enough can’t be said to thank the brave men and women who keep our streets safe day and night. This is the charity my brother and I support the most, and that’s because it’s very close to our hearts. I was sitting in my office a few years ago when an armed gunman stormed my floor.”
I held my breath, not expecting this story.
“I’ll save you the details because they don’t matter. But I can assure you that moment wasn’t my finest. They had my three young secretaries tied up in the corner and a gun in my face as he asked me to hand over all the assets in my bank account. He had the wire transfer set up and ready to go. Of course, I don’t negotiate with terrorists, so I refused. If the New York City Police Department hadn’t acted as quickly and efficiently as they did on that afternoon, I wouldn’t be here today. The man had the barrel pointed right between my eyes—and it was only a matter of seconds before he pulled the trigger. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. The officers arrested the man who held me at gunpoint and disarmed the situation with no lives lost. It was courageous, noble, and inspiring.” He made his speech without any notes. Everything he said was completely from memory. “Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Thousands of officers every year lose their lives in the line of duty. This charity supports their loved ones when they’re gone, provides for their spouses, and gives their children full-ride scholarships to any college they choose. It’s a great program, and my brother and I will always be involved. Thank you to everyone for giving your donations this year. I’ve been told the program has raised more money this year than ever before. And that truly is amazing.”
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