by Amelia Wilde
That doesn’t make him any less of a scumbag.
An amused grin plays over his face, and I hate him a little more. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Jasper Pace.” His secretary is practically breathing down my neck. I wish she’d sit down in her pretty little suit and let me take care of business. Jasper looks past me. “We’re all right, Christine.”
She sniffs, and I keep my eyes locked on Jasper’s face while she walks away. He’s not going to throw me off my game with his slick, charming manners. Screw that.
“No, we haven’t met, but that hasn’t stopped you from turning a great day into a shitty one.”
His eyebrows go up an inch, but the smile stays in place. “Why don’t you have a seat?” There are two leather armchairs in front of his massive mahogany desk. I’m sure that’s where people come to sell their souls along with their real estate.
“I’d rather not.”
He shrugs, and even the shrug reeks of all the power he thinks he has. He might be one of the billionaires of Pace, Inc., but he doesn’t know me. If I’d met him a week ago, I might have been impressed. Now, the sight of him has rage boiling over in my gut…and a heat between my legs, but I’ll never admit that. “Your choice. You could at least come in, though. I have a feeling you might want this conversation to be private.”
“I don’t care who hears.”
His grin gets wider, and he moves out from behind his desk. “All right. I’d prefer if we kept things to ourselves.” He strides across the office and steps into the doorway, leaning close so that he can reach for the open door’s handle. I can’t help but inhale his scent, and damn it, he smells good—like the kind of cologne you have personally made, underneath a pure clean scent that clings to his skin. “If you’ll excuse me—Ms. Gabriel, wasn’t it?”
I stand my ground, glaring at him from close range, but he doesn’t falter, that infuriating smile still wrinkling the corners of his eyes. My heart beats hard against my ribs, the tension going taut in the air between us.
This is ridiculous. There are bigger battles to be won.
I step into the office. Jasper pulls the door closed, then moves a few steps back toward his desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “Enlighten me. What exactly have I done to ruin your day?”
I grit my teeth to keep from slapping him. Or kissing him. The urge comes over me so strongly that it’s all I can do to stay in place. What the hell, Isa? Looking into the face of my mortal enemy shouldn’t be turning me on, but it is.
Focus.
“You’ve gone far enough with your reckless destruction of the city.”
He raises one eyebrow. “Reckless?”
“Arrogant. Greedy. Rushed. These are all words I’d use to describe the way you and your company have been gutting buildings and shattering communities from the East Village to Harlem.” I shake my head in disgust. “When is enough going to be enough for you people?”
He considers me, his smile turning sly, and now he’s close enough for me to see that his eyes are blue with a shock of silver around the pupils. They’re breathtaking. Their only competition is from…the rest of his body. “One thing you should know about me, Ms. Gabriel, is that enough is never enough.” He shifts his weight, and his tailored suit displays a whole new dimension of his physique. His eyes burn into mine. “The other thing you should know is that I disagree with your assessment.”
“I’m shocked,” I deadpan.
He goes on as if he hasn’t heard me. “This firm doesn’t shatter communities. It improves them. We’re taking buildings that are out of date, most of them with serious infrastructure issues, and turning them into homes that anyone would be proud to live in.” He cocks his head to the side. “I can’t see how you’d have a problem with that.”
“It’s not improvement I have a problem with.” My face is hot with anger, and my hands tremble at my sides. “But you’re only in it for the money, clearly.”
“It is an incredible side bonus.”
I hate him, but more than that, I hate my own body for wanting him so badly, in this moment of all moments.
I narrow my eyes. “I should have known this would be a pointless discussion.” I can’t keep my mouth from curling into a sneer. “I’ll be sure to explain to my mother—who’s losing her home because of you, by the way—that at least you’re getting an incredible side bonus.”
Before he can say another word, I turn on my heel and head for the door. My hand is on the handle, my muscles tensed to push it open, when— “Wait.”
“What?” I spit the word over my shoulder.
“I didn’t realize you were here to discuss a personal issue.” His tone is mild, but when I turn back around, his gaze is electric. “That changes everything.”
4
Jasper
“Does it?” Ms. Gabriel turns back, dropping her hand away from the handle and facing me head on. “Why am I not surprised?”
“I’m not in the business of ruining lives, Ms. Gabriel. If I’d known you were coming in to negotiate some kind of lease, we could have started there. Or I could have directed you to the appropriate department.”
She gives me an exasperated half-smile. “I find it’s more effective to start at the source of the problem.” This woman fears absolutely nothing. The more she says, the more I want her.
It makes no sense whatsoever, that this hurricane of a woman should interest me at all. She’s exactly the kind of distraction my father warned me about fifteen years ago, after his last romantic entanglement went sour. He’d come home in the middle of the night reeking of the bar, causing such a commotion in the entryway of the condo in Midtown we were living in that I disengaged myself from the date I’d brought home—a redhead, I can’t remember her name—and gone to see what the fuss was about. He’d grabbed the front of my shirt in both fists. “It’s not worth it. It’s never worth it, son. Focus on getting ahead.” Then he’d stumbled into his bedroom and shut the door, not coming out for two days.
My cock is painfully hard against the fabric of my pants. As casually as I can, I move back behind my desk and take a seat. “I’m assuming this involves one of the properties I recently acquired.”
Isabella’s eyes, green like the jungle, green like the leaves that surround a panther about to pounce, follow my every movement. She bites her lip, then seems to make a decision. She moves across the office, her hips swaying underneath a black skirt suit that hugs her curves. Every movement sends fire through my chest. I want to bend her over the desk, shove her skirt up around her hips, and teach her a lesson or two about how to be polite. The confidence radiating off of her tells me that she’d be absolutely filthy in bed. Or on the floor. Or on her knees, right here in my office. I’d love to fist her long, dark hair in my hands until it’s a rumpled mess, far from the perfect state it’s currently in.
She takes a seat, back perfectly straight. “Does Hamilton Heights ring any bells to you, Mr. Pace?” Her tone drips with sarcasm, like I couldn’t possibly remember one building out of the tens of buildings I’ve “destroyed” throughout Manhattan. If only she knew...
I smile at her like she’s the most important partner I’ve ever met with. “Of course. Eight stories, currently a walk-up. Needs significant renovation, but there’s room for sixteen luxury condos, plus accessibility features. At least one elevator.”
Her cheeks go a little pink. Bet you weren’t expecting that. I don’t fool around with my business. I make it a point to know everything I can about every one of my properties. I’m sure all the other real estate moguls she knows take a different approach.
“And a man like you, with a company like yours, probably has buyers lined up for each and every one of those already.”
“I’m holding a couple in reserve.”
“That’s so kind.”
I lean toward her, folding my arms on the surface of the desk. “This isn’t about luxury condos, though, is it, Ms. Gabriel? This is about your mother. I’m not sure what that would hav
e to do with the Hamilton Heights property, however. It’s unoccupied.”
“It’s not unoccupied.” Her eyes narrow, her mouth pressed into a thin line, and her expression—hard and fierce and unrelenting—makes my cock twitch in my pants. “It will be unoccupied once you’re finished forcing out all the current tenants.”
An alarm is ringing in the back of my mind. A man’s voice on the other end of the line: “Every single one of them, unoccupied. Sitting there, empty space.” He’d laughed, a deep rumble. “It’s best for everyone if you take it off my hands. I’m done with it. I’m done.”
Clearly, that’s not the case.
Ms. Gabriel goes on. “The building was one of the last in the neighborhood with rent-controlled spaces, so you can imagine how it felt to receive notice today that none other than Pace, Inc. has decided not to let any of the tenants renew their leases. Such a nice way to end a tenant relationship that’s lasted a decade.” Her expression is somewhere between a smirk and a scowl.
I’m torn neatly in two. The half of me that’s interested in peeling those clothes away from her body until there’s nothing between her flawless skin and the cool air of my office, watching her nipples pebble away from the swell of her breasts, putting my hands all over her, is insisting that I back down. I could smooth this over. I could tell her that this is all a misunderstanding—that in fact, the rarest occasion is happening right now. I was misled, and there was no follow-up. Someone at Pace, Inc. is going to be fired over this.
The other half of me is rising to the bait of her sneer. Nobody talks to me that way—not anymore. I’m the one who sits in the driver’s seat, and Ms. Gabriel is a guest in my office. She’s not a client, even if she’s sitting in the client’s seat.
I’m not backing down.
I fold my hands on the desk and meet her gaze without flinching. “I’m sorry to hear that your mother was upset.” I keep my voice even. “It’s…unfortunate when residents need to relocate, but the neighborhood will benefit in the long term.” I give her a big, wide smile. “Who knows? Your mother may even want to purchase one of the condos I’m holding in reserve. I’d be happy to hold one for her, if she’d like to come in and take a look at the floor plans.”
Her hands tighten on the arms of the chair, and the blush on her face deepens. She takes a long breath in through her nose, then inhales slowly out of her perfect lips. I’d like to see those lips, in that exact shade of red lipstick, wrapped around something more substantial than air.
I get ready for Ms. Gabriel to stand up and head for the door. I’ve made it abundantly clear that strolling into my office like this isn’t going to get her anywhere.
What happens next, I don’t see coming.
A slow smile spreads across her face, and then she chuckles, a sound low in her chest. “You know something, Mr. Pace?” Her breasts rise and fall underneath the silk shell she’s wearing beneath her blazer. “I think we got off on the wrong foot. I think…” Her voice trails off, and her green eyes linger on my face. “I think that if we try—if we really try—we could work this out.”
5
Isabella
Every word out of his mouth is a taunt, a tease…an invitation. I can’t ignore the way his voice sends tendrils of pure desire curling down my spine.
I also can’t ignore the fact that he’s being an unbelievable asshole about this.
Then there’s the other problem party in this discussion: yours truly. My mother’s voice echoes in my head, some old bullshit truism about catching more flies with honey. I should have centered myself on that before I charged up here.
The comment about my mother buying one of his luxury condos, though—that was the last straw.
I throw down the gauntlet, my words landing squarely in the air between us, and put on my very best apologetic-yet-sensual face. I watch the words register. I watch the look in eyes go from a ruthless determination to curiosity to something that looks suspiciously like need. Everything flashes through his expression in a matter of seconds, and then he shakes his head. “I don’t know about that, Ms.—”
I hold up both hands. “Let’s back up. Partners in such an—” I bite my lip, “—intimate discussion should be on a first-name basis.” I extend one hand toward him, feeling another inch of air on my cleavage as I lean forward. “I’m Isabella Gabriel.”
He flicks his gaze to my hand, then reaches out for it. At the touch of his palm against mine my entire body thrills, my nipples going hard against the lacy fabric of my bra. Damn Jasper Pace for being so hot.
“Jasper Pace,” he says, his firm grip lasting a second too long on mine. “But you already knew that.”
I sit back in my seat, raising a hand to my hair. “On some level, I guess.” I give him a rueful smile. “I thought you were going to be…you know, older.”
He laughs out loud, an easy laugh that untwists some of the anger knotted in my gut. “You probably meant to speak to my father, Declan Pace.” I roll my eyes a little—of course I did. “Better me than him. I don’t think he would appreciate being called a greedy bastard in his own office.”
I bite back the urge to tell him that his father would deserve the title. I take another breath in and tilt my head down, looking at Jasper from underneath my eyelashes. “I didn’t come here intending to say those things.”
“What did you intend to do?” Jasper’s blue eyes, the silver ring around his pupils catching the light streaming in through the ostentatiously huge windows lining two corners, burn into mine, suspicion and delight battling there. He probably feels superior, now that I’m backed into a corner.
And I’ll never admit it. I’ll never admit to anyone the way my heart is pounding, the way my stomach is knotting up again, because all this—all the angry words I’ve spit at him, all the fire in my chest, still won’t be enough if I can’t convince him to let my mother stay in her apartment. I took three more panicked phone calls on the way over, each worse than the last.
I never should have signed those contracts. If I’d been more sensible about it, I would have enough capital to negotiate with him on the level of the building. But I don’t. It’s all tied up in my own ambition.
I swallow hard, and it’s not for show. The rage that fueled my trip to Jasper’s Midtown offices can’t keep up with the heart-thudding attraction I’m fighting off right this very minute or the sickening guilt that rears its head every time the sound of my mother’s sobs creeps back into my head.
The grand ideas I had about negotiating with him on a financial level collapse under the weight of his gaze. What was I thinking, coming here like this, unprepared and upset? He’s so smug. I shouldn’t want to look at his face, much less the rest of him.
Why do I want to keep my eyes on his for the rest of the day? Maybe the rest of the week?
Get. A. Grip, Isa.
Jasper Pace is like every other man in Manhattan—arrogant, self-absorbed, and entirely unworthy of my emotions. He and Jason would have a lot to talk about. Jason’s confession is still ringing in my ears. She’s someone I couldn’t let go of, he’d said, trying his level best to look contrite. I know it was wrong. I never meant to hurt you.
Who the hell knows? Maybe Jason was too stupid to realize he’d ever get caught out with a second girlfriend. But Jasper? Jasper delights in making me squirm. I can see it on his face.
What he doesn’t know—what men like Jasper Pace never know—is that he’s not the only one who can play this game.
It comes to me in a flash. I don’t have any money to bargain with. All I have is the strange, heavy heat that hangs in the air between us. He knows how hot he is. He knows what effect he must have on most women.
He’s no match for me.
He’s no match for me—but I’m going to make him think that he is.
I bite my lip and look into his eyes like I’m seeing them for the first time. “I came here hoping to make a deal.”
“A deal? What kind of deal? The building is mine, Isabella.”<
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“I know.” I let my voice drop, sultry and smooth. “You have all the cards.” I press my lips together. “I want one of them. My mother—” I press my fingertips to my lips, shaking my head a little. “She worked all her life to move into that apartment. She’s prided herself on never missing a rent payment since she moved in. It’s everything to her.”
Jasper takes in a breath, leaning in. He thinks I didn’t notice the bulge in the front of his pants before he sat down. And I’ve got him now. I’ve almost got him.
Time to land this.
I put both hands on the very edge of his desk, my grip light, like I might need to grab on for dear life at any moment. “I’ll do anything, Jasper. Please, let her stay. Anything.”
6
Jasper
I can’t read the look on Isabella’s face, but her name echoes in my mind. I want to taste it on my tongue. I want to taste her on my tongue. And I don’t trust this shift in tactics. Five minutes ago, she was calling me a bastard from the doorway of my own office and looked ready to tear me into a thousand pieces.
The heat isn’t gone from her face. If anything, it’s almost intensified—but the words dripping from her lips are a breath away from begging, and it’s the most beautiful sound in the world. I’ll do anything, Jasper. Anything.
It’s only a shadow of how she’d sound if she was moaning my name, pleading for the kind of sweet release I’d play out for minutes—hours, if necessary. Her green eyes are wide, breasts lifting underneath the thin silk shell, and those lips—Jesus, those lips—parted while she waits for me to answer...
Isabella Gabriel is playing a dangerous game.
Can it really be all about her mother’s apartment?
It hardly matters to me whether the woman wants to move or not. If she wants to stay in the building badly enough, she’ll come up with the funds to buy one of the renovated condos. Hell, if it resolves the slight issue of the seller lying through his teeth to not only me, but Mike Ford, and who knows who else at Pace, Inc., it might be worth the cost.