Mr. Big Shot: An Enemies To Lovers Romance (Kinda Cocky Book 1), стр. 13
“Okay, Mr. Hearthstone.”
“Great. I’ll have my lawyer draw up the paperwork, and it will be in your mailbox Monday morning. I expect it signed, notarized, and returned back to me by the end of the week. Any issues with that?”
“Nope.”
“All right. It sounds like we have a plan. It’s been wonderful doing busi--.”
I heard the line click, and I chuckled to myself. Ah, they were always such spoilsports. I smiled as I shot an email to my lawyer, letting him know what was going on and what I needed. I gave him the timeline, told him to bill me for his weekend work, then slid my phone back into my pocket.
And as my eyes studied the entrance to the club, guilt washed over me.
You treated her like shit.
But maybe I wasn’t too late. Maybe she’d still let me make it up to her.
7
Karina
A voice rose from behind me. “I’d like to apologize!”
I jumped at the sound. The stalwart, loud voice trumpeting behind me. Above the beating of the music and the smell of stale booze filling the air, I quickly whipped around to find Zane standing behind me. He had a cheeky grin on his face and a bright pink drink in his hand. No doubt, another one of those very delicious strawberry margaritas.
And when he held it out to me, I took it.
“If you keep buying me these, you’ll have to carry me out!” I yelled over the music.
He stepped closer. “And I’d make sure you got home safely, too.”
His cologne reminded me of the time I went running through the woods with my mother catching fireflies. How the leaves and the air overwhelmed me while the twinkling little creatures guided me deeper into their world. His cologne pulled me there. Deeper into his world. And as I took a step toward him, I felt his body heat reaching for me.
Radiating, and wrapping around me.
Just like his cologne wrapped around my head.
“I really am sorry,” Zane said.
I shook my head. “I understand the need for work. When I am working, I’m fully focused on that and nothing else.”
He nodded. “It’s nice to finally meet someone who understands that concept.”
I giggled. “Well, don’t get me wrong. I leave work at work. Then again, I also don’t own my own business. So, I’m not the one to be taking advice from.”
“Huh. Leaving work at work. What a monumental idea.”
I smiled. “At any rate, your apology is accepted.”
“I have a tendency to be a workaholic like my father.”
“You don’t sound proud of that fact.”
Zane shrugged. “It’s nothing to be proud of. But, it is what it is. Someone has to hold down the fort while others fraternize.”
He nodded over my shoulder, and I turned around. Roxy was standing at the balcony, swaying her hips and throwing back a shot of yellow liquid. And Kelly? Well, she was on the couch with Brenden. I watched him whisper something in her ear, and she smiled at him before their foreheads connected.
“Doesn’t he have a girlfriend?” I asked.
Zane stepped up beside me. “Trust me, that never stops him.”
“It usually stops Kelly,” I said taking a sip of my drink.
“Ah, they’ve been on and off since sophomore year. And I’m sure that’ll never change.”
I tilted my head to the side. “I’ve never seen her smile like that before.”
“To be honest? Brenden doesn’t smile like that with anyone else, either.”
I looked up at him. “So, what’s the issue?”
He snickered. “Brenden’s a manwhore. That’s the issue.”
I threw my head back with laughter as his chuckle washed over me. I felt my skin prickling as if the sun had drifted my way and was determined to melt my inner ice castle. I wanted to be closer to him. I wanted to wrap my arms around him. I wanted to steal his warmth for my own and inhale his cologne until my nose became used to the smell.
But, I settled for sipping on my drink.
“Did I get the right one?” Zane asked.
I nodded. “You did. Though I might end up needing some food after this one.”
“Well, allow me to offer you food that is anywhere but here.”
“Anywhere but here, huh?” I asked quizzically.
He nodded. “Yes. Because that gives me an excuse to ask if you’d like to get out of here. Which, of course, gets me out of here.”
“Ah, so I’m just the excuse to leave.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I can leave at any point in time. Brenden is so preoccupied that he won’t notice at this point. But, I’d much rather have your company in the process.”
I leaned closer and whispered in his ear. “Well, why don’t we share a drink and see where that takes us?”
One drink became two, and two became three. And by the time Zane and I set our sights on food, we were both stumbling our way out the door. He flagged down a cab, and he rattled his address off. But, when the driver scrunched up his nose, I hiccuped.
Then, I interjected. “Yeah, I think my place is closer.”
I spouted off my address in Henderson, and the driver looked a bit more relieved. Zane kept telling terrible jokes, and, for some reason, they tickled my funny bone. It seemed only moments before the cab driver dropped us off at my place, and we made our way inside. I kept grabbing onto him, holding him tightly for support. And it wasn’t until we finally got my front door closed that he whipped me around.
Pressing my back against it.
“You are…”
I looked up at him as he licked his lips.
“Yeah?” I asked softly.
His eyes fluttered closed. “What kind of perfume are you wearing?”
I grinned. “You like it?”
“I haven’t been able to stop focusing on it.”
“It’s something called Code Luna. My mother got it for me for Christmas last year.”
His hands gripped my upper arms. “It smells… divine.”
His gaze held my stare, and I couldn't stand it a second longer. I