Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 92734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
But none of that seemed to matter when he was with Carrigan.
He forced himself to set aside the feel-good sensation being around Carrigan brought him. There was nothing he wanted more than to dwell on how amazing she’d felt squeezing his cock, and how much he wanted to get inside her again at the soonest available opportunity. But he couldn’t afford to be any more distracted right now than he already was.
And he was seriously fucking distracted.
But Ricky was waiting, and so was the real world.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Carrigan spent the next week keeping busy and avoiding all the things she didn’t want to think about. The list was getting kind of ridiculous. She’d had a hell of a time keeping a straight face during Mass on Sunday while the priest went on about original sin. Her mind kept going back to the feeling of James’s hands on her skin and his voice in her ear. If that was a sin, she had no interest in being a saint.
She knew she should get the rest of the dates out of the way, but Monday slipped by while she wasn’t paying attention, and she spent nearly all of Tuesday with Callie, hiding out from Aileen and her last-second wedding plans. And then she blinked and it was Friday and she’d managed to get through six whole days without picking up the phone and dialing James.
He had a lot of nerve saying he’d be there for her. She’d have to be a fool to trust him. It was more than their shared history, though that should be more than reason enough. She didn’t trust anyone beyond family—and she didn’t even trust her family half the time. People had a nasty tendency to put themselves first when she needed them most.
The only person she could trust to take care of her was her.
Which meant it was time to stop dragging her heels and get through these dates. Her fate wasn’t going to magically change in the next few weeks, and the longer she waited for the initial dates, the less time she’d have to actually make a decision. Holding off wasn’t going to hurt anyone but her, so she wasn’t going to wait any longer.
She moved on to the next two names on her list. Kellen O’Neill. Dmitri Romanov. An hour of Internet searching later, she had little to no information on either of them. Kellen O’Neill was a pretty common name, and the only Dmitri Romanov she could get a bead on was some Russian prince who may or may not be fictional. Probably not her guy.
Resigning herself to not knowing a damn thing about these men before she met them, she dialed the number next to Kellen’s name. Ten minutes later she had a date for dinner that evening. He hadn’t even hesitated. It was hard to tell on the phone, but he sounded young and eager. Neither one was a turn-on, but it might mean he was easy to manipulate. She filed that away in the back of her mind and dialed the next number.
“Dmitri Romanov.”
She blinked. She’d expected someone Russian from the name, but he sounded… She shook her head. “This is Carrigan O’Malley. I’ve been given to understand you’re interested in linking your assets to my father’s.” Such a careful way of prettying up what this really was—her father selling her off to further his business.
“You understand correctly.”
“I’d like to meet with you, this afternoon if possible.” Knocking off two of the names today would keep her busy—and keep her mind off James.
Dmitri chuckled. “I’ll clear my schedule. Shall I meet you at three?”
“That would be perfect.” This Dmitri didn’t sound like the type of man to paw at her uninvited, so there was absolutely no reason she should so much as talk to James today. Good.
“I look forward to meeting you, Carrigan.” His accent gave her name an exotic roll, and she couldn’t stop a shiver. Damn. “Enjoy your day.” And then he was gone, leaving her feeling vaguely unsettled.
Dmitri Romanov wasn’t a man to be underestimated.
She frowned. They’d exchanged a handful of words. He’d canceled his plans to meet her. There was absolutely nothing in what he’d said that should be making her skin twitch like she was surrounded by danger she couldn’t see. So why is my stomach in knots and my heart beating too hard? She set her phone down next to her on her bed. Growing up in the house of a powerful and ruthless man, it made sense that some part of her instinctively recognized it in this stranger, even over the phone. That had to be it.
Chauncey had been a pig. She got the feeling that Kellen was a puppy. Dmitri… well, Dmitri was something else altogether.
A knock on her door was all the warning she got before her mother swept into the room, her dark hair perfectly styled, her makeup flawless, and her pantsuit looking like she was ready for brunch. Aileen took in the space with a critical eye, and finally settled on Carrigan. “You had a date last night with one of your father’s candidates.”