Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 113584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 568(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 568(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
“You did!” He laughs. “After everything you told me this morning, you missed the news?”
“Fuck off, Leighton. I didn’t miss the news.” I want to punch my own face in. I’ve been so lost in emails, calls, and other outside lingering thoughts, I’ve not watched my notifications.
“Sure. You should have come to me, babe,” Leighton sings. “I would have shared my inside information.”
I stop, facing him. “What inside information?”
He smiles, smug, and gets on his way.
“Fuck it.” I grab my phone and call Jude. “Hey.”
“Hey, baby, how’s your day been?”
I push my way into my office and try to breathe. Can’t. All I can think about are the dozens of drafted letters on my computer waiting to be sent in the morning. I’m also considering the merits of calling the fuckhead at Hollenbeck who convinced me the plan was a no-brainer and threatening physical pain. It was a no-brainer, God damn it. Unless, of course, the bank’s on the brink of ruin. Which it was. That fucker must have known.
“I’ve had better.” What the hell am I going to do? It’s the end of the financial year, and I have precisely . . . I look at my mobile and breathe in. I have sixteen hours before the letters are sent and only another few days to get my clients’ approval to reinvest their money before the year-end deadline.
“Let me fix that. I’m just pulling up outside,” Jude says, and I cringe.
“I can’t come.” I switch my phone to my left hand so I can take my mouse, hissing and switching it straight back to my right hand.
“What?”
I look down at the dressing and see a few spots of blood seeping through. I need to change the dressing. “Can we do tomorrow night?”
“No,” he says, flat-out refusing. “We negotiated, and you agreed I got tonight.”
“Something’s gone wrong, Jude, and I need to fix it,” I explain, trying to give him some context. “I have a pile of letters in my email waiting to go out to clients tomorrow morning, and I just heard a merger has gone horribly wrong, so the shares have dropped like a rock. I have to stay late and rewrite my recommendations.” I place my hand over my head and breathe in deeply. This is a fucking disaster.
“Pack your laptop,” he says. “Bring your files.”
“What? And work at Arlington Hall?”
“Yes,” he says simply, as if it’s that simple.
“Jude, I have to work.” He’ll never let me concentrate, and neither will my mind if I know he’s nearby.
“I promise I will let you work. I’ve got to see you, Amelia. Today’s dragged unbearably. You can do what you have to do, and I won’t disturb you, I promise. I just want you close.”
He wants me close. Oh my heart.
“You’ve not missed me?” he asks.
“I’ve missed you.” Terribly. It hurts.
“Then pack your files and get that gorgeous arse down here.”
“Okay.” I can’t argue. I’m going to need a cuddle after this mammoth mission. “I’ll be downstairs in five.” I literally sweep my arm across my desk and shove everything into my bag, before gathering the files I need and rushing out, hurrying to the elevator.
I’m fidgety the whole way down, running over where to start, who with, what I can copy and paste, what I can’t. And, more importantly, what the hell am I recommending that’s equivalent to the Hollenbeck plan? I can’t even ask Gary, or any of the other partners, because then they’ll know I’ve fucked up. They can’t know I’ve fucked up.
As soon as the doors open, I worm my way past the crowds of people leaving the building and run across the lobby, and I’m thrown when I find one of the Rolls-Royces from Arlington Hall is waiting by the kerb, Humphrey at the wheel.
Jude gets out the back and comes to me, and God, he’s a sight for sore eyes. Suited. Stubbly. Drop-dead gorgeous. “You’re not driving?”
“I had an early dinner with my brother.”
“Which one?”
“The one who recently starred in his very own sex tape.”
“Oh my God, has it surfaced?”
“No.” He grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the lips, a moan of happiness reverberating at the back of his throat. Listless, I absorb every little bit of him against me.
“You look lovely,” I say, as always trying to find air after he’s kissed me like that.
Jude raises his brows and looks down his front. Then he takes in my cream dress. Smirks. “You were wearing this the first time I saw you.”
“It’s a favourite.”
“It should be. You look gorgeous in it. I think it’s one of mine too. Tell me about your day.”
“It started great. One of the partners, Sue, passed on a referral to me. It sounds like a big account to land. But I dropped the ball on a merger and now I’m paying for it, hence it’s ending on a low.”