Page 30 of Lucas (The Valeur Billionaires #2)

“What do you mean? When have I lied?”

“What was that at lunch with Michelle? Lie after lie. You didn’t even blink. You spout them so easily like you’re used to lying on a daily basis. I’m sure your heart rate doesn’t even rise. If you have one at all. ”

“I don’t lie on a daily basis. Those were harmless white lies. And I do have a heart.” He takes my hand and places it on his chest, right where the buttons of his shirt are open and his bronzed skin is exposed. “You can feel it.”

I gasp, my pulse racing. His warm skin under my palm, my fingertips hovering over his flesh, over the hard muscle. The beat of his heart is definitely palpable.

Boom. Boom.

Boom. Boom.

Or is that my heartbeat?

I’m standing with my hand on his chest. He’s not holding me or touching me. I’m the one touching him. We stand facing each other in the middle of the sidewalk. People flow around us from every direction, and we’re in the center, caught in each other’s gaze.

“Fuck, Ava,” Lucas whispers.

I gasp as he utters my name, the rough rasp of it sending liquid heat coursing through my veins.

It would be so easy to rise on my toes, to close the distance between us and capture that sinful mouth with my own.

To sink my fingers into his hair and take what I want, what I need, like the very air in my lungs.

His chest rises and falls beneath my splayed hand, and the wild drum of his heart is hard against my palm. It matches my own chaotic rhythm beat for thunderous beat, betraying the desperate want that consumes us both.

I drag my gaze down to that tempting sliver of bronzed skin revealed by the open collar of his shirt. It begs to be touched, to be tasted. Worshipped with lips and teeth and tongue until he’s trembling and incoherent with need.

Something is wrong with me. I should stay away .

What will happen the moment he sees the documents?

I push him away. “I need to get back to the office.”

“Ava, wait,” he calls after me, hurrying to catch up.

I don’t wait, just increase my stride.

“What just happened there, Ava? Why are you running?”

“Nothing happened, and I’m not running. I have work to do. And I need to find your damn documents.”

“Okay.” Lucas looks confused for a moment, then slips back into business executive mode.

“I’ve prepared a recovery plan for Gant Construction that I want us to review together.

I’d like to implement the first phase within the next month.

The company’s situation is worse than I thought. I can come to your office now?—”

“No!” I bark. My office is filled with binders from which I’m trying to sift out any documents he didn’t explicitly request. It’s all a mess on my desk. He can’t see that.

He nods, but his eyes flash. “All right. I’ll send you the file, and you can go over it alone. Call me if there’s anything you need.”

“I need nothing from you.”

“Right. Nothing. Nothing but two hundred million dollars.”

I scan through the folder Lucas sent, my shoulders sagging with each page I read. His recovery plan includes laying off thirty percent of Gant Construction’s workforce.

This isn’t a recovery, it’s murder.

Cutting into living flesh .

Everything I’ve tried to avoid these past months, all my hard work—seeking out new projects, planning for the future, cutting costs. And this arrogant man waltzes in, thinking he knows best, ready to fire a third of my staff with a snap of his fingers.

Who do I let go? The older, experienced workers who’ve given their lives to this company and won’t find new jobs easily? Or the young laborers doing backbreaking work, without whom I can’t take on new projects?

Damn it all.

I’m not doing this. Not until I’ve exhausted every other solution.

I’m not firing anyone from Gant. Forget it.

Lucas

Maybe you’re a spoiled princess used to getting her way, but this is real business. And I’m your boss now. If I say fire them, you’ll do it.

Spoiled princess? After everything I’ve told him, that’s what he thinks of me? That I’m spoiled?

Jaw clenched, I sketch a man in a suit on a sheet of paper, replacing his head with a pile of shit. Then I slip it into the binder with his proposed plan and call for Bridget.

“I need you to take this to Lucas Valeur right now.” I thrust the binder at my secretary. “Directly to him.”

“I’m just?—”

“Now,” I command, my tone brooking no argument.

She nods, eyes wide. “Okay.” Taking the binder, she scurries out .

The text comes only minutes later.

Lucas

What the hell is this supposed to be?

Guess he got my response.

I toss my phone on the desk and gather the remaining files into a neat stack. Bastard. I have to find another way, something to save my employees.

Jason Drewlo’s hopeful eyes flash through my mind, the same eyes that haunt me every day when I arrive at the office. His pleading request.

“My daughter was just born…”

Valeur’s plan will force me to fire him.

The office door slams open, and I jump, stumbling back a step. “What are you doing here?”

“What did you send me?” Lucas demands, all coiled intensity as he stalks into my office.

I straighten my spine and jut out my chin. “Thought you’d appreciate a self-portrait.”

His jaw ticks, a muscle jumping beneath taut skin. “You’ve made your point. Cute. Now, we need to implement my plan. I want a preliminary list of layoffs on my desk within the week.”

“No.”

He prowls closer, one large hand braced on my desk as he leans in. “Come again?”

I tilt my head, meeting his glare head-on. “I know you’re not used to hearing the word, but no means no. I’m not firing anyone or implementing your plan.”

“I don’t think you understand the position you’re in.” His voice is sharp and low. “I own Gant Construction now. I have final say over every move you make. I’m your superior. You don’t get to refuse me.”

“Oh really?” Rounding the desk, I plant myself toe-to-toe with him, close enough to feel the angry heat rolling off his body.

Maybe he’s used to his minions cowering in fear, jumping to follow his every whim.

But I’m not afraid of him. “What are you going to do, Lucas? Fire me? You don’t have the authority.

I’m not beneath you, and I never will be. ”

Something flares in his eyes, hot and hungry. “Never say never, Wifey.” His voice drops an octave, gravel and sin. “And if you end up beneath me, Ava... I promise you’ll never forget it.”

My pulse kicks into overdrive, but I refuse to let him see how much he affects me. How much I want exactly what he’s implying.

“You think you can solve everything with sexual innuendo, is that it?” I ask, holding my ground even as his nearness makes me dizzy. Makes me ache. “Flash that panty-dropping smile, stand close enough for me to smell your cologne, give me that look, and I’ll just fall in line?”

“What look?” he murmurs, dipping his head until his lips hover a breath from mine.

I don’t back down, even as my heart pounds a frenzied staccato against my ribs. Even as my body screams for his touch, his taste. I have to focus, have to make him understand.

“Some of the employees at Gant have been here twenty years. They’re loyal, they don’t know anything else.

They have families to support and nowhere else to go.

You want me to throw them to the wolves because it’s the easy solution?

I won’t do it. Not until I’ve tried everything else.

I can’t destroy this company because of my father’s mistakes. ”

Lucas’s brow furrows, blue eyes searching mine. “Your father’s mistakes?”

“Yes,” I grit out, my breath sawing in and out of my lungs. My teeth worry at my lower lip, nerves scraped raw and exposed. “My father’s.”