Page 23 of Save Me (The Wolf Hotel Mermaid Beach #2)

C onnor plows through the door into the restroom just as I’m buckling my belt. “Fuck, man, that meal was up there with their wedding.” He’s not limping as much, at least, but his bottom lip has turned a darker shade of purple.

“What’d you have?”

“King crab, baby.” He unzips his pants in front of the urinal and unloads what must be several pints into the drain. “How’s dinner with the big boss going?”

“Probably as good as dinner sitting across from our general manager.” Given their earlier hookup, I would have expected Belinda to move Connor as far away from her as possible.

He tips his head back with a groan. “Dude, I didn’t think it was possible for her to hate me more, but I’m pretty sure she does. If she could reach me under the table, I think she would have speared my nuts with those fucking heels of hers by now. ”

I chuckle as I wash my hands. “Nah, you’re still useful to her.”

“You mean my dick is.” Connor finishes up and joins me at the sink. “So, how many times has Wolf fired you so far?”

“Hasn’t yet, but I’m waiting for it.” The guy likes to bide his time, feel in control. He’s said almost nothing directly to me through dinner, though I’m sure the snide comments to Sloane were meant to antagonize me. It worked. I nearly snapped more than once.

But Sloane beat me to the punch every time, tossing back words coated in animosity but decorated with a smile. She does not shrink around Henry Wolf like everyone else seems to, and that is sexy as hell.

“And what’s Margo up to?” Connor asks.

“Being Margo.” I replay her lewd proposal at the dinner table, delivered in French so neither Sloane nor Abbi understood a word.

“Let’s just say she was really hoping we might join them later in their room.

She wants to get to know Sloane better.” She already knows me well enough after a night of debauchery for Abbi’s birthday last year.

Connor’s eyebrow arches. “And you said no?”

“That’s not Sloane’s thing.” And having Joel—or any guy—around her is turning out to be not my thing. I joked about taking her butter knife away, but I nearly threw mine at that French fucker’s forehead earlier when I caught his eyes down her dress.

Damn it, Belinda. She could have seated us together, but she had to be a bitch. That can be remedied, though. I’m going to go out there and swap seats for dessert. I should have done it three courses ago. I’m the idiot for that.

“Well, I’m definitely not saying no.” Connor checks his hair in the mirror. The guy has had a perpetual hard-on for Margo for years. His dick stands up when he even hears her name, I swear to God.

“That’s fine. Just don’t be surprised when you look down and it’s not Margo’s lips around your cock.” From what Abbi’s hinted at, Joel might be a big fan of pussy, but he likes to get in on the action wherever he can.

“Huh? What do you mean?—”

The door swings open then, and Henry walks in.

“And on that note, don’t wait up for me.” Connor strolls out, tossing a “great dinner” on his way past.

There’s no need for me to linger either. I make my move for the door.

“Have you told her about my plans for Mermaid Beach yet?” Henry calls out.

His question stalls my feet. “If I had, do you think she would have sat through dinner?”

He unfastens his zipper. The sound of streaming urine fills the otherwise empty restroom. “Why not?”

“Because you told me not to.”

“As if you give a shit what I want. I also told you to stay away from her, and you brought her here tonight, introducing her as your girlfriend.”

“That was Abbi, not me.” Not that I’m complaining. It has a nice ring to it.

“So why haven’t you told her yet?” he presses.

I sigh heavily. “Because she’ll be devastated. You’re taking away her home, her business. Her life. And she’ll probably end things with me because of my ties to this hotel.”

“Yeah, you’re right. She probably will. She seems like a spiteful person.” He finishes up and moves to the sink to wash his hands. “So, what, tonight’s just a ‘fuck you’ to me? To show me how much you don’t care about my opinion?”

I chuckle, but there’s no mirth in the sound. “Contrary to what you think, everything is not about you.”

“For that woman out there, it is all about me. Everything to do with Mermaid Beach is about me.” He lathers soap over his palms as he checks his reflection in the mirror. “You don’t fight a dying battle for five years without some level of obsession.”

He’s not wrong. Sloane has been fueled by rage and hatred for far too long. I saw it in the beginning, when she found out I worked here and dismissed me in her next breath. “What’s your point?”

“My point is you’re an idiot for getting involved with her because it won’t end well for you, but you knew that, didn’t you?

That’s why you conned my wife into sitting in your corner for tonight.

Don’t worry, she didn’t admit to anything, but I can see what’s going on, what your cute little cabana time earlier was really about. ”

“You sound jealous.”

“Of you? What would I have to be jealous of?” Henry dries his hands with one of the high-end paper towels. “Abigail is my wife, and regardless of whatever twisted little bond you two forged, she’ll always choose me over you. You’ve known that, right from the start. ”

“No one’s arguing that.” It used to burn, that knowledge, the wish that it could be different.

“So then what’s the point of all this? You brought Sloane here. What do you think’s gonna happen next? That I’ll abandon a multimillion-dollar plan to revitalize this area? For her? For you?”

That’s the problem with Henry; he’s too goddamn smart. One of many problems I have with him. “Mermaid Beach doesn’t need revitalizing. It’s perfect as it is.”

“That’s where you and I differ in our opinion.

I see great potential, and given I’m the one with the fucking global hotel chain, I think I know what I’m talking about.

” His polished dress shoes scrape across the marble floor as he saunters toward me.

“It’s just business. It’s not personal.” A slow smile curves his lips. “Well, maybe a little personal.”

Who’s the spiteful one now?

“She’s gonna fight this in court, and she’ll drag it out for years. I’ll make sure of it.” I charge out, my body vibrating with rage.

He’s right on my heels, his hand like a vise on my forearm to stall me. “And what do you think fighting again will do to her?”

“Nothing worse than what you’re planning on doing to her life,” I spit back, yanking my arm from his grip. “Imagine if some rich cocksucker showed up and forced you out of Wolf Cove.”

He smirks. “That’s impossible. I’m always the richest cocksucker around.”

“Yeah, with the least amount of empathy, you callous prick. ”

His smugness evaporates as his teeth clench. He opens his mouth to respond, but a bald man strolls past, on his way to the bathroom. Lena’s accountant husband, based on where he was seated during dinner.

It gives us a moment to calm down before we start shouting and cause a scene.

“My, they’re getting along well,” Henry murmurs.

Abbi and Sloane are huddled over their desserts, locked in a deep conversation, Abbi’s hand clamped over Sloane’s.

While I’ve been assaulted by Margo’s incessant sexual innuendos and Henry’s silent glowers, those two have been chattering nonstop, Sloane peppering Abbi with questions about her pregnancy, Abbi getting all of Sloane’s family history here in Mermaid Beach.

“Good.” It’s what I wanted to happen. Part of it, anyway.

Henry harrumphs, watching them. “She may have been a royal pain in my ass, but she is beautiful. I can work with that.”

I frown. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He shrugs nonchalantly. “There’s more than one way to get a woman to bend to your will, right? Maybe I should fuck the resistance out of her.”

A flare of anger unfurls in my stomach, igniting the blood in my veins.

Did I just hear that correctly? “You’re toying with the idea of cheating on your pregnant wife, on Abbi , and fucking my woman?

” Because with every passing minute I spend with Sloane, I’m more and more determined to make her mine.

“Cheating? No.” Henry snorts. “Abbi would be there and participating. You know how she is. ”

“No.” Those days are done and have been since the wedding. Abbi told me herself.

“You can be there too. It wouldn’t be the first time you watched, right? Actually, if I recall, you owe me. How about this time, I’ll come from behind?—”

My knuckles make a sick cracking sound as my fist collides with his face.