Page 23 of The Arrogant One

I waited until it felt right, and when that moment never came, I replied, “I’m not.”

“You’re telling me you went to Laguna Beach for the night, booked a hotel so you wouldn’t have to drive home, went to a restaurant I’d assigned you to eat at—not as a personal assignment, but as a work one—and you aborted the mission. For a fucking woman.”

“That’s what I’m telling you.”

“Hart …” His tone was sharp and unforgiving. “I asked you for one thing, and you chose pussy.”

“It wasn’t just pussy. It was the best pussy I’ve ever had in my life.” I rubbed my hand around the leather of the steering wheel, like it was the skin of Sadie’s navel, and I smiled. “I’ll head back to Laguna sometime in the next week and have dinner at Horned.”

“Don’t bother. I’ll send Eden. At least I know she won’t find some random dude and go home with him instead of completing the task.”

“Walker, that’s a little extreme.”

“Call it anything you want, but I’m not giving up our placement as the best steak house in Laguna to some fucking no-name chef and a backer with a large bankroll. We’ve worked far too hard to get to where we are.”

“We’re not losing anything, don’t worry.” I huffed out some air as I slowed for the light, knowing I needed to change the mood. “For what it’s worth, she was gorgeous. I’m talking the most gorgeous ever.”

“Do you think that helps your defense?” He waited. “It’s not like she’s going to become your wife or, shit, even your girlfriend. Knowing you, you didn’t even get her number.”

“Says the dude who’s forever single …”

“Because if I’m not in a goddamn meeting, I’m in the kitchen. How the hell am I supposed to find a woman when I’m married to a fucking gas range?”

I laughed. “Just don’t stick it in that gas range, please.”

“Asshole.”

I came to a stop at the red light. “I want you to know, the only reason I didn’t get this one’s number is because she’d left this morning while I was still asleep.”

“You’re telling me, if you’d been awake, you would have asked for her number?”

Those images that had come into my head earlier, the ones that recapped last night, reappeared. “Maybe.” I bit my lip, remembering another interesting twist to the evening, and I reached into my pocket, pulling out her red lace panties, and held them to my nose. Goddamn, that scent. If she was in this car, I’d pull over right here and eat that pussy. “But if I could be guaranteed a repeat of last night, fuck yes.”

“I’m sure you can find her. There’s this thing called Google, you know.”

“I never got her last name.”

He laughed. “Of course you didn’t.” He continued, “Do you regret that?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“I don’t know, Hart, I think it does. In all the years and all the women you’ve slept with, I’ve never heard you talk about getting one of their numbers.”

I tucked the panties back into my pocket as the light turned green and shifted into first. “There’s no way I can get it, so there’s no point in even talkingabout it.”

“Just like I thought, you regret it.”

“First you come at me about not eating dinner, and now you’re making me feel like shit that I didn’t get her fucking number.” I shook my head. “If you were in front of me, I’d flip you off.”

“And since I’m not?”

“I’m going to hang up on you … dickhead.”

FOUR

Sadie

My fingers tapped on the keyboard while I sat at the desk in my home office, but not a single one of those letters appeared on the screen. Because I wasn’t actually pushing the keys. I was just gently clicking my nails against them, hoping that the article would miraculously write itself.