Page 60 of The Arrogant One

“I’m going to try my hardest not to be a grump, but it’s what”—Sadie paused—“only a little past eight, and I’m just taking my first sip of coffee, so I have a long way to go before I’m caffeinated.”

The sound of her always did two things to me.

The first was put this foolish fucking expression on my face.

The second was that she immediately made my dick hard.

“You don’t have to say much at all,” I told her. “I just wanted to wish you a good morning and hear your voice.”

“Aw. You’re sweet.”

I finally turned at the light. “I don’t know if that’s true. I’m ready to get in our jet and fly to where I need to be before I rip someone’s face off. The traffic is bullshit today.”

“You have no idea how happy I am that I work from home. I could not deal with that bumper-to-bumper chaos every day.”

I thrummed the steering wheel with my thumbs as thecars in front of me began to get backed up again. “If I didn’t have a meeting in ten minutes, my ass would be working from home too.”

“Oh, I forgot to text you before I went to bed and ask how Horned was. Did you and your brother have a good dinner?”

Fuck my life.

Horned was the whole reason I was even going into the office today.

But what I couldn’t get out of my head was the text conversation I’d had with her about it. She loved it there; she’d talked it up, using the highest praise to describe her meal, like there was no better food to be found in the whole state.

First Dear Foodie. Then Eden. Now Sadie.

All opinions I could confirm since Beck and I had eaten there.

And all that did was reinforce my decision—a decision Beck and I were going to pitch to Walker today.

“It was just like you said it was. In fact, I’ll use your exact words—blown away and one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in a while.”

And Walker wasn’t going to want to hear that. I was already mentally preparing for the war that was going to take place in our conference room.

“Did you get the butter cake?” she asked.

“Sure did,” I exhaled, wishing I had another piece right now. “Honestly, I could have eaten ten of them—it was that good.”

Which had fucking killed Beck and me to admit because it was better than our cheesecake, our signature dessert at Charred. Another thing Walker was going to lose his shit over.

Our family had a lot to talk about today.

“Yay, I’m so happy you loved it.”

I was tempted to explain why me loving it was a complicatedscenario. But Sadie didn’t know why I’d gone to Horned—either time. We hadn’t discussed The Weston Group, and the only siblings I’d called out by first name were the unfamous ones. Our family business and my famous brothers were topics women loved to bring up to me once they found out my last name.

Maybe Sadie knew and was waiting for the right time to mention it. Maybe it didn’t matter to her, and she had no interest in talking about it at all. Or maybe she didn’t know, and sometime soon, I would reveal that part of me, the same way she would eventually invite me to her place.

But for once, it was a goddamn relief to not have a woman drill me on the mysterious, world-renowned Walker Weston; the wild Beck Weston, a multi–Stanley Cup winner; or the hundreds of restaurants we owned.

That was only part of my life. The more important part? That was what Sadie was really getting to know.

“Tell me, what are you doing tomorrow night?” I inquired.

“Mmm. Work? Yeah, lots of work, I think.”

I was relieved as hell to see the high-rise of our corporate office up ahead, knowing I’d only have to put up with this bullshit traffic for a few more minutes before I had to tackle a whole other battle.