Chapter Seven
Reese
The entire drive downtown, my thoughts are consumed with Ava. I hate leaving her in the hotel room, but there is no way Leon Anderson can even get a sniff of her. Even her presence here would be enough to aggravate him. And I’m not arrogant enough to aggravate Leon Anderson more than I need to.
He’s threatening to make trouble in my supply train, and I need to put him in his place once and for all.
Although if Ava had asked me to stay with her in that hotel room, I would have let the entire business go to the dogs for one taste of her.
My cock aches for relief, and I shuffle in the seat, trying to ease the pressure that’s been building since she first walked into my office and then almost exploded when I watched her come on my personal jet. If she hadn’t been so spaced out on Xanax, I would have taken her then and there.
But my petite firecracker hasn’t caught up yet with what this ‘thing’ is between us. She doesn’t know yet that she’s it for me. She’s hot and cold, fighting her feelings for me, but she’ll get there eventually. She’ll realize she’s in love with me. Because yeah, I am that arrogant.
I pull up across the road from Viper Girls just as my phone rings.
My heart misses a beat when Ava’s name appears on the screen.
“You missing me already, baby?”
She huffs down the phone and I chuckle silently.
“Don’t make me regret this decision.”
I’m not sure what it is, but I love riling her up. I can imagine her green eyes narrowing, the huffy pout of her lips… My dick jumps to attention, straining against my pants. Christ, I need to stop fantasizing about Ava or the doorman at the club’s going to think I’m packing.
“I’ll do it.” Her words bring me back to the present, and for a wild moment, I think she’s agreeing to getting down on her knees and…
“I’ll model for you.”
She says it quickly like she could change her mind at any moment. I take a shaky breath as I run my hand through my hair. Modeling. She’s agreeing to model. Nothing else… yet.
“I knew you’d come around.”
She lets out an exasperated sigh. “I might change my mind so don’t presume anything, jerkwad.”
I chuckle at the insult. I’ve been called a lot of things but never jerkwad. It’s almost cute coming from her mouth.
“I prefer it when you call me Sir.” I pitch my voice low like a purr and am rewarded when she sucks in a breath.
I imagine her eyes widening and her pussy dampening as she battles with herself, trying not to give in to her attraction to me.
“There’s a condition,” she stammers.
It better be something to do with having to test out all the toys with me first.
“Go on.”
“That million dollars you mentioned…”
“I’ll have my accountant make the transfer.”
Ava goes silent, which is unusual for her. I’m discovering there’s not a lot I say that she doesn’t have a witty response for.
“Do you really have that much money to fritter away?”
It’s not frittering it away if it’s for her. I’ll give this woman my entire fortune if that’s what she wants.
I’ll have to pull some investments and my accountant will flip the fuck out, but if Ava wants a million dollars, then I’ll get her a million dollars.
“I have enough.”
She takes a moment to speak again, and I hope I haven’t scared her away. Most women I meet can’t wait to get their hands on my fortune, but I don’t get that from Ava.
“I don’t want it for me. I want the money to go to the Texas Kitten Rescue.”
“Done.”
If she wants to save every fucking cat on the planet, I’ll do it for her. Whatever Ava wants, she can have. This isn’t even about the photoshoot anymore. This is about giving my girl what she wants. And the reason she wants that money—not for herself but to save ungrateful felines that will snub you, scratch your furniture, and piss on your carpet without even a backward glance—makes my heart squeeze.
My girl’s not only beautiful, witty, and smart; she’s kind and generous, too.
Ava will be perfect for our range. Exactly the confident, curvy, modern woman we want to associate with our products.
“What made you change your mind?”
She sighs. “There are only two things I’ve ever wanted from life. One is to keep up the family tradition of being married at twenty-four, and the other is to give cats a chance for a happy home. There’s no way the first one’s going to happen, but if my parading around with sex toys helps save just one kitten, then I’ve done something good for the world.”
She’s done something good for the world just by being in it. But she’s not ready to hear that yet.
I give her details about the shoot and promise to meet her back at the hotel when I’m done. I’m already five minutes late for Leon, and he’s not a man who likes to be kept waiting.
***
Thumping base and flashing lights accost me as soon as I step through the doors and into Viper Girls.
The man at the door speaks into his earpiece and then indicates for me to follow him. We pass through a glittery gold curtain that’s as tacky as the outfit the waitress who breezes past me wears. It’s all gold tinsel, fluffy boas, and painted-on smiles, reminding me of all the reasons I left Vegas.
The smell of stale beer mingles with cheap perfume in a funky haze of dry ice that hovers just above the raised stage. Two poles are positioned at either end of the stage where women perform to a bored audience.
The clientele are mostly men on their own nursing a drink, aside from one loud group wearing matching stag t-shirts that are way too drunk for this time of day. But hey, this is Vegas where all your dreams come true, as long as those dreams are day drinking and bored strippers.
As we move through the club, I note the exits and number of security guards in case I have to leave in a hurry.
It’s a risk coming here on my own but also a statement. I won’t be cowed by Leon fucking Anderson. Whatever agreement he thought we had, he needs to know it’s not happening and I won’t be bullied into a deal.
I follow his man up an open staircase and through a door to a private room that overlooks the club.
Two more guards are at the door and one of them frisks me as I step inside. The only weapon I’m packing is the hard wood I’m ready to shoot at Ava. I’ve come here in peace and plan to leave the same way.
Leon is facing a floor-to-ceiling window that looks out over the club. His colorful shirt is held up with suspenders and a snakeskin bag sits at his hip. There’s a weird snakeskin scarf around his neck. The guy’s style is as eccentric as my mother’s.
Thoughts of my mother make my head ache. She’s the one who got me into this mess in the first place.
“Take a seat, Mr. Donovan.”
Leon turns around and the scarf around his neck moves. A tiny head slithers forward, and I see it’s not a scarf but an actual fucking snake. A Mojave desert sidewinder as anyone who’s grown up around here would know because you’re warned to look out for the venomous fuckers. One bite can kill a man.
“Thank you for flying all this way to meet with me.”
He sits opposite me on a leather sofa, a coffee table between us, which I’m grateful for because if that fucking snake comes anywhere near me, I’ll stomp on it.
“I didn’t fly out to meet you, Leon. I have business in town.”
He smiles at me, and it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Ah, yes, the spring range shoot. Important to get that one right.”
I don’t like it that he knows so much about my business. The man needs to keep his nose in his own affairs.
“I hear your model had a little accident.”
He caresses the snake’s body, and the snake sticks its tongue out, sensing the air.
“It’s none of your damn business.”
I aim for a nonchalant tone but my mind’s reeling. The model was a no-show, but Declan didn’t explain what happened. I don’t know how the fuck Leon knows so much about my business, but it makes my gut ache as well as my head.
“I like to keep myself informed,” he says as if reading my mind. “Since we’re going to be family.”
I grit my teeth and vow to kill my mother the next time I see her.
“We’re not going to be family, Leon. I’ve told you before, it’s not happening.”
Leon leans forward, and the snake slides down the front of his shirt and over his knee.
“And I’ve told you, Reese, breaking the engagement could cause problems with your supply chain.”
“There was no engagement. You and my mother cooked up this little alliance, but for there to be an engagement, there has to be a proposal, and there was no proposal. I did not propose to Daniella.”
Leon waves his hand dismissively. “In the old country, a marriage contract was decided between the parents of the betrothed.”
The snake slithers off his knee and onto the coffee table, its tongue darting out as it tests the air.
“Felicity’s hungry,” Leon explains.
If he’s trying to intimidate me, it’s working. I hate fucking snakes, and Leon’s just unhinged enough to have the thing bite me. But I won’t let him see that he’s getting to me.
Despite the venomous creature on the table, I force my gaze off it and fix Leon with a steely look.
“This isn’t the fucking old country, Leon. This is Las Vegas, USA. In this country, marriage is consensual between the two parties. If you want the old ways, I suggest you fuck off back to Italy. I’m not marrying your daughter. No matter what you and my crazy mother agreed.”
I’m not even sure Leon is really Italian. There’s nothing Italian about his surname or his looks. Rumor has it he married an Italian woman so he could legitimize his ideas about what he thought a mobster should be.
He smiles, his eyes darting to the snake. I force myself to wait a beat before I look down. The fucking thing is over my side of the table with its head raised as it sniffs between my legs.
I stare at it, wondering how big your balls swell after being bitten by a viper.
Leon reaches across the table and wraps his hand around the snake. I catch several dark puncture marks on his hand. The man must get bitten all the time and he still plays with the damn things.
The snake coils itself around his arm and slithers back to its perch around his neck.
“I’m going to ignore that insult to my daughter.” He sits back on the sofa and closes his eyes as the snake coils around his neck. “We both know Daniella’s a prize most men would kill for.”
He’s not wrong. Daniella is beautiful, rich, and from a powerful family. But she’s also spoiled, demanding, and comes with a parent that might just be more eccentric than my own.
There was zero chemistry when I agreed, after hounding from my mother, to take her on a date. But thanks to the meddling of our parents, that date seems to somehow have turned into a marriage contract.
“Come on, Reese. You were desperate enough to advertise for a bride, and I’m offering you Las Vegas’s most eligible woman. It’s a perfect match.”
He strokes the snake, and the creature turns its head toward its master. Leon puckers his lips and kisses the top of its head.
I have to control my face not to wince. A perceived insult to his daughter is bad enough. I hate to think what he’d do if I insulted Felicity as well.
“My mother put those ads out. I’m not looking for a bride.”
“Your mother and I have drawn up a contract. We just need you to sign.”
“My mother is a meddling busybody whose want of grandchildren is greater than her common sense.”
Leon slams a fist down on the table, making the snake hiss.
“I will not tolerate a bad word said about your mother. Nina is a fine woman, beautiful, ballsy, and her style…” He actually chef’s kisses his fingers. “Her style in incomparable.”
He gets a faraway look in his eyes, and fuck me, I realize the old gangster’s crushing on my mother.
“Your mother came to me with the idea, and she was… very persuasive.” When he licks his lips and almost blushes, I can’t even think about what that means.
I’m reeling from the thought of Leon and my mother, his snakelike lips on her, multicolored clothing strewn on the floor…
I shake my head to get the image out of my mind.
“Whatever you agreed to with my mother, it has nothing to do with me,” I grit out. “I make my own decisions, Leon, and while I’m honored you thought of me—Daniella is a beautiful woman—I won’t be marrying her.”
I hold his gaze so he knows I’m not backing down on this. I will not be forced into marriage by my meddling mother and a gangster who wants a cut of my business, and it appears a slice of my mother, too.
“I can make things difficult for you,” he murmurs, stroking the body of the snake.
I anticipated this. I moved the head office of Aurora to Porter to get away from Vegas, but the manufacturing still takes place here. It’s a liability having a pissed-off mobster controlling the highways I need to move my goods.
I’ve been hunting for manufacturing plants in Texas and will be moving all operations there as soon as I get the factory set up. I’ve kept it secret so Leon doesn’t get wind of it.
“I’m sure you can. But I’m willing to take that risk.”
His eyes narrow at me, and he crosses his leg, bringing his foot to rest on his knee, showing off his snakeskin shoes that are the same sandy color as the viper around his neck.
“You know what my shoes are made of, Reese?”
“I don’t give a shit what your shoes are made of.”
I’m done pandering to Leon. If he wanted to cause me physical harm, he would have had Felicity bite my balls.
“Snakeskin. Before Felicity, there was Tania. I loved that snake.” He shakes his head sadly.
“That’s a touching story, but I really need to get back…”
Felicity hisses and I’m not sure if it’s at me or her little protest at the fate of her predecessor.
Leon strokes her and she tucks her head back into his neck.
“Until she bit me one too many times. I had her skinned and turned into a pair of shoes.”
He’s trying to intimidate me, but I’m just not in the mood.
“I get it, Leon. I cross you and you’ll turn me into a man bag. As much as I don’t want to end up as one of your weird accessories, I really have to go…”
He looks behind me and nods to one of the guards. The man steps forward and throws a photo down on the table.
“I really didn’t want to have to do this, Reese.”
My gut feels heavy even before I glance at the photo, but when I do, it takes all my willpower not to react.
It’s a photo of me and Ava. We’re walking off the jet holding hands. Her body leans into me and she’s laughing.
“I’d hate for your new assistant to have a little accident.”
Rage courses through my body, but I push it down. I can’t show Leon any of the anger that’s surging through my body right now. I take a steadying breath before speaking.
“What’s my assistant got to do with this?”
He nods at the guard and another photo falls on the table in front of me. This one’s of us inside the plane, me kissing her neck.
“Where the fuck…” Tara, it has to have been Tara. Andrew was flying the plane and she was conspicuously absent. She must have hidden somewhere or installed a camera. I’ll have to get the plane swept before we fly back.
Another photo lands on the table of Ava gripping my thigh, her head bent back in ecstasy.
My hands squeeze into fists, but I somehow manage to keep my cool. I can’t show Leon how much Ava means to me. The man’s unhinged, and his love for his daughter is clouding any semblance of reasonableness he might have left.
I breathe deeply twice, and when I look up, my expression is blank.
“You know how easy assistants are.” Forgive me, Ava , I offer up silently, but the only way to protect you is to pretend I don’t care . “Nothing wrong with a little fun when you can get it.”
I’ll fucking kill him when I’m done. I’ll turn him into a pair of boots and get my mother to wear them for her part in this.
Leon’s watching me closely, and I’m thankful for the thumping music from the club or he’d be able to hear my heart hammering in my chest.
“It’s just marriage,” Leon croons. “Your mother wants grandchildren, I want a cut of your business, and you want your assistant to leave Las Vegas with all her pretty limbs.”
I’m seething so much I don’t trust myself to speak. Ava’s in danger and I need to get back to her.
My phone vibrates in my pocket and I ignore it. It might be Ava, and the last thing I want is to have a conversation with her now. I can’t let Leon know how much she means to me.
We face each other over the table until my phone stops ringing.
Almost as soon as it stops, it starts again.
“Aren’t you going to get that?”
Leon doesn’t take his eyes off me. Even the damn snake’s watching me.
“It’s good.” I stand up, preparing to leave, and Leon sits back on the sofa watching me.
The phone rings again, and Leon’s smirking at me in a way that makes the knot in my gut churn uneasily.
“You should take the call from your Creative Director.”
How the fuck does Leon know who’s calling me? I check my phone and, sure enough, it’s Declan.
“Take it,” Leon crows.
My heart’s racing, and I’m too damn curious as to how Leon knows Declan’s calling and what the fuck he might have to say. I have a horrible feeling I’m walking into a trap, and it’s too late to do anything about it.
“Declan,” I answer, already knowing I’m going to hate whatever news he has to tell me. If Ava’s come to any harm…
“I love her,” Declan gushes. “She’s perfect.”
I let out a deep breath. Ava’s okay. She’s got all her limbs and she’s with Declan. I’m annoyed she went to the studio without me but not entirely surprised at her independence.
“She’ll be perfect for launching into the European markets, although I thought this shoot was more internally focused.”
Leon’s grinning broadly, and I’m trying to make sense of what Declan’s saying and also wondering how quick I can push the hired car to get to Ava. But something he says snags in my mind.
“What do you mean, European markets?”
“The Italian look,” Declan says. “Daniella’s got that classic look, long dark hair, very sensual.”
“Daniella?” He must have said the wrong name. Ava’s modeling for us, not Daniella.
Then I realize why Leon’s cackling so hard he’s doubled over.
I hang up my phone and grab Leon around the scruff of the neck. The snake slithers away under the sofa, causing the guard to do a little dance on his toes that would ordinarily be quite amusing.
“Such a good story.” Leon’s chuckling so hard he can barely speak. “The CEO of Aurora uses his fiancée as his product model. Such a good story that I’ve already leaked it to the press.”
“What…?” It feels like a large object is sitting on my chest as the realization sets in. “What did you do?”
Leon’s face is turning red from laughter and from my choking him, but he waves away the guards that try to step in. “Not my idea. Your mother…” he chokes. “She has a brilliant mind.”
My fucking mother is again sticking her nose into my business with no regard to the consequences.
“You, my future son-in-law, will not only marry my little princess but also launch her modeling career.”