Still Yours

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Stone

“ Y ou broke his face, Stone.” My head of HR glares at me through my phone’s display.

I center his pissed-off expression while lifting an arm over my head, blinking out the sunlight as I listen to him sputter about the events of last night.

“He got too handsy with one of the cocktail girls,” I bite out.

No longer comfortable in bed, I slide out of the sheets and stalk to the bathroom naked.

“Your schmoozing of new clients has quickly become the bane of my existence.” Aaron Golde gives a long-suffering sigh. “Specifically, your insanely accurate ability to set fire to your ten-year career in under two minutes.”

I wave him off, adjusting the phone as I lean down into the sink and splash water on my face.

“Bradley was excessively forceful, disrespectful, and making lewd comments, creating a hostile work environment and disrespecting the young woman's personal space and dignity.,” I say, patting my face with a towel. The friction of the soft fabric against my stubble helps wake me.

I say it with logic, not the temper I’d gained when I watched the son of one of the biggest clients for my company grope a waitress at the Vesper Club.

I’m known for cool rationalization and high-risk, successful business decisions, but the beast within me roared out of slumber at the sheer audacity of this limp ball sack of a man.

“So, you give him a stern talking to. Get him out of there. You don’t make him go lights-out in front of the entire nightclub!” Aaron’s tanned face wrenches along with his shout. “Listen, I’m going to do what I can on my end, but I have to be honest. We’ve known each other for years, you and I.”

I lift the phone, padding through the bedroom and sliding the doors open to my expansive balcony. The humidity-free LA sunrise over the hills can do the rest to rouse me. “Yes, and you know that I only settle disputes with my fists when there’s a threat to my human values.”

Aaron swipes a hand across his face. “Christ, you’re a fucking robot. Why do I tolerate you?”

“Because I make you money.”

“I may have given you too loose of a leash on your acquirings.” Aaron sighs.

“Like I ever needed your permission.” I span the horizon like I’ve done a thousand times before, but something feels off. My knuckles didn’t so much as burst open when I clocked Bradley in the jaw, yet Aaron’s acting as if I attempted murder.

“You fucked up. Badly.” Aaron’s brows crunch together. “How can you not understand the extent of the cleanup involved? We might lose Millspace Pharma now. His dad’s pissed. ”

“Then he’s as weak-minded as he is skeletal,” I say. “I tried to settle it with diplomacy first, but then he mocked me, my establishment, and all the employees that work for me. Intolerable.”

“Oh, fuck me.”

“It will blow over. He has no credibility.”

“You’re about to lose the biggest client you’ve ever had.”

My hand clenches around my phone, the sun’s golden glow reflection off the screen. “Not possible.”

Aaron dips his chin sympathetically. “You’re known for a cool head. Last night was a feast for all the press vultures out there. They’ve just been waiting for Manhattan’s most eligible billionaire to fuck up, like an assault on the little guy.”

“He was not little . He’s cushioned in privilege. I gave him every chance to atone for his actions—I don’t hit people on a whim—and he refused.” I knuckle the stone railing, staring pointedly over mansion roofs lower on the hill than mine.

“While it’s enraging being talked down to, you don’t break a table with another guy’s face, you know? That’s not really how society expects you to win an argument.”

Now that he mentions it, I vaguely recall throwing the man across the room and into a lacquered table. “Then he shouldn’t have made his idiot brain so appealing to squash.”

“Not only that,” Aaron continues, “but he’s pressing charges.”

“My lawyers will string him up to dry. ”

“ Oh, and Ravynn contacted The Times and has agreed to an interview regarding the disintegration of your marriage and how your callous nature played a role.”

“We were married less than a week. She lied to me about who she was. Ravynn had an entire medicine cabinet of Oxy and Xanax under our kitchen sink. She was so high, she spiked my fish tank.”

My voice ratchets to a distinctly emotional level. I take a few breaths to stay calm.

“I agree, I do, but the best course of action is damage control. My advice is to lie low and let me and your lawyers handle this. Get out of the spotlight, out of LA, and don’t give the media any reason to film you when you’re out of the house.”

My shoulders grow stiff. The sun, so welcoming minutes before when I stepped out onto my balcony and greeted the morning, prickles my bare back with the warning that comes before a nasty burn. “Fine. I’ll work from home or the office. There’s plenty I can still get done.”

“No, Stone. I am asking you to go. Leave.”

“And where would that be?” I search through my favorite haunts from the past, but a yacht or a private flight out of the country seems so cowardly. “I’m not running from this.”

“I couldn’t give a shit about Bradley. You shouldn’t be in a place where the press can find you. I think you should go home.”

Silence.

“Stone? You frozen?”

I say tightly, “I’m not going home.”

“I wouldn’t ask it if it wasn’t necessary. It’s the one place I can trust you to lie low and stay out of the public eye.”

At my silence that normally intimidates the greatest of men, he adds, “And hey, I’ll visit you, okay? Give me a few weeks, and I’ll?—”

“A few weeks ?” My voice grows quiet with warning.

“Well, I was thinking you should stay there for a few months. Until Christmas.”

“No.”

“I’m serious, Stone. You’re fucked. Fucked in the ass.

Fucked over. I don’t know how many fucks I have to say before you believe it, but we’re in serious client-saving mode here.

You pissed off a lot of jealous higher-ups who finally see their green light and swear they’re putting their efforts into making you C-list. You’ve made a lot of enemies while in power, Stone.

Let me do my job, which means you need to take my advice. ”

I run a hand through my hair. “Jesus, Aar.”

“I know. But it’s temporary, right? And look, aren’t small towns meant to be quaint, sweet, and filled with old ladies making cookies? That’s exactly what you need and where I want you to be if you’re ever located.”

I side-eye my city-born agent. “Whatever small town you’re referring to, that’s not mine. I was … different when I lived there.”

“Well, you’re not going to fucking Mallorca and renting a yacht to throw your riches in the public’s face, that’s for damn sure. Everyone loves a public figure to hate.”

“You’re serious,” I say.

He gives a solemn nod.

After a beat of breaths, I allow, “I’ll go to Falcon Haven. Temporarily. For the few days it’ll take for this to die down.”

Aaron actually fist-pumps the air. “I’m hanging up before you change your mind. We’ll be in touch.”

“Doubtful.”

Aaron clicks off, leaving me alone with my marble flooring, gorgeous oceanfront views, a dream career, and the temper I thought was under control.