Chapter 74
Anton
Ican’t believe Gen’s freezing me out like this. Can’t believe she’s played her old don’t touch me card. She’s being completely ridiculous, in my opinion. Not to mention disingenuous.
I feel like Henry II’s knights must have done.
The king famously mused to them about Thomas Becket, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Off four of them trotted to Canterbury to appease their king and murder said “turbulent priest”, after which Henry hastily distanced himself from the crime, claiming never to have issued any order.
I call bullshit. Then and now. My own little Henry, aka Gen, has been wringing her hands over those Rapture twats for weeks. She can’t claim moral outrage now that I’ve taken action and done the dirty work for her.
Honestly. Stubborn fucking woman. There’s nothing more irritating than ingratitude.
I used my clout to pull some strings.
For her.
I made this whole nightmare go away.
For her.
Call me naive, or even stupid, but I actually thought a business-focused grand gesture would be the way to her heart.
She’s a successful and super-smart businesswoman.
She’s not a gold-digger. She’s not impressed by my bank balance or by the trappings of my wealth.
She enjoys them, sure. But they’re not the way to win her over.
I thought this would go further than hearts and flowers.
I intended it to send a crystal clear message.
To cut to the centre of what’s important to her.
It would show her that I see her. That I respect her.
That I’m her biggest cheerleader and her most vicious pit-bull.
That I’m squarely in her corner and I’ll always have her back.
That she never needs to look over her shoulder from now on, because the moment something—anything—bothers her, I’ll handle it.
I’ll turn it to dust.
That I’m so fucking crazy about her that she’s earned herself a besotted, and devastatingly effective, slave for life.
It seems, however, that I’ve managed to do the complete opposite. And, pissed off and bewildered though I am by her reaction, it’s eminently clear that I need to make this right and do better if I’m to have a future with her.
Because she’s my fucking future. I know that to be true. It may feel quick to her, but I’ve made my fortune from having impeccable judgement, crystal-clear self-awareness, and from having sufficient faith in those skillsets to strike with one-hundred-percent confidence.
If my declaration of love blindsided Gen, she should know I’ve made ten, eleven figure acquisitions before now on a shorter timeline.
When I find something I want, I act.
I lock it down. Make it mine.
I acquire. Assimilate.
But it seems I’m losing my touch.
Or, at least, I’ve underestimated the complexity of this consolidation with this spellbinding woman. I’ve operated on a set of fixed assumptions that have served me well in business but have fallen abysmally short in the most important merger of my life.
I mentioned I’m self-aware. One of the most important skills in business is knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Knowing what you can achieve on your own, and when it’s better to build a strong team.
Knowing when to call in the cavalry.
* * *
‘Thanks for seeing me,’ I say to Zach, Callum and Rafe. They’ve agreed to my desperate plea that they meet up and help me extricate myself from this mess. If anyone can solve Gen-gate, surely it’s her oldest and dearest friends? And if anyone can give it to me straight, I’m assuming it’s them.
‘Not a problem, mate,’ Rafe says, lifting his tumbler of scotch in salutation.
We’ve met up at a gentleman’s club in Mayfair of which I’m a member.
It’s more old-school than I’d like, but at least there’s no chance of running into Gen here.
‘We told her we were off to a battle ropes session together.’ He smirks.
‘That got her off our tail pretty quickly.’
‘Yeah,’ Callum says, ‘if she thought we were meeting you she’d go apeshit.’
I grimace. ‘She’s still pissed off?’
Their decisive nods are all the answers I need.
‘Look.’ I clear my throat. ‘The first thing I should do is apologise if I overstepped on the Rapture front. I thought I was doing Gen a favour by getting rid of them. But it’s your company too, and I’m sorry if I butted in where I shouldn’t.’
They exchange a look. ‘You’ve done us a favour, no question,’ Zach tells me. ‘I think we can all agree we would have appreciated you asking first, though. Or at least giving us a heads up.’
‘That said,’ Rafe interjects before I can say anything, ‘if you’d told us you were going to have to play dirty to get it done, our morals might have got in the way. So maybe it’s a good thing we were oblivious.’ He shrugs.
I consider. ‘That’s fair. Look, I don’t play dirty unless I have to.
But if there are other fuckers out there who aren’t playing fair, then I have zero qualms about doing what I need to do to see justice done.
I didn’t like the way they were doing business.
There are codes, you know? Touma and Hansen have been burning bridges for a long time before Rapture—they’ve had it coming to them.
So I’m not going to waste any sleep over their little venture going south. ’
‘Neither are we,’ Callum says. ‘But I see where Gen’s coming from. And it’s a lot more personal for her than it is for us, mate.’
I lean forward, resting my elbows on my spread thighs and steepling my fingers. ‘Give it to me straight.’
They exchange another glance.
‘What you’ve got to understand about Gen,’ Callum says, ‘is that on the surface of it, she’s very strait-laced. Not just in business, but in life. She was head girl at her school, for fuck’s sake. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, I don’t know what does.
‘She’s from a wealthy, respectable family that puts way too much emphasis on optics.
Her dad barely speaks to her now. Her mum tells everyone Gen runs a kind of Soho House-like club.
She’s in denial, basically. The idea of their precious golden girl running a sex club is so seedy they can’t bear it.
It’s a massive bone of contention, because it makes the family look bad. ’
I inhale sharply. ‘I had no idea,’ I say, raking my memory for what Gen’s said about her family in the past. I know they live in Tunbridge Wells, but she hasn’t volunteered anything particularly profound about them. Now I’m wondering why I haven’t bothered to delve deeper so far.
‘Yeah, well, her dad’s an overbearing arsehole,’ Rafe says.
‘They were always so proud of her when we were at uni, because she was overachieving left, right and centre. When she got a place on the JP Morgan graduate scheme she said he was insufferable. Boasting to everyone he knew. But they’re only proud when she’s being what in their minds constitutes the quote-unquote perfect daughter.
Now she’s running Alchemy they don’t want to know, basically. ’
I purse my lips. My blood is boiling. How fucking dare they be so shallow, so conservative? Gen is a rare diamond, and they should damn well know it.
‘That’s despicable,’ I say finally.
‘No disagreement here,’ Zach says. ‘So you can see why we’re so protective of her.
You can also understand why she puts so much emphasis on keeping this very practised veneer of respectability.
She’s so sick of being judged, and her family’s been of no fucking support, except for her sister, who’s even more of a black sheep, but she’s in Australia so she’s not much help.
Gen feels like she’s let her family down, when they’re obviously the ones who’ve let her down. ’
‘If her father’s an overbearing arsehole, I have no idea what she’s doing with me,’ I muse aloud.
Callum sniggers. ‘You and me both, mate.’
‘Gen’s an incredibly strong woman,’ Zach points out, ‘and she likes strong men. Anyone who can’t stand up to her is a massive turn-off. I’m not remotely surprised she’s fallen for you.’
My heart warms at his language, and I go to speak, but he’s not finished.
‘But she’s also seriously independent,’ he continues.
‘She’s had to take a huge stand against her family—a stand that doesn’t come lightly—and dig her heels in so she can grow Alchemy with us.
She’s fought hard for this and made some tough choices.
You can imagine how hard it is for a woman like Gen to embrace what being a sex club owner really means.
It’s like she’s given into her dark side. ’
‘Just like you,’ Rafe quips.
‘Fuck off. I just came on board to run your books.’
‘Until Maddy flashed her pretty little smile at you and dragged you down,’ Callum teases.
‘I’m pretty sure that’s not all she flashed at him,’ Rafe says.
‘You’re not wrong. I didn’t stand a chance,’ Zach says with a grin on his face.
‘Anyway. My point is that Alchemy’s not just a business to Gen.
It’s a part of the identity she’s chosen for herself, and she guards it fiercely.
So when you wade in and ride roughshod over something so important to her, she’s going to feel completely undermined.
Like it’s just another male in her life trying to tell her what’s best for her. ’
‘Fuck,’ I hiss, dragging my hands over my face.
He’s fucking right.
They all are.
Alchemy is Gen’s jurisdiction, not mine.
It’s something she’s built for herself at a great personal cost, and I completely failed to appreciate that.
My past relationships have taught me nothing about how to make a woman like Gen happy.
Because they were all with beautiful, charming, loving women who were more than happy to be in my orbit, rather than being queens of their own.
To roll over and let me call the shots in life.
Just not in bed. Not as much as I needed to.
And now I’ve found myself this strong, ballsy woman who desperately needs me to control her in bed but goes fucking nuclear the first time I machinate on her behalf. And quite rightly, because I’ve completely misjudged her needs.
If that’s not ironic, I don’t know what is.
Her three friends and champions and cofounders are watching me.
‘Okay,’ I say. ‘I have some serious humble pie to eat.’
They grin at me in unison.