Hayes #2
“Don’t. Please,” she says, her proud face set. “You don’t have to say anything. I’m nothing but a runaway you’re harboring because I’m too immature to accept my fate. I appreciate it and I won’t ask you for a Christmas bonus when I go home.”
I don’t like the idea of her having a home that’s not with me. The fear of her leaving mixes with the anger at myself for allowing Maisie to show up today, desperation flooding my thoughts.
“Paige, stop,” I command sharply, coming around the island because I can’t stand the separation.
I want to pull her into my arms and kiss her until she sees that Maisie means nothing to me and all I want is her.
I stop short when Cerberus growls and stands between us, blocking me from getting any closer.
She really did break my dog. He’s more loyal to her than me and I raised him from a pup.
She places a comforting hand on his neck. He licks his lips and looks back at her.
“Thank you, buddy, but I got this.”
He relaxes and lies down at her feet but keeps his eyes on me. Damn traitor.
“You’re nothing like Maisie,” I begin.
She raises an eyebrow at me in confusion.
“I hired her for a service. Yes, I let it go too far once because I’m used to taking what’s offered, and she was offering.”
Paige scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Oh, that’s rich.”
I push on. “I let her continue to work for me after that, and maybe she expected more, but that’s on her because I was honest about my intentions.”
Just saying this makes me feel like a slimeball and I know I’m not worthy of Paige with this kind of attitude toward women. I’ve never hated myself, but I’m discovering it’s possible as she judges my morality in her steely silence.
“Got it. You can have any woman you want, whenever you want them. My memory is just fine, so I don’t need the crude reminder, Hayes.”
“I don’t want anyone but you.” How can she not see my willingness to change my whole way with women because I want to be different for her?
Her bright green eyes flash at me angrily.
“Well, that’s the thing. I’m not like the women you’re used to. I’m not interested in dropping my panties whenever you feel like it so you can have your way with me and continue about your life. I’m a true-blue, love ’til it hurts, in it for life woman, and I’m not for sale.”
I push my fingers into my hair and pray for patience because it’s not my forte. I’m taken at my word without argument. I bark an order and it’s followed. I see, I want, I get. End of story.
With Paige, nothing is that simple. She may be the only thing in the world that’s worth the effort it takes to keep a level head and sensitively navigate this landmine subject.
“I don’t want to buy you,” I grit out.
“I think my crush on you was blinding me to how different we are and just how much I don’t fit into your life.”
I’m done with this. “You’re overreacting.”
She jumps off the stool to stand, shaking in anger.
“Sorry if I’m overreacting to having one of your booty calls walk right in like she owns the place and treat me like dirt.
Guess my little feelings got hurt because I thought we were…
” She trails off and looks away, her face blushing scarlet as her eyes show her disappointment.
She paces a few steps away and I follow.
There is way too much to unpack in what she said, but I have to start somewhere.
“What do you think we are?”
She shakes her head and refuses to look at me.
“Paige,” I warn.
“I thought this could be something special, okay? Call me a fool, but I thought you were taking your time with me because you actually care about me, not just about getting into my panties. That’s on me for not taking you at your word when you told me what kind of man you are.”
“There is literally no one else I even want to take my time with. Don’t you get it? You’re different, and it’s making me reevaluate everything. I want to be different.”
“Glad I could be a catalyst for change for you. I hope the next girl appreciates my part in your reformation.”
“Woman, you’re infuriating!” I snap.
“Good! Now you know how it feels!” she snaps right back, her tiny frame squared up to mine.
I take a step back as it dawns on me. “This isn’t just about Maisie.”
She opens her mouth to refute it, but something stops her prepared tirade. Her shoulders slump and she turns away from me with a look of defeat.
It fucking breaks my heart to see the fight go out of her like that.
“Baby, come here.”
She waves me away but I pull her into my arms and she tucks herself in without protest.
“What is it?” I ask gently.
“I was bought and paid for a long time ago.”
Her broken voice slices through my heart and my arms tighten around her.
“I don’t understand.”
She pulls her face away from my chest and wipes under her eyes. “Mama’s been keeping more from me than I realized.”
“What would that be?” I work to keep my tone even because I don’t have much patience for Paige’s parents after the shit they’ve pulled with her.
She takes a deep breath and leans back against the island. Cerberus crawls on his belly to her feet and I have to hide the smile that wants to unfold at the big dog’s desire to be closer to her. I feel you, buddy.
“Mama’s family’s agriculture investments haven’t been doing well for a while, but I never thought it mattered because we have the hotels. The ag money Mama gets goes right into the hotels, so when it started to dry up years ago, we were looking at losing a lot more than some cotton crops.”
This isn’t news to me, as I’ve had my team looking into this for a while.
It’s part of the reason we targeted the Xenios Group for acquisition.
The revenue stream from the agriculture side may have bolstered the company at the start of what I now know was the marriage between her parents, but it’s been less and less of a boon recently and made them ripe for taking a big deal like what Olympus is willing to offer.
“Go on.”
“I think the prospect of losing everything made Mama desperate. Mama confronted the Daniels when… the situation… happened, and they offered a lot of money to keep things quiet. Mama took it.”
Her voice cracks as tears well in her eyes.
“Mama seems to think we owe them for their unintentional bailout, and the price is my marriage to Garrison.” A fat tear slips over her lashes and traces a path down her cheek.
Shit.
“She told you all this?”
Paige nods. “I called her again today. I was hoping we could resolve everything between us, but she was stark raving mad and said I had a duty to keep if I wanted to save the family legacy.” Her eyes screw up tightly as more tears come.
“I never thought my parents would sell me out to keep the business profitable.”
I’ve had my team working on cracking not just the Xenios Group, but also getting the scoop on the history with the Daniels family.
There was indeed a sizable donation made to Thackery Agriculture from the Daniels corporation six years ago, which confirms what Paige said.
It doesn’t fit with the typical Xenios dealings but is seen several times since in the Daniels’s finances.
I think Mommy and Daddy Daniels wanted to cover up their son’s indiscretions to keep his image clean, and Paige wasn’t his only victim.
“I’m going to fix this,” I promise. There is way more resting on me fixing this for her than she could ever know.
“I appreciate it, but I don’t know how you can undo something that happened years ago and has been in motion ever since.”
“I have my ways.”
I can’t keep my eyes off her mouth. I move my body against hers, my hands on the island and my lips an inch from hers.
“Right now, I need to fix those tears.” I hesitate, the unfamiliarity of having to ask permission instead of taking what I want slowing my natural instincts. “May I kiss you?”
“That’s all I want, and that makes it really hard to stay mad at you.”
I stop her words with my lips, tipping her chin up with my hand. She sighs into my mouth when I sweep my tongue against hers. The little noises she makes dissolve my restraint. I haul her up so her ass is on the island and pull her against me.
She wraps her legs around my hips, crushing me to her center, and my hands push into her hair, tipping her head.
The kiss heats, our hands roving each other’s bodies.
Her fingers work on the buttons of my shirt as my lips wander the skin of her throat, tasting her neck.
She tugs at my shirt, and I break away long enough to shrug it off and return to her.
I lift the hem of her shirt, needing her skin on mine, and pull it over her head.
My thumbs brush over the lace of her bra, her nipples already straining the thin material.
I roll them in my fingers, her back arching as a moan escapes and I dive in, replacing my fingers with my mouth.
Her hands grab my hair and hold me close as I lick and suck at her.
“Take the dang thing off. I want your mouth on my skin,” she whimpers.
I work at the clasp of her bra, untangling it from her arms to pull it away. I take a moment to appreciate the sight of having her bare from the waist up for the first time.
“You’re a goddess. You look so fucking good, I want to eat you up.”
A blush blooms on her skin as she looks up at me from under her dark lashes. “Will you, please?” she whispers.
“Fuck,” I groan, gathering her into my arms and starting for the stairs.
If she wants me to eat her out, I’m putting her in a more comfortable spot than the marble island.
I take the stairs two at a time and kick open my bedroom door so I can lay her out on my bed, her dark hair fanning out over the white duvet.
Nothing has ever looked so at home in this space than she does, half naked and blushing.
“You ready for this?” I ask instead of dragging the pants from her legs and diving in the way I want.
She nods once, but her arms cross to cover her breasts as her modesty cools some of the passion we just flamed.