Page 21 of Bargaining

Her unimpressed gaze slid over endless sparkling chrome and glass. “Nice office.” She took in the expansive London skyline behind me with a skeptical brow. “I never imagined you working somewhere like this.”

“Somewhere like what?”

A wry smile played on her lips. “It’s very ... corporate.” She raised a hand to her ear, miming a telephone. “Buy low. Sell high.”

I drank her in from behind my massive mahogany desk. Shadows danced under her eyes, but she looked in better health than when I’d last seen her. Charlotte had been pretty as a teenager, but as a grown woman she was breathtaking. Even as she mocked me, heat thrummed under my skin. Her little smirk made it impossible to think of much else besides bending her over my desk and making her mine.

I cleared my throat. “What can I do for you?”

“Tiff thinks I should marry you.”

“And what do you think?”

She perched on the chair opposite my desk with her deranged telephone-shaped handbag in her lap. “It’s a lot of money. I suppose I’d be mad not to take you up on it.” She chewed the edge of her orange-painted thumbnail. “So if the offer is still open, I’m considering it, but we need to iron out some details.”

The offer was more open than ever, since the shareholders had decided now was the perfect time to gun for me. “I’m all ears.”

“First off, you’re asking me to lie.” She pulled the contract out of her bag, flicked through the pages, and presented it to me on the desk. “Tiff knows what’s going on, but you expect me not to tell anyone else the truth?”

I glanced at the section she’d highlighted neatly in neon yellow. “That’s generally how a confidentiality clause works.”

“I don’t like to lie.”

“You should try it. You might enjoy it. The arrangement has to stay confidential. That’s nonnegotiable.”

Her eyes narrowed with a flicker of resentment as she assessed me. I held the challenge in her gaze.Go on. Argue for it. Let’s have some fun.

Her shoulders lowered and she gave a small, resigned shrug. “Fine.”

“Fine? That’s it?”

“You said it was nonnegotiable.”

“So, you just give up?”

Her eyes searched my face and darted away. “It’s not worth the fight.” She flicked back a few pages and tapped at the contract. “This states you expect my loyalty and fidelity. What does that mean? Do you expect me not to date outside of our ... arrangement?”

Yes. Ideally.Did Charlotte date much? I’d checked in on her over the years. Nothing creepy. Just the occasional calls to old contacts in the area. Whenever I’d asked after her, she’d always been single.

“There might be some flexibility down the line if you want to take a lover—discreetly, of course.”

Her expression flickered with a brief wry spark. “Take a lover? I didn’t realize we’d stepped into the Regency period.”

That teasing smirk again. Yes, I wanted her pressed beneath me over this desk, but first I needed her sitting on my face, moaning for me while I tasted her. “Next objection?”

She shrugged. “No one should make big life decisions after a bereavement.”

“There’s no better time. Death shows us how short and precious life is. There is no guarantee of tomorrow.”

She rolled her eyes, but her voice was indulgent. “That one sounded rehearsed. You’ve got all the answers, haven’t you?”

“I try.”

Her eyes slipped away. “I made that marriage pact because I was a stupid kid and I was infatuated with you. I won’t put my heart at your mercy again. This is strictly a business arrangement. I can’t forgive you for ghosting me.”

Infatuated with you.She made it sound like a crush. Something short-lived and silly. It had been more than that. Charlotte had been everything to me. A knot tightened in my chest. “You’re right. This is strictly business. We keep our hearts out of it. I don’t have one anyway. You were right about me being a vampire.”

A shadow darkened her face. “You did have one. Before.”