Page 121 of Parting Shot

There was no way that Clay Wells had ever had such a public figure as Aaron Sutter on his property. There just weren’t a lot of billionaires wandering around, and even if he had, inviting my boyfriend had been a mistake, one I was certain he regretted. We could see him pacing the grounds close to the tower.

Even though they had shot the camera down over the door so we couldn’t see, there was another higher up that no one had yet bothered with and another in a jacaranda tree across the way. Clay Wells probably didn’t even know it was there. I couldn’t imagine anyone could just sit down and recall how many cameras there actually were on any one property. We could see him walking up and down, flailing his arms, worrying his bottom lip, and kicking at the ground. The man was getting more and more agitated by the second.

“See,” Aaron said to the man on the screen as if he were schooling him, “this is what comes of letting your little head think for your big one.”

I watched from the floor, where I was sprawled out on a tarp, using Aaron’s suit jacket for a pillow. “What are you talking about?”

He turned in his chair and looked down at me. “If Clay Wells had been less interested in your ass and more focused on business, he would have surmised from what he knew of me that I didn’t share. I never share, and thus inviting you and me here was an exercise in futility.”

“That’s crap,” I scoffed.

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

“You told me that you shared your boyfriends. You used to get off on watching them get fucked by other people.”

“Yes? And?”

“By that logic, if Clay Wells had talked to any of your close friends, or been to a party that you also attended, he would have known that you did, in fact, use to share them.”

He scowled at me.

“Right?”

“Only at very specific times,” he snapped.

“You’re splitting hairs,” I told him. “You did share, period.”

“Fine. I guess.”

“There’s no guessing about it. Therefore, what you were actually asking him to know was that, with me, your agenda had suddenly changed.”

His eyes were locked on my face.

“Isn’t that correct?”

He nodded.

“The man had no idea that you weren’t actually going to give me to him or to anyone else, for that matter.”

“No one touches you but me. Ever.”

I laughed softly. “Which is real nice of you to say and all—very scary alpha—but I’m the one who makes that decision, Sutter, not you.”

He took a quick breath.

“And since you’re the only one I’ll let touch me, we’re on the same page.”

It was endearing, the way he was biting the inside of his left cheek as he quickly nodded.

“But your point—that you don’t share—I mean, how the fuck was he supposed to know that?”

“I would have,” he groused at me. “I make it my business to stay up to date on everything.”

“That’s gotta be hard to do.”

“Hard? Yes. Impossible? No. It’s lazy to do anything less. I know everything about anyone I’m even thinking about going into business with.”

“Oh yeah?”