Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 154890 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154890 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“Missed meetings? No there won’t. I haven’t come this far to piss it all away.”
“Shoulder problems. Tension. Bad moods. Idiotic conduct and destructive behaviors.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“The bank will be fine. It’ll weather any oncoming storms. You, on the other hand, look like a man who’s about to find out what ruin looks like.”
“I enjoy these little conversations, but I must be slow today because I literally have no idea what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying love is like an illness.”
“Love of money?” I qualify. I’m not driven by money especially, and I’m not sure I want to know what makes Beckett tick.
“Love of the heart,” he says as though speaking to an idiot. “You can only ignore the illness itself for so long. And there is only one cure.”
“Death?”
“The love of a good woman,” he enunciates. I open my mouth to protests when he cuts me off. “Or a bad one, though I recommend the former. It’s much easier on the heart and head. Though there are times when…” He seems to catch himself. “Well, never mind.”
I’m so confused. Beckett and I don’t have this sort of relationship. “Deny it all you like,” he continues. “I won’t be the one to suffer. Prolong the agony. Fight the tide, but the bastard will be waiting for you when your arms tire.”
“Swimming metaphors?”
“The best I could come up with at short notice. And what I’m about to tell you, I know you won’t repeat. I also know that if you do, Olivia will eat your liver. Which she’ll probably extract from your arsehole or some other ingeniously nefarious way.”
“You don’t have to tell me anything,” I say, rubbing my chin. “The mention of her in thigh-high boots was scary enough.”
“I forced Olivia to marry me.”
I chuckle. “Good one. That’s funny.” I nod my head as I consider how handling Mimi sometimes feels like juggling a bag of cats. Handling Olivia would be like juggling a bag of piranhas.
“It’s true,” he replies, amused.
“With the greatest respect,” I begin, “but fuck off. I can’t imagine anyone being able to force Olivia to do something she doesn’t want to do.”
“And you’re assuming she didn’t want to marry me?”
“Well, yeah. On account of you saying you forced her.”
“Persuaded might be a better word.”
“Blackmailed,” I say flatly.
“Not pretty but perhaps more than accurate.” Beckett tips his hand in a gesture that seems to say I couldn’t help it. “I discovered her weakness. It was her business, of course. I used it as leverage.”
I always thought Beckett had the capacity for ruthlessness. Now I know he has. Olivia made a shit ton of money when her start-up went public a few years ago. If I put myself in her shoes, faced with the prospect of losing VirTu, there isn’t much I wouldn’t have done to save it. Not for the money but because it’s your baby, your life’s work. In the early days, it’s all excitement and can do, but the next thing you know, you can’t sleep for worry, you’re graying prematurely, your dentist tells you you’re grinding your molars to dust, and your family is looking at you like you’re crazy for bothering. Meanwhile, you continue to bleed sweat and tears just to keep your dream afloat. And that’s difficult enough, but then throwing a spot of blackmail into the mix?
So yeah, I can imagine her marrying the ruthless bastard to save her company. But she’s still married to him. And I know that beneath the combative exchanges volleyed across the boardroom table, there’s a fuck-ton of heat simmering.
“The waves of your disapproval emanate across the table, Whit.”
I shoot the unrepentant bastard a grin. “I was just thinking, blackmailed to love sounds like the title of a terrible romance book.”
“A book that will never see the light of day. And the thing you must remember is that we’re still married.”
“Don’t tell me—because you’re holding her family hostage now.”
“Very droll.” Folding his fingers into his palm, he appears to examine his highly buffed fingernails. “We’re still married because she loves me. I don’t know what I’ve done to earn that honor, but I don’t take her love lightly—and God knows I made it hard enough for her—but I’ll spend every day of the rest of my life making sure she remembers I treasure her.”
“I’m pleased it worked out for you, but I can’t see how blackmailing Mimi would help.”
“Oh, so you admit it is Amelia.”
I don’t like to hear her name on his lips. “It’s complicated,” I say with a frown.
“These things generally are.”
“She works for me.”
“That’s one issue. A minor one. The company is big enough. She could go to another department, I’m sure. If you wanted her to. If you needed her to.”
He means if I find her a distraction. There has never been a more distracting distraction than Mimi Valente, not that I’m about to admit it.