Page 14 of Pleasure Payback

In another time and place, she would’ve been a prize worth pursuing.

Not today.

Not with a very personal, way-past-due goal of righting wrongs in front of me.

Neve Nolan, with her magnificent body draped in clothes that displayed her very fuckable assets, would be resisted on every front.

Her lips moved, drawing my attention to her plump, lightly glossed mouth. The memory of sliding my cock between those lips, the enthusiastic way she’d sucked me off, almost drew a groan from my throat.

I frowned. ‘Beg your pardon?’

‘I said your phone’s buzzing. You should get that. No doubt your highly exclusive presence is urgently required elsewhere,’ she said dryly.

Yeah, she was seriously pissed about something. Absently, I reached for my phone. One glimpse of the London number and every ounce of my focus shifted.

Chest tightening, I started to press the answer button. Then hesitated.

Neve was watching me, had most likely caught whatever was reflected on my face. I schooled my features. ‘I need to take this. I’ll see you tomorrow morning for the first day of filming.’

Her brisk nod belied the curiosity in her eyes. I watched her walk away, unable to stop my gaze from roaming her backside and jaw-dropping legs as she left the room.

The insistent buzz dragged my attention to the phone.

Aunt Flo. As close to a mother as I could get despite my own mother being alive and well.

I stabbed the answer button. ‘Did you get my message?’

‘You have better manners than that, dear boy,’ she snapped.

I breathed out slowly. ‘It’s been a testy morning.’ My patience was running thin on all fronts.

‘It’s been a testy fewyearsfor us all.’

My fingers tightened around the phone. ‘Regardless, the stonewalling ends now. It’s time.’ The oppressive guilt wasn’t getting lighter. It suffocated me even more these days, the passage of time an amplified klaxon I could no longer ignore.

No matter what had happened that night three years ago, it was time to face it.

‘Some would say it’s too little too late. Or too much too soon, depending on which side of the fence you’re standing.’

‘Too bad if my timing isn’t convenient for everyone,’ I snapped, frustrated anger licking through me.

She sighed. ‘It’s never going to be good for one of you. For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you for taking the bull by the horns.’

The pit in my stomach yawed. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve been trying to wrestle this damned bull for three years.’

‘I’m aware. But you may have to give it a little more time. The company is in the middle of a delicate negotiation—’

‘The Russian stadium deal,’ I said. As a top executive, I received regular memos on all high-level deals.

‘Yes. And I have my hands full dealing with some of your more pig-headed relatives on the board, not to mention attempting to manage Gideon.’

Hearing his name tightened the band around my chest. ‘Why does he need managing?’ I asked with more than a little snap. The Gideon I knew could manage the family company I’d been meant to co-head with him in his sleep.

Aunt Flo hesitated, making me grit my teeth. ‘What’s going on, Flo?’

‘Your cousin is suffering a bit of a...regression.’

‘In what way?’

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