Page 4 of Beautiful Broken Love

“Um ... the truth?” I gave pause. “Sure, give me the truth.”

“Well, the truth is four hundred grand or so ain’t nothing to me. I can make that in a day.”

I avoided a frown, which I nearly failed to do, because his arrogance was stinking up the room. I kept a neutral face, though, as he continued.

“But I’m willing to agree to this deal as long as I get to negotiate something else.”

I blinked, confused. “Like what?”

Deke shifted his attention to Arnold. “Arnold, think you can give me a moment with Ms. Klein?”

As if Arnold was used to this, he hopped up and said, “You got it.” He collected a mint from the candy bowl, picked up his water bottle, and left the office as quickly as he’d entered.

I glanced over my shoulder as Arnold shut the door behind him, and from the corner of my eye, I noticed Deke shift on the love seat. I faced him again.

The last thing I had time for was games. I didn’t care if he was some famous basketball player that everyone loved.

“What is this about, Mr. Bishop?” I asked, keeping my voice level. This was a practiced calm—one I’d used many,manytimes before. Trust me, he wasn’t the first person with lots of money to ever waste my time.

“Deke,” he corrected, which I found funny because he kept addressing me as Ms. Klein.

“Okay,Deke.” I folded my arms. “What is this about?”

He looked me up and down, tilting his head a bit. “Am I getting under your skin?”

I sighed. “You want the truth, Deke?”

He leaned back on the sofa, spreading his legs farther apart. “Sure. Give me the truth.”

I avoided a smile. He was using my words against me, just as I’d done to him. “The truth is youaregetting under my skin.”

“Honesty.” He gave me a lopsided grin. “I like it.”

“Look, you showed up here for a reason. There are many places you can be right now, but you’re here. You clearly love our products and you don’t mind sponsoring them, so what is this really about?”

“It’s aboutyou,” he stated simply.

I hesitated. “Whatabout me?”

He rose to a stand. This man was a giant—six feet and four inches, according to his Wikipedia, but I think sometimes players lie about their height by adding an inch or two. And Deke was tall, but more like three over six to me. Lewis was six one, and Deke couldn’t have beenthatmuch taller.

Still, he took up a lot of space and towered over me like a giant.

“As I said, four hundred grand is easy to come by. And for five months of my time, I normally request more to sponsor stuff like this.”

“We can go up in price,” I assured him. His cologne tickled my nose. Damn, he smelled good, like cocoa butter and mahogany. “That’s no problem. What are you thinking?”

Truth is, itwasa problem. We couldn’t go past $500,000. Anything more, and it would really put us in a financial bind. Offering so much was already a risk, but it was one I was willing to take because I knew it’d pay off.

“That won’t be necessary,” Deke said, and relief washed over me, but that didn’t stop the frown from taking over my face, because I wanted him to know I was confused and, frankly, getting frustrated.

If it wasn’t necessary, why was he dragging this out?

“Dinner.” Deke’s eyes traveled down the length of me like I was some kind of snack he was ready to eat.

I shifted on my feet and tucked my hands deeper beneath my armpits. “Dinner?”

“Yes. I’m in Charlotte for the next two days. I want you to have dinner with me so I can personally get to know the mind behind this company and make sure it’s truly worth backing.”

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