Page 17 of The CEO

CHAPTER TEN

pria

Coveringmy head with my pillow, I tried to fall asleep while one of the dogs howled. It had been going on for the last hour and I didn’t see it ending anytime soon. It was rounding on midnight and I was now one hundred percent sober. Maybe if I had found the wine, I would have been asleep and oblivious to the crying of whoever was out there.

Throwing the pillow across the room, I got out of bed and made my way out to where Orville stood in the middle of the living room, howling at the top of his lungs. Or at least it seemed like it because it was loud as fuck. I was sure if Kingston’s apartment didn’t span the entire top floor, someone would be calling the police because this was a disturbance of epic proportions in the middle of the night. I knew I would have called the police if I could.

Folding down in front of him to sit on the floor, I ran my hand down Orvy’s back. “What’s going on, buddy? Did you get hurt today?” He’d seemed fine, but it would be my luck that he was injured and would need medical attention. I ran my hands over his whole body but found nothing. I was surprised itquieted him down. “You’re okay, big guy. Go to sleep and I’ll see you in the morning.”

Pulling to stand, I dragged myself back to my bed and gently climbed in. Drinking hadn’t been the best idea. I was tired from the wine and needed sleep. Plus, now I could feel all the sore places. Every inch of my entire body.

I had started to drift off to sleep when another howl broke me from my tired haze. Heaven help me, what did Orville want? Again, I climbed out of bed and found Orvy where I’d left him. I scratched behind his ears and he seemed to like my attention. After a few moments, I stopped and went back to bed. This cycle continued for the next thirty minutes. I was tired and annoyed. All I wanted was to sleep, but it seemed that wasn’t going to happen unless it was on the floor in the living room. I knew it was extremely early in London, but I didn’t know what else to do except call Kingston. Yes, I’d made a promise not to bother him anymore, but I cared more about my sleep in that moment than anything else. This time when I went to make Orvy stop crying, I brought my phone with me. I had no idea what was wrong with him, but his sad cries were killing me so I called his owner.

Kingston answered on the fourth ring. “Hello?” he answered groggily. “Pria? Can this wait? It’s a little after five here.”

“I know and I’m sorry to be calling so early, but I didn’t know what else to do. Orvy won’t stop crying unless I come out to the living room and pet him. Once I go back to my room, he cries until I come back out. We’ve been on repeat for the last hour and all I want to do is sleep.” I knew I sounded whiny, but I didn’t care. I wanted sleep, and I’d do anything to get it.

Kingston groaned and even though I was dead tired, it sent tingles through my entire body. How could he sound so sexy this early in the morning?

“From the day I brought Orvy home, he’s always been a crier at night. I thought it was just me and he’d be fine.” I rolled myeyes. Of course, he thought the dog only cried for him. Kingston was that self-centered. “After half a night of him crying, I gave in and let him sleep with me. Just let him sleep in bed with you and he’ll be fine.”

I had to have heard him wrong. There was no way he said to let that horse of a dog in my bed. It may have been a king-size, but he’d take up more of it than me. When I slept, I was all over the bed and I didn’t want to battle for space with Orvy. Haider hated it. He complained frequently that I’d smack him in the face or elbow him multiple times a night if he didn’t snuggle with me, and he hated snuggling.

Sucked to be Haider.

“There’s nothing else I can do? Maybe he’ll be happy to just sleep in your bed.” It could be the bed he wanted and not the man. The bed in the guest room was the most comfortable bed I’d ever slept on and if that was the bed Kingston put in the guest bedroom then I couldn’t imagine what he’d put in his own bedroom.

“You can try, but I don’t think it will do you any good. He loves being around people day and night. Now, why don’t you try that, so I get another hour of sleep.” I still wasn’t sure if he was telling me the truth or not. He could say anything to get off the phone with me, but he had to know that I would call him back no matter the time if Orville continued crying.

“Fine. You better be right,” I snapped. “If not, I’m calling you back so you don’t get any sleep either.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less, but you’ll see, Orvy just wants to cuddle with you. Good night, Pria.” He hung up without me replying.

I eyed Orville and his large body. This was going to be interesting. Maybe he wouldn’t like sleeping with me and he’d leave. Anything was possible.

“Come on, Orvy. Let’s go to bed.” His big ears perked up, and I knew then he’d be in my bed all night and for the rest of the week. I felt bad about leaving Jimmy out in the living room, but he seemed content in his plush little bed. I hadn’t seen Sarah after we came back from her solo walk and that was fine by me. She was probably back in Kingston’s room guarding his wine.

I guess it could be worse. I could have a hangover from the bottle I drank earlier. A hangover along with a stiff and aching body would be hell, so I was thankful, or I would be after I got some sleep.

Orvy and I padded down the hall to my bedroom and it was like he knew exactly what was going on. The second we stepped foot into the room, he went straight to the bed, jumped up, and started to make himself comfortable in the middle. I was slower getting into bed, thanks to his sister. I moved like an old lady trying to get comfortable. I faced out because even though I like the big mutt; I didn’t want to have his dog breath in my face as I tried to sleep.

Shit. I forgot to brush their teeth. Oh well, one night wouldn’t kill them. On a scale of one to ten, I was at a negative two on following the rules. And I still wasn’t sure if all of them were real or not. How did you brush a dog’s teeth without them biting you? Tomorrow, I was going to be watching all the YouTube videos I could find on taking care of dogs.

Closing my eyes, I snuggled deep into ultra-soft sheets until I felt Orvy stand. Looking over my shoulder my eyes slowly adjusted to the dark room to find him standing in the middle of the bed looking at me. Okay, creeper. I couldn’t sleep knowing he was staring down at me.

“What is it, Orvy?” I groaned. “It’s time to sleep. Please.” Turning over until I was on my back, I patted the bed by my hip. Of course, he took that as an invitation to lay with his body molded to mine. I guess Orville really was a cuddler. His warmbody against mine soothed some of the ache out of my muscles making it easy to fall asleep with him next to me.

Who knew dogs could be sleep aids?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

kingston

My phone vibratedin my pocket. I didn’t care who it was if I could take a break from the meeting from hell. We couldn’t agree on anything. I’d listened to why it was a good idea for me to buy out their company and how they would change things so I didn’t lose all the money from buying them out. It didn’t seem possible. I’d need to speak to Whitmore when I got back and see why he thought we could make this our London office. Although I wanted to expand my company, I wasn’t sure I was ready to take it internationally. I didn’t want to travel out of the country all the time, so if—and that was a big if—I bought out Harper Capital, I’d need to find someone else to run it. Which meant more work for me.

“Excuse me.” I stood holding my phone so they could see I needed to take this phone call. I hit the green icon and answered. “Give me a minute.” I hadn’t even looked to see who it was I was so happy for the interruption. Now that I was heading down the hallway, I looked down to see it was Pria. “I thought you weren’t going to call?—”

“Oh my God, Kingston. I think I’ve poisoned Jimmy and my calls to the vet aren’t going through.”

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