Page 1 of Still Yours
CHAPTER ONE
Stone
“You broke hisface,Stone.” My head of HR glares at me through my phone’s display.
I center his pissed-off expression while lifting an arm over my head, blinking out the sunlight as I listen to him sputter about the events of last night.
“He got too handsy with one of the cocktail girls,” I bite out.
No longer comfortable in bed, I slide out of the sheets and stalk to the bathroom naked.
“Your schmoozing of new clients has quickly become the bane of my existence.” Aaron Golde gives a long-suffering sigh. “Specifically, your insanely accurate ability to set fire to your ten-year career in under two minutes.”
I wave him off, adjusting the phone as I lean down into the sink and splash water on my face.
“Bradley was excessively forceful, disrespectful, and making lewd comments, creating a hostile work environment and disrespecting the young woman's personal space and dignity.,” I say, patting my face with a towel. The friction of the soft fabric against my stubble helps wake me.
I say it with logic, not the temper I’d gained when I watched the son of one of the biggest clients for my company grope a waitress at the Vesper Club. I’m known for cool rationalization and high-risk, successful business decisions, but the beast within me roared out of slumber at the sheer audacity of this limp ball sack of a man.
“So, you give him a stern talking to. Get him out of there. You don’t make him go lights-out in front of the entire nightclub!” Aaron’s tanned face wrenches along with his shout. “Listen, I’m going to do what I can on my end, but I have to be honest. We’ve known each other for years, you and I.”
I lift the phone, padding through the bedroom and sliding the doors open to my expansive balcony. The humidity-free LA sunrise over the hills can do the rest to rouse me. “Yes, and you know that I only settle disputes with my fists when there’s a threat to my human values.”
Aaron swipes a hand across his face. “Christ, you’re a fucking robot. Why do I tolerate you?”
“Because I make you money.”
“I may have given you too loose of a leash on your acquirings.” Aaron sighs.
“Like I ever needed your permission.” I span the horizon like I’ve done a thousand times before, but something feels off. My knuckles didn’t so much as burst open when I clocked Bradley in the jaw, yet Aaron’s acting as if I attempted murder.
“You fucked up. Badly.” Aaron’s brows crunch together. “How can you not understand the extent of the cleanup involved? We might lose Millspace Pharma now. His dad’spissed.”
“Then he’s as weak-minded as he is skeletal,” I say. “I tried to settle it with diplomacy first, but then he mocked me, my establishment, and all the employees that work for me. Intolerable.”
“Oh, fuck me.”
“It will blow over. He has no credibility.”
“You’re about to lose the biggest client you’ve ever had.”
My hand clenches around my phone, the sun’s golden glow reflection off the screen. “Not possible.”
Aaron dips his chin sympathetically. “You’re known for a cool head. Last night was a feast for all the press vultures out there. They’ve just beenwaitingfor Manhattan’s most eligible billionaire to fuck up, like an assault on the little guy.”
“He was notlittle. He’s cushioned in privilege. I gave him every chance to atone for his actions—I don’t hit people on a whim—and he refused.” I knuckle the stone railing, staring pointedly over mansion roofs lower on the hill than mine.
“While it’s enraging being talked down to, you don’t break a table with another guy’s face, you know? That’s not really how society expects you to win an argument.”
Now that he mentions it, I vaguely recall throwing the man across the room and into a lacquered table. “Then he shouldn’t have made his idiot brain so appealing to squash.”
“Not only that,” Aaron continues, “but he’s pressing charges.”
“My lawyers will string him up to dry.”
“Oh, and Ravynn contactedThe Timesand has agreed to an interview regarding the disintegration of your marriage and how your callous nature played a role.”
“We were married less than a week. She lied to me about who she was. Ravynn had an entire medicine cabinet of Oxy and Xanax under our kitchen sink. She was so high, she spiked my fish tank.”
