Page 47 of The Bet
Chapter 14
Holy shit, it was freezing.
Maybe he should have worn his jacket. He could feel the goosebumps under his long-sleeved t-shirt.
“Aren’t you cold, Jacob?” he shouted as the kid scooted past at breakneck speed.
“Nahhhhhhhhhhhh!” Jacob squealed as he raced past.
He rubbed his hands together. “How the fuck’s he not feeling the cold?”
“You can’t swear in front of children.”
Izzy seemed to be chattier ever since he’d given her the wrap. He sensed a thawing of her one ice-cold temperament. It brought a smile to his lips to know he was going to slowly melt every piece of hardness inside her.
“He didn’t hear,” he shot back, defensively. “Jeez. It’s cold enough to freeze my nuts off.”
She looked at him in disgust.
He was going to have to try different tactics with her. A bottle of the finest champagne wasn’t going to do it. “Sorry, Laronde. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“You’re not.”
“Good, because I aim to please.”
“Sick.” He thought he heard her mutter under her breath. “Do you always behave like this?”
“Like what?”
“You mean you don’t even know when you’re being a jerk?”
“I’m not being a jerk.”
“Is this how you are? Or is this a façade?”
“This is me. I don’t understand what you’ve got a problem with. I could say you’re tight-assed.”
She scowled. “Tight-assed?”
“Or frigid.”
“Oh, no,” she said. “No. We’re not going there.”
“I’m not going anywhere, I’m making an observation, that’s all.”
They were standing face to face now. Her expression was one of pure revulsion. No woman had ever looked at him like that before, unless she was play acting and they were about to get dirty. But Laronde didn’t look like she was acting. That sneer was genuine, and she looked like she hated him.
She threw her head back, tilting her chin defiantly, doing that thing she did, when she thought she had one-upped him. She stared at him with cold, flint-like eyes. “You’re so different to Tobias.”
What was that supposed to mean? Women who wanted serious and intense men went for Tobias, but women who wanted a good time, and lots of sexy times, went for him. They were different, and Laronde comparing them, the way he was used to people comparing his and Tobias in business, angered him. He didn’t like that she seemed to know exactly which buttons to press, intentionally or not.
“You’re not interested in him, are you? Because he’s married and you need to be careful.”
She threw her arms up in the air as if in total disbelief. “You asshole. How do you manage to get everything so wrong?”
“What the fuck has Tobias got to do with anything?”
His insides started to relax as it suddenly dawned on him. She was playing him like he was playing her. He riled her, and she had discovered the best way to rile him. It hadn’t been enough pulling that number before lunch, this time she’d worked out what really did it.
