Page 1 of The Hookup
Chapter 1
“Are you crazy? Ten thousand dollars?” Luke’s voice echoed disbelief.
“That’s right. Ten thousand dollars that I can get that girl into my bed,” his friend declared.
“I don’t want you to do anything stupid,” Luke warned. He didn’t like the sound of this. Flirting with a woman was one thing, but placing a $10K bet in order to get her into bed? That was insane. Even he didn’t play that dirty. He looked at Xavier as if he’d lost all commonsense.
“All above board, dude,” his friend replied with a cocky grin. “I don’t ever use force. She’ll want it by the time I’m finished with her.”
“Ten thousand?” Luke blinked again.
“You called it.”
“No,youcalled it.”
Xavier Stone was unbelievable. He threw money around like confetti, and he could be a real dick sometimes. Luke—even if he didn’t respect women the way most men should—even he wouldn’t stoop so low as to place a bet to get someone into his bed.
Women, dating, sex, relationships; these things were of no importance to him, and often the order in which they came into his life wasn’t worthy of much thought. He wouldneverwaste time on shit like that. But building his business and his real estate empire? That took all of his time and energy.
Xavier’s problem was that he needed to bewanted.
Whereas Luke didn’t give a shit about these things.
“You provoked me,” Xavier asserted.
“Didn’t realize your esteem was so fragile,” Luke threw back at him. But he also felt sorry for the guy. It couldn’t be easy being a younger brother to Tobias Stone—the Wall Street genius who could do no wrong.
“It’s not,” Xavier shot back.
What was the point of even discussing this? Xavier had clearly made up his mind, and he would no doubt spend the next few months chasing this poor girl until she gave in. Still, Luke didn’t like the sound of this. He liked Izzy—she was the au pair to Jacob, Tobias’s new step-son as of this morning. The billionaire hedge-fund owner had married the boy’s mother, here on his idyllic, private island in Fiji. Luke’s job, as the owner of one of the most popular and upscale bars in New York, had been to take care of the drinks for the four-day wedding extravaganza.
“Is there a time limit to this crazy bet?”
“A month,” Xavier replied.
“What if she’s already got a boyfriend?” he asked, hoping to throw Xavier off the crazy idea. Izzy seemed nice enough, and he didn’t like the idea of Xavier hitting on someone as naïve as her. She was pleasant, and nothing like the usual airheads Xavier ended up with.
“She hasn’t. I overheard her talking to Savannah. Anyway, are you chickening out now?”
“No.” Luke eyed him for the longest time, knowing that his chances for dissuading Xavier were slim. “A month doesn’t seem like enough time, and I’d hate for you to do something stupid.”
“I’m not going to do anything stupid. I don’t know what you take me for.”
An idiot, thought Luke, but he didn’t say anything. Xavier didn’t think with his brain, he thought with his dick, and Luke hoped some other tall, thin and vacuous distraction would come along and make Xavier ditch his bet.
“Three months, then, if it makes you feel better,” said Xavier, exhaling loudly as if he was irritated. “But I doubt I’ll need that long. Watch and learn, dude. Watch and learn.”
“You’re an idiot,” Luke declared, wishing that Xavier would go to bed before he came up with any more hair-brain ideas. “Listen, buddy. How about you go straight to bedalone?Try it. You might like it. And when you wake up in the morning you’ll see what a stupid idea this was.”
“It’s not a stupid idea.”
This was debatable, but arguing about it wouldn’t change a thing. Instead, he seized Xavier’s empty glass. “Bed,” he said, forcefully, but with a smile.
“Dude,” said Xavier, sliding off the bar stool. “I’m going to wake up in the morning and show you how easily it’s done.”
“I look forward to watching a grand master at work.”
“Jeez,” said Xavier, rising to his feet unsteadily. “How many fucking tequilas did you give me?”
