Page 55 of Man Vs. Woman
Serena
“What the hell was that about?”
I gotta be honest—I didn’t expect to see Colt and Hiram together. Not at Clarendon Tower’s bar, where everyone can see them. And especially not after all the bullshit we just went through. Being forced to give the board a tour of our businesses pushed us close to the brink, and it’s a miracle we managed to save our asses.
Colt and Hiram shouldn’t be together.
But there they were.
My first reaction was to think that maybe the two of them were meeting to plot against me, trying to figure out a way to take me down. Maybe everything that Colt has done before was a red herring, a play to throw me off the scent while he and Hiram scheme together...but then, as I remember the moments I shared with Colt before, the way he saved me and held me close, the way we made love...I can’t help but push all those stupid thoughts to a dark corner inside my mind.
No way Colt would screw me over.
Not now, not ever.
I know, I might be a fool to trust him like this, but what can I say?
“That asshole,” he says, his lips curling into a grin. “He sat down and wanted to bribe me. He offered me money so that I’d let go of Clarendon Tower space. And a lot of it, at that.”
“Enough to make you think about it?” I ask.
Colt sighs. “Yeah,” he says slowly. “Had he made this offer a month ago I would have taken it. It would cover all the money I borrowed and then some.”
I arch my eyebrows. I know Colt borrowed a lot of money.
“That asshole has got some pretty deep fucking pockets is all I can tell,” he says to me with a sip of his drink.
“Jesus,” I mutter, gritting my teeth and looking down at my feet. At least Colt’s being straightforward with me, and not lying about the whole think. “What did you say?”
“What do you think?” Is all he asks me, that wide grin still hanging on his lips, and I let out a sigh of relief. No way in hell would I stand a chance against someone like Hiram on my own. And if Colt had joined forces with him, I’d be done for. Hiram would crush me, just like he’d crush a dazed fly under the heel of his shoe.
Perhaps noticing the worried expression on my face, Colt waves one hand at one of the bar stools, inviting me to sit. I do so without complaint, resting my elbows on the counter, and then he tells the bartender to bring us two whiskies and put it on his tab.
“This isn’t going to be easy,” I tell Colt as the bartender lays the two glasses in front of us. “This might actually be pretty hard.”
“No, it’s going to be way harder than hard” he agrees, waving his glass and making the two fingers of his whisky spin along the bottom of his glass. “But then again…would you rather have easy…or hard?”
I look into his eyes, drink up his easy smile, and then find myself smiling back at him. There’s just something about him that puts me at ease, even if it feels like my back is against the wall. I guess there are no limits to his charm.
“Right,” I nod. “But we need to take Hiram seriously. He isn’t playing around. I don’t know if his plans for the site are real, but...he has the strongest case.”
“Does he now?”
“Well, with all his promises of helping out those who’ve lost their jobs, and whatnot...I’d say his chances are better than ours. How do we compete against something like that? I mean, for Christ’s sake...I have a spa, and you have a gym, and both of those are aimed at the wealthy. It’s not like we’re running a charity. And Hiram...he’s going all Good Samaritan on the board. Even if they wanted to hand the site to one of us, the newspapers would crucify them.”
“We’re going to beat that bastard, Serena, one way or the other,” he whispers, reaching for me and gently laying his hand on top of mine. I look at him, curious to see the expression I might find on his face, and I can’t help but smile again at what I see.
He doesn’t look anything like Colt ‘Trainwreck’ McCoy, an out of control man that’s crazy enough to come on his own customers and then laugh about it. No, he looks like a different man...one willing to team-up with me, and that in more than just one way. A man that I can trust to push forward, and never let go until we both have what we want.
Except, of course, real life doesn’t work like that.
I know it, you know it; and Colt must know it too.
“What is it?” He asks me, almost as if he could read my thoughts. “Is there anything wrong?”
“Colt…” I start, trying to choose the right words, “it’s just...I’m glad we’re not at each other’s throats. I wouldn’t be able to do this if we were really competing against each other. But, at the same time...there can only be a winner. And I don’t want to go through this, just to end up fighting you. I don’t think I -”
“Hey, listen,” he cuts me short. Grabbing both my hands, tighter now, he replaces his smile with a calm but serious expression. “I know how this looks. I know that, in the end, the board will have to choose one person out of the three of us…”
