Charade (Swept Away, #1.5)(18)

“Eh, who cares about that stuff now?” He yawned. “They never should have married. I think they both loved other people.”

“That’s sad.”

“Yeah, but that’s life, right? You do what you got to do to make it.”

“I suppose.” I frowned. “Though doesn’t it depend on what you have to do?”

“Someone at some point in every great dynasty has to do something f*cked up. Shit, look at the barons of industry. Look at all those empires. Everyone that’s been successful had to sell their soul in some way.”

“Yeah, they sold their souls and hurt people,” I snapped. “I don’t think it’s right to put the lives of other people in jeopardy just because you want to make a buck. I don’t think it’s right to take people’s property and make it your own, and then keep them in the dark.” I caught myself ranting and stopped myself immediately. Shit, what if he figures out what I was saying?

“You talking about Africa?” he said sympathetically. “That shit was f*cked up, for sure.”

“Huh?”

“When all those Europeans went and split up the continent, that was messed up. Then started mining for diamonds and keeping the diamonds and the profits for themselves. I agree, I think that’s the ultimate greed and evil.”

“Did you watch Blood Diamond recently?” I asked curiously. I wasn’t sure how else David would know about the colonization of Africa.

“Yeah, how did you know? I’ve always been a fan of DiCaprio’s. He killed it in that role.”

“Yeah, he’s a good actor.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “And yeah, there are too many people out there who do evil things and then benefit from them. It’s not right.”

“Yeah, it’s not,” he agreed.

“Anyway, will you see if I can do my research at Bradley Inc. soon? It would be really helpful. I can even ask Mattias myself if that would help. I think it would really highlight just how great your company is and how much your father did to get ahead.”

“Mattias is a pretty private person. I’m not sure that he’ll be down for that, but I’ll ask him. Maybe you can ask him at dinner if he comes.”

“Yeah, that would be great,” I said eagerly. If I could meet Mattias, I was pretty sure I could convince him to let me do some “research.” I’d just play up how important Bradley Inc. was to the city and how the company helped to speed the shift of Manhattan into a big power player in the business world. I was confident he didn’t know the history of the rise of Manhattan so he wouldn’t necessarily know that the shift happened before Bradley Inc. was formed. At least I was counting on him not knowing that.

“Are you going to spend the night on Wednesday, then?” he asked me, and I grimaced at the wall opposite me. Why did it always come back to hanky-panky with David? I knew it wasn’t just him. Every guy wanted sex, but I was getting tired of fending him off. Every day we spent together, he was becoming more and more aggressive. I’d had to push his hand away more times than I cared to and his constant pawing and pitiful faces were getting old. I was pretty sure that my no’s were getting old to him as well. I didn’t want to acknowledge that it was also getting harder and harder for me to say no.

“Try and stop me,” I said lightly. I didn’t want to give him any reason to not want Wednesday night to be a success.

“Does that mean what I think it means? Are you ready?” he asked, his voice filling with excitement. David had been as patient as he could be, but I knew that the no-sex policy was getting old to him. He’d been surly the last couple of times we’d made out and I had the feeling that our relationship was coming to a point of no return. I knew that he wanted more than touching and kissing. The fact that I hadn’t yet given him a blow job was annoying him, but a blow job is just as intimate as sex to me.

“We’ll see,” I giggled. “Anyway, David, I have to go. I’ll speak to you later, okay?”

“Sounds good,” he agreed. “I’ll see you Wednesday.”





six

“It was nice meeting you, Rosie.” David hugged her as we said our goodbyes after dinner. She grinned and winked at me as we left the restaurant. I smiled back at her weakly. I was finding it hard to stay positive. Mattias had backed out of another dinner. I didn’t understand what his problem was. Why didn’t he make the time to meet me? He had to know that it was important to David by now.

“It was great meeting you as well, David. Hopefully, we can all go out to dinner again soon.”

“That sounds like a plan.” He stepped back and grabbed my hand. “Now we hate to love you and leave you, but Bianca and I have plans.”

“We do?” I looked at him in surprise and then I remembered our phone call. Oh, shit! Of course, the shit was going to hit the fan before I’d even gotten to meet Mattias.

“Well, I don’t want to prevent you guys from having a great rest of the night.” Rosie gave me a kiss on cheek. “Seal the deal tonight?” she whispered in my ear and I blushed. Rosie hopped in a cab before I could say anything to her.

“She’s nice,” David said as we walked hand-in-hand down the street. “That was a fun dinner.”

“Yes, it was. Thank you.”