The Bride Goes Rogue (The Fifth Avenue Rebels #3)(36)

“Right, none of my concern.” Kit drummed his fingers on the wooden desk. “She is friends with my wife. Now Alice will be asking questions and interfering. You have just bought yourself a world of trouble, my friend.”

“What does that mean?”

Kit rolled his eyes. “You don’t understand, do you? Alice, Maddie and Katherine—these women are obsessed with matchmaking. I saw it firsthand in Newport.”

“Kat and I were matched once. It won’t happen again. Neither of us are interested in it.”

His friend’s brows shot up. “Kat, is it? How cute. What does she call you?”

Please, my king. Give me more.

He shifted on the sofa, not liking this inquisition one bit. These things were private between him and Katherine. “I don’t see why you’re so angry,” Preston said. “You’ve caught me in more compromising situations.”

“Not with one of my wife’s friends, who happens to be the unmarried daughter from a good family.”

“Good family,” Preston sneered. “Please.”

“You know what I mean,” Kit snapped. “Jesus, are you purposely ruining her?” Suddenly, Kit straightened as fear flashed over his normally cool expression. “Fucking hell, you are. You are purposely ruining that sweet girl as revenge against her father. Have you gone mad?”

Preston blew out a long breath and dragged a hand through his hair. “I swear, I’m not.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I’m not lying. We ran into one another today on Twenty-Third Street. I asked her to have a drink with me.”

“Twenty-Third Street? Where you’re building the Surety office tower?”

“Yes. Except Lloyd has told Katherine she can put an art museum there.”

Kit shook his head as if clearing it. “Wait, what?”

Preston quickly explained the dispute over the land. “Lloyd somehow cheated my father out of that property. I just need to figure out how.”

“So, you’re seducing her as leverage against Lloyd? Or you’re seducing her into dropping the art museum and letting you have the land instead?”

That leap in logic had Preston glowering at his friend. “I’m doing neither. For Christ’s sake, why do you immediately assume the worst of me?”

“How about a decade of friendship? No one knows you better than I do. And this is something you would absolutely do.”

“You make me sound Machiavellian.”

Kit held out his hands as if to say, That’s because you are.

“Fuck off,” Preston said. “I’m not trying to hurt her.”

“Except you’ve somehow convinced her to can-can on my stage and flash you her quim.”

Darkness slithered under Preston’s skin, a barely restrained violence that threatened to burst free. He leaned forward to snarl, “You better not have looked at her. If I find out you did, I’ll blacken both your eyes until you can’t see a goddamn thing.”

Kit rocked back in his chair. “I don’t believe it. You’re territorial and jealous over this woman.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I merely don’t want her humiliated.”

His friend tilted his face toward the ceiling and shouted, “What the fuck is happening here?”

Preston shot to his feet. “This is a waste of time. I should collect Katherine and take her home.”

“Are you going to see her home?” Kit rose and put his hands on his hips. “Or are you taking her to a hotel? Because I won’t allow you to use her as a pawn against her father. Alice will never let me hear the end of it and I’ll be forced to buy out your half of the club.”

“I’m not using her as a pawn—and you may buy me out whenever you wish. You can certainly afford it.”

Kit scowled like he was unhappy at the prospect, even though he’d been the first to raise it. “I don’t want to buy you out. This was supposed to be something for us to do together.”

“Then don’t lecture me about using the club.”

“Fine, but can you warn me the next time you have a woman here performing for you? Perhaps put a necktie or a glove on the front door. That way I won’t have to worry about what Alice may or may not see.”

“Fair enough, but this won’t happen again.”

Kit approached, his eyes grave as he pressed his hands together as if in prayer. “Listen, losing Forrest made me realize I don’t want to lose anyone else I care about. Please, Pres. Choose another woman. I’m begging you. This is not going to turn out well.”

An uncomfortable silence stretched where Preston grappled with the logic of what Kit was saying, versus the desire he felt for his reinette. Damn it. Of course Kit was right, and nothing about this made sense. Lloyd’s daughter was the last person Preston should entangle himself with, even if she was a delight in every way.

Even he could see this had the chance to turn messy. It was why Preston kept mistresses, arrangements that suited them both where the rules were clearly defined. He didn’t want an unpredictable affair where his partner might grow attached, then turn bitter when he didn’t return her sentiment. There was no telling what could happen then. It could send his whole life spinning out of control—and he’d lived through that once already, unfortunately. He had no desire to ever experience that uncertainty again.