The fork and knife were in her hands, but she stopped eating so she could stare at me. She slowly lowered her utensils, giving me a focused expression. “That’s a bleak outlook.”
“It’s the truth. Sadly. The American dream died almost a hundred years ago.”
“What about your family? Your dad must have had nothing when he started.”
“No. My grandfather was the president of a banking company. He loaned my father the money to start his own hotel chain. They say the rich get richer…which is entirely true.”
“If you’re in this elite club, why do you sound so bitter about it?”
Everything traced back to my brother, the real source of my anger. Simone meant something to me when we were together. She stayed at my place the entire time, and it was the only relationship I’d ever had. When she screwed me over, I immediately forgot about her. I didn’t let her hurt me more than she already had. But seeing my brother still stand by her after all these years…just reminded me how he’d betrayed me in the first place. Maybe I would never get over it. “I have my reasons.”
“Care to share?” She went back to eating.
“Not really. I don’t want to spoil the evening.”
“Because you haven’t already?” she asked with a laugh. “I’m the one stuck in the situation, but I’m not nearly as bitter about it as you are. You can let the weight of your grief pull you down, or you can keep going and hope things get better.”
For most people, it never got better. “How was your day?”
“Trying to change the subject?”
“Unless you want me to keep ruining the evening.”
“Even when you’re saying depressing things, you look sexy while you talk, so it’s not that bad.” She wore a playful smile as she looked down at her plate and cut into her asparagus.
Even when I was in my worst mood, she managed to pick me up. “So, how was your day?”
“Good. The office was crazy busy. We’re getting ready for the winter selection.”
“Isn’t fall next?”
“Yes, but we finished fall in spring.”
“So you do opposite seasons?” I asked.
“Exactly. Always ahead of the game. How was your day?”
I had to deal with that leech Simone. My brother didn’t recognize she was a gold digger because he was balls deep in her pussy. She probably didn’t love my brother at all. She tried to pressure me into marriage, and when I wasn’t stupid enough to fall for her act, she went after my gullible brother instead.
As if a woman like that would really love him.
The second she owned a part of our company, she would leave him.
Coen was a pussy and wouldn’t be able to face her in the office.
So I would be stuck with her, dealing with a tramp while running the company.
If he didn’t sign that prenup, I would beat him until he was at the pearly gates.
I finally answered her. “Busy.”
“How do you manage so many hotels all over the world?”
“With managers,” I said. “I do administrative stuff. My brother controls the east side of the world, and I control the west. We compare numbers every quarter. We basically just count the money and make sure there are no issues going on.”
“Do you visit your hotels often?”
“Sometimes. I don’t travel as much as I should.”
“Then maybe you need to start.” She ate everything on her plate, not even leaving the greens behind.
If she really ate like this at every meal, she wouldn’t be so thin. That made me wonder if she could even afford to eat. Maybe the only meals she was eating were the ones she had with me.
The thought made me sick.
When we finished dinner, I left the dishes in the sink. They’d be washed the next day when the maid came, so I didn’t bother. But I brought the bottle and glasses to the table in the living room so we could keep drinking.
“I didn’t realize you liked wine.” She sat beside me and crossed her legs. “It seems like you’re always drinking liquor.”
“I have wine with dinner sometimes.” I took a long sip to cleanse my palate before I set the glass on the table. Now that the lights were low and her belly was full, all I could think about was my deep attraction to her, the way I longed to drag my bottom lip up her neck before I gave her a deep kiss. I wanted to press my face between those plump tits and lick the valley created by them. I wanted to smell her perfume, smell her cunt.
She took a drink as she kept her eyes on me, becoming noticeably quiet as she waited for me to make good on my threat.
“Put the glass down.” I wished she’d worn a dress so I could get to her pussy faster. Actually, I wished she’d arrived in nothing but a trench coat so I could enjoy her the second she walked into the room.