“Slate, I want you for you. Not for your money.”
“I know…but at least this gives you an incentive to give me a chance.” If I’d asked without offering the money, she would never agree. She wouldn’t risk getting her heart broken after three months with me. It was too risky, especially when I would probably leave anyway. But now she was cleaning up her debt for good. She would get a clean slate, a better chance of a quality life. She wouldn’t have to work just to pay bills. She could save her money, get a better apartment, and maybe even buy a car.
She paced slowly as she shook her head. “You really don’t want me to be with Wyatt, huh?”
“No.” I couldn’t stand the thought.
“It makes me sad to think he’s the only reason this is happening. If I dated some nobody, you never would have known about it and never would have thought of me again.”
Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten jealous and marched to her office to get her back, but I certainly would have thought of her. “That’s not true. If that were the case, I would have slept with someone before I even found out about Wyatt. But I haven’t.”
She stopped pacing and looked at me.
“Are you saying yes?”
“I don’t know…”
I needed her to say yes. I needed to have her back. I needed to take her back to my penthouse so I could enjoy her, to have the real thing instead of a stale memory. “Say yes.”
“I’m not sure if the money is worth a broken heart.”
“But you might not have a broken heart. Maybe you’ll get sick of me. Maybe you’ll be the one who wants to leave.”
She scoffed. “I highly doubt that, Slate.”
“There’s still a chance it could end differently.”
“How good of a chance?” she whispered.
I wished I could be different. I wished I could be a normal man and give this woman what she wanted. Before Simone, I fooled around because I hadn’t met a woman I actually liked. Then we got together, and monogamy was easy. But she took my virginity when we were young and then stabbed me in the back a decade later. I hadn’t been the same since. I turned off my heart completely and turned into a fucking machine. But everything had been different with Monroe, since the moment she stormed into my office. “I don’t know. But good enough to try.”
22
Monroe
I didn’t feel comfortable running off to Slate’s penthouse right away, so I asked him to leave so I could break it off with Wyatt first. We weren’t serious, but he had the right to know what was going on.
He took it well. Told me to call him if it didn’t work out.
I suspected I would be making that phone call in a few months.
I sat in my office and considered the offer I’d agreed to. Three months for $450,000—that was over $100,000 every month. I was being paid to put my life on hold, to risk heartache for a man who couldn’t commit. But I needed that money…and I needed him.
Maybe it was just an excuse to do something reckless. Most people wouldn’t walk away from that kind of money, so it was a good reason to stay, a good reason to do something stupid. I wanted to believe there was a chance Slate might change, but in my heart, I found that unlikely.
But I wanted him anyway.
The second he got what he wanted before, he was so cold to me. I would never forget the dread in my stomach when he ignored my phone call, the way he looked so annoyed when I stopped by his penthouse.
He was a whole different person.
Once he popped my cherry, he turned back into the asshole I’d originally met.
Would he do it again?
I finished a day at the office, and just as I was walking out of the building, I ran into Slate.
In his suit and tie, he looked like a million dollars with his muscular physique. Ignorant to all the stares directed his way, he focused on me. He stopped in front of me on the sidewalk, one hand sliding into his pocket. He didn’t greet me with affection like he would behind closed doors.
“What brings you here?” Now that he’d popped up at my apartment and my office, I was used to him catching me off guard.
“Haven’t heard from you in a while.”
“Just busy.”
He’d just shaved that morning, so he looked particularly handsome. His brown eyes looked like melted chocolate that was perfect for dipping. His dark hair was nearly the same color as his eyes, so he had a naturally intense appearance. Even when he was at his sweetest, he was still threatening. “Have you thought about my offer?”
This would probably be a mistake, but maybe it wouldn’t be a mistake I would regret. “I ended things with Wyatt yesterday. He took it well.”