Ah, hell.
Jared glanced down and focused on his pasta. Tempting as it was to question his friend’s sanity—he couldn’t. With Lucy’s panties still on his makeshift beach blanket, he couldn’t ask what the hell Finn was thinking.
“Before we made an offer to buy the business?” Jared asked. “You’d met her before? Or tonight?”
Finn shook his head. “Both. Marie DeVilla agreed to meet for dinner and a drink. We set it up through our assistants. But as soon as I saw her waiting for me at the entrance to the pizza place, I recognized her. We hooked up at a charity function last year.”
“One time,” Jared said, the picture becoming clear in his mind.
“Never even left the gala. Just found a closed-off room at the venue.” Finn leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair. “Marie is gorgeous. At the time, that’s all I knew about her. First name. Her family moved here when she was sixteen, but she went to boarding school. And she fucks like a dream.”
“Did she give you her number last year?” Jared asked.
Finn nodded. “I lost it. Got distracted by work and never called. But she wasn’t pissed when she showed up tonight. She seemed genuinely happy to see me. So we sat down to pizza and talked about the deal.”
“Did she tell you what it would take to make our offer more appealing?” he asked.
“She claims that her dad wants to take the highest offer. He wants all the money up front. He’s not interested in payouts over time. He plans to invest in his kids, she said.”
“How the hell did you end up in bed with her again?” Jared reached for his beer.
“She offered.” Finn shrugged. “I had the information we needed. My apartment is a short walk away. So we headed there for a nightcap. Clothes started coming off. Everything was good until it went south. So far south Key West looks like the fucking North Pole.”
“Don’t tell me we’re losing this deal over bad sex,” Jared said.
Finn looked him straight in the eye and laughed. “I delivered. And man, it was wild. That’s the problem. She filmed it on her phone. I didn’t realize until it was too late. She filmed the entire thing.” His laughter and smiled faded. “When she shows her father a video of me bending her over the table in my entry—do you think he’s going to play nice and negotiate?”
“He’ll take Peak’s offer.”
“Yeah,” Finn said bitterly. “And give his daughter the cash she needs to launch her new clothing line. She told me afterward. She talked her dad into selling. She doesn’t want to inherit a sugar company. She wants to design clothes, but she needs capital to start the business. She’s already drained her trust fund. So she decided to hit us up for the money. By way of her dad.”
“This wasn’t your fault,” Jared said. “You didn’t know.”
“I read the situation wrong. Not the sex.” Finn waved one hand through the air. “I’m not apologizing for having mind-blowing, consensual sex—”
“I’m not asking you to,” Jared said.
“Although you better believe I’m going to be more careful from here on out. This town is too damn small,” Finn continued. He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the marble. “Putting the deal together, that’s what I do. You run the companies, but I make the deals happen. I had this one and I blew it. Do you think her father is going to sell the company he built from nothing to us now?”
“I’ll talk to DeVilla tomorrow.” Jared set aside the now empty ravioli container. “I’ll make it right.”
“Don’t offer them a cent more. Our initial offer was solid. Plus, we’re keeping their team in place.”
“Let me handle it,” Jared said firmly.
Finn opened his mouth to protest and then closed it again. He gave a curt nod and then reached for his drink. “So you left Lucy with the princesses. You know she’s going to dissect your date.”
“You’re the one who sent the nine one one texts because you accidentally made a sex tape that could cost us millions,” Jared pointed out.
His friend’s face fell. Finn didn’t apologize. Hell, he rarely screwed up. And when he did, he missed a morning staff meeting or forgot to let Coulter know he had plans to golf with a client. But this—screwing DeVilla’s daughter on camera—was a new level of fucking up. Finn wasn’t going to shake this off. Not tonight. Probably not anytime soon.
“I’m not worried about Lucy,” Jared added. “I have her underwear.”
Finn cocked his head. “That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
Jared nodded.
“Underwear, huh?” Finn let out a laugh. “Not exactly a glass slipper. But it’s a start.”