Chapter 27

Charlie

I can’t stop thinking about Lacey.

I’m finishing a late night at the office. My coffee has gone cold, and I can’t be fucked to refill it. I check my phone again—still no message from Lacey.

This has gone above and beyond anything I have ever felt before. When I’m with her, when I’m touching her, everything makes sense.

I push away the papers with a tired sigh. I’m not paying attention. I’m going to butcher the shit out of some of my best designs if I don’t get my head back in the game.

I don’t even know why I’m here, trying to work. I should be with Lacey.

Maybe she’s with one of the others.

I feel a little stir, deep inside. Not quite jealousy.

There’s a sense of competition. I don’t want her to favor the others over me. I don’t think I could take it if she said she liked them—or anyone—better than me. I don’t want to share. I want her to love me. I want to be the one she chooses, every single time.

I want to be the one who makes her happy.

I admit some frustration. Lacey has never said she loves me. Sure, she looks at me with loving eyes, tells me I’m handsome. But my heart aches for some evidence of her feelings.

I find myself thinking about the others again. Wondering if she’s with them.

I shake my head at myself, drinking the cold coffee. I give up on the designs for good, stacking them up, then check my phone again.

Maybe she’s posted on Facebook where she is, who she’s with. I start scrolling, not really seeing the screen as my thoughts run away with me.

They all think they’re so smart. Adam and Sam. They think they have it all worked out. What they don’t know is that I have my own plan.

I mean, honestly, with Adam being in finance and Sam being in marketing, you would think they could come up with a better plan.

Theirs isn’t much better than Denham’s, really. I figured them out real quick. They didn’t hide it very well, either.

It’s clumsy. That’s all there is to it. It shows how little they really care about Lacey.

I mean, hell, maybe they do in their own way, but they’re going to fuck this up. No two ways about it.

But that’s fine. That’s what I’m counting on. Let them fuck up.

If they don’t fuck up all by themselves, they’re going to realize it once they see there was no money.

I’ve got my own plan. The money shouldn’t be walking out of the country on Lacey’s body. It should be routed through several channels before ending up in a secure account at the Cayman Islands.

I’ve got it down pat. Before the others can figure out their own angles, I’m going to move it through some laundering channels.

Legally, this is flawless. And it’s a perfect tax dodge. Plus, no one is in any danger.

Imagine what could happen to Lacey if she gets busted with that cash strapped to her. She’d go to jail forever. I would never put her at risk like that.

Now, I’m thinking about fucking in all that cash. Her glorious body patterned with green notes. Honey blonde hair tossing over her shoulders. Her face as she comes, her gorgeous lips mouthing my name.

It’s hard to stop thinking about her.

The slow, lingering smile.

The soft heat of her touch.

The taste of her.

Insatiable. A hungry goddess.

I’m going to slip the money right out from under their noses. Denham, Adam, Sam—they won’t even see me coming. And I’ll have the money and plenty of proof to our father that I’m the one best fit for his throne.

Then, while they run around bumping in to each other, wondering what happened to all the money, I’ll take Lacey on a little holiday. For sure, she’ll come with me.

I don’t need to lie or even tell her the truth about the other guys. I can just say I don’t know.

Maybe I’ll tell her it’s just a short trip. Then, once we’re over there, the short trip gets longer and longer.

She won’t want to leave. I’m going to spoil her rotten every minute of every day. Anything she wants.

That’s what she deserves. Someone who’s really thinking about her best interests. I feel awful I got such an innocent sweet girl mixed up in all of this.

I’m going to make it up to her, though. I’m going to make her forget all about the others. Just me and Lacey. That’s my plan.

Models are supposed to be high-maintenance gold diggers. I didn’t expect to run into one with a heart.

Just like I didn’t expect to fall in love.

I admit, I feel kind of bad taking the charity money. Lacey was so concerned about that.

It doesn’t matter. I have to keep my eye on the big prize. Me and Lacey, living out our happily ever after.

I realize I’ve been scrolling along and not paying a single bit of attention. I check Lacey’s profile, but there’s no new information.

I slap my phone down lightly on the table. I would feel so much better if I could talk to her. Tell her everything that’s going on.

I feel so bad about all of it. But if I want to pull it off, I can’t tell her. She might blow it.

And there’s my true fear: that she won’t want to come with me. She’ll tell the others. She’ll stop me or decide she likes one of the others better than me.

I clench my fist on the table. No. That can’t happen.

I can’t wait to see her again. I can’t wait until every single day is all about Lacey. She’s all I want.

So I have to pull this off.

I shut down my computer and double check all my plans. Everything is looking good. It’s even better that, since Adam and Sam are so busy working on their own schemes, they won’t even notice mine.

I comfort myself, thinking of Lacey’s smile. Her big heart. Soon, I’ll see her again.

The image of her writhing beneath me, tight and wet and begging, is burned into my mind.

I close up and prepare to leave the office. I’m not worried. This is all going to work out.

Denham can go fuck himself—we were always going to screw his ass to the wall anyway. I really have to find a way to pin this on him legally, so he goes down. Screaming, preferably.

Adam and Sam, I don’t have any ill feelings for. We’ve had fun together. But that’s where it ends. They knew this was a competition from the start.

They should think themselves lucky they had this time with her. I’ll do just about anything to get them out of my way. I’ll screw them to the wall right next to Denham if I have to.

I don’t want to hurt Lacey. That makes the whole situation tricky.

As I leave the building, I have a little grin to myself. The whole thing is going to collapse like a spider’s web when the money disappears. Most likely, everyone’s going to fall.

Everyone except me and Lacey.