2
Cole
“Deacon, this is even shitty for you.” Cole glared at his business partner.
“Why? Did you have a better idea?” Deacon poured a glass of bourbon and dropped two ice cubes in the middle.
Cole exhaled. “Not really.”
“Then stop second-guessing me. We have the launch in Vegas in two weeks. The timing couldn’t have been better.”
“Cal Mantelli is a dick. The fact that you got into business with him in the first place makes me wonder what in the hell you’re doing these days.”
Deacon waved him off. “It wasn’t business. It was a bet. He’s the one who lost. Not me.” He threw back his drink.
“Give me one of those.” Cole walked toward the bar, waiting for a stiff drink. “I need a double after this fuckup of yours.”
Deacon laughed. “Cal texted. The payment is on the way.”
Cole shook his head. “Payment? That’s what you’re calling it?”
The city loomed behind them. It was a bright windy day in Chicago. The co-CEOs were so high above the city neither could make out the people walking below on the sidewalk.
Deacon’s suites extended one length of the skyscraper, while Cole’s spanned the opposite side.
“Cal lost,” Deacon explained. “I don’t know why you’re so pissed at me.”
Cole’s blue eyes fired. “Because the payment is a girl. You bet an actual woman for us?”
Deacon grinned like a wolf. “I sure did. And she’s fucking gorgeous.”
“Like that makes this any better.”
“Want to see her picture again? Might help you commit to how real this is.”
Cole groaned, “I don’t need her picture. This is unorthodox. Even for you.”
“Relax.” Deacon patted the leather sofa. “She’s our guest.”
“An unwilling guest,” he reminded his friend. “I doubt she had a say in this entire thing.”
“A month with us and I think that has the possibility to change.”
“We don’t even know her. What if she’s like Cal? Have you thought about that? She could be the scum of the Earth like him.”
“Stop being so damn pessimistic.”
“It’s called being realistic. You don’t know what the fallout from this is going to be.”
Deacon shrugged. “Details.”
“While I’m trying to keep our empire going, you’re thinking with your cock as usual.” Cole swirled the bourbon in his glass and inhaled half of it. It burned going down. But he needed it to cope with what his best friend had done.
“Our empire needs an empress. Don’t you think?”
Cole pressed his elbows into his knees. It was hard to deny what Deacon said. The company didn’t run as smoothly when they were spinning in bachelor purgatory. They needed a woman. They thrived when they had one.
It had been too long since they had shared a bed.
“We’ve never done it this way.” Cole looked up.
“Doesn’t mean, it’s not the right way.” Deacon was confident there was nothing wrong with his bet. Nothing to regret. Collecting his debt from Cal Mantelli was the only right thing to do as far as he was concerned.
“There was nothing else of Cal’s you wanted? Nothing at all?” Cole pressed him. The fact that a woman was getting ready to be delivered to the HiTech Global offices wasn’t something he could picture.
Deacon scoffed. “Would you suggest I take one of his burned out warehouses or one of his taxi fleets?” He shook his head. “He doesn’t have anything I want. Except this.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Then who let him in the game if he doesn’t have anything to gamble with? You should have known better than to let a loser like Cal Mantelli into a game with those kind of stakes. He didn’t have anything valuable from the start, Deac.”
Deacon drank the rest of the bourbon in his glass. “He does. He has her. As far as I’m concerned she’s all the payment I need for thirty days.”
“This is fucking unbelievable. Thirty days with someone who is a stranger.”
Deacon laughed. He was always the risk-taker. Cole knew HiTech Global wouldn’t be where it was if his friend hadn’t been willing to try the adventurous deals. Make decisions no one else would touch. But it didn’t end with business decisions. Deacon let everything bleed over into his personal life. He seemed to like it best when his two worlds collided. That meant it melted into one, for Cole too.
Cole hated he had to the rational one. The one who kept his head down. The one who constantly brought his friend back on track.
But he knew when he had to back down. There was no talking him out of this one. “But nothing changes, man. It’s on her terms.”
Deacon smiled. “Of course it is. I wouldn’t want it any other way. I wouldn’t want her if she wasn’t the one asking for us.”
Cole knew that to be true. Deacon was stubborn and prideful. He’d never chased after a woman. His cockiness prevented him from ever throwing his heart into a relationship. It was the reason they lost Tessa.
All she wanted was to hear him say the words. She would have done anything for them. But Deacon couldn’t let his guard down long enough to be vulnerable.
Cole worried he never would.
The conversation was interrupted when Deacon’s private elevator buzzed. He pressed the speaker button.
“Yes?”
“It’s Johnson. I have your payment from Cal Mantelli.”
Deacon eyes lit. He punched in the code that would give Johnson access to use the executive level. “We were wondering where you were.”
“It took a little longer than I thought. I’ll be right up.”
Cole looked at his friend. “You sure you don’t want to back out of this? Have Johnson take her back?”
“No fucking way. I won her fair and square. You’re going to thank me. I swear.”
They stood as the lights on the elevator in the corner office began to illuminate. Cole straightened his tie and tugged on the pressed cuffs of his shirt. Deacon straightened his tailored jacket. There was a nervous energy that ran between them.
The doors retracted and Johnson walked into the office, carrying a woman over his shoulder.
“Put me down,” she squealed. She kicked and thrashed in his hold. Her blond hair flew in all directions.
All he could see were limbs.
“That’s enough, Johnson,” Cole instructed him. He didn’t like how this was going.
Deacon stood next to him as Johnson unwrapped the girl from his grasp and placed her feet on the floor. His hands wrapped around her waist while she squirmed free and pushed forward away from him.
For a second, Cole thought the world fell away.
She brushed her long locks from her face. Her green eyes glowered with anger. Her cheeks were flush and her plump lips with in a perfect heart shape. Fuck. His ribs felt as if they were caving in.
She was beyond beautiful. She was stunning.
He broke his gaze to look at Deacon. Cole had no idea what to say.
He realized for the first time, his best friend didn’t either.