Page 79 of Serenity

“You gave me your phone to show me a picture of you and Pre. I swiped right and saw a video of you and this woman…”

“You were snooping?” He smirked.

“I wasn’t. I thought you had another photo of my brother, so I swiped.”

“How much did your sneaky ass see?”

“I saw all of it,” I shrugged.

Recalling the way my body temperature rose and my legs anxiously bounced that night, I flushed and covered my face.

Dragging my hand away, Duke tipped my chin toward him.

“How did watching me inside her make you feel, Bee?”

His line of questioning forced me to swallow and wet my lips. The way his eyes were cemented to my skin made my heart triple-beat.

“A little envious. A little horny.”

“Our video is much better than that one.”

“It is,” I agreed.

“How does watching me have my way with your body make you feel?”

I sighed, and my lids committed to the famed bedroom eyes. “Horny.”

Shamelessly, I craved him. For the last hour, we’d been indulging in each other on camera, and the thought of more time together thrilled me. Ignoring the tiny fissures he’d caused over the last sixty minutes, my body responded of its own volition, making me wet all over again. Chartless seconds and amorous gazes passed between us before another word was uttered.

“Hands to ankles.”

SOLARI

“We’ve made some adjustments to your proposal.”

Opening my mouth to speak, I thought better of it and remained silent. Intuition informed me that whatever the adjustment was, I wouldn’t like it.

Noting my inaudible compliance, Yolanda pressed forward. “We propose a $2,500,000 deal. This will secure the construction of a large facility alongside a smaller location that provides a la carte services.”

“What is the opposition or hesitation toward the initial figure requested?” Pointedly, I asked the question. Simultaneously, my legs commenced to the restless shaking they often did when irritation or anxiety surfaced.

Settling for less was far removed from my aspirations. Five was the magic number. I wanted the full requested amount. Not two-point fucking five. Five million would give me room to open three full-service spa facilities. A la carte service could be added to our list of offerings, but a small walk-in spa was far displaced from my ambitions.

The offered agreement was not what I wanted. Knowing they were denying me of the initial request left me inhaling deeply and forcing a laugh, though nothing was fucking funny.

“We admire your ambition. Your ability to get things done is unrivaled, as demonstrated here on your growth chart for Serenity Spa and Wellness Center. However, entering a new partnership with us requires that certain targets are met prior to us diving into a fully vested business relationship,” Yolanda, the lead investor for my project, explained.

Fine.

Uphill, it seemed, a boulder was being forced to little avail. The push and pull between us required an excess of energy. A glimpse at my watch informed me that at one in the afternoon, such exertion was misplaced.

“Two-five is the initial offer. After the establishment of the two spas, we will revisit our initial agreement and reconsider an additional two point five in three years. This will grant you four spas—two of which will be full-service and the other two which will be smaller.”

“Thank you for this breakdown in figures, Yolanda. I’ll need time to review these numbers.”

I wasn’t agreeing to shit. Not yet. I was livid. Disappointed. Disgruntled. Annoyed.

“As expected. We’ll give you a week to—”