I smiled, knowing he was waiting for me to say that I’d changed my mind, but I hadn’t.

  “I’ll get you a car of your own in a couple of weeks,” he said, handing me a silver-plated business card. “In the meantime, Greg is going to drive you to Corey’s place tonight, and my doctor will call you the second he gets back from vacation. Were those two suitcases all the clothes you brought from Seattle?”

  I nodded. “Kelly is bringing the rest of my stuff in a U-Haul later.”

  “Understandable.” He still looked concerned, as always. “Whenever you have some free time, let me know, and I can have a personal shopper take you to buy new clothes if you’d like.” He glanced at his watch. “I’m late picking Claire up from the spa. I’ll see you at the end of the month at the quarterly executive meeting.”

  “The end of the month? I won’t see you until then?”

  “Maybe in passing,” he said. “We have a lot of planning to do for the wedding.” He stepped closer and almost kissed me, but he settled for a whispered “Love you” instead. Then he walked away and headed toward the elevator bank without returning my coffee.

  I looked down at the business card he’d given me and ran my finger along the embossed letters. Whether I liked it or not, I was officially a member of his world of thousand dollar suits, over the top cars, and business cards that cost more than two months’ worth of my former rent.

  It’s just temporary until I earn enough to start over again...

  LATER THAT NIGHT, I sat in the backseat of a town car as Greg drove through a coastal neighborhood outside the city. Tucked behind a large private gate, each home stood half a mile apart, with a perfect, unobstructed view of the ocean.

  I snapped pictures as the car made its way up a winding hill and parked next to a black Ferrari.

  “Wow...” I couldn’t stop staring.

  Stepping out, Greg opened the back door for me before getting my luggage out of the trunk.

  I sat still for a few seconds and let out a breath as I looked over the house. When Jonathan told me that Corey volunteered to let me stay at his place for the next few weeks, I was surprised. Given our estrangement over the past years, I would’ve never thought he would agree to this—especially since he’d sent me that email right after the party. Then again, if anyone knew how bad my sleeping fits could get at night, it was him.

  I can’t believe I tried to seduce him when I was drunk. What the hell was I thinking?

  Grabbing my purse, I got out of the car and walked to the front door. Before I could ring the bell, Corey opened the door wearing a thin white T-shirt that hugged his arm and ab muscles in all the right places, and a pair of grey lounge pants that exposed his perfectly carved “V.”

  I stared at his right bicep, where a black tattoo of entwined words snaked up his sleeve.

  “Hi,” he said, his voice deep.

  “Hi...”

  “Are you going to let us in, Mr. Walters?” Greg was behind me with my bags in his hands.

  Corey kept his eyes on mine, and he opened the door a little wider. “Come in.”

  I stepped inside, and Greg set my things against the wall.

  “I trust you’ll take these to Miss Statham’s room. Mr. Walters?” he asked.

  “I will.”

  “Thank you, Greg,” I said.

  “Always.” He handed me one of his silver-plated business cards before shutting the door and leaving us alone.

  Corey stared at me for several seconds, setting my nerves on fire without saying a single word. “Let me show you to your room.” He moved past me, leading the way through a living room with panoramic windows and through few stark white hallways.

  Opening the door to a room in the corner, he hit the lights—revealing a bright blue bedroom. It was twice the size of the suite I was leaving behind at the Four Seasons. There were grey blankets atop the bed that bore my name in cursive and multiple editions of Scrabble on the desk.

  He walked over to a door on the other side of the room and pushed it open. “You have a balcony to yourself,” he said. “And you have your own bathroom, so there’ll be no need for you to come to mine.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “It’s a rule.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “One I really don’t need you to break.” He looked me up and down before stepping out of the room. “Let me show you the rest of the house.”

  He walked me through the living room again, through a huge media room where he’d hung massive screens on every inch of the walls.

  “This is my second home office,” he said. “My first one is in the basement, but it’s off-limits so don’t even think about going there.”

  “Have you been watching Beauty & the Beast lately or something?” I asked. “Is this some type of weird reenactment?”

  His lips curved into a slight smirk, but he didn’t let it stay. “The wine cellar is accessible through the small set of steps behind you. You can have anything on the first two racks. Well, maybe not anything since you clearly don’t know how to handle alcohol.”

  “What did you just say?”

  He ignored my question and showed me four more guest rooms, three more bathrooms, and a stone terrace that overlooked his private pool.

  Saving his state of the art white kitchen for last, he motioned for me to take a seat at the breakfast bar. As he took out wine glasses, I glanced down the hallway he’d neglected to mention during the tour and assumed that’s where his bedroom was.

  “We need to set some ground rules while you’re here,” he said, uncorking a bottle of wine. “And I need you to promise me that you’re going to follow them to the letter, clear?”

  “It depends on what they are.”

  He unclipped a sheet of paper from the refrigerator before handing me a glass of wine. “Rule number one, follow all my goddamn rules.”

  I crossed my legs, upset that I was slightly turned on by his assholery.

  “Rule number two, stay on your side of the house whenever you’re not in the living room or the kitchen.”

  “Okay, wait.” I shrugged. “Why can’t I use the pool or the parlor rooms?”

  “Rule number three.” He took a long sip of his wine. “Don’t ask me any questions about the rules.”

  “These rules seem kind of one-sided.”

  “They should be. I’m not used to having company.”

  “That’s not what I’ve heard from the rumors...”

  “What did you just say?”

  “Nothing.” I cleared my throat. “If you were going to be so anti-social and rude about your space, why did you volunteer to let me stay here?”

  “I didn’t.” He drank the rest of his wine in one gulp. “Your brother asked me for a favor.”

  Makes perfect sense now... “Well, I’ll follow your rules as long as you follow mine.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I don’t want to see you on my side of the house either.”

  “Trust me,” he said, his eyes on mine. “I won’t be there at all. Anyway—” He walked over to the pantry. “I bought all the things you used to eat, but if I missed something, the Insta-Grocery app will deliver it here within an hour.”

  I got out of my chair and took a closer look, my eyes widening with his organization of all my favorites.

  “Any other questions, Hayley?”

  “Do you have a coffeemaker?” I looked at his bare counters. “A tea kettle?”

  “Even better,” he said, opening a deep drawer full of coffee grinders, mixers, and pour-over hardware. “I hate Starbucks, so I tend to make this shit myself whenever I can.”

  I smiled. “Are there any other rules in the fine print? Time of day I’m allowed to pee, perhaps?”

  “No.” He rolled his eyes. “Good night, Hayley. Be ready for work at seven-thirty if you want a ride.”

  “Seven thirty?”

  “I didn’t stutter.” He started to walk away, but I grabbed his arm. “Wait. Can we talk about that email you sent me?”

  “I never sent you an email.”

  “I didn’t delete it.”

  “I wish you would’ve.”

  Silence.

  “What about it, Hayley?”

  “Well, I honestly still don’t remember much of that night.” I couldn’t help but inhale the sexy scent of his cologne as he stepped closer. “So, I hope it won’t make this temporary living situation awkward.”

  “I wouldn’t pick the word awkward to describe this situation at all,” he said, his voice low. “But seeing as though I’ve forgotten most of whatever the hell happened that night, there’s no need to ever bring it up again.”

  “You thought I was a good kisser when I was on top of you, though?”

  He didn’t answer that. He stared at me as if he was torn between fucking me on the spot and walking away.

  “Good night, Hayley.” He left the room.

  COREY: TODAY

  (Present Day)

  San Francisco, California

  I BETTER BE DREAMING right now.

  Just when I was finally getting the image of Hayley’s lips off my mind and drifting to sleep, my cell phone was sounding for the fifth time in a row. Glancing at the clock on the wall, I noticed the time: Three o’clock.

  Leaning over my nightstand, I grabbed my phone and held it up to my ear. “Yes?”

  “Is this um...Mr. Walters?”

  “For your sake, it’s better if it isn’t.” I groaned. “Who is this?”

  “Mr. Walters, it’s me. Sean from your developmental A-team.” He paused, not saying anything else for several seconds.

  “Okay, Sean.” I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice. “Is my office at Statham Industries on fire?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Is my office at the private company’s site on fire?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Is this a fucking emergency?”

  “It is to me, sir.” He cleared his throat. “You see, you’ve been holding interviews all month with outsiders, people who don’t hold a candle to any of the current team members at Statham, and I’m getting concerned that you won’t consider any of us when you make the final transition next year. I’m worried sick thinking about this, and I couldn’t sleep without getting this off my mind.”

  I sat up in bed, looking around my room. Surely, someone was pulling a dumb-ass prank on me, and a late-night comedian was going to jump out of my closet at any moment now.

  “I mean, if you want to leave a few of the guys behind, that’s understandable,” he said. “But I’m on your A-team, sir. Your A-Team.”

  “Please tell me this isn’t the only reason you called my personal line at three in the morning.”

  “You’ve always told us that we should fight for what’s fair.”

  “I’ve also told you not to call me with bullshit.”

  “I need to know, Mr. Walters.” He sounded as if he was near tears. “I need to know right now if I’ll be given a chance to follow you to your new company.”

  I hesitated a few seconds before answering, preventing myself from saying the words I really wanted to say. “Sean, I’m going to ask everyone on my A-team to come with me to the new company. However, per the contracts you all signed with Statham, you’re required to train your replacements before you can leave, so I was simply getting a head start and making sure all bases were covered by trying to find new team members and replacements.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yes. Oh. Is there anything else?”

  “Well, now that I have you here,” he said. “Employee reviews are coming up, and I think I deserve a raise, so—”

  I ended the call and sent him a “Save that shit for when I see you in person” text. I shut my eyes once more, attempting to succumb to sleep, but my phone rang again.

  “Yes, Sean?” I answered. “Is the building on fire this time?”

  “Um, I’m looking for a Mr. Corey Walters,” a familiar male voice said. “Do I have the wrong number?”

  “Unfortunately, not.”

  “Well, good morning, Mr. Walters,” he said. “It’s me, Chief Tomlin with the Ohio Police Department.”

  “I know who you are.”

  “Well, I apologize for calling you at this hour, and I wish I were calling with better news, but I’ll just get straight to it,” he said. “Your father was booked for criminal recklessness at a casino last night, again. Should I expect that you’ll be sending us another check to prevent us from putting this on his record?”

  I sighed. “Yes.”

  “Will you be able to send a separate check for your mother? She’s in for public urination.”

  “What? How is that even possible?”

  “She followed us out of the casino as we arrested your father and peed on the trunk of one of my squad cars, sir.”

  Jesus Christ... “Yes.”

  “Okay. I’ll let them go scot-free as long as you send the payment by three o’clock this afternoon. Let’s go with five thousand dollars for each this time.”

  “Thank you.” I ended the call and shook my head. I knew better than to expect a “Thank you for helping us again, son,” or “Sorry we did this. We’ll try to do better,” message from them when they were released. Those words weren’t in their vocabularies, and I wished I was ruthless enough to let them sit behind bars for more than a day at a time.

  I’d once thought they would change when I started to make millions since they always complained about never having enough money, but that only made them worse.

  No matter how much money I gave them, they squandered it on casino floors, wealth building scams, and expensive, yet worthless items they eventually pawned. They couldn’t live honest lives if they tried, and I’d given up on ever establishing a normal relationship. I simply helped them out whenever they were in trouble, sent them vouchers for free counseling (they never showed up), and asked the local authorities to call me before pressing any charges against them.

  It was getting to the point that I wished that they would commit a felony that no check of mine could cover.

  Needing some fresh air, I got out of bed and left my room—heading for my terrace. I was halfway there when I spotted Hayley blatantly breaking rule number one.

  Dressed in a tight pink tank top and a blue pair of my boxers that she clearly stole from my side of the house, she was sitting on my counter and stirring a cup of coffee. Next to her, were trays of baked cinnamon rolls, muffins, and what appeared to be flat cakes frosted in the likeness of Scrabble pieces.

  “I think we need to add another rule to the list,” I said, stepping closer. “What the hell is all this?”

  “Sorry.” She looked up at me. “I couldn’t sleep.”

  “Would you like me to take you back to the Four Seasons? Maybe your first week there was just a fluke, and you’ll sleep better now.”

  “No.” She rolled her eyes and set down her cup. “Would you mind staying out here with me for a minute?”

  “Would you mind putting on a goddamn jacket?”

  She smiled and slid off the counter. “Fine.” She walked right past me, to my side of the house, and pulled one of my suit jackets from the closet. She put it on, fastening the lone button, and returned to her place on my counter. “Better?”

  Worse. “Sure.” I picked up one of the cinnamon rolls and tried not to stare at her mouth. “Is this what you normally do when you can’t sleep?”

  She nodded. “It’s this or sleepwalk, apparently.”

  “Are your nightmares still about your mom being sentenced to prison?”

  “For the most part,” she said. “I’m shocked you remember that.”

  “I don’t.” I ate two more of the cinnamon rolls. “How long exactly do you need me to stay out here?”

  “Until I feel like going back to my room.”

  “And when will that be?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe in two hours or so.”

  I don’t think so. “In that case, let me help you speed that up.” I walked over and grabbed her hands, pulling her off the counter and tossing her over my shoulder. I carried her into the living room and tossed her onto the couch.

  She blushed as I motioned for her to lay down, and I knew she could see my cock hardening in my sweatpants.

  I placed a blanket over her like I used to when we were younger, adjusting the pillows at the angle that never failed to make her go to sleep. Without saying another word, she rolled over on her side and took a few deep breaths.

  I was about to walk away, but she suddenly rolled over and looked up at me. “Can I say something, Corey?”

  “No. Go to sleep, Hayley.”

  “You haven’t asked me why I’m still a virgin yet.”

  “I wasn’t planning on it. Don’t tell me.”

  “It’s because none of my boyfriends ever got close enough for me to want to sleep with them,” she said. “And I want my first time to be with someone I know.”

  “I’m sure you know plenty of people.” This conversation was officially over.

  “No,” she said, smiling. “I really don’t.”

  “Well, you will.”

  “You used to be my best friend, Corey,” she said. “You wouldn’t sleep with me if I asked you to?”

  “Hayley, I wouldn’t sleep with you if you begged me to.” I lied. “But thank you so much for helping me solidify what rule number four has to be.”

  “What is it?”

  “No talking about fucking.” I walked over to the fridge and wrote those words on the white-board. “Especially if you’re a goddamn virgin.” I returned to my room before she could say anything else, and I didn’t even try to go to sleep.

  It was time for another cold shower.

  “Torture” isn’t the right word for this arrangement at all.

  HAYLEY: TODAY

  (Present Day)

  San Francisco, California

  SUBJECT: YOU LEFT ME?