“It’s not necessary—”
Sterling Beaufort’s deep baritone voice reaches down the phone. “I insist. Think of it as an apology.”
“For what?” I frown, placing my phone on speakerphone and dropping it onto the bed so I can peel off my wet clothes.
My phone was ringing with Sterling’s call as I walked back into my bedroom from Maddy’s room. I’ve spent the past fifteen minutes talking to him in soaking wet clothes. I would never normally conduct a business call in my underwear, despite the fact the other person can’t see me. But Sterling’s spent the last five minutes trying to convince me to accept Royal box tickets to the opera in Milan, and I’ve been standing soaking wet the entire time.
“I didn’t know you two had something going on.”
“We don’t.” I walk into the bathroom, grab a towel, and wipe it over my chest.
Sterling chuckles. “You sure about that?”
I rub at the back of my neck where Maddy wrapped her wet arms around me, getting my hair wet. “Pretty damn sure.”
I smirk as I recall how much she was blushing as she made us shuffle across the bathroom together. I’d already seen her when I pulled her from the tub and checked her over. Although, I was running on adrenaline then. Still, how the fuck did I never notice how full and perfect her tits are before? And the way her nipples hardened and pressed against my ribs when she got cold.
I bite back a groan, shoving the thought aside before my body can react. As if being in my underwear isn’t bad enough, I can’t get a hard-on while talking to Sterling. That’s fucking weird. Almost as weird as the fact I got one in the bathroom. I mean, this is Mads. Drew’s little sister. What kind of shit friend am I?
It’s just a natural male reaction to a naked female pressed against you, all wet and slippery. And her tits… God her tits.
It’s her tit’s fault.
“I appreciate the gesture, honestly,” I say to Sterling. “But we aren’t going back to Milan. We’re in Rome a few more days, then we’re heading back to London early.”
The extra boost Sterling’s contribution gave means I’m a lot closer to target than I expected being at this stage. A couple more investors and we can return to London. I can tell Dad I’ve got the money and finally put this ridiculous notion of his about me getting married to an end.
I think I’ve worked it out. He’s using the business as an excuse. It’s not about the money. It’s about me being single. I’ve never taken a serious girlfriend home to meet them. Never even thought about taking any of my exes home. I’ve gotten Dad worried. Maybe he thinks he won’t live to see grandkids.
It’s a mid-life crisis.
A leather jacket or a toupee would have been preferable. But Dad went full on, choosing the ticking time bomb of procreation instead. Spencer’s his oldest friend, and Gabrielle’s a lovely woman. Dad’s being logical in his choice, even if he is also stark raving mad if he thinks it’ll happen.
“Pity,” Sterling muses. “I think she’d enjoy it.”
I drop the towel onto the bed next to my phone. Maybe Maddy would enjoy the opera. But I need to get the funding and get home quickly. Smooth things over with Dad. Reassure him. Get him and Mum back on speaking terms. I know it’ll be killing Dad that she’s still making him sleep in the guest room.
“I—”
My bedroom door flies open and bounces off the wall with a loud bang. Something hits me square in the chest, then drops to the floor. I glance down at the white object as something else slaps me around the side of the head with a soft thud.
“I bet you think you’re really clever, don’t you?”
I stare at the white slippers on the floor. The ones my housekeeper puts out for guests.
“At least look at me, you jerk!”
Maddy’s standing in my bedroom doorway dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, her wet hair piled on top of her head as she points at me. Her finger is shaking, and her cheeks are bright red.
“What are—?”
She storms over to me like a miniature pressure cooker, ready to erupt.
“Forget baboon!” She pokes me in the chest. I look down at her finger jabbing into me, then back at her face, which only seems to rile her further. “You’d be more like a gnat, if gnats have dicks. Or…” Her crazed eyes dart side to side. “…or an animal with an inverted dick. Yes!” She barks out a laugh before scowling. “An inverted dick. A speck of dust that wouldn’t even register on any scale of measurement.”
I grab her by her upper arms gently. “Did you slip after I left? Hit your head on the tiles?” I lift my chin to study the top of her head for wounds.
“Stop that.” She bats my arms away, then drags in a deep breath as she glares up at me. “You’re ridiculous, you know that? I’d get closer to an orgasm from a sneeze than I would from you.”
“Whoa.” I hold my hands up with a smirk. “That’s—”
“Don’t whoa me.” Her eyes narrow. “Did you even know women can orgasm? Or is it always about your pleasure, Prince?”
She folds her arms, and I fail to stop my eyes dropping to her breasts for a split second. Now that I’ve seen them, it’s virtually impossible not to notice the way they’re straining beneath the thin fabric of her T-shirt. Thankfully, Maddy’s too busy going batshit crazy to notice my slip up.
“You finally translated it, then?”
“God, I want to slap that smirk off your face.” She stomps her foot on the floor, her hands in fists by her side.
“You actually just stomped like a kid having a tantrum,” I say, raising my brows.
Wrong fucking thing to say.
Maddy’s eyes widen until there’s enough white on show to make her look like she’s also about to blow steam from her ears.
“Since when did you deem it acceptable for me to be walking around Italy saying the words, ‘Your dick is exquisite, Pleasure Prince?’ There could have been kids around.”
“I thought you’d have a translation app. I expected it to last until you checked into your room, no longer.” I give her a genuine smile.
“Don’t give me that. You could have told me. You let me say it in the elevator with that sweet old couple, and that crowded staircase in the Vatican, and…” Her eyes widen further, and she picks up the slipper from the floor and starts beating my abs with it. “And at Trent Forde’s meeting. You asshole.”
I jump side to side as she lands smack after smack to my skin. They don’t hurt, but then one lands low and catches me on the dick.
“Fuck,” I hiss, covering myself with both hands to prevent any more rogue shots.
She hits me a few more times and then stops, her shoulders rising and falling as she pants.
“Even if you were the last man on earth, Logan Rich, I wouldn’t have sex with you. Whether you consider yourself to be a Prince of pleasure, or not. More like a Prince of how to make a girl want to sew up her vagina.”
“That sounds painful.” My eyes drop to her tiny shorts, and her hand holding the slippers twitches. “Okay, I’m sorry. I should have told you.”
“Not good enough.” She looks at me with disgust. “You’re the biggest jerk I’ve ever met, you know that?”
“It was a joke, Mads. I’m sorry.” I grit my teeth as she gives me another look of utter contempt that makes my skin crawl. Fire ignites low in my gut and heat floods my veins as she continues to look at me like I’m the biggest asshole in the world. “It was only a joke.”
“Yeah? Everything’s a joke to you, isn’t it, Logan? And anything that’s serious, you can just throw money at it to make the problem go away.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean? It was a joke, for fuck’s sake. I didn’t think you’d be so upset. It was a mistake; I can see that now. Hardly the worst one I’ve ever made, though.”
Her lips curl down. “You can say that again.”
“What the fuck’s gotten into you? I said I’m sorry.”
“You know what? Next time you think I’m drowning… Let me.” She spins and storms for the doorway, shouting over her shoulder, “I’d rather die than be naked near you again.”
“You know what?” I call after her as she strides into the hallway.
“I don’t care what you’re going to say,” she yells back.
“Well, I’m going to say it anyway.” I cross the room and stare at her retreating back. She holds her hand above her shoulder and gives me the middle finger. “Yeah, real mature. But you know what?” I’m yelling now too, blood pounding inside my skull. “If we fucked, you’d realize those little twitches you’ve felt didn’t even come close. You’d realize you’d never fucking come before until you had an orgasm that I gave you… With my fingers… My tongue… My cock.” I’m on a roll. A herd of wild bulls couldn’t stop me from this train wreck now.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Maddy snaps without breaking stride, still not turning around.
“I’d make you fucking scream louder than Frederica!”
She slams to a halt, then twists, looking like a woman possessed as she moves closer and screams, “I hate you. Do you know that? I really fucking hate you! I always have.”
Then she hurls both slippers at me.
I walk back into my room, pinching my nose to stop the bleeding. Stupid fucking slippers and their hard soles. She probably expected me to move out the way fast enough. Then again, she said she hates me, so maybe she was aiming for an artery. Either could be true.
She hates me.
I sit down on the bed, grabbing the towel and blotting beneath my nose. The blood flow is easing already.
“Fuck,” I groan, resting my forearms on my thighs and dropping my head into my hands.
“So, you’ll take the tickets, then?”
I snap my head up and stare at my phone. Sterling’s deep voice rings out. I open my mouth to apologize about what he witnessed, but his accompanying laugh tells me he isn’t offended in the slightest.
“Did you not hear her?” A smile pulls at my lips as I wipe the final drops of blood away from my nose. “Not if I was the last man on earth.”
“I heard.” Sterling chuckles.
“And she hates me,” I add as my smile slides off my face. No one’s ever told me they hate me before. It kind of… stings.
Sterling’s voice softens. “There’s a fine line between love and hate. And you know what both need?”
“What?” I ask, dropping my towel onto the bed next to me.
“Passion.”
I swallow the metallic taste in my mouth.
“I’ll leave the tickets for you to collect there on the night. Enjoy the show.”
Then he hangs up.
