Rock Wolfe was a jerk. An asshole. He was pulling me into this because he was pissed off and wanted to punish someone else as he’d been punished.
And still…I wanted to fuck him again. I wanted to fuck a supreme douchebag. What the hell was the matter with me?
Maybe if I honeyed up a bit, I could get him to see reason.
“No, it’s not fair that this happened to you,” I said gently. “None of us thinks it’s fair, and we all feel for you. Really. But I have nothing to do with any of it.”
“You drafted his will, Lacey.”
He had me there. “That doesn’t make this my fault. I have an obligation to every client who comes to me to do as they ask as long as the law allows it. I have to zealously represent every client I take on. It’s part of the oath I took when I was admitted to the bar.”
“Consider me a client, then. I want to be zealously represented. I already told you I’d double whatever you’re making at your firm.”
“I’m a partner now. I make…a lot.”
“Whatever a lot is, I’ll double it. You of all people know what my father’s business—”
“Your business, Rock.”
He took a step back, his eyebrows arched.
Was this just now dawning on him?
“Your business,” I said a little more gently this time. “It’s yours. Not your father’s. It’s yours, as long as you fulfill the terms of the will. Your father is no longer a part of this equation.”
He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. “I need help.”
“You have Reid.”
“He must hate me. This should have been his.”
“He knows what kind of man your father was. So do Roy and Riley. No one is blaming you for this. They’re blaming him.”
“I’m really going to have to do this, aren’t I?”
Without meaning to, I reached out and cupped his cheek. “Yes. If you want to do right by your siblings. They’re innocent in all this.” And so am I. But I didn’t add that part.
I’d tried like hell to talk Derek Wolfe out of all of this, done the best I could. I’d had my mentor and the most senior attorneys at my firm try. To no avail.
The man would not be budged.
He’d created this chaos, and he was no doubt looking up—yeah, he was in hell for sure—at us now, laughing his ass off.
I hoped Rock would have the last laugh.
“Like I said in the bar,” I continued. “Do this. Do this not just for your brothers and sister but for yourself. You’ll be a rich man, Rock. You can use that power for good. Show your father who you really are. A good man. You have what it takes to be a great CEO.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No. I’m completely serious.” And I was. “You fill a room with your presence. People will follow where you lead.”
“The only problem is, I have no fucking idea where to lead them.”
“You have Reid. He knows the business. He’ll help you.”
“And you?”
Were we back to this again? “You don’t need me.”
“Fine. You don’t need to be my personal counsel. Stay where you are.” He moved toward me, the bulge in his jeans pushing into my belly. “But if you think I don’t need you, you’re sadly mistaken, Lacey.”9RockI was so fucking hard. I wanted to pound her right against this wall, right in public.
What was it about her?
I’d had hotter women, more beautiful women, curvier women, thinner women.
But Lacey Ward had awakened something in me I couldn’t deny. Maybe it was just the fact that my life had been stolen from me, and she was there. That’s what I’d thought at first, but right now, all I wanted was to sink myself into her lush body and get lost. Forget. Forget that I wouldn’t be going back to Montana. Wouldn’t be going back to my life of working outdoors, riding every weekend, taking each day as it came. Living in the moment.
“I think we need to go back to the bar,” Lacey said. “You need to tell them what you’ve decided.”
I pulled back. “What if I can’t do it, Lacey? What if my father was right about me?”
“Have you considered looking at this a different way?” she asked.
“What other way is there to look at it?” Especially when all I want to look at is you, naked on my bed.
“Your grandfather built Wolfe Enterprises from the ground up. And your father, especially, made it what it is today. Why would he want to sell it off to the highest bidder?”
“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe because he’s an asshole who wants to screw over his kids?”
“Okay, fair enough. But think about it, Rock. That company was his pride and joy.”
“True. More so than any of his children,” I said with disgust.