Mira’s sharp. I can see her work it out immediately.
“Carl,” she growls, bitter and low. “You beat the shit out of him, Owen…and if it wasn’t for me…”
“That fucker was going to be a problem for you with or without me around, angel.”
“Still, I didn’t exactly help things...”
“Wouldn’t have mattered what you did, Mira. I’ve known that slimy, lecherous piece of shit my whole fucking life. I saw the way he looks at you, too—like he owns you.”
“You own me,” Mira says forcefully.
I pat my knee, and she places herself on my lap, twining her pretty little arms around my neck.
“That’s right, babydoll. But that’s because I earned you and you gave yourself to me. Nobody will ever own you without your consent—not even me. Remember that.”
“But…” Mira’s brow furrows as she comes to another realization. “Owen, my mother said that Carl and his board of directors are taking the company away from me. With W
ilder Lingerie going public today, they didn’t want a scandal, and…”
“Like hell they are,” I swear.
I grab Mira’s hair up in my fist and pull her lips down to meet mine. This time when I kiss her, it’s a promise.
“Those bastards aren’t taking your company from you, honey. Not after how hard you’ve worked—everything you’ve built and all the people that you’ve helped with it.”
“I just don’t know how we can stop them, Owen. I’ve read over the legalese…you might own me in here…” Mira takes my hand and presses it against her chest. Her heart is beating quickly beneath my touch, and it only quickens when I move to cup her breast. “But Carl owns me in paper and ink.”
“We’ll see about that,” I growl. “I need two hours and a phone call to my lawyer, babydoll. That’s all this is gonna take.”
“Are…are you sure, Owen? I don’t want to be a—”
This time when I kiss her, it’s just to shut her up. Not just her pretty little mouth, but all those worries and fears she has brewing behind those gorgeous blue eyes of hers too.
“Do you trust me, Mira?” I purr against her lips.
“With my life,” she says with an all-serious certainty.
“Good. Then let’s make that bastard pay for this.”
He will, too. Let’s just say that a man doesn’t become a multi-billionaire without knowing how to make the right people pay at the right time…
And Carl Westbrook’s desserts are long overdue.
Chapter 32
Mira
I’ve never seen a shit-eating grin immediately turn into a look of defeat in my entire life.
When Carl Westbrook walks into the shitty, dilapidated offices that he tried to foist off onto me and my company, he’s obviously feeling pretty proud of himself.
I can see it smeared across his rat-like, self-satisfied face. Or at least, across the parts of it that Owen hasn’t already turned black and blue.
Carl thinks he’s beaten me. He still thinks that the little stunt he pulled behind my back has already played out better in his favor than he ever could have imagined.
He has my company.
He has all the years and years of hard work that I’ve put in to make Wilder Lingerie what it is today.