I’d made him hundreds of millions.
My own personal fortune was nothing to sniff at, either.
“W-Why have you done this?” Aoife asked, her voice breathy enough to make me wonder if she sounded like that in the sack.
“Because you’ve been a very stubborn little girl.”
Her eyes flared wide. “Excuse me?”
I reached into the inside pocket of my suit coat and pulled out a business card. “For you,” I prompted, offering it to her.
When she turned it over, saw the logo of five points shaped into a star, then read Acuig—in the Gaelic way, ah-coo-ig, not a butchered American way, ah-coo-ch—aloud, I watched her throat work as she swallowed.
“I-I should have realized with the Irish name,” she whispered, the muscles in her brow twitching as she took in the chaos of the scattered photos on the floor.
Watching her as she dropped the contents on the ground, so she was surrounded by them, I tilted my head to the side, taking her in as her panic started to crest.
“I-I won’t sell.” Her first words surprised me.
I should have figured, though. Everything about this woman was surprisingly delicious.
“You have no choice,” I purred. “As far as I’m aware, the Senator has a wife. He also has a reputation to protect. I’m not sure he’d be happy if any of those made it onto theNational Enquirer’sfront page. Not when he’s just trying to shore up his image to take a run for the White House next election.”
She reached up and clutched her throat. The self-protective gesture was enough to make me smile at her—I knew what the absence of hope looked like.
There’d been a time when that had been my life, too.
“But, on the bright side,” I carried on, “this can all be wiped away if you sell.” As her gaze flicked to mine, I added, “As well as if you do something for me.”
For a second, she was speechless. I could see she knew what thatsomethingwas. Had my body language given it away? Had there been a certain raspiness to my tone?
I wasn’t sure, and frankly, didn’t give a fuck.
There was a little hiccoughing sound that escaped her lips, and she frowned at me, then down at herself.
“Is this a joke?”
“Do I look like I’m the kind of guy who jokes, Aoife?” Fuck, I loved saying her name.
The Gaelic notes just drove me insane.
Ee-Fah.
Nothing like the spelling, and all the more complicated and delicious for it.
“N-No,” she confirmed, “but . . .”
“But what?” I prompted.
“I mean . . . you just can’t be serious.”
“Oh, but I am.” I grinned. “Deadly. You’ve wasted a lot of my time, Aoife Keegan. A lot. Do you think I’m normally involved in negotiations of this level?”
Her eyes whispered over me, and I felt the loving caress of her gaze as she took in each and every inch of me. When she licked her lips, I knew she liked what she saw. I didn’t really care, but it was helpful for her to be eager in some small way—especially when coercion was involved.
Aidan had called it bribery. I preferred ‘coercion’. It sounded far kinder.
“No. That suit alone probably cost the mortgage payment on this place.”