“They’llconfirmI’m a legal fucking partner. Co-owner. They’ll say I don’t need your fucking permission to work my own fucking bar, and you know it!” My breath was shallow, knuckles clenched to stop my hands shaking. “Just let me help out. Give me a chance. I’ll work the bar, for one week, nothing else, I promise.”
“Piss off.”
“Or we could try something else to resolve our differences… I guess the playrooms will be empty…”
The disgust on his face cut deep. “I’m really not that fucking cheap.”
“I didn’t mean it like that…”
“Leave, please. Just fucking leave before we both say things we regret.”
“No. You can bitch-whine all you fucking like, Andy, but I’m fucking staying!”
“Suit your-fucking-self, but I’ve just about seen enough of you.” He was at the door in a heartbeat, swinging it so wide it banged off the wall. “You can stay the fuck out of my office. Piss off, Faye, I mean it.”
I sighed. “I’ll be in the bar when you calm down, planning my show.”
“What fucking show?”
“I have ideas, Andy, things I learned in Venice. New things…You’ll see.”
He shot me a smile that didn’t even come close to reaching his eyes. “Just stay out of my fucking way.”
***
Chapter Two
Andy
Topaz’s ditzy little heels clacked into my office as soon as Faye was clear.
“Miss Devere’s in charge.Allproblems land at her feet.”
“But Mr Morgan...”
“The woman’s flighty and whimsical. Nothing more than a fucking nuisance. She’d never hack any actual responsibility. She’ll be bored within the week.”
She nodded. “So, I askherfor instruction on tonight’s set up?”
The prospect of Faye taking charge brought a bitter twang to the back of my throat. My resolve crumbled. “Put a couple of cocktails on offer. Garnet Crows and Screaming Orgasms. Two for one before midnight.”
Topaz smiled. “And what about the main stage? Just shackles?”
“Flogging bench from playroom three. Put it in the middle of the dancefloor.”
“Anything else? Or should I ask boss lady?”
Boss lady? I cringed at that. “Tell the DJs to keep the tempo up, try and keep the action going on the main stage. We’ll show Miss Devere just how big a beast she’s wrestling.”
“Yes, Mr Morgan.” She smiled.
“Make it a great night, Topaz.”
Faye Devere, larger than bastard life in my fucking office. Anger twitched in my temples. She’d break and leave again, back to Italy for Prosecco on the terrace where she’d regale people with tales of her London adventure.Fantastic, darling, wonderful!
A flutter of eyelashes might bowl over those brownnosers in Venice, flouncing about at some writing retreat or whatever the fuck they go there for, but her charm would cut short shrift back here on home turf. It would cut short shrift with me. I wondered if she was sitting comfortable at my bar, kicking her stilettos up with a smile on her perfect little mouth. How nice to play the big I am without any of the real graft that goes along with it. That’s all it was to her. A stupid game.
I’ll work the bar.As if the woman had any backbone for a real shift. I should’ve done what should’ve been done years ago; put her over my fucking knee and tanned her tight little ass until she learnt some manners.