#3 - Business With Pleasure
1022 Words
Lincoln
"I've never known you to mix business with pleasure, Linc."
The only person allowed to call me that strolled into my office, grinning as if she owned the place.
Damn. I was not in the mood.
Having survived the dark corners of more than one city together, Harper and I shared much more than business, but today, I didn't have the patience for her or whatever game she'd brought with her.
"I don't," I bit out.
One perfectly shaped eyebrow arched. "Then what is this?"
A newspaper landed on my desk with a dull thud. I stared at it, irritation thickening in my jaw.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"
Small town gossip had never interested me. I was two seconds from tossing it aside when—
"What the actual hell?!"
My heart stopped.
My wife's backside was staring back at me.
Our photo.
That night.
The sudden, vicious punch of heat and anger in my chest nearly knocked the breath out of me.
So many articles had been written about me. Many I'd not read simply because I couldn't be bothered, but this... this bothered me to no end. And for the most annoying reason.
The view.
What should have been mine alone to enjoy had been printed for the whole world to see!
It didn't even matter that the publication only catered to a small portion of Regalton or that it was entirely my fault for giving them the scoop.
The bastards!
Grinding my teeth, I zeroed in on the image. Remi thrown over my shoulder, her limbs flying as she fought me.
I could still feel those soft blows she'd landed on my back while she hurled curses at me. Could still feel her racing heart against mine while I had her locked in my arms to keep her from escaping.
Hell, I could still feel how her body had moved on my lap. It sent the fire I'd thought was finally dying roaring with flames and lighting up every inch of me.
I so wanted her!
Christmas eve had not been enough.
A total mistake, but still not damned near enough.
I hated how a simple picture could do that to me. How a person I should hate — no hated — could stir more than hatred in me.
That, though, was not what sent my temper flaring the next second.
"Has the 'Beast' finally been tamed?"
The title read.
Me?
Tamed?
I snapped up at Harper. "Why the hell did this make it to print?!"
Her smug smile was infuriating. "Relax. 'Crestview Today' will never see the light of day again."
"Then why am I looking at it?"
"A personal copy," she said innocently. "I was curious."
"I don't pay you to be curious."
"You pay me to handle problems. This one is... entertaining." She leaned back. "I can see why the paper took the risk. You, the mighty Lincoln King and that—"
My glare cut her off.
No one got to insult my pretty little bargain wife. Not even Harper.
Which just went to prove my current failures at staying focused when it came to Remi.
My teeth clenched at the reminder.
For two years, I'd ignored her. Watched her drown in sadness she'd earned.
But now?
Now the memory of her coming undone under me wouldn't leave my head.
A single night had unravelled everything I'd put in place.
Damn.
"Like I said," Harper murmured, "never known you to mix business with pleasure."
Needing to steer this conversation towards more profitable terrain, I asked about the damned project that started it all.
"Where are we on the public land resort development?"
"Right on track," she said slipping back into work mode. "The mayor's charmed. Seeing you as a devoted family man worked—despite the truth."
The hoops I'd jumped through to please Mitchell had been infuriating. A waste of time. I could have bulldozed my way through like I had with every obstacle in my path, including the projects that gave me Regalton.
And looking at the mess with Remi...
That could have been the smarter choice.
"He's been singing your praises in all the right places," Harper added. "Just a matter of time now."
"It better be," I ground out. "The price has already been too steep."
Her eyes gleamed knowingly.
"So about Remi—"
"I'm not talking about my wife!"
Harper's lips twitched. "You just called her your wife."
"And your point is?"
I knew what Harper's point was, though. She'd been there from the beginning of it all after all, but I was not about to address anything.
She snorted. "So it's no longer 'Stewart's daughter' or 'your enemy's spawn' anymore?"
"I can call her whatever I like."
"Something's under your skin" she pressed.
Something was.
Someone.
Someone I had no business wanting.
"What really happened with Remi, Lincoln?" Harper asked, voice losing all amusement.
"Nothing."
I was many things, but never a liar. So the fact that I was currently lying through my teeth, to someone who was important to me, only made me despise Remi even more.
"Has your goal with Remi changed?" The bitter concern Harper still held on my behalf for all these years stabbed and woke something in me.
"I never said my goal had changed." The words were harsher than I intended.
"Good." She stood, lingering at the doorway. "Because she has hurt you enough. They all hurt you enough. And you know I'll help you destroy every last one of them when you are ready."
She paused, smirking.
"Oh, and I may have let it slip to your wife that dinner with the Mitchell's was... business. I trust you'll forgive me."
We both knew she didn't need forgiveness.
And with her gone, leaving the Remi can of worms now open, never to be closed again, I walked over to my office window, jaw tight and stared out at the city I'd bled to control, reminding myself of the bitter reason I was here and who Remi truly was.
The girl who took everything from me.
- Writer
