Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
I’ve never been more fascinated by any woman than I am by Hendrix. The juxtaposition of power and vulnerability, of brazenness and restraint—it’s got me wide-open. I’m good at keeping my emotions in check, but I don’t want to. I’m not good at denying myself something I want.
And I’m finally admitting to myself that I want Hendrix.
Bad.
Getting her would take strategy and careful planning, like everything else I’ve ever pursued and won. I’d have to make what she would gain more appealing than what she would lose. She doesn’t know it, but we’re in the discovery phase now. I’m finding out everything I can about her. What she likes, what she needs, what she hates.
Whenever I go after anything, I always say it’s only a matter of time. That my success is inevitable, but I don’t feel that way with Hendrix. If anything, I recognize that the odds are stacked against me. She’s a woman with a very clear vision of what her future will look like.
No kids. Fine with me. Already got one.
Working to build her fund. Great, I can help her expand it beyond anything she and her partners ever imagined.
Then there’s her career. Zere holds the keys to the next phase, and I know Hendrix won’t risk that to be with me.
Or would she?
“You’re mighty quiet,” she says as we approach Dan’s office. The others have already gone inside. “What are you thinking about?”
All the ways to win you over.
Aloud I say, “That first few episodes of Top Boy we watched on the plane. I’d forgotten how much I loved the early seasons.”
“Oh, my God!” She turns toward me and a smile lights her face. “I can already tell it’ll be my new addiction.”
I take it as a good sign that she hasn’t wrenched her arm away, so I push my luck by subtly tugging her a little closer until the full curve of her hip bumps up against me. I enjoy her softness, how she swells in extravagant ways. If she notices the contact, she doesn’t give any indication.
“Maybe we can catch a few more episodes on the flight back?” she ventures.
“I’m actually not flying back with you guys,” I tell her, inwardly cursing the plans I’ve already made. “The plane will take you to Atlanta because I know Nelly wanted to get back to her wife and kid. But I agreed to stay and help Dan with some community outreach stuff tomorrow.”
I’m watching her closely, so I catch the disappointment on her face before she masks it.
She does pull her arm away now. “That’s good.”
“Yeah, sometimes when you grow in these small towns, there’s a wariness from the community about bringing ‘them drugs into our town.’ Is it safe? Are you gonna make our kids junkies? That sort of thing.”
“And you sweep in, with your Black billionaire self, to ease all their fears and soothe their stereotypes?”
“I don’t know that they know about the billionaire thing. For one, most billionaires aren’t household names or faces.”
“Well, thanks to Zere, you kinda are.”
I pause my steps and wait for her to stop, too. She looks at me over her shoulder, her expression inscrutable.
“Believe it or not,” I say, “I never wanted to be known that way, but I was dating someone very famous. It came with the territory.”
I’m making progress in inches. The last thing I want to talk about is my ex-girlfriend and how awkward our situation would be if Hendrix succumbs to the obvious attraction between us. I’m not going to back away from the conversation, though. I’ll have to be open about everything if I stand a chance.
“I get it.” Hendrix shrugs and resumes walking, not waiting for me to join her. “None of my business.”
I don’t refute that, but lengthen my steps to draw even with her again.
“I’m calling you this week,” I say without preamble, and she stumbles for a second before steadying her gait.
She tilts her head just the slightest bit, not enough that I can look straight into her eyes, but at an angle where I have an unobscured view of the regal arch of her cheekbone and the plushness of her lips and the heavy fringe of lashes that hide anything she might be feeling from me.
“Why?” she asks.
I flash her the buccaneer’s grin I reserve for when something I desire very badly is within my grasp.
“Because I want to.”
CHAPTER 22
HENDRIX
Because I want to was not a good enough reason to call.
But did I answer the first time Maverick rang? And the second and the third?
Why, yes, I fucking did.
I’m not proud of it. On the first call, he asked about my mother and the support group. I told him I’d joined one online and it was really helping me process how the changes Mama is experiencing impact not just her, but our whole family. Our whole lives.