The Pleasure Contract--A Sexy Billionaire Romance by Caitlin Crews

Author:Caitlin Crews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-01-12T15:03:20+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

THEY RETURNED TO New York on a muggy summer’s day near the end of July, swollen with the threat of a thunderstorm that couldn’t quite bring itself to break. A lot like the weather they’d left behind in Hong Kong, in fact, as if they were personally delivering oppressive, gray summers around the world.

It suited Lachlan’s mood perfectly.

“I have you down for a few days’ break,” he said, almost idly, as the car took them back toward the city. Too quickly for his liking. “But you don’t have to take it.”

Bristol smiled at him the way she always did now, with all that distance in her gaze. Lachlan wanted to break things, but they were in an enclosed space. And also he wasn’t his father.

“No, thank you,” she said. Far too serenely. “I’ll take it.”

“Bristol...”

Her smile widened yet gave him nothing. “I’ll see you in a week, Lachlan.”

Though he raged and punched walls internally, externally there was nothing to be done about it. He knew what was in the contracts he’d been so insistent she sign. He’d long ago insisted on including these small, mandatory breaks following any international tour like the one they’d just taken. And it had never been for the girlfriend in question, it had always been for him. Lachlan liked the convenience of his arrangements, but he also liked his solitude. He usually needed to regroup, get his head back on straight, and deal, privately, with how the women he hired fell far short of the thing he really wanted.

But with Bristol everything was inside out.

He insisted they take her back to Brooklyn first. And he didn’t simply drop her off and continue on his way. He helped her with her bags, personally. Her bag, that was, because she’d only brought one, single personal item with her.

And she was leaving him the same way she’d come to him, something in him acknowledged. Leaving nothing of herself behind.

She isn’t leaving, he assured himself. She’s taking the mandatory break, the way they all do after a long trip. There’s still August.

But that didn’t keep him from standing there in what he supposed passed for a living room, glaring at Bristol. Who, he couldn’t help but notice, looked more at home in this crappy little apartment than she had in any of the spectacular five-star accommodations they’d stayed in on the road. Or even his own private island.

Why did that get under his skin? But he knew.

He didn’t want her to belong anywhere but with him.

“Take a good look,” she invited him, meeting his glare steadily. “I know it may come as a shock to you, but this is how real people live in New York.”

“Two of you live here?” He didn’t have to feign his astonishment. “You and your sister?”

“Indeed we do. And, actually, this is considered a very luxurious two-bedroom because we each have our own, genuine room. Not that you would recognize either one of them as an actual bedchamber, since I believe the bathroom on your plane is larger than both of them put together.

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