Page 83 of The Irresistible One
“Ready!” She waved at me. “Bye, Mommy.”
I lifted my hand, wiggling my fingers at her, and the moment she was gone, it fell from the air andlanded on my phone. My cell was resting face down on Hayden’s desk, and since it was on silent, when I looked at it, I had missed several notifications that had come in, like a call and text from Troy.
Troy
Call me ASAP.
Things were settled between the Gordons and Westons, which meant this had to be a personal call.
I pulled up Troy’s contact and hit the Phone symbol, holding my cell to my ear. “Hey?—”
“Sophie, Jesus fucking Christ.” His tone was gritty, and he almost sounded breathless.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?Come on. You know exactly why I’ve been trying to get in touch with you.”
As I stared at the doorway, watching different employees pass by, I dug through my mind, trying to figure out what the hell Troy was talking about. “Help me. I’m lost.”
“Unbelievable.” He paused. “I just texted you a link.”
“Looking now.” I put him on speaker mode and went into his text box, clicking the link. What immediately loaded was a press release from the Gordon family. I skimmed the first few lines and exhaled, “Fuck …”
“My thoughts exactly. We need to fucking talk.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
COLSON
As Hayden sat at the helm of the fourth yacht I was touring, pointing out some of the options that this boat had compared to the others we’d viewed, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell.
“Do you mind if I take this? It’s my sister. She’s called three times. It must be something important.”
Jesus Christ, I can’t escape her.
I remembered when I had once said that to her. But back then, my feelings had been far different, unlike the emotions that ran through me now. The resentment, rage, the regret for ever wanting her.
How the fuck could she do this to my family?
“Do whatever you need to do.” I backed up from his seat and went into the saloon, sitting on the end of the couch.
The interior, from the cockpit to the sliding glass doors, was an open space, so even though there was distance between us, there was no privacy.
I took out my phone, and after a quick glance through the window, where we were leaving the marina and entering the bay, I turned my focus to my family’s group chat.
“What’s up, Soph—” He went silent. “Yeah, my plane is here in Lauderdale. It returned after taking Talon and Leo to Nantucket.”
It was impossible not to listen even though I didn’t want to. Aside from the hum of the engines, Hayden was the only sound inside the boat. There were no other noises to distract me.
“Of course you can take it,” he continued. “I’ll text my assistant right now. She’ll reach out to the pilots. As long as they’re available, you can be air-bound in an hour, two tops.” He paused. “Yes, I’m sure. It’s no problem.” He went quiet again. “As soon as my assistant has an ETA, she’ll reach out to you.” His voice had lightened to a soft tone, as if he were speaking to Abbi. “I love you too.”
With all the love and press that the Gordons were getting, I was sure Sophie needed to get back to LA to be by their side. She was the mastermind behind all of this, so it only made sense. And as the engineer, she needed to get there the fastest way possible.
The thought of her gloating over this diabolical win made me fucking sick.
And to think that this morning, I had returned to my suite and jerked off to her, consumed by an overwhelming need to have her ride my face.
Now, I couldn’t even stand her name.
