Page 61 of Torch

“Yes,” he responded, sounding confused.

“So, explain to me why one of your inspectors is standing in the middle of my club, threatening to shut me down.”

“What?!” he bellowed. “Who is it?”

“Nigel Waters.”

“Put him on the phone,” Patrick demanded.

“You’re on speaker.”

Nigel looked like he was ready to shit a brick. “C-Chief, I can explain.”

“I don’t want to hear it. I don’t know what kind of games you’re playing, but I know that club wasn’t on your list of inspections for the day. Get to the office now!” he barked before hanging up.

Filled with embarrassment, Nigel tucked his tail and made a beeline for the exit. As soon as the doors shut, Brit grabbed my hand with a look of remorse. “I’m sorry about all of this, babe.”

Wrapping my arm around her waist, I shook my head. “You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“I know Julian sent him here. I can’t believe he’s taking things this far.”

Blade stroked his chin. “It’s good he’s already revealing his hand. It looks like he’s been watching and planning. He’s going to be a problem.”

“A problem that I’m about to solve.”

I guess because I hadn’t come for him since the charity ball, he thought he could play games with me. I hadn’t forgotten what he did. Truthfully, I’d been wanting to get my hands on him again, but there were so many things happening at once. Now, it seemed like I needed to boost him up on my list of priorities.

I didn’t know Julian well enough to know how far he would take things. He’d already proven he wasn’t against physically harming Brittney. That alone had signed his death warrant. A man of Julian’s stature going missing would raise a lot of red flags. Any known enemies would be the first to be questioned about his disappearance. I had to be smart and calculated about how I handled this.

But make no mistake. Julian’s days were numbered.

Chapter Twenty

BRITTNEY

Today was my birthday. Even though I had been in a funk for the past few days, Christian made sure I had nothing but a smile on my face from the time I woke up today. He started my day off by serving me breakfast in bed. He made me waffles, eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, and a side of fruit. I felt like a queen as he fed me. He said he didn’t want me lifting a finger for the day.

Once I finished my food, he took me to the bathroom to shower. Before we could get clean, he gave me two earth-shattering orgasms with his mouth and one against the glass, fucking me until I couldn’t take any more. I was so glad he offered to wash my body, because I didn’t have much energy after that.

After we got out, he led me to my side of the sink and told me to finish getting ready while he got our outfits together. I tried asking him what we were doing for the day, but he wouldn’t tell me. He wanted to surprise me. I decided to just sit back for the ride to see what he had in store for me. He seemed extremely happy about whatever it was he had planned.

An hour later, I had just finished getting ready. Christian hadn’t returned to the bathroom, so I went looking for him. I paused when I stepped out of the bathroom. He had two outfits spread across the bed—one for him and one for me. When he spotted me in the doorway, he smiled.

“Matching outfits?” I inquired, making my way over to the bed.

There were two red T-shirts along with a pair of jeans. Mine had rips in them. He also added a pair of matching Jordan Retro 4 sneakers. I simply loved the outfits because everything was my favorite color. Red.

“Yup. Do you like it?”

“I do. I’m not much of a tennis shoe girl, but these sneakers are nice,” I said as I picked up the shoe, observing it.

“I’m glad you like it, baby,” he replied right as an alarm went off on his phone. “Alright, we gotta get dressed, beautiful. We’re running a little behind schedule.”

I nodded and started putting on the clothes. By the time I finished, Christian was coming out of the closet, sealing the clasp of his watch. He also wore a diamond Cuban link chain and a matching bracelet.

“Damn,” I mumbled at how good he looked. Christian was by far the sexiest man I had ever laid my eyes on.

He grinned wickedly. “Like what you see?”