Page 37 of The Spare
"I can be persuasive."
I swallowed hard. If she wanted to persuade me, fuck, I’d let her. “Oh?”
“Besides, what makes you think it’syouI’d try to convince?” She stood and looked around the room with a devious grin.
“Who else would it be, Counselor?”
“Xander.” She walked to the bookshelf, her eyes gliding past the book spines.“If I had to guess, he probably has almost as much stake in your company as you do. Even if he doesn’t know it.”
She was right. When I started Sutton Industries, I gave Xander almost half of my stake in it.
“What makes you think that?”
She flicked her glance over her shoulder. “I know you.”
“You do,” I agreed calmly, despite the thundering in my chest. I didn’t know what we were doing, but watching Sloan piece together exactly how she’d take me down was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
“Mmmhmm,” she continued, her gaze fixed on scanning the books on the shelf. “Buy out Xander. Find a few weak links on the board and any other stakeholders I may need. Maybe force their hands or bribe them. You know, normal stuff.”
“You’ve got it all figured out.” I couldn’t have planned it better myself.
She released a contented sigh and walked back to her seat. She dropped back down into it with a victorious smile. “All hypothetical, of course.”
“Of course.” I folded my hands on my desk and leaned in. “That's an excellent plan to supplant Henry. One problem, though." I paused, and she leaned forward in her chair. “You did just tell it to his best friend."
She feigned a disappointed sigh. "Classic supervillain mistake."
"You're the villain?"
"Anyone who questions my grandfather's grand plan is the villain." She shrugged. "I guess that’s me."
We couldn’t tear our eyes off each other for a few heavy seconds. She broke first and glanced around the office.
“Why didn’t you—” she began. Her eyes darted along the floor. Her tone lost the slyness it adopted for our faux coup scenario.
“Sloan?” I asked after a few quiet seconds.
“You visited Henry and Xander,” she murmured. She clasped her hands together tightly on her lap. Her lashes swept up, and her gaze lifted to meet mine again. “Why not me?”
Wanting her, and waiting for that feeling to eventually fade, burned. But hurting her seared every nerve ending in my body. Sloan was only ever vulnerable with Xander, on occasion Henry. Never me.
“Seeing them made me miss home. Seeing you would have made me stay, and I had work to do.” There was a moment, a flash, where the confession felt like I was finally stopping to catch my breath. Her chest rose, and her eyes went wide with my confession.Shit.“You’re the glue that holds our little group together.”
It was true. There was more to it, but that small part was still true. It was as close to the whole truth as I could ever give her.
Her eyes were glassy for a moment before she blinked it away. Her face brightened, and a laugh cooled the scalding guilt. “It’s always ‘you look nice’ and never ‘you’re the glue that holds us together.’”
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded. “Don’t do it again.” Her command was low and soft. My phone buzzed against the desk, and she jostled slightly. With a deep inhale, she smiled and got up. “I should get back to the firm.”
“Marcus,” she called, as her body was halfway out the door. The sound of her softly saying my name echoed in my mind. “Xander and I are going out for dinner tonight. If I invite Henry, will you come along?”
I nodded, and she smiled again.
CHAPTER19
Sloan
