Hell, yes, he wanted to hang later. He typed out a quick response and looked at the time. He had about an hour before he had to be downstairs to meet Lori for this meeting. He picked up the room phone on the nightstand and placed a breakfast order with room service. Hearty food and a fresh batch of coffee were the means he had of coping with this bullshit Bull had placed on his plate. Better to go ahead and get it over with. At least then he could spend some time withMandisa.
He showered and changed just in time to hear the tap at his door. When he opened it, a young man pushing a cart laden with several covered platters and a pot of coffee was waiting on the otherside.
While Slade sat and ate he thought about the fiery night he’d spent buried so deep inside Mandisa. His cock was twitching just thinking about what it felt like to be sheathed inside her. From the moment they’d met, he’d somehow known the two of them would go up like dried tinder once they touched. What he hadn’t banked on was how content he’d feel while providing a listening ear toher.
Thinking about her made him lift his phone and find her messageagain.
Sorry my phone wokeyou.
Had to leave to get ready formeeting.
Done by lunch. You wanna hanglater?
There was something different about the message this time. The words were the same, he was sure, but with coffee and food in his belly, his brain was actually functioning again, comprehending the language in which he wasliterate.
“Sorry my phone woke you.” He read the words aloud and turned them over in his head. “Her phone? That was myphone.”
He switched screens, pulling up his calendar to view the events of the day, but there were none. There was no meeting listed with Lori. Was he dreaming? He distinctly remembered being woken out of his sleep by that annoying calendar alarm from hisphone.
“Except all of your notification alarms are set tovibrate.”
Sorry my phone wokeyou.
He read the first line of the text again. Why would Mandisa have a message about a meeting with Lori Harris of Venus Cosmetics on herphone?
“That doesn’t make any sense,” he mumbled softly into his coffee cup as he thought on the subject. It wasn’t until he’d brought a tasty-looking slice of thick-cut bacon halfway to his mouth a rushed thought filled his mind. The only person Lori is scheduled to meet with today was Sweet Sadie’s Sadie King. Why the hell would Mandisa bethere?
Convinced there had to be some sort of mix-up, he dialed Lori’s number and waited for her toanswer.
“Morning, Slade. You ready for our meeting with SweetSadie’s?”
“Yeah, about that. Didn’t you say our contact was Sadie King? You have any dealings with her? Can you give me any insight into what I’m going upagainst?”
“We’re not meeting with Sadie King. She passed away a little over a year ago when we first began talks with them about some sort ofpartnership.”
Lori’s answer made the food in his gut sit there like a weighted rock. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose before he spoke again. “Then who are we dealing with,Lori?”
Lori’s reply was quick and light. “Her daughter, Dr. MandisaAvery.”
“Well,shit.”
“Excuse me?” Lori countered, waiting for Slade to explain himself. Except he didn’t really have an explanation. Or at the very least, he didn’t have an explanation that would make this situation sound any less shitty than it was turning out tobe.
How fucked was it that the beautiful woman he’d met two days ago, the goddess whose body he’d had the pleasure of worshipping last night and hoped to worship again, was also the woman his father had sent Slade to steal a companyfrom?
“Slade?” Lori questioned him, her concern evident over the phone line. “Youokay?”
“Yeah, Lori…neverbetter.”
* * *
Mandisa fought the smile that threatened to appear on her face as she returned to the very same hotel lobby she’d rushed out of a couple of hours ago. The memory of the delectable things Slade did to her in his hotel room, how skilled he was with his cock, made hershudder.
So not the time for this, Mandisa. Get your head in thegame.
She hoped the internal reprimand was enough to school herself into her respectable Dr. Avery persona. Mandisa may have enjoyed hours of Slade Hamilton’s touch, but Dr. Avery was the person who needed to rock thispresentation.
She tightened her fingers around the trendy designer attaché case in her hand. The slight but discernable presence of her tiny laptop reassured her of her purpose in this building. After the meeting was over she could lose herself in Slade all over again. Right now, however, it was time forbusiness.
