I flopped on the soft velvet comforter on the bed. I wasn’tthatdrunk. My early-twenties liver was metabolizing that alcohol like a bonfire.“Fine.”
Nicolai left me sitting there, ruminating, while he grabbed his computer from the living room and closed the bedroom door again on his way back.
He sat on the bed and reclined against the padded headboard, setting his laptop aside as he unbuttoned each of his shirt cuffs and rolled up his sleeves to his elbows one flip at a time, slowly baring his muscled forearms like a stripper.
I watched.
The black tattoo carved into the skin of his left forearm, patterning his skin in long rows that looked pointed on the ends like overlapping tiles, the last few strands of ink sliding under the silver-metal watch on his wrist.
He opened his computer on his lap. “Now, where were we?”
Enjoying your slutty little tattoo is where we were,but I kept that thought inside.
After successfully distracting him from the sleeper-spy codes and his slip about being the tsar, I felt like a pretty good friend, if not a halfway decent wife.
I scooted around on the bed, bunching the flowing copper silk of my dress and tucking my legs into crisscross-applesauce.
He typed as he spoke. “As we agreed this morning, or yesterday morning because it’s nearly dawn, we are contracting for a one-year term with a settlement of twenty-five million dollars at fulfillment.”
Whoa! “Dude!I’m not that drunk. You promised to talk me down to fifteen.”
“Oh, no. I’m terrible at this.” He continued typing. “And at the end, a civil divorce and your assistance in attaining an annulment.”
I crawled up to the top of the bed and looked over his shoulder, half-expecting to find video solitaire on the screen.
But no, he had a document open and was typing bulleted points of what he’d said, includingSettlement after one year: 30 Million USD.
Thirty?“You’re just kidding about that much money, right?”
“I’m not.”
“It seems excessive.”
He scrunched his nose at me. “Not really.”
“It really is.”
“Luckily for you, I’m the one writing the contract. The reason it’s not excessive is because your time is worth what someone is willing to pay. If I’m willing to pay thirty million, that’s what it’s worth.”
I could have the lawyers change it to something reasonableonce they showed up in the morning. “I think someone might have slipped a mickey into your drink at the nightclub.”
“I’m quite aware of when I’m elevated, and I’m not.”
“Okay, fine, but I sure wouldn’t pay thirty million dollars for a year of my company,” I grumbled.
“We’ll have to disagree on that one.”
He typed,Lexi remaining virgo intacta until the end of the contract.
There it was.That’s what I wanted to argue. “Um, about that—” His side-eye nearly stopped my tongue, but I pressed on. “We don’t have to put that in the contract.”
Nicolai lifted his computer off his lap and set it on the nightstand before he turned back to me. “We discussed this.”
“I understandyourboundaries, but I’m not signing any contract that saysIhave to remain a virgin.”
CHAPTER 21
negotiations, dammit
