“Care to explain this one?” Bay mumbles underneath me, her hand still tucked away around my waist beneath my suit jacket. “Or do you want me to handle this myself?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I tried,” I whisper before releasing a small sigh of exasperation and say to Sienna, “I’m sorry you wasted a trip. I’m no longer in need of your family’s services.”
“Youarethe King of Wharf Bay, aren’t you?”
“What did you think the party was for?” I retort, sharper than I intend.
“Then our agreement is still intact.”
Bay shifts, tilting her body to face Sienna, and it’s a tale-tell sign she’s going to jump in blind.
“I got this, baby,” I vouch simply. “Don’t start getting upset. I’ll explain later.”
Sienna continues to stare at me. If you would’ve asked me about six months ago if I would’ve gone through with this, I would’ve said maybe.
But now, everything’s changed.
Sienna was meant to build in South Shore so we could pull from Emilio and give them something worth allying over. Money speaks above all else, and I’m confident I would have been able to, eventually, strike a deal with Wallace.
Nonetheless, I can’t say the one I struck with Bay Astor is anything less than intoxicating and more than giving.
“The deal is off, Miss Matthews,” I profess evenly. “I plan on going a different direction.”
“It’ll still need to be discussed. I had things riding on this arranged marriage as well.”
I expect Bay to flinch, but she remains perfectly still. And I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a really bad thing.
“And randomly calling off business dealings isn’t how I conduct mine.”
“And random pop-ins when we never discussed you coming in the first place isn’t how I run mine,” I shoot back.
“Your parents invited me.”
“And what did you expect out of this discussion, Miss Matthews? Trust me, you don’t want anywhere near the bullshit I have cooked up right now.”
“Women like Bay Astor don’t scare me, Mr. Black. Because I know that’s who is currently on your arm.”
I hang on to the silence because how would she know? Sienna is from Mystic Hallows, a town an hour away and with their own business dealings. Bay has been in the game for two seconds, and, I’ll admit, it irks me that she knows her by name.
“Then you haven’t heard the right things,” I emit evenly. “You haven’t met her brand of petty yet.”
Sienna slices her attention to the woman in discussion. “Do you allow him to speak for you, or do you have a voice?”
“I think he’s handling it just fine,” Bay recites.
“Aren’t you married?—”
“Are you a new stalker?” my woman addresses with a bit of warning. “I really don’t like people who hover and profess all these things about me. It makes me anxious and frankly, a bit paranoid.”
“You’re not even on my radar.”
“But now, you’re on mine.”
Sienna’s lips coil as if amused. “That’s fair.” She glimpses over her shoulder then and adds, “Looks like you have more visitors coming this way.”
Of course, I do.
“How about you go around back?” I suggest to Bay. “I don’t want you stressing out and?—”
