I jumped when my phone started ringing, the fright making my hands shake, but I forced my voice to remain steady. “Deena Brand speaking.”
“Ms. Brand,” Callum said, his own voice dark and smoky. “Is this how you treat all your clients?”
“Only the special ones,” I shot back, and it was clear that “special” wasn’t a compliment.
“Can you get me to Tokyo or not?”
“Do you always call people close to midnight and expect them to jump to do your bidding?”
“When they charge as much as you? Yes. I do.” His words were deep and low, and they made a full-body shiver course through me. I imagined him sitting at his desk, gripping his phone so hard his knuckles turned white.
I discovered I liked pushing Callum Frost’s buttons. How would it feel to be in the room with him right now, with those remarkable eyes on me and that storm of electricity snapping against my skin? It had been so long since I’d felt anything otherthan desperation, anything other than the merciless fight for survival.
“Tokyo, Ms. Brand.”
I suppressed another shiver. His voice was indecent. “Whether or not I can get you to Tokyo depends on two things.”
“Which are?”
“Your budget, and the time you need to land.”
“Unlimited, and as soon as possible.”
I shifted in bed and grabbed my laptop from the nightstand. I’d just closed the lid a few minutes before Callum’s text landed on my phone, calling it quits on another eighteen-hour day. I loved owning my own business, but it was relentless, and I couldn’t afford to slow down. There was no safety net beneath me if I stumbled.
“Give me a sec,” I murmured, pinning the phone against my ear and my shoulder. “My laptop’s just warming up.”
“Do laptops need to warm up these days?”
I narrowed my eyes as I stared at my screen. “Mine does.” It was a clunky old beast with a mind of its own, but replacing it was an expense I couldn’t afford. And I wasnottaking on more debt.
He hummed, the sound sending warmth spiraling through my stomach. I hated that his voice turned me on. I hated that anything about him turned me on, because he represented everything I’d left behind. I’d run from a life under the thumb of a man like him and fought to build something for myself.
So why did he make me want to simper and submit?
“Did I catch you in bed?”
I jerked. “Excuse me?”
“I can hear the sheets rustling when you move.”
“Stop listening to my sheets rustle, Frost,” I growled.
His chuckle was dark chocolate, rich and decadent. “I couldn’t if I tried. By the sound of it, you’re alone.”
Heat smarted across my cheeks, and I blinked half a dozen times to refocus on my laptop screen. “That’s none of your business.”
“That’s not true. I need to know everything about the people I deal with.”
Of course he did.
“I’m the one doing you a favor here,” I snapped. He was somewhere in this city of millions, nowhere near me, unable to touch me, but his words still felt like velvet ropes slithering across my skin, tightening around me to keep me in place for his appraisal. His amusement. I shrugged, trying to shake off the feeling.
“I looked you up, you know,” he said.
“The more you talk, the longer it’ll take me to find you a flight.”
He laughed again, and it didn’t sound quite as grim as the first time. “I don’t believe you. You could do your job with your eyes closed, Ms. Brand. The woman who built her business on her own over the past eight years, with no help and no support, on her own in the big city after leaving her hometown in North Carolina.”
