I grinned. “Maybe we just know better.”
The fingers of her left hand curled around her butter knife.
Now was probably the time to stop trolling her. For my plan to work, she needed to play along, and it would be easier to get her to agree if I stopped giving her reasons to hate me. But goddamn, was it a thrill to rile her up. She was soeasy,so responsive. It made me wonder if she’d be that way in the bedroom, too.
“So,” I said. “About the three million Blake owes me.”
“He doesn’t owe you anything,” she shot back.
I arched a brow. “Yes, he does.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes. And Stella? I’m an only child and a Taurus. I can do this all night.”
Her expression darkened. “He’s twenty years old.”
“So?”
“He’s too young to gamble.”
“Legally.” I leaned forward, dropping my voice like I was sharing a secret. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the games I run aren’t exactly . . . aboveboard.”
Her expression turned feisty, mouth puckering in a way that drew my gaze. Her lips were painted a glossy cherry red that would look incredible wrapped around my cock. Goddamn it, I really needed to stop thinking about all the ways I could fuck her.
“That doesn’t change the fact that he’s too young to know better,” she said. “Especially because you got him drunk.”
My grin slipped. “First off, he’s twenty, not twelve, and attending one of the most prestigious colleges in the country while maintaining an impressive GPA, so stop pretending like he’s some innocent little lamb I took advantage of. Second, I didn’t force him to do anything. It’s house policy to keep the alcohol flowing because it’s good for business. No one held a gun to his head and made him drink it.”
She blinked. “How do you know so much about him? About us?”
Ah, so she’d picked up on the fact that I’d done my research. “I make it my business to learn as much about my clients as possible. Because we’re not aboveboard, some people think that means they don’t have to pay their debts. That they can threaten to go to the cops and report my operation to get me to back off. Let’s just say, having some ammunition against them has been to my benefit.”
A frisson of something slipped into her expression—worry, or maybe fear—there one second and gone the next. When she spoke, her voice was steady, belying what she felt. “Blake can’t pay it. He doesn’t have that kind of money.”
Which I already knew.
I leaned back in my seat, draping one arm across the top of the booth as I studied her. Fuck, she was gorgeous. Not just because of the flawless skin and pouty lips. There was something about her features that made you want to stare at her, like your brain was stuck trying to figure outwhy, exactly, she was so stunning.
I comforted myself with the knowledge that I wasn’t the only one distracted by her beauty. People had noticed her entrance and were still sneaking surreptitious glances from nearby tables. A passing busboy almost tripped over his own feet when he caught sight of her.
Maybe that’s why I felt the need to be even more of a dick to Stella than usual: it was self-protection. A way to keep distance between us when all I wanted to do was close it.
Why were the most beautiful people always the worst human beings?
“But Blakewillhave that money, eventually,” I said.
Her expression shut down even more. “In, like, five years, at the soonest. Can you wait that long to be repaid?”
“No.”
“Then why don’t you do the right thing and forgive his debt?”
I set my wineglass down before I shattered it, looking out into the restaurant while I tried to get ahold of myself. My temper had bubbled up like a flash boil, and the urge to lash out was so strong, I almost couldn’t resist it. The fuckingnerveof this woman. Askingmeto do the “right thing” so her brother wouldn’t have to take responsibility for his own actions.
