His smile brightens, as if he’s getting ideas. “Pray tell. I’d love to know how.”
It was like I said to Arthur, she wants none of my wealth and doesn’t care that I’m Levi Vale. I’ve never met a woman like that. Fuck, she even needed time to think about accepting my offer. I figured she only came to her senses when she did the math andrealized she’d be closing the door on money that would change her life.
“She’s a challenge,” I answer, folding my arms behind my head.
“You want her because she’s a challenge?” Locke gives me a deadpan stare.
“Correct.”
“You really like to make life harder, don’t you?”
“Not always.”
“You sound pussy-whipped.”
I shake my head. “Nah, it’s not that. This is different.”
Different in a way that made me want to find out more about where Piper Andrews came from.
I’m the kind of guy who can get intel on a person within a few seconds, but I haven’t looked her up yet out of respect. I know she went through some stuff with her ex. But I want her to tell me. I don’t want to research or probe. Not with her.
My phone rings in my pocket. That must be the doormen. I told them to call me when Piper arrives.
I retrieve my phone. “Hey,” I say.
“Piper Andrews is here, boss.”
“I’ll be down in a minute.”
I hang up and return my focus to my brother. “Got to go. My girl is here.”
“She’s here to see you?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, I’ll be doing the accounts by myself, then.”
“You’re a real saint.” I snap my fingers toward him and stand.
“Careful, Levi. Don’t fall for your own stunt.”
I don’t answer. It’s too late for me.
I head downstairs. The island club mix wraps around me the moment I reach the hallway.
The bass climbs up through the floor and into my chest, settling there like a second pulse. The lights are doing their slow red sweep across the walls, and the place smells the way it always does at peak—perfume, sweat, top-shelf liquor, and the sugary syrup they use behind the bar.
I walk out onto the first-floor balcony and take in the crowd of dancing people on the floor below. The place is packed as always. Since the day I opened, there hasn’t been a night when the club wasn’t brimming with people, all of them excited to dare each other and get up to all sorts of delicious trouble.
I scan the floor, and my gaze lands on the beautiful young woman I’m looking for.
She’s by the bar, looking nervous and sexy as hell even though she’s slightly more dressed down than the night I met her.
Tonight’s dress is simple—a black bandeau playsuit-looking thing that flirts with her thighs. But the sexiness is all coming from her.
I stop, taking a moment to watch her.
She has her hair down tonight and straightened so it falls down her shoulders like strands of rain. The look makes her stand out even more in the crowd, reminding me of the butterfly again. Like people, no two butterflies are ever exactly the same, even within the same species.
