‘First of all, she didn’t belittle me because that would mean I gave a fuck. Second, she was mostly civil to me after the time I left her beautifully glossy, designer-labelled shopping bags at the café where she’d insisted I procure a frappe. But most importantly, how did you know?’
‘That she’d propositioned you? Call it a hunch.’ And call her vindictive after she discovered she was no longer welcome in my bed.
‘Yeah, well . . .’ He grimaces and tugs his earlobe. ‘No offence, but I wouldn’t fuck her with your dick.
I drop my hands and flip the folder closed. ‘Let’s go and get—’
‘Blind drunk?’
‘Dinner,’ I correct wearily.
‘That was gonna be my second suggestion.’ A smile catches in the corner of his mouth as he stands.
We make our way over to the hotel, opting to eat at Le Grill where I pick up the threads of our abandoned conversation.
‘I would’ve been very disappointed if you’d taken her up on it, you know.’
It takes him a moment to determine what it is I refer to before answering. ‘Not my style.’ As I cut into my steak, my gaze lifts but not my head. ‘I know you had an open relationship, but don’t laugh, it would’ve felt like I was the one doing the cheating.’
‘I’m honoured, I think.’ I begin to chuckle which, by his expression, he doesn’t appreciate. ‘But you’re wrong about the relationship being open. I just didn’t care what she was up to beyond the first few months.’
‘Why keep her around at all? Once you were in power, I mean.’
I place down my silverware and lean back in my chair. ‘To begin with, it suited my purposes. I know. Her father desired that the engagement be fulfilled.’
‘You mean, that you’d marry her?’
‘He hoped she’d be able to bring me around, like a dog, I suppose. That was never going to happen. As to why it’s gone on for so long, it was beneficial to have a member of the board side with me. Especially in the earlier days.’
‘Especially when you started tearing the competition apart. But you don’t need their permission these days.’
I nod in agreement. I suppose I never saw the need to rock the status quo. Amélie lived her life, and I lived mine. Occasionally we came together for some company function to put on a united front, but that was the extent of our dealings. I never felt the need for companionship, consumed with making Wolf Industries something bigger than him, bigger than us both, one obsession turning to another when faced with the intrigues of his will. And at the time, I thought perhaps I was looking for a ghost when, in reality, she was travelling the globe on the proceeds of a windfall, courtesy of Emile.
I felt no remorse or guilt after I slept with Rose in March. I didn’t feel the need to repent. Nevertheless, the experience changed me. She reminded me that there is good in the world and that not all people seek to benefit themselves. But I put all that aside when I returned to Monaco, still hell-bent on finding out who this woman was my father sought to benefit—who she was and what she was to me.
And then she arrived, and I have not been the same since.
‘Well, whatever the reason,’ Rhett reasons, ‘all I can say is, I doubt I could ever get hard enough in Amélie’s presence to even hate-fuck her.’ My chuckling turns to a belly laugh because I can empathise completely. ‘I don’t know what you’re laughing about. You’re the one whose life is a mess. It’s a fucking joke, man.’
‘I don’t know. I think my life is pretty good.’ Or it will be once I win over Rose. Once I get her to understand that nothing matters beyond her.
‘Not from where I’m sitting. First, you get saddled with a business you never wanted or expected any part in. Then to get your hands on the reins, you ditch the image of the playboy son, an image you’d cultivated so very hard—’
‘I hardly promoted myself as a hedonist. I just lived the life I wanted.’
‘Those were some good times,’ he says, tipping his head back as though appealing to the midnight blue ceiling for a recreation of a time gone by. ‘And we cultivated hard, didn’t we?’
‘Partied hard.’ And Rhett was an unlikely companion, but one I’ll be forever grateful for finding.
‘Same thing,’ he replies with a sniff. ‘But then you go and spoil