jealous, possessive, or envious thought in my entire life, even with the females I’ve dated and shagged. I’m Damian-Fucking-Lancaster, CEO and owner of one of the biggest, richest, and most powerful corporations in the world. I don’t have time to sit around waiting for some female who makes my cock hard to call me. I’m a serious businessman who needs to concentrate on the work that’s been piling up for the last two days while I’ve been trying to figure out how to get Nicole Ashworth into my bed.
I took a deep breath and let it out before I muttered, “I just need to get her into bed, and all this shit will go away. It has to. I want my goddamn brain back.”
I didn’t really need my voice of reason to know that I was being highly irrational.
I knew it.
But when it came to Nicole, some idiotic primitive instinct I never knew I had completely overrode my damn logic.
My obsession with Nicole Ashworth has to end.
I grabbed my laptop, opened it, and got to work, trying like hell to block out everything else from my mind.
CHAPTER 13
Nicole
“SO YOU’RE REALLY going to do it?” Kylie asked.
“I think you should,” Macy chimed in.
I stretched out on my beach towel as I took an appreciative sip of the latte we’d stopped for on our way to the beach.
Kylie, Macy, and I spent almost every Friday night in the same way.
We stopped at our favorite coffee shop for a to-go latte right after work, and took it down to the beach.
We liked to call it a standing date for the three of us as long as nobody had other plans.
I smiled at the two women who had been my friends since grade school. All three of us were so different, but it hadn’t stopped us from being sisters at heart.
“Is it really so hard to believe that I want to expand ACM to go international?” I asked.
Kylie shook her head as she stretched out on her own towel. “Noooo. But this isn’t just any international account, and you know it. It’s Lancaster International. You had an interlude with the man who heads the company. A guy who got himself into this mess by being photographed during one of his orgies.”
“He swears it was a setup,” I informed both of them.
Macy had been caught up on the Mr. Orgasm situation by Kylie on our way to the beach.
“Maybe it was,” Macy considered. “He’s incredibly rich. Obviously, he has competitors who want him to look bad.”
“Or maybe it wasn’t, and he really is an asshole,” Kylie answered with an unusual amount of skepticism. “Yeah. Sure. I’d like to think he’s on the up-and-up, but maybe he’s just a skank. I don’t think we can rule out that possibility.”
I shot her a surprised glance. “What happened to your optimism about him? What happened to the Kylie who wanted me to give him the benefit of the doubt?”
“Oh, God,” she moaned. “I’m torn. I do want you to give him a chance, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”
I shrugged. “It’s not like it really matters,” I said. “We aren’t going into a romantic relationship. It’s all business. Even if he is an asshole, my job is to make him look like a good guy.”
Kylie huffed as she flopped onto her side and propped a hand under her head. “Come on, Nic. I saw the way he looked at you when he was in the office today.”
“How did he look at her?” Macy asked curiously.
Kylie snorted. “Like he was starving, and she was the only item on the lunch menu that he wanted.”
“Are you attracted to him, Nic?” Macy asked guilelessly.
“Yes,” Kylie answered emphatically.
“Not really,” I countered.
Both of them raised their brows as they looked at me.
I caved. These were the two people that I trusted completely. “Okay, I am attracted to him. How could I not be? The guy is physical perfection, and that British accent plays hell with my hormones, but I know when a man is out of my league. I can’t get hurt. I’m going in with my eyes wide open this time, and it’s strictly business.”
Kylie rolled her eyes. “You’re not out of his league. He’s out of yours. He’s a liar and possible man-whore, remember?”
“You’re right,” I said with a groan. “I guess the whole story about his mother and finding out that he’s a duke really got to me today.”
Macy’s eyes popped open wide. “He’s a duke?”
I spent the