Arrogant Bastard - Julie Capulet Page 0,30

to going out with me.

Is she for real? Are people actually this nice in real life? A small part of me hopes Luna does opt out of our plans tonight. Then I won’t have to worry about her fangirling all over my ultra-successful rock star cousins.

I’m even more ultra-successful, I remind myself. I have way more money than they do.

“Absolutely not,” Josie scolds her. “You’re going. You’ve loved the band since their very first hit. Remember singing along to it that time we drove to Miami? That was such a fun weekend.”

Why? Did she meet someone?

Holy hell.

I’m losing it.

I need to calm the fuck down. So I focus on Josie. “Did you read through the contract?”

“Yes. I’ve accepted your offer and signed it.”

My heart actually skips a beat, something I’m not sure it’s ever done before. I get to spend time with her. I’m going to be Luna’s business partner. She’ll have to hang out with me and do what I tell her to do. “So you agreed to the fifty-one percent?”

“Yes.”

My gaze slides to Luna. She’s watching me, noticing the lines of my body But, still, there’s no reaction. No adoration. Not a hint of surrender. Something is holding her back. Despite all this, I can’t help grinning at her, even though I’m specifically trying not to act like an idiot. Or an asshole. Which isn’t easy.

I pull a pen out of my jacket pocket. “May I?” I ask Josie, because to her I’ll be polite and gentlemanly. I’ll save the beast in me for Luna, once I have her exactly where I want her. All I need to do now is to sign on the dotted line.

Josie slides the papers towards me.

I leaf through the contract to the last page, where I see Josie’s scrawled name. Underneath it, I ink my signature.

And that’s it. We have a deal.

Before she can change her mind, I take my phone out of my pocket and open up my banking app. I’ve already set up the transaction. I push the button to transfer one million dollars into Josie’s bank account, which I confirmed the details of yesterday. Once it’s done, I show Josie the screen.

Transfer of $1,000,000.00 to Josephine R. Farrell complete √

“Wow,” she breathes. “Oh my God.”

I hold out my hand and Josie takes it. “Thank you,” I say, meaning it.

There are more tears in Josie’s eyes. “Thank you, Gage. This is a dream come true. More than that. It’s light years beyond the wildest dream I’ve ever had. And I know you’re going to make all Luna’s dreams come true too.”

You bet your ass I am.

I offer my hand to Luna. The colorful green of her irises has been almost completely swallowed up by the black of her pupils. She fucking hates me. Or maybe there’s a part of her that’s terrified of me, for some unknowable reason. But she takes my hand anyway because the deal is now done and she’s in this, whether she likes it or not.

“I’m looking forward to doing great things together, Luna.” Great, hot, debauched things that make you come hard and scream my name as you dig your fingernails into my back.

As soon as her cool hand slides into my much larger, hotter one, I feel like I’m having some kind of religious, out-of-body experience. It’s the first time she’s touched me. Her skin is as soft as silk. There’s a current to her touch. An energy. Like she’s zapping me with her fierce, electric allure. I can smell the light scent of her tropical, floral-spiced perfume. She’s far more beautiful in person even than in my late-night fantasies. I’m so close to her I can count the five golden freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her perfect nose. And there’s one near the edge of her plump, full lips. My mouth waters. Her lips are a fraction too full for her face, in the sexiest way imaginable. They’re full and pink with lip gloss. I have a ravenous desire to lick it off, to sink my tongue into her mouth, to devour her and feast on her until I’ve come all over her and rubbed myself onto her skin, marking her with my hot cum before holding her down as I fuck her and spend myself deep inside her sweet, nubile little body. My cock starts to harden and throb and I try desperately to will it not to.

Hellfire and damnation, this is bad.

I hold on to the handshake for too long