The Other Side of Greed (The Seven Sins #5) - Lily Zante Page 0,61

and that I’m not stuck.”

I want to say something to comfort her, but I’m scared of saying the wrong thing because I’m glad that shithead is out of her life. Crazy fucker, cheating on her. He doesn’t deserve her. “You’re better off without him.”

She nods, then stares down at the invitations. I hope she doesn’t have her eye on Cardoza.

“He was great at the beginning, when I was starting Redhill, and he helped me a lot. I mistakenly thought we shared the same ideals. What I didn’t know was that he shared our bed with someone else.”

“His loss.” I leave the words floating around in the heavy haze of desire which permeates the air. It surprises me that she is opening up so much. Longing and lust topsy-turvy in my stomach, and I want to suck her lower lip, to elicit a moan from that pretty little mouth of hers. “Where’s the rosebud?” I ask, in a voice so hoarse that I barely recognize it.

“Further down, where no one can see.”

Further down?

How much further down?

“Yeah?” My voice sounds disgustingly high-pitched. An indecent thought rockets north from the base of my groin. In the push and pull that has been the sum total of our strained relationship, I’ve tried to hold back from thinking such things. Now it’s impossible.

My gaze rakes in her back, sauntering slowly from her spaghetti straps, to the compass tattoo, all the way down to her fuck-me heels.

She throws me a look over her almost-bare shoulder. “You’re blushing, Brad. Are you okay?”

She knows exactly what she’s doing. I don’t answer, for fear of giving my teenage horniness away. I grimace, and hope it resembles something like a passing grin.

Her lingering gaze sets flames licking all over my skin. This is a new side to her. A vampish and unexpected side that I never would have thought someone like her possessed.

I want her.

Watching her stride away, I’m overcome with the thought of grabbing her and pushing her up against the door. I want to claim her mouth and rain kisses down her bare arms and shoulders. I want to make her mine.

“Don’t forget to lock up,” she tells me, completely oblivious to the tsunami of emotions she’s sent sweeping all over my body.

She’s so naive, so trusting, she hasn’t even asked me what I was doing sitting in her chair.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

KYRA

I made him blush.

My tattoos caught his attention. Brad looked at me in complete shock, as if he never expected little old me to have anything like that. I wish I could tell what shocked him the most, the tattoos or that I unexpectedly showed up. Or what I was wearing.

Who knows?

I can’t believe I spilled my guts about my ex. I don’t ever talk about him, but it didn’t feel so wrong telling Brad.

This isn’t me. But Brad makes me react like this. I fan my face as the air hits me. I can’t be like this. I’ve already wasted years on a cheating man, and my precious broken heart won’t suffer another setback. Brad is like the night sky, vast in its darkness and unknowingness. It would be better for me and my broken heart to stay away from him.

By the time I get to city hall, I’m not too late but I’m all knotted up inside like a ball of cotton wool that a litter of kittens got a hold of. I tell Simona and Fredrich about my run-in with Brad at the office, making himself at home in my chair.

Fredrich has his hand wrapped around a bottle of beer. “What was he doing there? He said he was too busy to come out with us tonight.”

“He’s still upset about his friend who was in the car accident,” I reply.

“Is she his girlfriend?” Fredrich asks.

“He doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Simona replies smoothly.

Fredrich takes a swig from his bottle. “I don’t understand why he’s so upset about it.” Simona and I stare at him, shocked.

“She’s a good friend,” I insist, but he wasn’t at the hospital. He was sitting in the office.

“A friend? Yeah, right.” Fredrich doesn’t look convinced. “She must be some friend for him to be so upset about it even now that he can’t come out to this event. Who would give up the chance to meet Elias Cardoza? The guy is a legend. Heavyweight champion of the world. How come Brad is so upset that he’s turned down this chance?”

“I’m sure he has his reasons.” Simona seems to be Brad’s biggest fan