One minute Alex seems like a tough-as-nails business mogul, then the next, she does an about-face and admits that she can’t sleep without her stuffed bunny. She’s so different than I expected her to be––in wonderful, intriguing ways.
Unable to resist flirting with her, even though I know I’m dancing with danger, I offer, “I could sub-in for Mr. Fluffy and curl up in bed with you tonight.”
I hold up my arms in her direction before adding, “I’m an excellent cuddler.”
The surprised chuckle bursts out of her before she’s able to tame it. “I bet you are, but that sounds like a colossally bad idea.”
I wince as if she has physically injured me. “Did you have to go with ‘colossally bad’? I would have gotten your point if you’d simply stuck with bad.”
“Bad doesn’t quite cover how terrible of an idea it is,” she responds quickly.
The wide grin that spreads across her face lets me know that she’s enjoying our silly banter as much as I am.
“Ouch, okay,” I say. “Well, if you’re going to spend the night roughing it out here in this ultra-luxurious leather seat that reclines all the way back, then I guess I will, too.”
“Such a gentleman,” she murmurs. Turning serious, she adds, “But I have lots of work to catch up on, so really, take the bed, if you want it.”
I shake my head to decline, but her attention has already shifted focus to her laptop’s screen. Feeling dismissed, I lean my chair back and decide to just close my eyes for a minute.
The next thing I know, the pilot announces that we are making our final approach and for Flo to prepare for landing.
After Flo does a final check on us, Alex glances up at me over her computer screen. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”
I use the automatic button to raise my seat before yawning and stretching my arms high over my head. “Did you get any sleep?”
“No, but I don’t need much,” she says.
“Oh, Morrows aren’t like us mere mortals, huh?” I tease her.
“Exactly,” she agrees. “I’m so glad you get it.”
We grin like fools at each other, which makes me hopeful that she enjoys my company even half as much as I enjoy hers.
In a flash, we land and are whisked from the plane and into an awaiting limo. As we ride in the back of the car toward the current address I dug up for Harlow, it hits me that I’m about to walk straight into the lion’s den with Alex by my side.
“Perhaps I should go in alone to see Harlow,” I suggest, even though I’m fairly certain that Alex will never go for it.
Proving me right, she scrunches her manicured brows together before saying, “I didn’t come all this way to sit in the car.”
Narrowing her eyes, she guesses, “Are you scared to have me meet your ex? Do you think she’ll tell me something embarrassing about you?”
“No.” I try to sound firm, but my voice comes out in a higher pitch than normal, as if I’m a teen struggling through puberty.
“Hmm,” Alex presses her lips together, making it obvious that she doesn’t believe me.
I stare out the window at the passing scenery, silently cursing myself. In trying to dissuade Alex from talking to Harlow, I’ve somehow managed to make it even more intriguing to her.
All too soon, we arrive at the small house that bears the address listed for Harlow. Looking out the limo’s window as our driver pulls to a stop, Alex says, “I hope she hasn’t already left for work.”
I scoff at the mere idea of it. At Alex’s questioning gaze, I say, “Harlow is not an early riser. The only way she isn’t here is if she’s still out partying from last night.”
Alex gapes at the local time on her phone as if she can’t imagine someone staying out until the next day, but she refrains from commenting on it.
My nerves kick into overdrive as the two of us approach Harlow’s front door.
Showing no signs of apprehension, Alex opens the screen door and pounds on the thick wood of the home’s front door. When we don’t hear any signs of life from inside, she begins relentlessly pressing her pointer finger into the doorbell.
“I see that patience isn’t one of your virtues,” I tease her.
Alex shrugs. “We came all this way, so we might as well make sure she’s awake.”
From inside the house, we hear a muffled voice say, “Geesh. Hold your horses. I’m coming.”
A rumpled, irritated, and still-beautiful Harlow swings the door open. “What the hell is so damn import––”
Her sentence cuts off abruptly at the sight of Alex. Wide eyes travel back and forth between the two of us as Harlow obviously struggles to believe that the two of us are on her front porch.
“What?… Why?… Joe?…” Harlow asks, clearly hoping that I’ll help her make sense of this.
“Hello, Harlow. May we come inside?” I ask a little too formally.
The woman nods her head and swings the door wide open. Swiping a hand down the T-shirt and shorts that she obviously slept in, she says, “I’d have gotten dressed and cleaned my house, if I’d known you were coming.”
She turns and narrows an accusatory glare at me. I know she wouldn’t have bothered getting ready or tidying up for me. She’s worried about the great Alexandra Morrow viewing her as a slob.
Not wasting a moment, Alex dives in. “We’re here to see if you’ve done anything with the private information you found online about my family that you copied before deleting.”
Understanding dawns in Harlow’s expression, before she says “I’m biding my time and taking offers before making a decision on how to proceed.”
I can practically see the dollar signs dancing through her mind as she pictures everything that she can buy with a healthy chunk of the Morrow fortune.
As if she has dealt with this a million times, Alex nods before saying, “I see. Since I intend to be the highest bidder, how about if we save us all some time and cut straight to the chase. How much would you like in order to sell this information to me and forget that you ever saw it?”
Harlow’s eyes sparkle with excitement as she tries to figure out how high she can go without scaring the other woman away. Obviously trying to up the ante, she rubs her chin as she pretends to think it over. “I don’t know. The information I have on your grandfather is really juicy. I could make big bucks by selling it to the news outlets, then doing interviews about it. I might even be able to score a book deal out of it.”
Alex lifts her chin before asking again, “How much?”
“Hmm, it seems to me that buying this secret and my silence is worth at least a million dollars,” Harlow says. Her eyes dart to Alex’s as she tries to gauge if she has overshot.
“Done,” Alex answers immediately, already diving into her Louis Vuitton briefcase for the contracts.
Harlow peeks over the top of the case before saying, “I was half expecting this to be full of cash.”
“No one deals in cash anymore, except drug dealers and money launderers,” Alex explains as if she knows all about such nefarious characters.
During a quick call to Brinkley, Alex hands her cell phone to Harlow and says, “He needs your bank account routing details for the money wire.”
Harlow’s eyes are wide with disbelief as she accepts the phone and relays her banking information to Alex’s efficient assistant.
Once that is taken care of, Alex drops her cell phone back into her oversized handbag, retrieves a thick business card, and says, “The money should be in your account by end of business day tomorrow. If it’s not, contact Brinkley, and he’ll get it taken care of.”
Harlow stares at the card as if it is made of alien material. “Just like that?” She snaps her fingers. “It almost feels like I should have asked for even more money.”
Alex shrugs her shoulders, letting the other woman know that she could have likely gotten more if she’d played her cards right. This gesture makes Harlow’s face pinch with annoyance.
It hits me then, that some people will never be happy. If someone had told Harlow before we arrived here this morning that she would have a million dollars headed her way in the next twenty-four hours, she would have been thrilled. Now that it is actually happening, she’s focusing on the fact that she might have been able to negotiate for an even higher amount.
Harlow barely glances through the stack of contracts before signing and dating them. Once she finishes, she hands them, along with a thumb drive, to Alex, saying, “That’s the only copy of what I found.”
“Very well,” Alex says, before turning to leave. She stops in her tracks and turns back when Harlow speaks again.
“You know, when you guys first arrived, I thought maybe the two of you were a couple.” Harlow scoffs loudly at the ridiculousness of her first impression.
Alex tilts her head to the side and asks, “What’s funny about that?”
“Umm, everything,” Harlow says, as if it should be obvious. When Alex remains frozen, silently demanding an explanation, Harlow sputters, “You’re a billionaire goddess, and he’s…” She indicates me with one hand as she searches for the right insult. Finally, she says, “He’s nothing. He’s just an ordinary, average Joe.”
I stare down at my feet, hating it that Alex is hearing how other people view me. For some reason, the captivating heiress seemed to overlook my mundaneness, but she won’t be able to continue to do that with Harlow pointing it out to her.
“That’s how you view Joe?” Alex asks.
Her tone is filled with disbelief, which makes me raise my head to look her in the eyes. Her gaze searches mine as Harlow answers, “Uh, yeah––have you met him? He barely makes ends meet with that stupid motorcycle repair shop. He spends all of his free time staring at a computer screen. There’s absolutely nothing remotely special or remarkable about him.”
I can’t tear my gaze away from Alex as she absorbs this information about me. It had been fun having her take an interest in me, even if it was only as someone who could help her with her family’s problem. Now, she’ll see me through the tainted lens of Harlow’s disdainful view of me.
Going in for the kill, Harlow reveals, “He’s so dull, I had to cheat on him to keep from dying of boredom when we were together.”
It’s typical Harlow to blame me for her cheating, but I don’t have the bandwidth to fight with her right now. My sole focus is on Alex as I brace for her reaction to Harlow’s unflattering revelations about me.
Just as I’m becoming convinced that Alex is going to run from here, repulsed by my lack of interesting traits, the elegant woman drops her briefcase and purse to the carpet. Never breaking her gaze from me, she says to Harlow, “You’re wrong about him.”
With that, she rushes forward and kisses me senseless.