“Just so I’m clear, you…what? Want me to spread my legs for Weston and then maybe wait until right before he’s about to shoot his load and ask him what his bid is?”
“Don’t be crude. I’m sure there are other ways you can get a sense of things. Chat him up a little bit.”
Over the years, I’d experienced so many disappointments with my father that I’d thought I’d become immune to him letting me down. But apparently that wasn’t the case. I shook my head, feeling a new low. “You should go. You don’t want to miss your flight.”
My father was so arrogant, he didn’t seem to notice the disdain in my voice. He walked over as if he hadn’t just told me to whore myself out and kissed my forehead. “We’ll talk soon.”
After he left, I stood in the conference room for a long time. There was absolutely no way my father would ever accept Weston and me having a relationship. William Sterling might be a brilliant businessman, but he was ignorant when it came to the important things like relationships. It wouldn’t matter if I told him I’d met the love of my life and was happy. The fact that Weston was a Lockwood and our families had a dumb grudge dating back before I was born was more important to honor than his daughter.
***
After “lunch” with Weston, I sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “I needed that.”
He chuckled. “I guessed that, considering you marched into this room and pretty much grabbed my dick.”
I smiled. I had sort of done that. “Sorry. I was just so frustrated. My father is absolutely the most irritating man on the planet.”
Weston turned to his side and propped his head on his elbow. He traced soft figure eights with his finger on my stomach. “Don’t apologize. I’m happy to reap the benefits of William being a dick. Though, I believe I was the one who was supposed to pick the orifice to make a deposit.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Orifice? Really?”
He winked. “You’re lucky you picked my favorite hole anyway.”
“Oh really? I’ll have to remember you like sex better than a blow job in the future.”
Weston shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing better than seeing you down on your knees in front of me. But I fucking love watching your face as you come.”
Yet again, that warm feeling flooded my belly even though what he’d said was far from classically romantic. I pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “Well, thank you for letting me use you.”
“Anytime.” He pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “You want to talk about it?”
“My orifices?” I joked.
“Whatever went down with your father. But, hey, we can talk about orifices instead. Better yet, roll over and we’ll christen a new hole.”
I chuckled. But Weston did look interested in what had gotten me angry. So I decided to share what my father had suggested. I rolled onto my side and propped my head on my elbow, mimicking his position.
“My father told me he’s noticed you looking at my ass.”
Weston’s eyebrows jumped. He shook his head. “Shit… How’d the rest of that conversation go?”
“Not well.”
He ran his hand up and down, from the curve of my waist to my thigh and back up again. “Sorry about that. I do my best, but it’s impossible not to look at you and think about you naked.”
I smiled. “That’s oddly sweet.”
He shrugged, and his eyes stayed glued to my hip as he continued to rub up and down. “It’s the truth.”
“Well, that’s not the worst of it. After he said he’d seen you ogle me, he suggested I use it to my advantage to pump information out of you about your family’s bid.”
Weston’s hand froze, and his eyes jumped to meet mine. “What?”
“You heard me right. My father pretty much told me to seduce you to get information.”
Weston got quiet, though the stunned look on his face spoke for him. “What did you say?”
“Honestly, not enough. I think I was just so disappointed, I couldn’t come up with an appropriate answer. After he left, I thought of a million things I should’ve said. Like, I would’ve loved to see his face after I told him you were probably already waiting for me up in my room since I’d given you a key before I slipped out of bed with you this morning.”
I laughed and pointed my thumb at the stack of papers on the desk. “I’m pretty sure I would’ve had to call 911 if I’d told him you had access to all the work papers I keep in here, not to mention my body. The papers would’ve probably been a bigger deal, though.”
Weston shook his head. “I’m sorry. You deserve better than that.”
“Yeah, well, Scarlett has a saying, ‘Any time you spend wondering if you deserve better is time wasted. Because if you’re wondering, you do.’ I’ve spent too many years questioning whether I deserved the way my father treated my mother and me, so I’m not going to waste anymore time dwelling over it. I always knew the answer.”
Weston looked down. “You deserve a lot better from the men in your life—a fuck of a lot better.”
Chapter 23
* * *
Sophia
Weston looked as stressed as I’d felt the last few days.
Our bids were due in less than two weeks, and we both still had so much to do. Though, if I was being honest with myself, it wasn’t just the looming deadline that had me on edge. Weston and I hadn’t spoken about the logistics of what would happen after the bids were opened, and that had begun weighing on my mind.
Once one family owned the majority of The Countess, the other family would inevitably be pushed out. Weston and I had talked about going to a charity event together Labor Day weekend, but that was two months from now, which seemed like a lifetime. The more immediate question was, what would happen when this contest was over?
One of us wouldn’t be involved in the day-to-day operations of the hotel anymore. Did that mean Weston wouldn’t be slipping into my room at night? If I won, would he be holed up at one of his own family’s properties across town like he’d been in the months before Grace Copeland died? Or would he be sent back to Vegas where he still owned a house? There was so much up in the air, and the unknown was like a giant shadow following me around.
It didn’t help that Weston had seemed to distance himself a little the last few days. Ever since the day my father and I had our blowup, it felt like something had shifted—a crack had formed in the ground of our relationship, and each day it seemed to widen. After the bidding ended, would we need to yell in order to hear each other from the two sides we stood on?
To outsiders, though, we probably looked business-as-usual as we left the construction of the new ballroom.
“It’s really coming along great,” I said.
Weston nodded. “The mayor and his niece want to come see the room. Louis had been holding them off, but it should be in a presentable state by late next week.”
I glanced over at him. “I guess that means one of us will get to meet the mayor.”
Weston held my gaze. He frowned, but said nothing as he nodded.