More Than Hate You (More Than Words)

“Thanks for throwing me to the wolves, Nia,” I quip. “Nice to know you’re on my side.”

“Whatever you did this time, I’m sure the punishment will fit the crime.” She winks, then shoves a beer in both our hands. “Now out to the lanai with you. I need to check on dinner, and you have to leave so we can shamelessly gossip about you.”

Nia isn’t kidding, but I expected it. “Go easy on her, please. She’s barely been here five minutes.”

“Oh, I will. It’s your ass you should be worried about. After your text this morning, my husband cursed a blue streak like I haven’t heard in months. Of course, he also worked off some of his aggression between the sheets with me, so maybe I should thank you.”

“TMI.” I wince.

She just laughs—and nudges us toward the back door. “Out with you both. Go.”

Evan opens his beer, takes a long pull, then steps onto the lanai with a sigh. I send Sloan a long last look as I pop open my bottle. She still looks nervous, but I think she’s warming to Nia. She’ll be in good hands.

But I can’t worry about her now. I have to focus on the bigger battle in front of me.

Evan marches to the big chair facing the ocean, under a lazily swaying ceiling fan. “Now that we’re alone, what the fuck are you doing?”

I plop down on the outdoor sofa and take a long sip of my brew, then sigh. Might as well be honest. “I don’t know anymore.”

“What the hell?” Evan leans in, looking like he wants to throttle me. “I’m throwing most of Stratus’s liquid cash behind this to make your under-the-table takeover happen, and you don’t know what you’re doing?”

I get it. He trusted me with this operation, and I haven’t been solely focused on business. I haven’t been strictly using logic.

“I can’t think straight since I met that woman.” I sigh. “That sounds shitty, but it’s the truth. Before you get pissed off…I did everything you asked. I analyzed Reservoir, down to its last penny, in less than a week. I shut Bruce Rawson down, put all the pieces in place to take over, ousted everyone compromised, reorganized upper management, and reallocated every department’s budget in a handful of days. It will be running right as soon as they get new funds.”

“Yeah, I know. And that’s great, but… Bas, you’re not running right. You’re letting this woman get under your skin.”

I give him a cynical laugh. “I’m not letting her under my skin. She’s already there.”

“And now you’re going to marry her?”

Yep. “Tomorrow.”

“Are you insane?” Evan growls as if he’s rethought his prior decision not to choke the shit out of me. “That woman is smart.”

“Oh, yeah. Crafty, clever, and perfectly capable of playing dirty, too.”

“She’s the enemy. Why are you marrying her?”

Isn’t that a great question? “The obvious answer is that I needed Rawson to give me something to prove he won’t fuck up our arrangement. He knows if he does, I’ll go public with the fact Sloan is his biological daughter.”

“Fine, but you don’t have to make her your wife.”

I take another long sip of my beer and drop the truth on him like a bomb. “I don’t think I can stop myself.”

He huffs. “Take her to bed and fuck her out of your system. Don’t tie yourself to her.”

I don’t like where his head is going. “Did fucking Nia once solve your ‘problem’ with her?”

Evan glares right back. “Apples and oranges.”

“Is it? Really? We were both in love with Becca—or thought we were. We both found a woman who challenges us. And we both got caught up, despite the fact falling in love when business is on the line isn’t smart.”

“You’re in love with her?”

“I’m not a hundred-percent sure…but ninety-nine-point-nine? Yeah.”

“Oh, fuck…”