Rebel (Wolfes of Manhattan 1)

I walked around my desk and took a seat, facing him. “You really weren’t listening, were you?”

He smiled. God, he was gorgeous. I hated the effect he was having on my body.

“I already told you what I was doing, Lacey Lingerie.”

I seethed, despite the tickle between my legs.

“I still bet your mother was wearing lace that night. Where else would you get a name like Lacey?”

“You’re one to talk, with a name like Rock.”

“My mom was a fan of the old Rock Hudson and Doris Day movies. Riley’s middle name is Doris.”

“You do know that Rock Hudson was gay, right?”

“Yeah, I do. So what? That doesn’t mean everyone named Rock is gay.”

“And neither is every Lacey named after undergarments.”

He smiled again, but this time he didn’t push it.

I cleared my throat. “Your father has left his business interests in Wolfe Enterprises, which, as you know, is a three billion dollar corporation—”

“I haven’t seen my father in twenty-some years. I don’t know shit.”

“All right.” I sighed. “Now you know. You are heir to a three billion dollar corporation.”

“You’re telling me I’m as rich as Bill Gates now?”

“Hardly, but you are rich. Once you get into billions, does it really matter?” Indeed, any amount in the billions was incomprehensible to most, myself included.

He sat, stunned, his green eyes wide. “What the hell am I going to do with all of that?”

“It’s not solely yours. He left it in equal parts to you, your brothers, and your sister.”

“Good. They deserve it.”

“But there was a stipulation.” I stood. “Didn’t you wonder why everyone was staring at you in the conference room?”

“It was obviously my devastating good looks,” he said, smiling.

I couldn’t fault his observation, even though he was clearly just flirting with me. If I were the type to go for a leather-clad bad boy, I’d be all over Rock Wolfe.

Fortunately, I wasn’t that type.

At least that was what I kept telling myself.

“Mr. Wolfe—”

“We’ve been through that. My name is Rock.”

“Rock.” I sighed. “The stipulation I’m talking about is this. For you and your siblings to inherit the business holdings at all, you, Rock Wolfe, must move to Manhattan and take your place as CEO of the company. You need to run the company, or it will be sold to the highest bidder.”5RockFucking bastard.

This had to be some kind of a sick joke.

“I assure you it’s not,” Lacey said, when I mentioned the same. “I tried to talk him out of this. I told him you had no idea how to run a billion dollar company, and that it was irresponsible to put his company in the hands of a son he’d been estranged from for so long, a son who’d never had any experience in business at all.”

A son who’d tried to off him once.

But she didn’t know that.

“And he didn’t listen to you? What the hell kind of lawyer are you? Can’t you control your clients?”

She walked around her desk and stood right in front of me, forcing me to look up at her. “It’s my job to advise my clients what the law is and what is in their best interests under the law. I didn’t feel this decision was in his company’s best interest, and I told him so many times. However, the law allows a person to bequeath his property to whomever he chooses with whatever stipulations he chooses. I did my job, Mr. Wolfe.”

There she went with the Mr. Wolfe again. She looked cutely irate, her hands glued to her hips and her cheeks flushing a glorious pink.

“Well”—I stood, this time making her look up to me—“I won’t do it. I don’t give a flying fuck about Wolfe Enterprises.”

“Do you give a flying fuck about Roy, Reid, and Riley?” she asked adamantly.

I sat back down with a plunk.

Roy, Reid, and Riley.

Of course I gave a fuck. They were my brothers and sister. I’d protected them as best I could before I’d been sent away.

“Well?” she asked again.

I closed my eyes. “Yes.”

“Then you don’t have a choice,” Lacey said. “They lose their inheritance if you don’t do as the will stipulates.”

“You mean as my bastard father stipulates,” I said. “He’s coming after me from the grave, the son of a bitch.”

She placed her hand on my shoulder. The gesture was caring, but it ignited a spark under my skin.

“He is. But if you don’t do this, Rock, your siblings will suffer. They won’t get their share of the business.”

“They still got plenty from that will,” I said. “I was lucid when I heard that Reid and Roy got all the cars, Riley all the jewels. They can still live the high life. Who got the home in Tuscany? Aspen?”

“You did.”

I stood. “What the fuck?”

“You got all the real property, including the Manhattan penthouse.”

“Well, that’s easy enough to remedy. I’ll give all the real estate to my siblings.”