The Billion Dollar Bad Boy Read online

  Why wouldn’t he be keen to sell it? Especially given the press interest in the Morrow family, intent on dragging their criminal past back into the light. And it didn’t make it any easier that his brother was now engaged to a crime lord’s daughter.

  Blood will win out, the press all said.

  She thought they’d be desperate to sell. But not, apparently, Donovan Morrow.

  Victoria watched him as he slid in beside her and closed the door.

  Get in the fucking car.

  God, he was an arrogant SOB.

  He leaned forward to murmur something to his driver. Then he shifted across to the long leather seat in front of her, facing her, and pressed a button, raising the glass between them and the driver.

  It made the space abruptly very intimate. Too intimate. Like the elevator.

  Where she’d kissed him.

  Her breath caught, her mouth suddenly burning, leaving a mark. She felt too hot. Restless. The interior smelled of expensive leather and the warm, musky scent of his aftershave, a sensual combination that she couldn’t ignore no matter how hard she tried.

  God, what had possessed her? She’d only wanted to gain the control back from him. Teach him a lesson. Show him she wasn’t to be played with like he played with all his other women, using his own weapons against him.

  And yet …

  You weren’t expecting to be affected.

  Well, she wasn’t affected. Her response to that kiss had been an aberration. She couldn’t think what had come over her but one thing she was sure of. It wouldn’t happen again.

  She was a businesswoman and this was business.

  End of story.

  Opposite her, Donovan sprawled out like a big, lazy, arrogant cat. He still had his tie and the top button of his shirt undone and she could see the base of his throat, where his pulse beat strong and sure.

  “So?” He shifted one leg, the back of his calf brushing against hers. “What’s the rush for this deal?”

  A streak of fire went through her at the touch. She gripped her briefcase hard but didn’t move away. “The land is in high demand, as I’m sure you’re aware. De Winter wants it and we don’t want anyone else to close us out.” It wasn’t quite the exact truth but giving away the fact that this was personal for the de Winters would be giving away an advantage.

  “De Winter or you?”

  “Does it matter?”

  His gaze didn’t waver from hers, an aggravating smile playing around his mouth.

  A beautiful mouth. His lips warm. Firm. James never kissed like that …

  Victoria forced the thought from her head. Yes, James. Her fiancé. Which meant she shouldn’t be thinking of that kiss. Or of Donovan’s mouth. She had a business deal to pull off and that was far more important than a kiss.

  “I’m interested to know,” he said. “Just like I’m interested to know what more you expected from that kiss.”

  “I told you that kiss never happened.”

  “Oh, come on, Ms. de Winter. After saying you expected more, you then also expect me to pretend it never happened? Surely you know that no man likes to have his prowess questioned. Especially so blatantly.”

  “I would have thought you’d be a little more confident of your prowess than to let my opinion bother you.”

  He lifted one black brow. “And why shouldn’t your opinion matter?”

  Oh, sure. Like he really cared what she thought. He didn’t care about anyone and was famous for it. “The only place my opinion should matter is around the negotiating table, Mr. Morrow. Now, can we move on from this discussion?”

  “Why?” He shifted again, his calf brushing hers for the second time, another electric jolt going through her. God, was he doing this on purpose? “I’m rather enjoying it.”

  She held herself very still. “I thought you were interested in why I wanted this deal so badly.”

  “Well, that, too. But you wanted to talk business at the party. And we’re not at the party yet.”

  “Then what else do you want to talk about? Women? Parties? The number of times you’ve had a YouTube video go viral?”

  His mouth curled. “You must think I’m a very simple creature.”

  “In my experience, men are simple creatures.”

  “So you’ve had a wide and varied experience then?” He tilted his head, amusement glittering in his eyes. “Tell me about it.”

  Her fingers tightened on her case. Yes, she’d had a lot of experience with men. In the boardroom and around the negotiating table. But she wasn’t stupid, she knew the subtext of his question, though if he thought he could rattle her again he had another think coming. She’d faced down worse than him. “Of course they are,” she said coolly. “Promise them a blow job and they’re anyone’s.”

  He laughed, a much warmer, more spontaneous sound than she’d heard before, giving her a small glow of pleasure she tried to ignore.

  “And exactly how many blow jobs have you ever given a man, Victoria?”

  She refused to look away. Or back down. “A few.” It wasn’t a lie. There had been a couple of times with her college boyfriends, an unpleasant experience for all concerned.

  “As a negotiating technique, would you say it worked?” That glint was back in his eyes. The one that made her breath catch and her heart beat fast.

  She knew he was playing with her like the player he was. But that didn’t mean she had to enter the game. “Does discussing blow jobs ever work as a seduction method, Mr. Morrow?”

  “So you think I’m trying to seduce you?” He tilted his head, stretching his arms out along the back of the seat, the material of his snowy white dress shirt pulling tight across his chest. So arrogant. So sure of himself.

  So sexy …

  God, she had to stop thinking that. She was engaged. To James. Who was in Paris admittedly, but still. He was her fiancé.

  But you have a get-out-of-jail-free card …

  Victoria stopped that particular thought dead in its tracks. “What I think is that you’re a player, Mr. Morrow, and for some reason you’ve decided you’re going to play with me.” She met his gaze head-on. “So, let me tell you how this is going to go. You’re going to stop with the seduction games. Stop with the innuendo. And when we get to the party, we’re going to discuss this deal like adults. Like businesspeople.”

  Donovan smiled that insufferably sexy smile. “No innuendo? Damn. Okay then, I’ll be plain. I don’t want to go to the party and discuss this deal like adults. What I want is for you to get down on your knees and suck my cock.”

  Shock arrowed down her spine, along with a flash of intense heat that should not have been there. On your knees in front of him, his hands in your hair, guiding you …

  There was no way in hell that should have been sexy. But for some reason she felt it all the way down low inside of her, in places she should not have felt it.

  He was studying her as if gauging her reaction.

  Right, so he was pushing the boundaries. Another head game.

  Victoria smiled back. Cool and calm, letting none of her shock and certainly none of that disconcerting heat show. “I’m curious. Do you say these things to the men you do business with, too?”

  He didn’t look offended, that warm, genuine amusement in his eyes. “Good question. I guess it depends on the man.” He shifted in his seat and this time when his calf brushed hers it stayed there, pressing against her. “But I have to confess I don’t swing that way usually so no, probably not.”

  “So I was right. You are a sexist asshole then.”

  “Not necessarily. Perhaps I only say these things to you.”

  She couldn’t concentrate. The heat from that one touch seemed to have stolen her breath. She clutched onto the briefcase. “Lucky me.”

  He said nothing for a long moment, studying her. And she gave nothing back, determined not to reveal anything to him.

  “Admitting it is difficult, isn’t it, Victoria?” he said quietly.

  �
�Admitting what?”

  “You’ve always been such a good girl,” he went on. “Always worked hard, did exactly what your daddy told you.” The watchful look in his eyes intensified. “You’ve always had to be tough to make it, to be taken seriously. To get the job done. To never show weakness.”

  She stared at him, a weird vulnerable feeling creeping up on her. Like he’d seen right inside her. Seen something she hadn’t even known was there. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He didn’t look away. “Don’t you? Don’t you ever wonder what it would be like to be bad? To know what it would feel like to let go? To not care so much about what other people thought? Just once?”

  She swallowed. “No. Of course I haven’t—”

  “Yes, you have. Just like you’re thinking about sucking my cock right now. Wondering what I’d taste like. Whether you’d like it.”

  Her heart raced. She couldn’t breathe. Damn him. Damn him to hell. “That’s … It’s not … I haven’t …” The words sounded husky. Not like her at all.

  Slowly, he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his gaze pinning her to the spot. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “It’s okay to want it. It’s okay to be turned on. It’s not a weakness, Victoria. In fact, you don’t even have to make the decision if you don’t want to. You can let me be bad for you. Let me take all the blame. Just do what I say. That’s all you have to do.”

  “Mr. Morrow—”

  “Just get on your knees.” His eyes glittered impossibly green. “And do it right now.”

  Chapter 3

  Victoria didn’t move, but her gray eyes had gone silver with anger. Yeah, she was definitely pissed. And he’d bet all the Morrow billions on the fact it was because he was right and she didn’t want to admit it.

  He was bad to be playing her like this but shit, he had to get the control back somehow. Up in that boardroom, in the elevator, out by the limo, she’d surprised him, put him at a disadvantage and he didn’t like it.

  He’d never liked it. It reminded him too much of when he’d been at his father’s beck and call all those years ago, sleeping with certain people to get corporate secrets and please the old man. Because he didn’t have anything else. He wasn’t the oldest son, like Jax. Or the tough one like his younger half-brother, Sean.

  He’d been the good boy, the intellectual. The one his mother loved. The one his father despised because he didn’t have the hard edge of a true Morrow. . So he’d done what he had to do in order to be one, and in the end had discovered it hadn’t made the slightest bit of difference.

  His father still hadn’t given a shit about him.

  Ever since then he’d decided he didn’t need anything from Patrick Morrow, most certainly not love. He didn’t need love from anyone. Not when he was the one who did the playing. Who made the rules. Who was in charge. Who didn’t give a shit.

  And if Victoria de Winter thought she could take that from him, she was sadly mistaken.

  Not that he actually expected her to do what he’d said of course. But that didn’t stop him from saying it or enjoying the hell out of her reaction to it.

  She stared at him and he braced himself, expecting a flood of angry, shocked words.

  But all she said was, “You think I won’t do it, don’t you?”

  “Do what? Get on your knees?” Donovan said carelessly. “Of course you won’t do it. You’re the de Winter ice princess, and ice princesses don’t usually give head on command. Though …” He gave her a smile. “There’s a first time for everything.”

  His conscious imitation of her earlier words seemed to have no effect on her apart from the slight crease between her brows and a narrowing of her eyes. .

  “You really are quite an arrogant bastard, aren’t you?”

  “It’s one of my best character flaws, admittedly.”

  “And is no doubt hiding some hidden pain. Some dark secret you can’t tell the world.” Her voice was almost meditative. “Perhaps your father didn’t love you enough and you spent years desperate for his approval and when he didn’t give it to you, you decided you didn’t care anymore. Sinking yourself into wine and women and song. YouTube sex tapes and threesomes and cock sucking in your limo. Desperate to keep the distance between you and a world that doesn’t care about you.”

  Donovan held himself very still. Giving nothing whatsoever away of the shock that slid through him. How close to the bone she’d so nearly cut. He never shared anything about himself to anyone and yet, in a couple of sentences she’d flayed him wide open.

  Shocked? Really? You knew who you were playing with here. You can’t expect not to have some kind of payback.

  Victoria, looking far too comfortable in her seat, raised a brow. “How am I doing so far?”

  “That sound you hear? It’s the sound of my balls not only cracking, but shattering completely.”

  She didn’t smile. If anything the fleeting expression that crossed her face was one of hurt. Which couldn’t be right. At all. She turned her head away. “Can we leave your balls out of this for one moment, Mr. Morrow?”

  “What? You don’t like the thought of besting me, Ms. de Winter? I thought that was the whole intention of this little power play?”

  “This isn’t a game.”

  “I’m trying to get the better of you while you try to get the better of me. Of course it’s a game. And one you’re enjoying playing as much as I am.”

  And he was. It had been a long time since he’d matched wits with a woman like this. A woman who gave back as good as she got. Most of the time they were too busy responding to his seduction techniques to argue with him.

  Don’t go too far down this road, dickhead. Don’t forget who she is.

  Yeah, yeah. Business and crap. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t keep playing with her, did it? Push the boundaries a little more? He’d meant what he said when he’d told her he was enjoying himself and he was pretty damn sure she wasn’t entirely uninterested, either.

  At least she didn’t deny it this time.

  He shifted in his seat again, stretching his legs out, sliding his calf against hers, the faint brush enough to send a line of delicious electricity directly to his cock.

  Again, she didn’t move away, that level gaze of hers peeling him open like a knife steadily cutting through an orange rind.

  “So,” he said into the thick silence. “Now that we’ve got our daddy issues out of the way, perhaps we can get onto more important subjects.”

  The expression on her features could only be termed as long suffering. “You’re going to talk about your genitals again, aren’t you?”

  He grinned. “Of course I’m going to. As we’ve already established, men are simple creatures. And I’m one of the simplest there is.”

  “Can’t argue with that.”

  “Though I do prefer the word cock. Genitals is so … cold.”

  “Mr. Morrow, the deal—”

  “Uh-uh.” Donovan lifted a finger and wagged it. “We’re not at the party yet, Ms. de Winter. And as I recall, I had given you a dare.”

  Victoria pursed her lips. “Which you then established I wasn’t going to take up since … how did you put it again? Oh, that’s right. ‘Ice princesses don’t give head on command.’”

  He wanted to smile at the bored way she said his own words back to him, as if she said things like that all the time, despite the faint wash of color on her pale cheeks that said, in fact, she didn’t. “Of course they don’t. But hey, I’m easy. I could go down on you if you’d prefer. I’m an equal opportunity kind of guy.”

  “I think you must hate women, Mr. Morrow,” she said after a small silence. . “We’re ball-busting ice princesses if we don’t get on our knees for you, and if we do then we’re cheerful sex objects you can manipulate into doing anything you want. How little you must think of us.”

  Fleeting anger threatened.

  He’d never treated women with contempt. Yes, he was a playboy, and yes, he
got around. But the women he took to his bed always wanted to be there, always knew what they were getting into, and wanted as little as he did from the experience. Sexual pleasure, nothing more.

  He’d never manipulated anyone in his life and he certainly didn’t view anyone with contempt.

  Haven’t you? Not even the ones you seduced because Dad wanted something from them? Something he couldn’t get legally?

  He forced that thought away. Kept that easy, charming smile on his face. “You’ve got me all wrong, Ms. de Winter. I love women. I’m women’s greatest fan.”

  “Oh, sure you are. That’s why the first subject you brought up when we got in the car is me getting on my knees.”

  “You really can’t let that go, can you?”

  “Of course I can let it go.” Her fingers finally slid off her briefcase handle as she held them up in the air. “See? Nowhere near your groin.”

  The anger twisted again, unraveling this time and quite against his will. Clever woman.

  Goddamned sexy woman.

  Unable to help himself, he moved his leg in another slow slide against her calf, watching more color wash through her face and seeing the white blouse she wore pull tight across her full breasts as she sucked in a breath.

  Oh, yeah, she might deny it all she liked but she wanted him. Like he wanted her.

  Nothing is supposed to get in the way of this deal, remember? Especially sexy, smart redheads who have nothing but contempt for you.

  Christ, why did he keep forgetting that? What was it about this woman that got him all hot under the collar within an hour of meeting her?

  Was it the thrill of the unexpected chase getting to him? Or was it because he was enjoying matching wits with her. Enjoying the power games they were playing.

  Shit, it was probably the power games.

  Victoria stared determinedly at him, keeping her leg exactly where it was. Refusing to give him an inch. Refusing to back down no matter the tension burning between them.