“The board should be arriving at—”

“They’re already in,” she said, avoiding his eyes.

Austin cocked an eyebrow. “They are?”

“Yes, sir.”

Well, that was … odd.

He took a breath, pushed the large mahogany door open, and immediately wished that he hadn’t.

Fuck. Me. Sideways.

He stared incredulously at his cousin, who was standing at the head of the board table in a four-thousand-dollar tailored Dior suit. Standing straight and smiling as if he knew the meaning to life itself, he looked infinitely different than the bedraggled ex-con Austin had seen only months before. Austin instantly wanted to wipe the smirk off his face with a swift right hook.

“Morning.” Carter gestured to the empty seat to his left. “Won’t you take a seat?”

“I’d rather stand,” Austin replied, eyeing the fifteen people around the table, including Adam. “Isn’t this fucking cozy?” Austin dipped his chin in an effort to keep his temper. “I guess this is what they mean when they use the phrase ‘hostile takeover.’ ”

“Perhaps,” Carter replied. “But this isn’t hostile, nor is it a takeover; I’m simply reclaiming what was already mine. The board members have unanimously agreed that the contracts signed by our grandparents clearly show that I am rightful CEO and majority shareholder of WCS Communications.”

“Have they?” Austin growled.

“Yes, they have,” Adam answered. He stood and took a step toward Austin. “And they would have done so sooner, had you not hidden it from them. We need you to sign over your rights. I’ve done mine. Legally, we have to do it in front of the board.”

Austin narrowed his eyes at Adam. Where was the fucking loyalty? “I know,” he hissed through gritted teeth.

“Don’t worry,” Carter interrupted. “I’ve made sure that you still have shares, and the payout you will receive is more than enough to keep you and yours secure for two lifetimes.”

“It’s not about the money.”

“Exactly,” Carter snapped. His voice lowered to a harsh whisper. “It never was about the money, Austin. It was about the fucking principle, a word that continues to elude you on a daily basis.”

Austin regarded his cousin and brother, the cold fingers of defeat gripping his chest. “Where’s the contract?”

“Here, Mr. Ford,” said one of WCS’s lawyers.

The sly, backhanded nature of the whole scenario started to surround Austin like a suffocating fog. Storming past Carter and Adam, he grabbed a pen off the table and signed his name. All his hard work, all his dreams, signed away in one brief moment. The taste of vomit became strong in the back of his throat.

“There is also a gag order for you to sign,” the lawyer said. “It states that, should you besmirch Mr. Carter’s or the company’s name, the entire deal will be null and void and you will be entitled to nothing. Legal action will also be swift and indiscriminate.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Austin retorted. Throwing the pen down hard, he glared at the board members. “Good luck,” he sneered with a thumb in Carter’s direction. “You’re gonna need it with this prick running the show.”

He turned to Carter and smiled tightly. “Well done, Carter. Looks like you landed on your feet.”

Carter shook his head. “No, I just got what I deserve. As did you.”

“Whatever,” Austin snapped, pushing past his cousin. He needed to get out, find a bottle of JD and a woman, and lose himself in both for a week.

“Oh,” Carter said suddenly, stopping Austin in his tracks, “Kat says hi.”

The sound of Austin’s jaw snapping shut echoed around the room. He could practically hear Carter’s smug fucking smile. With his temper unraveling, he shoved through the doors and left WCS for the last time.

* * *

“Just suck.”

“I can’t!”

“Of course you can. Suck!”

Kat coughed on the noodles Carter was dropping into her mouth and began to giggle. Carter laughed with her. The noodles slid down her chin and fell to her bare breasts. Quick as a flash, Carter dove onto her and began to lick and slurp the noodles into his mouth. He may have licked her nipples, too, because eating Chinese food naked was all about the perquisites.

His adventurous mouth moved to her chin, and then to her lips, where he kissed her, covering her in sweet-and-sour sauce. She squealed, feebly trying to push him away. “You’re an ass.” She giggled.

“I know,” he admitted with a waggle of his eyebrows.

He sat back against the pillows at her side, grabbed the box of Kung Pao chicken and his chopsticks from the side table, and returned to stuffing his face. Girl had helped him work up an appetite in the last hour, and he needed to refuel. Kat, still naked and smelling of their lovemaking, nibbled on garlic shrimp while watching some predictable Christmas movie on the flat screen.

Carter let the domestic simplicity of their situation soak in. The calmness of their relationship and the easy silence they enjoyed surrounded him like a cocoon. He’d never been more comfortable with anyone in his entire life, happier or more loved. All the shit that’d come and gone seemed insignificant, and, as God was his witness, he’d go through it all again if it meant being with her.

He swallowed his mouthful of food and licked his lips. “So, you’re staying over tonight, right?”

He usually didn’t ask—letting Kat decide when she stayed with him—but, weirdly, tonight he needed to hear her say she wasn’t leaving.

He never wanted her to leave.

The thought made him sit up a little straighter. Startled, his mind tried to wrap itself around what that would mean.

What, forever?

Like, move in?

He kinda liked the idea—a lot. It definitely had its appeal. He glanced at her naked legs stretched down his bed. But it was more than that. He’d want her to move in because he loved her.

His brain kicked into overdrive. Shit, they’d been together only a short time. Yet they’d been through so much. Maybe it was a bad move to lay that on her. He didn’t want her to feel pressured, and maybe she wouldn’t want to live with him yet. He was anal about cleanliness and he was a grumpy motherfucker in the morning, not that she didn’t already know that—

“… because I’m meeting Beth for coffee, if that’s okay with you?”

He slowly blinked back into the room to see Kat looking at him expectantly.

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked, dazed.

Kat laughed and cupped his cheek. “Are you okay? Where were you?”

“Nowhere.” He put his food down and fisted his hands in his lap.

Kat noticed and her face turned serious. “You wanna talk about it?”

Did he want to talk about it? He gazed at her. “Um … I was just thinking.”

Kat squirmed at his side. He noticed, in her nervousness, she’d pulled the sheets up to cover her nakedness. Carter clenched his jaw and little by little pulled it back down. She’d never been shy about her body. He wasn’t about to let her start. He bent to her bare chest and kissed her lovingly between her breasts.

“It’s nothing bad,” he promised her, then laughed with uncertainty. “Well, I sure as shit hope not.”

Kat’s hands clasped his. “Whatever it is,” she soothed, “you can tell me.”

He rubbed his hands across his hair. Well, shit, this was a first. After a moment, he said, “So, I was thinking that, maybe—you know, if you want to. Because I do,” he waffled. “I don’t want you to feel obligated. But I think it’d be— What I mean is, I wondered if you’d—”

His cell phone vibrated on the side table, and he cursed. Max.

Shit.

“Hold that thought,” he fumed before he picked up his phone. “Dude, what’s up?”

“Carter, I need a favor.”

Carter’s eyes darted to Kat. “Little busy now, man. Can it wait?”

“No, it can’t,” Max snapped. “Fuck’s sake, man, you can’t blow me off for your woman again!”

Carter’s hackles went up. Something smelled off. “What is it? What’s going on?”