Hundreds of thousands of dollars on the venue alone. Crazy. I couldn’t imagine the amount of money it took to upkeep.

“There are a few about Black Silk Auction and budget approvals. I starred them and put them in a folder titled Read Me.”

“Good.”

When I looked back up at him, his eyes were burrowing into mine. I couldn’t make out what the expression on his face meant, but it had a shiver running down my spine.

It felt like danger.

Violet’s words came hurling violently back to the front of my mind.

He just looks like he wants to eat you, that’s all. Devour you whole and spit you out or something like that.

Did she witness the same look I just did?

“You should have just left me at home.”

He raised a brow at me. “And miss out on three days of my purchase?”

My skin flushed.

“That’s sixty-six thousand dollars a day, Addi.”

“Okay,” I said with a sigh.

“Two hundred thousand total.”

“I get it.”

“Not to mention I’d have no one to keep my cock warm⁠—”

I slammed the computer shut. “Okay! I get it. Jesus fucking Christ.”

When I looked at Warren again, there was a playful smile pulling at his lips.

He was kidding.

Warren fucking King was… flirting with me? Teasing me?

I had to look away because for the first time, the urge to kiss him was almost too much to handle.

* * *

“This is my assistant, Addison,” Warren introduced me as a young man in a suit and slicked-back blond hair met us in the lobby of one of the biggest buildings in downtown Chicago.

The young CEO looked at Warren with a large smile that showed all his pearly white teeth, but my eyes fell to his hands and wrist bearing a new shiny watch and a gaudy class ring.

“Nice to meet you, Addi,” he said, his hand reaching out to shake mine. I stayed behind Warren and made no move to shake the guy’s hand. Warren visibly tensed at the nickname.

“Addison,” he corrected him curtly. His blue eyes widened, but he quickly pulled himself together.

“The pleasure is mine. I’m Nick,” he said and motioned for Warren and me to follow him, taking the hint to ignore me. “SecureLink has been buzzing since news of your arrival. I can‘t wait to show you around.”

For an internet security company, the offices were pretty modern with splashes of color on the walls and motivational quotes and murals. Something I expected in a young tech company as opposed to this. It was hard to believe they were as bad as Warren said.

He took us up in the elevator, his voice never once quieting. To my surprise, Warren just listened; he never even stopped to interrupt him when he got names wrong or spat out untrue nonsense about Warren’s other investments.