William watched as her face turned from confused to devastated. “Kara? What’s wrong?”
“I just got an e-mail from Carl Jones. As in,
the
Carl Jones…the one who owns Crossroads, Sport’s Masters, and Girl’s Night. He wants to buy Kara’s.”
William’s heart fell into his stomach. His father had e-mailed her? Why?
“I can’t sell,” she murmured as she placed her phone down on the table. “Shit. This isn’t good. If people smell blood in the water, they’ll start coming from all over.
Dammit
.” Kara dropped her head in her hands, desperation evident in her posture.
“What if you expanded?” William offered. “You don’t have to turn it into a nightclub like those places, but if you expanded and made a few upgrades, it would help to draw in the younger crowd too.”
Kara shook her head. “I’d never get approved for the loan. I’ve tried. There has to be another way.” She took a sip of her coffee. Her face had been glowing less than five minutes ago, and now he could see the worry creeping in.
“A fundraiser!” William almost shouted, causing Kara to look up at him in surprise. “Seriously, it’s fucking genius, Kara. You hold a fundraiser! You have a huge clientele of loyal customers; I saw them with my own eyes. I guarantee you, if you held a fundraiser where people could eat, drink, and dance, you’d make a killing.”
“How would I pay for the food? I’d have to use the money I’d saved for renovations, and then—”
“I know a guy. He’s one of the contractors I work with, and his wife just opened her own catering company. She’s constantly looking for good causes to associate herself with, and I bet you anything she’ll be willing to help out. Hell, she’s a small-business owner herself, so there’s no doubt in my mind she’d give a hand. Let me talk to him and see what I can do.”
Kara nodded as she contemplated his words, then looked at him with the biggest smile he’d ever seen. “Okay. You’re right; that’s an amazing idea.” She squealed as she came around to his side of the booth and threw herself in his arms. “This could work! If I’m able to raise enough money to at least add on an outside area with a new dance floor and up-to-date sound equipment…” Kara smiled again and smashed her lips to his. “Call your friend. Let’s do it.”
* * * *
“Yes, that sounds amazing. Thank you so much; you have no idea what this means to me.” Kara disconnected the call and squealed in delight. She’d just gotten off the phone with the woman who was going to cater the event, and she’d agreed to do it for dirt cheap. She’d said as one small-business owner to another, she’d be honored to help.
Kara quickly shot a text to William to give him a status update, then walked to the middle of the dance floor and looked around her grandfather’s bar.
Her
bar.
The sound of the front door opening caught her attention, and she turned to find Trevor. He shut and locked the door behind him, then strolled across the floor and kissed her cheek.
“You know, those keys are supposed to be for an emergency. Not to let yourself in whenever you see fit.” She tried to hide the irritation in her voice, but his face told her it had slipped through.
“You never minded before; what’s the problem now?” he asked as he looked around the bar. “What? Do you have a man in here or something?”
“Not right now, thank you.” Kara had never felt uncomfortable around Trevor, but ever since the conversation about marriage, she’d been trying to avoid him like the plague. But here he stood, right in front of her.
Guess it’s now or never.
Before she could say a word, Trevor grabbed her shoulders and crushed his mouth to hers. A small cry escaped her lips, and he used that moment to slip his tongue into her mouth. Kara pushed back against his chest, trying desperately to get him off her. He clearly mistook her aggression for passion because he pulled her closer to him and deepened the kiss. Without another option in sight, she pulled his tongue between her teeth and bit down, hard.
“Fuck, Kara!” He pulled away, his fingers immediately going to his tongue. “What the hell was that?”
“You have the nerve to ask
me
that question?” Kara asked incredulously. “Trevor, what the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I hadn’t heard from you about my offer, and I came here to show you we had sexual chemistry.”
Kara couldn’t help but laugh, then felt awful when his head shot up, hurt in his eyes.
“You find that funny, do you? Believe it or not, I have pleased a woman or two before, thank you. I haven’t only slept with stiff little virgins who do nothing but lay there.” The venom in his voice surprised her, and she slowly nodded.
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t very nice,” she offered, slowly taking a few steps away from him. “I have thought about it, a lot, actually, and I appreciate what you are trying to do, but it’s just not for me. I do want to get married one day, but I want it to be for love. You deserve that too. Someone whose world starts and stops with you. You know that, right?”
Trevor rolled his eyes as he straightened the front of his shirt. “Oh, give me a break. That’s a crock, and you know it. I have to say, I’m disappointed in you. I could tell you were surprised at first, but I figured after some time you’d see it was quite logical. You’d rather, what? Stay single and lose this place?”
Annoyance switched over to anger pretty quickly, but Kara did her best to rein it in. “I’m not single, for your information, and I won’t be losing my bar.”
“Oh, you have a boyfriend now? Nice. I can’t wait to hear this. Who is this knight in shining armor? One of your regulars?”
“I don’t need a knight,” Kara replied coolly, crossing her arms. “By the way, you’re acting like an ass, and I don’t appreciate it.” At Trevor’s silence, she continued. “I’m seeing William, actually. I know you probably find it hilarious, I would have too a few months ago, but things have changed.
We
have changed. He came in last week and since then, well… It’s new, and I don’t know where it’s going, but I can guarantee it won’t go far if I marry you.”
Trevor stared at her, his face expressionless. Then he burst out laughing. “Kara, please tell me you aren’t that stupid.”
Kara felt her face heat with anger. Who the hell did he think he was? He didn’t get to laugh at William, especially not after all he’d done for her. She opened her mouth to tell him so, but he quickly interrupted her.
“You do know William isn’t William Richardson, right?” He sighed at her blank expression. “Jesus, Kara. Do you make a habit of letting anyone into your bed without checking into them first? Richardson is his mother’s maiden name. His real last name is Jones. As in Carl Jones’ son. And I just bet he came in last week, considering that’s when his father decided he wanted to buy your bar.”
Kara felt the bile rising in her throat. It couldn’t be true. “How do you know any of this?”
“Because I, unlike you, apparently, like to know who I surround myself with. You always want to hang around Ben and Crissy, why I’ll never know, and where they are, he will be too. I never said anything because it didn’t concern me. But now that I see he’s trying to fuck you into handing over your grandfather’s bar, I’ve had a change of opinion. What’s really sickening is you let him. My God, Kara, are you that hard up?”
Kara tried to swallow, but her throat wouldn’t allow it. She walked behind the bar to get herself a bottle of water. She slowly drank the cool liquid, desperately trying to make sense of the information she’d been given. “I don’t believe you. He brought up the idea of having a fundraiser. A way to get the money to expand a little, help business during the summer. I really think it will work. Why would he do that if he didn’t want it to succeed?”
“Who knows. Maybe he wants to keep seeing you and figured he could bring this
fundraiser
idea up, make sure it failed, and then convince you to sell. That way he still gets what he wanted, and he also gets to continue to screw you in the process. Hell, I guess he liked your cunt more than he thought he would.”
“Don’t talk to me like that,” Kara snapped. “You don’t get to speak to me that way. Do you understand?” She didn’t know who this cold man in front of her was, but it sure as shit wasn’t the Trevor who was supposed to be one of her best friends.
Trevor stared at her silently, a small grin playing on his lips. “Look it up if you don’t believe me. Hell, everything I’ve told you is clear as day on the Internet. Go and see for yourself. And by the by, my offer still stands.” He walked over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I hope you’ll come around. In the end, I think it’d be good for both of us.” She watched as he made his way toward the door, then turned and spoke softly, “I’d never lie to you, Kara. Ever. You’d always be my equal partner. In everything we did, you’d be right there with me. You and I…we’re the same person.”
William quickly walked through his father’s waiting room, his anger coiled deep in his core, and he knew the intensity showed on his face. His dad had told him he was in charge of speaking with Kara, so why the hell had he e-mailed her?
“William! I didn’t know we were expecting you today. He—”
“I need to see him immediately.” He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but the expression on Beth’s face informed him he’d failed. “I’m sorry, Beth. It’s just really important. Can you let him know I’m here, please?”
Beth nodded and quietly phoned his father. William was too pissed to sit, so he shoved his hands in his pockets and slowly paced in front of her desk. He couldn’t let Kara lose her bar, not without a damn good fight. That morning when he’d mentioned the fundraiser, her face had lit up unlike anything he’d ever seen. She’d been hopeful and excited; hell, she’d been fucking luminous. She’d put her blood, sweat, and tears into that bar, and he would be damned if he was going to stand by and watch his father bully it away from her.
“You can go—”
William was down the hall before she could finish her sentence. He didn’t know what he was going to say, but somehow he had to find a way not buying Kara’s would benefit his father.
“Son—”
“What the hell, Dad? You said this was my show, and then you e-mail her offering to buy the place? If you’re going to take care of it yourself, why the hell did you involve me?”
His father shot him a confused look as he stirred some sugar into his coffee. “First and foremost, I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, but you need to dial it back a few notches, and fast. I had my people contact her because it’s already May, and I’d like to have this hotel up and running as soon as possible. You know it takes a few years to build a good-quality hotel, and I want to be able to get this shit on the road. I’ve never been accused of being a patient man.” He took a drink of his coffee, a small murmur of approval in the back of his throat. “What I really want to know, though, is how the hell you know we e-mailed her. Especially since I did it, what, an hour ago?”
William stared at his father, the truth lodged in his throat.
“Christ, son. Are you shitting me?”
“It’s not like that. Kara…” How could he even describe her? There weren’t enough words in the English language. “She’s amazing. Beautiful, intelligent, and funny as hell, Dad. Did you know her grandfather built that bar? He practically raised her because her dad is an alcoholic and her mother hit the bricks. That’s why it’s named after her. It’s everything to her.”
William’s father stared at him for what felt like hours. When he finally spoke, William saw red. “You forgot to mention what a great fuck she is because being pussy-whopped is the only possible explanation for you failing so miserably!”
William shook his head; his dad would never understand. He couldn’t. All he cared about was expanding his empire. He’d always been a coldhearted son of a bitch, but he wouldn’t hurt Kara. “I’m not going to let you take it from her.”
He turned to leave, but his father stopped him.
“William, we’d been doing well, you know? You seemed ready to step up and take over this company, and I was excited to hand it over. But now you’re willing to throw it all away, for what? Some girl?”
William looked at his dad, the man who’d once seemed larger than life in his eyes, and couldn’t help but pity him. “You don’t understand, Dad. She’s important to me. Her happiness is important to me. I still want to take over the company, and I think we both know I’d be damned good at it, but I won’t do it at her expense. I know you don’t get it, and you never will, but I hope you can at least respect it.” William went to leave but turned back toward his father when a thought crossed his mind. “You said you got an inside tip that she was in trouble. Who was it?”
Carl raised an eyebrow, then answered, “Some other man she’s wrapped her poisonous legs around, I imagine. Trevor Black.”
William cursed under his breath as he gazed at his father, then turned and let himself out of the office.
* * * *
Kara sat in her office, the weight of the world crushing down on her as she stared at her computer screen. Carl Jones stood with his beautiful wife and a teenage William. He’d obviously grown from a boy to a man in the years in between, but it was clearly him.
Kara shut down the computer and put her head in her hands. Okay, so William Richardson was actually William Jones. His father, Carl Jones, wanted to buy her bar…for what? His nightclubs were huge and extremely popular. What could he possibly want with her little bar? Kara looked up and stared at the picture of her grandfather and her, not long after high-school graduation. The only man she’d ever been able to count on, and she was letting him down.
Kara heard a knock on the front door but decided to ignore it. It was Wednesday, so they wouldn’t be opening until tomorrow. Whoever it was would need to find somewhere else to take the edge off tonight.
She needed to talk to William. She couldn’t make sense of the situation, and she needed the answers only he had. She refused to let herself get too worked up until she knew the entire story. There’s no way she could have imagined what they’d shared. She’d had plenty of casual sex, and what she and William had done was not that.