“Whatever,” Alex dismissed, but his phone intruded into his musings again. He pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open.


Alex, get your ass over here now, or it’s OVER!

“Ugh, fuck. D, I have to go. And, Cole is in danger of getting his cock cut off by that banshee. Can you make sure to get him home? They’re doing some serious damage to each other down there.” Alex nodded his head in Cole’s direction and shook it in disapproval. “The family doesn’t need any bad publicity because he can’t control his johnson. I love my brother, but he doesn’t always think with his head.”

“Oh? The text must have been from your lady,” Darian speculated and took another long pull on his beer. Alex outwardly cringed at the words ‘his lady’, not really sure how to classify her anymore, but surely the screaming shrew she’d become certainly didn’t fit that profile.

“Apparently, she isn’t taking your girl’s advice. I’m being summoned or it’s over,” Alex said with blasé sarcasm. He was not looking forward to that conversation. With a roll of his eyes, he slammed the rest of his drink and walked over to Cole, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Cole, I gotta bounce. See you on Sunday.”

“Dude! Don’t go, Alex. Things are just starting to happen. This is Ruby,” Cole said happily, his speech slurred by the amount of alcohol he’d consumed in the past two hours. Alex’s eyes drifted over the redhead that was draped around his brother’s neck and took note how her blue eyes looked him up and down. He felt disgusted as he acknowledged the woman. She was elegantly dressed with bright red polish on her long fingernails, but Alex felt bile rise in his throat. She might look expensive, but Alex knew trash when he saw it. Her blatant appraisal of his dark good looks made it clear that she’d move on to a better offer without thinking twice.

“Nice to meet you. Goodnight, Cole.”

It’s bitches like that who make me avoid relationships like the plague. Just like Whitney. If Alex were honest with himself, he had to admit it. So fake, so grasping and calculating, Alex thought as he turned and walked out. It was obvious that Ruby wasn’t interested in Cole. He was just her next victim, and she would have dropped him like a hot potato if I’d snapped my fingers.

“It’s no fucking wonder I’m the way I am,” he muttered under his breath as he walked the four blocks to the garage where his car was parked. “No fucking wonder.”

* * *

As he drove the few miles to Whitney’s apartment, Alex tried to dig up some feeling for the woman he’d been sleeping with for the past year and a half. Sure, she was beautiful, but she was shallow. She was more interested in shopping than what was going on in the world, and she bored the shit out of him. He sighed heavily for letting her physical attributes sway him in the first place. He’d desired her and so he took her. It was easy, like everything else in his life. Sure, he worked his ass off, but making money out of nothing was what he loved best, and he was good at it. That was easy for him, too.

After leaving his Audi with the valet, he swiped the key card in the security door, and the doorman greeted him.

“Good evening, Mr. Avery.”

“Good evening, George. How have you been?”

“Good, sir. It’s been a while. Nice to see you.”

Alex nodded. Yes, it had been a while. At least a month since he’d been there. “You, too.”

He straightened his suit jacket and pulled on the cuffs of both of his sleeves as he watched the lights in the elevator climb to the eleventh floor of the upscale apartment building.

He’d met Whitney through his sister two years ago, and after several phone calls and a couple of obvious occasions where she’d dropped by his office, he’d finally asked her out to dinner. Alex shook his head, remembering. He should have his head examined for being so easily called into play. She had a great body and the sex had been good, but they had nothing of real substance to talk about. Whitney worked at an art gallery downtown and was constantly trying to get Alex to purchase some god-awful piece from whoever her newest client was. One of the closets in his spare bedroom was shoved full of the damn things.

Alex ran a hand over the back of his neck as he approached the door and sighed heavily. For what he hoped would be the last time, he took out his key and put it in the lock. As he pushed the large oak door open, he heard music coming from the bedroom. A lone light in the hall cast an eerie glow into the living and dining rooms. The apartment was small but very expensive, and he’d shelled out loads of money on the furnishings that Whitney wanted. Alex glanced around and quickly moved across the room to the bar, taking off his black Armani suit jacket, and loosening his green silk tie as he went.

He pulled out a glass and added ice and two fingers of scotch before he heard Whitney behind him.

“Well, well… to what do I owe this honor?” she asked snidely.

Alex’s mouth tightened. He had no time or inclination to play games. “You asked me to show up. I’m here.” He glanced over his shoulder before he slammed his drink and picked up the scotch bottle to refill it. “Or was that message meant for someone else?” He laughed coldly. “The closing led me to believe it was for me, and if you’re expecting me to play nice, your greeting was sorely lacking.” Alex was numb. Not uncomfortable, not nervous, not… moved. He just didn’t give a fuck.

He tensed when she came up behind him and started to slide her hands around his waist. Considering her pissy demeanor, this wasn’t what he was expecting, but her nearness did nothing for him as she molded herself against his back.

“What is it you wanted?” His voice was flat as he twisted out of her hold and moved to a chair in front of the big glass window in the living room. The lights of downtown Chicago flickered as he sank down into its softness. Alex’s mind raced with what to do about an almost unbearable situation. He itched to get the fuck out of there and never deal with this shit again. Or, it could be just like the hundred other nights he’d spent in this apartment. A few drinks, they’d fuck, and then… nothing. He’d get up and leave and that would be the end of it… but tonight, he wanted it to be the end. For good.

She followed him and knelt down behind the chair.

“Whitney. Answer the goddamned question. What—do—you—want?”

She reached around and ran a hand down his chest, turning her head and pulling his earlobe into her mouth and raking it with her teeth, trying to get a reaction out of him. If he closed his eyes, he could let it happen, but did he really want to? He pulled away just enough for her mouth to leave his skin.

“So, you want to fuck?” Alex asked bluntly over his shoulder. His tone was sour and it sounded harsh, even to his own ears. He felt dead inside, indifferent. He could take it or leave it.

She froze. “No. I want you to give a shit about me. I want you to stop fucking around with your friends,” she said harshly.

“We’ve been over this countless times. The conversation is getting old.” He lifted her hand off of his body and flung it aside, and she gasped in response.

Her voice turned sickeningly sweet as she changed her tack, and her hands returned to his chest again. “Alex, I want you to make love to me…” she purred, as she started to pull his tie completely undone and open a couple of the buttons on his white shirt. His hand came up to cover hers and stop her movement. He stood up, effectively breaking the contact and took a few steps toward the window, away from her.

“When have we ever made love? We fuck,” he dismissed.

She gasped, a shocked expression flashing across her face. “Do you have to be such a bastard?” she rasped out loudly. “You think because you’re rich and good-looking, you can treat me like trash? You’re such a prick!”

He turned and looked at her for the first time. She was dressed in some outrageously expensive lingerie with ridiculous feather trim on the robe that hung open to reveal only lace panties and a matching bra underneath. His eyes traveled down her body indifferently, and he took another sip from his glass. Her body was beautiful—there was no denying that—with voluptuous curves in all the right places. Except for those silicone tits that she’d insisted on getting last year. They’d cost him thousands and he couldn’t care less. Alex watched her with his eyes, but his fingers and lips wanted soft, warm, and real. Not hard, plastic, and fake. Maybe he was getting old, like his mother had warned him about. He shook off the thought as quickly as it came. He needed to get this shit out of the way.

“How am I a bastard?” he asked flatly, waving his hand casually around at the elegantly furnished apartment. “You have everything you need. I told you in the beginning that this was a physical relationship for me. That’s what fits into my lifestyle. You agreed. I never lied to you about my intentions, and nothing has changed. I still don’t want more than that. But lately, even sex… It’s like fucking a Barbie doll. If I wanted a blow-up doll, I’m sure they’re a hell of a lot less expensive than what you managed to suck out of me every month.” He was cold; he knew it and he didn’t care.

Her blue eyes hardened, and she scowled at him. “It’s the least you can do, you lousy bastard.” Her voice finally broke on the words, and Alex felt a twinge of regret despite himself. “After all this time, don’t you care for me at all?”

“Not in the way you want. I don’t want anything to happen to you. I want you to be safe and happy, but I’m certainly not in love with you, Whitney. I’m not sure I’m even capable of those types of feelings. I won’t apologize for being the way I told you I’d be.”

She huffed, and her eyes welled with angry tears at the cold tone in his voice. “I don’t believe you, Alex. You show up here maybe once or twice a month for sex and that’s it?”

“No, that’s not it. We do things. I take you places and on trips… it’s known in my circle that you and I are together. I don’t treat you like a whore. What the fuck do you want from me?” Alex said shortly. He felt suffocated, caustic… like a caged animal that wanted freedom.

“More,” Whitney said, simply.

Alex sighed. There just wasn’t more.

“I’m very busy running the company, and I don’t want or need romantic bullshit!” Alex’s voice took on a harsher tone. “Shit, half of the time I’m not even in town, for Christ’s sake! I’m not going to argue about this, and I don’t feel the need to repeat myself. This is how it is! Take it or leave it.”

Fuck! Did I just give her a choice? He wanted to kick his own ass.

She put her hand over her mouth and turned away. “Is there something that you need from me, that I don’t give you, Alex?” Her voice was smarmy and evil sounding. “Don’t I make you come hard enough? Isn’t my pussy tight enough or my tits big enough?”

He sucked in a deep breath. There were many things he could add, but he wasn’t going to add insult to injury. “Shut the hell up! You sound like trash when you talk that way! It isn’t that complicated! It just doesn’t feel right anymore! For either of us. Just see it for what it is.”

“What is it?”

“What. It. Is. Nothing more, nothing less,” Alex said shortly. His tone was dull, devoid of absolutely all emotion.

She pursed her lips and looked at the floor, nodding her head slightly. “I guess I’ll leave it then. I want to get married and have kids. I wanted that with you.” She let out a shaky breath. “I know. Who would have thought it? Me. Wanting to be a mother?”

Alex moved across the room and set his glass down on the end table so he could pull her lightly into his arms, and she laid her head down on his shoulder and cried softly. Children weren’t something he considered, but he did know that if he ever did, it wouldn’t be with this woman.

“Alex, I love you.”

Instantly he stiffened, her words reminding him that she was not what he wanted, and he couldn’t give her what she needed.

“Stop. I know you think saying that will change my mind, but it won’t. It has the opposite result.” All these months of her demanding money and incessantly hissing in his ear had left him with no emotions for her. It showed in how he spoke to her, his cold demeanor, and his stiffness as he pushed her gently away. “I’m sorry, but this is over. You can stay in the apartment. I’ll keep paying for it until you tell me you’re settled or… whatever.”