Playing Dirty: Windy City Kink, Book 3 Read Free Page B

keep this. It’s crazy.”
    “How are you going to send it back?”
    “Uh…” She inspected the package and there was no return address. Nothing. Nada. “I’ll figure out who he is. Lauden. I’ll Google him.”
    “With only a last name? Good luck with that.”
    “Okay. He has to work for the company that owns the Stennis Building. I’ll send it back to them. They’ll know who Mr. Lauden is. In fact…I’ll Google that.” She hurried over to her computer and rapped the space bar to bring it back to life.
    She dropped her ass down into the chair and typed. She scanned the search results. She had to go down a bit to find anything helpful. “Turns out the Stennis Building is owned by Challenger Development Group,” she relayed to Trenise. She clicked on a link for that company. Then on the link for “Our Team”. Her eyes widened as she saw the name Rafferty Lauden, President and CEO. “That can’t be him…” She clicked on his name and brought up an image and bio. “Holy shitballs.”
    “Oh man. That’s him?” Trenise sighed behind her. “Girl, what were you thinking when you turned him down?”
    Paige stared at the picture of the man she’d met earlier. President and CEO. Of what appeared to be a huge company. “I was thinking…I don’t ever want to be with a man like that again. And this confirms it.”
    “What?”
    She swiveled in her chair. “He’s too much like my ex-husband. Domineering. Money hungry. Power hungry. Abusive.”
    Trenise blinked. Yes, she knew a bit about Paige’s history. “You don’t know he’s abusive,” she said slowly, but Paige saw the doubt in her eyes.
    “Not for sure,” she admitted. “But he did remind me of Delmer. And I didn’t like that.” She ignored the memory of the warm curl of lust and the tug of attraction she’d felt. Damn, that pissed her off.
    “Huh.” Trenise’s eyes softened. “Well. I didn’t meet him myself, so I guess I can’t comment. This was a nice thing to do, though.”
    “It’s totally over the top.” Paige pushed away from the desk. “Unnecessary. Paying my dry-cleaning bill of thirty dollars or whatever would have been more than enough. I don’t blame him for me falling.”
    “He owns that building. And, from the looks of that website, about a hundred other buildings.”
    “Good for him.”
    At that moment the UPS guy finally did arrive. Once he’d left with their shipment, it was time to call it a day. “Okay. I’m outta here. I will spend my evening with a glass of wine and my laptop, looking for somewhere else to move the business.”
    “Night, Paige.”
    They closed up shop and headed their different directions, Paige to the Bucktown duplex where she lived with her new roommate Kevin.
    Yes, she shared a home with a dude. In fact, a dude she really didn’t even know before she’d moved in. But he was a friend of friends, sort of, and her gut told her he was a good guy. Also, he had a girlfriend, so there were no worries about ever getting sexually or romantically involved with him. There were many evenings she didn’t even see him.
    Kevin was home when she got there, had already made dinner and was about to eat. They both liked cooking, so they took turns preparing evening meals. Tonight’s dinner was an amazing pasta with a spicy tomato sauce that had bacon in it. Yum.
    She dished up a plate for herself and slid onto a stool at the counter, and they chatted about their day. She told him about her disappointment at losing out on the new space and the deal she’d done with Claire Wentworth.
    Then for some reason she found herself saying, “Have you ever heard of Rafferty Lauden?”
    “Hell yeah.”
    She blinked at Kevin. “Really?”
    “I’m an architect. He’s a real estate developer. Huge real estate developer.”
    “Oh. Yeah.”
    “Very successful businessman,” Kevin continued. “I’d love to work with him.” He paused. “Why?”
    She poked a piece of penne with her fork. “Just curious. He