Free Leverage: Pt 1 by Alexx Andria Page A

there waiting for her. Good, she told herself. She needed some alone time. She quickly dressed and decided to take a stroll around this monstronsity of a house. It was like living in an European castle, or at the very least a hotel. All of this for one man? Seemed excessive. Why did wealthy people have to live in such big houses? A modest three-bedroom wasn’t enough? She descended the marble staircase to the first level and her steps echoed off the gleaming floors. She shivered and realized maybe she ought to have grabbed a blanket to tuck around herself because this place was cold. Pretty flowers , she noted as she passed a huge fresh spray of mind-bogglingly beautiful flowers. Probably had them delivered every day and never even noticed them. She actually preferred plants to flowers because plants didn’t die within three days. Well, most plants. She had a bit of a black thumb but not from lack of trying. Finally, her brother Tom made her promise to do the plants a favor and stop buying them because the minute she placed them in her cart, she was dooming them to certain death.
    She heard a subtle, muffled noise and she followed it to another cavernous hall that branched into another room. A very manly room. Stag heads and other dead animal heads hung from the wall and she grimaced at the macabre custom.
    “Are you lost?” Boston’s voice asked from behind a huge chair. He swiveled around and his mouth turned up in a cool smile at her entrance. “What are you doing wandering about? Haven’t you been warned that you could get lost in this big house?”
    “I was bored. You can’t keep me caged in a room. That wasn’t part of the deal.”
    “Wasn’t it?”
    She glared. “No.”
    Boston shrugged. “Damn, I should’ve been more specific in the agreement you signed.”
    She ignored his odd mood and wandered the room, taking in the dark paneling and the thick bearskin rug sprawled out in front of the massive fireplace. “This place is unreal. Very old world. Was your dad a medieval lord?” At that he laughed and poured himself a drink, which by the looks of it, wasn’t his first. She gestured to the alcohol. “What’s wrong with you? I took a shower and came out and you were gone and now I find your drowning your sorrows in booze. What’d I miss?”
    He waved away her question and pointed at the elk staring with glass eyes straight at her. “You see that? My dad shot it with one shot. He was quite the marksman. He never took shortcuts and he always got what he was after. Gotta admire a man like that.”
    “I have different views of killing defenseless animals.”
    “Of course you do,” he said with a sigh as if weary of her constant chattering about her ideals and morals. “Well, if it assuages your conscience, we always ate what he killed. Elk steaks are quite delicious.”
    “I’ll take your word for it.” She walked to the fine, mahogany desk and ran her fingers along the shiny grain. “Your dad liked to spend a lot of time in here?”
    “When he could. It was his haven. I spent many happy moments in here in my childhood.”
    “So if this place is filled with happy memories, why the sour face?” Did she want to know? Maybe it wasn’t wise to poke at his personal problems but yeah, she did want to know. There was a sadness to him that tugged at her in a way that defied explanation. Hell, maybe she was just bored and needed something to distract her. Yeah, that was it. “I mean, what could possibly be going so wrong in your life? You have everything you ever could want.”
    “So it would seem.”
    “Oh c’mon…don’t pull the poor little rich boy routine because I’m not buying it.”
    “Fine.” He swallowed the last of his drink and motioned for her to come to him. A slow sensual smile fitted to his lips and for a moment she felt as if she were the one tipping back the booze. “Come here and take my mind off my troubles.”
    “And how am I supposed to do that?” she asked, sliding her