Free The Tycoon's Proposal by Melody Anne Page A

call on line one,” she said to him. His entire office staff had gone out of their way to avoid him over the last two weeks. He’d been a bear to be around and he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
     
    Nicole had been living with him for a couple weeks and he hadn’t been alone with her since the night her sister had gone in for surgery. She’d stayed night and day at the hospital and though he’d wanted to drag her from the room by her hair and insist she share his bed he couldn’t do it.
     
    He convinced himself he was only thinking about Patsy and didn’t care about what Nicole had actually needed. Even though he wanted his revenge on her he couldn’t hurt her as bad as he would’ve been by making her leave her sister. Nicole had only started to look better in the last few days. She was finally sleeping and her skin was getting a healthy flush to it. It would feel much better to challenge her if she was able to give as well as she got.
     
    Patsy had finally been moved to Ryan’s house that afternoon and Nicole would be back in his bed. Maybe after he satisfied his needs, he’d stop snapping at every person who dared to even look at him.
     
    “Thanks,” he said shortly and took the call. He barely managed to be civil to the man on the other end of the line and wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t call back for a very long time. Ryan gave up on work and headed out the door. He was in no state to be around decent people.
     
    His driver got him home in record time, since there wasn’t any rush hour traffic to deal with. He slipped inside and worked the rest of the day from his home office. He didn’t trust himself to be around Nicole yet because he was sure she was tending her sister and it wouldn’t be good for Patsy’s heart to watch her sister be ravished right in front of her. Man, he was acting like a horny teenager.
     
    His door opened and he was about to growl at the person who dared to interrupt him, when Derek stepped in through the door. He still grumbled a bit at his cousin.
     
    “What’s up your burr?” Derek asked with a laugh. Ryan ignored the question.
     
    “What do you want, Derek?” he asked instead. He knew he was being rude but his arrangement with Nicole was seriously killing him. He was supposed to have her in his bed every night and so far all he’d gotten was one night in two weeks.
     
    “I was just coming to remind you about the party tomorrow night,” Derek said, barely able to suppress his humor at his cousin’s mood.
     
    “I did forget about that. I don’t know if I can make it with Patsy just getting here,” Ryan said. He was certainly in no mood to be at a party and he was sure he wouldn’t be able to drag Nicole away.
     
    “Well that’s too bad because then you’re going to miss out on Nicole looking hot and sexy,” Derek said, knowing he would get a reaction out of his cousin. Ryan’s head flew up in surprise.
     
    “I didn’t think she would be willing to part from her sister, even though I have round the clock care for her,” Ryan grumbled.
     
    “She’s already over at the house. Jasmine insisted she and Trinity stay the night so they could do the whole beauty thing together,” Derek said with a shrug.
     
    “Crap, I feel out of the loop, I didn’t even know she’d left. Her and I are going to have a serious talk,” Ryan said, a bit of a threat in his tone.
     
    “Sounds as if you’re being knocked off your feet by a woman,” Derek told him, with far too smug of a look on his face. Ryan simply glared at him, until Derek chuckled. He then went over and helped himself to a generous amount of Ryan’s best bourbon.
     
    “Well, Drew is on his way over. We figured if the girls were kicking us out, then we would make it a guy’s night,” Derek told him. “So put your work away and let’s go out to the grease joint.”
     
    “Sounds good to me,” Ryan agreed. Drew showed up and the men headed out. Being with his cousins helped his mood