Hardline by Meredith Wild Read Free Book Online Page A

our next meeting to be me telling him that his son is a fraud and a cheat.”
       I traced a path over his chest as it moved with each breath. My beautiful man. I hated that we had to deal with people like Max, like Trevor. Jesus, the list went on.  
       “I’m really sorry, Blake. It’s a shitty situation. But you’ll find a way through it. You always do. And someone like Max can’t keep going around stomping on people’s dreams and get away with it forever. At least I hope not.”  
       As angry as Blake was with Max, I wasn’t sure this was the best time to tell him about his and Risa’s new site and how it threatened me now.  
       He tipped my chin up. Our eyes met. “What’s going on?”
       I hesitated before I began. “Max and Risa launched their little venture. A competing site. Total rip off of Clozpin, and it looks like they took at least one of our major advertisers with them. Who knows how many users.”  
       His eyebrows shot up. “When were you going to tell me this?”
       “Alli told me about it yesterday. She wanted me to be the one to tell you. And frankly I needed some time to make sense of it. I don’t know if I have though. I’m mostly feeling like they’re going to systematically destroy my business with the same determination that they went after you. Except I’m not you. I don’t have your resources or your experience. I’m still trying to figure out how to run a company. I wasn’t expecting to go on the defensive like this in the midst of our growth. First Trevor, and now this. I’m trying not to feel hopeless about all of it, but it’s kind of hard not to.”
       “Trust me, he’s not going to destroy your business. I won’t let him. And as hate-filled as they are, the two of them are no match for the two of us.” He brushed my cheek with his knuckles. “It hurts, but it’s business. You can’t lose faith. That’s what they want. If I gave up every time someone took a sucker punch at me professionally, I’d have been done long ago. You’re too strong for that.”
       “I just can’t believe someone could be so devious, so hateful. I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to do this to someone, anyone, no matter how much I despised him.”
       “I hate to say this, but get used to it. As soon as you start to do well, someone will want to take that shine away from the things you do, lessen it or make it their own.”
       My eyes went wide. “You’re not making me feel so hopeful about a future in entrepreneurship.”
       “You’ll toughen up. And you have me.”  
       “But what can we do? We have no control over what they’re doing. This feels like sabotage, but I’m totally powerless over it.”
       He was silent a moment, as if he were strategically thinking his way through this one. “Well, I could always hack their site.” The corner of his mouth lifted.
       I rolled my eyes. “Great. Dueling hackers. I think we can both agree that solves nothing. Beyond that, it’s beneath you.”
       He laughed. “Is it?”
       “You said you only use your powers for good, remember? Even if they are terrible, I can’t see you destroying their site.”
       He pursed his lips. “Maybe you’re right.” He wrapped an arm around me and brought me down to him, kissing me gently.“No more talk of Max. This weekend is for us. What do you want to do?”  
       I glanced at the clock; it was nearly lunchtime. Our schedule was all kinds of mixed up. Time didn’t really matter when it was just Blake and me.  
       “What do you want to do?”
       His eyes darkened with a knowing smile. “If it were up to me, we’d never leave the bed.”  
       I pushed myself up and straddled him. “We didn’t come all this way to stay in bed all day.”  
       He groaned, raking over my nakedness. “You’re not making a very good argument for leaving.”  
       He followed the path with his hands, palming my breasts and teasing my