Magdalene by Moriah Jovan Read Free Book Online

guard.
    With age came credibility and she had just
turned the balance of power upside down.
    She would need that edge to get past Eilis’s
objections.
    Morgan, ever the extrovert, immediately
glad-handed her, then began to introduce her around. Mitch took the
opportunity to study her while she chatted with each member of his
family.
    She looked Parisian, tall, slim, with skin
the color of café au lait, heavy on the lait. Her black hair was
sleek, pulled into a tight twist at the back of her head. A hint of
a mole just above the left corner of her full mouth gave her an air
of mystique. She stood about five-eleven in modestly high-heeled
black shoes. She had dressed conservatively, in a pencil-slim,
mid-calf-length black skirt and a severe white button-down blouse
underneath a black blazer. Ruby cufflinks in French cuffs folded
back over her blazer sleeves and a simple Tiffany watch were her
only jewelry.
    Expensive simplicity.
    “And this,” boomed Ashworth, “is the man
himself, Mitchell Hollander, founder and CEO of Hollander
Steelworks.”
    “Mr. Hollander,” she said, her voice husky
as she offered her hand and met his look, her light brown eyes
clear and without guile.
    “Ms. St. James,” he replied and took her
hand. He shook it in his most bishoply way, the grip just firm
enough and his other hand over hers. The handshake that said As
one of the Lord’s representatives, I care about you and I’ll do
what I can to help you . The handshake he now used as a defense
mechanism because his immediate interest in her bore absolutely no
resemblance to anything spiritual.
    “Please, call me Cassie.”
    He released her hand carefully, all the
right signals sent, none of the wrong ones, and inclined his head.
“Call me Mitch.” He gestured to the empty chair at his right,
between him and Bryce. “Make yourself comfortable. If you’ll let
Darlene know what you’d like to drink, we can get started.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    Rough Boy
    I walked into the CEO’s executive suite, saw
them all in their natural habitat, and was immediately caught off
guard.
    Me!
    I couldn’t say why. I knew what they all
looked like, save Hollander. And it wasn’t as if I had never seen
half a dozen beautiful people in a room together before.
    Perhaps it was the attitude that filled the
room, of camaraderie, of...friendship...that made me uncomfortable
with them. A room full of testosterone with no posturing, no
competition— It felt almost like...love?
    Couldn’t be.
    Still, as much as they had surprised me, I had surprised them , exactly as I had intended.
    Most of them would not have expected a woman
their age; after all, Jack Blackwood specialized in training up
very young Big Swinging Dicks. The young had the energy and drive
to do the job to his satisfaction and they didn’t have the family
commitments that would keep them from the 24/7 availability he
demanded. Jack enjoyed spawning ruthless little business bastards
as if they had his genes, and the younger the better.
    When people succeed early, they can retire
early.
    As Morgan introduced me around, I assessed
each of them intellectually and sexually. Yes, Jack had told me to
keep my hands off, but a pretty lover with a high IQ would assuage
my burgeoning restlessness, and I was looking at a room full of
people who filled the bill.
    Ashworth himself. He was no exception, and
I’d been attracted to him from the moment we met. Large, animated,
utterly masculine, with rich mahogany hair and piercing ice blue
eyes, Morgan wouldn’t trip anybody’s gaydar, but then, neither
would Nigel.
    Knox Hilliard. Blond and tan, with the same
color eyes as his cousin Morgan, Knox was not much younger than I,
but he looked older; in my experience, blond men don’t age well. I
didn’t find him particularly attractive, but he had a quick, warm
smile and the charisma of an entertainer or prophet. I could see
why Clarissa was so smitten, and I wished I had thought to bring
her if only to